Hurricane Season

Hurricane season is always a question mark for me. Yes, I live in Southern California and am no stranger to natural disasters, but have roots in the South. Namely, New Orleans.

Most of my family lives in and around the New Orleans area, and so I keep the TV on the Weather Channel when a hurricane comes knockin', like Hurricane Isaac has the past couple of days.

I have only been around one hurricane while visiting New Orleans, in which the area was in the outer bands of a hurricane, cancelling all flights that day due to wind. Yours truly was scheduled to leave that day.

I am more familiar with the aftermath of hurricanes. I visited New Orleans in July 2006 for a family wedding, not long after Hurricane Katrina. What amazed me was the areas that were (and still are) devastated.

The area that had a huge impact on me was a visit to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Before I had any type of DLSR with nice zoom lenses, I had point and shoot cameras to communicate my vision. These photos are from that trip in 2006 to survey the damage.

The sensory that has stuck with me all of these years later is related to this image.

I can still hear the sound of the fabric whipping in the wind. I can smell the sea air. And I remember how absolutely desolate it felt to be standing in front of this property.

I am happy to report that my friends and family in the area are safe, although at the time of this post, many are without power.

To my Southern readers, be safe!

Thanks for stopping by!

Digital Garden

 

A couple of months ago I had a small surgery, and haven't exactly been mobile since. I knew that I had to have this particular ailment fixed, and that it would take a bit to heal, and it would be a while before I would be able to get out and take photos.

One of the things on my list of many preparations in the weeks before, was to take a morning trip with my camera to Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge. I am so glad I did, because months later, as I scroll through my library of photos (very few from June, none from July) I get to see a digital garden. The above image was taken on that day with my Tamron 90mm macro lens at ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000.

I converted this image from color to black and white because I really like the composition and the lines, and wanted to focus on those things about the image.

Thanks for stopping by!

Online galleries and thoughts

Currently, I am checking out Zenfolio for my gallery needs. I have dappled in this site to host some galleries for my Fine Art,  Fine Art-Flora and Travel photography such as the image above. I'm interested in your thoughts on going to an outside site to see more of my work.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section!

Thanks for stopping by!

Where have I been?!

Oh yes, it has been forever since I posted here. I have had a slight hiccup with kristinajacob.com. So, I am returning to the blogosphere (do the kids even say that anymore?) on this blogging vehicle. While 2012 has been interesting and monumental, something really cool and unexpected happened last week while I was in San Francisco for a work conference. David Hobby of Strobist, the wildly popular lighting blog happened to be in San Francisco just down the street from where I was staying. He Tweeted to his followers to see if anyone would be interested in meeting up the evening that I got in town, so I had to stop by and say hi (it was just eight blocks away). There was a small, fun group of us, all very diverse but brought together by this really nice guy. It was fun to make new photographer friends and talk to David in a smaller setting...totally different from when I, along with 500 other fans, met him at The Flash Bus tour here in Los Angeles last year. David is very smart and very nice, as well as a very talented photographer.

Our conversation inspired me to do more blogging, since I have been lacking in that area for a few months. Thank you David for unintentionally making me think about my blog!

And, of course, since I got this photo with Joe at TFB:

I had to get a photo with Mr. Hobby, since I didn't get a chance to last year:

Thank you Dave for wanting to spend time with some of your readers/fans!

And thank you to my readers for stopping by!

New page!

Check out http://kristinajacob.com/ for my updated blog!  

Talking About Pictures

I was honored to speak to the Lancaster Photography Association last week as their guest speaker for the evening. They are a great group of people and I had a lot of fun showing them some of my images. if you're in the northern LA County area, this is definitely a wonderful and active group of photographers. I had a lot of fun putting my talk together and running across some of my favorite images: Swan in City Park, New Orleans

Giraffe at the Santa Barbara Zoo, Santa Barbara, CA

Tree at Earthquake Fault, Mammoth, CA

I loved sharing these images with everyone and being able to talk about my favorite thing: photography! At the end of the night, I was awarded with a really nice certificate of appreciation, and given an honorary membership to the LPA! I look forward to participating in this group and shooting some pictures with these fun photographers.

Photo by Don Jacob

Thank you to the LPA for a fun night of photography and for being such gracious hosts!

And thank you for stopping by!

Lilly Family Portrait Session

The Lilly family is quite near and dear to me, as they are my beloved's family. One year ago, little bro Shane and his girlfriend Kaleigh brought my nephew Connor into this world. He is a happy baby who is always laughing, and it is amazing to see how much he has grown this year. Of course, it was not exactly all smiles for little Connor on the morning of our photos. The poor little guy had some major teeth breaking through, but we were able to coax a few smiles from him using our combined efforts. And Auntie Kristina with a toy on her head while worrying about Speedlites and diffusers.

Here are a few of my favorites:

[slideshow]

This shoot was so much fun because I got to hang out with my little nephew and try some things I learned and bought at Photoshop World. I am excited to try out more photo techniques on Connor as he grows up. I'm sure he is even more excited to hear "Look at Auntie" about five million more times.

Thank you to Shane and Kaleigh for letting me document Connor's precious first year!

Thank you for stopping by!

Photoshop World Las Vegas Wrap Up

Back to the old grind, as they say, and I have had a few weeks to reflect on this year’s Photoshop World. I didn’t get to blog as much as I wanted to on the PSW blog during PSW because of unresolved technical difficulties.  However, I didn’t let that fact ruin my PSW experience, and the staff worked hard to put on a great show. I loved every moment of PSW and didn’t want to miss a thing. That’s hard when there are 5 amazing classes going on during one time slot. Thank goodness for the hundreds of pages in the PSW Workbook, even though it’s not the same as sitting down with a legendary instructor to teach you those things.

Between the classes and the Expo floor, there was always something to see, learn and buy. My favorite event at both the last PSW I attended two years ago and this one was The Art of Digital Photography panel, comprised of nine PSW instructors: Jim Divitale, Joe Glyda, Joe McNally, Jeremy Cowart, Jay Maisel, Gregory Hesiler, Julieanne Kost, Dave Black and Moose Peterson. Each photographer exhibited a different perspective that they brought to the table and left the attendees in awe. I am humbled that I had the opportunity to even be in the same room with these talents, and even more so by the fact they were presenting their own work before me and a few hundred of my PSW friends. But nothing was more memorable than when Joe received a standing ovation for his project “Faces of Ground Zero”, a portrait series of the heroes and survivors of September 11th in 2001, and in 2011.

Something I noticed in each class and walking the Expo floor was the range of attendees' ages. I saw young kids (a 14 year old boy was one of McNally’s subjects) and retirees. I loved seeing that variety. How great is that to be a young kid in the 10-14 age range and to be going to Photoshop World? I applaud the adults in these kids’ lives for nurturing their passion at such a young age, as well as retirees for continuing to feed their passion. One of those retirees whom I attend every PSW with is my dad, making it a wonderful experience for us to share.

Which leads me to the PSW closing ceremony. This year was definitely an emotional closing ceremony. The afternoon began with a movie clip from Joe McNally’s “Faces of Ground Zero” project in his absence. Then Moose Peterson took us on his photographic journey, which chokes me up every time. One of the newer instructors Dave Black told the tear-jerking story of how one college professor saw his talent and encouraged him to pursue photography even though it wasn’t his major. New Photoshop Guy Pete Collins wrapped up the presentations with the equally emotional story of how he started out as a missionary in Thailand and ended up on that stage in Vegas.

I want to thank all of NAPP for putting together yet another amazing PSW. Thank you to all of the instructors who shared their knowledge for three days out of their undoubtedly busy lives.

And thank you for stopping by.

Photoshop World Blogging

Two years ago, I attended my first Photoshop World (PSW) in Las Vegas, NV. The amount of information and fun while learning about Photoshop, photography and everything else in between was just amazing. It was an absolutely inspiring event that left me wanting more...check out my PSW  wrap up from 2009. I decided that it was high time to get back to another one, and this time I am an attendee as well as one of the six bloggers for the event.

Check out this blog post about my other blogging buddies, and don't forget to check the PSW blog for many updates along the way!

http://photoshopworld.com/2011/08/29/introducing-your-psw-las-vegas-onsite-bloggers/

I look forward to sharing my experience here on my blog as well as the PSW blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

All of the Pretty Fishes

Over the past few months, I have fallen in love with aquarium photography. It's a win-win for me...I don't have to actually go into the ocean (I'm just a bit scared of sharks), and I can stay in front of my subject for hours, not having to worry about breathing in the water. As long as the exhibit isn't crowded, I'm in luck.My aquarium photography started with a visit early last year to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long beach, CA. They dedicated an evening in the aquarium to me and about 100 other photographers. This was a wonderful thing for the aquarium to do for us. My favorite photo from that evening is this detail of a Ragged Lion fish:

After a hiatus from aquariums, I was able to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium just last month. I rediscovered my love of photographing aquariums, and fell in love with jellyfish as subjects:

Last week I had the opportunity to visit La Jolla, and visited the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Birch Aquarium. This is a wonderful research and education aquarium, and exhibited my new favorite subjects:

If you get a chance, please check out my Flickr collection of aquarium photography. I'm having so much fun with this and love seeing how I am progressing.

Thank you as always for stopping by!

DLWS Wine Country

A few weeks ago, I took part in one of the last Digital Landscape Workshop Series in Wine Country led by Moose Peterson, Joe McNally, Kevin Dobler and an amazing DLWS staff: Sharon Peterson, Jake Peterson, Jeff Leimbach, Drew Gurian, Richard Small and a special appearance by Russell Brown. It has taken me quite a while to post about this workshop because, aside from regaining energy, it has taken a while for me to comprehend the gravity of it all. I still cannot quite comprehend the amount of talent that I was in the same room with.

The workshop started off with staff presentations, which was incredible in and of itself. To hear Joe McNally speak about his Faces of Ground Zero images as he showed them to me and my 23 other newest friends still gives me chills. Drew’s presentation showed us his passion for concert and portrait work, and I think he may be picking up some lighting influence from Joe. Jake showed us his photos, and it was amazing to see that while he shoots right next to his legendary dad, he has a style completely his own. A legend in the making, that kid is! Kevin does quite possibly the coolest thing, he gets up in planes and takes beautiful aerial photos. Right up my alley. Jeff gave us an emotional presentation…his brother was killed in Afghanistan, affecting everything in his daily life which reflects in his photography. Moose ended the evening with amazing images form his body of work. He showed us how an image really can make a huge difference in the world.

They set up some fantastic shoots for us, even though unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us for our shoots. Between shoots were amazing learning sessions packed with information, tips, techniques and images. Here are some of my photos from Bodega Bay:

Our second day had two vintage cars shoots at car restoration garages: Fred Stoke's and Vern Tardel's. Wonderful guys that welcomed us into their shops and let us roam free, allowing for some photos like these:

The above photo was critiqued by Moose and seen by the rest of the DLWS staff (Where else could I ever say that happened?!). He gave some valuable feedback that I have been applying as I shoot—in short I hear Moose’s voice in my head. On our last day of our workshop, the rain stopped for a bit and gave us a gorgeous day of blue skies and white puffy clouds---perfect for a tour of the family-owned Sausal Winery in Healdsburg. I had some fun with the fisheye (thanks to Jake’s suggestion):

The greens were so vibrant after the rains, it turned out to be the perfect shoot to end the workshop with

For an idea of where in Northern California we went, here is a map i created of the workshop:

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=213471075419522180202.0004a3f8846aa2b6f21a3&ll=38.486097,-122.845171&spn=0.36526,0.457439&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

I met some truly wonderful people and learned from them as well as the instructors.

I want to thank the hardworking DLWS staff for putting a great event together, and thank you to my newest friends for lots of laughs and a great week together.

And thank you for stopping by!

GIS in Photos

Sometimes I get to combine my love of photography and my job, and my latest assignment for GIS Lounge did exactly that. I took my camera with me to work almost every day for a week. I was even captured on camera, with the help of my co-workers (under my strict supervision of course).

During my week of photos, this is one of my favorites because it showcases the Sheriff's department using Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, to help them do their job and keep the community safe.

Please check out the full post to see more of the photos, and to learn all about GIS (it really is cool): http://gislounge.com/gis-in-photos-santa-clarita/

Thank you for stopping by!

Birdies

I had no idea that the Los Angeles Arboretum had peacocks, peahens, and a gaggle of other birds cruising around the property; I had never been there before last week. I also did not realize that peacocks and peahens flew. Those are big birds!

While my beloved distracted a peacock after much debate about whether they attack, I got close to the bird's tail (longer than Kate Middleton's train, might I add) with my Tamron 90 mm:

Neither of us were attacked, I got my photo while a bird that can only be left over from the Jurassic period eyed me up and down, calling to his buddies to keep me in check.

Thanks for stopping by!

Meeting and greeting

Oh my gosh. I get that being an artist takes courage. Really, I do. You get out of your box to create art. And then that art that you created while out of the box that you think is kind of cool is put out for all of the world to see. Gulp!

In my case, I am currently exhibiting a photo in the City of Santa Clarita City Hall First Floor Gallery Exhibit.

This is the ultimate collision of my private life of photography and my work life of, well, making maps for a local government. People I work with on a daily basis walk by my image (whether they know it or not). It’s nerve racking to put my art out there for people I actually know, not some strangers that just see an image and a name. Double gulp! But it is rewarding when someone sees my name next to my piece and says, “I know her!”.

Last night was a reception for the exhibiting artists to meet and greet their flocks of admirers and mingle with each other. It was really nice for me as an employee and exhibiting artist to participate in the evening because I was able to chat with other artists and colleagues that I rarely get a chance to talk to. I hope to attend more events that exhibit my work, even though it stresses the nerves out a bit.

This month’s exhibit of clouds should have a a couple of more weeks to go, if you are in the area please take a moment to stop by and check out some cool art.

Thank you to the City of Santa Clarita Arts & Events office for creating a display of public art and having a really great reception!

And thank you for stopping by!

Santa Clarita City Hall First Floor Gallery

I recently had one of my photos accepted into the Santa Clarita City Hall First Floor Gallery:

Each month, a new theme is exhibited, and this month just happened to be clouds (right up my alley!) It's very exciting to see my art work on the wall, and I'm grateful to everyone who has taken a few moments to stop and appreciate it.

If you are in or around Santa Clarita and have a chance, stop by to check out the Gallery, there are some really cool pieces in the exhibit this month.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=23920+Valencia+Boulevard,+Santa+Clarita,+CA&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.822589,133.417969&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=23920+Valencia+Blvd,+Santa+Clarita,+Los+Angeles,+California+91355&ll=34.4128,-118.553794&spn=0.003129,0.008143&z=14&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

Thank you to the City of Santa Clarita for creating the Art in Public Places Program!

And thank you for stopping by!

The Flash Bus Tour 2011

I am back from my brief hiatus from blogging. Why? Might one ask. Well, to let you in on a little secret, I am totally fired up from an event I attended today, The Flash Bus Tour 2011 with David Hobby and Joe McNally.

The Flash Bus Tour is basically Joe, David, their (Joe's) assistants and all of their (again Joe's) gear piled into this bus:

About 400 of my photographer friends and I that wanted to know all about small flash systems made our way to the Los Angeles Convention Center today for a morning of David Hobby and an afternoon of Joe McNally. Needless to say, it was a full day. Hobby started off the morning with more of a presentation where he took us through shots, building layers of one light on top of the other. Informal and informative, it really set the tone for the rest of the day.

And then McNally took us for a post-lunch ride (no food comas allowed). He went through a live shoot using one of his assistants and members from the audience, building layers of light while gracefully hitting any curve ball that came his way. And during a live location shoot, there are plenty of curve balls.

The afternoon was finished up with an amazing Q&A session with both photographers. Watching these guys together and taking all kinds of questions from the audience was really cool to experience.

I feel really lucky to be a part of this tour. Both guys are really down to Earth, willing to help other photographers, and willing to do things like sign books and posters. Here's a photo of Joe and me after he signed my copy of LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros

Note: Of course, why would I set my point and shoot to auto without flash when about to take a picture with master flash man Joe McNally? This is photo #2...

If this tour rolls through your city, it is definitely worth your time and money to attend. I am not only pumped about doing more with my flash photography, but doing more with my photography in general.

A big thank you to David Hobby, Joe McNally and the team and sponsors that made it possible to bring us The Flash Bus Tour 2011! I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store!

And thank you for stopping by!

A glimpse of Spring

I know, while the rest of the country freezes, Southern California has nothing to complain about. This past week has bee beyond gorgeous, and has me looking forward to spring and taking bee-yoo-tee-ful photos like this one:

Not to toot my own horn, but when I look at this image it just shouts "Spring is here!!" and gives me a warm tingly feeling all over.

This was taken in March of 2009, with a Canon rebel XTi and Tamron 90mm lens at Descanso Gardens, which is my favorite place here in Southern California.

Thank you for stopping by.

Girl in the Mercado

I took a cruise to Mexico earlier this year, and have been hanging onto this image. Doting over this image. Thinking about the pixels in the image and trying to help them out a little bit. So with the new year upon us, it is time to release this image.

This little girl was in a mercado in Mazatlan, Mexico. We visited the market upon suggestion of my photojournalist uncle, and I feel like this image is the reason I was there. Certainly not the animal carcasses that my chef boyfriend was so very excited seeing in the meat section. I took some other photos, but this little girl just grabbed me. I was walking by her area, and she saw my camera (I have to work on my stealth) and gave me this little smile as I walked by and got a click.

I will work on this photo more as time goes on. But this is my first step in the process of releasing my little girl into the world.

Canon 5D Mark II, Tamron 90mm lens. May 2010.

Thank you for stopping by!

Things are looking up

For Christmas, my beloved Mr. Wonderful presented me with two fantastic Peter Lik photo books, one a Limited Edition photo book of his work in Las Vegas and beyond, as well as a book dedicated solely to Vegas. I always stop into Lik’s galleries in Vegas and Hawaii (those are the places I tend to travel most) to see some awe-inspiring landscape images, and are they ever. The Vegas galleries are really inspiring after a few cocktails. While looking through these awesome images, I was struck by the photos of Palm trees in Vegas. Being a Southern California resident who loves to visit Sin City, I must say I rarely look up to enjoy the beauty of the luscious palms. I don’t think I do that at home either.

Anyhow, while visiting the San Fernando Mission last week, I did precisely that: looked up. It’s amazing what you see up there:

I liked the idea of this solitary palm and bright blue sky. I just did a little bit of editing in Lightroom 3.

I loved the juxtaposition of the building and the palm tree. The color contrasts really grabbed me.

This might be my favorite palm tree image of the day. I know that one of the photographic “rules” is to have odd quantities of objects in photos, but I really liked how the breaking of this rule worked out for this pair. The bright blue sky and the greens just grabbed my attention.

Of course there are other trees in Southern California. One of my out of town visitors pointed this out:

This looks to be a Ceiba tree. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Of course I had to get a macro shot of those thorns:

I had an image previous to this one that was tighter on the tree, but the thorn was just too...shocking.

Thank you Mr. Wonderful for inspiring me with my Christmas gifts.

And thank you as always for stopping by!

Close yet so far away

I live really close to the San Fernando Mission. I have even attended Mass there. However, getting there with my camera proves to be impossible. Some visitors from out of town prompted me to go there, and I don't think I have gone there since I dove into photography. I am ashamed to say this not only because it is a gorgeous place to photograph, but it is also an important part of California's history. Basically in my back yard.

Knowing that I would be visiting there, did I bring my SLR? Of course not! It was close to noon, so the lighting would be crap. I had only my iPhone and my mini-me (point and shoot).

Here are a few photos taken with and edited in my iPhone:

Above are a couple of mosaics from a series of along one of the walls of the Mission library. Both photos were edited with the iPhone Photogene app to do some minor color correction.

This is a photo of the main fountain, which is a replica of the original. I edited this photo using the Best Camera app so that I could bring out the texture in the image.

I am making it a goal for 2011 to get back there for a photography outing. I look forward to posting the photos from that outing on my blog.

Thank you for sticking with me into the new year!