Want to add a little something extra to that camera you always carry around with you? My good friend Gary Tyler McLeod just launched his new company Great State Strap Co. which features rugged camera straps handmade by leatherworkers in Portland, OR. They come in an assortment of colors and lengths. I have personally been using the Bracelet Strap that just wraps around my wrist for my Contax T2 and I love it. Ditch that ugly plastic thing you have been running with your camera and pick up one of these good looking durable leather straps from Great State Strap Co.

More pictures and a full press release after the jump.

Introducing:
Great State Strap Co.
Exceptional, rugged camera straps designed by photographers, handmade by leatherworkers in Portland, Oregon.

Story:
After searching all the mountains and all the valleys for the camera strap we saw in our dreams, it was settled – we would make it ourselves. Determined to combine utility with poise, we created the Boot Strap: a flagship product of Great State Strap Company. Because no photographer is the same, we then created the Trail Strap, the Tramp Strap, the Frank Strap and the Bracelet Strap. As we never stop dreaming, this list will never stop growing.

Adjustable:
Any photographer will agree, the ability to adjust the length of your camera strap without removing it from your body can be invaluable. Great State offers this option in three models: the Boot Strap, the Trail Strap, the Frank Strap.

Moderate:
Inspried by minimalism and function, our handmade designs and minimal packaging exemplify Great State’s celebration of moderation.

Colors:
Each design is offered in an all natural pine wax blend or a choice of 5 fine hand-dyed colorfast finishes.

Find Us:
Shop online: greatstatestrapco.com
Lookbook: greatstatestrapco.tumblr.com
Facebook: facebook.com/GreatStateStrapCo
e-mail: info@greatstatestrapcompany.com

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So not too long ago I started up this photo project called Shot and Shared. At the end of the winter, my friend Liam Gallagher asked me if I wanted to do a photo swap with him over the summer because he was missing Southern California and wanted to see photos from my summer experiences. The idea clicked and I ran with it. I decided I definitely wanted to do it, but on a much larger scale. So Liam and  I invited a bunch of photographers to get in on it. There are about 35 photographers involved, most of them related to snowboarding. About every other week we are sending photos from our summer via snail mail. The project runs from Memorial day to Labor Day, and at the end each person will end up with an amazing and diverse collection of photos. The plan is to bring all the photos together in the end and create a book and/or artshow. Liam put together a blog where we have all been posting shots from past summers or shots that we aren’t mailing from this summer. Keep an eye on it, people tend to post stuff daily. I have also been putting up a profile or two a week of different people involved in the project.

Check out my Buoloco interview about the project after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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On April 24th COMUИE launched Drop City with “Experiments in Occultism and Parapsychology”. Inside recycled steel shipping containers featured artwork by Corey Smith, Jason Lee Parry, Andrew Kuykendall, Jimmy Fontaine, Hunter Longe, Shelby Menzel, Nathan and Noah Rice, Ray Gordon, Noel Boyt, Danielle DaFoe, Keelan Shilling, Ben Brough and more…

Drinks were free, the food was free, and the visual stimulation was free…. and who doesn’t like free stuff? But if you weren’t dressed in head-to-toe black, you might have been considered an outcast at this event (half joking). Big thanks to Corey and the rest of COMUИE for hosting the party.

Great show… good times… more shots after the jump.

Noah Rice

Jimmy Fontaine

Clifford Lidell

Noel Boyt

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Rome is doing another live Twitter interview this Friday… this time with designer Shawn Dumont. This guy is responsible for the design of a lot of the stuff that gets pumped out of Rome including gloves, art on the outerwear and bags, tees, the Postermania graphics… the list goes on. Anyway, hop on twitter on Friday, type your question to Dumont and end it with #Romedesign and he’ll answer em. They are going to pick a random person out of the entries to be hooked up with a 2011 outerwear kit that the man designed himself. So fire away, and make em juicy. For more info go here.

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The other week two of the guys I work with and I took half the day off and went up to Venice for an “inspiration field trip” to see this art show about the evolution and art of skateboarding in California. I didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be pretty interesting. There were these 4 older ladies who were volunteering as the tour guides, which I thought was amazing. The lady that gave us the tour (in the picture above) was so enthusiastic, but obviously didn’t know too much about skateboarding. I thought it was refreshing to get a tour from someone on the outside… not a know it all that was just rambling off facts about who rode this board and who they were sponsored by at the time. Instead it was more like, “Can you believe this kid glued a pot leaf to their skateboard?! Those rebels!” It was less about naming names, and more about the art and culture behind it. Which I liked a lot. Anyway, enough of my rambling. The show is up till May 30th, so if you are in the area check it out. More info here.  Tons of photos from the show after the jump.

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Updates in the photography section of my site under the “people” and “other” categories. Take a look.

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Last fall I made a trip out to Berlin, Germany with Nikita as the North American winner of their photoshoot contest. This was my first time to Europe, and it was an incredible trip, with an awesome group of people. We bounced around to interesting spots throughout Berlin doing photoshoots. Between shoots the incredible Ben Fee shot some videos….. here are a few from the trip.

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A buddy of mine, Mike Paddock, the art director for hardgoods over at Rome Snowboards, started up an interesting personal project. In an effort to keep his creative wheels spinning, he began this thing he calls “Do Something Everyday”. Paddock bought a 4″x 6″ sketchbook and and plans to fill a page everyday with what he considers “visual ramblings”. It’s something every designer/artist wishes they could do, create something new every day, but the task is more daunting than you would expect. Especially when art is your profession, it is hard to find time for personal projects. So hats off to Paddock for his commitment.  Here are a few favorites he sent over from his book so far. Keep an eye on Rome’s blog for more posts from Paddock and the rest of the people behind Rome.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

For most people driving across the country once is a pretty big feat. But within the past few months I’ve had to do it 3 times. I took a temporary job out in California over the summer and drove there from Vermont. After three months in CA I decided to head back to Vermont. Then a few months later I was offered a full time job from the same company in California so I took it and made the drive yet again. Here is the video from my first trip out. I made the drive by myself clocking about 15 hours a day.

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