Your Bio
Hey, thanks for looking at my photos! I currently live in Santa Monica, California and I've always loved taking pictures. I'm relatively new to SLR cameras, but my Nikon D80 has been fantastic and I love learning new techniques and ways to use it. The field of photography is great as a science and an art, and I'll keep exploring as long as I'm able.
I enjoy abstract photography, as well as the outdoors and wildlife. I try to carry a camera with me wherever I go and I upload a photo a day, which keeps me experimenting!
Send me an email:
jawsnap at gmail dot com
Featured Galleries
One/Day Project, Year 2: shoot-edit-upload one photo every day, always ...
Updated: Feb 08, 2010 8:05am PST
For our first year anniversary, my wife and I traveled to Yosemite Nat ...
Updated: Dec 02, 2009 8:58pm PST
My wife and I traveled by train to 2 weddings during this 10-day trip. ...
Updated: Aug 14, 2009 2:28pm PST
Week-long trip to Maine, filled with lobsters, blueberries, rugged coa ...
Updated: Jun 12, 2009 11:56pm PST
![_03/29/09_ Bathroom Sink
Got the lighting by using a waterproof remote flash unit, a.k.a. an SB-800 in a ziplock bag. I thought the sink would look neat illuminated from below, so I played around. I was a little nervous turning on the water, but the bag kept the flash perfectly dry. Did some tweaking in Lightroom, including painting the blue tint on the water. As interesting as the lighting is, I thought a subtle touch of color would make it a stronger image.
Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's photo - you guys must all really like mac & cheese ;)
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-03-29-Bathroom-Sink/501715407_tQASE-Ti-1.jpg "_03/29/09_ Bathroom Sink
Got the lighting by using a waterproof remote flash unit, a.k.a. an SB-800 in a ziplock bag. I thought the sink would look neat illuminated from below, so I played around. I was a little nervous turning on the water, but the bag kept the flash perfectly dry. Did some tweaking in Lightroom, including painting the blue tint on the water. As interesting as the lighting is, I thought a subtle touch of color would make it a stronger image.
Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's photo - you guys must all really like mac & cheese ;)
[last year]")
![_07/05/09_ Five Pushpins
Some colorful pushpins, all in a row. Used my widest aperture on my macro lens and bounced my flash off a wall to the right. The reflective surface is a glossy black file cabinet. While processing the photo, I noticed the differences between them (besides color, obviously) and it makes it kind of interesting. For example, the pink one leans to the left, and the orange plastic isn't very reflective.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-07-05-Colored-Pushpins/583179166_X3NR9-Ti-1.jpg "_07/05/09_ Five Pushpins
Some colorful pushpins, all in a row. Used my widest aperture on my macro lens and bounced my flash off a wall to the right. The reflective surface is a glossy black file cabinet. While processing the photo, I noticed the differences between them (besides color, obviously) and it makes it kind of interesting. For example, the pink one leans to the left, and the orange plastic isn't very reflective.
[last year]")
![_03/28/09_ Mac & Cheese
Here's a shot of good ol' Kraft macaroni and cheese. The kitchen was getting really hot while I was cooking it and when I opened the door to let some cool air in, this perfect shaft of light hit right on the boiling pot. Unfortunately, the light was fading quick as the sun set behind a building, but I managed to get this shot before it did. The technical quality isn't great and I didn't have much time to frame it, but it's more or less what I wanted. Maybe I'll try it again soon, now that I know the light will be there.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-03-28-Mac-and-Cheese/500922215_xfRDh-Ti-1.jpg "_03/28/09_ Mac & Cheese
Here's a shot of good ol' Kraft macaroni and cheese. The kitchen was getting really hot while I was cooking it and when I opened the door to let some cool air in, this perfect shaft of light hit right on the boiling pot. Unfortunately, the light was fading quick as the sun set behind a building, but I managed to get this shot before it did. The technical quality isn't great and I didn't have much time to frame it, but it's more or less what I wanted. Maybe I'll try it again soon, now that I know the light will be there.
[last year]")
![__01/14/10__ Smoke Monster
No relation to the smoke monster of Lost. This one was creating using burning incense, a black cloth background and an off-camera flash with a snoot.
I took about 50 shots before deciding I had something worth posting. In fact, I had quite a few interesting ones, but this stood out by far. The complexity of the tumultuous center, offset by gentle waves coming off of both sides just looks really cool to me. I really love smoke as a subject, and can't believe I've only done one other daily photo with it, and that was quite a while ago.
I love looking through the photos and seeing all sorts of things - faces, birds, angels, snakes, and perfect spirals. To name a few...
I also published a blog post with photos about Empire Ranch in Southern Arizona.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2010-01-14-Smoke-Monster/764977298_LQ5Ez-Ti.jpg "__01/14/10__ Smoke Monster
No relation to the smoke monster of Lost. This one was creating using burning incense, a black cloth background and an off-camera flash with a snoot.
I took about 50 shots before deciding I had something worth posting. In fact, I had quite a few interesting ones, but this stood out by far. The complexity of the tumultuous center, offset by gentle waves coming off of both sides just looks really cool to me. I really love smoke as a subject, and can't believe I've only done one other daily photo with it, and that was quite a while ago.
I love looking through the photos and seeing all sorts of things - faces, birds, angels, snakes, and perfect spirals. To name a few...
I also published a blog post with photos about Empire Ranch in Southern Arizona.
[last year]")
![_04/25/09_ Culver Hotel
Wife and I did movie and dinner tonight in Culver City. We saw State of Play - it's good! Right next to the theater is the historic Culver Hotel, built in 1924. It's a great building and it'd be fun to go take more photos of it, including the inside. This shot was taken on Southwest point of the building (it's triangle-shaped). I partially desaturated all colors except greens to emphasize the classic sign. I'm happy I was able to get a sharp handheld shot with my compact.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-04-25-Culver-Hotel/521015567_sMwXe-Ti-1.jpg "_04/25/09_ Culver Hotel
Wife and I did movie and dinner tonight in Culver City. We saw State of Play - it's good! Right next to the theater is the historic Culver Hotel, built in 1924. It's a great building and it'd be fun to go take more photos of it, including the inside. This shot was taken on Southwest point of the building (it's triangle-shaped). I partially desaturated all colors except greens to emphasize the classic sign. I'm happy I was able to get a sharp handheld shot with my compact.
[last year]")
![_04/30/09_ Sand Castle
Rode my bike to the beach today after work and happened across this amazing sand castle. It's actually the bigger of two castles, and I have no idea why there were there or who built them. They're already starting to fall/melt/slip back into the sea ... eventually ... so I'm guessing they were built over the weekend. I don't really know, though, my experience with sand castles is pretty limited. It's hard to get a sense of scale with this shot, but the top chimney was probably 6 feet high.
I shot at my widest angle - 18mm - and got really close to fill the frame. The palm trees in the distance are on top of the bluffs in Palisades Park. Did some minor editing in Lightroom, but nothing too significant.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-04-30-Sand-Castle/525358835_iXvZU-Ti-1.jpg "_04/30/09_ Sand Castle
Rode my bike to the beach today after work and happened across this amazing sand castle. It's actually the bigger of two castles, and I have no idea why there were there or who built them. They're already starting to fall/melt/slip back into the sea ... eventually ... so I'm guessing they were built over the weekend. I don't really know, though, my experience with sand castles is pretty limited. It's hard to get a sense of scale with this shot, but the top chimney was probably 6 feet high.
I shot at my widest angle - 18mm - and got really close to fill the frame. The palm trees in the distance are on top of the bluffs in Palisades Park. Did some minor editing in Lightroom, but nothing too significant.
[last year]")
![_03/26/09_ Bunche Hall
This is a building on UCLA's campus, the repetitive windows are just begging to be photographed. In fact, there was another guy taking pictures when I grabbed this shot. I did all the editing in Photoshop, starting with lens correction to make the top of the building perfectly straight. I also used a modified version of the cyanotype hue/saturation preset to give a more overall blue color. I also made some edits to make the shapes of the windows stand out a little more.
I'm excited to have tomorrow off for Cezar Chavez day! My plan is to go on a long bike ride along the ocean... um, while supporting workers' rights.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-03-26-Bunche-Hall/499703293_Ynzvo-Ti-1.jpg "_03/26/09_ Bunche Hall
This is a building on UCLA's campus, the repetitive windows are just begging to be photographed. In fact, there was another guy taking pictures when I grabbed this shot. I did all the editing in Photoshop, starting with lens correction to make the top of the building perfectly straight. I also used a modified version of the cyanotype hue/saturation preset to give a more overall blue color. I also made some edits to make the shapes of the windows stand out a little more.
I'm excited to have tomorrow off for Cezar Chavez day! My plan is to go on a long bike ride along the ocean... um, while supporting workers' rights.
[last year]")
![_03/25/09_ Pink Blossoms
Not sure what tree this is, but it's just starting to bloom. The building in the background is Kerckhoff Hall at UCLA and I took the shot as I was walking back to my office. Good thing I did, since I didn't really get another good opportunity to take photos today. I played with the color and luminance in Lightroom and ended up adding some vignetting to bring more focus to the blossoms.
[last year] Another UCLA building...](/Daily/year2/2009-03-25-Pink-Blossoms/499112342_gnMWr-Ti-1.jpg "_03/25/09_ Pink Blossoms
Not sure what tree this is, but it's just starting to bloom. The building in the background is Kerckhoff Hall at UCLA and I took the shot as I was walking back to my office. Good thing I did, since I didn't really get another good opportunity to take photos today. I played with the color and luminance in Lightroom and ended up adding some vignetting to bring more focus to the blossoms.
[last year] Another UCLA building...")
![_03/16/09_ Colorized Sunset
We have a friend visiting for a few days, so we took him to downtown Santa Monica for dinner and to check out the pier. Right after sunset, I grabbed this shot of 2 palm trees. The sunset was very nice, but the photo was very bland, so I started playing around with white balance and other color tools. I tweaked it until I got something I liked.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-03-16-Colorized-Sunset/493102493_ivbjc-Ti-1.jpg "_03/16/09_ Colorized Sunset
We have a friend visiting for a few days, so we took him to downtown Santa Monica for dinner and to check out the pier. Right after sunset, I grabbed this shot of 2 palm trees. The sunset was very nice, but the photo was very bland, so I started playing around with white balance and other color tools. I tweaked it until I got something I liked.
[last year]")
![_07/04/09_ Red, White and Tasty
Happy 4th of July! We got our grill on and had some people over. Our friends Yassi and her sister Nazzi brought this delicious American Flag cake. I tried to focus in on one blueberry and one strawberry while still showing the "stripes" in the background. Part of me wanted to spend more time on it and get the perfect composition, but a bigger part of me wanted to eat it right away. More importantly, so did everyone else. It ended up being very delicious - I ate 3 pieces.
[last year] Americafest!](/Daily/year2/2009-07-04-Flag-Cake/582241458_3jjhK-Ti-1.jpg "_07/04/09_ Red, White and Tasty
Happy 4th of July! We got our grill on and had some people over. Our friends Yassi and her sister Nazzi brought this delicious American Flag cake. I tried to focus in on one blueberry and one strawberry while still showing the \"stripes\" in the background. Part of me wanted to spend more time on it and get the perfect composition, but a bigger part of me wanted to eat it right away. More importantly, so did everyone else. It ended up being very delicious - I ate 3 pieces.
[last year] Americafest!")
![_09/16/09_ Red Staircase
This red staircase is in the Physics building at UCLA. I like the spiral shape, but I don't like the quality that came out of the iPhone, so I might actually reshoot it for another daily down the road, now that I know where it is.
[last year]](/Daily/year2/2009-09-16-Red-Staircase/651865870_SAHbP-Ti.jpg "_09/16/09_ Red Staircase
This red staircase is in the Physics building at UCLA. I like the spiral shape, but I don't like the quality that came out of the iPhone, so I might actually reshoot it for another daily down the road, now that I know where it is.
[last year]")
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email: jawsnap at gmail dot com