JS Photography's Blog

Welcome!

jsphotographykc — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:57:52 +0000

Welcome to my blog! Below you will find my posts with the most recent being at the top and down. All pictures in this blog were taken by me (and yes that includes the photo in the header) and unless I have given you my expressed written consent you do not have a right to use them in any shape or form [have you figured out my career yet?], so please don’t!! Also, any person depicted has given me their expressed consent to use the image.

Tell Your Friends…

jsphotographykc — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:53:47 +0000

Ok, so the title is kind of random, but it popped in my head today and I just went with it. What it is referring to is I went out last week and took some photos of a friend’s daughter and was amazed at how they turned out. So, not to toot my own horn, but I think this could actually turn into something like I had hoped. I think I’ll never get over that scary feeling of “what if I screw this up” or “this person’s expectations may never be met” but I think that is what will make me strive to always be better and continue learning. So the meaning of “Tell your friends” is that I really would like to start doing some photo shoots (especially now that we are out of the 100 degree weather) and since this really is more about me learning and getting experience I would charge next to nothing and give the person all the photos with some edited on a DVD. So….Tell Your Friends!!! Now here are some of the photos I took last week, starting with my favorite:

It certainly doesn’t hurt that my subject is so adorable and loves to pose!!

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST

Here is that one edited, I don’t know if I have mentioned this before but I LOVE Photoshop CS5!!

Bugs, Butterflies and Birds

jsphotographykc — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:33:05 +0000

I had so much fun taking these pics. Most of them were taken at Powell Gardens during the Butterfly Festival a few weekends ago. I’ll do another post soon with all of the other stuff from Powell Gardens, but wanted to get these up soon. I have decided to skip the shooting information again in order to do this quickly. But if you are a photographer and want that info I would be happy to provide it.

This first pic I think is cool, I came home from the Butterfly Festival and he was on my screen door. I thought for sure he’d be gone by the time I set my stuff down and got my camera out, but he wasn’t.

Grasshopper on my screen door

Click here for more

I am not a fan of June Bugs or Secadas, but this one has decided to make a home outside my back door. For several mornings when I would open the door to let the dogs out he was there. So one day, instead of my usual freak out and closing the door as fast as possible, I decided to take a picture since he seemed to not be going anywhere. They are actually kind of cool looking bugs…so long as they are not moving!!

Secada

These bugs showed up on my mandevilla plant one day and I thought they were neat looking so I took a few photos of them.

Orange & Black Bug on Mandevilla

Those are the few bugs around my house, now on to the ones at Powell Gardens. This first shot is a pano of the “Big Bugs” they have right now. This is three ants on a hill (they each weigh 700 pounds). The “Big Bugs” are sculptures by Dave Rogers. There are 11 at the park, but somehow I only got photos of 9.

Ants

Daddy Long Legs

Assassin Bug

Dragon Fly (missing it's wings)

Spider

Dragon Fly on the water

Lady Bug

And now for the butterflies, my favorite!! I tried to name them, but only because they gave us a card and I took a photo of it for later reference, not because I am super obsessive and went and looked them all up : ).

Caterpillar

Monarch

Butterfly in flight (possibly a Spicebush Swallowtail)

These next two photos are of the same kind of butterfly. The first is the underside of it’s wings and the second is three of them in flight and the open part of their wings. The blue is the most amazing vivid blue I have ever seen. You can see why they are called the Blue Morpho.

Blue Morpho

Julia Heliconian

Atala

Giant Swallowtail

Moth - couldn't find name

Either Giant or Polydamas Swallowtail

Common Buckeye

And finally here are the birds…they are the Hummingbirds that I was able to catch in the Hummingbird Garden.

Hummingbird in flight

Hummingbird on flower

Hummingbird at feeder still flying

Hummingbird resting on feeder

And that is it for Bugs, Butterflies and Birds.

I’m Back!!!

jsphotographykc — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:03:15 +0000

Now that I have a new computer and Photoshop CS5, I no longer have any excuses to not post. So this is my catch up post, not a lot of words just lots of photos. I usually do explanations and put shooting info at the bottom of my photos, but in this post I am skipping all that and just putting up the picks (I am actually trying to see how quickly I can get a post done). Hope you enjoy these pics, as always give me feedback because I learn and live by it!!! I’m starting with my new favorite and then I am going to do them in order by date starting with the longest ago to most recent, enjoy….

Pano of Kansas City from the Liberty Memorial

Click here for the rest

Downtown P&L Building & Sprint Center on a winter day

Frozen branch

Frozen leaves

Yellow flower in vase

Red flower in vase

These next 15 photos are from my trip to Cancun, Mexico in February 2010

Champagne in Cancun

Taking in the view

Sailboat on the ocean at 7am

Spartacus the sailboat we rode on

Beach chairs - using my 50mm lens

Sailboat again

Before the guests arrive at the beach for the day

What the tide brought in

Palm Tree

Steps to the ocean

Red Post

Ocean

Water fall

Bird with its catch

And that’s it for Cancun….here are a few more recent ones.

Easter egg hunt

Chipman Road Bridge

Liberty Memorial - Looking west at sunset

Sunset over KCK

Reflection at Liberty Memorial

The Liberty Memorial

And there you have it, that’s some of what I’ve been doing over the last several months. I’ll do another post this week about my most recent adventure, a DSLR class at the Kansas City Art Institute. It is fitting since this Tuesday is my last class and I next have to decide where I want to go from here because the more I do this, the more I love it!!

Jesse

Photowalk 3 – Downtown/Bridge

jsphotographykc — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:00:19 +0000

This photowalk was taken at a somewhat scary spot in Kansas City, but it was a great place to get a good view of the downtown skyline…and a few pictures of a cool bridge. Kansas City has some of the coolest bridges in the urban core (or at least I think). I will just say a few things about these pictures, first being that I think the bridge pictures turned out great, but I am not so happy with the skyline pics. As I said in my Lessons Learned post (number 2) you should always check the settings before shooting. Well this was the time when I learned that valuable lesson. I shot all of these kind of in a hurry; I was late to where I was going and I wasn’t in the best part of town with some pricey camera equipment. So I just quickly took the shots and got out of there, only later to do some checking on the photos and realize that my aperture was not right and some of the pictures I thought were great were out of focus. So I did take a ton of shots of the skyline but I am only posting one.

f22.0, 1/6sec, 18mm, ISO 400

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

Here are two pictures which are the same, the only difference is the first one I left in the bright yellow billboard in the background and the second one I used the photo editing software, and a tool called cloning, and took it out. I like it better without, however I showed one of my co-workers after I was done a side-by-side comparison and she said she liked the billboard left in because it gave it an urban feel and a nice pop of color. So I’ll let you decide for yourself.

f5.6, 1/15sec, 55mm, ISO 400

Here is another bridge picture I liked.

f5.6, 1/40sec, 18mm, ISO 400

Finally, this picture was not part of this photowalk, but it was on the same day. It had rained in the morning and I was out at one of the lakes near KC, so I thought how cool would it be to get some great pictures of leaves with raindrops on them. Well it didn’t quite work out that way. It was super windy where I stopped and raining pretty hard so I was trying to not get my camera wet and hold everything still and I ended up with just one picture that was pretty dark. So I did some photo editing and although not great quality I actually really liked how it turned out. So here it is:

f18, 1/400sec, 33mm, ISO 800

So this photowalk does not have a lot of photos in it but it was a great way to learn some lessons and becoming another step closer to shooting like a pro.

Lessons Learned – Part I

jsphotographykc — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:26:57 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, this is going to be a post with no pictures, so if you are only interested in the pictures, then you can just skip this post. So I have been taking pictures with my DSLR since early December. Before I bought it I read lots of books, blogs, websites, etc., to figure out how to take really great shots with it and just to learn about photography in general. I learned a lot, except I will have to say I think I have learned the most from just getting out there and shooting. So after having a few shots turn out crappy and after starting to shoot and then realizing I wasn’t in the right mode or my settings weren’t where they needed to be, I decided a perfect post would be my lessons learned up to this point. I have decided this will probably be a reoccurring post as I am sure I have many more lessons to learn. But for now here are the few that I can think of:

1) NEVER leave home without your camera. And yet just this past weekend I did just that and I ended up missing the most amazing shot of the full moon. Now I must admit this lesson is one I am not even sure I can continue to follow. I spent a decent amount of money on my camera and the accessory equipment and I don’t want to have to leave it in my car or have something happen to it if I always have it on me. However, more than once, actually many, many times, I have not had my camera and wished I did. I read in an article that after a while your friends and family will get used to you always have a camera with you and that it will just become a part of you, but I just am not sure I can get used to that. So for now I am still taking it with me when I am planning to use it, but I think I will start taking it more when I am not gonna have to leave it in the car or something might happen to it. And a final note on this, I have started carrying my point and shoot with me everywhere, but gosh it just doesn’t take as good of pictures, it’s a start though.

THERE’S MORE – CLICK HERE

2) ALWAYS, ALWAYS check all the settings before starting to shoot. This is another one I am still having to remember, but I am getting better. Several times I have either taken all the pictures, gotten home and then realized I had a setting wrong or started to take shots, realized half-way through that something was off and corrected it. The first one is the worst. But the second one can be just as bad because that means you either have to re-shoot all the first pictures or you just have to let them go. Here are a few examples of what I mean by this: I have been shooting each of my nephew’s basketball games (I am going to put them on DVDs and give them to each of his team-mates) and have a ton of pictures from them. So the first game I shot I didn’t check to see if my camera was in RAW or JPEG and I ended up shooting the game in RAW (if you don’t understand this it basically just means that the megabites that the picture takes up is about 10 times what it is in JPEG). So I had to go back and convert all these pictures. Another mistake is that because of shooting his games each week, and because after the first game I started to shoot them in JPEG, I have made the mistake of shooting my next pictures, ones I want to shoot in RAW, in JPEG and there is no way to convert them to RAW. A few other things are like I might have set the lighting setting to cloudy or fluorescent and then when I am shooting in a different light it completely messes up the pictures (I have some really blue looking snow in a few when I forgot to switch it from fluorescent). Now I will fully admit a lot of this problem stems from my impatience, but I have finally started to learn to stop, take a second, and look at all my settings before shooting any pictures.

3) Not knowing what APERTURE, ISO and SHUTTER SPEED are can make for some really bad pictures. Now I’m not going to go into details about each of these, because honestly this is still something I am trying to learn. But these three things is what makes up the exposure for a picture. If you don’t know about how each one affects a picture you can end up with a badly exposed picture, which makes for just a plain bad photo. I thought I knew about these when I started shooting, but I quickly learned that I didn’t and I wish I would have taken the time more to read and really try to understand them before I just went out there and did it. But as I said, the best way to learn is to shoot, and shoot and shoot.

And finally….

4) If photography is something your passionate about MAKE TIME FOR IT. I know lots of people have hobbies, and usually they are pretty passionate about them, but some people just do something to try and make money or to try and get exposure to something and they don’t have a deep down passion for it. Well I really do have a passion for photography, I love it, and I love learning new things about it every day. So something I have learned is that you have to take the time for a hobby that you are really passionate about. There are weekends that I haven’t found the time to go out and shoot one of my photowalks and I think I’ll just make it up when the weather is nicer. Except I keep regretting not taking the time to get out there and shoot. So I have decided I have to make this a priority and I have to make the time for it.

I know 4 lessons doesn’t seem like a lot, but for now they are pretty big ones and like I said there is going to be many more of these Lessons Learned posts. Next up, my third photowalk, I got the chance to edit the pictures today so they should be up today or tomorrow. I just might get caught up on these 10 posts after all.

Wow one month already, where does the time go?

jsphotographykc — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:23:50 +0000

Centerpiece - f1.8, 1/80 sec, ISO 800, 50.0mm (fixed focal lens)

I can not believe it has been a month since I last updated. I really think about what I’m going to post next every single day, but of course by the time I get home I have no time. The last month just flew by and from work being insane, to going out of town for 6 days, to getting sick and then my over zealous need to volunteer, I just have not gotten a single chance to edit let alone post any pictures. So this post is just a few random pictures I have taken over the past few months that I really like. I have still been shooting over the last month and have some great pictures (my count of postings that I need to do is up to 9 or 10…yikes!). I am even thinking of taking a day off work to edit some pictures and then try to do a post a night until I am caught up. We’ll see if that happens, right? I am going to do a non-photo post next about lessons learned over the past 3 or 4 months I have been shooting with my DSLR. The picture above is one I took with my new 50mm lens. I had read many places that this lens was a must have for getting great shots. So I played with it some the first night I got it and took pictures of my dining room table centerpiece. I loved how the one above came out with the words of the wine “Seven Daughters” so clear. Here are a few more…..

CLICK HERE FOR SOME PICTURES

f1.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800, 50mm (fixed focal lens)

Another centerpiece picture. I liked how this one put the focus on the front decorative ball that is in the middle of my centerpiece.

f5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO 400, 154mm

This doorknob is at City Hall and I was messing with editing and came out with what I think is a really rustic feel. I have always really liked these doorknobs, but they are pretty drab without the enhanced color.

f5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO 400, 250mm

I actually don’t think this picture is great quality and it could use a lot of editing, but I wanted to put it because it was one of the first pictures I took with my camera. The day after I got my camera I took it to work with me and decided to play around with the macro setting. I have this little tiki statute I got in Hawaii on my desk, I think he is the money tiki, and the background is one of my guest chairs. I like the detail you can see of him, but I am not fond of the background. Hey we all have to start somewhere!!

So those are my few random pictures. As promised next post (probably tomorrow) is going to be with no pictures and of my lessons learned. If you are at all into photography I hope you can learn from my lessons. After that hopefully I will get a few posts this weekend and several next week to get caught up.

Photowalk 1 – Watts Mill Park

jsphotographykc — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:57:22 +0000

Wow, I really am trying to figure out how people with a day job can have a hobby. This past week I had no extra minute to take pictures, let alone edit them and then post them. But I was finally able to convert these photos to get them posted. I took these at Watts Mill Park. It was very cold out, but I saw the water running through ice and had to get some pictures.

1/50, f32, ISO 1600, 250mm

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

These two photos below are the same, however I am posting them both because the top one I edited with an eye-dropper tool to fix the white balance and I found I liked the second one (the original) better. Let me know what you think.

1/125, f5.6, ISO 100, 55mm

Here is another one I edited with the eye-dropper tool.

1/100, f1/50, f32, ISO 1600, 250mm

1/250, f5.6, ISO 320, 250mm

1/320, f5.6, ISO 160, 250mm

1/250, f5.6, ISO 800, 250mm

1/320, f5.6, ISO 500, 250mm

1/250, f5.6, ISO 250, 250mm

Photowalk 2 – Loose Park

jsphotographykc — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:50:10 +0000

First, let me explain why there is not a Photowalk 1 before this Photowalk 2; after reading my favorite photoblog (did I mention it is iffles – who by the way is amazing and asked her followers for their photoblogs, went to each one and then gave a review on her page, here is where she mentioned my blog – Thanks!!) I decided to start shooting in RAW instead of Jpg. So for my first Photowalk I shot them all in RAW and got some great photos. However, I did not realize that once I uploaded them to my computer I might have some problems (since I am not a computer programmer and don’t understand plug-ins, scripts, etc.) with editing them and getting them into a format I could post here. So I am in the process of trying to get those photos edited and once I do I will post Photowalk 1. But for now I wanted to get a post up and so here is Photowalk 2.

In case you are not familiar, a Photowalk (or at least some people’s definition) is basically just a walk with camera in hand. A way to get out of the house and find things to photograph. It is one of many projects that lots of photographers do to get out of their houses and shoot as many photos as possible. I, like many others out there, am doing the 52 Photowalks project, so one Photowalk each week for 2010. I am one behind because I decided almost a week into 2010 to do this project, but I am sure I will get caught up when the weather gets nicer.

Photowalk 2 was done January 16th, Saturday morning, about 8:30am, at Loose Park, one of my favorite parks in Kansas City. I was on my way to my first photography class at Digital Labrador (another post to come about the class) and when I saw all the fog thought it would be a perfect time to get some pictures. These were taken on the west side of the park and although they are not very colorful I am happy with them. I didn’t do much editing (an occasional rotate here and there) because I decided since it was foggy they are supposed to look a little dingy (for lack of a better word). Enjoy!

CLICK HERE FOR THE PHOTOS

1/30sec, f22.0, ISO 200 , 32mm

1/60sec, f22.0, ISO 400, 55mm

1/25sec, f22.0, ISO200, 18mm

1/60sec, f22.0, ISO 1250, 55mm

1/250sec, f5.6, ISO 125, 250mm

1/100sec, f22.0, ISO 1600, 65mm

1/60sec, f22.0, ISO 500, 55mm

1/250sec, f4.0, ISO 100, 55mm

1/125sec, f29.0, ISO 1600, 100mm

Flowers

jsphotographykc — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:13:51 +0000

I promised pictures so here goes….lots of pictures without a lot of words!!

12/22/10, f20.0, 2sec, ISO 400

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

12/22/09, f4.5, 1/25, ISO 1600

12/22/09, f5.6, 1/15, ISO 1600

12/22/09, f5.6, 1/10, ISO 1600

12/22/09, f4.0, 1/25, ISO 800

12/22/09, f4.0, 1/20, ISO 400

12/22/09, f4.5, 1/20, ISO 1600