Fun with gifs part two

After yesterday's fun with some animated .gifs, I noticed another perfect opportunity for more.  Students performed with jump ropes and hula hoops at halftime of this evening's Terrell vs Tyler John Tyler basketball game.

To make these, I just fired a high-speed burst of the action, processed them, and joined them using an online .gif maker.  This one was very user friendly and allowed more images in the mix than some others (some limit to 3).  Google will find you many others if you search 'animated gif maker.'

And, for you Gosnells...

Have a great weekend.

Photo fun with kiddos

I don't think of myself as a typical portrait photographer, so when I get the chance to do a set-up that a lot of people will go through, it isn't a couple of lights with umbrellas at 45 degree angles. Instead, I like to play with lights and have some fun while making photos that look (I hope) a little edgier.

A lot of this is probably due to spending too much time reading the likes of Joe McNally.

I just hope parents like having something a little bit different...

These are from a shoot I am in the middle of that we are also doing as a fund-raiser for Kaufman County Relay For Life, so there is a little extra room for having fun there.

For the regular portraits, the lighting is actually pretty even. It is a 3'x4' softbox slightly to the right, and smaller softboxes (the ones that come with the Elinchrom BXRi kits) on each side behind the subjects. I will probably change up the ratios a bit for Wednesday night...


With fast moving subjects (and they move a LOT) the all-around lighting is pretty flexible. There are some middle angles that have odd shadows, but even that isn't so bad considering.


The other thing that happens with strong lights from the sides is dangerous shadows from things like hair. Again, not bad, but distracting once you see it.


After the main shooting was over on Monday, it was time to play with the new lights.. this is the two BXRi softboxes directly left and right (no regular key light), with some fun post processing in Lightroom.

Have a great week everyone

Don J.

Photo Fun on the Web

It is always interesting to me to find out what what other people see in one of my pictures, especially the artsy abstractish stuff... For this shot from downtown Dallas, a fellow flickr member thought it looked like the one bolt was holding down the city.

My thought at the time was of adding the little bolt to the skyline of large buildings, so you really never know what will come through to another person's eyes.

Chris at ObviousInsight mentioned an upcoming National Geographic photography workshop in the Dallas area... I hope I can make it, but my lovely wife's birthday is on the 9th.

Chase Jarvis is a top-shelf photographer and has also made an art form of combining business with creative arts. If you haven't seen this already, take the time to get an interesting take on where media is headed, and for a good kick in the creative part of your brain.

Chase Jarvis Keynote Address hosted by Art Directors Club of Denver from R. J. Kern on Vimeo.

I am very excited about attending the Kelby Training Photoshop "Down and Dirty Tricks" training on Friday...

Football season starts this week for me... It will be great to shoot while there is still daylight.

Have a great rest of the week, and be sure to make some good pictures.

With slow shutter speeds, you can get some interesting effects quite by accident. In this case, the roof supports at the Reunion Arena demolition almost disappear, and it looks like the structure is floating..

Happy Shooting everyone...

don j.

Fun Photo Stuff from the Web

Ever feel like this when you are out making pictures? I know I do.

see more Fail Blog

Photojojo has a lot of fun photo stuff.. I want to try this with some old photos from the high school yearbook days. Check out the shopping section and buy me one of these for my birthday. You could put a flash anywhere with that!

Put aside politics for a minute. Photographically speaking, President Obama and his team has been the best ever at maximizing opportunities for good pictures from the campaign forward. That has definitely continued... see the Big Picture blog for proof.

And an old one from me


Have a great week, everyone

don j.

Photo Stuff from the Web

Hello folks... welcome to the first post from my new Mac. Still getting used to this funky keyboard, but the screen is a wonderful thing.

Quick note... the new iPhoto face recognition feature is crazy. Seriously... if face recognition is this good on a consumer computer, what does the government have? GPS tagging is pretty cool too, especially for the newer cameras that do this automatically.

Photo District News annual photo contest winners are worth a look here.

I especially like the portraits by Sumit Dayal.

A site dedicated to finding art, photography and design ripoffs.

Our taxes bought a really nice camera upgrade for the Hubble, about $132 million worth. See what you got here. I was in high school when they put the Hubble up there, and the images that come back have always amazed me. I will be a bit sad when it finally dies.

I have stopped by the demolition site that is Reunion Arena occasionally to take some photos. It is eerie with sounds of creaking metal and a view of the interior that isn't natural.

As of May 18, the lower seating bowl was a pit of rubble.

Reunion and a pay phone... seemed appropriate.

One more, having too much fun with lines. Which is a future blog post, aren't you excited?


Full set of Reunion shots (more will be added as time goes by) is over here.

Happy Shooting,

don j.

Fun Photo Stuff May '09 Style

May is here... are you having fun yet?

Want to shoot really high-resolution panoramic images? The Gigapan maybe the tool for you. This thing works with point-and-shoot cameras, so no excuses!

How about time-lapse of your garden plants growing (or in my case, dying!)

And some other really creative time-lapse using tilt/shift lenses..

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I have been accused of "lens-envy," but is this too much?

And to show that snapshots can be fun too... a quick snap of a gentleman that looks very familiar, I just could not bring myself to go ask to take a proper portrait while he enjoyed a day with the family.



Happy Shooting,

don j

Fun Photo Stuff from the Web

Happy and Blessed Easter to everyone out there.

One SportShooter folks takes Peeps to the streets

And What the Duck is holiday themed as well...


And one from me...
One photographic trick I do a lot is to get in the shadow of my subject and shoot back toward the light. That is probably a blog topic for the future, but this is what I'm talking about.

Canon 40D, 17-85mm, f14, 1/250, iso100