As it turned out, my time in journalism mostly landed me in newspapers. I’ve done some pretty cool assignments, even getting to photograph a Super Bowl winning coach for the New York Daily News last year, but it was always newspapers. I never made it to that magazine dream, and figured I would never see my photo printed in a big magazine spread.

Ironically enough, that moment came after I left photojournalism to start work at an advertising agency. Last year I sold a photo to the Scientific American, and until tonight, I had not seen the spread. Since shooting this assignment for the Memphis Commercial Appeal back in August of 2009, I have sold this photo probably five or six times. Today I sold it again to a German business weekly, and they said they saw it in the Scientific American. Honestly, I thought the SA had not used my photo because I could not find it in the April 2010 issue as they said it would be in there. Turns out it was held for the May issue, which I only found out tonight when I Googled it.

I’m very pleased with the design, and proud to be in such a prestigious magazine. This was a full two page spread, and don’t worry, I got a credit on the inside of the story (typical for a magazine, not a big deal). The Scientific American has 3.5 million print readers per month, 3 million online and is the longest continuously run magazine in the country.

I’ve been going to Gatlinburg, Tenn. for as long as I can remember. I grew up only a couple of hours from the area and my family went about once a year. When you figure school and church trips, I would bet there were some years that I found myself smack dab in the Smoky Mountains three times in one year. In college it was our cheap spring break. 15 or so of us could rent a luxury cabin for $30 each a night. Mary Margaret and I actually spent our first anniversary in a beautiful cabin tucked into the Smoky Mountains as well.

And last weekend I found myself back in Gatlinburg. Mary Margaret, myself and 11 of our friends for the weekend. It was a great weekend, one that already has everyone talking about our next trip together (we’re thinking the Red River Gorge this spring).

It was three days chocked full of:

• inappropriate sayings
• lazy morning breakfasts
• too many in the hot tub, basic shopping
• a UofL win
• a better UK win
• wine & moonshine tastings (we didn’t buy any but that was kind of different and pretty cool because you can walk through and see the moonshine making process)
• dinner was at the Smoky Mountain Brewery
• about a 100 sampler sized glasses of craft brew
• dozens and dozens of pancakes at the Pancake Pantry
• taxidermied animals
• weird wizard/troll things
• dance parties
• hot tub spills

One of our biggest clients is Schmitt Sohne. I work on the three Schmitt Sohne wine accounts – RELAX, Fünf and Schitt-Sohne (AKA, the little German). We wanted to have some nicer photos to pin on Valentine’s Day for our client’s Pinterest board, so I brought in my Canon 5D Mark II and setup these photos. I was really happy with these, and the Fünf bottle is my favorite of the two. I thought the shapes, texture and color came together nicely for it.

Maybe one day I will get to help our photography team do some work in our new photo studio (read more about Studio Nulu here). I’ve been around some photo shoots over there and it’s just amazing to see what we are capable of with this great new resource. Until I get that chance I’ll keep clicking away, whether it’s on my iPhone or DSLR.

Since I started working at CurrentMarketing, the most common question I get is, “What do you do?”

It’s actually tough to answer exactly. “Social media strategy” is my general answer, but it’s so much more than that. In short, I blog, Tweet, Facebook, check-in, provide brand monitoring, handle customer service, brainstorm social media promotions and campaigns along with providing our creative team with some fantastic man hands for modeling our clients’ products (true story).

Well, Angela and I co-wrote this blog about the Super Bowl’s social media command center and how it compares with what we do every day. I thought it was a good fit to share here. So enjoy my latest blog from Current and get some insight into what I “do” every day.

Count CurrentMarketing in for a social media showdown

“On Sunday, teams of big-league social media strategists and techies will gather for what is being hailed as the Super Bowl of social media showdowns.

The event? Well, the Super Bowl, of course.

With 150,000 people converging on downtown Indianapolis, Ind. for the game, the NFL saw the need for the first ever Super Bowl Social Media Command Center. The group will use search tools and analytics to help fans with everything from parking to finding things to do in Indianapolis before the game. This is exciting news for the profession of social media as it highlights the ever-increasing importance of our role in the communications mix.”

Continue reading…

It’s a total cliché to even write, but Ferris Bueler was right. “Live moves pretty fast sometimes, if you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you’ll miss it.” I know my days here are numbered so I intend to try as many new things and experience life in as many ways as I can. My wife will tell you  I tend to go big or go home on my hobbies.

My latest hobby? Brewing beer.

I think once you learn to appreciate flavorful beer, you have to become curious as to where those flavors come from. I like to think of beer as a wine connoisseur would approach wine, but beer has such a wider range of flavor possibility. It’s a beautiful thing. When some coworkers (and experienced brewers) asked who would be interested in forming a brew team, I jumped at the opportunity to learn. After one batch I was ready to try it on my own, and my lovely wife, Mary Margaret, bought me my first brew kit for my birthday. So far I have brewed and bottled a Milk Stout, IPA, Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout and a Belgian Tripel. As of right now, between work and home, I have an Irish Stout, Oatmeal Stout, English Pale Ale and an American Amber that we dubbed Bill Murray (brewed on Groundhog Day) in fermenters.

My favorite has to be the Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout. I’ve given it out to several people and they all raved about it. The cost to us was barely over a dollar per beer, and I don’t think you could buy a beer that good for less than $4 a bottle. It’s definitely a good dinner beer. We’re planning on entering a similar recipe in the State Fair at the end of summer. I can’t wait to get to a point that I can give them out as gifts to family and friends. It’s the same great feeling as finishing a great meal and having someone tell you that they love it. It’s already become a labor of love for me.

Beer facts, because I can

Brewing beer has been going on for longer than anyone even knows. It’s suspected that nomads accidentally invented beer by leaving grains in a bowl and leaving it outside. When it rained, the grains released sugar and eventually fermented. When the nomads returned, they discovered beer. Beer has a very rich history since its creation, too. Some credit beer with the beginning of agriculture (and therefore modern civilization) because the nomads eventually began to grow grains. It can be argued that this was for making bread, but there’s a good argument for beer, too. Skip ahead a few thousand years and you have monks in monasteries perfecting their brew, which was used during fasting as their only nourishment. Beer is actually a food, chocked full of good ingredients and health benefits, such as strengthen bones, heart and kidneys, boost brain health, reduce the risk of cancer, boost vitamin levels, guard against stroke, reduce the risk of diabetes, lower blood pressure and extend life expectancy. When not abused, beer is good for you.

Some even believe that Jesus may have turned the water into beer, not wine, at the famous moment in Galilee in the book of John. This comes from the fact that in Aramaic, the translation of “strong drink” to Latin was “bibere,” or beer. It is believed by some that when King James had the bible translated into English, the scholars took a few liberties with their interpretation. Beer was a drink of peasants and lower classes, and King James wanted to elevate Jesus to a more noble status so they (may have) changed the translation to wine from beer, the favored drink of the commoners Jesus kicked it with. The reality is the bible was translated by men and men make mistakes. Beer may have been written out of the most read book in history. Click here for an interesting infographic on the history of beer.

When Mary Margaret and I were at Brian and Courtney’s house the other night we watched this video I made of Gibson’s grand arrival. I’m proud of this video and so glad we have this to look back on. It’s nice to see how excited Walt was, and I think it’s something Gibson will appreciate when he gets older.

I’m sure anyone who would read my blog has seen this, but it’s worth sharing again. After all, he is the cutest baby I have ever seen.

I am going to be sharing my blogs as I write them. You will have to visit Current’s page to finish reading one, but this gives you a teaser at least. Here’s my latest, “Must Love Dogs: How I Found a Rewarding Career At CurrentMarketing.”

Must Love Dogs: How I Found a Rewarding Career at CurrentMarketing

“Before I was a part of CurrentMarketing’s social media team, I was a photojournalist. As a photographer you think of photojournalism as changing the world one well composed frame at a time. I’ve been a part of some great storytelling, but as a freelancer it seemed more often than not I was standing at a ribbon-cutting with 20 other people, 15 of which were holding the ribbon and the other five were holding news cameras or microphones. I was ready for a change and a new challenge, and I certainly got that by joining CurrentMarketing’s team.

I had no agency experience, or any clue as to what I could expect at CurrentMarketing (besides dogs, lots of dogs). The biggest question was would I find advertising rewarding? It took me all of a week to figure out I loved working at CurrentMarketing – maybe even just a few days. Much of my time spent here has been learning the business as we go, and as my understanding of advertising grows, so does my passion for it.”

Read the rest of this blog…

Christmas of 2010. It’s like this: my mom knows how to make some Christmas candy. I’m talking about peanut butter balls, fudge, no-bake cookies, orange sherbert balls, it’s like a cholesterol family reunion. I normally don’t even eat that many sweets – I leave that to the wifey – but come Christmas, I firmly believe it would be a sin to let these homemade tasty treats sitting, going uneaten. On top of this, Mary Margaret’s grandmother, Meg, makes amazing cookies around Christmas, too. Add that to the fact that we eat Christmas dinner with her family then travel to eat with mine and you’re looking at the playoffs of homemade meals.

So after this particular Christmas I realized that I had started to put on a little weight, so I started running. I had terrible shoes that were too small, but it didn’t really matter I figured – I was only running a mile or two. I got up to running two or three several times a week. As I was getting into running, I covered several assignments for the Courier-Journal about running, and one guy in particular basically talked me into doing a race. He was a marathoner who had just completed his 60th or so marathon and it finished up his goal of running a marathon in all 50 states. He told me about the adrenaline of the race and how exhilarating it was to run with 10,000 people. “It’s like no run you’ve ever done,” he told me. I decided to sign up for the Triple Crown – a 5K, 10K and 10 mile series in Louisville. Why the heck not, right?

I bought a road bike a few months before, so I wasn’t entirely out of shape. I had actually worked up to some solid 38 mile rides. But the thing about biking and me is, well, we like warm weather. Even hot sometimes. It’s not like running where I despise heat as if it were sucking my soul from every pore on my body (actually, when it’s 95 degrees, that’s pretty much what it feels like). With a bike I can carry tons of water with me, I have the wind in my face and there’s always the option to coast as you rest. But biking in 40 degrees is painful, and I pretty much give up this hobby from November to April.

So I ran. A lot. It turned out I liked running. It was almost addicting, and nothing like what I associated running with in High School, which was run your fastest time and hope you don’t puke. It’s a different experience to test your stamina and your mind. I signed up to do the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini-Marathon, a 13.1 mile race, which I finished in the top 5 percent of runners. The races are addicting. It’s a great feeling to cross that finish line and know you gave it your best. I did another half marathon in the fall, which my time was just barely worse than my first race because I had not trained like I should have. I still felt good to do as well as I did.

Now I’m training for my first marathon, which has proven tough. I’ve had to take some breaks in the past few weeks due to some injuries, but I’m not going to stop. I’m really excited for such a challenge, though I’m not convinced that I’ll be a marathoner after this. I’m trying to just focus on fixing my injuries and thinking of crossing the finish line.

I’ve been reading a lot about running, though, which has been the most helpful part of my training just short of running itself. Mary Margaret’s uncle, Gary, sent me a brilliant book, “The Runner’s Repair Manual,” that has taught me everything from how to step correctly to how to buy shoes. It’s been my go-to reference for injuries. Shin splints? No problem, the book had a number of stretches and exercises to work those kinks out. Runner’s knee? I found out running on banked roads in the same direction over and over can affect this and the shin splints as well. That combined with a bad step and old shoes has been a contributing factor in that. Pulled achilles tendon? Again, stretches to help prevent and heal that problem.

If you run, buy this book. I don’t care if you have been running for 20 years, this book can help you in some way. I’m moving on to two book’s about marathon training that Mary Margaret’s mom, Mary, bought me, too. I’ve already been using one to help me tweak my training, and I’m very excited to read both. At this point I need all the help that I can get. Mary also gave me a nice gift certificate that helped me buy the new running shoes you see above (you know, the ones not covered in mud and ice).

I’ve always thought it would be amazing to do an IronMan competition, but at this point in my training I’m having a hard time thinking I could manage to train to bike 110 miles and swim 2.4 in addition to running a marathon. It’s just madness and makes me appreciate what those athletes go through to train. So I’ll just keep focusing on my finish line on April 28th, and keep thinking of my favorite quote to keep me motivated:

Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”

– George S. Patton, US Army General, 1912 Olympian

You may be here because it’s also the new bradluttrellphotography.com. Since I am no longer in photojournalism, I saw no need to have a domain devoted to my work. A lot has happened since my last blog post nearly a year ago, most notably that I’m working at CurrentMarketing and no longer freelancing. While there are times when I miss specific assignments and the rush of covering spot news, I have never had a moment of regret and love working at Current. I love working at a place where I am working on a career and not just trying to earn a paycheck.

Last year was one of many blessings but also much heartache. In March I became and uncle and it has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever known. Check out the video I made of little Gibson James’ arrival. Mary Margaret and I celebrated a wonderful year of marriage in September. Unfortunately these belessings were met with a terrible loss when Mary Margaret’s grandfather, Walt, passed away in November. As I think so many of us would say, Walt was more than a grandfather-in-law to me, he was a dear friend. In the short four years I knew him I don’t think anyone could have taught me more about being a good handyman and a better human being. I miss him every day.

It was two years ago I left Memphis to move to Louisville. I’m not sure I could have predicted everything that’s happened, especially that I would leave photojournalism to start work at an advertising agency. It’s been an exciting ride, and I’m equally excited to get back to blogging.

Buckle up, peeps. Bloggin’ Brad is back.