Peek The Fish

My New Toy

2009-02-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas always comes late for me. Those with kids might know the feeling. Presents for others come before yours. This year I got a Panasonic LX3 point&shoot camera. The main reason I wanted it was for it's HD Video capabilities but after taking some photos with it I realized this little guy came to play. Here are some of the first photos I took with it. What do you think?

Here's a video I put together for practice. The quality is awesome!

LX3 Practice from Jose Medina on Vimeo.

The snow is gone

2009-01-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

The snow has finally melted so Katie let me take a few photos of her. Too bad the cold weather didn't leave too.

Father and Son

2008-12-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

I once read a quote that said "A father carries pictures where his money used to be". After looking inside my wallet that proved to be the case. When I think about that fact it makes me a little sad. Not because of the money but when I look at the photos it makes me realize how fast Noah is growing up. Where does the time go? One day he's calling me daddy and the next it's dad. All the more reason to capture as many moments as you can. While these photos may be aesthetically ugly, composition way off and even a weird color the story lies within the smile. This is who Noah is; a boy, a friend, my son. Thank you Noah for being who you are. I love you, daddy....

The Doll Session

2008-11-15T22:33:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when nobody wants their photo to be taken. Shoot whatever I can find.

Tuesday Portrait Session

2008-11-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

I'm really getting into this 1 flash portrait style. Right now it's what I'm really into so we'll see where this goes. This one is of my neighbor Nick.

Progress

2008-10-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been real interested in 1 flash photography, mainly because I currently only have 1 flash. It has given me the opportunity to look at the way I photograph and try some things differently. Here are two recent 1 Flash Portrait Shoots recently done. The first one is of Kenji aka BrickRules and the second is my friend Stevie. Enjoy.

Cat and Mouse

2008-07-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

I love Baseball. I love it in its purest form. I love it during brawls, no hitters, blow outs, 1 run games, extra innings. I love Baseball. There is something to be said when runner and pitcher meet eye to eye. Is he going? When will I go? Should I pitch out? Will he pitch out? One on one, mano a mano.

I Love Baseball......

It's Wednesday and sunny!!

2008-07-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

The sun hasn't been out that much lately so today Katie, Noah, and myself hung out outside for awhile. I decided to take a few pics of them and put them to music ( The Beatles, of course). Enjoy and see ya soon!

Late Night Cramming!!!

2008-05-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm back in school having a paper due the next morning while I'm just starting it. Soda to my left, Funyuns to my right, Gene playing on the Ipod, and having energy to sing out loud but not write the paper. This paper,err, post will be very long since it's been almost 2 months from my last one. Here goes....In March there was a reshuffling at work due to the economic climate and many jobs were eliminated/restructured with mine being one( I work at Eddie Bauer Corp) but after having to re-interview I was kept on. Stressful time with Katie being in school full time and Noah ready to go to daycare and me being the only one working. It was a real eye opening experience that gave me an idea(more on that later). I'm glad things worked out in the end. This is the view from my window looking east, pretty cool huh?

March also brought back cousin Jill and her daughter Libby! They were here a couple of weeks and I was able to capture some photos of them together while in downtown Seattle and a couple of Libby when she wasn't looking. What do you think???

For some reason Libby loves calling me "noway jose" or just "noway" for short. What can I say? When a 3yr old angel calls you that how could you not melt?? Here are some portraits I was able to take.

In April I was lucky enough to join a group of very talented photographers that use Open Source Photo to network and connect. Right now I only have these two pics on my hard drive to upload so I will. This was Shauna, very easy to work with.

With the gut check at work in May I decided to try photography as a side business to bring in extra income. I had no idea how much work it takes to get it started legally. I suppose I could skip the licenses and tax stuff but that wouldn't be right to the other photographers and that is not the type of dad I want to be to Noah. While working to become legit I started practicing. Here are some photos I took of Tyler, daughter of my neighbors the Dunnes. So cute!!!

That's it for now. Any advice/encouragement is welcome and I look forward to telling you how things go the rest of May. See ya!!!!

Kiss my piece!!!

2008-03-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I purchased a D200 along with a new lens and another flash. So much stuff, so many possibilities. Of course that's assuming I learn HOW to use this stuff. These are just some shots that have come about from practicing. These first are from when I just started to learn some of the dials on the camera. Looks tiring!

Then of course I had to try it out at the park.

And on school grounds.

The fun part is adding a second flash. In this case an SB28 which I bought off of the Nikonians website. Love those guys!

These last few pics are of Noah and the Dunnes messing around getting "flashed" by an SB600 on the left and the SB28 on the right. Man I love these things!!!!

End of an Era

2008-02-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

Last week I sold my Nikon D80. As much as it was a happy day for me it was also a sad one as for the past year it has captured so many wonderful memories. Birthdays, holidays, model shoots, and random things. On the bright side the sale has allowed me to upgrade to a D200 which will be delivered on Monday! The next couple of months my new camera will be put to the test with a couple model shoots, my new photography series (which I will not yet reveal) and maybe, just maybe a little project with a certain Pacific Northwest Baseball team???Please enjoy a laugh with the last photo provided by my D80 along with some portraits of the kid. While taking a walk with Katie and Noah he started to trip while pushing the stroller. Made me laugh....

Hangar Shoot

2008-01-29T21:41:00.001-08:00

January 20,2008 was a big day for me. I was fortunate enough to again meet up with the Seattle Flickr Group along with Uncle Chase for a very special photo shoot at an airplane hangar. Holy Crap you might say because that's what I was thinking! That in itself is a big deal but when you add the special "surprise" that was there then it doesn't get any better. Chase was able to get Mr. Strobist himself Dave Hobby to show up! For those not familiar he has helped start a revolution in the photography community with ripples hitting Seattle, Georgia, Brussels, and Paris to name a few. Off camera lighting has changed the way I see photos and in the way I want to shoot. 50+ photographers, 11 models, Chase+crew, and one Mr. Strobist is what went down. Flashes, Pocket Wizards, Lenses, Little Hotties, guns, knives, crazy!!! While I observed and asked questions most of the night I was able to get a few shots in but to me this was a chance to pick the brains of others.
Thanks to Chase, Dave, and all the people that helped put this thing together. Here is the video Team Chase put together, enjoy......

New Year, New Lens, New Photos

2008-01-08T23:37:00.001-08:00

As per previous post motivation has been kinda hard to come by in these here parts but I recently was lucky enough to get the Sigma 10-20 lens that I have wanted for a VERY long time and man do I love it!!! It's still taking a little to get used to since I've been shooting with a 50mm 1.8 from day 1 that now having some zoom is weird, especially with the 10-20mm range. I made a couple snoots tonight
and took some shots with my usually willing model Noah. I say usually because tonight he didn't want to, Sponge Bob Square Pants was on. Here are the results of my session with some post processing done in Capture NX. I hope you like them. If you do then let me know and if you don't then tell me that too....see ya soon....oh yeah, I also took a shot of Noah running from me in the park....

Motivation

2007-12-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

With the weather being really bad the past couple of days I haven't really wanted to do much let alone shoot. Put on the Ipod and my how things change. The theme for today was practice, practice, practice and more practice. As usual only a couple made the cut. Follow the link and check out the slide show. Here is a taster of what's to come....
As always comments are appreciated, just remember to be nice, Santa is coming to town.....

Sun

2007-12-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

So the sun came out today for a little. I can't really remember the last time it came out. I really miss sunny winter days....on the bright side I was able to get some light through the window to light up the room for this shot. I have one SB600 pointed at Katie and Noah to brighten them up...sunlight, where have you gone?????

Front Page

2007-12-13T22:06:00.000-08:00

check this out yall!!!!!

Short Video

2007-12-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a video one of the shooters made at our Seattle Flickr Group Garage Shoot. Enjoy...

2nd Try

2007-12-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

I recently posted pictures of Vanessa I processed with Lightroom. It's a new program I've been trying out and didn't really like the results so here are the ones I liked processed with Capture NX. Any thoughts???

Recently I've been in a photographical (is that a word?)rut. I know what I don't want to shoot but a little lost of what I do want to shoot. I see soooo many cool things out there that it's a little overwhelming. I'm really looking forward to 2008 and all the beautiful photographical (there it is again!)opportunities!!
Comments, suggestions, and jokes are always welcome here...Love Peace and Soul!!!

Wrestling

2007-12-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of my friends being their usual violent selves...can't we all just get along??

Doesn't have anything to do with photography but hey who doesn't like wrestling???

Model Shoot

2007-12-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

This past Friday some of the Seattle Flickerites got together for a model shoot. The previous one I attended was more of a lighting shoot with this one having more models to work with. I guess you could say this was my first real shot at photographing models. These are the only ones I liked. Thanks Vanessa for being great to work with.

You can also see the photos Noah took at the shoot on Flickr, yes he is a 3yr old photographer!! His screen name is "Noah The Photographer" so check him out.

Chase Jarvis Meeting

2007-12-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

As previously mentioned the Seattle Flickr group got a chance to meet and hang out with commercial photographer Chase Jarvis in his Seattle studio. After about an hour of socializing we had a Q&A session with him. Some of the questions ranged from how he started to photography (self taught) to is he hiring (no). Here are some tips that I went away from the meeting with:
1) Act like a pro, look like a pro, have forms like a pro, think like a pro and you will be treated like a pro
2) Learn the business side of photography, understand where art meets commerce
3) Make time to photograph what you like
4) practice, practice, practice, and practice
5) Have fun

After the Q&A session the real fun began. We brainstormed ideas of how Chase could contribute to the Seattle Photography community we have going on by us using his insanely massive connections. Ideas like photographing established models, renting a 60k sq.ft airplane hangar for a workshop, shooting sporting events and even shooting out of airplanes/ helicopters!
Lots of exciting things are happening here is Seattle and with Chase being part of the group the sky is the limit.
Thanks Chase for taking time out of you busy schedule to meet with us and share your knowledge, experience and willing to help us show the world what's going on here in Seattle.

Noah in the air

2007-12-06T01:12:00.000-08:00

Just thought this was a pretty cool shot of Noah I took yesterday with some post processing. Can you tell this was done at home by the vent right above his hand???

Chase Jarvis

2007-12-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will have the pleasure of meeting photographer Chase Jarvis. If you're not familiar with his stuff then check out his website and see what I mean. He has agreed to make time and meet with the Seattle Flickr group in his studio to talk photography or anything else. How cool is that??? Not only is he making his studio available but maybe even his gear and models to teach us a few things! This is a photo that I will be submitting to be shown at the meet-up during the slideshow.