Photo of the Day - The Girl's Got It!





As I promised this will be a lighter baby post as opposed to the first two this week. Today and tomorrow's post will feature two amazing artists! One of the first huge opportunities I had as a new photographer was to show my work in the Hayden Burns Library during Downtown Jacksonville's Artwalk. The chance to show in that gallery once a month was so important early on in my photography "career" and it was always a great time (I'd usually get there early enough to set up right across from the free beer and wine area - really adds to the fun and increases viewership as they wait in line). This was an amazing chance for me to display and sell my work but one benefit that I didn't initially realize when i was showing is that it was a GREAT opportunity to meet other talented young artists. One month, just by chance, we set up next to Kristin Stearley and as she was hanging her work my wife and I were so impressed and her work was right down our alley. Kristin paints portraits of your furry loved ones - that's right, your pets. As soon as we saw her work we immediately started planning on commissioning her to paint our two pups, Otis and Kohana. We actually have kept in touch with Kristin since leaving Jacksonville and as it turns out, showing at Artwalk wasn't the only thing we had in common. Kristin was expecting a baby around the same time we were and she had Emily Jane on February 13th (Congrats Kristin!).

So how does she do it you ask? I imagine keeping a pet (especially one as hyped up as Otis) still long enough for a painter to work up a portrait is horribly difficult. Actually I have experience dealing with pet portrait sessions as we put our pets through it for holidays and calendars. Kristin has developed her own system that involves using a photo that you provide to her and she works from that while also adding color and her own artistic flair. Her unique style and touches she adds to the portrait really make it work (notice the rhinestones attached to the painting on Kohana's collar). Once we decided we wanted our pup's portraits done it was time to find just the right photo. Fortunately I am a photographer so I was able to pick our favorite two shots of the dogs and sent them her way. Below are the two photographs she worked off of while creating their portraits:





The results speak for themselves. She is so nice, does such an amazing job, and does the commission work for a very reasonable price. Whether you have pets or not you MUST check out her website and get in touch with her if you'd like to send her a photo of your pet to paint. You will not be disappointed. If you're in the area and don't feel like taking a pic of your pet give me a shout and I'd be happy to work with you and get the perfect shot for Kristin to paint. Either way, please check out this talented artist!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have enjoyed the post and looking at some of Kristin's work. Hope you all have a safe and happy St. Patrick's day and be sure to come back tomorrow for our second guest blogger and it's going to be a great interview with some amazing photos to go with it. Can't miss it so come back tomorrow! See you then!

Photo of the Day - Black & Blue



Can't believe I missed the post yesterday! I had something really cool and interesting planned to shoot but it turned out to be much more of a challenge than I had hoped and I wasn't pleased with any of the results. By the time I made the decision I wouldn't be using a new shot for the post it was time for bed. I considered posting earlier today and then again tonight but just didn't have enough time. Anyway, since my night shot didn't work out for yesterday's post I figured I would post one of my favorite night shots that actually did come out how I wanted it to. :-)

I took this shot of the main street bridge in downtown Jacksonville almost a year ago and after a little work pulling out all of the colors other than blue I ended up with this. I'm usually not a fan of obviously photoshopped images but if it is done right and not over used selective color can really be interesting. I tend to use this more on subjects or landmarks that have been photographed a lot and need a new interpretation to make the photo stand out and be interesting to the viewer. I think it works for this shot and hope you do too! :-)

More to come tomorrow and I will make sure to find time for Thursday's edition of the photo of the day! See you tomorrow!

Sigma 24-60 Lens Hood We Hardly New Ye...


Mandarin Dock 4-15-08-104
Originally uploaded by tbd7182

Today was a pretty full day of class so on the way home I noticed a decent enough looking sunset and figured I would head out to County dock and take some photos. When I arrived at the dock I was surprised to find literally NO ONE else on the dock. When I took a couple steps out onto the dock I realized why this was. 1. The wind was howling (probably up to about 40 mph on the water) 2. It was cold 3. The sunset wasn't looking too good anyway. Being the eternal optimist I am or just the hardheaded photographer (pick one or both) refusing to accept a wasted trip for what it was I forged on. The river had plans of its own for me.

It was kind of nice being able to walk around wherever I want and take shots at almost every angle I could imagine, unfortunately the sunset wasn't really working with me and there wasn't much to shoot. I was still enjoying working with my new Sigma 24-60 2.8 and just working on getting some different shots. While I was framing a shot and using a circular polarizer apparently I slightly loosened my lens hood. I took a shot, looked up and all I hear was a pop as the wind finished unscrewed the lens hood the rest of the way. As it flew off the first bounce was right on the rail the next thing I saw and heard was a splash as the hood hit the water. The whole thing seemed to be in slow motion. I probably could have taken a shot at catching it but decided to keep my hands on the thousands of dollars of camera equipment and just watch the $20 lens hood take a bounce. Some lessons to be learned: When all signs point to a "no go" shooting day, listen to the signs. If you're hard headed enough to forge on tape your lens hood on when battling the wind and most importantly hold on to the expensive stuff :-)

Now the hood rests at the bottom of the St Johns and although all I want to do is help the river, I'm now a polluter - I blame the wind! :-)

Now the lens hood is swimming with the fishes. Poor 24-60 lens hood, we hardly knew ye...

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ROAD TRIP!

The "big" announcement for today is that in exactly one month on the morning of May 14 a friend and I will embark on a drive from Jacksonville, FL to Seattle WA! Another friend of ours recently got a job in Seattle but had to start work before he could drive out. When I heard this I told him if he could wait until the summer I would bring it to him half joking and half hoping to be taken up on my offer due to a sense of adventure - the more we talked the more it seemed like we could make it work. I recruited one of my best friends Greg to accompany me on the trip and his summer plans were about as locked down as mine and before I knew it I had a partner in crime! After some discussion and initial planning we have purchased plane tickets (one home from Seattle for me and one to Jacksonville for Greg)and a tentative route has been planned and is as follows:

Day 1: Jacksonville to Atlanta for lunch with friends and stopping for the day in Memphis

Day 2: Memphis to north Texas - probably the Amarillo area

Day 3: Amarillo to Denver to meet up with one of our friends and maybe bring them along for the rest of the journey.

Day 4: Denver to Moab Utah to visit some parks and spend the night

Day 5: Moab Utah to Jackson Wyoming to visit the Tetons

Day 6: Tetons to Yellowstone and drive in possibly camp

Day 7: Yellowstone to Seattle or Yellowstone to somewhere in central Montana - still to be decided.

I am VERY excited to have the chance to do this and it is really giving me something to look forward to and a reason to push through this semester. I can't wait to drive, ride, take pictures and have an amazing cross country adventure. Without a doubt there will be more posts regarding this and the planning process in the coming days. If you have ever done this or have any suggestions on the route I'd love to hear them!

Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to go and shoot some photos of the St. Johns River Celebration that was held at County Dock in Mandarin. The event was really great and it was a beautiful day as well. One of the Flickr Jacksonville group members is in a band that was performing at the event - The Ashley Gang. I met up with a few other Flickr Jax members to shoot the performance and to shoot the rest of the event. The performance was great and it was really nice to finally meet Paul G, and Jay - other fellow Flickr Jax members. Following the concert we watched another performance by the Palm Valley String Band - another great music group. We then headed down to the dock to watch and shoot some people kayaking and enjoying the day. You can find the rest of the set here

Later in the afternoon I had to catch up with my good friend Charlie, who as mentioned before is a pilot for Snoopy 1. We fished for most of the afternoon and didn't catch much of anything. After that we played Rock Band and watched the Elite 8 games for the rest of the night.

Today was a cloudy and windy day so I stayed inside, edited photos and watched more basketball - a nice lazy day. The hard work begins tomorrow (hopefully).