About every 10 months, or so, my vision board is full and begins to remind me that it is time to start over. Time for new growth to be shared and experienced. A bit of sadness comes over me as I look over this board and I am reminded of all the inspirations I have experienced the past year. And of course I am filled with joy as I look over my board. A few highlights from the vision board:

• “Dont be robotic about anything,” a quote from the REVEALED: Portraits from Beneath One’s Surface and a reminder to me to keep shaking things up.
• “A turning point” – I felt the past year there has been some big turning points
• Several paintings my daughter purchased from orphans in Haiti
• The Hug business card I got. Hugs are good.

Now the board is clean and awaits new inspirations and insights into my journey. My last vision board can be found here.

Telling a bank’s story through the community’s eyes is much more hearfelt than having executives being interviewed and speaking from a script. Would you actually watch a video featuring corporate “talking heads?” How many of you actually watch some of these corporate videos that talk about how wonderful their corporation is. And it’s all told from people sitting in offices and, in many cases, talking from scripts. Do you make it beyond the 30-second mark? I don’t … which brings me to a recent story-telling assignment that Brian Shipman and myself have been perfecting the past few years.

Brian Shipman (videographer, storyteller) and myself (photographer, narrative storyteller) set out to tell a bank’s story through the community’s eyes. We work much differently than many video/film crews. As a team, we set out to find the story and capturing it by creating and changing our schedule to where the story is.

The fun part of this assignment was to not have a bunch of executives speak about how wonderful their bank is. Instead, we set out to have the community talk about why they bank with this specific bank and why they feel this bank is a part of the community. And yes, this includes having conversations with the bank’s executives and employees, for they are part of the community. And one keyword here is “conversation.” We do not “interview” any subject. We have a “conversation” with them and allow them to speak from the heart and not from a script. This allows our video stories to connect with our viewers.

Brian and I have travelled the world together and have created a powerful partnership on telling a story through video and still photography. The two of us work together as a team and understand when video tells the story better and when it’s time for still photography. When you combine these two elements, you create a very insightful and interesting story. At times we find ourselves side-by-side working together and other times we are going in different directions with a plan to capture the elements that tell the story.

We approach these assignments with a jam packed schedule that we add to and change as the story unfolds. There are so many things you can never plan for. Even with all the time spent on pre-production (conference calls, emails and research). The planned and unplanned elements all come together by being flexible and having conversations with the locals at coffee shops, the bank, restaurants and wherever we happen to be.

These assignments have so many wonderful perks. It always feels good to tell a bank’s story through unscripted and heartfelt conversations. This assignment included sand boarding and our assistant decided to give sledding a try down a huge sand dune at a million miles per hour when it was only 30˚. The laughs are priceless.

What I love about living in Rhode Island (New England) is all the new experiences I get to have. With this assignment, I had the opportunity to spend the day on a boat with an oyster farmer.  Why this experience is so interesting to me is because local Executive Chef, Ryan Escudé, makes connecting with the local growers and providers an important part of his culinary experience in order to further understand the farm to table intention he has for Centro Restaurant. Centro Restaurant is located in Providence, Rhode Island.

I am very grateful for all the wonderful assignments, travels, connections with friends and the growth of REVEALED in 2011. I look forward to being connected with having an outstanding 2012!

With Much Gratitude!
Scott

Personal projects are very rewarding and does feed my soul. It has an influence on my photography style (including corporate photography) and an impact on who I am. Personal projects like REVEALED keeps that internal photography fire lit that got me into photography in the first place and helps me to grow.

The past 6 months have been many milestones in the REVEALED project. A short documentary film, released in May, has been accepted into three film festivals and a few very favorable reviews. In addition, the successful Kickstarter campaign that created enough funding and support to publish the REVEALED: Personal Visions of Transformation and Discovery book. The entire process of fundraising and working closely with a designer has been a fulfilling process. I’m humbled at how much support and attention REVEALED has received the past few months.

Take a minute to watch this short video and learn more about why I am creating this book. There are fabulous rewards offered at every level of campaign pledges. Including, never offered before. Including the book (of course), limited edition prints, the documentary film and even me flying out to your city to photograph you and your friends as REVEALED subjects.

This Campaign is only for a short time.

The Independent Critic gave it 4 out of 4 stars an A+ - “REVEALED: Portraits from Beneath One’s Surface is a profoundly moving and intimately revealing documentary that does, indeed, go beneath the surface of the people who whose spiritual journeys are being so vividly documented,” Richard Propes of The Independent Critic.

Hollywood Bitchslap gave it 4 out of 5 stars – “My attention was held throughout, and I was interested in all of the subjects, from the shy woman who must deal with her mental illness on a daily basis to a woman who refuses to be defined by a “salad dressing incident” with a relative years before,” Charles Tatum.

I look forward to being interviewed on this show. See you there! You may listen to the show by clicking on her banner above or this link.

I wrote about this banking assignment in an earlier blog entry.

Also, you may want to visit this blog entry for insights into my narrative photography.

Do you have a story to tell? If so, lets talk.

The short film, “REVEALED: Portraits from Beneath One’s Surface,” is an indepth look into This I Believe REVEALED as it follows the experience of 11 subjects through the REVEALED process. Rhode Island filmmaker Christian De Rezendes, of Breaking Branches Pictures, has created a very insightful and moving documentary that invites the audience to become immersed in each subject’s very personal journey of definition and exploration.

This program has been made possible, in part, by a grant from RISCA (Rhode Island State Council on the Arts).