moving

I’ve decided to use Blogger as my primary site for a photography blog.  Please check it out here:

http://jentwo.blogspot.com/

purple tulip

DSC_0723, originally uploaded by jentwo.

I had to crank the ISO to a ridiculous level to get this shot of a tulip outside the office at work. I might bring my camera back in the morning to get better light.

IMG_7876

IMG_7876, originally uploaded by jentwo.

California DOES get fall color! There are trees like this all over Fresno right now, as well as a variety of others in bright yellows, warm oranges, deep reds, and even near-black maroon. It’s a gorgeous time of year and we’ve had unseasonably warm temperatures lately that are nice to go outside and photograph in.

It’s overcast and chilly this morning though, so maybe autumn and winter really are going to happen afterall.

fireworks!

DSC_7461, originally uploaded by jentwo.

Last night a friend and I went to the top of the 6-level parking structure behind Grizzlies (baseball) stadium in downtown Fresno to photograph the 4th of July fireworks show after the game ended. I had my camera on a tripod in manual bulb mode and I just held down the shutter release on the cable for random amounts of time. This let me watch the fireworks show with my own eyes, and not be cut off by the camera. Not very scientific, but it was all for fun, so I didn’t care if things didn’t turn out perfectly.

It was a little hit and miss, as sometimes I timed my exposures wrong, they were out of focus, or things happened outside of the frame, but overall I’m pretty pleased with them. The fireworks were being shot off from a space between the stadium and the parking structure, and it felt like we had an amazing, front-row view, much better than when I’ve watched fireworks from inside the stadium.

See more:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jentwo/sets/72157605984087276/

I’ll be adding more to the set later today.

After that it was back to my friend’s house where we battled the wind to set off a batch of home fireworks for close-up shots.

I’ve said it before: any day that ends with fireworks is a good one. This was no exception.

under construction!

I am struggling with the design of this page and if you happen to be reading this, please bear with me as I make many changes and experiment with CSS.

Eddie Vedder and Neil Finn

IMG_7581, originally uploaded by jentwo.

This really isn’t a particularly great photo. But it’s special to me for a number of reasons.

For the 3-day Labor Day holiday weekend in 2007, I flew to the Pacific Northwest to see the band Crowded House perform. Towards the end of their set at Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder joined them for two songs, and it was definitely one of the many personal highlights of my weekend.

I had a pretty strong feeling that Eddie would at least attend the show. Didn’t expect him to sing, but did have my tiny hopes. The show was a lot of fun and I would not have been disappointed if there was no sign of him at all, but OF COURSE his participation was the cherry on the sundae for me. I consider him to be my “gateway drug” to Neil Finnaticism.

I was aware of the hits Crowded House had in their first decade as a band, and while I never disliked them, I never bought any of their albums, either. I was also aware of the occasional associations that Eddie and Pearl Jam had with Neil and Tim Finn, going back to 1995. I was aware of the concerts Neil did in Auckland that Eddie was a part of in 2001. But it wasn’t until I got the DVD of those shows, 7 Worlds Collide, (given to me by a fellow PJ fan, for the Eddie bits.) that I really started to appreciate Neil as a songwriter.

…and then Jen went on to eventually become a very big fan of Neil Finn…

For this show, their set to open Memorial Stadium on the first day of the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, Crowded House became only the second band I have ever flown to see. Pearl Jam of course, is the other. Other bands have inspired me to put hundreds of miles on my car, but only two have gotten me into an airplane in 15 years of concert-going and now 100 shows attended.

So…yeah, Eddie came out and sang “World Where You Live” and played guitar on “Something So Strong” and the crowd just ate it up. It was a very fun set and well worth the trip.

When I got home from my trip I went straight to work getting my photos processed and uploaded to Flickr, including descriptive tags. Just a day later, I received an email from someone at Rolling Stone magazine, requesting permission to use this photo on their website. I happily granted it and was thrilled to see it online later that day:

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/16256470/bumbershoot_2007_eddie_vedder_wu

Not only was it exciting to have something published, but for it to be a photograph of a very happy memory made it extra special for me. And this was taken with a humble 5MP point-and-shoot camera, too!

numero uno

Here’s the obligatory first post in my new blog! I’ve kept a more personal online journal for over a decade, but recently decided to start a new one just to discuss photography.