Jer & Min Photography

This morning I had an opportunity to play with my Cokin filters again.  I woke up to an overcast sky with the sun peaking through the clouds sporadically.  I grabbed my graduated ND filter and my Tobacco filter and hustled out the door.  My subject this morning was a subject I’ve captured before in B&W, an individual tree at my wife’s sister’s house in Blackfoot, Idaho.

For Christmas, my mother got me a five Cokin filters I have been eyeing for sometime.  I’ve never shot with filters before, and these first few shots show I’ve got a bunch of work to do before I figure them out, but I’m pleased with the results of my first time out with them.

I’ve added a link to my cokin photoset on the right side of this blog.  I’ll add every Cokin shot I take to that photoset.

Interesting note, most people use filters to enhance their color photos.  I’m actually more excited about using these for black and white as I’ll be able to control my light better.  I will however, still shoot color with them.

His eyes were so bright this morning.

My son Toby is rather difficult to photograph, he doesn’t like to model or to pose nicely.  He does however, love to pull faces and to goof around in front of the camera.  Every time I need a photo of him, I have to do it on the sly which makes for some challenging shots, but shots that truly show him and his character.

This first shot is an exception as he was actually posing for the camera.

We sure love you Toby!

I’ve heard photography described as painting with light.  I sometimes think (incorrectly) that to paint with light you have to have a lot of it around you.  As a result, it has been a struggle for me lately to photograph anything I consider interesting.

Today it is December 20, the second shortest day of the year.  Over the past few weeks, it has been dark when I’ve left for work, it has been dark when I’ve come home leaving me with what I have considered very little time to photograph anything.  I feel that I’ve been missing an opportunity to possibly stretch myself by forcing me to look for new ways to capture subjects.  As a result, I’m going to attempt to capture at least three night photos this week.  I’d really like to commit to doing one per day, but with Christmas coming up this week, I don’t want anything to take precedence over spending time with my family.

The photos I’m publishing today don’t fit the theme of this post, but having nostalgia for warmer brighter days, I was reviewing some of my fall photographs and chose to include these two:

On Saturday, my brother-in-law, Chris Parry graduated from Utah State University.  He has already been accepted into their graduate program and hardly gets a break before continuing his education.  We drove up and attend the graduation ceremonies and had a great time.

The rest of the photo set can be vied by following this link: http://www.flickr.com/gp/68196771@N00/P455kQ

It has been absolutely crazy at work lately.  I’m not complaining, we have been busy during what has been a tough time for a lot of people and I’m very thankful for it.  I have however noticed that something that helps keep my sanity during the day is if I’m able to do something during lunch to help me recharge my batteries so to speak.  Yesterday I took a drive and captured a few photographs of the valley.

It was a beautiful day, not too great for photography due to the completely blue sky, but the entire valley was blanketed in a fresh layer of snow.  Here are my photographs.

Admittedly, I don’t know very much about Flickr‘s Explored feature.  I know that photos get explored based on their special algorithm that determines interestingness which calculates comments, favs, notes, views, and window of time in which they are attached to a photo.  Beyond that I’m constantly surprised at some of the photos that make it and some that don’t.

Up until earlier today I had assumed I hadn’t had any photos that were “explored”.  I figured that somehow I would be notified perhaps in my Recent Activity view on Flickr or some other way by Flickr.  I was wrong, I have been “explored”.  I found the information from a BigHugeLabs.com‘s Scout application.

I’ve had four photos explored in total, three of which are currently still in explore.  The fourth was dropped sometime after being explored.  Although I’m somewhat embarrassed to say it as I know some people get explored frequently, I’m actually a bit flattered.

I’ve created a photo set showing my explored photos on flickr and accessible on the right navigation bar of this site.

Here are my four explored photos so far:

On Thanksgiving Day last week, my family and I were in Bern, Idaho to celebrate with my Father’s family.  We had a tremendous turn out and every ate until we could eat no more.  After the lunch, my sister Chandra and her husband Chris asked if I would take a few portraits of them together.  I agreed acknowledging that there wasn’t very many “interesting” backdrops at the location we were at and due to family obligations we couldn’t exactly go hunting for better locations.  Knowing this, we shot the majority of their shots from an angle slightly above them to use the grass as the background.  It was a fun experience and they got some pictures they were quite pleased with.

Here are my favorite three photographs.