Shawn Miles Photographer and Artist

Help please

2012-02-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

Cross posted on facebook I'm writing to anyone who reads this post. I need help with my web page and I'm willing to trade for it. I have art, I can take a decent photo, I have some pretty good data skills and I can even install unix on a machine. I just don't have the time to learn html or css. I have the plan laid out for what I want so it won't take too long. I have the data provider and set them up already as well as the data warehouse for my pictures. I'm working on one a separate site to house (sell) for my art. My goal:I'm looking for a landing page and a few pages that I can drill down to. I'm just not sure how to do this. Please let me know if you can help. Thank you

Why I value the list

2012-01-08T22:05:00.000-08:00

Years ago someone in my life said I should write down everything I want to do. I think I finally wrote that list down and as time went on I rewrote it. I wish I still had the original list. It had some fun objectives on it.

This new list is so much more of who I am and yet I've grown past it. I think creating lists help me stay focus but they don't define me. Lately I've felt lost and overwhelmed by my life. There are a ton of life things I need to accomplish and don't feel I can do much of anything else until these are accomplished.

How does an accomplished photographer balance his/her life and still take care of personal responsibilities?

How does anyone put energy into accomplishing goals and still take care of personal responsibilities?

My newest internal dialoge has been centered on guilt and the pressure I put on myself to be responsible to my family. I want to plan my photography goals and move forward with this career. My family comes first.

I have to run a house hold, manage their lives, manage my life, work (which sometimes includes on call and that can be an 80 hour work week) and I try to manage a dwelling social life. My mantra has always been "Dance like no one is watching" and yet I'm watching. I take stock, measure, compare and raise the bar. I should be x by such and such date. When I fail the misery collides with my self confidence bringing back before where I started.

I was watching What the bleep do we know on Netflix and so many of their words in just the few first moments of the show have me deep in thought again. I am master of my reality.

so now what?

The beauty of being me, I'll fight through this and accomplish this goal that has been on every list since I can remember. Become and accomplished Photographer.

Happy Face grins inserted here.

Here is a picture just because

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A cottage to sit and watch by

2012-01-02T13:26:00.001-08:00

A cottage to sit and watch by
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

My attempt at a digital pointillism

Went for a stroll on the beach this am

2012-01-01T15:41:00.002-08:00

Deception Pass Pre Dawn
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I have a lot of pictures to process but am excited and wanted to share this one pre processing.

Goals for 2012

2011-12-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

After watching several of Chase Jarvis (http://blog.chasejarvis.com/live/) videos I felt more prepared to sit down and write out my goals for 2012. I use to write out a 100 ideas, pick the top ten and how I would achieve those top ten. After watching the last video where Chase interviewed Ramit Sedthi I felt a little more honed in on these skills. Then I do what I always do, google the person, consume as much information as I possible can, talk about it with everyone who will listen and everyone who won't. Than, out of the blue the information has gelled enough in my brain I can form a coherent pharagrah and write it down.

I'm not giving the link to Ramit Sedthi because if you are interested in what he has to say I suggest you do the work and google him. He has an amazing message to give. If I give it to you I don't think it will be as valuable as if you were to google him yourself. I've always felt if you can give the horse water but you can't make the horse drink the water. Just like information, I can tell you everything but it's worth more and you retain it when you do the research yourself.

so back to my goals:

I am going to commit to learning new self talk. I know what self talk is, I've spent enough money on books, therapy as well as time on the computer. However, I haven't committed to changing my internal messages.

My current internal message is "I can't" and "No."
I am going to commit to being the photographer I am inside. My internal messages stop me.

I am committing to laying out a self training program to improve my photography skills for the industry, as we all know speak the lingo is one thing. Walking the talk is very important when in any business. (I love metaphors if you can't tell)

I'm going to commit to taking more pictures outside of my comfort zone.

These three goals may seem like just a little to the average eye. They are huge for me. I have a bad back and I've let it stop me for the last five years. After watching other people choose to figure out how to move on with their lives with more sever pain I figured it was time I choose to do the same.

I have some great fears to face and figure out why "I can't" and "No" is strong in my vernacular.

My son is in love with my photography and he tells me almost daily. My brother only hangs my pictures on his walls. My friends by my pictures.

I think it's time to start believing in myself and move past this self hate and into self love.

This picture I took some time ago has even gotten raves on some more popular web sites so that should tell me something.

They came in three

Homecoming

2011-11-23T12:47:00.001-08:00

Recently I decided I wanted to take pictures of the kids before going to homecoming. I'm not very orthodox in the way I take pictures so some of them were a lot of fun. A few of them were traditional and boring. I really want to expand in this area of photography because it's always interested me.The biggest thing I learned was to steam the background, you can see why in the last two shots.

Here is a picture of my son in his formal wear standing just about over the camera.

For more pictures of homecoming visit flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlshawn/sets/72157627987377048/

Update in the world of photo management

2011-08-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to stay with smugmug until I can figure out a smoother transition. My stacation/vacation turned into a more of a relaxation vacation then anything. I helped my new sister-in-law with the bits to her wedding. She married my brother. I had so much fun with this wedding. I don't know if I'll ever go professional but I do know if I'm asked I'll try my hardest to make it work for that person.

Here is a picture to that wedding.

And My Favorite of them all....

A year later...

2011-06-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

I received an email telling my it was time to pay the bill for Smug Mug and this got me thinking about my goals for my photography. I opened Smug Mug thinking I was going to pursue a career as a wedding photographer. Through research and time I've come to realize this isn't a goal I want anymore. I will do weddings when asked and won't charge for them, other then creative freedom. On a side note I never realized how much I love being apart of weddings. squeal..

Back to the subject at hand, my photography and the on line world. How much do I want to carve out for myself.

I also think I'm trying to hard to establish a name for myself.
Shawn Miles Photo is my domain name.
Girl Shawn is my personality.

Photography is my passion.
Art is my passion.

I love this blog. It's nifty and has one purpose. It's sole purpose is to put my thoughts down relating to photography, the pictures I take and anything else relating to my photography. When I was setting up all those other tools a year ago there weren't any pages for blogging, this was still here.

The tools I use are twitter, facebook, flickr, and Smug Mug as well as Etsy.
Smug Mug is a great tool for the photographer who has a business or the person who is using it to share a few pictures with friends. Smug Mug really works in those situations and I see this tool for a person that has the time and energy to update on a regular basis.

Flickr is a good photo housing site. Etsy is a good place to see my artwork.
Between the two I believe I can save a few extra bucks when I dump Smug Mug. I use to use Picink.com. I think I have a paid account for a years time. I bought software for the iMac and will be dumping that also.

My task list going forward is to:
1. update my domain pointer to my blog (hello you are here at the blog)
2. update flick. I think it's time to move a lot of pictures to private, build collections and sets. I have a lot of redundant groups.
3. move my logo off of smug mug and over here.
4. I love having my own domain but in October when it's up the provider I'm moving it to another provider because they are way easier to use.

The thought of being established is weighing heavily on me, this is a thought I'll need to think on for a while. I think between school and work I may need to let my Shawn Miles Photo face book page go as well as the twitter page, or figure out how to spend enough time on them to warrant the social rewards. Honestly I don't spend enough time on either one of them. I just may have to drop them. I'll decide in a week.

The only reason I put stuff up for sale is to pay for books for school or clear out the clutter in the house, otherwise I'd give it away. I love sharing my work. I don't like people who take it and will never leave open sharing on flickr for that reason. I think the artist should always be mentioned and I've heard so many horror stories.

One day if I ever get organized enough I want to have a gallery showing. I think I have a vision in my head of what my gallery showing would be like and I don't feel my work is where I want it to be. I think it's close just not there yet, and that's probably the reason I haven't pursued it.

so....

expect some changes in the next few weeks.

In keeping with tradition, here is a random picture I took recently:

I call her pink eye lash girl

A good day...

2011-05-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

I've always believed rain is a good thing. Rain cleans the air, waters the plants and is mother natures way to provide for the planet. Today was a day I hoped it would hold off. With camera bag and son in tow we headed off to the Penn Cove Water Festival. What an amazing day it was. I saw an art show, vendors and even had Indian fry bread.

What is a water festival with our water activities? There were canoe races, not the kinds of canoes seen on Lake Washington, but the kind of canoes that were long and beautiful. I found a new artist I'm in love with. His music is so amazing and the stories he tells just draw me in.

He is Lummi, from the Lummi Nation. They are inhabitants of Washington's northern most cost and southern British Columbia (Lummi Nation Web Site).

I've been to this part of Washington a few times. The only current pictures I have loaded stop at the spit. It is the most peaceful place (next to being on top of a mountain) I think I've ever been.

Here is Swil Kanim's video. He is a story teller, a world class virtuoso violinist and he has a nonprofit 501 (c)(3). His goal to is provide fire arts programs to underserved populations (SwilKanim.net)

Here are my pictures from the event:

Lou LaBombard my Anthropologist teacher, telling stories

A dream catcher

Swill of the Lummi Nation

The weaver (from Guatemala)

The Canoe Races:

Fish Line:

Histomatic.... Tulips

2011-05-13T21:50:00.001-07:00

photo
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I love the basic Histomatic on my iPhone. This lovely little gem was taken after one day of work on my home. I stopped at the Mt Vernon agricultural extension to enjoy a little bit of the sun. It was a great day. The sun was warm and the air was just right (couldn't smell the farms).

I strolled around and found a bunch of flowers. This one was my favorite. It reminds me of romance on a warm spring afternoon, on a picnic blanket with my honey.

Here comes the parade

2011-03-21T09:56:00.001-07:00

Here comes the parade
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

On St Patrick's day there was a small town parade. It was so sweet and wonderful. The participants in both the parade and spectators had huge smiles adorning each and every persons face.

The parade started with a police man on his motorcycle. Then the color guard followed carrying all the stars and stripes proudly.

This picture was one of them. The vintage look from the histamatic app on my iPhone gives it a feel of the 50ies.

It was a good afternoon.

Bling Flowers

2011-03-16T09:54:00.001-07:00

Bling Flowers
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I gathered a bunch of vintage earrings, broches and various pins. I also got a few new pieces. The one seen in this picture is a ring and an earring. I have no real goal at this point other then playing with the different medium.

I used wire for the stems. Since I have a variety of wire I tried out different wires until I found one that felt right for the piece.

Picture a day

2011-02-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

When walking down the street there is always that certain something that catches my eye and I feel compelled to take a picture of it. If that certain something is the way the sun filters through trees or a reflection off of the water I will take a picture of it.

Lately I've been aching to walk around and take pictures, between my work and school schedule that's next to impossible. To feed the itch I plan on taking a picture daily with what ever camera I have with me. I expect most of the time it will be my camera phone.

To start off the picture a day here is one from yesterday and I'll take one in a bit for today.

Hipstamatic

2011-01-03T12:25:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I'm so in thralled with this new photo app on the iPhone. It's called the Hipstamatic. There are several photo lens options available and with each one you can pick out the film and flash.

I'm still playing with it to find the right combination. As a kid I never really got to play with a camera because I was to busy with many other things. I keep thinking I really want to just go search a few local thrift shops and snatch up some old cameras to play around with them.

Here is a picture of my youngest on a car ride down to the train station. I really like the blues in this, even in his red shirt the blue hues are brought out. This is a cool piece.

Mt Diablo

2010-11-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

Every year I get a hankering for snow...

We drove up to the heavens and on over to the other side. The snow wasn't reachable, it was just too high up. It was like if we could just keep driving we might just reach it. This is my very favorite part of the year because it's the verge of everything. The verge of a brand new year, the verge of a brand new season and the holidays. I love the white snow, it's always so playful and childlike (yes I know how dangerous it really is) that I have these wonderful fantasies of playing in it for hours when in truth I'm good for an hour. hehe

Smug Mug ready for Sale... Yay!!

2010-11-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

I finally got everything up for sale on smug mug but couldn't figure out how to put a button out that that said "buy me".

I searched and searched for weeks, thinking I had to have magical powers for coding and css. I have none. Today I found that magical power. It's a little button that says "buy button".

Awesome and easy!! I'm so excited I had to share with the world. :)

Check it out when you can.

To soon for the holidays...

2010-10-30T14:56:00.001-07:00

Holiday Card Idea 2
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I love taking pictures for a purpose. I'm finding if I don't have a reason then I can't seem to find my motivation. Ever since I started my etsy store I've been watching the trends and trying to figure out how I can use my creative spark to fill up that etsy store.

With the holiday season around the corner I figured I would do the same thing the big business are doing and put out my holiday line starting with Holiday Cards. Is it too soon for the holidays? When hand making a line like this I think I should have gotten started several months ago. Maybe it's a little to early to see it on line and publicize it. But it's never to soon to work on a project that will take time to develop.

I never realized the amount of time involved until I looked at it in MS Project. (Thank you corporate America for giving me some very handy skills).

I have a few cards I want to do, starting with this one. I really fell in love with this angel when I saw her. She's calling in the holiday season while everyone is warm inside by a warm fire place on Christmas eve, children sipping hot coco while mom reads a story and dad holds everyone smiling because he's so happy to have his family with him.

I use to think the holidays were about "getting something" and when I see these images now I'm reminded about family. I'm grateful for what I have.

I'm not a very religious person as much as I am spiritual and I think the non-religious person can enjoy the Angel as much as the next person, that's why I chose the words Seasons Greetings. I wanted her to be made available to everyone and not just one group of people.

I want my holiday cards to convey no matter what you believe the holidays aren't about the cash, they are about family, friends and being there for each other. This is a time to reconnect and remember why we work so hard. This isn't a time to give up the biggest and brightest gift.

My goal is to actually teach my boys this, I'm not sure how yet, I just know it's a goal.

Well until the holidays actually get here...

Happy Halloween

Mr Tomaote head resting

2010-09-27T23:44:00.001-07:00

Mr Tomaote head resting
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I finally got my Etsy store up and he is finally for sale. I didn't think I could ever do it.

I have so much more to create and put up here.

so check it out...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/57511102/mr-tomatoe-head

Clear Vase

2010-09-27T22:32:00.001-07:00

IMG_5418
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I got the chance to talk with a friend tonight who's had training in photography. She told me that when taking stills like this I needed to not aim the light straight down but at an angle.

I'm excited to try this several times over until I get it right...

mmmm Great dinner

2010-09-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

After three hours of cutting, cooking and guessing how I could change it up to fit a vegan diet I managed to come up with some amazing foods.

It's been a long time and I really wanted to try to mix it up.

The bowl in the back is a black bean stew.

Everything was local, in season and organic from the co-op
2 sweet potatoes, cubes
1 box of low sodium no soy vegetable broth
2 cups of yellow pole beans cleaned and chopped
cup of black beans washed, soaked over night preferred, precooked
Tomato Paste
Stewed tomatoes
1 small onion
2 gloves of garlic
spices:
some sage
some sea salt
some smoked papricka
some red cayenne peppper
some oragano
some basil

Saute the onions and garlic
Add the broth and potatoes
wait until tender
add both bean,
Add in Tomato paste and stewed tomatoes
simmer on low
add in spices
The sauce will thicken. After it thickens it's ready.

More recipes to come for the other two.. Stay tuned.

Stew/Soup making day

2010-09-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

It's been raining a lot and I love a good cup of soup or stew. The biggest problem with this is my change in diet. How can I have that hearty stew or that hearty soup when I'm a vegan? I don't eat soy, I don't eat dairy and I try to limit my gluten.

I've been doing my homework and today I'm going to make two soups (for the work week) and one stew.

The first is a Leek and Potato Soup. I actually stumbled on to this recipe while in the SCA. My love for historical food came from another lady in who would just dance around the kitchen trying out all sorts of lovely foods. One day she taught a class on blanching almonds of all things and since then I was hooked.

Later on in my SCA career I was asked to provide food for an event and I made Leek and Potato soup like it would be prepared in the early 15th century. (I used modern day equipment). I pulled the recipe from my favorite cook book by, Cindy Renfrow. It is "Take a Thousand Eggs or More:" . I highly recommend it, especially if you like playing with recipes.

Long story, longer... The potato soup was a hit and I loved it. I think I have it almost committed to memory now.

some leeks
some almond milk
some Yukon golds

cook forever

The one part I don't remember (do I mash the potatoes or not?)

Today I'm digging out the recipe and taking some before and after pictures. It's a five hour process.

I'll share.

enjoy your Sunday

I'm using these beans, they've already soaked and were precooked last night. Now I just need to do the rest and add them to the black bean stew

MY BANNER

2010-09-25T23:55:00.001-07:00

MY BANNER
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

getting use to the short hair 3/365

2010-09-12T12:49:00.001-07:00

getting use to the short hair 3/365
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

I'm having one of those self loathing periods and every time I take my picture I see all my flaws.

I think my 365 days are going to take some time to accomplish.

This is a good exercise in accepting who I am. :)

We will see.

moms memorial

2010-09-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

moms memorial
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

This is my family, not all of them. I need to mention my younger son and my younger brother are missing. I thought about them.

This was taken by a friend of the family with my brother-in-laws camera.

this was a trip down memory lane for me. We are standing on the spot I spent several summers jumping into the river.

We drove almost 8 hours for three days of "remember mom". The ceremony was so unconditional and I'm glad. She would have loved that.

WILDCATS

2010-09-11T08:51:00.001-07:00

WILDCATS
Originally uploaded by shawnie_0405

Oak Harbor homecoming football

took this with my iPhone 3G

I'm pleased with it, it's not the best resolution. Makes me want to upgrade my lens' now...

Football is a whole new realm. Sports Photography. Hmmmmm :D
8-D

2/365

2010-09-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

I had to cut my hair, and this is the result

I know, I know... I said no more flowers or what not's, I couldn't help myself. I came out of the bathroom at the WSU Garden extension and I saw this, plus a few more (found on flickr), that I just had to take a picture of.

2 projects... Day One...

2010-09-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

So I started...

Day one..
Me... 1 of 365 ....

A random shot 1 of 365...

Self Challenge

2010-09-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to do the "365" challenge.

Every day, Starting tomorrow, I'm going to take my picture (365) and a picture of something else.

I have so many techniques I want to learn and I'm hoping this will help. How many different ways can a person take a picture of a tree?

**happy grins*

I love taking pictures of trees, don't get me wrong, I'm just ready for something new.

Like this...

Shawn Miles Photography: Making Art

2010-08-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Shawn Miles Photography: Making Art

Making Art

2010-08-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

When I look at my pictures after the fact I'm not as thrilled as I used to be. Now I'm just another one of those photographers in my mind. I don't want to be one those photographers. I want to be my own unique individual. When I look at something I take a picture and share it. That's how it started. Now I'm taking pictures and I get the feeling that it's looking to commercial or to much like the other persons picture.

I decided to step back and start making some art for a while with the pictures I've take, plus start looking at the masters, Ansel Adams, Annie Lebowitz and maybe I'll go see Andie Warhol at SAM. Granted he wasn't straight photography but his work is out of this world.

I need to stop trying to be and just let it flow.

Here are two pieces I did last night:

Abstract...
This one took most of the night. I used plumbers tape and nail polish. hahahaha

I'm most proud of this because it was so simple!

a Tile wall hanging...

2010-07-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

My first mobile post

Beans, Beans, Good for your heart........

2010-05-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was talking with my dear friend Tea about beans. I haven't been able to cook them successfully from scratch yet.

She gave me some excellent ideas and I put them to the test while working from home yesterday.

Today for lunch I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor (yes that's an attempt on a play at words).

I'm eating this lovely red bean that isn't a kidney bean and Quiona. I tossed in Almond slivers and some Almond milk to taste. It's yummy.

Red bean before

Lunch

Goals and Plans...

2010-05-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

Photographers don't make enough to support two boys going to college or to buy a house unless they come up with a plan. I've done my homework, researched and asked a lot of questions. What I've discovered is time and experience are the most important think to a photographer.

I need to spend a lot of time working on developing my skills to be where I want to be. In order to accomplish this I need to stay with my current job. My current job will pay for this dream. I believe if you follow your heart the rest will come.

I want to live my life as a full time artist and I don't want to do anything else.

I'm always thinking about art and pictures. How can make art? Lately it's been my brand. I came up with it and I so now I'm going to put it together.

I know I've shared this picture but it will be an adaptation of this one:

Holland Days Oak Harbor

2010-05-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

It was the neatest thing to watch. I thought this was a sleeply little town held hostage by the Navy. In fact it's starting to really bloom. It started with the last weekend in April with the Hollad Day Parade. Kevin was asleep because he was on nights that week, which meant braving the day alone.

Could I do it? Of course I could. Riding the bus all over Philadelphia as a kid taught me something! It taught me to handle the small towns of America. Ok so this one was really freakin me out. With my iPhone in hand, tweeting every fear along the way, I took my camera and headed down to street fair. It was in full blown street-fair-ness. Lots of un-necessary stuff everywhere, amazing art here and there, awful must have greezy food with promise of heartburn and the ever popular sales people for windows or something at the end of each section. I did a mighty fine job of smiling and saying "no thankyou!"

After following the sound of music to the beat of a full on band I discovered a band, seated in the park on the parade route. Brilliant!

They were seated in the shade, next to the stars and stripes themselves. I couldn't feel more patriotic then I did at that moment. Well, not untill the the fire trucks came down the road starting the parade. Normal Rockwell would have been proud!

Here are some more pictures to share the moment.

The band..

Firetruck...

Tesoro Family Incident Fund

2010-05-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

On April 2, 2010 the Tesoro Anacortes Refinery suffered a catastrophic failure in one of its refining units. As a result, 7 of our co-workers lost their lives. Employees, Family, and Friends of the Tesoro Anacortes Refinery have been working hard to help the affected families with immediate financial support. We began offering Hardhat and Bumper stickers for a small donation that will deposited into the Tesoro Family Incident fund at the Tesoro Federal Credit Union in Anacortes, WA.

(the above statement was taken from the Tesoro Family Incident web site) If you are interested in helping you can go directly there.

Tesoro Family Incident Fund - Stickers

In the end if you cancel lunch with a friend and donate that $20 bucks you'll help one of these seven families on the road to recovery.

Seattle Erotic Arts Festive (not your average art show)

2010-04-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

ASeattle Erotic Arts Festival is just that, a festival. The scenes are so filled with tantalizing visual art one can't help but cry with joy. I was bounding from one spot to the next taking pictures of everyone and everything. Sometimes I just had so stop and ponder life for a minute.

I love the expressionism, it's bohemian revolution!

Here are some pictures from the event (to see the rest click the slide show to the left);

Moving living breathing art...

some of the art...

A few of the artists man....

A man and his art...

My very first wedding... Mr and Mrs Buxton

2010-04-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Lily married Damon in front of all of their friends which they consider family. These two have been strong individuals seeking out life and now they join their lives together in front of people who love them.

Here are a few pictures that I had a chance to edit.

They are so inspiring and caring towards each other.

Mr and Mrs Buxton

The Bouguet

Newly Weds

Wedding Party

I've learned so much through these two.

I've learned since last November that life is too short and you have to embrace all of the little gifts given to you. These two did today. I thank them for sharing it with me and mine.

A new camera

2010-03-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

Recently I decided to buy a new camera. Talk about excitement!!

I kept asking myself if there really was a difference between cameras, raw, jpeg and guess what, there is!

I feel more focused. I'm also more scared then ever. I have to start practicing on people. I was asked to do a wedding later this year. In order to match the ideas in my head, the level of quality I've chosen to do I have to practice. Friends have given me ideas and I've yes'd them to death.

The only person who's going to stop me on this is me.

Here it goes..

I'm going to advertise everywhere, for 30 days I'll give away my time and energy to free portraits up to the first 5 people that respond.

Here is one of my son to show my skills..

He was getting ready to wrestle.

Teenage Wrestler

I'm excited for this camera. After spending some time with it the last few days I've gotten to know it a lot better. You can see for yourself:

Washington Park Anacortes

Sprouting Tomatoes

Drop of Water

Inspirations

2009-12-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Ever wander what that empty spot is in your day to day work? I am starting to know.
I woke up this morning with a little bit of sunshine in my mind. Sitting down to my work computer reading about server issues and hardware failures I kept thinking why is this important to me. I want to take pictures. My mind keeps wandering over to the aspects of being a good wedding photographer.

I want to help people capture their moments. Those special moments in time and put them where they can see them again to invoke that feeling they had that day on that moment.

I took care of the duties at life sustaining job. Then did what I love to do and flipped through Flickr looking at fantastic pictures. This is always so inspirational. Most of my favorites are turning into professionals. I love that they are. It's a goal of mine and they are doing the same make me giddy.

Here are a few links for your enjoyment

Already established
Jonas Peterson out of Australia

One Love Photo out of Portland Or
If there was ever a wedding photographer I was most in love with it would be One Love Photo

Up and coming
Gabriel Cain He is local to Seattle and does it all. I think he is more centered to the alternative. I watched him hang a show at Utilikilts in Seattle, need I say more.

Mike Wilson This guy is also local to Seattle and is amazing with is very interesting pictures. He takes his time to cultivate a "weird" picture as he puts it.

They are all amazing. The last two just set their minds to it and just started doing it. Now I must do the same.

Today will be a goal planning day on how to achieve just that.
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Picture of the Day
Here is a picture because I just can't post with out a picture and of course it has nothing to do with my post. :)

I've been playing a lot with changing the backgrounds in pictures to bring out the subject and I really really dig the way this picture came out.

Trees

2009-12-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

I love trees. They are so big! I could write a long drawn out blog entry about it instead I'm just going to give you pictures...

This first picture is a college I made using Picnik.com. It's a fun tool to play with. Each picture is from around the Washington starting in August from our trip to Winthrop and ending with the first snow of the season by La Conner (where the Tulip festival is).

This next picture was taken at the Seattle Arboretum. I really loved how the blues looked against the tree and I wanted to add to the feel of the picture by making it a bit surreal.

looking for that something - Splash of color in the winter

2009-12-14T11:07:00.001-08:00

I was playing with some pictures lately and trying to figure out what I liked about them.

In the short loop below area a few of them. I love the colors. I'm still working on that wow factor. I need to keep working on it. This last weekend we went out in the snow and I'm hoping what I saw through the lens and in my minds eye will have what I'm looking for.

Until then enjoy the splash of color in the winter.

iPhone Pictures are a work of art

2009-12-07T08:13:00.001-08:00

I started using my iPhone to take pictures shortly after I got it. It's amazing and fun. It's always with me and I'm getting better not amazing yet just better.

Through the wonders of the Internet I am able to follow Chase Jarvis, one of my favorite photographers. One his blog he challenged his readers to take 100 pictures. It's been a while so I don't remember if it was with the phone or just a camera. I choose the phone.

In that 100 photos my pictures went from me in the mirror to an old bike on a pile of wood. It taught me to broaden my horizons.

Here is a recent picture. It's out my kitchen window. I used "The Best Camera" to edit.

Before edit:

After edit:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

mmmm Strawberry

2009-11-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving meals are always filled with turkey and mashed potatoes. My favorites are always the appetizers. This year I was blessed with fruit, lots and lots of fruit. This little morsel was left sitting half eaten. I took its picture before I devoured the end of it. mmmm it sure was yummy!!!

Next year I think I need to pick triple the batch and freeze even more for the feast.

Holiday Bazaar

2009-11-17T08:14:00.001-08:00

Time is speeding past and I have barely time to catch my breath. There are so many ideas flying by that I need a butterfly net to catch them. Between working full time, moving to beautiful Oak Harbor and everything else in life I've neglected to post about my great success.

On Saturday November 14th I had the pleasure of joining http://damonbuxton.com/ and his lovely companion at the Ballard Art Church for an Art Bazaar. My wonder mate, lover, extraordinaire was also apart of this event. The coordinators did a great job of pulling together some very creative and talented people. My honey did an amazing job of putting together a peg board to hang pictures on.
We are both photographers and both had pictures to display. I’d seen something similar once at a summer street fair and gave him the idea. He went to home depot on Friday. Built the wall Friday after work, threw out his back, and brought it to me Friday night. The wall was light enough and dynamic enough to hold framed pictures as well as be carried by an injured person(s).
He amazes me everyday. Because of his hard work we were able to both sell our very first picture(s). I think I’m going to try and get us a spot in a spring Bazaar or a summer Bazaar. I think we have a great chance at spreading our visions. His web site is almost up and then I’ll share it with you.
The bazaar was fun. I got to listen to Damon play all day. His fingers were freezing because that old building with it’s high ceilings wasn’t very warm. In between sets he could be seen with gloves on walking around trying to bring circulation back into his limbs. I think with his equipment he needs a portable heater for little events like this one.
I learned a lot from this event. I learned I need a basket, something attractive, which fits the type of work I do. I need my frames to be different. I keep thinking I want basic black. Then I decided I don’t want basic black or brown or wood. I want something fantastic. I want art frames. I want a frame to fit the picture.
My next project is to frame ten pictures. I’m excited for this project because I’m going to really hunt for the frames. I have an old window frame I want to distress; I know the perfect picture for that one.
My other project that I’m super excited for is helping my oldest do a stop motion animation short. He has two weeks of nothing to do in December. This will give me the chance to play with new technology and hang with him.

This is the picture I sold...

It was really hard to get this shot too, a very wet rainy day on Mt Rainier. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

ch-ch-changes

2009-11-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of work ahead of me...

Lately I've been exploring the world of stock photography. In this exploration I've discovered so much about noise, white balance and lighting.

Everyone out there has a billion pictures of flowers, tress, nature shots. How about the ever popular eyes, close up cool fire shots. I'm amazed at how I thought I was original and unique.

I'm glad a friend of mine said I should check out stock photograpy if for no other reason I'm able see how I need to chanage and step up my game. I have a direction to go. I need to understand all the different aspect of white balance. I want to master focus, understand lighting. When I say lighting I didn't realize there was a full gambet of lighting.

Lighting includes; Reflections, harsh shadows, underexposed, overexposed shadows, lens flares, and purple fringing.

To better understand noise correction I've been looking at my pictures closly with the description from istockphoto.com on hand.

http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_2.3_noise.php

"Noise Correction: The key to noise reduction (by either spot editing or noise filters and programs, such as Neat Image and Noise Ninja) is to correct the problem areas without affecting the overall quality and detail of the image. Freeware programs tend to produce lower quality results by creating a blanket "watercolor" or blurred effect and can also have limited settings for saving in highest quality."

There are so many areas to think about and all I have is time and patience.

I want to start with learning how to edit a few good pictures I have. I'm going to group everything by the type of picture it is.

I'm going to hide all of the vacation and friends pictures to family and friends. I have almost 6,000 pictures and its time to clean up some of them.

Here is a picture I tried to apply just a few of the principals to and see how wonderful it is.

Birthday Lunch

2009-11-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

mmmmm

My friends are the best. For my birthday I had a caprazi from Gratzzi's in Bothell, WA. I suggest everyone eat there at least once, or have it delivered. Today's tantalizing lunch was accomplied with fantastic conversation and great flavors.

Need a new car.

2009-10-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

I could sit here and tell you my woes; instead I've decided to get to work. I'm letting the fruits of my labor pay off.

Last week on the way to the Lynnwood convention center to see Art Wolfe I had some time to kill. I thought I would stop over in Bothell, WA and visit with a friend. The rain was coming down hard. Tragically this caused my little red car to hydroplane, which I panicked. I over steered and put it into a ditch on the side of the road. Today the car guy called and said it’s probably going to cost more to repair then what its worth.

I don't have gap insurance because I'm to over confident in my abilities. I think I’m just going to buy something from the auction and pay off the balance. Lessons learned are always learned the hardest learned.

Why am I telling you this? I don’t have a disposable income so I am going to sell my art work. We can do this several ways. Imagekind.com will frame it and matt it for you to your liking and I’ll make a percentage. If you just see a picture you like from my flickr account you can email me and I have it printed for you for the cost of the printing, shipping and depending on the size a small fee. I’m working up a pricing chart now. I’m also putting together a link to the “best for printing” set. Some pictures were test pictures and some I printed that just didn’t come out to good.
What do you think? Is this something you’d be interested in?

You’ll be able to give them as gifts or hang them in your own home.

All pictures will have a watermark with my signature on it to show it’s a Shawn Miles original.

Thank you for your time.

Shawn

ps it's the under carriage that's all messed up and both door panels and the suspension.

On ImageKind and Prints for sale

2009-10-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

I put together a gallery to sell pictures. I'm excited because this gives me a store front to sell pictures until I can make enough money to buy a Domain and put up my own website.

I'll be changing the gallery around periodically with interesting pictures.

There are options for greeting cards and I'm thinking they are going to sell better then a full picture.

Shawn Miles Photography: Current Favorites

2009-10-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Shawn Miles Photography: Current Favorites

Current Favorites

2009-10-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

I was playing with Picasa and discovered that some of my favorites are already sitting out there.

I thought I would put them into a small slide show.

If you want to see other favorites, find the other slide show on the left side, click on it, and it will take you to my flickr page. This is currently a collection of some of my work.

Fort Casey

2009-10-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Fort Casey

Recently I took a trip to Fort Casey. This was a planned trip because over several trips during the summer we were out there climbing all over this fort.

This cannon is in the up position. They have several that are down. It just finished repairs last month.

You can find the full set on Flickr

Great Days

2009-10-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

Start of the Day
Waking up with a start today, realizing there was time to beat the sun, I ran out the door so I could capture the sunrise.

I managed to climb up and over some crazy hills, after that it was to find a spot flat enough to stand on for the picture taking itself. That's always fun I think in the end. At worse I get a fantastic morning workout. At best I get a great view.

In the end I was able to come up with some amazing pictures for today. I learned more about my camera and all before 9am.

I've processed a few which I'll post shortly for your review.

~~~~
Thanks to Damon
I would like to mention my thanks to Damon Buxton. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be able to take the next step in my dreams. Watching my dreams move from an idea to reality one step at a time are so joyful. Damon helped in a few simple ways. He talked through the steps I needed to take and how to do it. Then we talked about what it means to point URLS. Now when you type in shawnmilesphoto.com you are directed to my blog.

Damon is very smart at what he does. You can find his work at http://damonstudio.com and you can find his music at http://damonbuxton.com I highly recommend him.

~~~~

Farmers Market

The pictures below are from the early am shot and a farmers market I stumbled upon.

This first picture is from the Happy Valley Farms. They are out of Anacortes, WA.
You can email them (if you want to buy the shoes and chicks) at happyvalleyfarms@fidalgo.net

shoes-n-chicks

This next shot was from on top of a hill that has some breath taking views.
I was the only person up there, go figure. **happy dance**

Next time I must remember to bring a hat, it was cold.

Morning Finery

Picking top Five for Publishing

2009-10-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is hard.
This is very hard.
I have many many favorites.

I'm only going to pick five pictures to print for the united way craft fair.

Do you want to help?

Do you have the patience to go through this mountain of pictures and tell me which one you love the most?

If so just go to the picture and make a comment. Flickr keeps a record and tells me everything.

I sure would appreciate the input. I'm going to use the stats, after I remove all twilight input. See which picture is the most viewed and go from there.

Picture of the day....

Domain Name Part II

2009-09-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

I still have yet to come up with a Domain name. I thought about something flashy, then that fell through. I think my middle name might just be the route I take. There are pluses and minus' to this one. It could be a bonus because no one has it and then again it could be a a minus because it's a little on the hard side to spell.

Feria isn't easy to spell, and what about some of those other crazy names out there. I think I'm going to go with my middle name.

I think I have a solution.

Pictures of the day...

This picture was taken several months ago, I think almost a year ago.

I really want to go back to Mt Rainier and shoot this image again. I've learned so much about shooting a picture in the fog and I think I could make this picture so much better.

I still really love this pictures.

Domain Name

2009-09-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

On Friday I'm going to put myself together one more step. I'm going to acquire a domain and a hosting service. After looking at a ton of web sites, sketching up several ideas and thinking about what I'm after my ideas are starting to take shape.

The biggest issue I keep running into is lack of originality. Every time I think I'm original I do a Google search and discover it's taken. How do I find that domain name that fits me and it's not taken?

My name is gone. It's so common that it's been long gone and my nick name left forever ago.

I tried a few play on words and again they were taken. I'm looking for that sophisticated feel, something that fits my personality and works with the type of pictures I take.

Here is a picture for today...

Other Photographers

2009-08-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today was an enlightening day. We roamed around the Anacortes Arts Festival and got a chance to see a lot of great photography. I even met a great nature photographer Randall J Hodges. His work can be seen on the covers of a few very popular magazines like Nature Photographer. This was an inspiring day. In the past few weeks watching Kevin get his work together for a show and gather all the necessary equipment was been some what of a downer.

I know I'm good. I know my work is good. I know it can be better. I'm sure every photographer has gone through this. Talking with Randall J Hodges was interesting. It changed my perspective. It brought all that lack of self doubt to a head and squashed it. In order to improve you have to put yourself out there. You need to get feed back and ask for input, enter contests and look to the masters.

These other Photographers at this event were invited to sell their work there. A lot of the work sold in those 10x10 almost square booths look nothing alike except when it comes to the photography.

I picked up one business card from one photographer and walked down a few blocks to the see another guys work and on his wall was a perfect picture of the first guys business card.

Style is everything. When you start taking the same picture, or having the same vision as the other people out there then you are lost. Traveling the world won't make you better or worse. Having an eye won't do it either.

Why these guys were invited to this event and why they are "making" it as photographers has a lot to do with drive, the finished product and talent. Some of them are really that good. Some of them have that much confidence.

It's not in the lens, the computer or the film. I really believe it's in the photographer.

Where do I go from here?

I really am close to being this good "Igor Shpilenok".

I have a picture to share for today...

Learning experiences...

2009-08-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

Last year I did a bunch of driving in that area. This year I did a bunch of driving in that area and remembered my camera.

I'm still learning a lot of stuff on my camera. The biggest thing I'm frustrated with is the how comes and the what fors???

Why do people and I don't understands...

Here are some of my happy achievements. I figured out how to blur out the back ground, take a moving picture and get a reflection in glasses. It was a fun trip. I wont upgrade my lens until I figure more stuff out. Then I'm all over a new lens.

Enjoy my learning experience.

Reflections

Wheat Grass

Smith house by Fort Ebey on Oak Harbor

Waves of Pillars

Limits, working with what you have

2009-07-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

The above picture is from last year. I took it while walking around looking for a photo stroll for a work's photo club. I had a lot of fun that day and got a lot of great shots.

In other news I finally finished my project of 100 iPhoto pictures.

The biggest challenge I ran into was just random shoots. I don't like to just shoot a picture because it's there. An idea will come to mind and I like to see if I can make it happen with what's in front of me. Using the iPhone's little camera was hard to try and make that happen. I really like having the limits of just that little camera. It made me think and work with what I had.

Chase Jarvis had a blog post in May listing several ideas to “Shake Your Tree Today”. It was several ideas on being a photographer. I did a few and really wanted to complete the 100 iPhoto pictures. It’s number 16 on the list.

Here is my 105 because of course I can’t just stop at 100.

Here is the link to the “Shake Your Tree Today”.

I learned a lot and think that the more you practice, even with the iPhone or blackberry or whatever you phone is, the better you get.

2009-07-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorites pictures taken from a recent camping trip with the whole family. I woke up before the crack of dawn and hummed and hawed before rolling out of bed dragging my honey with me. We grabbed our cameras, skipped morning routines and ran around the island like a bunch of little kids snapping anything and everything that tickled our fancy.

Little pictures like this are so sweet that I can't pass them up when I see them.

Practising Black and White

2009-06-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

I have been on this kick lately, working with black and white. This shot has eluded me for some time. Every time I've gone to the beach to get it the weather hasn't cooperated. Today was perfect. There wasn't a breeze to be had. The sun was shining and I remember my polarizer.

I crouched down and sat for a moment on my heels, then took a few shots until I felt like I had the right one.

I am never sure which apature or ISO to shoot in so I put the camera in my handy dandy 5.6 and just moved the dial until I found what I felt to be right.

I tried it a notch up and a notch down. They were either to dark or to light. I don't have editing software so this is what I have to work with and this is a good picture.

2009-05-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

**On a side note I will add one picture every time I post that is my favorite from my past.
This one is a picture I took on April 19th 2008 while on a photo stroll with the Seattle Filkr group at Snoqualmie Falls outing. It was fantastic fun.

Here is a link to the train Museum Here

Here is a link to my photo set from that outing Here

Welcome to my first post.... I'm excited and ready to jump right in!

Recently the decision was made to separate my personal journal and my photography. I want to grow and share that experience in an area that is free from everything. At first I thought about designing buying a whole web package and learning about Domain servers, web development along with everything else that is involved in the “owing your own” web site. I’d rather focus on improving my skill and technique right now. Many times over I’m told “you have an eye” and while that is fantastic, I don’t have skill or technique. I’m beginning to realize that is so important.

Goals:

Leave that carpeted box I sit in daily working for someone else so they can make a lot of money while I squeeze buy. I’m not passionate about what I do.

I want to be passionate about what I do.

Bring joy into other peoples lives thought imagery

Communicate with my images

Those three simple goals above seem delightfully easy to achieve in a world so full of opportunity when hiding behind a full time corporate job. I have a plan, a plan that will get me there in less then two years. It seems so far away, but I need to put safety nets in place because of my health. I need health insurance and have to have the money to pay for it. If that isn’t in place first and don’t have the funds for it then I would fail miserably and would I don’t even want to imagine the consequences.

I’m reminded of a story of women I hear every so often:

Her name is Tonya Winter. She is an amazing fetish designer. When she was in line to register for school she had was standing in line for the welding line and apparently (if I’m remember this correctly) the line was too long, so she went to the textile line instead and signed up for those classes.

After finishing school she started a line and started working for herself but kept her day job. She hired another girl. She was killing herself to work her job to keep her business afloat and pay her employee. Then it dawned on her to quit the day job, get rid of the employee and run her business herself. She figured out how much she needed to make to be her definition of successful and now she runs a business that is successful.

Tonya Winter has to be one of the few local independent business women that I know that I admire. She picked an area that was taboo, she’s a woman (doing business in a man’s world is hard, trust me I’m in IT I know), and she is making it very successful. She managed to hold a very successful highly demanded fashion show at a yearly convention. I’m impressed with her abilities and drive.

When I start my business I plan on talking to her more, asking her questions and following her lead.

I have many local heroes. There are a few that just blow my mind and I’ll save that for another post.