Now Recruiting!

A new opportunity has been announced by the AIA and Architecture Minnesota Magazine

Videotect: Trailer from Architecture Minnesota on Vimeo.

Do you have a story or perspective on the skyway system of The Twin Cities. A thesis that expresses your view.

I want to collaborate with those who want to share their perspective.

The Deadline: Final Submissions by Feb 25th 2011.

If you are interested in participating this is a short 1 month commitment but I need to put together a team by this Feb 2nd in order for this to stand a realistic opportunity.

The Reward

This isn't about prize money. It's a chance to be heard. It's a chance to share your talent and skill with a community that appreciates it and may have use for it. It's a chance to impact our society's dreamers, thinkers, policy makers and builders.

The Team

The timeline is short, the team must meet the challenge.

The Urban Theologian

One who is passionate about the history and effects of the skyways of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and hopefully familiar with skyways of other cities. 

The Illustrator.

The one who can convey complex ideas and Clearly tell represent them in diagrams, drawings, and illustrations (analogue and digital).

The Director

The one who sees the big picture, and keeps everyone involved focused on their roles.
 

The Principal Photographer (Filled)

The one who can see and share the world as the story requires.

The Editor

The one who knows the story and fits all the pieces together and is able to be merciless about what gets left on the cutting room floor.

The Colorist

A post production guru who can will put the polish the final product.

What do I bring to the team?

I have the equipment to capture the story and the vision to see with your perspective.

I am an architectural designer by training and an architectural photographer by passion. Due to the timeline I can help with developing the storyboard, and principal photography.

Interested.

Email me with:
1) Your name
2) Contact info
&
3) What role you want to fill.

Model Shmodel - Who needs glue?

I'm always on the look out for cool tools for Architecture. This morning on Twitter, Alan Rapp posted a link to this video about Holographic Imagery for Architectural Presentations. The product is from Zebra Imaging and it is SWEET. What an impressive technique for representing ideas in 3D space in presentations to clients.

Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.

Will this change the needs for physical models?

How do the costs compare?

What will interns do for architects, if they can't get their fingers stuck together in high strength glue?

What are your thought? I'm curious.

What will the future look like?

Recently MS&R began a discussion about the future of the Library.

I took this to mean "The Library" as place and not the physical physical repository of printed media. The following are some of my thoughts on the matter.

If you want to look at the library of the future, you need to look beyond just their physical contents. It will take an understanding about what the library functions as for community and we can examine that through what the library does now.

You can break that down into 3 major categories.

1) Accessibility:
Libraries are an access point to the digital knowledge and resources available on the web at a HIGH SPEED of access that may otherwise be out of budget for the home.

2) Community Gathering:
Principally the library is a community gathering space for research and acquisition of knowledge. but when you really think about it, they may be the first public social networking site in the analogue world.

3) Community Building
Libraries provide cultural exposure to different societies relevant to the community we are apart of locally. This includes clubs, speaking engagements, book readings, children’s story time, and topical discussions about current issues that provide a forum for discussion. This is the backbone of community building.

One direction of thought

If you want to keep the library relevant you have to look beyond the physical and understand the cultural relevancy of the place. So looking at each category.

1) Accessibility:
If publications move more to digital copies. That doesn’t mean the price of either the devices to access that material or the bandwidth to download it will be be attainable to the public.

2) Community Gathering:
The need for a place that offers publicly accessible gathering will always be there… if we foster it. In an age of Facebook and Twitter, there may be more need than ever to offer something that can’t be done in a virtual world. Perhaps it’s meeting people we don’t know, who share ideas, problems, or interests that are in common or in conflict.

3) Community Building:
While it’s nice to keep in touch and spy on my friends activities on my personal time and from the comfort of my own home. It still isn’t a replacement for in person communication. The relevance of nuance and subtly of intonation is hard to express in 144 characters.

A Final Thought
While I can listen to 20 podcasts about Photography, and I can read and comment on hundreds of blogs about industry news and tips and tricks. There is still something about coming together at my monthly Camera Club, that I can’t get else where. There is a tangible benefit to getting to meet people who share a similar interest at a local happy hour.

You can find the full post on MS&R's blog here.

Pella Promotional Piece

My work is being featured by Pella in new ad campaign for promoting their 2010 Archtiect Events. They are featuring 28 of the images I produced from covering their ABC days in the Fall of 2009. This image is the front half of the print piece and has been altered for publicaiton on the web.

Oakdale Nature Center

I've recently completed some initial processing for two photo shoots.

This is Oakdale Nature Center, in Oakdale, MN. These will eventually be reduced to the final selections. Which would you choose?

Pella - Builder Days Tour

Oct. 4th - 6th I went traveled to Pella, IA for the Pella Builder Days. I covered the event and had a great time learning more about the quality of their manufacturing process and the passion that Pella has for creating a series of fantastic products. Architects, Designers, and Builders from the Midwest and East Coast representing 1/2 a dozen cities were there.

While I wasn't allowed to document the factory floor or the testing lab, I think we were all impressed with the streamlined process of their methods and the quality they provide each step of the way. Three things I took away from the tour personally. 1) The dedication that Pella had to reducing the amount of manufacturing waste that gets recycled. 2) The passion that each employee had about what they do. 3) The catering that they have on site, is fantastic. 

I've broken the images I took into 4 parts. You can bypass any slide show and go the the thumbnail gallery by clicking any of the larger images. You may copy any images from here for personal use. However please contact me for commercial use.

Des Moines Art Center (For more info Click Here)

Pella Education and Exhibitions (For more on Pella Click Here)

Vermeer Windmill Tour (For more info Click Here)

Downtown Pella, IA (For more info Click Here)