Tiger Energy Services Christmas Party

Hello everyone. This past Saturday I was hired to shoot the Tiger Energy Services Christmas Party. The event went according to plan, as all employees of Tiger showed up and had a good time enjoying the party. It was held in downtown Fullerton and ran for several hours.

I was there for about 5 hours. One hour was spent setting up my strobes and fixing my lighting for the photo booth that was present. I had originally intended for my intern to be there and run the photo booth himself, but since he was unable to, I received great help from fellow photographer, Peter Klemek. He photographed the party guests with the several props that were available to them.

As the night continued, I walked around for the remaining hours shooting as much as I could. Overall, Peter and myself took around 700 photos combined (that's a lot of editing!). Anyway, I had a great time shooting the Tiger employees and would like to give a huge thanks to Mr. Joe Baxter for hiring me to be a part of this great event.

I would also like to recognize the party planner who did a stupendous job, Ms. Brittany Boat. If anyone is looking for an event planner, I would definitely recommend Ms. Boat.

I shot these photos with my Canon 7D and my Canon XSi with 28-135mm and 18-55mm lens. I used a Canon Speedlite 580 EX 2 and a flash bracket to go along with it. As anyone who shoots with a Speedlite would know, batteries die rather quick; therefore, I also used an external battery pack for the flash.

The challenges I faced while shooting this event was a DEAD camera! My 7D died in the last hour of shooting. I quickly changed to my backup camera, the XSi. I had fully charged all cameras and batteries (about 20 of them) before the event and was surprised that my 7D only lasted about 4 hours, even with a battery grip. I'm glad I was prepared with a backup. If I did not have a backup camera...well that would just be unacceptable.

I shot all photos while on Program mode. I switched my white balance to flash and kept my ISO at 100. I'm still editing and watermarking the other photos. I expect to have all of them ready for my client within one week.

See ya and thanks for reading

Jake

Dwayne Mason Photoshoot

FIERCE is the first word I can use to describe my latest client, Dwayne Lardell Mason Jr.

Dwayne is an artist in his own right, choosing to express himself like no other; be it through cable wire around his neck choking him or by wearing speakers with his daily outfits.

We had a photo shoot a few weeks ago and here are some of the photos we got. We shot at Fullerton Train Station and at a nearby playground. I briefly photographed Dwayne weeks prior to our shoot and I knew instantly that if I shot with him, the photos would be nothing less than amazing. Dwayne knows how to work his angles and use himself as an advantage. It was a weight off my shoulders to not have to direct my model. My intern used a light reflector to bounce light onto Dwayne's face and I used a 50mm and an 18-55mm lens to capture the photos.

The above photo is a few stops overexposed and this worried me as I saw the photo on my LCD screen. At photo school, you are constantly taught how to create great photos with the appropriate exposures. I panicked when I saw the photo being overexposed and quickly changed my aperture. However, during editing, I decided to fix the overexposed photo and make his green jacket pop out with colour. This is my favorite photo from the entire shoot. Sometimes mistakes can be the greatest things you make.

The playground idea came to me because Dwayne is a guy who is about 6 feet tall and is height would juxtapose the kids playground. He looked like a giant compared to the children who were playing nearby. haha.

Our photo shoot took about 2 hours and I shot around 180 frames.

I only choose 21.

All in all, I think it was a great shoot. The problems I faced then was the sunlight. It was either too strong, creating harsh shadows on my model's face, or there was not enough of it (it was a cloudy day). I shot all photos on Manual mode and kept my ISO at 100. My white balance was set to Daylight. To find the right angle, I laid on the ground several times, stood on things to get an aerial view and I'm sure my intern was tired of me yelling at him to "FIND THE LIGHT!"

I have another photo shoot scheduled for late December and am shooting a Christmas party this coming weekend.

See ya

Jake

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I haven't blogged in a while and that was because I hadn't shot too many photos.

I went to Craig Regional Park in Fullerton yesterday with one of my new friends, Peter Klemek.

He's also a photographer and I've been wanting to go out shooting with him. I enjoy shooting with other photographers rather than by myself. We were at the park for about an hour and I shot a little over 100 frames. I haven't gone through the lot, but the ones I have edited I absolutely love already.

I shot all photos using my Canon 7D and I changed lenses in between. The first black and white leaf was shot with a 5omm lens. I was on the ground trying to get a great angle and shot at F 2.8, 1/100, and an ISO of 160. The 50mm does not double as a macro lens; therefore, I shot not too far back and cropped the photo in editing.

The 2nd tree was inspired by one of the best photographers that walks the earth today, Peter Lik. He has an amazing photo of a tree and I wanted to give it a go at capturing something like he did. I shot with a wide angle lens at F 3.5, 1/160, ISO 250.

The collage of leaves is one of my favourites. It exemplifies fall at its best, with the differentiating colours. I photographed this photo with a 50mm lens at F 1.8, 1/40, ISO 200.

The challenges I faced at this shoot was attaining the colours I wanted. I was constantly changing my ISO, shutter speed and Aperture; almost with every shot. The 50mm was definitely beneficial since it allows for a wide open aperture and the sun was going down. Overall, I am satisfied with the photos I took.

See ya

Jake

Random photos with a high ISO

I visited one of my best friends, Zac, in Azusa on Friday. I haven't seen him in a while and it was nice catching up with each other's lives.

After watching Lakers basketball, I sat at his kitchen table and took some random photos. I wanted to test out the high ISO in my camera and whether much noise would show. There also not much light in the room, therefore, I shot with a wide open aperture and slow shutter speed (manual). The ipad was shot at f 3.5, 1/50 and an ISO of 640. I think the colour quality is great and there isn't much noise in the photo. The lens hood was photographed at f 5, 1/50, ISO 2500. Crisp photo for such a high ISO. That's all I've shot this weekend. Hopefully I'll take a few more photographs on Sunday.

See ya!

Jake

"Four legs good, two legs bad"

I spent most of my Halloween lesson planning for my class tomorrow. I'm introducing pictorials (my favourite) to my students and I was at Starbucks making a slideshow.

While there, I was reading "Animal Farm" on my Ipad.

What a great read so far. I read a chapter today where several animals are slaughtered by other animals (as if humans don't do enough of it already). It made me think of the reasons why I went vegetarian 7 years ago.

Anyway, after reading a couple more chapters, I took my camera out and took 2 photos of the scene in front of me.

Both were shot with the same shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. The white balance was set on auto. I shot manually and went with an open aperture to let more light through the lens because it was an indoor shot. The shutter speed was somewhat quick; you don't wanna make it too fast or too slow, but something in the middle.

I also wanted to focus on the strong shadows the light was bringing in, in the second photo. Here they are. BTW, I don't think I'm allowed to take photos inside any Starbucks. I got away with it this time.

Manual, f. 5.6, 1/125, ISO 100

See ya!

Jake

Walking around USC

M: f7.1, 1/125, ISO: 160, JPEG

This past weekend, I was in the mood to shoot some random photographs and test out my new 7D. I was at a Starbucks near USC responding to emails, editing photos and sending some out for printing. As soon as I was finished will all that, I took both my DSLR's with me and walked around the uni of so cal for about an hour.

Nothing caught my attention for the first 15 minutes. I took about 50 photos that hour and only decided on 4. The rose above is the fourth one.

How many people DON'T take photos of roses right? It's a worn out image that everyone seems to take a photo of. I'm not too fond of rose photos but here is mine.

I shot it in manual mode (my exposures are above). I should have lowered the ISO to 100 since it was an overcast day. I set my white balance to Cloudy and shot in Zone AutoFocus. I usually rely on the camera to focus the subject for me since I have terrible eye vision; even with my contacts on.

I decided to shoot in JPEG and not RAW since I hardly edit my photos to an extreme using photoshop. I know some people shoot in RAW for the safety of attaining more information in each photo, but nah. I'm alright with JPEG, for now.

As for photos, I haven't taken any this week. Well I have, but they're all work related.

See ya!

Jake Coronel

About Jake Coronel

Hello, and welcome to my first blog entry.

I will be blogging about all things Jake Coronel Photography©.

For instance, I will (try to) write about every shoot I have, what challenges I faced when shooting, the exposures I used to shoot, etc.

History about my photography beginnings:

My name is Jake Coronel and I have been taking photographs since I was 10 years old. My photo endeavors began when I received my first camera for my 10th birthday. I was in 5th grade and the camera I received was a Canon film Sure Shot 36-76mm. From that day forward, I carried my camera everywhere I went. I immersed myself into nature/scenic photography; often photographing plants and insects in my front yard, sunsets, and animals.

What I love about photography is having the ability to freeze a moment in history with a click of a button. I remember EVERY single photo I've ever taken, when I took it, why I took it, and how I felt when I took it. For example, I remember photographing 2 palm trees at a local Kmart on a cold, cloudy Fall afternoon when I was 14 years old. I had stepped out of my parents' car and saw a great scene in front of me, took my camera out, SNAP!

By the age of 14, I was shooting with a Canon Digital Power Shot. I snapped a lot even with a film camera. I'd develop about 8 rolls of film a month. My finger never left the shutter once I had gone digital.

By 15, I was yearning for a Single Lens Reflex camera. I did some research (which, back then, meant looking at magazines and not the internet) and found a line of cameras at Best Buy. I bought a 500 dollar Canon EOS Rebel XT and was literally "through the roof" for owning such a fancy, beautiful camera.

I'm 23 now, and use a Canon EOS Rebel XSi and a Canon EOS 7D. I own 6 cameras total; including the first one I received 12 years ago.

I specialize in landscape and nature photography. Pictorials are also a major part of my portfolio and some of my favorite things to shoot. 5 people own Jake Coronel Photography© original prints.

I have shot several events, portraits, and engagements.

2 of my pictorials were published in the Santa Monica Corsair.

I have been hired to conduct personal photo shoots all over Los Angeles and Orange County.

Welcome to my photo blog.

Jake Coronel