When Apple first announced the iPad, I reserved mine the day they open up the reservation/pre-order site.  As a photographer I saw the iPad as the perfect device to show potential clients my work.  Up until that point I had been using my iPhone to show off my work.  The iPhone is a great tool, but to use it as a photo viewer for clients is like showing them a bunch of 4x6 prints (only smaller).  When I finally got the iPad I saw it as much more.  I now find myself reading more of my trade magazines and sites.  I have also used it to show current clients work that was actually being done at that very location and know of several other photogs doing the same thing.  One thing I never considered was an idea that a company by the name of Flipboard is doing,  Social Media as a magazine.  Imagine seeing all your social networks in one place but not like TweetDeck and HootSuite do it.  I’m talking about actually flipping pages on your iPad as if you were reading a magazine in Zinio.  The only difference is this magazine is full of live feeds from your friends, trade associations and anything else you may follow on Facebook and Twitter.  They are also linking other forms of social media and allowing people to added connect of their own.  I thought this had to be one of the best ideas since the iPad itself and I wasn’t alone.  Flipboard had so many people trying to sign up for their service they couldn’t keep up.  They actually had to go to a reservation system just to get a slot to sign up.

I have been using Flipboard for about a week now and I have to say it’s better than I was expecting.   I have always hated scrolling through my facebook feed, and don’t get me started on the twitter feeds.  Flipboard takes these feeds and pulls them in to a visually pleasing display of everything you follow.  Photos from your friends in Facebook show up like they would in a Magazine.  Stuff your friends say show up like quotes in an article.  Now Twitter….. when someone posts a link to a website it actually pulls the first bit of that article so you can start reading it.  Ever clicked on a link only to find you have no interest in the article?  I sure have, and this gives me a quick glance without going anywhere.

Because Flipboard uses your network feeds, the news is filtered to what you like.  If your like me you’ll find you have more news than you have time to read.  Best of all…… Flipboard is free and you can download it now from the App Store.  Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Flipboard [iTunes]

Flipboard product page [Flipboard]

Have you ever wanted to make a commercial or some kind of video but don’t want to buy all the fancy equipment you think it takes to make one? Ever seen that Levi’s ad with they guy walking across America wearing Levi’s jeans? It’s actually pretty easy to make these ads and you probably won’t have to spend a dime on new equipment.

This video shows how a few guys did it in 14 days with just one camera, a tripod, a protractor, a string and some simple math.

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My little buddy loves the water already. Although we have had him in the pool and up at the lake already, today was his first underwater visit. Here is a video a shot of this venture.  I hope to get some photos of him in the next week or so. When I do take those photos, I will video the entire shoot and post that here too.

We packed up the gear on Saturday and headed to Mad River Mountain for their annual Swamp Stomp.  For those of you that are not sure, the Swamp Stomp is an event where they dig a pit at the bottom of one of the slopes and fill it with water.

This years pit was 150 ft long and about 12 ft wide.  It was so cool to see these guys (and girls) come tearing down the slope and skip across the water.  A lot of them made it all the way, some of them fell short.  One thing is for sure, it was a blast.  While out there, Greg decided to test out how well his D300 is sealed to the elements.  Looks as if Nikon did a good job because his camera just had to be dried off.  It was back up and working just fine later that day.  I wish I could say the same thing for Greg.  He got a really bad sun burn.  I got some sun too, but mine just gave me a reddish face with a funny hat tan line.

Here are a few more pictured from the event.  As you can see even the ones who didn’t make it made for great photos.