Hi. My name is Laura Brunow Miner.

I do things:

• Freelance on design, editorial, and event-based projects.
• Spoke about “What Camp has Taught Me about Communities” at Do Lectures in Wales (video coming soon)
• Wrote about editorial design on the web for the TypeKit blog: “Is Anyone Paying Attention?”
• Helped judge Blurb’s 2011 Photography Book Now competition
• Spoke about “Why We Work” at the first Creative Mornings San Francisco
• Spoke about community editorial at the Online News Association Conference
• Named as a “Hot 20 Under 40” in San Francisco by 7x7 Magazine in October 2010
• Included in “Most Influential Women in Tech” list by Fast Company Magazine in May 2010
• Founded, designed, and continue to edit online magazine Pictory.
• Run creative retreats like Phoot Camp and Eat Retreat.
• Wrote “Coaching a Community” for A List Apart.
• Ran JPG Magazine (as editor in chief).
• Designed JPG Magazine (as design director).
• Married Wilson Miner.
• Moved to San Francisco.
• Worked as a marketing designer for Gould Evans in Lawrence, Kansas.
• Joined Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn.

I blog about photography, community editorial, design, the internet, media, art, people-powered websites, and less than 2% foodfuntravelcatswaterkayakingwhiskeyhammocksmoviesother.

You can contact me at laura (at) pictorymag.com.

(photo by Mark Lobo)

From my other tumblelog, pictoryblog:

As you may know, I’ve teamed up with some friends in the sustainable food industry here in SF to put together a food version of Phoot Camp called Eat Retreat. It will basically be a 30 person weekend workshop on a ranch in Sonoma where we trade ingredients and ideas, forage for ingredients, roast a wild boar, etc.

Know someone who’s a leader in the food community? Please pass the info along!

Info page:
http://eatretreat.net/blog/text/12

Application page:
http://eatretreat.net/how-to-apply

Thanks,
LBM

Remember Phoot Camp? I’m excited to announce a collaboration with some friends in the food industry: Eat Retreat, a weekend workshop focused on food. Apply by 1/31!

Today is Pictory’s first birthday! Here’s a note I wrote yesterday on the pictoryblog:

364 days ago, I launched Pictory. I’d put months of sweat and savings into it and over-thought every inch. Take it from me — getting hundreds of thousands of hits in the first few days of a solo startup feels like standing on a football field as a stadium full of people turns to look at you. Despite my initial, well, embarrassment, I was elated. I knew then that this thing I’d put so much into was actually going to work; people were interested in submitting and reading photo stories.

It’s been wonderful. I love the work. I love the stories that people share. I love being the person who gets to fiddle and tinker and edit them into tidy packages. I love it when they make me cry, or laugh, or start to figure grief out. I love seeing people submit over and over again. I love people. I love working with mega-talented guest designers, curators, and editors. I love photographs, and always have.

It’s also been tough. Anyone who tells you that it’s easy to make a living from an online publication is either lying or knows something I don’t. My husband and I have had countless conversations about the possible angles we could come at this, the ways we could make it work. Every time, I stubbornly held on to this ad model: big, beautiful photo-based ads with the designer and photographer of the ad credited. I believed if I could pull that off, I could make a home for great advertising on the web.

I still believe it, and I’m endlessly appreciative of Levi’s for being the first sponsor to think I might be right. There’s a lot of things that my readers and the impressive women in this showcase have figured out that I don’t. But I’ve been lucky enough to learn from their dogged commitment to their passions. So here’s to a new day one.