Thanks a million, everyone

Sometime before the month of March is over, my online photographs will have logged their one millionth view. That's pretty heady stuff for a guy who was thrilled to death when a handful of visitors stopped by back in May of 2005 when I started posting my work for the world to see.

I've grown and improved as a photographer in that time. Concepts and techniques that had me sweating and scratching my head back then are second nature to me now. I find myself more in control of what shows up on the LCD screen than I used to. Which now means, if the photo isn't any good, I can't blame the camera.

No way that I'll know which photo was number one million, but when the counters here and at Flickr add up (I'm about 18,000 views shy at this point), I'll let you know.

Thanks for coming by.

Orchids

Mitchell Park Conservatory, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Available light plus flash at 1/4 power with diffuser on an off-camera bracket to add some fill and separate the flowers from the background.

I've been blogged. Darren Rowse at Digital Photography School has selected a couple of my photos as part of 21 featured "Impressive Tree Images." Head over and check out all the fantastic flora shots.
Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Don't know much about bugs ...

… but I am getting better at photographing them. If Darth Vader could be a bug, he’d probably look a lot like this bug. This guy was found perched on a leaf at the Hawthorne Hills Nature Center in Elgin, Illinois. I can’t ID the species (still Googling), so if any entomologists are reading this, let me know what I’ve photographed here.

The weird thing is, when I’m out making bug pictures, I don’t know what I’ve photographed until I get home and begin to look through the images on the memory card. There is so much concentration involved in getting into position, not scaring the bug away (for some reason bugs get nervous when a huge object comes within a fraction of an inch away – go figure), then working to get the focus just right –the only way to adjust is to slowly move the camera closer or farther from the subject a smidgeon at a time – and then I’m only concentrating on the bug’s eyes – if I have them in focus, then I figure the rest of the picture follows. All I know at the time is that I’ve got some good images of bug eyes. I have no idea what the rest of the bug looks like until I study my shots later.

Bug photo tip: it’s very tempting to shoot down at a bug. Don’t do it if you can help it. Do whatever you can to come at the bug from the side (I look for insects on foliage that’s between waist and shoulder height to make the task easier). For one thing, coming in from the side is less scary for the bug (they have feelings too, you know), the second thing is that you’ll get a nice profile shot with the subject separated from whatever it’s perched upon.

Making the ranks Chase Jarvis reports on one organization’s attempt to ascertain the top 20 photography blogs on the interwebs. He links to the organization's site which compiled the rankings along with various Top 50 lists in twenty metrics-related categories.

Interesting that Points of Light cracks the Top 50 numbers-wise (but is not listed) in seven of the twenty categories. Makes me wonder how they categorized photography blogs and how accurate the counters are (both theirs and mine).

At any rate, there are some very good photo blogs listed, many that I visit on occasion. Check them out.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

That summer place

It’s not too early to be thinking summery thoughts. Check out the Summer Group on Squidoo, where you can find ideas for traveling, recipes, parties, all things swimming and beachy -- you name it. Find and share ideas in a virtual garden party.

Heidrun, the Summer Group lensmaster from Germany, is a longtime follower of Points of Light.

Rod's wrecker redux

My, oh my!
Look how the time flies.
Look how the world changes
in the blink of an eye.

My, oh my!
Look how the years have flown.
Turnin’ around before you know it --
Up and gone.
Oh my, oh my, oh my.

These lyrics fit the picture of the abandoned old wrecker truck in more ways than one. It's the chorus of a song recorded by a country music duo that called themselves The Wreckers.

Photo blogging: Digicamhelp.com is a Web site devoted to helping beginning to intermediate photography enthusiasts get the most out of their digital camera equipment. I've been a contributing author to the site since January -- you can check out articles on everything from basic exposure and composition to post-processing and visual effects. You can sign up for Digicam's newsletter and alerts for new posted content.

Picture too big? Here's a smaller version. Hand held flash unit fired six times around the truck during a 30 second exposure at deep twilight. Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Retreat

The icy tentacles of winter slowly release their grip upon the earth. Though they may wage another battle or two against the forces of spring in the days ahead, the outcome is becoming clearer by the day.

For reasons unbeknown, we're celebratin' all things Irish today (it's pronounced OY-rish by the denizens of OYR-lund, by the way - just a tip so you sound authentic -- no need to thank me). I'll be doin' my part by having a corned beef sandwich for lunch. And that's about it.

Hopin' you byes and garls have a good one today.

Photo blogging: One of my photographs showed up on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish blog last weekend. The Dish is one of the top 100 blogs in the world, according to Technorati.com, which tracks such things. The photo accompanied a post that reviews a review of a book that deals with deriving meaning from the beauty of nature.

Oh, and there's an amusing post that precedes the one on beauty. A chin-scratching type wonders if God's perfection is somehow diminished if one lives apart from Him. For some reason, I can't imagine that God is sitting somewhere wringing His hands wondering, "Why don't they ever call me?" Shows what happens when we make us the standard of perfection.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

"He nevers asks if I'd like a double tall split skinny with a whitecap"

While traveling through Wisconsin last fall, my wife and I stopped at a coffee shop. It had internet access, so I went back out to the car to get my laptop computer and camera to edit and upload a photo I had taken just a few minutes before.

When I went back out to the car, this fella was running around the back of an SUV barking at me while his owner sipped a hot drink while playing cards with some folks inside the shop. I grabbed the computer and camera, then saw that the light was good so I pointed the camera at the dog. He immediately struck a pose for me, let me take the picture, then resumed running around and barking.

I'm thinking I should do a series of "dogs waiting in trucks" photos. It seems like in Wisconsin, every parking lot has at least one pickup truck or SUV with a dog waiting inside at any given time during the day.


Photo blogging: The Getty Images jobs web site proudly celebrates its “community of creative, intelligent and interesting people.” Over the course of the next 60 days, Getty will be reaching into that community and tossing a number of creative, intelligent and interesting people out on the street at it eliminates jobs following its acquisition of Jupiter Images.

But there is a bright spot. Getty is now hiring a photographer. They’re looking for someone with the ability to "deliver product that is in line with overall corporate objectives" while striving to "understand and manage the various budgetary issues that may affect the ability to deliver product" while simultaneously utilizing an “ability to build alliances” and interfacing “with management to ensure needs are met."

And I presume that when you’re not doing all that, you should be out taking pictures.

I’ve read hundreds of job postings and help wanted ads in the past six months since I was jettisoned from the good ship Corporate America. And still, a little part of me dies when I read an ad written in corporate-speak. Creating prose that is not only vague but dull is a true art form that is not to be envied.

UPDATE: The job posting has been removed from the Getty web site and various job boards. Hopefully at the insistence of a copy editor.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

Bling it on

I’ve been cooped up inside a lot lately. Not able to get out and get any naturey-type shots. Not that late winter/early spring is terribly inspiring here in the upper Midwest. What isn’t white is brown. Ah, well. Eighteen days until spring.

So in the meantime, I’ve been tinkering with my Home Depot-inspired studio lighting setup, and am just about ready to take it out on the road for some portrait sessions. Along the way, I got a chance to shoot some bling shots as part of an engagement photo package for a lucky couple (lucky that they’re getting married, not necessarily lucky that they have me for a photographer).

So I thought I’d post a few samples of the bling shots and a couple of self portraits to show you what can be done with a four-foot fluorescent light fixture, daylight-balanced tubes, a reflector, and a beat-up 25-year-old flash unit. The portrait background is fabric that was on sale at Jo-Anne’s held up by a frame built with less than ten dollars’ worth of PVC pipe from HD and held in place with three spring-loaded hand clamps that cost 98 cents each.

The ring shots were taken with the same basic setup. The top shot shows the ring on a mirror. A white sheet of foam board was used to reflect a white background. The ring and Bible shot was lit by a small LED flashlight.



Chic on the cheap. Gotta love it.

Photo blogging: Sure, I’ve shot pictures of waves. It’s tricky. You gotta time them just right. You’ll wind up with very few keepers -- most of your shots will look cruddy. Now I’ve just discovered another trick to photographing surf. Instead of photographing breakers from the outside looking in, you really have to photograph waves from the inside looking out. And that’s why I will never be an outstanding wave photographer. Be sure to check out the site's home page, which shows the photographer at work. That little teeny person in the lower left of the picture holding the yellow thingy about to be clobbered by a 20-foot wave - that's the photographer.

Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.

I've been gamed

While checking links to my photo of a red barn on a snowy morning, I noticed one from Facebook. Some of my photos provide the backgrounds for numerous MySpace pages, I thought, so why not?

I followed the link and discovered that the photo was used to play “The Album Game.” According to Rebecca Dennison, the game is played thusly:

Go to Wikipedia and select “Random Article.” The first random article’s heading is the name of your band.

Next, select “Random Quotation.” The last few words of the last quote on the page is your album’s title.

Go to Flickr and select “Explore Interesting Photos from the Last Seven Days.” The third photo, no matter what it is, is your album cover picture.

You can then put it all together in the design program of your choice, then post it to Facebook and tag three friends to do the same.

Kind of an unfortunate choice for the name of the band, but I like the title and it all seems to work in a strange kind of way.

Ah, to have that much free time.

EDIT: Okay, I took some free time to play the game. I couldn't find a random quote generator on Wikipedia, but I just Googled for a quotation site and took the first one that came up. Ok, done.

My year in review

Okay, so I’m a little late in posting this, as year-end reviews are usually posted, well, at the end of the year. But I ran across a quote by Ansel Adams that got me thinking. The dean of American nature photography once said, “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” Of the hundreds of shots he made annually, if St. Ansel managed to capture about one good picture a month, he was a happy man.

I estimate that I easily took more than 3,000 photographs last year, maybe closer to 4,000 (I made the jump to digital photography – I never would have been anywhere near that output with film). So, did I end up with 12 pictures that I could call “significant?” I’m defining “significant” as a photo that breaks new ground in some way, whether it’s a technical, artistic or technological jump.

Herewith is a collection of my significant photos from 2008, beginning with the photo at the top of this post. It's significant in that it was one of the first digital photographs I ever made after more than a decade of shooting film only. Shortly after getting a Fujifilm Finepix s700 for Christmas, my wife and I took a trip to Door County, Wisconsin. I was still getting acquainted with the camera when I shot the Sturgeon Bay Canal Pier Light just before dawn. Plenty of mistakes in the picture, but plenty of potential, too. The composition makes up for some technical problems (focus, noise). A cleaned up version of this photograph will be published in this year's Door County Visitor Guide.

Technical and technological achievement. Capturing a nearly full moon (technical) and inserting it into an existing photo via Photoshop (technological).

Being in the right place at the right time. The odds of that happening increase the more you actually get out and look for pictures. And don't miss a chance to shoot photos when it's foggy.

If the clouds are doing something dramatic, grab your camera and get out there.

Pictures don't have to be complicated.

Right time, right place, dramatic clouds, simplicity all in one picture.

Let the picture evolve. This park sits at the end of a pathway through a wooded area in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. I took photo after photo as visitors came and went, then kept the photo with the most interesting configuration of silhouettes.

Backlighting from a nearby window combined with a sheet of plack foam board with a string of colored lights inserted, Lite Brite style.

Drama in the sky, stillness in the water.

Exploring macro and natural light using a sheet of black foam board as a backdrop. Shot outside in the shade on a sunny day.

Same black backdrop/shade configuration as previous photo. This daylily was one of many growing by a neighbor's garage.

We all walk a path that takes some twists and turns. I had already taken a number of shots of the winding road when a gentleman out for a walk passed by. We exchanged greetings and I waited for him to make his way to the top center of the composition.

These 12 photos represent a whole lot of learning in a year's time. Three of them are award winners, several have been published and together they've garnered more than 30,000 online views.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2008-2009 James Jordan.

From OK to WOW

If you've been following my series on post-processing digital images, you might be interested in a recent blog post by professional children's photographer Kelly Ferreira. She walks through her thought process while photographing her two daughters, and provides plenty of examples and before-and-after shots along the way.

Hey, it's a start

When I was a young boy back in the 1960s, and it was time to get my hair cut, my mom would give me a couple of dollars and have me walk two blocks to the downtown area of the little Michigan town we lived in to visit the barber shop. Hanging among the patriotic posters on the wall of the shop ("America, Love It or Leave It," etc.) was a framed dollar bill. I was a budding fan of money myself, but didn't understand the need to go to the trouble of framing it. Later I learned that businesses displayed the "first dollar" they earned as a celebratory milestone, with the hopes of more dollar bills to come.

So, here is my "first dollar" display - the first photograph of mine downloaded from iStock. I've been an iStock photo supplier for a whopping two weeks and have uploaded about 17 pictures so far. Each upload is reviewed by a set of human eyeballs, and the approval process can run a week or more, so in actuality, only five of my photos have been live on the site for just a few days.

Hoping for more to come.

Kindred spirits

Every year, I try to take some sort of offbeat picture for Halloween and more often than not, it includes fire in some form. It's a way to release my inner pyromaniac, I suppose.

How to do it: Set your camera for a long exposure - this shot was set for 15 seconds at f5.6 and 100 ISO. Set the self timer and fire off the shot. While the picture is exposing, move some type of flaming object through the frame. In this case, I covered an oil candle with black electrical tape, then attached it to a long black metal rod. It'll probably take several shots to get the flame where you want it in the shot. Digital cameras are indispensible for the instant feedback you can get - I used to do this with film by guess and by golly.

Photo blogging: I'm a contributing editor to the photo site Innovative Digital Photographers. My current post there reviews the work of Lucie Debelkova, who produces some phenomenal travel photography. Lucie travels the world making images that capture the viewer with vivid colors and light. Take a look and prepare to be amazed.

Click on this post's headline for image EXIF data. Click on picture to enlarge (1440X900). Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Foggy autumn morning in the hollow

My first posted photo of the fall. And with it, I'm introducing a new feature. Actually, Blogger has always had this feaure, but I never thought to take advantage of it. I've set the headline of this post to take you to a Flickr page that shows the exposure info for the photo in the post. Just click on the headline to go there. The Nikon D60 records a pretty thorough set of data for each picture taken with the camera.

The only thing it won't record is if a filter is used. In this case, a 2-stop graduated neutral density filter was used to balance the tones between the sky and ground.

Happy autumn.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

In other news: I've landed a small but regular gig as a photography writer/reviewer for a web site called Innovative Digital Photographers. It features news about photo gear and offers tips and techniques in a variety of photographic disciplines. Check out the profiles I've written for two photographic pals of mine, Peter Bowers and Trey Ratcliff. Each has a unique take on photography.

I scored my first magazine cover recently. A photo taken at Cave Point in Door County graces the cover of the fall 2008 issue of Door County Living. The magazine chronicles the lifestyle of the Door peninsula in Wisconsin.

And there's nothing like having some of your photos blogged. (Numbers 2, 4, 5, and 6)

Back in a bit

I was just sitting down to get going on a blog post when I got an e-mail from my wife, who is driving to work. She reports fog in the area. I'm grabbing my camera and heading out. Back soon.

Towering clouds

I was out on Saturday afternoon scouting locations for an upcoming photo shoot that I have with an area Christian rock band. They’re looking for a gritty urban feeling for their backdrops, so I started close to home in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, Illinois. While the downtown area has been undergoing development over the past several years and a lot of progress has been made, there are still many pockets of nitty-grittiness to be had.

This particular shot was taken from Walton Islands on the Fox River that runs through the downtown area. The building is the Elgin Tower building, dwarfed by the roiling cumulonimbus clouds that overshadowed the area all day. Sort of a “nature is bigger than we are” type of shot.

Photo blogging: Another pro shooter blogging from the Olympics in Beijing. Fascinating stuff. And check out the equipment he took with him … he says it took months to pack it all. I believe him.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Hidden nymph

A katydid nymph trusts its coloration to keep it safe while the humongous camera lens hovers above. I’ve come across katydid nymphs in my garden throughout the spring and early summer. I’m not going to go so far as to say it’s the same one I’ve seen over and over again, but I have only seen one each time. Hmmmm.

This nymph, or one just like it, was captured in this photo. I also have another katydid photo, taken in my dad’s garden about a week after he passed away last fall.

Jeff Clow is a contact of mine at Flickr and has a number of nymph katydid photos taken in his amazing macro style. Check them out.

Photo blogging: I used to feel right at home carrying my camera around in public places, exploring the architectural and human landscape. Nowadays, I feel extremely self conscious. Getting stopped repeatedly by security guards wondering what you could possibly be doing with a camera in a public place can do that to you, I suppose. Even though there are no laws restricting photography in public places, it gets tiring trying to explain that to overzealous Barney Fife types.

The Beyond Robson blog looks at the security situation in Vancouver. Bruce Gilden, a New York City street photographer for Magnum, doesn't give a rip about what people think about photographing people on the streets.

Click here for a larger view of this picture. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Shy (and busy) guy

It took a while to catch a photo of this little guy. He’s one of those kind of kids who do not stay still long enough to let my autofocus focus. While he hid behind the wooden column of a pavilion at a park, I focused on the edge of the column and waited for him to check to see if I was still there. He did and I was and I tripped the shutter at the peak of his peek.

The photo is not as sharp as I would have liked, but the setting, light and expression are all there.

Some excellent portrait photographer types I hang with at Flickr.

Photo blogging: Animals from Alligator to Zebra. I’ve noticed that many photographers have latched on to a BIG IDEA and built a career out of it. Ansel Adams and the U.S. National Parks, Anne Geddes and decorated babies, some French dude and break dancers in grocery stores.

While still searching for a BIG IDEA of my own, I came across a photographer with a BIG IDEA - animals. I know what you’re thinking, it’s been done. But not the way that Catherine Ledner does it. Rather than traipse into the wild for National Geographish pics of animals in their habitat, Katherine brings exotic beasts into her studio, places them before wallpaperish backdrops, lights them in a manner worthy of high fashion and fires away. The result is an intriguing juxtaposition of the natural and the synthetic.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Tiger lily on black

There wasn’t much that I needed to do to this image of a tiger lily to make it appear to glow – the coloration of the petals took care of that for the most part. The black background served to heighten the effect. Slightly underexposed to intensify the colors, some sharpening, levels adjustments and Orton processing applied in Photoshop Elements 6.

Photo blogging: And now for something completely different. Denis Darzacq is a French photographer who takes strange pictures. His latest effort is a series titled Hyper, which depicts break dancers doing their stuff in what appears to be grocery and retail store settings. I’m sure there is art in there somewhere, although it looks like it could have been titled Slip and Fall in Aisle 2.

Photo EXIF: 1/80 sec. @ f4.5, 400 ISO. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Ten commandments of photography

Eric Hamilton posts ten things to keep in mind when carrying a camera around. If you (like me) can only remember two or three things, go with 1, 2 and 8. The rest will follow.

1. Shoot what you love
2. Use light to communicate.
3. Capture or provoke emotions.
4. Tell a story.
5. Master technique.
6. Show old things in new ways.
7. Be true to your own style and your own voice.
8. Always seek to improve your craft.
9. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
10. Shoot to kill! (See previous post)