Jen's Photos

New Site!

2009-03-30T08:54:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! I've moved this blog over to a new home at www.jenmaihack.com. Those of you who visit directly should be automatically redirected to the new site. Those of you who follow an rss feed will want to change that to http://www.jenmaihack.com/feed.

Thanks so much for consistently checking in! I plan on updating a lot more regularly from here out.

My first video appearance!

2009-03-17T12:05:00.004-05:00

Hey everybody! Check me out at PhotoshopUserTv. When you go to this site you will get to see a whole episode of PhotoshopUserTV, which is all very informative - I go there once a week to learn new photoshop tips. About halfway through, at 19:15 min, is a fun segment called "Snapshots to Greatshots" by Rick Sammon. Guess what, I am in it! In my previous post, you can see one of the pictures I took in the segment of a boat. Yay!

Tarpon Springs

2009-03-04T15:52:00.004-05:00

Last week I was blessed enough to be able to spend a day with some friends, Rick Sammon and Jason Scrivner. We worked on making some videos for Kelby Training, which you need to check out if you are a photographer. It's a great training website. Among other things, Rick taught me a cool new twirl technique, which I tried on a poinsetta plant. I also photographed the boat, because I like how the water lead up to it with the blue of the water and the blue of the sky. More to come soon!

Engagement at UT

2009-01-30T11:29:00.002-05:00

Here are some engagement portraits of a couple I had the privilege of photographing at the University of Tampa. UT is a great place to shoot because it has nice landscaping and cool architecture. I tried to play more with some camera tilts and contemporary poses. On the image where he is holding her, I tried adding a little "Hollywood" effect, I kinda like it!

Red Rose

2009-01-16T21:17:00.001-05:00

A lot more lately I've been noticing the way photographers are changing background colors in the computer to match the color on the subject. In some ways I think it's cool, in other ways I get kind of mad because it is being done in the computer and not in front of the camera. Maybe I'm just jealous that I am not doing that, or more for that matter, with photography.
We have had these 2 pretty roses at our studio all week. I decided to photograph one because I am always thinking about photographing flowers, and because I wanted to play with the lens baby. While I was setting up to photograph it, I thought about those magazine photos I have been seeing that have the same color backgrounds as the subjects. There has been this old red cloth in our studio that I decided to use because it was as red as the rose. The rose blended in with the background color so well! The only thing photo-shopped here is the painted edge.

2008-12-08T12:48:00.004-05:00

While I was in Europe, I played around with placement of objects and shapes. Here are a few examples of that. I get some sort of odd satisfaction by moving my position so that things are framed up perfectly within other shapes. When shooting in Europe, I was able to capture some of that. Anyway, I am now accepting commissions! If there is something you are wanting photographed, then contact me. Preferably no commissions for portraits of people, I am more interested in creating artwork for those photo lovers out there. So, if you are needing a nice piece of art to add to your wall of a certain type of thing, or if you are just wanting a signed piece of something you see here, then please contact me. I'd love to be able to share some artwork.

2008-11-12T21:43:00.002-05:00

Now that I am back from roaming all around Europe and settled into life (ugh) I can post in my blog again! While in Paris, we managed to make our way over to the good 'ol Notre Dame. While inside the building, I saw the light from the sun streaming through this stained glass window and I loved how it fell across the decorative wall. The whole church was amazing! This was just one little wall in one little side room amongst a ton of side rooms, amongst a ton of walls in a huge church!

Projekt Rev

2008-08-26T13:29:00.008-05:00

Well, finally, I have added to the blog. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've still been shooting though, I promise!! This post is of my favorite shots that I was able to get at the Projekt Revolution Tour. The most exciting act to photograph was actually the first band I shot, Street Drum Corps. The singer really got into it, was playing with the photographers, and got into the crowd. Then it went downhill from there, until Linkin Park anyway. The other bands didn't really get into it as much. I can't lie though, I was still really excited to see Chris Cornell and Linkin Park. Linkin Park did put on a great show. I've been really getting into shooting shows lately, and hopefully I can shoot some more soon.

Eisley!

2008-05-01T20:45:00.008-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Eisley! They are this great sounding band made up of a trio of sisters, their brother, and cousin. A really nice guy I know, Keath, invited me to accompany him on a press pass because he was going to be interviewing them before the show. Of course, I said "YES" because my friend, Alisha, and I were going anyway. I was able to do the photography for him during his interview and during the show. You can read his interview and see more pictures here. They played a rocking live show. It was so fun being able to shoot a concert in such a small venue. I was able to get up close and focus on getting the shots when they had a great intense look on each of their faces. Another couple of cool bands opened for them, including one of my faves: The Myriad. I was able meet them too, and have them sign their new album for me that I bought from them that night (it isn't even in stores yet!) So, it was like a double awesome night!

Chickens!

2008-04-22T21:21:00.004-05:00

I did these images as a gift for a friend of mine who loves chickens. I actually shot these a while ago, but I didn't want him to see them before he had gotten the prints. He is also an awesome illustrator and his name is Matt. I was proud of myself because, as afraid of spiders as I am, I actually had gotten into this spider web infested chicken coup to get these shots. I would go in for like 20 seconds at a time and get shots then run back out. I made this one into an inspirational poster because we are always sharing lame inspirational posters with each other.

I like how heroic this chicken looks. He kept getting out of the coup and running off like "I'm free!! I'm free!!... now what". Then he'd wonder around until he eventually went back to his home, the coup.

Alligator Alley

2008-03-24T18:44:00.003-05:00

This past weekend I went to Miami for a photo job with some work buddies. To get to Miami from Tampa consists of driving an hour across what is known as Alligator Alley. On our way back, we stopped at a rest area to check out the view. There was a lot of wildlife, including (surprise!) alligators! I think they are so cool looking, and kind of cute. (I am an avid animal lover)... The cuteness kicks in for me when I see their paws, or claws, floating in the water. It was fun seeing them in the wild. They were everywhere. If you look in the bottom right corner of the photo of the blue crow, you can see an alligator floating in the water.

Witness of a Sunset

2008-03-12T16:48:00.002-05:00

Sorry it's been forever since my last post! This past month has been so busy, including going on a cruise! This was the sunset Mike and I witnessed on our first night out. We were going under the Skyway bridge, if you look close you can see the Punisher standing on top of it! (this bridge was in the Punisher movie for like 5 seconds at the end - it caused a whole day of road closures and traffic delays) You have to pass this bridge to get out into the gulf from Tampa. Everyone cheered once we passed it! It was a beautiful sunset. Of course, i was the crazy lady on the ship shooting a ton of photos :) I tried a few so I could get a composition i liked. Yay!

Lettuce Lake

2008-01-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

Mid morning in a chilly Florida swamp land seems so peaceful. At this park they built a boardwalk that goes over the swamps. Its a lot safer than trecking through yourself worrying about alligators, or worse, spiders! I've been kinda into landscapes lately, and when I saw this I thought it was a perfect scene to try for a pano. It was a little tough getting the sky to stay within range along with the dark water. I was wishing I found this spot a little earlier in the morning while the sun was a little lower in the sky. If I would have been any later, I wouldn't have been able to keep it all in range!

Beach Sunset

2008-01-11T11:25:00.000-05:00

What a beautiful beach sunset i was able to witness for the first time in 2008. I went to the beach to photograph engagement portraits for a couple who is getting married this weekend. At the end of our session, they left and i hung back to steal some shots for myself.
On a different non photo note - new year means LIST time!!! Mike is a huge list freak,
and he has inspired me to make one of my own.
MY Top Ten movies of 2007: and this was tough!
10. Darjeeling Lmtd.
9. Ratatouille
8. Bourne Ultimatum
7. Super Bad
6. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
4. Knocked Up
3. Grindhouse
2. 300
1. Across the Universe

and of course some honorable mentions - Bee Movie and Juno

Man, that was really tough. All these movies mentioned were GREAT! it was really hard to put them in order!
Thats it.

Flying Pelican

2008-01-01T20:27:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years to everybody!! Yesterday I was photographing the pelicans while at the pier. I happened to catch this one flying by. They always seem like they are on their way somewhere, in a hurry, but never really seem to go anywhere.
This is how the image was captured: I haven't cropped into anything. I liked the placement of the pelican against the sky and clouds.

A Merry Meecka Christmas

2007-12-19T19:20:00.000-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the forest, not a person was stirring. Not even a florist. Why would there be a florist? I don't know, it just rhymes with forest... bare with me... eh' hem...

The Meeckas were out and about decorating their tree,
until Stanley - the smallest Meecka - had to go pee.

"No! Not on the Christmas tree, Stanley!" the Meecka's proclaimed.
So Stanley held it and crossed his legs and felt a little ashamed.

There was snow on the ground and icicles too,
and lots of presents and shrubbery and glue!

Lots of other stuff happened that we don't have room to type,
lets just say the Christmas tree decorating lived up to its hype!

(and Stanley finally got to go pee.)

by Mike and Jen :)

Anyway, this was a fun project. I built a little forest out of fake branches, moss, and glue. Then I Found a little Christmas tree that was about 1 foot tall, and some other various Christmas decorative things, and fake snow from Joannes fabric. I put it all together to create this cute scene. I have really been wanting to do this since our friend Dan made these sculpey Meeckas for Mike a couple of years ago. I put the main light up high and to the side, with a blue gel, to resemble the moon. Then I had a fill light set above my camera to give a little light to the front of the scene. Then i gave the image a fun painted edge, and a snowflakey background for our Christmas cards... sorry if you didn't get one. But, at least you get to see it here :) Merry Christmas!

Collage Art

2007-11-29T17:44:00.000-05:00

Here I was trying to capture the beauty of this house, along with all its unique details. This house has more of an artsy, classic french feel. I was sort of thinking i was carrying that through with this collage. I made the images sepia, and old looking in a way, with the edging. I photographed each of these images on different occasions of visiting the beautiful house - and visiting people who live here. No, i didn't just sneak onto their lawn and go to town with my camera. Their house is amazing inside and out. They love art, and it shows.

One of Many

2007-11-19T17:58:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I had the privilege of photographing my friends, Becky and Tony, at a sort of nearby park. Tony is a photographer as well, so it was a little hard for him to be in front of the camera. The whole time we were shooting, in between Tony making faces and googly eyes, I was going for capturing the amount of love there is between these two. This image is when I caught them sneaking a kiss while awaiting my instruction for the next shot. This kiss is just one of many that Tony stole from Becky that night.

American Girl

2007-10-31T14:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a little taste of some of what I do at the studio. Last week we photographed 60 or 70 little girls dressed up as their American Girl dolls. American Girl is a doll line that is popular with little girls. They can get dolls that look like them, and buy outfits that are the same as the dolls outfits. There is a fundraiser group here that puts on a fashion show of the girls in the outfits with the matching dolls. We photograph them in our studio as part of the fundraiser. It gets crazy when there are 5 little girls in here at once!! Especially when we have to deal with all 5 girls at a time, and their crazy moms! Each girl gets a 15 minute session, so its a great exercise to sharpen your studio skills with posing, lighting, and coming up with ideas. I made this collage to showcase some of my faves.

MoonRise

2007-09-29T13:47:00.001-05:00

Man, last night the moon looked so cool. It was so bright that it was causing moon rays to come out from behind the clouds - which is what inspired me to photograph it. It kinda looks like a sunset, because of all the colors. I love how blue the sky looks and how warm the clouds and ground are. Also, I LOVE the fact that I was able to incorporate some stars into the image. I shot this outside my condo, around 9pm. This exposure was 3.2 seconds at 640ISO.
Some Where's Waldo Fun! - see if you can find the face hidden in the clouds - i think its freaky!

center piece

2007-09-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

I went to Boca Raton last weekend for a shoot for work. While on the other side of our state, we had to go see the beach. Of course, by the time we got there, the sun had already set. So, I still took some photos and I was able to pull this image off. It was taken on the pier. I was trying to go for symmetry with this. Shot with my cannon "sketch" camera, no flash, ISO 400, 1/3 of a second, blah blah blah...

Wilderness

2007-08-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Mike and I went to Disney's Fort Wilderness with some friends! One morning, I was able to get out and shoot a little. I played around with forshortening & trees. Again, I like focusing in on one point in the image. Fort Wilderness was fun! We ate buffalo, played in the pool, played in speed boats, made s'mores, sat on a barrell o' fun, and bonded with some friends. What else can you ask for in a weekend!?

SummerTime

2007-07-24T20:31:00.000-05:00

Boston is a nice city. While touring the city, we hung out in a park where ducks and swans nested. Being there reminded of Summer in Ohio (where I grew up). The look of the trees, the softness of the grass... While relaxing there I photographed what I wanted to remember most: The pretty swans were part of that. While in Boston we also saw street performers, Harvard Law, made Build-a-bear hello kitty and BatCow, and had some Mike's Pastry's - the best boston creme pie evah!!

MistyKat

2007-06-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

This is a photo of my cute little kittie, Misty. She usually sits in the bathroom with me while I am getting ready for work in the morning. She'll sit on the sink while I brush my teeth, in the window while I shower, and in the tub while I am blow drying my hair. Here she is sitting in the tub like the cute little pretty kitty that she is. She is my sweet little girl. (until she is tormenting my loverboy kitty, Ash) - yes, we named our cats after Pokemon characters.

Waiting

2007-05-31T18:59:00.001-05:00

I took this image during a wedding. I was waiting for the bridal party to start walking down the aisle when I saw this little girl playing around in the middle of the aisle. Shooting weddings are fun when I get to play around and get photojournalistic shots like this.