The professional blog I chose to use for this assignment is the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Stage Review. http://www.broadwaystagehandsdemocracyanvil.blogspot.com. This blog talks about the New York Theater scene. Some of it is from the point of view of the Stagehand Union and also from some other sources that are critical of the Unions. Most of the information from this is a couple years old but it is still very interesting to me. It looks professionally done  and it makes me think that something like this could be done locally in the Eugene Ore. area to cover staging issues for Labor and for the Venues.

Van Styles is a New York born, Los Angeles based photographer. His blog is called the Visual Apparel Blog (visual is the brand that he created).

http://visualapparel.com/blog/

Guys seem to gravitate toward Van because, well, a significant portion of his photos are bountifully curvacious and beautiful women scantly clad with some sort of urban, or modern backdrop. To his credit his talents exceed far beyond being able to capture already attractive women, but in fact he has a very wide array photographic expertise. With half a million followers on instagram, you can be assured that he isn’t some amateur photographer. Van likes to capture candid, and real photographs also, typically in very urban and rural settings, and he uses natural lighting to enhance the realism of his photos. He has also been known to hire helicopter pilots and fly over cities and take amazing aerial shots.

His photography has been featured in ads for various different clothing lines such as The Hundreds, and LRG to name a couple; his photographs were also used as a part of a campaign by Pac Sun. His website is filled with apparel from his clothing line, also littered with photographs from his everyday life, and from various photo shoots.

He is a photographer whose photos are sometimes plain, but always full of meaning. He has a way of capturing normal, everyday life, and settings in an artistically and abstract way that is intriguing to any eyes.

A Blog by: Derek Watson

Website Link ->  http://ryanwoodwardart.com/info/about-2/

I chose to cover: Ryan Woodward, a Storyboard Artist and Animator. He has worked in the industry for a number of years and has played a significant part in some large scale move productions and other major projects. Projects such as: The Spiderman franchise, Marvel Entertainment’s – The Avengers, and – Where The Wild Things Live, just to name a few..

Ryan’s Website; showcasing his work, offers info about his earlier years in school and all of the work he has been apart of to the present day. His art; in a mixed media of fine art sketches and cartoonish animation gives viewers quite a variety of things to look at ranging from both ends of a creative spectrum.

The majority of his work (on his website) is primarily Concept sketches and character designs.

He has an online store, offering people the option of buying past pieces that catch their eye. Or going into submitting their own personal request/s for commissioned work.

Overall I’d say that the website does a very good job laying everything out about the Artist in question. His past educational and working experiences are well accounted for and documented.

Before this assignment, I personal didn’t know much of anything having to do with “Ryan Woodward” as an artist. His was a name completely unknown to me, and yet..many of the things he has been apart of are well known among a large following of people today. Which made me realize that the name “Ryan Woodward” like so many others in the creative field who play their parts in and on big production projects is a name that most might only see at the end of the movie in rolling credits.

What I liked about doing this assignment was the chance to learn a bit more about an artist that might have otherwise remained unknown to me with no way of ever knowing his name…

“Ryan Woodward”

The blog does not have an official title so I will just refer to it as: Joe Rogans Blog

This blog is one of the many characteristics of Joe Rogans Main Site. It’s a comedians website and on the main page there are many boxes that show a little preview of every aspect of the site. He does many things across many mediums so he has to make the reader aware of all of them in a short amount of time. He is most well known for his podcast and at the very top of the site is a player for all 600+ of his current podcasts. So you can listen to the podcast while you browse his site! This is really smart because at the beginning of each podcast he talks about his sponsors, which he links to their sites on his website.

It’s easy to navigate because the only red on the page are lines underneath the main categories, which are links to a sub-site that expands greatly on that category. All the information starts out small and easy to see and understand, then like a fractal you can just go into his site and go pretty deep and you find out that everything expands. Very well done and a site I really enjoy browsing. Lastly the main page is amazing in itself because you can just scroll down and view a medium size view of all his categories (Tour Dates, Podcasts,…). The images on his site really draw you down and makes you want to scroll down and see all his content. Really inspiring in terms of design and concept!

I had a somewhat difficult time trying to find a professional blog to try and research and analyze. It made me stop and think of what I wanted to discover. Was it something that I was familiar with or something that I wanted as inspiration? When all else fails in my world, lean towards photography for inspiration/motivation.

Photography, whether professional or as a hobby, is a perfect example of how others see the world through their eyes. Its a state of capturing his/hers idea and expressing it in a creative and imaginative aspect to open peoples minds. The phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is a concrete statement in that a single shot can move someone in the moment or even a lifetime.

I chose to follow and research a photographer on WordPress by the name of Jonas Dyhr Rask. I knew nothing about Jonas prior to this project and as a result he has opened my eyes to my own personal experience with photography and has enhanced it. I was somewhat shocked to learn that Jonas is a Doctor. His photography is indeed a hobby. Its not a Batman/Bruce Wayne shocker moment but it definitely hit me because you can tell his style and creativity takes time and is intuitive….and being a Doctor doesn’t seem like he has all the time in the world he may want. His sole reason for shooting is to catch and grab the human connection. 

The picture above is so simple to me. When under his “My356″ tab, he has categories of his series of shots taken. This category spoke volumes to me. Its easy. Its simple. It captures life. Its tells a story.

Creativity is so rich in how it tells a story and Jonas really opened my eyes to how I continue to explore photography.

// Travis //

Although he has not updated his blog in a while as he is currently filming his newest film Yoga Hosers Kevin Smith gives me the inspiration to keep moving forward in film.

Silent Bob Speaks 

A guy from the middle of nowhere New Jersey who loves comic books and movies moved on to make movies that people love, why can’t I. His work may not be the most polished but he does what he loves; and sure his last movie Tusk was a little out there you can really tell he is putting his heart and soul into his work.

That’s why I say Kevin Smith gives me hope.