Tree Trunk
11/18/08 I'm happy you're all curious about what happens on 11/26... you'll just have to wait, haha! Today's photo turned out interesting. There's a group of trees as I leave work, and in the late afternoon, one of the tree trunks catches the light and really stands out form the rest (well, it's also taller). This was my attempt to capture that. The color photo was pretty unimpressive, so I chose B&W. I played around with the mixer to get this look - the main thing I did was darken the blues, so you see a really dark sky, which I think looks cool. I had to correct for a lot of splotchiness that occurred after making extreme color mixer adjustments.
![<span id="date">_08/23/10_</span> <span id="title">Hollywood Bowl</span>
This grainy iPhone shot was taken at the Dave Matthews Band show at the Hollywood Bowl. It's a great place to see shows - you get to bring a picnic lunch! Of course you can't tell in this photo, but the Hollywood sign is actually right under those four lights above the stage, a few miles away. In the daytime, you can also see Griffith Observatory from here.
I took ~70 photos when the lighting was cool in order to get something interesting like this; most of the photos were black. I can't believe how many people recorded video of the show on their phones - are they really going to go back and watch that?
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#628515348_CPavx">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-FnWV53h/3/e016c755/Ti/2010-08-23%20Hollywood%20Bowl-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_11/16/10_</span> <span id="title">Cooled</span>
This [relatively] recently cooled lava lives in the Hawaiian section of the botanical gardens. I will be going there soon! Hawaii, that is. Check out my last week of photos for a few other pre-Hawaii shots.
I tried to do some focus stacking shots, but they didn't work out like I wanted, so this is a single frame shot at f/36. I used an off-camera flash for illumination.
In case you missed it, become of fan of my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/jawsnap-photography/329311657571">Facebook page</a> and you could win a free calendar! It's a holiday giveaway for the ages!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#715615408_ZbioY">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-3PM4qKZ/2/8f4e8cbe/Ti/2010-11-16%20Cooled-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_11/10/10_</span> <span id="title">Rare Hibiscus</span>
I took some photos in the botanical gardens' Hawaii section in honor of my upcoming vacation there. This one's name is <em>Hibiscus clayi</em> (endemic to Kaua'i), and after a quick search online, I've learned that it's incredibly endangered! Check out the <a href="http://www.usbg.gov/plant-collections/conservation/Hibiscus-clayi.cfm">US Botanic Gardens website</a> for some depressing info.
It sure looks nice though, and I plan on seeing and photographing lots of awesome plants while I'm there.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#709696234_iDKFp">[last year]</a> <em>I'd like to thank the Academy...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-vjTDwGh/2/21d52711/Ti/2010-11-10%20Hibiscus-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/19/10_</span> <span id="title">Forgotten</span>
Turns out it's Bike to Work Week and so far I've failed to ride. I will tomorrow!
Got this shot as I left work today. This u-lock has obviously been here for a long time, and the dead leaves added a nice touch. Edits in Lightroom include lowering the overall clarity and then painting clarity back in on the lock and some of the leaves.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#541054012_Dg9XY">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-GZbw6c5/3/e388c040/Ti/2010-05-19%20Forgotten-Ti.jpg)
![<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/Other/Black-and-white/i-hLFs4t9/3/ac8c9ede/Ti/2010-06-13%20Trees%20and%20Pyramid-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_03/12/10_</span> <span id="title">Grand Power</span>
This shot is a close up of a pair of Lemaire Fabi binoculars. A quick search turned up lots of antique sites with people selling similar ones, but nothing about the company. Based on the ones for sale, these are about 100 years old, so that's pretty cool. My grandfather had them at his house, but no one knew anything about them. A little mystery is nice sometimes...
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#490338670_UoSJE">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-DKzgvB6/3/fe2c1104/Ti/2010-03-12%20Grand%20Power-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">__01/07/11__</span> <span id="title">Dome Drop</span>
<em>Water Drops, Day 1</em>
I've been itching to photograph some water drops since I took a short hands-on lighting class months ago at the <a href="http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/">Aquarium of the Pacific</a> on <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Animals/Aquarium-of-the-Pacific">Photographer's Night</a> with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/pva1964/">Paul Van Allen</a>. His setup was so simple, I don't know why it's taken me this long to do it.
I would have included a setup photo but I want to play around more - this was just my first attempt. I took dozens of photos, as you might imagine, but this was the most interesting to me because of it's unique shape and nice symmetry. I cranked the noise reduction to give it a nice smooth look.
Read my <a href="http://blog.jawsnap.net/2011/02/water-droplet-photography-lessons-learned/">blog post on water droplet photography</a>!
By the way, don't forget to check out my <a href="http://blog.jawsnap.net/2011/01/8-crazy-days-in-hawaii/">8 Crazy Days in Hawaii</a> post!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#759801589_qLn2u">[last year]</a> <em>I did go back, and I got <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#1016227748_Jx9PW">this</a>...</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-RwSQfrv/2/ef95d5c3/Ti/2011-01-07%20Dome%20Drop-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">__01/23/11__</span> <span id="title">Plant Shadow</span>
This is our house's newest plant, a 'bicolor' (<em>Dracaena marginata</em>).
I set the camera on a tripod a few feet away from the plant and pointed down at it. I took the shot by using the self-timer and walking around with my off-camera flash and pointed it down at the plant from behind. Getting the entire plant in the frame would have been nice, but the rug wasn't big enough, and I wanted a consistent background.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#771888782_BvFiK">[last year]</a> <em>we almost never go to this store, but we were there again today, weird...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Black-and-white/i-FTPK9KW/2/7dac0d47/Ti/2011-01-23%20Plant%20Shadow-Ti.jpg)
studio721
on November 20, 2008Great shot! Like the B&W quite a bit.
sbarge
on November 19, 2008Really awesome B&W! The light in those trees is great and with the dark bg!
agilitypics
on November 19, 2008Great picture, very nice PP. Looks spectacular in B&W, good choice.
Bill Pador
on November 19, 2008Very interesting filter work Johnathan, being able to isolate the single tree contrast against the sky works well, well done bro !
219352dedmanshootn
on November 19, 2008nice work