We stumbled into Havana with a barley passible vocabulary of Spanish phrases, a copy of Lonely Planet Cuba, and two cameras. Our nebulous plan involved wandering the streets, snapping photos, and soaking in the beautiful decay of this forbidden country.

After four days we had accomplished our goal. Between the two of our we had taken well over a thousand photos, dug deep into the politics that divides our two nations, consumed Mojitos at the National, and located the Fidel’s hidden missiles. But don’t take my word for it, these pictures can tell their own story. Read the rest of this entry »

Freelancing has its advantages, one of which is the ability to travel and live in places that you wouldn’t normally have access to while working a typical office job. Currently 2 Out of Three is half way through a two month stint in Santa Cruz. And when we’re not banging away on our laptop at the local coffee shop, the mountains, ocean, and town of Santa Cruz provide eye catching scenery to take a few photos. Below are a few of the best shots from the month, and be sure to check out the rest of April’s Santa Cruz pictures at Flickr [along with commentary].

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New Mexico has an alarmingly high number of natural & health food markets including the standards like Whole Foods and Wild Oats, the smaller local varieties as well as the international Talin Market. Between Albuquerque and Santa Fe I’ve been to half a dozen different markets in the week and a half that I’ve been here, and the combined population of these two cities is less than that of San Francisco. Because of this easy access, the state is bursting at the seams with an unprecedented variety of ginger beer. The New Age hippies and their younger counterparts – the “dreamcatching yoga greenies” –  must have developed a bit of a ginger habit. The thing I can’t seem to wrap my brain around is what are they doing with the stuff? I’ve yet to stumble across a single bottle of Goslings – or any top shelf dark rum for that matter – so they can’t be using it for Dark and Stormies? Are these health nuts just drinking the stuff straight? A prospect I’ll never understand – and one, that personally, is a bit offensive. Could they be wasting away their afternoons stumbling over tumble weeds in the high desert tripping on Moscow Mules?

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At it’s best art gets us to consider ourselves and others within the world around us.  With that in mind photography is a direct medium that can be used to hold a mirror up to the world around us.

Vitaly S. Alexius photo journal about the ship breakers of Chittagong, India does just that.  The visuals and the story stop you in your tracks and make you question how a person can live like that and how our world can allow a person to live like that.  It’s an amazing combination of photos, Google maps, and journal entry. Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend I headed down to Grouse Mountain and did some night riding for Mel’s birthday. Grouse is located in the mountains around the city of Vancouver giving an amazing view of the skyline while you enjoying some night skiing. I was a bit skeptical when the idea of night skiing at Grouse was first floated. Understandable, why would a group of Whistler locals want to drive away from the best Mountain in North America to visit a local mountain with only two lifts and a handful of runs open at night…..and to top it off a storm was bearing down on whistler promising to bring 12+ inches of new snow.

As it turns out Grouse Mountain is a great time if you want to mix a bit of skiing with some late night festivities. The group had a great time messing around on different equipment (a handful kept it real with snowblades). And then we danced the evening away while still in our ski/snowboard gear….including boots. While the Polaroids have been censored to protect certain parties I did receive permission to release a few photos.

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Great web site design concentrates on the small picture as well as the big picture. Little things like icons and graphics turn a web site into a memorable browsing experience. The next time you’re looking into a new product that you might purchase take a look at the company’s web site and look at their visuals. More often than not, if they have great images or icons they probably have a great product – look here & here. The thinking is if you’re going to spend hours, days, and weeks obsessing over the graphic imagery of your web site, you’ve probably spent twice as long designing a great product that will satisfy you’re customers.

I just returned from a trip back to the Bay Area to help one of 2 Out of Three’s clients with this idea – delivery on the small things. We spent four marathon days capturing creative and high quality product and lifestyle images for the Neela Bags‘ website, which will be launching in the next few weeks.

We went into the four days of shooting with ideas for eight different types of shots at six separate locations around the cities of San Mateo and Burlingame. Everything from detailed product shots, to lifestyle shots, to images of the company’s founders we’re taken. It’s fun to look at some of the numbers involved in our 4 days of shooting.

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A new year has arrived and it seems like a good time to post some pictures from the past month. I was slacking in blog posts for the month of December so I have pictures from Whistler, Vancouver, and Christmas with the family in SF to show you. I should also have some designs and a soundtrack to my life to share with you in the coming weeks. I hope everyone is looking forward to a creative 2008.

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Last week we packed up the 2 Out of Three design studio and moved our operation north to Whistler, BC. Rowdy the Audi [remember kids it's important to name inanimate objects] was packed with all the standard office essentials including our trusty Mac Book Pro, a snowboard, and a warm jacket. The trip went smooth and a few days after saying goodbye to our San Francisco friends, family, and our two year home in Duboce Triangle we made the border crossing at the Peace Arch. Less than an hour later Double A was showing us around his home town of Vancouver. Later that day we pulled into our new place in Whistler, BC – just a couple minutes drive from the resort village.

Below are a few pics from Van + Whistler

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New Mexico is dry and dominated by the colors brown, red, and yellow. I learned that and a few others thing over the past five days while I was visiting my Mom in Albuquerque. My sister Yasha also joined us for a few days making a family reunion out of it. It’s was great to spend a few days living with my sis’ and Mom, almost like being a kid again.

When I was not laid up by the flu, which combination with the natural desert dryness was not fun, we spent time walking through the desert, visiting healers, and catching up with each other. My Mom has an article about the statue on top of the US Capital, Lady Freedom, that is being published next month in the US Capital Historical Society Magazine. And Yasha is getting ready to go to Miami for Bridge Art Fair, as well as pondering her future and weather it should be spoken in French, Italian, or German.

The shades of New Mexico also turned out pretty well through the lens of my camera. Here are a few photos taken over the past 5 days in Abq.

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Hiking is an activity I’ve been overlooking a great deal in the past few years. As a kid my father would take my sister and I for regular hikes in the East Bay hills, occasionally we would even motivate to get over to Marin and explore a coastal trail. With a bit more free time and my impending departure from San Francisco, for an extended trip, I’ve been reacquainting myself with some of these hikes.

Using my childhood memories of hiking locations and the Bay Area Hiker website I’ve been exploring trails all over; reservoirs paths on the Peninsula, trails that terminate into the Pacific in Marin, and Eucalyptus covered paths in the Berkeley hills. On most of them I’ve been snapping away with a camera and I thought I share a few photos with you.

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