StephenEmlund.com Blog

Portraits of a Great Man

Stephen Emlund — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:33:52 +0000

After meeting Rebecca, my wife, I soon got to meet her great family. Her grandpa enjoys working on sewing machines and has a really cool shop where he does his work. Rebecca and I were in his shop learning about different sewing machines he has and I realized that this would the perfect time to take some portraits. I wanted to capture a few portraits that showed the man in his realm – his workshop. The third photo really captures the moments we spent in his shop. Enjoy!

You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Photo: Expressive Drummer

Stephen Emlund — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:52:52 +0000

Photo: Jazz Drummer

Photo: Jazz Drummer

Stephen Emlund — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:35:57 +0000

I’ve posted this photo on the blog already, but after seeing him perform again, I was compelled to make it black/white instead of color. Enjoy!

2011 Year in Review

Stephen Emlund — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:06:16 +0000

Married Rebecca, my beautiful wife
Began working from home once a week
Starting using a budget and paid off 6 debts using the Dave Ramsey ‘debt snowball’ plan
Grew Creative Improv 18% this year and 48% in the last 2 years
Continued to hone my photography skills (really understanding exposure, aperture, etc)
Grew my stock photography portfolios and began earning money from stock sales
Started selling audio files on AudioJungle – recordings of my saxophone playing – Check them out!
Featured in the Envato Graphic Designer Bundle (with this photo)
Featured in an interview on Envato Notes

A few years ago, Seth Godin challenged his readers to think about what they ‘shipped’ the previous year. So here’s what I ‘shipped’ in 2011 (and this doesn’t include my full-time job – just freelance work):

81 stock photos
10 websites
7 HTML emails
5 logos
1 motion graphics piece (featured at a large tradeshow)

Most popular posts of 2011

Stephen Emlund — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:57:31 +0000

2011 brought 1,375 unique visitors to my blog—that is a 61% growth from 2010. I’m grateful to everyone who took a moment to check out my blog this year, ‘like’ a post, comment or share the things I post here. Thank you!

I thought it would be interesting to check out some statistics for what the most popular posts were this year. In order – starting with most popular….

1. What widows and orphans really are

A brief description of what widows and orphans are in terms of typography. I quoted the ‘typography bible’, The Elements of Typographic Style to support my premise.

2. Poster design

A small showcase of a few posters I have designed – from 2008

3. David Carson style type design

A showcase of a few typographic exercises I completed while in college. This post features a David Carson style of design – really pushing the typography. I liked to call it my ‘make my professor happy’ era of designing.

4. Political impact of design on people

Here I discuss how design for politicians and political movements can negatively impact people. I discuss the very old Daisy commercial along with Sarah Palin and Barack Obama’s political design choices.

5. Designers don’t make things look pretty

I discuss the common phrase I hear; “You can make it look all pretty“. The fact is, designers communicate visually, not just make things look pretty.

Line and Shape in Nature

Stephen Emlund — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:23:27 +0000

These photos are a result of a photo exercise I took on. I recently read on a blog that at some point, photographers should try this:

Go to a location, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, and spend 15 minutes there. Spend the first 10 minutes observing your surroundings. Don’t put the camera to your eye or take photos. Look for interesting subject matter, composition, line, shape, etc that can be photographed. Then spend the next 5 minutes shooting photos of what you just observed.

I went to my backyard and tried it. It was amazing the things I saw. I pushed to focus on interesting lines and shapes and their relationships.

This one shows the fence sort of extending on via it’s shadow. I liked how you see all fence, and not shadow. I like that sort of illusion.

This one is all about intersections and line… and of course rule of thirds.

My favorite – where there is a strong relationship between the 3 flower pots and the 3 circles on the concrete. I love the design aesthetic of the 3 circles in the concrete paired with regular, old flower pots – but yet they relate because the concrete circles were created from the pots.

Keith Carter once said…

Stephen Emlund — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:33:24 +0000

You can’t really say, visually, any more than you think and you can’t think any more deeply than the sum total of what you read.

—Keith Carter, photographer

No related posts.

Leo Burnett once said…

Stephen Emlund — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:20:55 +0000

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.

—Leo Burnett

No related posts.

Diptych Photography

Stephen Emlund — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:45:35 +0000

Photography, how I love thee.

Sunset in Fredericktown

Stephen Emlund — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:18:26 +0000

We were recently in Fredericktown, MO to visit my mom for the holidays. This is a shot I took of a pretty cool sunset one evening. I literally took this photo right off the camera with no color correction or enhancement.