Millions of Animals

Millions of Animals, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Went out with some friends to a market this past weekend and couldn't pass up this stand of small animals.

Friday's Flickr Favorites #3 Frazier Meadows waterfall

Frazier Meadows waterfall taken by Paul Xland

This Friday's favorite was taken by Paul Xland and it is a beauty. I love the movement of the water and the natural framing in this shot. A couple of Paul's other photos that I like are this shot of Lookout Mountain and this photo of tunnel number 6. Check out his photo stream for more great photos.


Each photographer appearing on Friday's Flickr Favorites has agreed in writing to have their chosen picture displayed with links to their original photo page.

Tilt Shift Fake

Mini Dongtan, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I actually did this about a month ago. I read a few tutorials, but the main one I read was this one from the Visual Photo Guide. It definitely works best if you are shooting from above. I was actually on the 25th floor of an apartment when I took this shot.

I have had a problem lately that I have been reading too much and not going out to take pictures. I have pretty much decided that I am spending way too much time reading and surfing about photography and just need to get out there and shoot more. I have also decided that I am going to keep my camera on me at all times. I just don't have the time these days to plan on going on photo walks more than once a week and am just gonna have to take shots when I can.

Night Flower

Night Flower, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I bought a SB26 and a cheapo flash trigger about a month ago. I have been experimenting and trying to read up on Strobist as much as I can. I keep waiting to buy umbrellas until I get back stateside. I took a bunch of photos tonight of my wife's birthday flowers. I got a couple of keepers but I thought that this one came out nice.

Friday's Flickr Favorites #2 don't look back

don't look back taken by plastic nico

In my second round of photos that inspire me is this great shot taken by Flickr user plastic nico. Not only do I love the perspective in this one, but the sky is unbelievable. Plastic nico has a lot of great photos in her photostream, but the other one that I really like is gone fishing.



Each photographer appearing on Friday's Flickr Favorites has agreed in writing to have their chosen picture displayed with links to their original photo page.

Friday's Flickr Favorites #1 Oceanside RUSH

Oceanside RUSH by realkuhl

What a way to start off this new feature on my young blog. The first Flickr Favorite is titled "Oceanside RUSH" it was taken by Flickr user realkuhl. It is truly an inspirational shot. Not only do I love the colors in this one, but the capture of the movement in the waves is awesome. The sun just barely on the horizon is great as well. He truly has some great work in his photostream. Some of his other photos that I really like are Oceanside Cloudburst and Cold Spring Creek.

Each photographer appearing on Friday's Flickr Favorites has agreed in writing to have their chosen picture displayed with links to their original photo page.

Friday's Flickr Favorites

I always seem to spend some time on Friday nights trying to decide where I am going to go photograph on Saturday. Due to my schedule, Saturday is really the only day that I have to go and take pictures.

I tend to gravitate towards Flickr's Interesting Section to get some inspiration. Over the last week, I have been emailing photographers and asking for permission to post their photos here.

I emailed a bunch of photographers with some awesome shots and everyone of them gave permission to post their photographs. So, every Friday I am going to post some of the photos that inspire me. My plan is to post photos from two photographers every Friday. I am also going to link to some of their other shots that I think are great/interesting.

Later this evening, I will post this Friday's Favorites.

Lens

I follow about 20-30 photography sites through Google Reader. I don't know which site I saw this on, but you should really check out The New York Times new feature "Lens" Photography, Video and Visual Journalism. From the New York Times:

Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web. And it will draw on The Times's own pictorial archive, numbering in the millions of images and going back to the early 20th century.

I am a news junkie and love the set-up of this page. It reminds me of The Boston Globe's Big Picture series, but with more content. I hope that they update more frequently than the Big Picture. I have already added it to my Reader and can't wait to see what they post.

New Find

I am still making my way through DPS's Photography Composition Tips. I also stumbled across a great blog with some great resources. If you have never checked out Epic Edits, you should give it a read. There are a lot of great tips and tutorials there as well. I also just went through their PhotoDump section and there were some great photos in the pool. I am off to practice with CS4 and try out some new sharpening techniques.

DIY LightBox

Sky Phone, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Last weekend the weather was pouring down here in Korea. I really didn't want to take my camera out neither did I feel like getting drenched. I had read how to make a DIY LightBox on the Photography on the Net Forums.(POTN} and decided to make another one. I had tried this before with limited success.I know that having a proper custom white balance setting is important. I also know that by adjusting levels in Photoshop you can make these photos really pop and stand out from the background. Here are some great links with instructions on making a light box.



1. Strobist
2. POTN
3. JYO Blog

I really have to study a lot harder on how to get the white background pure white. The above shot is one of my better ones. Here are a couple of my shots that didn't come out quite like I wanted them. I could possible fix them in post, but probably need to take a better original picture to make it better.

The bottom right of this photo is really not as white as it should be.



I really didn't want the lower shadow there and also I blew the highlights around the edge of the plate. Now, I just gotta figure out how to control all of this.

Motivational Monday

I came across this website and have heard his name before, but have never really seen any of his work. I really like his portrait portfolio. If you don't know Art Wolfe, he is a wonderful photographer and key photographer on the Travels to The Edge series that I haven't ever had a chance to watch. I spent some time on Sunday night going through his all of his portfolio. 1 word I can use to describe it is unbelievable. This is probably my favorite shot of his. If you wanna check out his blog, it is here. He hasn't updated in awhile, but still has some interesting information there. He is also an author I know that I will be buying some of his books later on in my studies of photography. I will be thinking about his work as I go about my week. He may make you wanna break out that passport and travel to some exotic destination. He really makes me wanna just go out and document as much as I can.

Composition

IMG_2897-2, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I like this photo that I took a few months ago, but I really wish that I would have slowed down and waited for her to move her left hand. I also blew out the highlights on the rice. I may try to go back and re-process this one. I think that I took this before I got CS4.

I have recently been reading some of Digital Photography School's list of photo composition articles. There is a lot of good information on those pages and I'm going to read all of them in the next couple of days. I have read a lot about the rule of thirds, but the link above really breaks it down well.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and I will be back on Monday with some Motivation!

Picking A Camera

I really didn't have hard time doing this. I should have, but I didn't. What I mean is that I should have done more research into camera bodies before I purchased mine. The 50D was released about a month after I bought my camera. I owned the Canon S3 IS and from that experience went with Canon and knew that I wanted to buy a Canon EOS 40D that I had read a couple of reviews on. I knew that I wanted the bigger body of the XXD series. My Canon PowerShot S3 IS was very small and the XTI and XSI were both fairly small in my hands as well. I also wanted the 6.5 frames per second that it could capture. If I had it all to do over again, I would have waited just a month or two and bought the Canon EOS 50D . I know that I have a great camera and it is capable of making wonderful images. One day I will upgrade to a full frame camera, maybe the Canon 5 D Mark III or would that make it the Canon 6D.

I also wish that I would have read more reviews of the Nikon series. I don't think I made a mistake going with the Canon series, but there are times that I sit around and ponder if I went with the right line. I haven't really had the opportunity to try out much of their line of cameras, but one day I plan on it.

I will never forget the feeling of opening the box and pulling out the 40D. It just felt awesome in my hand and has literally been attached to it since I opened that box.

The Beginning

Ansel Adams said, " You don't take a photograph, you make it."

Well, I started this website to document my journey of making photographs. I didn't have a camera until about 2 years ago when I moved overseas.(can't wait to move back to America in November 2009) I bought a Canon S3 IS and took a lot of great snapshots with it and then got ready to upgrade to a DSLR. In November of 2008, I purchased a Canon 40D. Since buying the 40D, I have acquired a few lenses and have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to take good photographs. I have also tried to spend time learning how to use Photoshop and other software for making my photographs look better. I have ordered a few books and will be reviewing them at a later date. I will also link to other websites that I find that help me on my journey. Please feel free to comment or critique on any of my photos or reviews that I post. I think that critiques help us to become better photographers, so please don't hold back. So the journey begins......