Click image above to see the full poster.

My kids were planning a yard sale to make a few dollars from their old toys. I thought that a LEGO themed poster would attract the attention of kids on their way to or from school.

Using free Lego Alphabet in vector blocks and this nice set of vintage toys, I configured the words BOYS TOYS and added the gradient fills to make it fun. Then I realized that we had a lot of really great books that might attract the attention of parents – so I added that. Finally, I colored the vintage car toy to match the color scheme and added the informational type and map (made of lego blocks).

Our target audience was kids at the nearby gradeschool. So my sons and I went on a wild posting at night, and - taking a lesson from big tobacco marketers - made sure to place our posters down at kid eye level. We also posted online versions of the flyer to neighborhood parental social networks.

The result? Our “Boys Toys” yard sale was a huge success. And it didn’t hurt to provide free donuts!

Feel free to download the tabloid Adobe Illustrator CS6 file to change as needed for your yard sale.

OMG this problem has been making me insane. Finally, solved my problems this morning – after 4 months of grief.

My three main symptoms:
Mac Mail – Mail Quit Unexpectedly at least 2x daily
Mac Mail – Cannot add contacts to Address Book
Address Book – Does not save new addresses

The story: I have been having little problems since the day I got my new MacBook Pro. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried looking up solutions online, rebuilding permissions with disc utility, deleting preferences, etc. I even tried rebuilding my entire OSx account. Nothing worked.

My theory is that home folder permissions were corrupted when I used the migration utility to transfer my main account from a work laptop.

The solution:
Reset home directory permissions and ACLs

Do this:

1. Restart your computer
2. Press and hold the option key after the chime
3. Boot from the Mac OSx Recovery partition
4. Launch the Terminal app from the “” menu
5. Type in “resetpassword” and hit return (all one word)
6. Password Reset Utility launches
7. Select the volume containing the user account
8. Select the user account from the popup list
9. Click the “Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs” button in the lower right.
10. When it is done, restart your computer.

Then go verify that you can indeed save new contacts to Address Book, and that you can add contacts to address book from Mail.

Another grade school photo project – literally jumping on the Hadouken-ing internet meme. Featuring Mrs. Polanco’s Third Grade Class.

Last week photographer Shaun Lang and I took on my son’s third-grade class to see if we could make some fun Hadouken-ing images and teach them a little about digital advertising and photography.

Hadouken (translated from Japanese as “surge fist”), is a special punch in the game Street Fighter. Hadouken-ing began with Japanese girls in their school uniforms, posing for super hero-like frozen action shots, and is now taking place at this moment all over the planet on Twitter and on Instagram.

Our original plan was to shoot the entire class of 25 in a semi-circle that we marked within the crop of the 28 mm lens. This was way too many people, so we cut it in half. Then we divided the class in two and took a bunch of group jumping shots.

We used a tripod and two strobes to help add some light to the faces. Every kid individually got to do a “Hadouken” pose, to later be added later to one of the jumping shots. We even pulled off a few shots (like this one of Miles blasting me over the volleyball net) 100% in camera.

Finally, we shot some additional foreground and panorama so we could make it epic. This is my sixth grade school photo project, and once again, the kids really brought it. Their high energy really translates well in these shots. And it didn’t hurt at all to have some cheerleader moms to help get everyone to jump on three.

Today I visited the class to share final artwork via a big screen Keynote projection. I showed each step of the process, from concepting, casting, pre-pro, shooting, choosing film, compositing images, and final color. Each student was given an archival poster print of themselves with a “Hadouken!” graphic.

If you are looking for the rest of the images, there are several versions for you to choose from. Feel free to download and share with your friends and family. Share some with me while you’re at it.

Did you enjoy this photo project?

My subject’s name was Julia, and she comes from Rio. She was wearing polka dots and glasses, while looking at her mobile phone.

She looks as though she was reading a text message. Who could it be from? She certainly looks a bit serious. I translated her thoughts to Portuguese, “Oh, não. Não ele, de novo!”

After 36 hours my Selfless Portrait moved into the number one “most popular” slot and remains so till this day. Thanks, no doubt, to all of Julia’s and my FB friends for liking.

A couple of my friends did Selfless Portraits recently, and it inspired me to do the same. Very relaxing, really.

My subject’s name was Julia, and she comes from Rio. She was wearing polka dots and glasses, while looking at her mobile phone. Don’t ask me how, but her index finger can really do that position.

She looks as though she was reading a text message. Who could it be from? She certainly looks a bit serious. I translated her thoughts to Portuguese, “Oh, não. Não ele, de novo!”

Click on the image above for a series of images, including the original photo.

If you do or receive a Selfless Portrait, please send me a link!

UPDATE: I had to stalk Julia via Facebook to inform her about the artwork. Apparently Selfless Portraits didn’t notify her at all?!? Crazy, I know. Turns out she loves it. Fun.

UPDATE: Cool. After 36 hours my Selfless Portrait moved into the number one “most popular” slot. Thanks, no doubt, to all of my FB friends for liking.

Moontoast Social Ads – like this one I created for Kia Sorento – show up in the Facebook timeline or Twitter feeds. Is this the future of social advertisement? Supposedly function in iOS as well, but I have yet to see that work.

Click image above to see the Moontoast ad.