I stepped out of Mississippi when I was 10 years old with suit cut sharp as a razor and a heart made of gold. I had a guitar hanging just above waist high, and I’m going to play this thing until the day I die. – B.B. King, Riding With the King

Find something you love, and enjoy it every day. And then give thanks to the Giver.

These days, I just don’t get as jazzed about movies as in previous years. However, as a sucker for superhero flicks I can’t say just how stoked I am about the new Superman take, Man of Steel. I’ve mentioned it before, but seriously, this film looks crazy good. It actually looks like what a Superman movie should look like; awesome. The original Richard Donner offerings were limited by the technology of the day, and Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was a cute try on his part, but this one actually looks like it’s finally Superman. You know… flying around all crazy fast, stuff blowing up, punching stuff, lifting heavy things, epic battles with other aliens and pushing buses out of ponds. I’ll be there in June.

If you are not a follower of comic book movies, then you probably are unaware that the sequel to 2012′s The Amazing Spider-Man is currently filming. The movie will be released in May 2014, but in the meanwhile the movie’s director, Marc Webb, has been releasing a photo, or two, a day from the set via his Twitter account. Some days’ images are better than others, but the image for today is pretty cool. I like Spider-Man as a kid, so if I were that kid… I would probably be pretty stoked right now.

Happy Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, Jena. I knew she would be a great mother, but how great of a mother she has become since Cohen came into our lives  it has completely lit me up. Each day, it’s an inspiration to see her grow as a mother and to love our little boy the way she does. My son has absolutely no idea how fortunate and blessed he is to have such a wonderful mommy such as her. I think somehow he knows how amazing his mommy is, but what a day it will be when he finally comes to a more full realization of just how blessed he is to have her in his life. He’s only 20 months old… if she’s this amazing as a mother this early on, I can’t wait to see what she’s like in the years ahead.

Happy Mother’s Day, my love. Cohen and I love you, dearly.

The gentleman that you see in three iterations in the above graphic is none other than Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mike Jeffries. I’ve always had a beef with A&F and have never actually purchased anything from one of their stores. I can probably actually count the number of times I’ve browsed their stores on one hand. I take that back, I have owned a pair of their jeans once, but for in my defense I bought them from TJ Max for about $15. A&F has never been anything more than a symbol of status and the following article link I’m about to toss at your is living proof from the horses mouth. And, unfortunately, A&F has been a culture maker for years now and that’s the problem; society and our culture at large holds a view of beauty and value that is simply so far out of whack that most of us can’t even see straight. Take a trip to the local supermarket and peruse the magazine section, or skim the ones at the register and you’ll see the societal definition of beauty. Continue Reading…

So this is probably some of the most inspiring photography I’ve seen in quite some time. I’m a fan of landscape photography; it’s the melding of the creative process and the created world. And when it’s done well, it really speaks to the soul and makes you appreciate the artist and the muse. Alexandre Deschaumes seems to have an amazingly calibrated eye for landscapes, because his work is simply aims to take the breath right out of you. And, apparently some of his work has been captured for a documentary you can obtain for $10. Below is a trailer for the documentary and this gentlemen seems to be committed to the shot, as it were, raveling deep into the wilderness to obtain his images. Take a look at this collection as some of the shots are unbelievably amazing. The color and movement of the scenes he photographs is really grand. I can’t speak for Ansel Adams, but if he were alive I’m sure he’d give this man props for his work. Enjoy.

It could just be me, but I found this wildly hilarious. I literally laughed out loud at about the 1:48 mark where Mike whips out the reflector. I’ve never been one to Instagram my food; I may have done it once or twice in the 700+ pictures I’ve posted. It’s always a little odd when you hit on an Instagram user, or know someone, who takes copious amounts of food pictures.

A good friend of mine, Joe, was kind enough to give me the heads up on this video. Kudos to the creative department at Nike for this stellar promo for the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. Huge Buckeye football fan here, so this little video is two thumbs up in my book. Awesome retrospective as well with all the historical footage spliced in there. And it never hurts to see some Michigan players getting lit up like Christmas trees. If this video wasn’t so good, I’d say shame on Nike for getting us all riled up with college football still several months away. At any rate, enjoy yourself some OSU football. And… you get some music from The Heavy.

What follows is an open letter to First Lady Michelle Obama written by Huffington Post UK/Intent.com/Yahoo! Shine writer, Rakhi Kumar. It was published April 20th, so I apologize for sitting on this one for a couple weeks now. Regardless, I still wanted to post on it. Kumar’s issue with influential individuals, like Mrs. Obama, promoting Beyonce as a role model in a lot of ways mirrors my own. Truthfully, I think that at one time she was a fairly decent role model. In more recent years, however, I would retract that sentiment without any hesitation. At this point I think she has officially jumped the shark, as it were. If I’m being honest with you, and I am, I’ve never been a huge Beyonce fan. Sure, lady has some serious pipes and I will not discard her obvious gift of voice, but ultimately she’s another product of the marketing machine. For me there have been more than a few instances where other artists have alleged theft by Beyonce and Co., both songwriters and other performance artists. The similarities are… interesting. Besides, I liked Ryan Tedder’s demo of “Halo” better than hers. Continue Reading…

Take a second and watch this ad from the folks at Apple.

This is a really nice ad from the folks at Apple. Namely because it demonstrates something you so regularly see; people capturing images with their phones. The smartphone, namely the iPhone, has become the most popular camera on the planet. And, rightfully so, it’s the one camera that you typically, if not always, have with you. There’s a now famous quote about cameras that says;

“The best camera is the one you have with you.”

Which is the complete truth. So often in the world of photography there is much chatter and back and forth about brands, bodies, sensors, lenses, pixel counts and other elements of a camera that the entire notion, and point, of taking photographs gets lost. A camera is merely a means to an end- the end being the capturing of a moment in time that tells a story. Sure, we’d all love to have a Canon 1Dx, Nikon D3x, or a Hasselblad or Phase One camera system to capture uber-high quality photos, but at the end of the day chances are you wouldn’t always have that camera on your person at the moment inspiration strikes. This is why that little camera on your phone becomes so ridiculously important. I don’t always have access to my Canon, thankfully since the birth of our son I’ve always had an iPhone in my pocket. Just last night, my wife and I unloaded over 900 images from her iPhone and many of those images and videos were of our son. From birth to the present day she had images and videos of him. You can’t put a value on that body of work, and that’s just from her phone. I have just as many, or more, from my phone and a whole other cache I’ve captured from behind the lens my Canon. I recently saw the work of one professional photographer who had taken to simply venturing out with only his iPhone, capturing images with it, processing those images on it, and then selling those images… and that was funding his travels and work. His work was truly amazing, and to know he did it all from an iPhone was inspiring.

Since the invention of the camera, we are now capturing more images on a daily base than ever before. We probably took more pictures last year alone, than in all previous years combined. And, I would venture to guess that a vast majority of those images are from camera phones.

So, what are you waiting for?