Let's change it up a bit.

For the past fortnight, I carried my camera around with me with only one lens. The rest I kept at home, safely put away. I decided to only carry one lens attached because I've been neglecting most of them. The lens I use most is the 18-55mm

So, I have only been shooting with my telephoto lens, 70-300mm. I've taken my other lenses for granted and wanted to feel what it would be like if I was restricted to one lens only. It was also a good exercise to open up my eyes to different things. For example, I would have probably shot the above photo with my wide angle lens or a 50mm. Since I used a telephoto, I had to be feet away from the rose and somehow "make it work." Just proves that taking a close up photo of a rose doesn't always require a macro lens.

The "Eastern" photo was taken in downtown Los Angeles after dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Bottega Louie. I of course used a tripod and shot at f/5.0, 2 seconds, ISO 640. I tilted the photo in post production. My original idea was to have the building off center with the night sky taking up most of the photo. I didn't like all the empty space; hence, I cropped and tilted the photo for the end result. I like it better this way. As a matter of fact, I'm dropping off this photo for printing, framing, and keeping it for myself. It'll add a nice touch to my room wall.

1/100, f/4.0. ISO 800

When I shot the guitar wall photo, I really really wish I had my wide angle lens. Guitar Centre has walls full of guitars dangling from them and I thought they would look great if I shot them with my 10mm. However, I think shooting this photo at 70mm creates a nice collage effect upon the guitars. I can easily see this photo as a wallpaper for someone's computer screen.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

See ya

Jake

Los Angeles Arboretum

Last weekend, I went to the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia to stroll around and take photos with one of my photo friends, Mario Rodriguez. Getting there was the hard part, everything else seemed to go smoothly after I got there.

I didn't find anything I liked for at least a half hour after I got there. I wasn't in the "mood" to shoot until later on in the day.

As we walked about the park, I started finding things that caught my attention and that's when I started shooting away. The above photo was shot on a slow exposure time of 3 seconds with a closed aperture. I didn't have my tripod on me, therefore, I put my camera on a rock to reduce shake.

The black and white of the birds of paradise is my favorite from the entire day. I'd like to point out that the photo was taken in clear daylight and the shadows in the background where not tampered with. It really was that dark. I think it's great how the birds are the only ones who came out in the light.

After a while longer, I became tired and decided to call it a day.

A major thing for me when shooting is to do so when I want to. I don't ever force myself to take photos if I don't want to because my end result will not be so nice. I have to be craving photography in order to do it. Same goes with editing. You might overlook a great photo in your library because you're so tired of editing other ones. A tip for photographers, immerse yourself in photography ONLY when you want to! It sounds silly, but it has worked for me for the past 13 years.

See ya

Jake

It is below freezing and only getting colder!!

I went camping with fellow photographer, Chad Bykerk, to Greenvalley Lake this past week for one and a half days. Chad's family has a cabin up in the woods and I have been asking him for about a year to take me up there with him. I finally got my wish and boy was it cold!

As soon as we got there, we walked about the town shoppes and started shooting. The temperature was 20 degrees I believe and dropping as the day went by. I covered myself with sweaters and jackets as much as I could but still, the cold got to me.

We went out to shoot 3 times that day. Combined, Chad and I have 8 lenses in between us. I used most of them to shoot my photos. The challenges I faced were many. COLD COLD COLD!! I could not feel my fingers most of the time much less would I be able to take photos. My feet were frozen and my lips chapped, nonetheless, I did what I had to to get great shots.

I took a little over 200 hundred photos and only picked 12. They range from landscapes to the sunset giving an orange glow while touching down on a frozen tree. While we were shooting the sunset, Chad said, "This is what a live for." Then and there I realized taking photographs is my life's passion and I don't ever want to stop. I take photographs for my personal satisfaction but feel elation knowing that I can share these with the people who enjoy viewing my work.

Thanks a lot for supporting my photography.

See ya later

Jake

Juliet Valdez Photoshoot

Let me introduce my latest client, Ms. Juliet Valdez.

Juliet is a free spirit to say the least. She's smart, funny, and extremely talented.

Juliet came to me a couple months ago asking if I could do a lifestyle shoot with her. Of course, I said yes; however, this shoot took months to plan out. We finally shot together this past week in sunny San Diego.

We shot at two separate parks, one being Balboa Park. The photo shoot was roughly about 3 hours long. When we got to Balboa, it was full of people! We walked around several locations and took some photos in front of an enormous fountain, inside a plant house and used the beautiful architecture as our background.

Juliet was easy to work with. She took direction very well and did exactly as I told her.

I think the photos came out great and I am very glad my client thinks the same.

In this photo session, I used my Canon 7D and 2 lenses- an 18-55mm and a 10-24mm wide angle lens. The above photo was shot at 10mm giving my model very long legs (wide angle lens have that effect). I also used a reflector to bounce light onto my model's face.

I took about 200 photos and ended up choosing 24. Some might think that's not very many photos, but photographers need to have an excellent editing eye. One things is to shoot well, the other is to know how to edit and which photos to pick. I could have easily given my client more photos; however, they would turn out to be repetitive. I pick the best photos from a setting and give those to my clients.

I shot all photos on Manual Mode as I always do and changed my white balance to Daylight while being on Portrait mode as well. I don't believe I hit any speedbumps on this shoot. Everything worked out smoothly and I am glad for that.

As soon as I receive my client's complimentary 4x6 prints, I will mail them out to her along with a master copy of all her photos. That's a wrap for another successful photo session.

See ya

Jake

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