Most recently, Victor quit his rewarding job to pursue risk takers & world changers for a year and a half.  The first image is my favorite and sums up his departure from normalcy to an unwritten tomorrow.  These are Victor’s words on The Leap Year Project:

I began sharing the idea of Leap Year Project (LYP) with people and asking them, what would you do if YOU could take a risk to make something better? Their responses were incredible. They ranged from things they would do to better their family, their vocation, a certain cause, group of people, etc. When a friend mentioned that 2012 is actually a leapyear, I began to wonder how — and if – there was a way to invite people around the globe to actually take their own risk to make something better, share what they are learning, and tell their stories.

So, I have left a job I loved to learn and take my own risk (the-prop.org) but this project is not about what I have done, am doing, or even will do. People have taken far greater risks for good, and there are people who will come up with more amazing risks than I can even imagine. I simply hope that this year creates the space for you to take your risk—small or large, short or long.  I hope that LYP becomes a part of how you tell your story, motivate others, and—more than anything—change your life for the better.

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Check out LeapYearProject.org.

Check out Victor asking Sean Astin about his leap.

Leap Year on Twitter

Leap Year on Facebook

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Kevin:  Rory, look at your wife and smile.

Rory:  Oh, that’s easy.

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Biography sessions take place in homes and places of meaning.  When place and story is injected into a photograph, the value of that image rises beyond just what a person looks like.  My one regret for my time with author/speaker Francis Chan was that that although we have great portraits in Neue Magazine, we were far from his California home in Pittsburgh and the setting was not a part of HIS story.

Those are Rory’s books, that is Rory’s sofa, and Rory is looking and smiling directly at his wife.  That is a photograph with meaning.

Thanks Pam & Scott for choosing me for your wedding.  Thanks Kerinsa Marie for photographing alongside me.

Click here to view Part I

When the ceremony was over, we walked outside and the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come through the clouds.  Patience paid off, and we had a great 10 minutes in the sun at Chautauqua Park, coming up in the next post.

Pam & Scott’s ceremony took place at the historic First United Methodist Church of Boulder in the gorgeous downtown at the base of the Flatirons.

Click here to view Part II

These b&w images were meant to compliment James Christianson’s color work that evening.  He mostly shot on medium format with the Contax 645 & Pentax 67, check out his sick images here.  James has been a close friend for years now, and shooting alongside him is a dream.  I shot these images on the Canon EOS 3 with Ilford Delta 100 using my 35mm f1.4.  Coming in the near future, a Super 8 film of their engagement, also entirely in black & white.

The Prop is an organization that partners creatives with local non-profits.  This spring we put on a Prop art show at The Space Gallery on Santa Fe’s Art District to specifically benefit The Bridge Project.  I contributed work from my 2010 photo road trip, entitled Intimate America.

A few of us artists at the Prop event were asked back to participate in The Bridge Project’s annual fundraising Gala this past week.  Highlights included speeches from Mayor Hickenlooper, CBS Denver’s anchor Jim Benemann, a silent auction, live music, dancing, and delicious food.

I don’t share any of this to brag, but to #1, bring attention to these great non-profits and #2, to encourage you to find some creative ways to invest your time and talents into causes greater than your own.

Participating Artists:

Kevin Von Qualen – http://www.kevinvonqualen.com

Jake Weidmann – http://www.jakeweidmann.com

Pat Ting – http://www.tingteas.com

Candace Shepard - facebook.com/candaceshepardfineart

Steve Stanton – www.stevestantonphotography.com

While I was photographing Pat’s ceramics, he began tinkering on his wife’s piano, seeing if he could remember prior years of piano lessons.  It was the perfect background music while viewing his work, so I began recording.  You are listening to Pat playing the piano as I photographed his ceramics.

BIOGRAPHY sessions move beyond the digital medium to sharing stories and presenting work in a traditional analog manner…the book.  Books are made for each BIOGRAPHY session containing photographs, quotations, and the story.

Pat’s website:  http://www.tingteas.com

Click here for Part I

Click ‘play’ below to hear the entire 6 minute interview.

Pat - There is a lot of leeway in surgery that you just don’t get in the visual arts…If I was, for example, a professor and had to train residents, I would really require them to take some kind of visual arts course…With visual arts, you pick up on things, you see things, that we’re not trained to see as surgeons…Some of the real details with putting tissues together and looking for abnormalities, I think those visual cues you can actually develop in painting or doing sculpture or woodwork. So I would really want my students to do that.

Pat’s website:  http://www.tingteas.com

Thanks to Pat for sharing twice, as I forgot to hit ‘record’ the first time…

Click here for Part II

Click here for Part I

The gritty and exaggerated grainy look was done in camera by shooting Ilford Delta 3200…an incredible high-speed black & white film.

Click here for Part II