Every year Libby and I send out a self-designed holiday card using our own skills as graphic artists and photographers. When it came time to produce this year’s card we had some initial trouble coming up with a fresh idea. After a bit of thinking I came up with the idea of using images taken specifically with my iPhone.

We whittled down hundreds of images from 5 continents and numerous events down to 70 colorful images that all appear on the front of the card. I wanted the thumbnails on the front of the card to be large enough to be readable to the viewer, yet small enough to maintain the graphic element of the grid. After putting the design together, we were both pleased with the initial outcome, but wanted to take it a step further. I decided to create the online aspect to supplement the physical card. IPHONEADVENTURE.COM is the manifestation of that.

Since all of the images that were chosen represent a significant moment or memory from 2009, we wanted this project to go beyond just a tiny thumbnail, and to explain itself, in context.

All 70 images from the physical card, are viewable in a larger, un-cropped format on the website. In addition, each image is accompanied by the date the image was made, the GPS coordinates corresponding to where the image was taken as well as a short and candid description of the image. Since the iPhone automatically embeds GPS location data into each photo taken with the device you will be able to see exactly where we were when we took the image via Google Maps. Clicking on the coordinates in each image’s description will open up a new window with data about the location.

Happy Holidays to everyone. Please take a moment to visit our little end of year project, IPHONEADVENTURE.COM

(ps. the image above is also an iphone image!)

One thousand apologies for the lack of updates. It’s very rare that I go a whole month without blogging. I hate these entries because so much has happened that it’s hard to remember everything to add into just one blog, but since updating my blog is on my to-do list, I’ll try.

I moved back home to Houston this past Monday. It was a tough 24 hour drive with a quick nap at a hotel in Roanoke, VA. The last month or so at Patuxent were busy busy. Not only was I busy with assignments for the paper, other things were keeping me busy as well. Knowingly moving back to Houston, I put a lot on my plate as far as getting things in order to jump back into the freelance market in Houston, such as self-promotion, contacting editors and such. I got some neat new business cards made as well as a batch of 4×6 promo cards. A few of my coworkers and I drove down to Atlanta and attended the Atlanta Photojournalism Conference. I met a lot of awesome people and had a grand time.

Right before leaving for Atlanta I received my new Canon 5D mark II body. I absolutely love it so far. I’ve done a ton of short mess around clips, shot a few assignments with it and shot a short little mockumentary project with The Firm in Baltimore. I’m still in the editing process of that piece so stay tuned. I’m going to miss all my newly found friends in Baltimore.

I am loving it so far being back home. It’s something about moving back home during the holiday season that makes it extra special. Tuesday was my birthday and about 12 friends and I went to the Rockets game and out for late night food. I am visiting all of my favorite local food joints and even doing a few assignments already for the Chronicle. In fact a shot from an assignment yesterday (see above inset image) ran A-1 main art today!