I’m in the business of consulting and strategy. That said, I’m quick to give props to other companies that “get it” and have executed things well. Through super-magical-powers of ambient intimacy, my eye was drawn to an image that popped into my Facebook newsfeed today from my friend Amber. It was one of those moments where I find myself smirking thinking to myself, “This is great- and it’s well executed.”

This print AD is simple- concise- timely, relevant and more importantly is aligned with the Levi’s Go Forth cause marketing effort (I was compelled to read more online after seeing this AD). Kudos to the team who executed this, job well done.

This past weekend was the annual Kansas City Downtown Air Show and I vblogged it (full disclosure: they hooked me up with free press access again!).

Overall, last year’s show was better (last year’s vblog here), but there were some highlights. I had a chance to interview pilots who fly the A-10 “Warthog” and the Apache helicopter. I snapped some pretty sweet photos too. The Harrier “jump” jet was cool- something I personally had never seen first-hand +easily the loudest jet I’ve ever heard. The other highlight of the show was the F-16, it’s speed and nimble ability to perform tricks was incredible to watch. Check out the full video blog on YouTube (below).

PS: I’ve been editing my video blogs with my new Mac! (that’s right, I made the switch). While I’m still a PC fan- I can confidently say my Mac Pro desktop rocks-my-socks off in editing HD video. It handles HD like a champ!

The annual downtown Kansas City Air Show was this weekend- and I was eager to photowalk the event and see what I could capture. Each time I get my camera out- I sometimes find myself in situations that remind me of a quote Mike McMullen shared with me (in a video blog) last year. While it’s not the most elegant quote, it’s completely on-point and accurate. He shares:

“Sometimes that perfect composition slaps you up side the head- and wow, I’m so lucky I’m here- all I can do is screw it up.”

As I’m learning and trying to improve more and more with my own photography (as a hobby), I know first hand what he means. There are those times when you find yourself staring at the perfect photo- it’s almost yelling “HEY YOU, this is the shot right here!” It’s up to you to just get it just right and not screw it up.

All that said- I was pleased and surprised with some of the shots that came out from this year’s air show. Tracking and following speeding airplanes through the sky isn’t something I find myself doing a lot of Enjoy the photos and check out the full flickr slideshow here. Here are some of my personal favorites (below).

I wanted to voice some quick thoughts in response to a recent feature ink magazine put together about local blogging here in Kansas City. What you didn’t see published was some of the thoughts from my interview I shared with the ink / KC Star in regards to the “state” of local blogging. Instead, I thought I’d share them here I think we’ve got some strong voices in town, but the best has yet to come. For anyone who follows the local blog scene, it’s interesting to see blogs born, thriving, lingering and dying as the (some creators burn-out in updating their content). Personally, I do as best I can myself to blog timely, relevant and valued content. While it’s not as frequent as other popular blogs in town- I really focus on the quality of my outputs (if you’re looking for daily updates, follow me on Twitter @ramseym).

Furthermore, I still have strong thoughts that bloggers and journalists in town can co-exists. This is still a clear area that needs to be explored. I’ve blogged about this before in the past.

In my mind, blogging (about) Kansas City topics is still very much in the adolescence stage. There are certainly are a fair share blogs that have a good following and are doing it well, but I just have much higher expectations in what it could and should be. Especially vis-à-vis to traditional media influencers in town (e.g. KC Star, Pitch, TV stations, radio). Furthermore, anyone who’s attempted to aggregate a 1-stop-destination for local blogs have had little success (TKC , Fox and others have tried). Regardless, one thing is for sure- KC isn’t archaic by any means in regards to its presence online.

So what do you think- am I completely wrong about this? What are your thoughts?
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Recently I was interviewed by ink magazine about my Event Blogging that I cover here in Kansas City. One aspect feature piece for the magazine / website was photos of each Kansas City blogger- and I brought my camera to use for my shoot and I figured while I was there, why not record a “behind the scenes” take on what it was like to be there. I’ll be the first to admit- I don’t think this vblog is one of my more compelling ones, but it does give you an candid look at my experience. I had fun doing it (side note: its hard to imagine how models gripe about posing for photos, maybe I’m missing something!?!).

You can check out the full article online here. And if you pickup a copy of the Kansas City Star today, look in the top left and you’ll see my photo on the front page Watch the vblog here.

This past weekend, the company I work for, held a summer picnic. Of course, I figured what a great opportunity to grab my Canon 40D camera and get practice snapping photos. What I’ve realized in the past few months, when it comes to my photography style- I continue to be captivated with people portraits. Perhaps it’s the chase I’m obsessed with- the challenge of getting that split-second facial expression, all while framing up the right shot. I still like taking architecture and landscape photos- but nothing beats the story that’s told with a great “in the moment” portrait shot.

It was fun sneaking some photo time with of my co-workers and their families to see what I could come up with. My favorites from the set are the ones I took of Olivia. She has such a vibrant personality that comes through in every photo I took of her. Check out my favs below and/or watch the full flickr slideshow.

A friend at work passed along an article that made me so furious- I almost couldn’t believe it was allowed to be published. The article was on MSN, entitled “Is Facebook Past Its Prime?” Now before, I go on- this blog post isn’t intended to be a rant on how horrific the article is. Instead, I want to rationalize some concepts I believe are easy to forget.

The article, makes some very definitive points that seem to be written as facts and NOT as opinion:

• “This may mark the beginning of the end of Facebook’s enormous popularity.”
• “After that 25 things note, there’s not much left to say.”
• “People who actually have lives don’t use Facebook.”

Wrong, wrong and wrong. I couldn’t disagree more with each of these points. The author of this article (Hillary Rhodes) is failing to recognize a broader construct. Great technology takes different forms and has different life cycles of use for any given person. Just because Hillary (the author) has found herself finding Facebook less relevant- doesn’t mean the masses out there are graduating from it (after all, 250 million still use it frequently). I’ve always said, the value of Facebook and Twitter is dependent upon the people you follow (or are friends with). If you follow or are friends with people that suck- your experience with either of these websites will suck. It’s as simple as that. The websites themselves are dependent upon sharing and creating content- so it’s a direct correlation. YOUR participation and your friends participation is what makes it valuable. If you logged into either Twitter or Facebook and no one updated or did anything- there wouldn’t be anything there. It would just be a blank page. Your friends in these networks defines what you experience with Twitter or Facebook.

Facebook is a networking tool. It’s a tool that connects real people. Twitter is a tool that also connects real people. Both of these tools can be worthless if you aren’t able to augment existing relationships or create real interactions with people of like interests. Real interactions with real people who contribute in these networks is the real value in using Facebook or Twitter.

That said, in my opinion, it’s important to understand two things when it comes to the usage of social media:

1.) People’s experience with social media tools is unique to each individual.
There are so many variables that contribute to how your experience using social media tools (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) will play out. For example, things like; are you an influencer already?, does your social network already exist in the network, do you frequently update, do you interact or just sit and troll on the website, are your expectations to use the network for business or personal expectations- or mixed. These factors all contribute to your experience with any given social media tool.

2.) Understanding HOW to get the most out of a social media tools and WHEN to use it is also important.
Similar to knowing the right time to send a text message vs. picking up the phone to call someone is important- the same is true for social media tools.

Facebook and Twitter are both great social media technologies that facilitate social networking. Neither of these communication tools are going to be extinct anytime soon. Bottom line, understand your experience with Facebook and Twitter are unique to you and it is not going to be the same for everyone else. Something Hillary Rhodes should of thought about before concluding that the “end” Facebook is near. It might be for her- but not for the other 249,999,999 of us.
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I wanted to share 4 of my favorite photos from 1 Saturday here in Kansas City (last weekend). It was one fun-filled day of planned spontaneity! I always have fun practicing my photog skills with my friends (those who are willing) You can watch the full flickr slideshow here.