I have been a big fan of Xavier Rudd since I studied in Australia 3 years ago this fall. His music is inspirational, and gives off good vibes while doing so. I was bummed I didn’t get to see him while in the country where he originates from, but I finally got the chance last night in NYC at Irving Plaza. I’ve heard his live shows are like no other.. I certainly wasn’t disppointed. We were up close for the entire show (which was awesome) so I got some nice photos and a video to give you a sense of his energy.

I’ve been getting to shoot some pretty sick loft apartments in NYC lately for some high end realtors. A pretty cool job indeed. The views on some of the spaces are just incredible. Here is a panoramic I shot while on location… 65th street looking west with Central Park in the near distance.

One of the best parts about what I do is getting to see and learn about a whole bunch of places and people. The last few days were spent in Holland, Michigan shooting to third and final segment for Dwell’s color series, The Full Spectrum. If you haven’t heard of Herman Miller, there’s a good chance you’ve seen or even sat in a piece of their furniture. We were able to get a full tour of their facilities, everywhere from their design house to archives to manufacturing warehouse. I was a bit blown away by he company and the little town in Western Michigan as a whole.

We had full access to shoot where ever we liked, which is always great. I ended up taking a lift for one shot to get an aerial timelapse of the warehouse. Another cool part about the company and the area we were in is that all the buildings are built and operated in the most efficient manner, most of them being LEED certified (including the sick hotel we stay at).

The past few days have honestly felt like a mini vacation, getting to explore an awesome little area of the country that I would have probably not have found myself at if it had not been for this job. A job that I can hardly consider work. The edit should be up on Dwell sometime in September.

this is an excerpt from an article I read today from Spencer Fry:

In my social life, I’ve only been in love once and it didn’t work out in the end due to long distance and bad timing. In business, I’ve been in love twice. Once with TypeFrag and now a second time with Carbonmade. Just as in your social life, when you meet someone great you get this gut feeling and your stomach fills up with butterflies, the same is true when an idea clicks with you. You fall in love. Your stomach churns and you can’t sleep at night, all because you want to work on the idea so much — the equivalent being wanting to be with someone all the time.

If you’re thinking “I’m not really into you”, then you should pack away your thoughts and wait for the next idea. If you’re at all successful developing your idea then you’ll be fully involved with it for at least five to seven years. You don’t want to be invested in something that you don’t care about enough to commit to for that long. And most importantly, you won’t be able to give an idea your best work and attention if you’re not in love. Your relationship will suffer and, ultimately, die out.

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I wouldn’t claim to have that many great ideas, but I do have enough interests right now that I couldn’t possibly focus all my attention into just one. I think the thought of committing several years of your life into an idea is something that hasn’t really hit me yet. I’ve dabbled in a few things, most of which I project lasting for a few months. Of course I have dreams of these ideas growing beyond that, but none of them have been something that I would be “in love” with 7-10 years down the road. I think when the right idea comes along, it will indeed feel right.

I am in the middle of shooting a new series for Dwell called “The Full Spectrum.” Thus far we have been up to Connecticut to visit the Albers Foundation and a day in SoHo in the clothing shop Seize sur Vingt. I have loved the visuals and style of Gary Nadeau’s films and it’s been awesome to shoot and collaborate along side him. Check out the flicks below and be sure to check out the last episode coming soon..

James Jurney | Seize sur Vingt

The Full Spectrum for Dwell | Josef Albers

Here is some of the recent work I’ve been doing with @garynadeau.. great to be doing work for bigger and bigger clients

InStyle Fall 2010 Trends

Total Beauty “How-to” Hair Trends

If the best talent were paired with the best opportunity, you wouldn’t succeed unless you loved what you did

A great article by Scott Belsky (Founder/CEO Behance network) about Creative Meritocracy in today’s industries. Worth a look here.

Check out these timelapses I shot for @garynadeau’s new short film, “Pizza Verdi.” With this stunning view it wasnt too hard to capture some pretty incredible images.

I was lucky enough to get myself an advanced copy of Tony Hsieh’s new book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Tony is CEO of the online shoe store, Zappos. I hadn’t known much about Zappos previous to reading the book so I wasn’t biased in any way. My experience went beyond the pages of the book. Midway through my reading, I placed my first order online at Zappos.com. What I experienced as an actual customer was exactly what was described to me in Delivering Happiness.

I am an avid reader when it comes to any book related to being in business or being an entrepreneur. Some are simply a bio of how a person got to where they are today. Others are more of a how-to, listing items that you can implement into your own business. This one falls somewhere in between. I always find it refreshing to learn where someone came from, learning how they went from someone like me to running a million dollar business. Tony does not linger in this area too long as he moves on to the greater approach to Zappos later in the book. Zappos is all about customer service. There are countless stories in which I highlighted throughout the book, hoping to retell in my post here. However, I now realize that there are far too many that I’ve liked to attempt to reproduce here. I will only speak from my personal experience. While placing my first order through Zappos, I simply tweeted out that I had ordered new shoes, and I was upgraded to free overnight shipping. Not only that, but I was placed in there VIP program, which entitles me to such shipping priority for future orders. I felt kind of special. I told all my friends about how easy it was to order, and that if I didn’t like my shoes, I could mail them back (with free shipping of course!). I didn’t get how they weren’t loosing money with giving me a lifetime of free shipping. Well, through the 244 pages that I continued to read, it became quite clear. Doing the little things that can actually make a customer stop and say, wow, I never would have expected someone to do that for me.

I believe that is what I got most from Delivering Happiness and the entire Zappos brand as a whole. You know what the #1 Core Value of Zappos is? Deliver WOW through service. If you want to be enlightened on how you can possibly transform your own business, pick up a copy of the book here. Even better.. as if I wasn’t wowed enough when I was sent a free advanced copy of the book just for being a blogger- I was sent two. One for me and one to give to you. Email me (jasonkoontz4@gmail.com) and I’ll send you your own copy. Tony’s words will provide insight and inspiration.. you can’t afford to pass this one up.

Couldn’t be more excited for the World Cup to kick off tomorrow! We will surely see futbol at its best on the biggest stage in the world. I made a schedule of all the Group Stage games for you desktop. Download your own here.

Note: I gathered images from around the web, no rights reserved.