Thanksgiving: A Day In Pictures
Posted by jOe
This gun doesn't recoil this much, I was just doing a left-hander so I could hold my camera with the right. I didn't hit anywhere near my target:
A thoughtful thanksgiving
Posted by jOe
This is aimed at those who have a hard time slowing down. Who often get stuck at 100. So, stop looking at my blog, eat more food, and come back tomorrow for more pictures!
If perhaps you’re starting to wonder…
Posted by jOe
what's the point of my blog?
Well, you're not alone. I've wondered that very same thing. Sometimes almost hourly. But in the mean time, as it grows and settles into its own niche, I think it's safe to say for now, a Day in the Life, of Joe: pictures, music (Tuesdays), people, and all sorts of other random stuff.
Friday I went to Lee's French Quarter apartment to pick up some files for work. He told me to bring my camera because he had just finished his latest piece of art, and I like to document it.
To set the scene he lives on Royal Street in one of those hidden courtyards known only by the black, iron gate smudged between two buildings. I told him, one day I want to do a full photographic walk-through of his house because of all the unique little (and big) eccentricities. But for now, here are just a few shots (including his room that is completely covered, ceiling to floor, in old albums!).
On my way home I did a pap (uh, paparazzi, that is). I took a couple pictures of Nicolas Cage's used-to-be French Quarter house.
And later that night Sam and I went rock climbing with Will and the First Baptist Church's youth group. In case you don't know, rock climbing is awesome and next time you need to be there with us! Not even playin'.
Music: POS, Nina Simone, VAMPIRE WEEKEND, and Cat Power!
Posted by jOe
If you look at my iTunes, you'll see I've listened to Low Light Low Life about a thousand times! Such a good song. Has a little bit of an early-90's hip hop vibe to it. I don't think there's an official video, but a while back a WONDERFUL photographer, Dave Jackson, used the song for a video he made. His video is really cool because it shows the behind the scenes on a commercial shoot (if you're into that kind of thing). So, here's the song to his video:
I usually reserve my Tuesday music reviews for new, but not top-40, stuff. Not that I don't like Top 40 (I mean, if it's good, it's good, right?). But invariably, everyone has already talked about that. So, I tend to stick to more indie centered, minor releases. But this song doesn't really fit in either categories. It's Sinnerman by Nina Simone. Mmm, don't you just love Nina Simone? Yeah, me too. You've probably heard Felix Da Housecat's Mix in about 70 movies over the last decade. It's good, too. But Nina's is a little more... Nina.
This is what I'm really excited about! Vampire Weekend's new album Contra is coming out soon. I have their first one and absolutely love it! If it was a record I would have worn it out. But it's not, it's a CD, so it's still in really good condition.
Two things.
First:
Second:
You can download Horchata, also from Contra, here for free at 320kbps!
The Last one's Cat Power. Just another favorite I wanted to include.
The Willis Fam!
Posted by jOe
Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to do some family shots with Brent, Kristie, (and Cade!). It was a blast--with cool, walking weather and beautiful, late-afternoon sunlight, we parked our cars and took a stroll down Chartres Street.
Here are some of my favs!
Cool Things that are Square
Posted by jOe
I'm starting an new on-again-off-again series called Cool Things that are Square. I introduce it so because there's no rhythm or reason behind it, just whenever I find stuff that looks good in square!
And voilà:
AND, here's something that's just for Photographers. If you're not a photographer or interested in photography stuff, be warned, you might find this highly boring. It's about a camera. For real.
Look Ma, No Photoshop!
Posted by jOe
Being the newly handicapped Joe that I am, I've not been prone to aimlessly wondering the streets of New Orleans taking pictures as I often am. Sad times. But a week or two ago I did a shoot in Jackson Square. I was playing around with some of my outtakes and decided to show you some before-and-afters: as they come out of my camera and after they've been edited.
Quick note on photography-speak, "editing" can refer to two things. The first is the process of rating all of your images as either keepers, throw-aways, runner-ups, maybes, and so on. The second is where you actually change details of an individual file--like what I talked about in my November 11th post about taking pictures. The latter is also sometimes referred to as post-production.
Here are some of the outtakes I mentioned above. The after and before, the what I was thinking when I took it, and the what I was thinking when I edited it:
The St. Louis Cathedral is the subject, but I didn't want the typical shot that everyone takes, so I chopped off the top part which is one of it's most defining features. But because of all the foreground distractions, the focus on the cathedral was quite a bit muted. In Aperture I increased the blackpoint which almost completely blacked out all of the trees and sidewalk in the foreground. Then I heated up the white balance to somewhere around 7300K, and singly upped the blue hue a little to keep from having too heavy a yellow color cast. And I added a few sharpening tools; I do this on just about every image.
Here I was trying to get a shot of the park worker's legs propped up on his desk inside his castle-hut, while the shadows quickly enveloped the rest of his body. You can kind of see that in the original image, but the exposure inside the hut was just too dark. So, I applied Monochrome Mixer (which is a more powerful version of removing all saturation, the normal way you change to black and white), increased the contrast, brought the "light" curve of Levels inward to brighten up the lighter hues only, and sharpened it all up. Plus straighten & crop, forgot to mention that.
This was all from the hip. Which explains why the focus is behind the subject. Oops.
It would have been very easy to raise the camera to my eye, look through the viewfinder and focus on this guy. But it never fails, when people see you pointing a camera at them, they always change something in their body language. Or ask you for a tip.Here I again used Monochrome mixer, bumped the contrast some to get rid of that hazy, flat feel, and then sharpened to a finish. Also, notice the vignette. That's natural for my full frame camera (which has a wider field of view, a 35mm film equivalent). Because the image was slightly out of focus, I went heavier on contrast than I sometimes do to give it a film-feel.
P.S. The title of this post refers to Photoshop, but I don't actually use it on my images. I do all of my editing in Aperture.
Jenna+David
Posted by jOe
I had the opportunity to second-shoot with Kenny for Jenna & David's wedding Saturday a week ago. If you don't know what 'second-shooting' is, it's when a second photographer acts as back-up and alternate to the first. Here's what it means in the practical sense: I get to show up, take a bunch of pictures while everyone's attention is on the primary photographer (so I get all those awesome, candid, photojournalist shots), and then turn all my photos over to the primary photographer to do the massive amounts of editing and post-wedding coordinating with the client.
It's like all of the fun with out any of the work. Who wouldn't want to do this?
Rachel knows what I'm talking about.
Jenna tends to make dramatic faces when she stops to listen to someone telling her something. It's as if he's in the process of explaining to her the gigantic fortune he's decided to give them, when in reality he was probably just saying, "congratulations, I'm headed out for the night."
Cool Music & John Mayer
Posted by jOe
First, for those who don't know, I saw Where The Wild Things Are, and it was really, really good. Not even playin'. So, I'm a little partial to the soundtrack. It has the same raw, childish energy from the movie. Although some tracks are duds, others like All is Love and Capsize make me laugh with all that spelling. What's that about?
And Hideaway, personal favorite.
Built to Spill as a band has been around for quite a while. This is the first track off their latest album. They're kind of like Modest Mouse crossed with... Modest Mouse. That's all I got. If you really love this song, check out their CD, if you only really like this song, buy it alone from iTunes and save your money on the rest. There's nothing wrong with the album; it just peaks with this song. Cool artwork, though.
Here's a free download for Atlas Sound's Walkabout. Sweet song!
Need a little Brit [non]Pop in your diet? I thought you might. The Big Pink!
With his James Dean-esque hair cut and mild departure from his normal, uh, stuff, John Mayer's latest single Who Says is actually kind of okay. But when I listen to it, I can't help but feel there's still this nagging something holding on to me. Something that won't just let me say, 'yeah, that was a good song.' Maybe it's those little moments in the video where he looks at the camera. Or the way they do the Garden State swimming pool scene. I'm not sure. Give it a watch, and let me know what you.
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