Year 3 Favorites
Favorite photos collected from One/Day Project, Year 3, for display on corresponding blog post.
Read More![<span id="date">_09/21/10_</span> <span id="title">Birthday (cup)Cake</span>
Since today is my birthday, my wife and I went down to <a href="http://www.yummycupcakes.com/">Yummy Cupcakes</a> to get my free birthday cupcake. This one is called Chocolaty Salty Caramel. <b>SO GOOD</b>. Not only is the frosting about an inch thick, the inside of the cupcake was actually filled with caramel!
I managed to not eat it long enough to take this photo. I set the cupcake on a black background and pointed my off-camera flash at it using a snoot to point the light like a spotlight.
Thanks for all the great comments on <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#1016227748_Jx9PW">yesterday's photo</a>! I was pretty happy with it :)
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#657252408_ZPeKQ">[last year]</a> <em>mega...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-bjX9MK2/2/06c6a6dd/L/2010-09-21%20Chocolate%20Salted%20Carmel%20Cupcake-L.jpg)
_09/21/10_ Birthday (cup)Cake Since today is my birthday, my wife and I went down to Yummy Cupcakes to get my free birthday cupcake. This one is called Chocolaty Salty Caramel. SO GOOD. Not only is the frosting about an inch thick, the inside of the cupcake was actually filled with caramel! I managed to not eat it long enough to take this photo. I set the cupcake on a black background and pointed my off-camera flash at it using a snoot to point the light like a spotlight. Thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's photo! I was pretty happy with it :) [last year] mega...
![<span id="date">_03/09/10_</span> <span id="title">Pre Pesto</span>
A tasty food shot for you today. This one is going on iStockphoto for sure.
Tonight I made homemade pesto without a food processor. I won't be doing that again for a long time... It turned out great but it was just too much work for too little return. Here you can see all the raw ingredients before they got chopped up.
Check out my needlessly complicated <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Utility/Setups/8246339_SpVpq#806731493_3NDkG">setup photo</a>!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#488518488_pi4kY">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-PB6w7Fz/3/8b2e1dd0/Ti/2010-03-09%20Pre%20Pesto-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/12/10_</span> <span id="title">Tulip</span>
Got this close up of a tulip using the morning light coming in through the window. It caught my eye a couple days ago as we ate breakfast, but I finally grabbed the camera today. I positioned our curtain behind it so the background would be black.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#535210992_a6kUh">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-f559QnN/3/e234c35c/Ti/2010-05-12%20Tulip-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_05/22/10_</span> <span id="title">Wet Vision</span>
I had a great afternoon in Culver City today with some friends. I took many photos, and so many of them turned out well, I posted them <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Misc/Culver-City">here</a>!
This was the last photo I took, just as the sun was going down. Someone had left these glasses in the fountain that's between the hotel and movie theater. If you've been there, you probably know what I'm talking about - there's a giant dancing lion statue in the middle of it - kids love it. Be sure to check the other photos, especially the one of the <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Misc/Culver-City/12278425_mMTVD#875686707_ZkN64">whisks</a> (it was the runner-up).
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/gallery/7157835_BfJPF#547073599_An43F">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-NZLvsM4/3/a7c79400/Ti/2010-05-22%20Wet%20Glasses-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/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-MR4W4r4/3/87a668d8/Ti/2010-06-04%20Whisk-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/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-tS7rtMg/3/13c1da44/Ti/2010-06-07%20iPad%20Portrait-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_07/04/10_</span> <span id="title">Trestle</span>
Happy 4th of July! My wife and I are on a weekend vacation to Ventura, CA. This train trestle was right behind our hotel, and I thought it would make a cool subject. In addition to playing on the train tracks, we swam in the ocean, walked and played frisbee on the beach, checked out the street fair on Main street, and walked along the Ventura river and past Surfers Point. Sadly we did not watch any fireworks, but only because there weren't any around.
Ventura is a really cool place! I highly recommend visiting.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Travel/Ventura/12863408_qQw6m">more Ventura pics</a>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#582241458_3jjhK">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-fzPLXRC/4/f43d26e3/Ti/2010-07-04%20Train%20Trestle-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_07/24/10_</span> <span id="title">Rusty at the Beach</span>
This is Rusty. Don't ask me how I know his name. He was at the Santa Monica pier today, along with a herd of photographers for the <a href="http://worldwidephotowalk.com/">World Wide Photo Walk</a> that included myself.
For the rest of my keepers, check out <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Misc/Santa-Monica-Photo-Walk/">this gallery</a>. Like one of them better than Rusty here? Leave a comment :)
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#600987992_aPNmK">[last year]</a> <em>also at the beach...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-w2L52Ts/3/989759ec/Ti/2010-07-24%20Rusty%20at%20the%20Beach-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_09/12/10_</span> <span id="title">Tentacles</span>
Macro shot of sea anemone tentacles, taken during photographer's night at the <a href="http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/">Aquarium of the Pacific</a> in Long Beach.
It was a lot of fun! Hours flew by as I walked around, free to shoot whatever I wanted with [almost] no one in the way! Indoor shots were tough - I barely used my tripod or flash, and one of the biggest things I learned was that you have to shoot STRAIGHT through the glass, as in perpendicular. Otherwise you get pretty bad distortion because the glass (it's actually acrylic) is so thick. All of my indoor shots used a fairly high ISO and most of them are throw-aways.
This shot was taken in an outdoor touch pool, where I was able to set up my flash and practically get in the water to take macro shots. My best shots, at least technically, are from the tide pool and I will certainly share them all after I sort through them.
The biggest surprise of the night was a Nikon-based lighting workshop by Paul Van Allen - a big name in Nikon training. He and his team set up 6 stations that used off-camera flash in different ways, and went to each station and took a bunch of photos - very educational.
More photos - <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Animals/Aquarium-of-the-Pacific">Aquarium of the Pacific Gallery</a>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#647698091_5rnfx">[last year]</a> <em>not very photo-like...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-C7xwBwc/4/96a29e81/Ti/2010-09-12%20Anemone%20Tentacles-1-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_09/20/10_</span> <span id="title">Coral Tree Traffic</span>
This is San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica - a beautiful wide road and median lined with cool-looking coral trees. I came here to take photographic advantage of the thick fog that rolled in tonight.
Traffic was light, so I used a 30 second exposure to capture as many cars as I could. I used my Gorillapod on a drinking fountain to hold the camera steady.
In other news, I posted photos from the <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Animals/Aquarium-of-the-Pacific/">Aquarium of the Pacific's Photographers Night</a> that I attended on <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#1005785536_bhSsx">9/12/10</a>.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#656042406_WnGFQ">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-dgXGD2m/2/2d55e1d3/Ti/2010-09-20%20Coral%20Tree%20Traffic-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_09/21/10_</span> <span id="title">Birthday (cup)Cake</span>
Since today is my birthday, my wife and I went down to <a href="http://www.yummycupcakes.com/">Yummy Cupcakes</a> to get my free birthday cupcake. This one is called Chocolaty Salty Caramel. <b>SO GOOD</b>. Not only is the frosting about an inch thick, the inside of the cupcake was actually filled with caramel!
I managed to not eat it long enough to take this photo. I set the cupcake on a black background and pointed my off-camera flash at it using a snoot to point the light like a spotlight.
Thanks for all the great comments on <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#1016227748_Jx9PW">yesterday's photo</a>! I was pretty happy with it :)
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#657252408_ZPeKQ">[last year]</a> <em>mega...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-bjX9MK2/2/06c6a6dd/Ti/2010-09-21%20Chocolate%20Salted%20Carmel%20Cupcake-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_10/02/10_</span> <span id="title">Western Gorilla</span>
(<em>Gorilla gorilla gorilla</em>)
Today my wife and I visited the San Diego Zoo! She had never been and I hadn't been in at least 10 years, so it was great to make the trip.
As mentioned in my last few dailies, I rented a monster Sigma 150-500mm lens that allowed me to take shots like this - it was a blast! I got a lot of keepers, but this was my favorite. I just wish that twig wasn't there... :) The lens was quite a burden to carry from 9-5, but well worth it, I think. I was able to get amazing close-up details of the animals that would have been impossible otherwise.
I relied heavily on auto ISO because the lens is very slow at f/5-6.3. A lot of darker subjects pushed it to ISO 1600, but I figured that was the price to pay for non-blurry subjects. The lens is certainly not of the highest quality - even my sharpest shots have some aberration and softness even stopped down to f/9. Regardless, I had a great time and highly recommend renting a super telephoto for your next zoo trip!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Animals/SanDiegoZoo2010/">More Zoo Photos</a>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#668221536_G6uoU">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-HVdmX54/2/8d0b2b54/Ti/2010-10-02%20Western%20Gorilla-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_10/05/10_</span> <span id="title">Orb Weaver</span>
Other than a slight crop and some dust spot removal, this is straight from the camera.
I had to mail my rented Sigma 150-500mm lens back to LensProToGo today, but before I did I headed to the botanical gardens to get some shots. This shot is significant because at 500mm, I was able to really control the out-of-focus background. The upper black is simply an area of the gardens that was in the shade, and the lower green is grass that was in the open. The overcast skies helped, although it did force me to shoot at ISO 1600.
In other news, I'm finally caught up - my last 3 daily photos were posted late because I was away from my computer for a bit. Did you miss them? Check them out, I quite like them.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#671803657_jG2fp">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-zpCt9Ck/2/a4a7eeae/Ti/2010-10-05%20Orb%20Weaver%20Spider-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_10/09/10_</span> <span id="title">Eva and Amy</span>
Eva has made a <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#884884373_Qgc9N">previous appearance</a> in my One/Day Project, back when I was in Tucson for my 10 year reunion. I was back again today for my wife's 10 year reunion, and I did a photo shoot with Eva's parents, grandmother and great-grandmother. Four generations! Very cool.
It was a lot of fun, and this is my favorite photo of the bunch. I was torn between color and B&W at first, but this version really grew on me. Now I just need to go through the rest of them...
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#675645712_HfDQh">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-RVVj3Tt/2/da4b7c9d/Ti/2010-10-09%20Eva%20and%20Amy-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_10/19/10_</span> <span id="title">Wet Leaf</span>
Still raining...
It was pretty clear earlier this afternoon, so I was hoping to go to the beach for a post-storm sunset shot, but I guess the weather wasn't quite done. Luckily I stumbled upon this nice big leaf as I left work. I did quite a few color modifications in LR3. I also donated (again) to Jeffrey Friedl to register his <a href="http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/smugmug">export plugin</a>. Well worth it.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#686582184_h3ZNt">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-QFqqkdF/3/8bd1ee76/Ti/2010-10-19%20Wet%20Leaf-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_11/20/10_</span> <span id="title">Sea Turtle</span>
<em>Hawaii Day 1</em>
Today we flew into Honolulu! My cousins picked us up and took us all over the North Shore. This turtle (and several of his friends) was on Ali'i Beach in Hale'iwa.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Travel/Hawaii2010/14883306_hHp9Z">More Hawaii Photos!</a>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#719329668_4UwjC">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-TTH2Q9w/5/fb8b3638/Ti/2010-11-20%20Hawaii%20Sea%20Turtle-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_12/06/10_</span> <span id="title">Color Splash</span>
This spectacular flower is a Torch Lily (<em>Kniphofia rooperi</em>). It's native to South Africa, like most of the cooler looking plants in landscaped areas around Southern California. I decided to go to the botanical gardens in the morning instead of my usual lunchtime walk because it had rained last night and most of the plants were still wet. It made for some nice photo conditions.
Except for a slight crop, this is straight from the camera.
I'm done captioning my <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Travel/Hawaii2010/14883306_hHp9Z">Hawaii photos</a>! If you haven't checked them out, now is the time :)
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#733706674_t5ngm">[last year]</a> <em>it's still vacant...</em>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-Z39gJsL/2/a7582f4a/Ti/2010-12-06%20Color%20Splash-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">_12/16/10_</span> <span id="title">Downward Spiral</span>
Although I love how quiet campus is after finals, it comes at a price. I had to wait nearly 5 minutes for someone to walk by on the lower level of this building. Daily photos are hard work!
I've actually photographed this staircase before, but from below, back on <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#790331724_GkuTv">2/16/10</a>. This time I burned a few calories and walked up to the top. I set my Canon S95 to 1/125 of a second so I could capture the shape of someone walking without it being too blurry. There's a bit of noise in the photo, but I don't think it really takes away from it. There was very little color to begin with, so I converted to B&W.
Hey, speaking of the S95, why don't you check out my latest blog post? <a href="http://blog.jawsnap.net/2010/12/day-1-with-the-canon-s95/">Day 1 with the Canon S95</a>
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#742931994_RMk5Q">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-kxkZG77/2/8833fdf1/Ti/2010-12-16%20Downward%20Spiral-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">__01/17/11__</span> <span id="title">Aqua Splash</span>
<em>Water Drops, Day 4</em>
My fourth water droplet photograph! The splash formation is similar to my <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year3/11272102_ACXDJ#1157053533_4A7Uw">1/14/11 photo</a>, but today I changed up the lighting and used colored milk instead of water. I wish I could say that this photo is unaltered but even with tons of food coloring, the SOOC photo was a bit dull. The photo has been cropped a bit, and the white balance changed to give more a blue/aqua color.
Oh yeah, of course I have a <a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Utility/Setups/8246339_SpVpq#1160338498_xyNkD">setup photo</a>. I think I'll probably do one more photo with some more experimentation, and then I'll compile all my hard-learned lessons into a blog post.
Read my <a href="http://blog.jawsnap.net/2011/02/water-droplet-photography-lessons-learned/">blog post on water droplet photography</a>!
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#767045531_FasRo">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-Mkg8Q9Q/2/6f077090/Ti/2011-01-17%20Blue%20Splash-Ti.jpg)
![<span id="date">__01/21/11__</span> <span id="title">Skeleton Leaf</span>
I found an enormous half-decayed leaf in the botanical gardens today, so I took some photos of it. I wasn't expecting to like this one so much, but I do. It's cropped but otherwise straight from the camera. I like the muted colors, but I <em>really</em> like the effect of the out of focus trees above through the veins of the leaf. Fun times.
Have a good weekend! Take some fun photos!
Update: Thanks for all the comments, I'm glad you guys like it too! I took <a href="http://arctangent.smugmug.com/">arctangent</a>'s advice and cropped out the blade of grass at the bottom. I was hesitant because I had already cropped the photo, but I think this is a stronger image, even though I'm a little sad it's under 5MP now.
<a href="http://www.jawsnap.net/Daily/year2/7157835_BfJPF#770313421_Wt2o8">[last year]</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Utility/Year-3-Favorites/i-gsspnMS/3/8e194789/Ti/2011-01-21%20Skeleton%20Leaf-Ti.jpg)
webstersway
on September 23, 2010Positively yummy!!! Love the lighting in this...
warrenfam
on September 23, 2010Yummy. Nice shot.
Tom Reichert
on September 23, 2010so good great detail
fotoeffects
on September 23, 2010One of the best shots I've ever seen of a cupcake.
SonoLady
on September 22, 2010this looks fabulous! thanks for the mouthwater description too! Happy Birthday!
fotomom
on September 22, 2010Happy Birthday! Great lighting and serious yum factor on the shot!
papamugger
on September 22, 2010Yummy shot and lighting
SchmidtHouse
on September 22, 2010Nicely lit composition. Hope you had a nice birthday.
John LaPlante
on September 22, 2010Jonathan, happy birthday, and looking at that cupcake makes me hungry!!
mcdonegal1
on September 22, 2010Happy Birthday. Superb composition. Looks delicious.