Jorge Quinteros

Just an Update

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:56:44 PDT

Since converting the site onto a full-fledge photoblog, I’ve received some emails asking about what will be with all the content that had been published prior to the new launch. I don’t have any intentions on bringing it down. In fact, I’ll just let it stand for what it is and let it float randomly around the web.

My new commitment in terms of online presence will be exclusively through my photoblog and of course Twitter. I really don’t have much plans to continue updating this particular site. I’ve already seen a flow of followers from this particular Tumblr site rollover to the new one and I appreciate the following.

Now a Photoblog

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:03:23 PDT

Now a Photoblog:

For reasons that are still beyond me, if you’ve been subscribing to this blog, I want to thank you in advance for the continued support in being a repeated visitor. Every week I’m surprised by the amount of audience that actually exist and that you can accumulate when you write about something you love.

Since using Tumblr for the past 3 years, a large portion of my content has revolved around posting articles, links, quotes and photos and while I took pleasure in sifting through material that resonated with me and that I deemed worth sharing, at times I felt that the more I continued with this routine, the less I felt my site portraying me as a photographer despite the content being mostly photography based.

The response I was getting from close friends was that whenever they visited my site, they felt that the Flickr thumbnails of my photographs on the sidebar were simply ornaments to everything else that was happing around it.

If my site were an airplane, my photographs were not in first class sipping champagne as they should have been. Instead, they were loosely positioned in the cargo section of the plane where the opportunity to be seen and admired was less to none.

With art being very subjective, I love observing people dissect a photograph or reading comments of their interpretations to one of my photos but as viewer myself, I don’t just like drawing a conclusions on something.

As it pertains to photographs, I love when the photographer shares details of what they went through to capture something they think highly of and with that same thought in mind is how I intend to redirect Jorgeq.com and place substantial focus on my photographs. Consider the transformation of my site into a photoblog.

Will you delete the old blog?

Absolutely not. Ironically enough I’ll just refer to it as the graveyard where you’ll still be able to search through some of your favorite content resting in piece and where nothing else will be published.

Within a day, I’ll have Jorgeq.com redirecting to the photoblog while still providing a link to the old content as mentioned before.

The new site still provides me with the option of writing articles which I’ll do sporadically, with the first one pertaining to some of the technical stuff surrounding the new site.

I’m thrilled that I was able to implement a system that enables you to purchase prints straight from my site. For that I’m using Fotomoto and in case you were wondering, this entire purchasing system will replace Things Shot.

Save on a Print

In celebration of the photoblog launch, I’ve created 10 coupons that will give you 15% off the purchase of any print of your choice. The promo code to be entered during the checkout process is 054664.

If you don’t see a photograph that’s available for sale but you have seen it on my Flickr stream or at Things Shot, shoot me an email and I’ll make it available for you to purchase.

One Year, One Family

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:05:44 PDT

One Year, One Family:

Tom Peters once wrote that ” If you’re not spending at least 70% of your time working on projects, creating projects, or organizing your tasks into projects, you are sadly living in the past. Today you have to think, breathe, act, and work in projects.”

A huge portion of the people I follow and admire on Twitter has been a result of me stumbling upon something they’ve created in a form of an ongoing project yet some of which has developed into something much bigger than they ever expected.

Having projects is an exceptional way to getting yourself noticed even more and the added benefit comes in that it gives you braggables rights in people seeing that you have genuine interest and enthusiasm in what you’ve dedicated time and effort in accomplishing. For that very reason, I take pleasure in viewing Darrah Parker’s ongoing One Year, One Family project -

In this year-long project, I visit one family once a month and photograph whatever it is they are doing that day. There’s no staging and very little planning ahead. We just pick a day each month and I show up with my camera. My goal is to to photograph real “slices of life” in an effort to find the beauty in the ordinary and the extraordinary in our own everyday lives.

My Cooking Diary

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:12:00 PDT

My Cooking Diary:

I’ve learned from watching Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare that unless done professionally or at least tastefully, photographs of dishes on a menu should always have the effect of making those courses incredibly appetizing to eat and not horrified by how it looks.

I think it takes an art to be able to photograph food that comes across like this but Mike Matas has nailed it with the launch of My Cooking Diary - a site design by him and his girlfriend Sharon Hwang. Every recipe sincerely looks delicious and I can personally vouch for this one so far. I made it yesterday.

Creating iPad Albums With Lightroom

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:18:00 PDT

Creating iPad Albums With Lightroom:

I use Lightroom to exclusively managed all of my photographs and the only reason to ever launch iPhoto is to import albums that I sync onto the iPad or iPhone. It’s a process I’m not too fond in replicating and one that I now do less of thanks to a neat preset by Matt Kloskowski.

Carry with you any album on your iPad by exporting it directly from Lightroom. It’s a huge timesaver especially if that particular album has more than 75 photos that you would normally have to first export from Lightroom and then import back into iPhoto if you used the traditional method.

A Change in Delivery

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:50:34 PDT

Since launching iPad Decór back in April, the encouraging feedback I’ve received from actively sharing perfectly cropped 1024 x 1024 photographs of my travels to prettify iPads has been very comforting to say the least.

Quite honestly it’s become one of my favorite side projects to curate because unlike Jorgeq.com, the focus of iPad Decór has rested soley on sharing personal experiences through my photographs alone.

I’ve often referred to the refined selection of choosing which photographs to feature to the simplicity of hanging a print in our home. There’s thought behind each decision because that’s what the process represents. I wouldn’ dare choose to hang a print I don’t like, especially if it’ll mean having to see it everyday. When we have friends come over, they’re always taken back by the amount of places we’ve had the opportunity to visit. I enjoy showing more than I do bragging about it.

I continue to have passion for owning and maintaining my own website and it hasn’t diminished at all but I’ve considered doing away with the current format of Jorgeq.com (articles, links, quotes) and competely replicating that same enthusiasm I gain from running iPad Decór.

Because I’ve accumulated so much content I’m still proud of at Jorgeq.com, the decision I’m comtemplating is allowing that content to live by itslef and perhaps setup a sub-domain and start from scratch with what essentially will be a photoblog, very much like My Little World or Samantha’s Flickr stream. Both photographers whose site is rooted not only in beautiful photographs but with deep stories that enhance their reasoning for being shared in the first place.

Despite the availability of much better suited photography based themes for WordPress, I’m no way ready to give up the amazing community that I feel I’ve connected with using Tumblr for the past 3 years.

If the flow of content happens to lessen here, it’s because I have new ideas that I can’t deal with them just being idle thoughts anymore.

Through meetups with fellow photographers, through constant inspiration online and constant shooting, I’m more comfortable presenting myself as a photographer to friends and family and I want for Jorgeq.com to be representional of that confidence.

"A camera, like a guitar, is just a box with a hole in it. Until it is placed in the hands of a true..."

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:58:36 PDT

“A camera, like a guitar, is just a box with a hole in it. Until it is placed in the hands of a true artist, it will not make music, only noise. What do you want your music to sound like?”

- Focus On Your Passion Webinar by Tim Mantoani

Charging to Submit

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:01:21 PDT

I don’t enter photography contest as much as I’m suggested to but I’ve changed that about me because it’s really a great assessment in seeing how your photographs stack up against others as well gaining the exposure that comes with winning one. Some are free while others require a fee but I confess it’s the latter that I veer to the most.

What’s wrong with free ones? Absolutely nothing but you must consider that because it’s free, the amount of entries are going to be considerably higher whereas if you pay, there’s the obligation to place extra thought on the caliber of the material that’s being submitted as oppose to submitting just because there’s a wide open door to do so.

Not always the case but a perfect illustration of this would be similar to the amount of comments a blog may receive. Are they always insightful, relevant and do they add value to the topic at hand? Absolutely not but then again there’s no velvet rope at the front to contain it unless you’re one that likes to deal with moderating comments on Wordpress.

I know I don’t which is why I side with the Sun Chronicle’s recent decision to charge $0.99 for a comment that any reader might consider submitting. Unless one has something valuable to contribute, one’s less likely to pay for something’s that’s often abused. Like Marco said, hopefully submissions would “be more civil, more intelligent, and better written.”

I can’t say that I’m overjoyed with every single one of my photographs but the ones that I feel more strongly about are the ones I don’t ever have any reservation paying $20 a piece when submitting to a contest. Whether I win is another question but at least I can stand firmly behind what I think adds substances to a less-likely-to-be saturated environment.

Presetpond: Sharing Lightroom & Aperture Presets

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:46:22 PDT

Presetpond: Sharing Lightroom & Aperture Presets:

A neat community for sharing, discovering and downloading presets for 2 of the most popular photo editing software Aperture and Lightroom. Signing up is free and so is downloading any of the many presets that aim to spruce up your photographs. Bookmarked.

4th of July - This year, the closest my wife and I got to...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:49:53 PDT

4th of July - This year, the closest my wife and I got to celebrating Independence Day was sitting on the couch watching the yearly Macy’s spectacular on TV while overhearing our neighbor’s kids shout in excitement as they illegally lit up fireworks on our block. Needless to say, nothing particularly special but we spend the holiday together.

Arguably the crowning jewel of this holiday is going to see the fireworks in person and yet we fail every year on our commitment in trying to make it but the picturesque feel of this photograph fully inspires me to be present next year. The human figures on the bottom frame add tremendous depth and atmosphere to the image and you truly feel the awe of what you can expect from being there. (Photograph by Toshio Kishiyama)

Photographer Spotlight: Samantha Tran

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:17:00 PDT

Samantha Tran is a 26 years old photograper based in Texas where she lives with her husband. The notion that to be a photographer you needed a degree has long been erased from her mind as she’s taken advantage of online tutorials, blogs, books and inspiration from Flickr to come to the realization that all you need is the desire and passion to become one. Her dream job would involve traveling the world to take awesome photographs of her experience.

1. How would you define your photographic style?

Since I try to soak up everything photography, I don’t really know that I have a particular style. Which honestly sums up my whole life. I am one of those people that will try to go in every direction all at once. I’m extremely eclectic. I am indecisive but picky I think that comes through in my photography. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I don’t know if that constitutes a “style”.

I like color and I like beauty. I like motion and I like stills. I like photo manipulation and I like straight out of the camera. I have tried all the styles I come across, portraiture, landscapes, black and white, high key, low key, heavy photoshop, night shots, flowers, animals, macro, underwater…you name it, I have either tried it or plan to. Change keeps you on your toes. It keeps things interesting. There you go, that’s my style: Interesting.

2. What does your camera equipment consist of?

Since I have only been doing photography for a little over a year now, I don’t have quite as much as some do, but I love what I have.

My main camera is my Sony A700. I have three lenses for it. A telephoto (18-200mm/f3.5-6.3) a macro (50mm/f2.8) and a wide angle (20mm/f2.8). I also have a remote, the external HVL-F42AM flash, and a QSX 9502TM Sunpak tripod.

I also use the Sony H3 (usually for travel since I have not found a smaller tripod) and my new underwater camera the Canon D10 (not pictured, since I had to take a photo of my photo equipment…I wasn’t sure how everyone else did this.

3. What’s your post-production software of choice?

I use only Photoshop. I have heard great things about other software like Lightroom, but I have yet to tackle it. In part because I don’t have it. Photoshop is an amazing program that I am understanding a teeny tiny bit more every day. I believe it’s possibilities are almost endless! Or maybe I’m just a newbie.

4. Are you considering any equipment upgrades in the future?

I would love to upgrade to the A900 at some point, and I also know that Sony has another, sleeker, alpha NEX line that I am highly interested in. That could replace my H3 at some point. I would also like a Carl Zeiss lens.

5. Share with us your proudest photograph.

Haha! You DO realize that you are asking an extremely indecisive person, to be decisive, on the spot…right? Ok, I suppose if I HAD to choose my proudest photo it would be:

This photo marked the first time, for me, that I really executed a vision I had in my head, perfectly, using all the techniques in Photoshop and general photo composition that I had learned up to that point. It’s a self portrait and means a lot to me. It made me very proud and I felt very accomplished.

Explore the Series

To view more featured photographers, check out the series page.

It's Those Select Few

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:38:53 PDT

I’m always been mindful that if I were to devote myself to writing strictly photography based content, I would perhaps reach a much wider audience but my intention with this blog has never been to try to replicate better material than what’s already out there.

I like to focus more on the personal experiences through my writing and having the ability to weave my photographs into any of it has become the perfect structure to represent me and what I want this site to become.

There are a few readers that will stick around more than others and that small percentage that invest the time to probe deeper and discover what else to expect from this site, those are the ones that I have felt I’ve made a quality connection with already.

I can’t recall specifically where I came across this statement but it said that “if it takes you longer than 10 seconds to explain your blog, then you probably haven’t made sure it’s conveying the right message as to why it exist in the first place.”

My byline says it all. I’m a blogger, I’m a web enthusiast and I’m an avid photographer. That’s what this blog is about with a strong emphasis on photography and yet sometimes not just limited to that.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the sites I will always feel a stronger connection with are the ones that bundle their topic with a first-class personal story and whether I write about how much I enjoyed a movie, it just won’t be another film review as I will always strive to instill some personal meaning to it. Case and point.

I continually come across friends that stumble about my site via Facebook and they inquire what my site is about, hence this post. Is it for everyone? Perhaps not but I can tell you that it’s incredibly empowering to be able to relate truthfully about anything as long as you’re enthusiastic about it and even more so when you consider that people may actually read it.

You can never please everyone with what you write but even more important is remembering that you don’t have to. It’s those select few that matter.

You are a photographer when....

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 PDT

You are a photographer when....:

I’m a member of the Nikon D90 Group on Flickr and a post was published where subcribers were asked to respond to the statement that “you are a photographer when…”

There’s 2 pages worth of responses so far and I selected my favorite 10 in no particular order. What makes these special and comical is that some very easily apply to me.

People expect you to take pictures at every event you attend and they expect you to do it for free.
You change the light bulbs in your bedroom to get a better white balance.
You get up at 5:45 AM when on vacation and then come back and sleep until just before sunset.
When your camera gear is worth more then your car.
When going on a trip you pack your camera bag 2 days before the suitcase and always leave space for the tripod.
You look at photos and wonder what their ISO, f-stop, and shutter were and if they used Flash or not.
When you wake up at 5am on a day off and can’t sleep because of all the beutiful light going to waste.
When no one in the family recognizes you without a black box in front of your face.
When you take good shot and in a hurry to upload on Flickr so that you get comments from your friends and contacts.
You are a photographer when ….you buy a camera.

Some Summer Changes

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:01:04 PDT

Had I waited 3 more months, a complete year of fighting the urge to redesign would have been fulfilled but apparently I failed to hold off that long.

With lack of time being the foremost reason for not redesigning, the decision was made to stay away from any changes so that I can keep one single look for the site as long as possible and maintain a sense of personal brand. This same principle explains why I’ve gone more than a year not adjusting my avatar to something new despite having more options to choose from.

When you visit my site, with time I want for you to already establish a vision of what it looks like even way before you’ve typed in the URL and to accomplish a task like that, the objective is not to deviate too much from what people are use to seeing. I can’t take credit for this thought. It was heavily inspired by Shawn Blanc.

Not Showing Everything

Aesthetically, weblogs can become complicated very quickly so I attempt to always keep it as clean as possible and not be obligated to include links that I want you to click on. If you’re interested in what you see, you’ll come across them on your own and not because I fed them to you.

In the last couple of months, I like to think that my content has become more photography based and when the opportunity comes to share photographs, the objective is for them to take center stage and not be distracted by any other embellishment that I may have considered added spice to the design.

I kept with the dark tones for the overall feel of the site because visually it draws me in more to the content. I wouldn’t go on the record to say that it’s officially complete because there’s always enhancements that I sprinkle on surreptitiously when I feel inspired by other sites I come across.

Until then, this is it.

Nearly Dark: I walked down to the end of our block and captured...

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:20:47 PDT

Nearly Dark: I walked down to the end of our block and captured what seems to be this ordinary sunset but what makes it special for me is that twinkle it performs as the evening ends. It’s also currently my iPhone Lockscreen wallpaper. (Photograph by Jorge Quinteros)

Sharing Your Art

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:20:34 PDT

In case you’ve never read any of Seth Godin’s books, I dare you to choose any and get back to me in a week to see if any of his statments has modified your perspective on life in any way. If it does, then it means his work as an writer has translated flawlessly and for me, that same influence in this particular paragraph has opened up the chance to do something nice with my photography -

Some people think that you can’t be generous until after you become a success. They argue that they have to get theirs, and then they can go ahead and give back. The astonishing fact is that the most successful people in the world are those who don’t do it for the money. - Linchpin

Being compensated for your work is a sign of value for your craft but there’s times when the mere appreciation of your work is enough payment if the art has caused the viewer to step back a bit more to admire it. That extra step counts.

I’ll admit to being proud of having the opportunity to monetize some of my favorite photographs at Thingsshot.com but it’s not always about the hard cash.

Friends often comment how they like a particular photograph I’ve mine and I’ve surprised them by having it professionally printed, framed and ready to hang and their reaction has been one that I don’t think would have been replicated if money was involved.

With that said, I would like to give away 5 of any of the prints I have curated at Thingsshot.com. You select the one that most resonates with you, I have it printed with the great folks at Mpix and they ship it to you.

How to Win

Three 5x7 prints will given away and two 8x12. How will you know which format you’ll be receiving? It’ll all be dependent upon answering one question and sharing one photograph.

The top 2 submissions will receive the 8x12 prints and the 3 runner-ups will receive each a 5x7 print.

The Queries

What initially interested you into photography?
Share with us your most meaningful photograph and describe it’s significance.

This small contest will be open for a week, starting today and ending on July 8th. Send your replies and images to contact[at]jorgeq.com with the subject title “Things Shot Giveaway”. Please ensure to include your name and also a website URL if you have one.

All the winner’s questions and photographs will be published here. In the end, it’s all about sharing each other’s art. You don’t have to be a professional anything to create art. You just have to have confidence in that you’re a creator of it.

"I wish somebody had told me that I would spend 95% of my time doing office tasks and only 5% of my..."

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:21:30 PDT

“I wish somebody had told me that I would spend 95% of my time doing office tasks and only 5% of my time actually taking and processing photographs.”

- Andy Biggs on Things Photographers Wished They Learned in Photo School. I hear this a lot from fellow photographer friends.

The iPhone 4 - I’ll leave the full blown reviews to those...

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:35:10 PDT

The iPhone 4 - I’ll leave the full blown reviews to those that are much better at writing them but the least I can do as a photographer is share with you how incredibly brilliant and vibrant the retina screen screen looks on this piece of hotness. It’s more impressive in person. Case pending on mine. I’m not fond of carrying it around without one. (Photograph by Jorge Quinteros)

iPhone 4 Captures

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:54:05 PDT

I doubt that anyone with the smallest amount of interest in photography would argue that it’s not the camera that creates the image but rather the photographer. But what these gadgets do provide is the flexibility to take photos that mean something to you and even more so if it comes from a device that serves so many other purposes.

Since the first iPhone, one of the biggest reason for not upgrading to any of the subsequent versions has been because none of the new features introduced ever attracted me enough to justify the commitment.

Kids playing at the park in a 90(F) degree weather in Brooklyn.

Fast forward 3 years and the 5MP camera on the iPhone 4 obliterated any uncertainly I had in modernizing to a new iPhone and now I’m more than fascinated in the extra value that’ll go into taking photos because of the fantastic quality you get from it.

I rarely uploaded iPhone photos to Flickr because regardless of how compelling the photograph might have been, I strived to curate shots that were as high-level as the camera that took them but now that’s changed and I’ve realized how shallow that reasoning was. If a photo is amazing, it deserves to be overlooked with what it was taken and recognized in what it represents.

I’ve created a set on my Flickr page entitled iPhone 4 Captures that will be home to photos specifically taken with the iPhone 4 and color treatment courtesy of Camera+. iPhone images will be distinguished from shots taken with my other cameras (Nikon D90/Canon G11) because the former will have a thin black border.

3 Days Without an iPhone

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:00:03 PDT

It suddenly stopped working. The screen persisted in being off and unresponsive and no trouble shooting tactic seem to revive what now was my dead iPhone. If you ask me, I think the combination of too much jailbreaking and just the life of the battery all contributed to its death.

What’s interesting is that making phone calls was second to everything else I accomplished with the device yet to make up for the inability to now make a phone call, I resorted in using this cracked Razor flip-phone that we had laying around the house. I quick SIM card swap revived it.

This may seem a bit overboard but being without my iPhone for 3 days has completely made me feel disconnected. The days seem one-sided, half-completed but mostly disoriented because I have zero access to online content that generally keeps me in touch with what’s transpiring in the world. Even standing on line at the supermarket feels unfamilar.

Staying in communication with my wife consist mostly of SMS throughout the day but I refused to put so much effort in trying to text on a phone that doesn’t have a full-blown keyboard like I’ve been accustom to already. It’s a complete hassle.

The device has not only changed my communication habits but it’s brought a new level of excitement and enthusiasm that apparently can easily be taken away from going a fews days without a technology that has forever changed me.

Art Changes You

Whenever an author decides to mention in their book successful companies, it’s almost a given that Apple will be included in that inventory. I’m half-way through Seth Godin’s Linchpin and there’s a chapter where he touches on how we can all be creators of art but not if what we create doesn’t instill some form of change to the recipient and this particular entry resonated with my current plight -

The design of the iPhone is art. It changes the way some people feel. It changes the way they use the device. It changes the way they communicate. And there is a gift as well. People who see the iPhone but don’t buy one still receive the gift. An ugly iPhone would cost as much as the beautiful one. The beautiful part is the free prize inside, the bonus, the gift to us from the artist who designed it.

I was among the few that pre-ordered the iPhone 4. I’m excited beyond belief because the device no longer acquires its popularity based on the bragging rights that comes with owning one but on the integral and emotional relation that you develop with a technology that enables you to be more attached with things you care about. It’s no longer an ornament to what you already own, it’s an integral part to what you want to accomplish.

I’m ready to get back to normal. Normal for me means keeping up on Tweets, Facebook, feeds, reading and texting all of which seems like normal habits for any Mac and web enthusiast.