My 365 Photo Project: One Bright Spot Photography

365 2012/46 - Wedding Bands

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:38:46 GMT

]]>I wanted to try something up close and... nevermind. I'm not even going to try and trick you. I was sitting on the couch at around 8:30pm thinking, "What in the WORLD am I going to photograph today?" Jaxson has been photographically abused, so to speak, so I didn't want to take another photo of him sleeping. Though, c'mon, you gotta admit, they still make you smile inside a little, right?

Anyways, I started going through my mind, conjuring up what I could photograph that might look cool, and then it dawned on me: I've never taken a photo of Sarah's wedding bands for insurance purposes. So, why not do that? Bing, bang, boom, photo taken, and here we are.

Isn't honesty liberating and sometimes embarassing, all at the same time?

365 2012/45 - Valentine's Day Kiss by Candlelight

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:30:27 GMT

]]>I wanted to rebound from my horrible 365 shot yesterday of Jaxson by trying to come up with something 'romatical' (bonus points if you get the reference) for Valentine's Day.

I had two shots in mind, and due to space constraints, I decided to go with this one. I thought it turned out quite nice, striking a balance between subtely and romance. A big thanks goes to my wife, Sarah, for being willing to take upteen dozen photos until we got one right. Little did she know I just wanted to keep kissing her.

365 2012/44 - Oops

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:21:51 GMT

]]>This is one of those photos that, in your head, looks good in concept form, then you take it and once you look at it on a computer screen, you can't help but think, "Why did I think this was a good idea, again?"

I'm sorry, Jaxson. I'll try and do a better job at taking pictures of you. And I'll avoid trying to make you look mysterious in the shadows. You're a baby, not a Navy SEAL. My bad.

365 2012/43 - Babies-A-Plenty

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:09:38 GMT

]]>I'm not foolish enough to think my wife and I have the "cute baby" category cornered. This is Maddox, and he is adorable. He's a couple of months behind Jaxson in age, so every time I see him it reminds how big Jaxson has gotten and how much he's grown. Maddox is extremely cute, making his tiny baby noises, and will hopefully one day become playmates with Jaxson. Hopefully they will resist sucking on each other's pacifier.

365 2012/42 - Touchdown with Courage

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:05:16 GMT

]]>This 365 photo is from an event I wrote a post about in my blog. In short, the kid in the center of the photo had a brain seizure in late 2010 and it drastically affected his ability talk and walk. Well, thanks to God, his parents, and a handful of Jacksonville Jaguars, Luke has not only regained his ability to walk, but he wanted to score a touchdown in a football game. In response, a number of people got together and put on a flag football game, just for Luke.

The Mayor came out and delcared the day "Luke Akerstrom Day", and a half dozen members of the Jaguars came out in support, including Brad Meester who has spent more time with Luke than any other player. Brad, has in fact, created a close bond with Luke and his family, one I'm sure has motivated Luke along his path to recovery.

It was a special day, one Luke, and many in attendance, won't soon forget.

365 2012/41 - Cheating

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:49:48 GMT

]]>Ok, so as much as I love son, I cheated today. Yeah, I knew I wasn't going to have the time to take a proper photo, so I just waited until Jaxson fell asleep and took a quick snapshot of him. Who doesn't like photos of cute babies sleeping? I'm guessing no one is raising their hand out there in internet land.

365 2012/40 - Safety

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:37:33 GMT

]]>Today I did another quick shoot with Dan Riddick for the Trinity Christian Academy. The purpose of this photo was to promote the efforts of the academy toward safety.

365 2012/39 - Help

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:43:14 GMT

]]>Life gets busy. You have a list of things you need to do that just continually gets longer with no end in sight. There aren't enough hours in the day to take care of everything. In these situations, there's few answers, except one: work hard.

So, why is it that most of us typically retreat to our TVs every night? I don't know how, but I think most people have programmed themselves to be productive during the day and relax at night. I practically live by that moto. But, I may have to change that. When stuff just isn't getting done, what's happening on the "Biggest Loser" isn't as important anymore.

365 2012/38 - Videos are pictures too

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:18:43 GMT

]]>I wanted to take a photo today, but, instead I took this cute video of Jaxson playing 'peek-a-boo', and I thought, for today, this would suffice for my 365 photo. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, then how much is a video? Is that like, dozens of photos per second? If so, then that means I'm pretty much good for the rest of the year. Woohoo!

365 2012/37 - Edgy

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:04:58 GMT

]]>I've got a bunch of different lighting techniques that I want to try out, and one that I've been REALLY wanting to try is an edgy, side lighting technique. It only works well on men, though, and mainly on ones that don't have a lot of body fat. My subject here is Travis. I was a youth leader while he was a student coming through the youth group at our church. We have a pretty good relationship, and I figured he'd be patient enough to let me move lights around and try different things to get everything right. It also helped that he has barely any body fat, which creates a very defined face, exactly the scenario where this kind of technique shines. We didn't have any space outside to do it, so a tight headshot indoors is what I opted for.

365 2012/36 - Outgrowing His Clothes

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:54:35 GMT

]]>Jaxson is getting bigger. If you've been following my 365 photos, that's been evident. Like all babies, he's outgrowing his clothes, sometimes at a rapid pace. During Christmas, we were able to visit some friends in North Carolina who bought him a very cute Nautica outfit that was, dare I say, adorable.

Well, he's had it a month and he's almost grown out of it. Sarah wanted to make sure we got a photo of him in it because she thinks it too cute not to document it. So, today's photo is a celebration of Jaxson's cuteness, and his weight gain. Bet those two things don't get celebrated often.

365 2012/35 - The Elephant In The Room

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:05:36 GMT

]]>Sarah, again, provided my photo for today. She went to another shower for a different friend than the one from yesterday and brought back a very special cupcake. It was too unique not to photograph. The little elephant cupcake even had a bow in its head. Attention to detail people, attention to detail.

365 2012/34 - Advice Jars

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:23:10 GMT

]]>Ok, that's a horribly lame title for this photo. "Advice Jars"? I couldn't come up with anything else though. My wife, Sarah, was putting together some table decorations for our friend Janette's wedding shower. A friend of Sarah's gave her an idea to place good quality wooden kitchen utensils in the mason jars, then wraps them in ribbon and put advice on the front from people close to the bride. It worked out well.

I just downloaded some custom shapes in Photoshop, typed in the advice, and Sarah cut them out and glued them together. Re-reading the last sentence, though, condensed a good many hours of work into a mere 21 words. Not the case.

365 2012/33 - Sleep comfortably

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:14:44 GMT

]]>I knew when I decided to do this 365 photo project again, Jaxson would be frequently used. That presented two important bonuses: I get to take a bunch of photos of my son in the first year of his life, and I get an easy out when I either don't have any creative ideas or time to fulfill them.

Today was such a day, for both reasons. It was an easy out, but I just love my son so much. I didn't realize just how deeply I would love Jaxson before he was born, but when he came into this world, it hit me hard. It makes me appreciate and hurt that God sent his Son to die for us. I could never do that. I'm not strong enough.

But, sometimes Jaxson will just sprawl out, and it's so cute.

365 2012/32 - Forget Voting Ages

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:59:28 GMT

]]>Jaxson decided he wanted to cast his balot in the Florida Republican Primary. I didn't have the heart to tell him he couldn't because he was too young. Instead, I gave him a crayon, basically holding it for him, and put a napkin in front of him. He ate his hand and dropped the crayon, and I figured that was enough. So I gave him an "I Voted" sticker and he immediately lit up. Then he went back to eating his hand.

365 2012/31 - Reading

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:48:04 GMT

]]>For my 365 photo today, I wanted to try and get something out in the open. I asked for a volunteer (I usually do this via Twitter and Facebook, keep an eye out if you want to come out) and Sidney piped up. She's currently very into reading, so I wanted to try and incorporate that into the shot.

Unfortunately, the wind kept blowing my umbrella open and closed and my Pocketwizard Flextt5s decided they didn't want to work like they're supposed to (they may be going back if this doesnt stop), so I didn't have the opportunity to tweek things appropriately because I was so focused on the lights. For instance, as my wife was the first to point out, having her facing to the right instead of left would have been nice. Little things like that get unnoticed when you're worried about other details. So, in other words, I might not be incorporating that much flash into my paid shoots at this point unless the client is cool with being patient while the kinks get worked out.

365 2012/30 - History in the Ground

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:24:48 GMT

]]>I was traveling through the Riverside area of town today and I recalled that they have some of the old brick-paved roads still intact in some of the streets down there. I've never really payed much attention to them, so I decided to check it out a little closer. Scattered throughout these sections was this imprint formed on the tops of random bricks. It made me curious: Who was this company? Where are they now?

A little internet research says that the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company was big back in the 1920s. These bricks in particular were likely sold to Jacksonville around the late 1920s. Unfortunately, a hurricane struck Florida around this time and the building boom that had been taking place halted abruptly. Eventually, with less business from Florida and new road paving techniques having been developed, the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company filed for backruptcy in the late 1920s and was sold in pieces shortly thereafter.

Things like this make me want to continue my project of photographing Jacksonville. There's actually a lot of history here, if you look for it. For instance, did you know that Jacksonville used to be a Hollywood-esque town back in the day? Film was a big part of the city, and for some reason I'm not quite sure of, it drifted away. Interesting stuff.

365 2012/29 - Backyard Dramatic Portrait

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:06:46 GMT

]]>Sarah and I had our friends Devin and Shannon over for a game night after Sunday night church, and I figured, why not take a picture? (Because that's the typical thought you'd have when company comes over, right?) Devin decided to play along and we went outside and tried to take a photo for my 365.

It wasn't working out quite how I wanted, but I wasted enough time lugging everything outside and getting my ratios down. So, instead of trying to perfect the shot, I just took what we got and called it off. I mean, when Rook is waiting inside, you got to get moving. It should be noted that Sarah and I won. In case you were wondering.

365 2012/28 - Happy Babby

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:32:45 GMT

]]>I had a few minutes during the day, so I wanted to see what kind of set up I could throw together really quick made up of from my pool of photography gear.

I put up a quick shoot through background with a flash behind it (that's how it's all white), then I set Jaxson next to the living room window in a Bumbo seat. Click. Done.

It helps that he loves to smile.

365 2012/27 - First Roll Over

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:41:10 GMT

]]>Occasionally, when I have no business that takes me out of the house during the day, I'll keep Jaxson home with me. It's just really hitting me that he truely isn't going to be as small as he is today, and he's only going to get bigger and continue to change. So, I want to spend time with as much as possible to take it all in while I can.

So, on this day, I had him on the ground on his mat and he kept trying to roll over. Moreso than usual, as he was literally laying on his side and burrying his face into the mat trying to get all the way over. I had been watching him like a hawk for over an hour, looked away for 5 minutes typing something up, and I look past my my laptop screen and this is what I saw.

I was happy, and so sad. I missed it. Technically, he DID make onto his stomach, but his left arm was stuck underneath him. So, in MY mind, I'll just act like this one didn't count.

365 2012/26- Goofiness After the Shoot part 2

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:19:20 GMT

]]>Today I was working with Dan Riddick (@DanRiddick), the Communications Director at Trinity Baptist Church. We were taking some promo shots for some material they'll be sending out soon highlighting some positive aspects of the Trinity Christian Academy. Our model for part of the shoot, Morgan Woods is the daughter of a friend of ours, as well as being a student at the academy.

I know the family pretty well, which means I also know Morgan, and I know that she's a pretty laid back girl, as well as someone who wouldn't get embarassed by a goofy picture of her surfacing on the internet (I did get her consent, promise!). So after we finished getting our shots for the promo, I told her about my 365 and she was happy to oblige with a potentially-embarassing-but-fun-lighthearted photo. Thanks Morgan.

365 2012/26- Goofiness After the Shoot part 1

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:08:03 GMT

365 2012/25 - Ride

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:09:44 GMT

]]>I've been riding my bike for exercise in recent weeks, trying to enjoy Florida's uncharacteristically warm winter. We usually are hanging around the 40s and 50s as highs during January and February, but it's been keeping in the mid-70s for almost the whole month. And you won't find this guy complaining, that's for sure.

I have a number of bike photo ideas that I've wanted to do, but I just don't have the equipment in hand to get it done. Additionally, I have no reason to purchase something expensive to mount the camera just how I want it when I probably will not use it for actualy business purposes and that's not a smart way to spend your money. So, I just keep resorting to using the tools I have on hand to create images, and this is my latest effort.

I wanted to convey a sense of motion, and the shadow turned out to be a happy accident, so I decided to instead focus on it.

365 2012/24 - Failure in the Field part 2

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:46:22 GMT

]]>Well, you can't win 'em all. Basically, this 365 shoot turned out nothing like what I'd hoped. I thought the location we were going to had different characteristics to it than it did and pretty much things went downhill from the start. The sun wasn't in the right position, the fence wasn't whole, the flash started acting up on me, etc. etc. Pretty much it resorted to: ok, we've got lemons, what's the best lemonade we can make? I had Moises sit down next to this fence post and start reading, and I just couldn't compose the image I wanted with the environment we were working in. So, I tried anyhow, and then nailed a quick portrait to make myself feel better. That's just how it goes somedays*.

*Unless you're a client, and then this off the cuff, seat-of-your-pants style wouldn't happen because commissioned shoots are preplanned, these 365 photo shoots aren't. They're the equivalent of tinkering.

365 2012/24 - Failure in the Field part 1

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:45:26 GMT

365 2012/23 - Sunset Portrait with a Twist part 2

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:16:21 GMT

]]>I solicited my Facebook and Twitter friends for a volunteer model this afternoon and my friend Victoria quickly jumped on the opportunity. I took her senior photos and we had, what may have been for me, one of, if not, my best photo shoot yet. She's a natural in front of the camera and a genuinely sweet person. She also happened to be on my side of town this afternoon and our schedules worked out perfectly.

I was looking for someone to pose for some ideas I had for a portrait at sunset. I've done a pretty good job at nailing portraits using natural light but the next step is to master using flash. I've been using flash for a few years now, but never as a major part of my style. I'm hoping to change that. We took a few shots and I wanted to accomplish two things: get a regular, standard portrait with a nice fading sky, and something else. Thankfully we were able to get both.

365 2012/23 - Sunset Portrait with a Twist part 1

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:15:30 GMT

365 2012/22 - Jaxson Loves His Toes

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:01:22 GMT

]]>Today was a pretty packed day, for the most part. I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything elaborate for my 365 photo so I decided to stalk Jaxson during the day until he did something cute, which was pretty much all the time.

So, as I was watching the AFC Championship game, Jaxson was just hanging out grabbing his toes, talking. I couldn't think of a more fun moment to remember with a photo. He was super happy, talking away in random noises, and grabbing and rolling around holding onto his toes. I can't imagine babies ever being cuter than they already are.

365 2012/20 - Beware the Rook

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:32:16 GMT

]]>Sarah and I love to play games, especially with other couples. We tend to deviate toward partner games, which usually leads us to Spades or the similar card game, Rook. If you've never played the game, it's a lot of fun, but it can frustrate you if you're overly competitive.

Tonight, Sarah and I went over to another couple's house and we ended up playing cards til almost midnight, with most of that time dominated by Rook (I'm not going to say who won, but their last names rhyme with the words "boar hall").

This card is called the Rook, it's the most senior card in the game and if you don't have it, when it's played you generally are not happy, unless it's your partner. Then you're tickled pink. Or green. Or whatever that color is (I'm partially colorblind, bet you didn't know that, did you?)

365 2012/21 - Babies and Cakes

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:33:17 GMT

]]>Our friend's Alvin and Wella are getting ready to have their third child, and this will be their first boy. In honor of this moment, some people from our Sunday School class got together and we threw them a baby shower to celebrate. One of the ladies went to the local Publix grocery store and picked up this cake.

And no, this time, the cake is not a lie (for the minority of you out there that will get that reference).

365 2012/19 - Railroad Tracks

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:04:42 GMT

]]>I wanted to try to be a little artsy today, and I'm torn between liking the results and thinking it's only suitable for a powerpoint background or something. My little G11 point and shoot was with me as I went out this morning and I wanted to try and get an interesting photo of some railroad tracks nearby.

Unfortunately, the location I chose had too many distracting things going on around it, and in order to avoid those elements, I had to go with a really weird angle. I kind of like it, but I feel like there is too much empahsis on the empy interior portion of the tracks. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment.

365 2012/18 - Words Can Hurt

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:47:24 GMT

]]>For today's 365 photo, I had a friend of mine named Tyler who I knew was spontaneous and fun-loving enough to help me out on a photo idea I've been wanting to nail.

For Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me some intersting band aids in a funny gesture towards my former profession. I immediately knew I wanted to put them over someone's mouth for a photo. The theme idea is that words have meaning, and they can definitely do damage. Recently its become even more note worthy because I've seen some people discover exactly that. Not good stuff.

So, I wanted to represent that thought in a photo and show that, once words are out, there's no taking them back. It's done, and the only option left to do afterward is manage the situation that they create.

365 2012/17 - Bike Ride

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:25:24 GMT

]]>Today was 'first bike ride of the year' day, which also turned in to 'find all of your bike riding stuff' afternoon. I wanted to grab a shot of me out and about for today, and that meant self posing the camera on top of my Camelbak, hitting the timer, and running over and grabbing my bike.

Yeah, not the best of options, and as you can see, not the best photo. But, today, something was better than nothing.

365 2012/16 - The Penny

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:25:21 GMT

]]>Think about something here for a minute: how important is the penny to you? I couldn't tell you the last time I've used one, let alone even had one if my direct possesion. For this photo, I had to go and dig one out of a change cup, and even that was almost fruitless.

When I see the penny, it makes me think of insignificance. Seriously, if you saw a quarter on the ground, you'd stop and pick it up, right? But, other than little kids who don't know any better (or maybe they know better and WE don't), no one stops and picks up pennies. It's not worth it.

What makes me think even more about it, though, is that we took one of our country's best presidents, Abraham Lincoln, and we put his face on this coin. That means, at some point in time, this coin meant something. Now, though, it's not even worth picking up. Then that makes me think of myself. When am *I* going to not be worth picking up, not even worth anyone's attention?

It's no secret that in America, once you hit a certain age, you're value seemingly declines at a horribly fast rate. It's not that you have no value, it's just that you require more money and expenses to keep, so you get booted out of the door in favor or someone younger who can do most of the work you did, but at half the cost.

I'm almost 30 now. I've still got many good years ahead of me, but the thought still lingers: when will I be just like the penny, unneeded in society?

365 2012/15 - Bible by Candle light

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:07:41 GMT

]]>The focus on today's shot was the Bible, as if obvious here. Sunday is the day of rest and when we here in typically America go to church. My wife and I attend Trinity Baptist Church here in Jacksonville, FL and I can't think of another place I'd rather go to worship and learn the Word of God.

For this photo, I wanted to convey the isolated nature we sometimes need when we're communicating with God in our own personal lives. For me, I need that isolation, otherwise I I don't feel I get quite as open or listen as intently as needed. I thought illumination, coming only from a tiny tea candle, would set the mood.

365 2012/14 - Outdoor quickie-portrait

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:56:00 GMT

]]>The weather outside on this wonderful January afternoon was beautiful. I wanted to outdoor shot for a change of pace and I also wanted to try out a technique with a specific lens I own. See, if you're unaware, some lenses react differently under different circumstances.

For instance, this lens used for thise photo does not react well when shot into direct sunlight. I like to use that technique because it gives the subject a nice glow around them and as well as definition from the sun. However, this lens will cause there to be a haze over the whole picture and it makes it unusable. Therefor, I had to take this photo of Sarah and slight angle to the sun instead of the shot I really wanted.

And that's why it pays to know your gear. Imagine going out with a client, taking a bunch of photos, and getting back home to edit only to discover that you blew all the photos. That's bad stuff right there.

365 2012/13 - Friday the 13th

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:45:00 GMT

]]>I had a shot idea all worked up for a Friday the 13th theme, but it didn't pan out due to logistical problems. So, I went with a back up plan: a noir-ish shot of a bloody knife on the ground. It didn't turn out quite how I would have liked, but it did give me some ideas for some future 365 photos. I may be looking for some models in the future... no knives included.

365 2012/12 - Piano Practice

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:31:14 GMT

]]>So, this one isn't on me. I had actually taken a photo of my wife playing the piano and I was dutifuly informed that that quite certainly would not be allowed. The good hubby that I am, I relented and instead took this horribly boring photo of our piano's keys instead. Moving on, nothing to see here.

365 2012/11 - LIFE

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:12:29 GMT

]]>Every year starting a week or two before Black Fridy, Amazon.com will have what they call 'Lightning Deals' where they'll have a bunch of products on sale througout the day, but at some point during the day, reduce the price even further for a limited time. Well, when I saw "LIFE: 75 Years of the Very Best of LIFE" go on sale for $12, I had to pick it up. (It's currently retailing for around $25-$35)

This thing is massive. It's nearly a foot tall and weighs almost 7 pounds. When I opened it up for the first time, to a random page, it was a full color, full page photo of doctors doing emergency surgery on an infant still in the womb. The little baby girl actually reached out and touched the hand of one of the surgeons. To say that, after having Jaxson, I didn't get teared up over that, would be a lie. I'm tearing up right now just typing this.

Anyway, this book was a bargain. If you have any interest in seeing photos from the last 75 years of history, pick up a copy and just start browsing. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

365 2012/10 - Jaxson sleeping part Deux plus 1

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:48:20 GMT

]]>Another one of those days where there wasn't excess time. Actually, that's a lie. There was excess time, it was just filled with a viewing of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with a couple of my friends. I came home and found this little guy asleep on the ground and thought it might make a cute photo opportunity.

I'm hoping that by the time this photo project is done, I can complete a near 3D scan of little Jaxson's entire upper body based only off of all of the photos I will have taken of him.

365 2012/9 - Listen to the Music

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:16:58 GMT

]]>Today was a bit frustrating for reasons that will remain nameless. When things get like that, and my mind just needs to take a chill pill, I'll listen to some music. Especially orchestral, epic music. I can't get enough of it. I love the emotion in it. It can stir you to motivation, inspire you, or just get you going when you're in a rough spot.

So today, when things got frustrating, I just turned on Pandora, put in my headphones, and let it guide me back to focus. If you're looking for some inspiring/motivational orchestral based music, check out the group Two Steps From Hell. Why they chose that name, I have no idea, but they are two composers who got together and started writing and recording epic trailer music. You've probably heard all of their stuff already if you've seen recent movie previews, Verizon Wireless commercials, or watched just about any episode of the X-Factor. They're pretty amazing.

If you want to support my blog, you can purchase their music from Amazon via the following link: Invincible by Two Steps From Hell

365 2012/8 - Late Nights

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:58:38 GMT

]]>Ok, so I'll go ahead and straight away admit that this picture is ridiculous. I mean, really? A picture of time? That's it? Yup, it was one of those days.

It was busy from start to finish, from church in the morning to a birthday party in the evening. I really had no time to put together anything. So I figured that I would take a picture representing what I was fighting against the whole day: the clock.

Ever since Jaxson has come in to our lives, we end staying up later and later each night it seems, then we moan about getting up so early. It's really our own fault, but sadly we're locked into the "American way", burning the candle at both ends.

365 2012/7 - One Smiling Baby

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:57:48 GMT

]]>I was on baby duty today. Sarah had a lot errands to run and couldn't be home much, so I had a daddy-son day for the second day in a row, and I'm definitely not complaining. Besides loving spending time with him, it gave me an opportunity to try out a new posing technique.

A friend of ours' daughter had to do phyisical therapy on her neck to strengthen one side, and the dad would place his little girl on a Boppie pillow, on her stomach, forcing her to keep her head up. I tried to the same thing with Jaxson and he was happy to be photogenic for me. If there's one thing this little guy loves to do, it's smile.

365 2012/6 - Jaxson Visits the Doctor

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:10:52 GMT

]]>Jaxson stayed home with me today. I felt sad for him for two reasons: I was constantly tied to my computer working and it was time for a doctor's check up. Which is a nice way of saying shots.

This is a before picture, as we waited for the instruments of doom to come into office. When it came time for the moment of truth, Jaxson gave a little poochie lip, a quick cry, and not long after was back to his cute self.

I didn't have time to set up anything with my proper camera gear, so I took a photo of him doing one of the cutest things he's done yet: grab his toes and roll around. I know, I'm exposing my new dadness, but it's irresistably cute to me.

365 2012/5 - Taking Notes from VisionMongers

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:25:38 GMT

]]>I'm currently reading through a book by author/photographer David duChemin titled "VisionMongers". He wrote it for people like myself who are getting into the photography industry and need some guidance. Moreso, though, in every book he writes, on his blog, and in this book, he drills into the fact that as a photographer, you have to have vision in your work. A photographer is not a commodity.

Also, being a photographer is not about making money. It's a means to make money, but it's more about the poeple you photograph. How can you communicate the ideas you have in your head through your camera, and how can you serve your clients in the best way? He also advocates discovering what you love to shoot, because if you shoot what you care about, you'll do a better job and be happier doing it.

365 2012/4 - Stuck at the Keyboard

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:59:22 GMT

]]>I'm in the early days of getting my business going. Working in a field that is based off of creativity, I feel cluttered. I'm not taking photos or coming up cool or innovative ideas, I'm pounding away at keys as I register for this and register for that, tell Uncle Sam, and whatever Uncle Sam's little buddy in Florida is called, that I'm running a business. It gets to be a bit daunting. I'm working off of a list and crossing things off as I go, otherwise I'd feel like I was running in place with everything passing me by.

Thankfully, it's looking more and more like next week I'll be able to devote a lot more time to actually using my craft, not spending so much time telling the government about it.

365 2012/3 - Omelet Day

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:46:51 GMT

]]>So, I decided that I'm overweight. Well, actually, the scale did that for me. It can be so informative, ya know?

Anyhow, I'm changing my diet in response. In what you could call 'stage 1', I'm eating mostly fruits and vegetables, with some eggs and cheese thrown in. I'm trying to kick my body of some of its cravings, which is mainly sugars and starches. After a week, I'm going to start adding back in meats and a few starches. It's going well so far.

Except, I tried to make my first omelet. Needless to say, if you're making food and realize that it's looking bad enough that you should take a picture of it, odds are that it isn't going to taste the best. The odds were correct. I mean, I didn't even think eggs could burn as fast as they did. Luckily, I tried again a few days later and I now have it figured out. Or at the least my wife likes them.

365 2012/2 - Baby Butt

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:17:57 GMT

]]>You'd probably have to ask, "Why would someone title anything 'baby butt'"? Well, once again, Jaxson sleeping makes my 365 and it's all because of the way he's sleeping.

If you've never put a baby to sleep, occasionally they get so comfy when you're holding them that they bring their legs up to their stomach, kind of like the fetal position. Well, when you put them down for sleep, they sometimes keep their legs tucked in and that means their little tiny butts stick up in the air. Few things in life are as cute.

365 2012/1 - My Little Guy

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:02:02 GMT

]]>I wasn't kidding when I said Jaxson would be in quite a bit of my 365 pictures. Besides the fact that he's a perfect photo opportunity waiting to happen, I'm his dad and a photographer, how can I NOT take a million pictures of him.

I took this photo at almost 2:30am because I was up late working. When you're trying to start you own business and get it off the ground, there's so many little things you have to do that eat up time. It's worth it, for sure, but you just find yourself constantly thinking about the things that need to get done.

Now, I make lists. As I complete all those little tasks, I cross them off. It gives me a sense of completion I don't think I'd have otherwise. Without that one little activity, I'd probably constantly feel overwhelmed and behind, like nothing was getting done. And then I wouldn't be able to sleep so soundly like this little guy.

365/78 - Crazy Face

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:52:13 GMT

]]>This is Nick, star of post photos, such as 'Serious Face'. Now, here is reinventing himself as Nick, starring in the new photo, 'Crazy Face'.

Oh, and if you hadn't guessed, yes, it was a slow day.

365/77 - f8 in the rain

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:21:03 GMT

]]>I got a litle brave (and stupid) on my last day testing out my new 35mm prime. Rain started to drop down in sheets and puddles were forming everywhere. A lull came and I decided I was going to go out and try to catch a photo of some water droplets...with no covering over my lens, camera, or anything else. This resulted in me basically getting soaked as I hunched over and used my body to cover the camera and lens. That worked until the rain started going again and the water bouncing back up FROM the ground became so fierce it began coating my gear, and no photo situation is worse the risk that brings. However, I did get at least one cool photo. I had to put the lens at f8 because I needed serious DOF since I couldn't look through the viewfinder.

365/76 - Abstract Photo Time

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:20:33 GMT

]]>I got back from drill and I needed a photo. I literally walked around the house taking pictures of everything trying to find some new way to look at everything. These are the days when I don't want to do a 365, just randomly taking pictures of things. One picture did stick out, and it was one I intentionally tried to be abstract with, and that's today's photo.

365/75 - You Get Out, You Go In

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:20:13 GMT

]]>Whenever a Marine gets out at our unit we have a tradition of throwing them in the pond we have nearby. This past drill Cpl Wronkowski had the pleasure of getting wet. Congratulations are in order, and good luck on your future endeavors.

365/74 - Muffins

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:19:38 GMT

]]>Long story short: long day at drill, got home around 11:00 and my wife was making muffins for her sunday school class the next morning. The photo tells what happened next. I figured I'd try and play with the DOF a little on this 35mm prime "just because".

365/73 - A closer look at the scalp

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:19:32 GMT

]]>My friend Nick's hair is always spiked. It was a bit more spikey today than usual and my friend Matt remarked at how weird it was to see so much of his scalp. I decided a close in look would make for an interesting picture and it actually did. I had to get to drill in the evening so this served as my 365 photo for the day.

365/72 - Uniform Inspection

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:18:57 GMT

]]>It's drill weekend again and this month they're inspecting us in our "Service Charlies", which is our green trousers with short sleeved khaki shirt. My time in the Marine Corps is almost up, so this is probably the last time I'll wear this particular uniform. I'd say there's a bit of nostalgia here but I really hate uniform inspections, as I assume everyone else does too, with the exception of the person doing the inspecting

365/71 - High School Love

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:18:41 GMT

]]>Tonight was church for our youth group and during my first day testing out my new Nikon 35mm 1.8, I figured I'd test out the DOF and view on some locker graffiti.

365/70 - Cuter than a button

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:26:50 GMT

]]>I don't know where the expression "cute as a button" ever came from, I mean, are buttons even really cute? No matter, I've found someone much more cute and her name is Alivia. Recenty her family and I got together to shoot some family and individual photos and by far she was the star of the show, photo-wise. It's not that any of the other kids are less cute, it's just that she knows how to turn it on (and judging by how much she does it, it doesn't seem to be that hard. I mean, look at that kid! She's adobrable). I'll stop gushing now.

365/69 - Just a Quick Headshot

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:10:31 GMT

]]>I wanted to try a little rim/side lighting set up and, as always, my friend Nick was faithful to stand in front of my camera while I continued to blind him for 10 minutes. At the end, we had a simple, quick, down and dirty headshot. This isn't my favorite shot out of all the ones we took, but it is the one that has the least amount of distractng background elements in it (the setup shot on the blog will show you how distracting it was).

365/68 - Candle light garbage

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:52:57 GMT

]]>I image you can sense by the title that I don't think much of this photo, and for good reason. I had a very, very busy Sunday and it hit me late at night as a large group of us left PF Changs, after celebrating with the graduating seniors, that I still hadn't taken a 365 photo yet. I put my Droid in macro and then snapped this close up of a candle that was on our table. The whole place was so dark that I literally could photograph nothing else. So, this photo is, in my eyes, basically the photo equivalent to garbage and exists solely for the purpose of fulfilling my 365 commitment for the day.

365/67 - You Can Never Be Too Creative

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:40:39 GMT

]]>Saturday night rolled around and my wife and I were dog tired. We both took an unexpected 4 hour nap. When we woke up, we realized we'd slept away our entire free, unplanned time for the day and had to get ready to go visit a few people. I had actually thought to myself, "Great, another lame 365 shot where I just grab something and photograph it." That was not the case. We stopped by a graduation party for a teen graduating out of our youth group, who've we've been with for 3 years. Her name is Debra. Well, there's always gonna be food at a graduation party, but I was not expecting this awesome, grad-themed cupcake. I was so impressed by the look of it that I snagged one on my out to take home to photograph. Tell me you don't look at that and think that's pretty clever.

365/66 - Man at Work

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:22:33 GMT

]]>This is my buddy Nick. You might remember him from such 365 entries as "Flip" and "Serious Face". Anytime I just can't find someone else to take a photo for me, he's willing to step in and... model... for me. Today I wanted to try and stretch myself a little bit and there's no better subject to photograph than someone who's willing to let you play around and not get bent out of shape because they percieve you to be wasting their time.

I wanted to try and photograph someone either specifically in their work environment or working and I've discovered that this is an area that needs some attention. Nick works in the print shop at my building and, to be honest, there's nothing really too interesting to photograph down there, so I had to come up with an interesting angle or composition to make it more appealing. This was my best attempt, and while it works, I figure there has to be something better I could have done. Why? Because I've seen people like David Hobby do it and I'm bound and determind to get this stuff figured out like he does. Not to mention, how many photographers have been hired to do some photography for a business only to be found in the same situation?

Lighting info: 1 SB800 in a Lumiquest Softbox III (trying to simulate a desk lamp), triggered via CLS and set on manual (either 1/64 or 1/128 if I remember correctly). Exposure set for ambient.

365/65 - No Power, No Movie

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:34:07 GMT

]]>You would think on a day when you're plans get scrapped you'd have more time to do things you need to do, like take a proper 365 photo. Nope, not today, Instead, I'm using a photo I took with my Motorola Droid while I was at a local AMC movie theater watching 'Prince of Persia'. Halfway through the movie the power went out and never came back on. A little group of AMC workers weere waiting at the door ready to hand out free passes to everyone leaving. I'm not sure what's worse: sitting through an entire bad movie or only getting to watch half a movie you're enjoying.

365/64 - Grads

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:56:37 GMT

]]>This is a great guy I've had the priviledge of working with in my church's youth group during the past three years. His name is Moises Santana and this year he's graduating from Trinity Christian Academy. I stopped by his after-party and we decided he needed a new temporary Facebook profile pic, and thus was born today's 365 photo.

For this photo, I had my SB800 on camera in TTL with a Lumiquest Softbox III attached.

365/63 - It's a Bold New World

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:23:41 GMT

]]>I've got a friend of mine, who will remain nameless for the internets, who is somewhat of a goofball. Not a stupid goofball, but the kind of guy who will do stupid and goofy things for the sake of getting people to laugh. However, sometimes he just does things that are weird. Like wear a tie-dyed a-shirt (AKA a wife beater) to UFC pay-per-view parties. At an even that shotwcases just what a man can do when trained and determined, he shows up wearing a muticolored, tightly fitting wife beater. Does it make you laugh? Sure. Do you feel awkward afterwards? Maybe a little. Nonetheless, recently I came into possesion of it and decided I'd make a picture out of it, for more reasons than just posterity (I'm using it for an article on Photoshop. You were expecting that, though, weren't you?).

Maybe if you think of it as being more abstract you'll like it better.

365/62 - Nature Meets Man

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:59:48 GMT

]]>After an unexpected Memorial Day reprieve from a full day's work (a big thanks to my wonderful employers), my wife and I took some out-of-state guests to a local beach named Little Talbot Island. The weather couldn't have been better and we took it all in during a great day in the sun. On the way back, we could see a coal plant in the distance overlooking these long, deep marshlands and I thought it would make for a good picture for the day.

365/61 - Baptism

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:40:49 GMT

]]>My 365 photo for today is a shot I did of a baptism for a project with Trinity Baptist Church, where I attend. The purpose of baptism is for a Christian who professes a faith in Jesus to make it publically known, however, the act itself has no power. It's purely symbolic. This pastor here is Jim Kilpatrick, who oversees and manages the Trinity Rescue Mission here in Jacksonville.

365/60 - A Real Life Webslinger

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:21:05 GMT

]]>Casually taking a stroll along the Acosta Bridge in Jacksonville and what do we find? This little guy hanging out. A real life webslinger, sans the comic book and catchy theme song. I was looking for a shot of downtown Jacksonville at night, but this seemed to be a whole lot more interesting. I probably tried to get this shot 20 times. Canon s90 in Macro mode is fine, but not when there's wind tossing the little guy all over the place. Come to think of it, this guy must have been pretty angry at this point, what with the wind throwing him all over and then you've got some guy blinding him with a light every few seconds constantly driveling on about "one more shot".

365/59 - A QR code

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:09:14 GMT

]]>I'll just start by saying this was a slow photo day. Because of that, I grabbed a photo off of my Droid that I'd taken earlier in the day. Some of you might be wondering what in the world this is a picture of. It's called a 'QR code' and you can expect to see more and more of these as time goes on. They use these in magazines and on the web to act as 'links', like you'd use a hyperlink on a web page. Except, you use your cell camera (and a program/app to read the code) and take a picture of it, then it directs you to wherever the link is supposed to go. Today, I was checking out an app on my phone using this one and I figured I'd take a 'safety net' photo to make sure I got something for today.

365/58 - Marine Corps Emblem

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:40:19 GMT

]]>Today was a slow picture day, so I was scrambling around trying to find something interesting to photograph, yet again. Truth be told, if it wasn't for my wife, I would have stopped my 365 project this night. I don't want to photograph just anything, I want to make photos with meaning and style. However, she encouraged me to keep going, even on nights when I'm "just trying to photography something". She's great woman and thankfully, so far, she's kept me on track. This photo is of the Marine Corps eagle, globe and anchor that was on an award I received. There's a lot of symbology there, as each piece of this emblem has some significance attached to it. I won't go into it here, but I'm thankful that it provided something for me to photograph. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/57 - The Lens Matters

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:08:49 GMT

]]>I was doing a project recently for a local Christian college and they wanted me to get some shots of their campus. When doing work that involves showing off a lot of interior space, the lens you use really matters. If you don't believe that's true, go and check out some local real estate agencies and find one that's maybe a little older and not up to date technologically. The photos they use to show the house look like you're moving in a to closet because they used a point and shoot camera that had the wide angle capacity of a toilet paper tube. For this 365 shot, I put on a wide angle lens (my Tokina 11-16mm) and stepped just inside the rows of books. If you wanted to see what this would look like with some of those camera that don't go even remotely wide, make a square out of your hands and cover up everything in this picture except the last few sections and that's what you'd get. The right lens makes all the difference. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/56 - Hanging Around

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:15:58 GMT

]]>Today's 365 photo is of a little friend who hangs around our house, or more specifially, on our house.

We have dozens, if not more, lizards roaming all around our house, feasting on all the precious bugs their stomachs can contain. Every night, one or two of them crawl onto our bathroom window and hang out. Tonight they did it and I went out and turned on an outside light so it would silhouette them from the inside. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/55 - Crooked

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:06:16 GMT

]]>Yeah, I'll just come out and say it: I needed a photo today and this was the most interesting thing I'd seen. See, I've discovered a unique problem that I've only recently become aware of because I'm getting a lot more prints than I normally do. I've noticed that the way I compose photos is not compatible with 8x10s. I usually compose for the whole camera sensor, which usually fills in an 8x12 better. Because of that, I have to special order frames or crop my photos into weird distortions of what I'd like them to be, and that's not an option. So, before I could find a reliable supplier of bulk 8x12 frames I went o Walmart and found the only frame that would be comparable: a 12x16. Unfortunately, the phot won't stay in the frame properly, as you see here.

I composed this picture solely on the lines. Almost everything is straight, except for the main focus of the photo. It kind of interested me, and now it's a 365 photo.

365/54 - The End is Near

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:29:03 GMT

]]>On our last day hanging out with our friends in Destin, FL, we took a walk down by a little area near the intercoastal waterway that had some unique shops and restaurants. As were walking around taking everything in, we passed by this fresh crawfish stand and right there in front was this little guy that decided he was going to hang out on the side. The sight was so peculiar that I grabbed a few photos of him. He lierally didn't budge the whole time, except once just to prove he was alive (though not for long) It made me laugh a little, then it made me a tiny bit sad because this unique little guy was probably about to be ripped apart within a mere short, few hours. But, that's just the way the world works. I should mention I had shrimp for lunch and they probably didn't know each other. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/53 - Fun Never Gets Old

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:29:00 GMT

]]>This past weekend my wife and I went to Destin, FL to visit some good friends of ours and we were treated to a really good time, not limited to some really nice weather and beaches. My wife's friend Caroline has a father who loves to have fun, either joking around or, thankfully this weekend, playing around. He decided a little but of fun on the water would be just ticket and he brought out the jet ski. A couple of sunburns later and some really tired arms, we were all exhuasted and pretty happy about the day. Here is Richard Lawson, Carloine's father, showing us how its done as he tears up the water before he attaches a two person raft to the back and drags us all over the place. One of the best weekends I've had in a long time. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/52 - Daybreak

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:28:56 GMT

]]>Another nice sunrise caught from the top of the building that I work at. Simple, quick, and and all the same a very beautiful site. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/50 - Just a Blur

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:28:49 GMT

]]>Today's 365 shot is a little abstract. I was toying around with photographing a train I unfortunately got stuck waiting on when I had a happy accident. I kept adjusting the explosure ratios trying to get the right amount of movement blur when I caught these perfectly straight lines made by the train even though it was moving. I kept adjusting until I got this and I kind of liked it. I don't usually do abstract stuff, I'm not too good at it, so don't look for too much more of it in the future. But, this one we'll keep. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/49 - Sunrise on Jacksonville

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:30:40 GMT

]]>This 365 shots was taken for the sole purpose of getting a shot I've been trying to get for the last three years. Every year the sunrise moves around and at a certain point that I haven't been able to nail yet, it comes up right behind the stadium when looking at it from the rooftop of the building I work at. Well, the day prior it looked like it was just about there, so I went in early and setup to try and photograph it. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but we do this have this decent sunrise picture, along with the Matthews Bridge and the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/51 - Hello Mr. CMD key

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:06:28 GMT

]]>A late night means a simple picture, especially one before a road trip. My wife and I were taking care of some loose ends and we had to do some stuff online, so we were using our new Macbook Pro. This little Command Key is one difference between Windows and Mac keyboards (not in function, just in looks), and I figured why not make a picture out of it. However, in a different sense, I've got to say I love some of the changes I'm seeing, and its always the little things, like the touchpad. Why would my touch pad always crash on my HP laptop? It would never scroll right. On my Macbook Pro, I'm scrolling up, down, sideways, through windows, pictures, resizing them and all sorts of other cool little things. Not huge things, but enough little things that eventually add up to a lot. Anyways, that's my Mac praise for the day. I'm not a full blown convert, but I'm loving what I'm seeing so far. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/48 - A little splash of H2O

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:36:31 GMT

]]>Monday was another very busy day, with meetings and errands sucking up most of my free time. However, ater brainstorming for a few minutes on what I should photograph before I went to bed, I decided to hastily try out one of those water splashing shots you see in ads. In the end it didn't turn out so good, but it's a starting point for me to try a new technique later on. This was shot with my Canon G11, synced up to a Nikon SB-25 via a SC-17 cable. The flash had a 6 inch snoot attached and was off to camera right at a 90 degree angle, around 10 inches or so away from the glass. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/44 - Bug, Meet Windshield

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:36:23 GMT

]]>Very busy day, so I didn't have much time to grab a creative photo, so today was going to be "journalist day", where I just take a picture documenting something in some kind of possibly interesting way. It turned that I didn't need to go far, as after I had been driving for a little bit, I noticed something flapping on my windshield. A bug had hit it but not bounced off, and instead was flapping around in the wind. Then I noticed a small trail behind him and realized the wind was pushing him to the side of the windshield, except he was "leaking out" as he moved. This was the trail he left behind.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/43 - Sex is Serious

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:36:11 GMT

]]>My friend Kelly johnson spoke at our youth service and began a series called "180", where he taught about the importance of sex and purity and the need for the youth of this generation to treat as important as it is. The first night was very good, and this was one of his bullet points. I thought about how a screen like this could be off-putting to some people today, especially if they just walked in the room, but I think its entirely appropriate to be speaking about these things with teenagers when they're already talking about it themselves. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/47 - Gas Gas Gas

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:28:00 GMT

]]>'Gas Gas Gas!' is what we're supposed to yell in the Marines (and all US military) if we see or smell some kind of biological or chemical agent that requires us to put on our gas mask and/or protective suits. Today, we yelled it for training purposes as this was our yealy gas chamber exercise where we put on our gear and went inside of CS gas filled room to test our equipment and make sure no one would freak out if it didn't work right. I'm almost done with my tenure in the Marine Corps unless I re-enlist, so I figured this would be my last time to grab a snapshot of me in my mask. I don't quite know why I wanted one, though. Maybe for nostalgia purposes? Photo was taken with my Droid. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/46 - Night Driving

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:27:58 GMT

]]>Saturday, as always, is a long day at drill. We come in early and leave fairly later in the evening. Today it wasnt too bad, getting out around a quarter til 9. Obviously, that doesn't leave much room for some kind of "work of art" photograph, so instead I pulled out my Droid, put the camera in night mode, then held it in top of my steering wheel as I drove. This was the best result out of the bunch, and one that I actually really like. I don't quite know why, but I just do. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/45 - A litlle bit of humor

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:27:52 GMT

]]>Fridays generally kick off our drill weekend at our unit, and for my Friday 365 shot, I didn't have time for anything. I mean, I was running everywhere that day. So once I got to my unit and finished some initial tasks, I stopped and grabbed a shot of this drawing. I figured this is a pretty good representation of the type of humor we usually have toward one another, and if it isn't, it was the only interesting thing I could photograph all day. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/42 - A Small Break

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:42:45 GMT

]]>Barring any other commitments or events that come up, every Tuesday night at my house is usually guys night. We get together and hang out, which means my wife is probably not wanting to hang around too much. Lately, she's been spending some time with her friend Audra, and they'll leave and go run errands or just grab some coffee, which they're doing here. One night I decided to go with them and they spotted a nice little place out of the way where we were able to relax and surprisingly not get mugged, considering the area of town the place is at. Nonetheless, they wanted a little momento photo of them hanging out, and I was happy to oblige (and drink a frappucino). http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/41 - I've bitten the Apple

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:26:23 GMT

]]>It was doomed to happen eventually: I've broken down and finally bought an Apple computer. As much as I've told myself it would never happen, the time simply couldn't have better for me to jump on the Apple train. Recently, my HP laptop of a little over 2 1/2 years died on me, and since "I was stupid" and bought the Best Buy protection plan, they gave me $1000 towards another latop (after much back and forth and negotiating). I'll say this, I've bought two laptops from Best Buy, both of them died within the 3 year warranty period, and both times I was given $1000 or more toward another laptop. Not bad at all considering the plan only cost $250. But that's another story.

Anyways, my wife and I have been talking about getting a Mac, but never getting too serious about it. That is, until we had an extra $1000 to put toward it that WASN'T coming out of our pockets. So we figured if we were ever going to do it, this was going to be the time. After a couple of trips to the Apple store, I had my 15" MacBook Pro all picked out (we sold the Best Buy giftcard for a very small loss) and once we slept on it for a few days, we welcomed our new friends into our home. Hopefully he'll stay longer than the last two laptops http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/40 - Movie Time

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:34:35 GMT

]]>Sunday was a busy day, but at the end of it we had time for one little get away with a few friends after church: Iron Man 2. We don't go out and see very many new movies because we think the ticket prices are way too high for our budget, so we pick one every now and then and spoil ourselves. This time it's the summer blockbuster follow up to one our favorite action movies of the past few years. Since I didn't have much time to photograph anything else, I used my Droid and Photoshop Mobile to get this photo of our ticket stubs from the local AMC. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/39 - A Moment for a Smile

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:25:51 GMT

]]>During our stay in Tampa, we stopped by and visited one of Sarah's friends, Amy. We decided to go out and take some photos of her and her kids, but unfortunately her older son, Luke, wasn't in a picture taking mood. So his dad, joey, started to play around with him and at one point Luke was having such a good time, he just kept looking around smiling. I pegged the camera on him and in mid-toss he was looking right at me with a huge grin. Luckily I was able to get a quick photo of it before he was ready to stay on the ground. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/38 - Florida National Cemetary

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:51:10 GMT

]]>On our way to Tampa to see friend of mine from my unit graduate college, we stopped off at the Florida National Cemetary. It was on the way and we arrived there just as the sun was setting over the trees. I jumpe out of the car and started taking as many pictures as I could before the sun went down, and out of all of them, this was favorite. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/37 - Jumping for Joy

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:32:30 GMT

]]>This is Matt and Stephanie, currently engaged to be married later this fall. Matt and I have been friends for years and when he asked me to do his engagement pictures, it sounded like a really fun opportunity. Thankfully, these two are one of those couples that like to be spontaneous and goof off. When I aksed them to run down a bridge towards the camera, they didn't even balk. I should note that there was no traffic when started this whole process. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/36 - Cinco de MyGlow

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:07:26 GMT

]]>For Cinco de Mayo, which this year fell on a Wendesday, the same night as our youth service, our youth pastor spiced things up with the theme "Cinco de MyGlow". We rented black lights and put them in the ceilings and asked everyone to where white. We then played games all themed around the black lights, like a mass paper ball fight which took place a minutes after this picture, each ball glowing as it got flung around. Here is a wideshot of the whole room with all the students glowing. http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/35 - Cornered Against a Wall

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:03:31 GMT

]]>Ok, this 365 shot is kinda funny. See, I had a busy day and had already scheduled a "guys night", which basically meant I had some friends coming over to hang out and play some Worms 2 on Xbox while my wife was going to have our friend Audra come over and play New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Well, I still hadn't taken a 365 shot so when Audra walked in the door I asked her if I could take her picture. Well, she's such a sweet person that she hesitantly said yes, even though she didn't feel like she was in "picture taking" form. Perhaps I should learn better ways to approach people about taking their picture instead of hitting them with it right when they walk in the door.

I had her put her jacket on and stand against an accent wall in our house. I set up a 28" Wescott Apollo Mono Softbox high to camera right, angled down. Then my wife purposely goofed off until we had Audra laughing at her, which gave us this. I think she looks great.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/34 - Alone

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:12:59 GMT

]]>This is Shannon and Devin Foldy, two friends of mine who never get to properly get their photos taken since Shannon is a photographer herself. She jumped at the chance to finally get in the picture with her husband and not have it be a snapshot.

Here I had them come out behind a local tennis court where there is a small trail in the woods the leads around it and away. I wanted to project the mood of a couple trying to sneak away for a few moments alone together, and I think it worked ok. The subjects definitely made it a whole lot better.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/33 - A Smile

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:03:03 GMT

]]>This is Julia, the daughter of a man named Richard who wanted me to take some pictures of him and his kids (his son's name is Ryan). While we were getting Ryan all setup, Julia was just sitting there smiling away so I started snapping some pictures of her and she just got more bashful and kept smiling, which is what you see here. She made some of the most amusing and cute faces while we were shooting, some that made me crack up when I got home to look at them. Here she's sitting on the slide waiting for the family to get in position.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/32 - The Cunninghams

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:54:04 GMT

]]>These are the Cunninghams, a really nice family that goes to my church, Trinity Baptist, in Jacksonville, FL. They saw my blog post about doing a pro bono photo shoot, 1 per day, for my 365 and signed up for one of the days. These are the first family pictures they had done in more than a decade, and as you can tell by their beautiful children, the time had come to update the family portrait.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/31 - Serious Face

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:28:01 GMT

]]>I decided to play around some more with bare flash and then added fill with a Lumiquest Softbox III and my by buddy Nick was willing to partake of the experiment as well. We tried a number of different poses and angles of light, but nothing really worked until I got close and randomly decided to make a serious face, then we got this. I really liked it once I saw it, especially the close nature of it. Very intense looking.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 3 SB800s: one on camera with Lumiquest Softbox III as fill, one high above camera right angled down, one camera left at 45 degree angle to Nick with a grid attached for seperation. All triggered via CLS.

365/29 - Vinnie

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:40:07 GMT

]]>I asked my barber to take her picture, but she declined. So after I went to a youth meeting for the senior guys, I asked one of them, a buddy name Vincent Cheng (who we call Vinnie), if he wouldn't mind taking an impromptu picture in front of his car. He said he had a free 20 minutes or so, so we get set up a quick shot against the sunset.

There's 3 SB800s in this shot: 1 on camera with a Lumiquest Softbox III attached to act as a fill light; 1 camera left, bare, with a grid as the key light; and 1 on the ground trying to skirt the side of the car (I should have actually READ 'Light, Science, and Magic' instead of buying it and sticking it way down on the 'books to be read' stack because his car was black and I couldn't get anything out of it).

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/21 - Redux: Another Gifted Athlete

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:26:12 GMT

]]>On the same day I photographed Andrea playing tennis, her cousin was playing as well. This is David, and he's also another great tennis player. He was also playing for his team to get to regionals, which they did. Unfortunately, this was David's second to last match, as the team went down in regionals and this was David's last year playing.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/28 - Scars on the Wedding Band

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:17:35 GMT

]]>For my last day of the theme "things that fit in the palm of my hand", I chose to photograph my wedding band. Whenever my and wife and I went out looking at bands for me, I decided I wanted something very, very simple and inexpensive. I also wanted something someone could cut through in case it needed to be cut off (at the time I was going to be heading back to Iraq), so we went with a lightweight metal, of which I can't remember. The thing is ridiculously light, to the point that sometimes I forget that it is there.

Nonetheless, it has seen some better days, and now it is marked showing it's very young age of a little over 2 years at the time of the picture. 2 years of constant abuse (I mean, I do forget it is there). So I setup a macro shot showing some of the dents and scrapes it proudly bears.

I shot this with a 70-300mm VR lens with a Canon 500D close-up filter attached.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800 with a Lumiquest Softbox III attached, firing from around... two inches overhead. Triggered via CLS.

365/27 - My New Shades

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:46:21 GMT

]]>For today's 365, I decided to try and do a shot that might be good in an advertisment. The subject was a new pair of sunglasses I bought over the week, a pair of Arnettes. Recently, Oakley bought out Arnette, so the Sunglass Hut in St. Augustine, FL had these on sale, 40% off. Being completely honest, I'm frugal, borderline cheap, and since I've been in the market for a pair of sunglasses for a while, I pounced on the deal. They're polarized and they're a pretty decent fit, on top of being a good price.

So, I thought about how to light these to make it look dramatic, and I tried positioning the light all sorts of ways, until I decided that I wanted to isolate them completely. So put a grid on my SB800, hung overhead with a boom, and kept bringing it down closer and closer until I got this look here.

I was going to make a poster with the Arnette logo, but I figure they probably might not appreciate that too much if they ever stumbled across this. The water's a little murky in that area, so I figure I'll just stay out.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800, zoomed to 85mm and with a grid attached, firing from directly overhead, about 8 inches up.

365/26 - Liberian Bullet Cross

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:41:47 GMT

]]>This cross has a very unique story. In case you didn't notice what it is, it's an old bullet shell casing that's been cut into the shape of a cross. It's from Liberia, where not too long ago the country was involved in a civil war that spanned more than a decade. It affected every person in that country in more than one way, but it affected the youth more than most. See, they grew up in a world of violence, rape, warfare, and turmoil. They never knew the peace that most other people in the world have come to know as common place.

Since the war ended in 2003, there have been many efforts to unravel the youth crisis the country faces, to try and integrate them back into a normal society, and thankfully they have had some success. See, this shell casing is one of the many scattered about Liberia, used during the fighting. And youth have gone around, collecting them, then cutting them into crosses, telling the gospel of Jesus Christ and his saving grace. It's a phenomenal witnessing tool, especially considering the fact that, as the picture on the right shows, this bullet was fired. And more than likely, it was fired at someone with the intent to take their life. Now it's being used to save lives in the name of Christ.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800, bare, in the direction opposite of the shadow, triggered via Nikon SC-17 cable (and yes, it works with the Canon G11).

365/25 - The Unseen Top of a Salt Shaker

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:32:12 GMT

]]>I went out to eat today at a place called the Columbia Restaurant in St. Augustine, FL (you've got to try the 1905 salad) with my wife and some friends from out of town. While waiting for our food, I decided I would see if I could find anything interesting to make for my 365 today. I looked at the salt shaker and noticed it had a lot of marks of stuff on the top, so I grabbed it and took a macro picture for further examining.

It was quite interesting as you can see. A hair, some rust, lots of bits of salt stuck in the holes as well as some other unidentifiable bits of stuff, along with the word "STEEL". Imagine what all the little things around you and what they have sitting or stuck on them that you just can't see.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Taken with my G11 in macro mode. This is cropped in a decent bit.

365/24 - The Red, White, And Blue

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:14:01 GMT

]]>I had another idea for my 365 today, but I scrapped it and decided to hold it off until later in the week. So, I needed something else that would "fit in the palm of my hand" to go with my week 4 theme, and I have this small American flag on my desk at home, so I decided to try and be creative with it.

I always like to look at things in new ways, so I wanted to go in close and make it look bigger than it actually is (it's probably only 8x6 inches or so). I think it turned out pretty cool.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: I backlit it with 1 SB800 with a grid attached, firing from slightly below, and triggered via CLS.

365/23 - Textures of a Rose

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:36:33 GMT

]]>Here we have a simple, my 365 shot for the day. I wanted to get up close and show the textures, which were, as always, beautiful. The textures look even better in B&W, but the loss of color really takes away some of the punch and sensuality of the rose.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800, shot directly overheard, with a Lumiquest Softbox III attached.

365/22 - Ball of Light

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:36:18 GMT

]]>For this 365 shot, I had a weird ball made of some kind of glass sitting around in a drawer for years. My wife decided it was time to go (it was), but not before I could get a chance to put some light through it to show just how cool it looked.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lightin info: 1 SB800 with a grid attached, about 6 inches away, was placed above and slightly behind the ball.

365/21 - A Gifted Athlete

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:06:51 GMT

]]>Today's 365 image, the last for the week with the theme "People at Work or Doing What They Love" is one of my favorite. This is Andrea, and at the time of this photo, she was a senior in high school. She participated in our church youth group and my wife and I got a good chance to know her over the years we spent with her. She's a sweet girl, but she's also a very talented tennis player.

This year she already qualified for state on her own, but here she's playing for her school team so they can win districts and move on to regionals. She won her match 6-0, 6-2, and was upset that she didn't ace the second set like she did the first. If you can't tell, she's competitive.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/20 - Industrial Work

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:45:54 GMT

]]>The elevators in the building I currently work at are, generously speaking, old. Lots of old technology and even more old equipment. So a few guys have been working there for the past few months trying to update and retrofit them with state mandated upgrades. This is Shane, who's been there day in and day out trying to get the work complete, along with making an hour and a half drive everyday one way, leaving behind his wife and daughter.

That's pretty respectable if you ask me.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/18 - One Incredible Garnish

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:37:53 GMT

]]>My 365 shot today was taken very impromptu. Another couple that my wife and I work with in our church youth group wanted to go grab some dinner at a restaurant that none of us had every been to called Fu Hoa's Bistro in Jacksonville, FL, in the riverside area off Park Street. I had been planning on doing my shot for the week's theme of "People at Work or Doing What They Love" at a coffee shop with some friends that I know that work there, but that all changed with a little bit of garnish.

When they delivered our food (which was good), they included a little garnish, but like nothing you've ever gotten on the side of your plate before: a carrot rose. We were all amazed at it that I grabbed my wife's Canon S90 and took a macro shot of it. It dawned on me that this was a great opportunity for another 365 shot so I asked the waitress is the chef wouldn't mind having his picture taken, and it turns out he didn't. However, since he didn't speak much English, I couldn't communicate with him to do anything other than stands next to a plate with one on it, so that's why he is posed the way he is.

Nonetheless, the carrot rose was one cool piece of the meal, besides the fact that it was only meant to be garnish.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/19 - Two Awesome Baristas

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:37:23 GMT

]]>Continuing my weekly theme of "People at Work or Doing What They Love" for my 365, today we have two baristas from a local coffee shop named Elliano's (at Lane and Normandy on Jacksonville's westside), and they make a pretty good frappucino. They also are two of the sweetest people you'll meet, and since one of them is a very good friend of mine, they were happy to be the subjects of my picture today.

I was going to do some stuff inside, journalistic type shots that would pass for a decent photo, but I also wanted something a bit more unique. So, I set up my Canon G11 in the parking lot along with an SB800 with a snoot and took this.

I wanted the flash to highlight only them, but it was so bright out that I needed a lot of flash power overcome the ambient, so I used the G11's higher sync speed with wireless triggers and pushed the shutter speed to 1/800. The flash was at full power, but it pulled out just enough juice to create this circle of light around them. I like it. It's original enough for my tastes, but I think later on in the year this one might get revisited, only this time with a stronger light (like an Alien Bee if I can ever get the money to get one).

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800, camera right with 8 in. snoot attached. Flash placed around 12-15 ft. away from the window at about a 45 degree angle. Triggered with Skyports.

365/17 alternate 2

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:36:47 GMT

]]>I used my wife for my 365 shots on this particular day for my theme "People at Work or Doing What They Love". The other shot I took first was my favorite, but I wanted to get her interacting with some of her students. Here she is helping Jaida with some seatwork.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/17 alternate 1

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:36:19 GMT

]]>I used my wife for my 365 shots on this particular day for my theme "People at Work or Doing What They Love". The other shot I took first was my favorite, but this was a close second. Here we have her writing some assignments on the board.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/17 - My Personal Teacher

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:35:52 GMT

]]>My wife is a hard worker. She spends countless hours at her job, completely dedicated to being the best she can be at her profession, providing the best service to her customers that God has given her. Most people would consider her a "work-a-holic" based off of the hours she puts it, probably say she needs to back off a bit. But in her line of work, that's just not possible. She's a third grade teacher, and she loves it.

Continuing on with this week's 365 theme "People at Work or Doing What They Love", I have my wife Sarah in front of some finger paintings her kids did a little bit ago. She has them decorating one of the closets for her classroom, right underneath the mini-kites hanging from the ceiling.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800 with a 1/2 cut of CTO attached, shot through a white shoot through umbrella. I got the idea to use one light to light the background and subject by going through David Hobby's Lighting 102 over at Strobist.com.

365/16 - Standing Up and Standing Out

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:35:31 GMT

]]>Photos from a Tea Party Tax Day Rally held at the Jacksonville Landing in Jacksonville, FL. Check out the full gallery here: http://JacobVorpahl.zenfolio.com/tea-party-tax-day-rally-2010

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/15 - Of Puppets and Preachers

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:35:22 GMT

]]>Well, today's first shot in this week's theme, People at Work or Doing What They Love, was a tough order that didn't quite turn out. The picture I was trying to get just didn't happen. I had something in mind that apparently needs to be staged, not caught candidly, so I'll have to save it for another time.

Instead we have this: our youth pastor, Paul Woods, using a reference to a puppet, improved with his hand, during his message. I would look stupid doing it, somehow he makes it work and everyone laughs. That's why I take pictures and he preaches.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 2 SB800s, one to camera left, one behind the crowd slighly, each with a grid attached and triggered via CLS.

365/14 - Risk Victory

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:34:53 GMT

]]>For our Tuesday night "guys night" we played a round of Lord of the Rings Risk, possibly the best version of the game. Needless to say, I dominated with the yellow team.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800 shot through a shoot through umbrella off to camera right, triggered via CLS and set at TTL +.03.

365/13 - Creative Dinner

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:34:40 GMT

]]>For dinner tonight, I tried to surprise Sarah by making a bacon bown with eggs inside. Unfortunately the top element on our stove is burnt out so the bacon didn't dry out enough to form a bowl, so instead we ended up with a soft bacon mat.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 Nikon SB800 shot through an umbrella to camera left. Controlled from the D80 via CLS. Flash set to TTL +1.

365/12 - Hidden Dangers

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:34:28 GMT

]]>My wife was sick today, picking up what I just got rid of, unfortunately. So our meal plans were a little different tonight. She had grilled cheese (I finally made one right) and I had Ramen.

I love Ramen. Besides the fact that it is probably the cheapest meal around, I love the taste. I usually make it without any water and instead make a butter, garlic, and flavor packet mixture to pour on it. But, it's one of those guilty pleasures. Why you ask? Right there: 820mg of sodium in one half of a pack. Not so good when you're only supposed to have 2400mg the whole day.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/10 - Rifle Range

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:34:06 GMT

]]>This weekend was our time to qualify with our primary weapon on the rifle range. We fire from the 200, 300, and 500 yards lines in various shooting positions for a maximum score of 250 points (25 shots x 10 points each). Photo chances were limited because of the circumstances, so I took what I could get. I had some really cool concepts I wanted to try out but it wasn't feasible, so I grabbed this while I was waiting for my turn to fire. Here another Marine is firing from the 200 yard line in the standing position.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/11 - Sunrise on the Range

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:33:20 GMT

]]>This was the morning of our second day of shooting, when we were actually qualifiying for official score (the first day was practice). We arrived on the range very early to get everything setup and ready to go so that as soon as the sun was high enough we could start shooting. While we were waiting for that to happen, we were given a nice scene as the sun rose and the fog dispersed the light.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/9 - Not Just Another Pin

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:32:49 GMT

]]>This was my 365 shot for the day before I was leaving to go do my Marine reserve duty for the weekend. As I was packing and still considering what to do for my shot for the day, I was putting my rank on my uniform. After I got it on, I thought a close up picture would look interesting, with the crossed rifles having so much detail for such a small area. So I grabbed my G11 and put in macro and a second later we had this.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/8 - Just Where You Can't See

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:32:36 GMT

]]>I was running a fever during this day of my 365 so my photo options were quite scant. As I was looking on our bathroom window for some lizard silhouettes (they like to hang out on the outside there because of the sun) I peered up at the ledge and saw this. Kinda of made me want to clean up a little in the hard to reach areas, fever lingering around and all. And my poor wife isn't tall enough to see this so this one rests completely on me.

Once again, loving the G11 macro mode.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/8 - Flower (back up shot)

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:31:55 GMT

]]>I took this one just in case I couldn't find anything else for my 365. I saw the sun hitting these guys and it just liked too good of an opportunity to pass up.

G11 in macro mode, VERY close.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/7- The Trinity Luchadors

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:31:38 GMT

]]>I and two other members of my church who serve in youth ministry put together a funny video involving Luchador masks. I can't spill the beans because we haven't shown it yet to the kids, but it's pretty funny (at least from my point of view). I thought it would be a good idea to spend my 365 photo today making a composite shot we could use for promotions, and this is the end result.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800 shot into a Lumiquest Softbox III set to camera right. 3 different exposures were made and I combined them all in post.

365/6 - Flip

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:31:15 GMT

]]>Today's image was all about flips. My buddy Nick obliged my rather odd request to have him to cartwheels and flips as I took pictures. He eventually got into it.

As much as I'd like to say that he's so strong that he can balance in this fashion while keeping his foot off the ground, it's just when the flash went off. The other ones were ok, but this one had the most character.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

Lighting info: 1 SB800 inside of a Westcott Apollo Mono 28" Softbox without diffusion screen on camera right. 1 SB800 cross lighting from camera left with a grid attached to seperate the head from the background.

365/2- Late Night GPS

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:30:47 GMT

]]>Not the most impressive of shots, but I went straight from work to picking up the car from dropping it off to put new tires on to driving 8 hours out of town. This was something I felt served as a good example of my day. Pretty straightforward.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/5 - The Sun and the Fog

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:30:27 GMT

]]>I woke up early during my last morning in North Carolina to take some more sunrise shots, but everything was covered in a dense fog. The sun kept peeking out beneath the thickest parts of it. I figured this would be a good time to try something different than what I normally look for, maybe something a little more simple. So I followed the sun as it moved, snapping photos at different exposures, and this one was my favorite of the bunch, based on composition and color fall off.

Showing this one to my wife illustrated how subjective photos can be: I really kind of like it, she's not its biggest fan. She doesn't dislike it, but it definitely doesn't hit her like it hits me.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365/4 - Can't See the Eggs

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:30:11 GMT

]]>Here's another shot from my newphew Hayden. I'm going to be honest, part of me really wants to go ahead and get rid of this one because his eyes are closed. But I can't bring myself to do it. I loved this moment when it happened and I love it here. I've got tons more pictures of Hayden looking a lot better, doing cute things, but this one just sticks with me and I'm sure this will be a love/hate picture for a while to come. Some moments only happen once, though, right?

365/3 - Going Down

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:29:46 GMT

]]>I really didn't want to use this for my 365, but I figured out of all the pictures I took that day at the beach with my nephew Hayden, this was my favorite. And all I had to do was press the shutter. The kid couldn't be more adorable.

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365-1-d

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:29:30 GMT

]]>My first day of my 365 and the picture I was going to try and get turned out to be a busy. So I broke out the G11 and started testing out some macro shots to get something halfway decent. I should note I'm not usually a flower photographer.

http://www.onebrightspot.com

365-1-c

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:29:13 GMT

365-1-b

jacob@onebrightspot.com (One Bright Spot Photography) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:28:58 GMT