I meant to do this a lot sooner. In fact I had planned on starting work on this at the beginning of December so I could be on the ball at the end of the year and have it posted the last week. Well life took over and it just wasn’t possible.

2009 was a big year both personally and professionally. I really felt I stepped things up this year and expanded the way I see and make photographs. I was blessed with a couple of great stories and many opportunities to make great images, which you can only feel blessed about. As strong as I started out I felt I started to lose my spark the last three months of the year and didn’t feel productive. There are several extenuating circumstances that caused this but more than anything I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy living in South Dakota anymore and I wasn’t happy working at the Journal. I love the people I got to work with. I loved being on staff with Ryan and Kristina, who were behind me, pushing me everyday to be better, but something was missing. It was time to move on, staying would have been detrimental both to myself and to the paper. After some soul searching and talks with my better half I decided it was time to move and complete my bachelors, if for no other reason than finishing what I started. So I up and got rid of nearly everything I owned, packed my car with the rest and said goodbye to everything I know. Onto new adventures, new locations and new people to make photos of.

I logged a lot of miles in 2009 and spent more than my fair share of time behind a windshield as I traveled all over the state of South Dakota, into Yellowstone country, up into Montana and down south to the Colorado border. I spent a few unforgettable days in New Orleans as well. Each a life experience. Some fun and unforgettable, some to watch the union of two people and one very real reminder that life is short. Too short to not chase your dreams. Too short to not take chances. Too short to not live the way you want to. Too short to care about what other people think, we are all beautiful in our own way and have our own story to tell. I’ve always thought this way but it took the untimely death of my cousin and his son to make me truly realize how short life can be and how you need to seize every moment and make it your own. This is me taking chances. This is me chasing my dreams. I want to be the best and I want to see the world and share it one frame at a time. It’s not going to be easy but nothing in life worth having comes easy.

Most importantly this year I spent time with the most amazing girl I’ve ever met, who supports me chasing my crazy dreams and loves me unconditionally. I realized I have the best friends in the world who are proud of me and are pushing me to be the best. I have a family who loves me and may not always understand what I’m doing or why but they accept it as Seth being Seth and everything will come out fine in the end. 2009 may not have been the best year I’ve ever had but at least I had great company to pass the time.

This is for Kelly and Gunnar. No matter where the road in life takes me there will be a piece of you with me, seeing everything you didn’t get an opportunity to see. A tragic reminder to live every moment to the fullest and chase these crazy dreams. It breaks my heart this had to come with your passing.



There is a tab on the lower right where you can expand this to full screen. I do recommend doing it as it will make this a better experience.

http://sethamcconnell.webng.com/__MACOSX/publish_to_web/2009Best/2009%20Best/

If it doesn’t want to load, here is the direct link.

I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all and I think about everyone of you on a daily basis.

Love and Light,

Seth

So I haven't posted anything here in a while, so I thought I should.
For those of you who don't know I moved to Columbia, MO two weeks ago to complete my bachelors. Something I started many moons ago and didn't finish after completing my associates at Northwest. So I uprooted myself, got rid of 75% of what I own and set out on this new adventure.
I started a new blog detailing my adventures, with a few photos and what have you. You can find that here
I will still continue to post images here but if your interested in hearing my ramblings feel free to stop on by.
A few images from the few weeks I've been in Columbia.


















Somewhere in Nebraska/Iowa. Life speeding by at 75.

I have a few more things I'll post a little later and a recap on 2009 in images as well.

hope everyone is well.

Love and Light,
Seth

A smattering of random images from the last several months.








Barker looking for a fight














The old man in his chair. It took open heart surgery before my dad got "his" chair. I think he has earned.


Benji doesn't like the loud noises from band practice so he hides under a blanket on the couch.








Playing for Change












I see this dude everywhere. He always has his guitar and is always playing it. It doesn't matter if he is walking or sitting he is playing that guitar.









Thats it. That is just a portion of the last 3 months.
Just created a new flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/42409031@N06/
Check it.

-S

So the weather is finally nice and things are starting to kick into high gear.
I don't have a lot of exciting stuff to post because well... not much has happened.
So here are a few shots from a few shows.

Cursive










The Effort


Not The Effort



I have a few more things I'm going to publish here after a bit.
I've been relaxing all day, so I will post when I have a few moments. :)

Hope everyone is doing well!
Get outside and enjoy the sun while its around.

Love and Light,
Seth

I bought a lomo action sampler and 10 rolls of expired Fuji Velvia 100 iso color slide film before I took off for New Orleans with the mission to shoot as much as I could. I didn't get the chance to process any film out of the camera before I left so I was just shooting off of instinct. The lomo's are brilliant because you don't really have any control over anything. You kinda just point in a general direction and hit the shutter release. You don't control anything except for the composition and unless you compensate even that is a bit off.
It is/was my let loose camera. I say was because I actually broke the film advance when I was in NOLA by not paying attention... so I think I have to buy a new one.
Anyways. I cross processed the film to give it a more surreal look and crazy colors.
None of this is photo shopped. Its all straight out of the camera/processing. I just tweaked my blacks a bit to get them BLACK.
Enjoy.

























So I need to make $50 and get after this. I love this camera. I feel I am going to go broke shooting film this summer... it'll be worth it though :)

Love and Light,
Seth

First fire pit of the summer.










White Kids Dancing...













The weather has not been that nice so far. We've had one good week of weather and a bunch of nights of crappy cold weather. Here's to hoping things swing around here in a hurry. Its June. I need the sun and time at the lake.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love and Light,
Seth

I make images because I want to remember.
I make images because I want others to see things they may not notice.
I make images because I love the people around me and I want to document our interactions.

I'm going to make it a goal to make a lot of pictures this summer. Good, bad, indifferent.
My favorite images are the ones I make when I'm not working.

Last night was the kick off to summer and it was everything it needed to be.
I love you guys. You make my heart happy.


Benji keeping the yard on lock down. No squirrels.


Lumberjack


Dizzle in a calmer moment




Cock mask


Terrorizing the neighbors. Karate Elvis didn't know what hit it!


Reflecting on his epic battle with Karate Elvis. It was truly a television event.


Jerrod


:)


Two of my favorite people :)

This should be a pretty interesting summer.
It won't be last summer which is fine by me. Let the past rest, live in the moment.
Good days are ahead. :)

Love and Light,
Seth

I'm not fond of sports. I haven't been fond of sports for quite some time. I don't understand the idea of competing for the sake of saying I'm better than you. I guess to each there own. Even though I'm not super fond of sports (minus hockey and baseball, love me some hockey) I find that I don't really mind shooting them. It's pretty easy to be honest with you. Just find your angle and as an early editor of mine said when you see a face shoot! Its a hell of a lot more complex than that but the principle is the same.
I found myself at the state track meet for the second year in a row. It was a lot more stressful this year than last, I don't think editors realize what it takes to make an image and that asking for extra images for a bunch of different papers is taxing and lessens the amount of time you can spend shooting your home schools. I also don't think they understand how these events run and that even if I could split myself in three there still wouldn't be enough of me to cover this one event. Oh well, what do I know, I'm just a photographer.
I made some cool images, unfortunately my favorite images were not of local kids so they ended up on the AP wire... which isn't the worst thing in the world. It means the rest of the world gets to see them and there isn't anything wrong with that. So here are a few images.



















So just a few images.

I hope everyone is doing well.

I should have a few more images from New Orleans up later this week.
I'm letting those sit for just a bit before digging through them.

Love and Light,
Seth

So I put all this work into pulling these files for Eddie Adams and never got to enter thanks to to Greg Laurie and his merry band of bad drivers so I thought I would just throw them up here just for the hell of it.
I'm about 10 minutes away from heading back out the door onto the streets of New Orleans to partake in what will be a legendary night. More photos later. My desire to shoot and shoot and shoot has curtailed as the week has gone one but I've made a few fun frames of people being people and a few artsy shots.
Anyways less talk, more pictures.































So there they are. Just an easy edit of some work that defines who I am and the way I shoot.
Its not a portfolio, just a collection of images.
More stuff from NOLA later, maybe today but more than likely Monday afternoon.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Adventure awaits.

Love and Light,
Seth

The last two days have been incredibly amazing.
The light down here is bad ass. I'm seeing so much right now and making some images that I'm pretty pleased with. We don't have any real plans during the day other than wander and wander we have. We spent all day in the cemetery making images and the last two nights have been all about the French Quarter. There is nothing better than being able to grab a drink and just walk around.
I don't know why they call Las Vegas sin city, Las Vegas doesn't have crap on NOLA. :)
I'm going to share just a few images. 5 to be exact from last night and today. Its late, I'm tired and I don't feel like toning the rest of these images. PLUS I need something to do next Monday on the plane ride home. :)
Every single image posted from New Orleans is for sale, we can talk when I get back.




Blind man begging for change.


This dude was straight up nuts. He was chill for a while and then just lost his damned mind, started yelling at me. So I just rolled out. Don't need that nasty garbage ruining my good time.


This dude was a little off his rocker as well... common theme so far.


The man has a point...

So far things have been amazing. The food, the colors, the art, the people... all just amazing. I feel very comfortable here, very at home. Its laid back and relaxed. I just feel good, it makes it easy to make photos. I have so many more things to share with you but as Richard has so aptly put it, I just want to be in New Orleans at the moment. So I will post a few images and maybe tell a story but a lot of this can wait until later. Life is to short to not live in the moment. To not be here right now.
Right now the moment is calling for sleep. its 1:30 in the a.m. and there is a sweet little deli just around the corner serving grits with my name on them sometime around 9 tomorrow morning so I'm hitting the hay. Going to a big photo show tomorrow, super stoked to look at some good images and talk art.
I love it here.

I hope everyone is doing well.
Love and Light,
Seth