Two weeks ago, I shared with you sneak peek photos I shot from my very first newborn baby session. I wanted to share a few more with you. In the first photo below, I used a couple effects within Photoshop to get this “look”. This vintage film style is such a compelling way to frame-up a photo of dad +and his daughter. I really like it, don’t you?

It’s hard not to love all the aspects of “mini” when it comes to babies. Their clothes, shoes, hands, and feet…

Here was my status update I posted yesterday on Facebook:

There have been recent Facebook privacy settings updates (more here), and I have a rant to get off my chest about this topic, RE: privacy. Some people who are furious about these changes, are even threatening to quit using the social network altogether (which makes me wonder if these same people, walk into other businesses that provide free services, and demand things be changed too, or else).

Given Facebook’s successes, reputation and track record, I believe as a company, they are working to provide features and functionality to be of best value to its users. At the same time, and more importantly, like any other business, they need to make a profit, so they are trying things to accomplish just that.

Some argue, then why aren’t they “listening to their customers?” I want to point out, Facebook has listened to it’s users when they complain. They have a history of it …for example; it’s the reason why you don’t see Facebook Beacon in existence today. Remember that feature when it launched? And it isn’t if they are hiding anything. They’re still listening. Zuckerberg recently shared with the Washington Post, “Sometimes we move too fast — and after listening to recent concerns, we’re responding.”

Do you remember when FB Newsfeed first launched? People hated it. Our “privacy” was invaded. We could suddenly track everything everyone did on FB. Fast-forward to today. No one thinks twice about it. We love it. FB is better because of it. They created this to better the website product, not because users demanding it.

Society, people, the masses, have all grown accustomed to sharing our lives with more people and “in public” as the technology has allowed it. FB is one of the front-runner’s leading and defining this shift …and I believe we are better because of it. I’ve connected with relatives, clients, friends on an on-going basis, enjoying real interactions with real people. My life is truly augmented because of it, not diminished. I think Facebook is awesome.

The customer doesn’t always know what he or she needs. And their ideas aren’t always right. Sometimes you have to illustrate and/or push it to them (e.g. advent of Newsfeed). Sometimes you have to show them why what you’ve created is valuable and why you should like it. This may be uncomfortable to think about, but do you remember when cellphones, email, Smartphones, and Twitter were first released? …those were all received with a strong degree of resistance from the masses too.

“Privacy the new hot pink. Out of style.” (@jowyang)

Do you agree with this? Have you quit Facebook yourself? (…or are people who do that just stupid) Are you concerned about privacy when using Facebook?

**UPDATE**
Here’s Facebook’s official blog post from Mark about the new privacy controls. They also posted a preview of the new very stupid simple controls to view and manage your privacy settings.

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I’ve been really impressed with the results of the photo apps I’ve been using on my iPhone. Which goes to show, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a camera phone’s photo capabilities. These two photos below, I shot, edited, and uploaded entirely with just my iPhone. Total time to shoot + edit + upload? < less than 3 minutes. Pretty crazy huh?

If you’re wondering what apps I used, I edited the photos with the CameraBag app and the TiltShift app. Big shout-out to Glen for posting a comment on my original TiltShift app review blog post, it was how I discovered my fav’ed photo app, CameraBag! Check ‘em out if you haven’t already, they’re both great!

This shot I took at my birthday dinner with my sister sapporo + sushi = heaven on earth (it’s the little things in life right? beer is pretty awesome…)

I took this photo on a business trip, on my way to the hotel, late at night in Boston. Don’t worry, I wasn’t driving. Promise.

Everyone is familiar with it. The plain and same email auto-response, “I’m out of the office and I will get back to you when I return”. Everyone has the same message. And I really hate it (if you use something different, share it in the comments). There’s got to be a better way to do this.

After receiving a client’s out of office message, I started thinking …if there was an emergency, and I did need to get a hold of them- their work email would not be the best way to reach them. Let’s say they were relaxing on the beach, or on a golf course, or on a boat in Hawaii- the last thing they’d be checking on vaca is their work email. And if they did check their email, I’d likely be on the bottom of their backlogged email.

…so then I thought, what would be the best way to get a hold of someone when email isn’t an option? Not all people are willing to give away their cell phone number. How can I improve my own out of office message so it’s actually helpful? I started thinking about the things people do check when they’re not in the office …people do update and check things like Facebook and Twitter (and there are tools like AwayFind.com, that can notify you by SMS, IM or DM).

Here is my new out of office message I’ve been using, that’s been working great:

I will be out of the office, Friday May 14 (out of town, on-site with a client). If you need immediate assistance please follow this sequence if you need to get a hold of me:

1.) Send me a Twitter @reply to @ramseym or DM. If we’re friends on Facebook you can also message me there.

2.) Call my cell phone.

3.) If you cannot get a hold of me following #1 or #2, and need immediate assistance, call the office at 913-498-9988 and ask to speak with Bethany Kemper or Curt McMillan. They’re great people and will take care of you and ensure you’re directed to the correct person to help resolve any issues or concerns.

Like I said, it’s been working brilliantly! So what do you think? Does this make you re-think your own auto-response message? Will you change it? Do you have any of your own tips or tricks on how you change-up your “out of office” message from the normal canned response? Share it with me + everyone in the comments.

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Have you ever wondered, how do you make badges on Foursquare? I have. I’ve got lots of ideas for badges. I had chance to catch up with the co-founder of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley, and ask him. PS, this was filmed at the Big Omaha conference, which was fantastic this year! If you can’t view the video above, here is a link to the video YouTube.

This morning I checked-in using Foursquare at my local Starbucks and I noticed a bright yellow “promotion” icon on my phone. To my pleasant surprise, since I’m the Mayor of the Starbucks near my work, for my drug addiction loyalty I received $1 off a Frappuccino! How cool is that?! #geekpride alert! In fact, I was so proud + excited about the entire experience, I told everyone at work about it and posted it to my Facebook wall. Then it got me to thinking …imagine all the other people in other cities that reacted the same way when they had this experience today. Such a positive, fun, innovative, exciting promotion. Not just another typical boring paper coupon or email.

Here’s what it looked like on my iPhone:

Starbucks is certainly a brand that’s smart and what’s being classed by analysts as an “early adopter brand“. Their latest marketing promotion is integrated on two of the most popular location-based social networking websites Brightkite and Foursquare (I’m not sure why Gowalla was not apart of the campaign). Location-based social networking is about to change a lot of peoples lives …especially when it’s launched later this year on Facebook (i’m betting on it). It’s yet another exciting privacy shift that the masses will have to adjust to. It’s coming, and in a BIG way. And I love it.

“Privacy the new hot pink. Out of style.”
(@jowyang)

Do you agree? What do you think? Are you scared? Will you start sharing your location with your updates? Are you already using services like Foursquare or Gowalla? Do you like it?
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Cirque du Soleil “Alegria” was in town this weekend, and they asked me to come check things out backstage. It was an amazing experience. You’ll get to meet Tyler Block, Michael Smith and Sheryl in this video blog. One part of the vblog I didn’t include (because his response was too long) was the cast members are primarily athletes that are former gymnasts. Some were even Olympians. They go through over 9 months of training before they can perform in a show.

Enjoy the video blog! I also posted a few pictures on my flickr account here, here, and here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c58zvS8mImo
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Many of you know that photography is a hobby of mine. I’m trying to get better at it. I had a chance to shoot my very first newborn baby session for close friends of mine (i wanted the practice, and they needed some pictures). So, here’s a preview of some of the images I took of one adorable, gorgeous baby, “Sydney”.

I will share with you, shooting newborns is not easy! I have even more respect for people who do this professionally. It was quite the challenge for me. A completely new experience and requires you to adapt quickly with the situation(s) and be completely flexible. I’ll post the whole flickr gallery at this link, when it’s ready. For now here’s a sneak peek.

I might have made a few people upset by saying it, but it’s a topic worth debating. And since no one in the newspaper industry has figured it out, perhaps I’m right. I’m talking about one of the answers I shared when I was at Free State Social (social media conference). The question was prompted to a panel local, people I would classify as, local social media content creators; Zena Weist, Shea Sylvia, myself and Tony Botello (Tony’s Kansas City).

My thesis?

There is a need for unverified information.

In an era in which, Perez Hilton, Gawker, MacRumors, Techmeme, and many other unverified information niche websites exist, clearly there is a thirst for “publish first, check the sources later” information. After all, we Americans love our gossip. Furthermore, there is a back and forth debate between bloggers and journalists about verifying your information (the j-school golden rule, “check the source”).

Take for example, local blog, Tony’s Kansas City (Tony Botello). It averages about 28k+ unique visits a month, and has a higher than most blog post to comments ratio. He’s created a platform the other news organizations in the community do not have. It’s a platform to publish both verified and “rumor” news. Tony can discuss the things traditional media haven’t verified yet. He can even play “Eminem” and say thing things everyone is thinking and talking about but no news organization would dare to report it. Even @KrisKetz, a local TV news reporter/anchor has gone on record saying he, and others in the traditional news community are often influenced or lead to stories from Tony’s blog. One could argue, if you want a truly “breaking” news story in Kansas City, you’ll likely find it on Tony’s blog first not KMBC’s website.

So why is it that news organizations are not embracing the “publish first, check the sources later” mantra? I mean, after all, aren’t they the ones running the TV commercials that say “breaking news” and flying around in helicopters telling you they are “your fastest news source”? I bet if I was sitting next to @KrisKetz, @sarahjclark, @whitneymathews, @kcklo63, @ellynangelotti or any other classically trained newsy, they would likely tell you the reason why they don’t “publish first, check the sources later” is because they must maintain their credibility and public trust (otherwise all is lost). Yet, in retrospect, you can point to last year’s Iranian protests, where mainstream news had no choice but to run publish first and broadcast the YouTube videos or Twitter messages they were seeing come through like everyone else. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t hear any cries or outrage from the public when CNN and The Huffington Post were doing this? The public had no issues when reporters provided the disclaimer they didn’t know the source, and it was just found on YouTube.

I’m an eternal optimist. So perhaps there’s a way both bloggers and journalists can publish and provide a disclaimer they haven’t verified sources for the story? During the Free State Social conference, I came up with an impromptu idea of creating a universal “badge” system that would be used for both bloggers and online news organizations. Essentially, this would provide a visual way for both bloggers and journalists to indicate if a story has been verified to the reader. It would require that standards and conventions in the meaning of each badge would be community and industry defined. The point of the badge is for reader to quickly know if the story has been verified. This system could be multi-tiered to indicate the degree credibility for the information cited (keep in mind, my idea of a “verification badge system” isn’t anything new or unfamiliar to many of us. Twitter.com user accounts and eBay both have verification systems in place already that are successful).

So what do you think? Is there a need for unverified information? Would you rather your local news organizations embrace the publish first approach? Is my “badge system” a stupid idea? Or does it provide the news a “comfortable” way to publish rumor news?

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment.
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I’m putting my new Canon S90 through the tests and I continue to be impressed. This weekend I took with me to a backyard BBQ birthday party. While my friends were lighting the candles on the cookie birthday cake, I snapped this shot (below). Perhaps it’s just me, but I was really impressed with the low-light capture. No flash was used and it was my first shot with the camera you can really tell the difference with an f/2.0 aperture.

One of the few magazines I still subscribe to is Wired (cover-to-cover it has great content). Last night, while reading the “letters to the editor” section, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if magazines let you @reply on Twitter to an article? Perhaps each article could have specific short #reference codes to include in your Tweet? It would be pretty slick to pickup a printed issue of Wired, and have a dedicated page with the best @replies from the previous issue. I’d certainly consider following people who sent smart @replies on Twitter. It would even add a new dimension to “letters to the editor” that doesn’t exist today, which is allowing readers to connect to other readers.

Let’s say you take it a step further, magazine websites could aggregated Tweet @replies in real-time to the articles. Imagine clicking a tab on an article, labeled “Tweet Comments”. Or make it even easier for readers to submit their @Tweet responses online by giving them an open text box to comment, and upon submit, the website would send the @Tweet reply and automatically insert the #reference code into their Tweet for them.

Now that would be cool. What do you think?
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The “People Who Rock!” blog post series is dedicated to recognizing those individuals who IMHO, just plain rock at life. This is my personal way of telling them “thank you”, but more importantly giving them proper recognition and the chance for you to get to know them (and connect with them if you’d like).

Rebecca ‘Peters’ Haas

Rebecca and I met randomly at a wedding with no formal introduction from anyone. She has her own photography business. When we first met, we both realized we shared a lot of the same interests (we’re both geeks), so I handed her my card, and we told each other we’d keep in touch (…to my surprise we actually DID keep in touch) Rebecca is one of those incredible people that when you talk to her, she’s so attentive about what you have to say, she makes you feel like there is no one else in the room.

What I value most and have learned about being friends with Rebecca is the right way in being “helpful”. She’s exhibits this unique unconditional behavior of knowing how be helpful and supportive to others. It’s real and authentic. Not contrived. She really cares. There’s a difference. This lesson she’s taught me has really shaped me in understanding that sincere random acts of kindness are what real friends do for each other.

Professionally, Rebecca is incredibly talented at what she does. She’s run her own photography business for over 11 years and is one of Kansas City’s most sought after wedding + portrait photographers. And for good reason. Ask anyone who has done a photo shoot with her, the difference is she cares about people. She cares to actually get to know you, and have fun.

You’ve got to check out her work on her blog. And if your in need of a great photographer, be sure to look her up.

When I get in my car and drive, there’s this on-going, nagging, question in my head. And I can’t find the answer to it. It seems like there’s some simple, sure-fire formula that’s being followed. Perhaps you can help me? (keep reading)

I’ve noticed that BMW, Toyota or Lexus car manufacturers are able to sustain compelling designs for much longer periods of time than all other car makers (e.g. Ford, Dodge). Take for instance a Toyota Camry or the BMW 3-Series. These car models last keep their same general design for at least 5 years before doing a wholesale redesign. Each year, the modifications to German or Japanese car models are to just “tweak” minor components of their design (e.g. headlights, or an edge here and there, but generally the overall design stays the same).

That said, my question is; How do Japanese and German automakers create longer lasting, aesthetically compelling and relevant exterior design, more so than all other manufacturers?

They manage to keep relevant with their designs for a sustained period of time much longer than all other car makers (in my opinion). I’m really intrigued to understand why and how this works. When I see a 7-10 year-old-BMW or Toyota drive-by, it’s still generally a great looking car. Yet, the Ford or Chrysler seem to change their car designs very frequently and drastically- and the older models just don’t hold the same compelling design they did when first released.

Why does this happen? How do car makers make sustainable, relevant, desired designed cars from the aesthetics perspective? What principles of design are they following when they design a car? Why is it a 10-year old Toyota designed car looks better and more compelling than a 10-year old Ford?

What I’m really most interested in is learning from the sustainable design techniques that are being employed when car manufacturers are drafting the design of a car. Are there basic tenets or principles of design they use that could potentially be applied to other industries, like website design?

Anyone know the answer? It would certainly relieve some tension If you don’t know the answer, or don’t have a good guess- considering sharing your favorite design tips, rules, fundamentals or tenets applicable to your industry. Is there a basic construct you follow every execution when designing? If so, what?

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I’ve purchased a new toy. My old school 2007 point-n-shoot camera has been officially retired, and it was time for an upgrade. My newest toy is the Canon S90. BTW, I keep an updated “living blog post” in which I share with all of you the tools and websites I like use. After doing a bunch of research on point-n-shoots, the Canon S90 was the best upgrade for me given the fact I love my DSLR, the Canon 40D and the manual controls are very similar but packaged in a much more compact size.

This weekend was my first chance to get out and play with the Canon S90. I went to a friend’s wedding + golfing this weekend and had a chance to put it through some tests. You can see the photo results below or on flickr (here and here). So far, I’m impressed. This camera is powerful given it’s size. BUT it’s not a camera that the average person can just pickup and start using. However, if you’re familiar with the Canon DSLR controls, a lot of the features and controls are very similar. Here’s a few of my favorites from the pics I took this weekend: