![<span id="date">_05/29/10_</span> <span id="title">Jonëlie Maggiavivabiekathan</span>
Tonight I celebrated my 10 year high school reunion! Fun stuff. This is one of my former classmates, whose name is actually not Jonëlie, but after 3 hours of eating, drinking and socializing, we thought this was pretty damn funny.
I took a lot of photos but it was pretty dark, so at ISO 1600, f/1.4 and .125s, a lot of them turned out to be out of focus or blurry. I should have brought my flash, oh well.
Tomorrow we have a picnic! That should be fun, and hopefully not too hot.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#549588338_vGXXY">[last year]</a> <em>i still don't really understand the difference...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-gJKBCvx/4/ef0c4fdb/L/2010-05-29%20Jonëlie%20Maggiavivabiekathan-L.jpg)
_05/29/10_ Jonëlie Maggiavivabiekathan Tonight I celebrated my 10 year high school reunion! Fun stuff. This is one of my former classmates, whose name is actually not Jonëlie, but after 3 hours of eating, drinking and socializing, we thought this was pretty damn funny. I took a lot of photos but it was pretty dark, so at ISO 1600, f/1.4 and .125s, a lot of them turned out to be out of focus or blurry. I should have brought my flash, oh well. Tomorrow we have a picnic! That should be fun, and hopefully not too hot. [last year] i still don't really understand the difference...
![<span id="date">_06/13/10_</span> <span id="title">Trees and Pyramid</span>
If you've been here before, you might not be surprised that this is Long Beach and not some fantasy jungle scene. The pointy thing is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pyramid">Walter Pyramid</a> at CSU Long Beach, where the <a href="http://www.sosc.org/">SoCal Special Olympics</a> were held this weekend. My wife and I pulled a morning volunteer shift at the Healthy Athletes tent.
This photo was a group effort, for editing anyways. Unable to decide on 3 photos, I polled my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/jawsnap-photography/329311657571?ref=nf">Facebook pals</a> and asked their opinion. See the runner ups on the Best Camera website:
<a href="http://bestc.am/Suny">#1</a> - sprinkler on the underside of the pyramid
<a href="http://bestc.am/ZDPU">#2</a> - view of the corrugated blue shell of the pyramid
Originally I liked #2 the best, but decided to go with the masses instead.
In other news, I've decided to start listing movies I watch here. Since I always link to last year's photo, it'll be fun to look back in 1 year and remember this sort of thing.
<em>Movie: The Kite Runner</em>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#562988023_6k322">[last year]</a> <em>colorful shell...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-hLFs4t9/4/e605d7ba/Ti/2010-06-13%20Trees%20and%20Pyramid-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/12/10_</span> <span id="title">Reddish Dragon-y Tasty</span>
This is a red dragon roll from Noma, a nearby sushi place where we got dinner. I've had a pretty lazy Saturday with no photos, so I was interested in the food as a photography subject as well as calories. This roll is delicious - it's topped with tuna and friend garlic. My runner-up photo was dessert - tempura ice cream.
Shot with my compact in restaurant conditions. I took several shots with the hope that one would be in focus. This one also has the added touch of my wife's hand holding chopsticks in the background.
<em>Movie: 9</em>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#562168512_YKg2o">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-m4pK8sN/3/d95bb8c2/Ti/2010-06-12%20Red%20Dragon%20Roll-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/11/10_</span> <span id="title">Ballona Wetlands</span>
This is Los Angeles? 'tis. I've been wanting to come here for a while, and I took the day off today and spent an hour or so scoping it out this morning. I need a much longer lens to capture some good bird shots, but I plan on renting one and coming back.
I searched SmugMug for some shots of this place before I went and was inspired by <a href="http://machinegun.smugmug.com/Nature/Ballona-Wetlands/7194590_rAgE2">Benjamin (machinegun)</a>.
If you want to know more before visiting, check out the <a href="http://www.ballonafriends.org/">Friends of Ballona Wetlands</a> website, it has a ton of great info.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#561445504_FY92m">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-KXK8h4K/3/ef411bd4/Ti/2010-06-11%20Ballona%20Wetlands-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/10/10_</span> <span id="title">Loser Balloons</span>
Lakers lost tonight, so these balloons failed. I wish I'd spent a little more time, but it was a little awkward with the balloon guy working there - I suppose I should have just introduced myself. Anyways, I thought they were cool because they're so reflective. Most balloons seem to be matte.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#560547384_cqiGt">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-rW8Wvnt/3/2389fdf4/Ti/2010-06-10%20Loser%20Balloons-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/09/10_</span> <span id="title">Ocean Panorama</span>
This isn't the best panorama, but it'll have to do, since I didn't take any other halfway decent photos today. The is the view near the intersection of Ocean and San Vicente in Santa Monica. Sometimes I ride my bike to this point before heading home - life's tough, eh?
One thing I do like about this panorama is that the horizon is very flat - I set the phone on a fence and tried my best to keep it level and to rotate around the lens. The last couple photos on the right didn't expose so great, but a scene like this is asking quite a lot of the camera.
I use <a href="http://debaclesoftware.com/">Pano</a> for my iPhone panoramas. One thing I really like is that it gives you a final, cropped image without having to do anything. If I'm taking a panorama with my phone, I don't want to manually adjust the stitching, blending or crop. At that point I might as well use a 'real' camera. Pano makes it easy!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#559720633_LXF5G">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-RKQbc8Z/3/49458ffd/Ti/2010-06-09%20Ocean%20Panorama-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/08/10_</span> <span id="title">Fern Drops</span>
Happy World Oceans Day! I should have done a photo of the ocean, but instead you get this. Of course, the whole point of the day is to spread awareness of how connected the entire planet's ecosystem is to the oceans, no matter how far away. With that in mind, the drops on this fern are evaporated ocean water.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#558752987_3zhWT">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-cp6Xm7g/3/9faee262/Ti/2010-06-08%20Fern%20Drops-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/07/10_</span> <span id="title">iPad Portrait</span>
My work got an iPad, and I'm putting it through it's paces. This photo took forever to get framed right. I think it turned out well in B&W.
Any of you have an iPad? What do you do with it?
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#588256229_ktwLs">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-tS7rtMg/3/13c1da44/Ti/2010-06-07%20iPad%20Portrait-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/06/10_</span> <span id="title">Laker Bakers</span>
Another farmer's market shot - yep, they're named after the basketball team, who play the Celtics in game 2 of the finals in about 3 hours. I'm pretty indifferent to the NBA, but it's kind of fun to see your city get excited about their team.
Apparently these potatoes are grown exclusively by <a href="http://www.weiserfamilyfarms.com/">Weiser Family Farms</a>, so they're a unique variety. Whether you love or hate the LA Lakers, this is a pretty cool potato.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#588256038_DuWkR">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-ZgsQfqS/3/7fcef43f/Ti/2010-06-06%20Laker%20Bakers-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/05/10_</span> <span id="title">Basil Duo</span>
Some purple and green basil mixing it up at the farmer's market.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#588255815_gP2UA">[last year]</a> <em>one of the most scenic places I've ever been...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-LLfjMdG/3/40ea43b6/Ti/2010-06-05%20Basil%20Duo-2-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/04/10_</span> <span id="title">Whisk</span>
Whisk go wheee! Much like <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#857458786_RqCUs">5/4/10</a> and <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#856355677_MjvFv">5/3/10</a>, this photo involved hanging something on a string, twisting it up, and letting it go. Today it was a whisk! This shot represents about three swings back and forth.
Did some editing in LR, including adding a bluish tone that I like. I chose this photo out of about 60 because it had a good balance and interesting lines.
See the <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/8246339_SpVpq#890228198_rcbV2">setup</a>!
Also, turns out it's <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#883335587_sd9bh">this guy</a>'s birthday today!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#588255603_bNhFc">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-MR4W4r4/3/87a668d8/Ti/2010-06-04%20Whisk-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/03/10_</span> <span id="title">Acme Thunderer</span>
It's a whistle! This particular one was found in my wife's late grandfather's WWII stuff - pretty cool! It's very tarnished, but still has a nice piece of cork on the inside. I had planned on doing a focus stacked shot but decided against it because of that whole "time and effort" thing. Instead I went for a single shot with a fairly small aperture. See my <a href="http://jawsnap.smugmug.com/gallery/8246339_SpVpq#889291650_EznwG">setup</a>!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588255403_iPSvs">[last year]</a> <em>awesome-est sunrise...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-h63BRSd/4/f63d26de/Ti/2010-06-03%20Acme%20Thunderer-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/02/10_</span> <span id="title">Dummies</span>
I took a CPR and first aid class today. It was a nice refresher and I learned some new things, too, like how to use an AED and administer an epipen. These are some of the CPR dummies before the class started. They looked even creepier when the trainers set the baby dummies next to them.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588255156_EebpA">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-QRfv9Z3/3/b344216b/Ti/2010-06-02%20Dummies-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_06/01/10_</span> <span id="title">Glowing Plant</span>
Quick phone shot of a plant growing in the botanical gardens. It's a cool plant, and it especially caught my eye because it was under a tree at noon and didn't have splotchy light, and it was isolated, so the concrete bricks could provide a nice background. Heavily edited in LR...
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588254989_BE2qj">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-pKp8Zsp/3/e297ddf0/Ti/2010-06-01%20Glowing%20Plant-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/31/10_</span> <span id="title">Five Thirty-One</span>
I hope you had a good Memorial Day!
We flew back from Tucson late last night. While I was there, my mother in law gave me this stopwatch that she used when she was a Physical Education teacher. To make it more interesting, I hung it on a manzanita branch we have in our house, and let it run for exactly 5:31 before taking the photo. It's lit with off-camera flash from the left and edited in Lightroom using the cold tone preset as a starting point.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588246567_j4tNH">[last year]</a> <em>I miss lobster...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-cFZpsZP/3/bc18e18e/Ti/2010-05-31%20Five%20Thirty-One-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/30/10_</span> <span id="title">Eva</span>
This chubby-armed cutie made an appearance at our class reunion picnic today. I went to middle and high school with her mom, and we'd seen them just before she was born earlier this year, so it was neat to see the whole family. Eva was pretty sleepy at this point, if you can't tell.
This evening we'll fly back to LAX. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun to see old classmates!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#588246332_admH6">[last year]</a> <em>another night at LAX...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-m2m6xjh/3/38453a01/Ti/2010-05-30%20Eva-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/29/10_</span> <span id="title">Jonëlie Maggiavivabiekathan</span>
Tonight I celebrated my 10 year high school reunion! Fun stuff. This is one of my former classmates, whose name is actually not Jonëlie, but after 3 hours of eating, drinking and socializing, we thought this was pretty damn funny.
I took a lot of photos but it was pretty dark, so at ISO 1600, f/1.4 and .125s, a lot of them turned out to be out of focus or blurry. I should have brought my flash, oh well.
Tomorrow we have a picnic! That should be fun, and hopefully not too hot.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#549588338_vGXXY">[last year]</a> <em>i still don't really understand the difference...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-gJKBCvx/4/ef0c4fdb/Ti/2010-05-29%20Jonëlie%20Maggiavivabiekathan-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/28/10_</span> <span id="title">Seriously, Windex?</span>
I flew to Tucson today for my 10 year HS reunion! We're having a dinner tomorrow and picnic on Sunday - should be fun!
I shot this a few minutes after sunset from the terminal - the cleaning lady is washing the plane's windshield with what appears to be Windex. First of all - those windows actually open? Second of all - really? This is how planes get cleaned?
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#548822698_NHP3S">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-Wmjk9NK/3/8b722c1f/Ti/2010-05-28%20Windshield%20Cleaning-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/27/10_</span> <span id="title">CAA Afternoon</span>
Tonight I saw a lecture at the Annenberg: David Griffin, the new executive editor for electronic publishing at National Geographic. He was formerly the photographic director, and he gave a great talk about the inner workings of the magazine, how the stories develop, and how photographers deal with the unexpected. Talks are on Thursday nights, 6:30-8pm and include a Q&A. Here's the <a href="http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/events/iris_nights.asp">calendar</a>. Oh, and it's free of course.
In this photo, the Annenberg is up the stairs on the right and out of view. The incredibly opulent building I'm standing in houses the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Artists_Agency">CAA</a>. You know the money-grubbing, suit-wearing, short-tempered, over-caffeinated Hollywood agent stereotype? This is where they work.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#548225384_4mUk3">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-NwcQLTC/3/464a859d/Ti/2010-05-27%20CAA%20Afternoon-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/26/10_</span> <span id="title">Inverted Palm</span>
Palm tree in the botanical gardens.
It was imported into Lightroom and then went to Photoshop and back again, several times. Due to the state of the fronds and the noontime sun, the tree looked like it was glowing from underneath, and I think the final product still gets that across.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#548212245_PeXeh">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-BkkGcVf/4/0c6152d8/Ti/2010-05-26%20Inverted%20Palm-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/25/10_</span> <span id="title">Sticky Phacelia</span>
Not happy with the way the editing was going on this photo, I switched to drastic mode and came up with this. The flowers are blue in real life. I was trying to focus only on the anthers with the rest out of focus. The effect would have been better close up with a tripod I think, but you get the idea.
The plant is a sticky phacelia (<em>Phacelia viscida</em>, endemic to CA).
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#548153146_3MB58">[last year]</a> <em>big(gest) trees...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Daily/Year3/i-QS2KvZX/3/2b51ceb7/Ti/2010-05-25%20Two%20Flowers-Ti.jpg)
Hillary Yasmer Shemin
on June 22, 2010I think this came out really well! I have my (cough, cough...) 40th reunion in Tucson at the end of September... was your high school in Tucson, too? Since you mentioned the heat I was thinking it might be...I know you have family in Tucson. I think for 1600 ISO this was really terrific! I will be sure to bring my flash when I come... good you took lots of pictures.. I have video and pictures from my 20th and 30th ( I didn't attend my 10th)..now at my 40th these pictures have really been treasured by those friends of mine on Facebook who graduated with me. You are making great documentation with these shots!
Chuck Beehner
on June 5, 2010sounds like a great time! looks like he had one too or should i say two..lol
paula
The Curious Camel aka gail
on May 30, 2010Nice portrait, great smile.
465004AnthonyT
on May 30, 2010Good portrait shot and nice smile