Jer & Min Photography

I love sunrises, but the best part of the sunrise to me is what the light shines on.  This morning on my way to work, I noticed the sun shining on the ski mountains of Park City and pulled over for some shots.

Sometimes I feel I have to strain really hard to find a good subject or to find good light.  Other days, it is so obvious that I couldn’t miss it.  October 31 was one of those days.  The light from the sunrise was so amazingly beautiful that all I had to do was point my camera in the general direction to get what I considered some beautiful light.  The subject could have been better, but it was changing fast.

No post processing has been done to these shots other than to crop.

I’m out of town for the next few days on a business trip.  I have limited time, so today’s post is a picture I took over the weekend.

With the magnificant color around me I’ve shot more color photos than I normally would.  This weekend’s goal will be to shoot entirely in B&W.  I enjoy these stipulations, they help me to focus on things that may not be so obvious.

On DPS there is a photo assignment entitled “Leaves“.  During this assignment I’ve taken quite a few photos of leaves.  This is the one I submitted.

This morning I made this photograph on my way to work.  I was so excited that I found a place that framed the moon so well, I took a couple shots of it and got in to work and noticed a massive fail.  In my joy of the composition, I neglected to focus on my subject!  You’ll notice the moon is very soft.

Anyway, I was tempted not to publish this shot, but it serves as a good reminder for me to stop and think a bit more before taking the shot.

One of the shots I’ve wanted to try is a long exposure at night while cars are driving past.  I like the motion and the colors I see in other people’s photos when they make similar photographs.

Last night I set out to do just that.  It turned out to be more difficult that I originally thought.  The difficulty had nothing to do with making the photograph, it was getting willing subjects to drive past.  I live in a very small town East of Park City, UT called Kamas.  It is a wonderful place to live, but not too many people moving around after dark.  I shot this at 8:30pm and had to wait for cars to go by!  I contemplated calling some friends and have them stage a drive-by but then felt that was cheating somehow.

A few things I learned:

1. Put a headlamp in my camera bag.  I had a devil of a time reading the settings display as I was trying to dial in a good exposure.
2. Turn off the IS feature of my lens.  You’ll notice some wiggle in a few of the stationary objects of the photo, this I believe contributed to this problem as I was tripod mounted.
3. Use Mirror lock-up.  This to may contribute to the vibration I saw.  Additionally, passing cars will contribute, but there is very little I can do about that.

They aren’t great photographs, but they are from my first time using my new 40D so I thought I’d publish them.  It is going to take me a bit to get used to this camera, but I’ll keep at it and see how things go.

None of the shots are landscape which is my favorite subject to photograph, but they are of my family whom I cherish more than anything.

Not really well composed, but I was trying out some different features of the camera and had a ton of fun.

Min and I live in a very beautiful area near the Uinta mountains.  Currently, in Kamas, the fall colors are out in full glory.  To add to the beauty we have had some very nice thunderstorms over the past few days.  Yesterday in a slight break in the storms, some light splashed upon the mountain East of our house.  The mountain with it’s colored leaves lit up in an amazing way.  I stepped out the front door, leaned against the side of the house to steady my shot and made this photograph.

EXIF: Canon PowerShot S410, 1/125 sec, f/11

Both of my oldest two children love sunsets.  They even pray for beautiful ones.  It is quite touching to see them appreciate something Min and I enjoy as well.

Two days ago Brinci was looking out of her bedroom window after going to bed and saw a gorgeous sunset.  She had me go out and shoot it.

EXIF: Canon Powershot S410, 1/50 sec, f/2.8

I’ve been going through a few photos that I’ve taken in the last year as I’m backing up my photo library.  I’ve posted this photo in a few places before and when I came across it I decided to include it here.

This is a photo I took while attending a lacrosse game my friend was playing in.  I was using a borrowed camera (gear link).  It was a wonderful evening, the sun was heavy in the West and the colors were starting to become attractive.

EXIF: Canon XTi, 1/2500 sec, f/5.6, 400 ISO