Warhol Option 1

So here is one style I could use with the whole Warhol theme Christmas card...option two is on its way.

Sacre Bleu

So over the weekend I had a funny idea for the Christmas card. What if I just inserted all the family members into a famous work of art? At least I think that would be entertaining for people to receive.

Thank You

Well this photo may look familiar, that shouldn't be surprising since I've had it up before. I did change it around a bit this time though, but its a long story. Last Wed. was a last minute cleanup of the center before trustees would come out for tours the next day. Eleanor was out on her perch while we were cleaning to get some fresh air. I had to run to campus for to pick up some people who didn't have cars, came back and started cleaning again. After a while I glanced out the window and saw that her perch was empty and she was nowhere to be seen. I panicked of course, but Kate (the student in charge of most things) was calm enough to organize an impromptu search party. Apparently this wasn't Eleanor's first escape. Unfortunately it was starting to get dark and we couldn't see much so after a couple hours of fruitless searching we called it a night and made plans to meet the next morning to continue looking. At six the next morning I woke up and headed to the center where we looked for three hours or so without a sign of her anywhere. I was heading back to my car to take off my sweatshirt and was talking briefly with another girl helping look when we spotted her in a tree. It took some doing but we got her down and netted. I got some talons in the finger but it was worth it. Plus it wasn't nearly as many puncture wounds as this Sat morning, but that's a different story. This project is my thank you to the people who helped me look for her, since they're all seniors or juniors I thought it would be a good way to remember the center and the great escape artist.

Rough Week

Well it was a bit of a rough week for me last week. Starting on Saturday I sprained my ankle, Monday I crashed on the skateboard, Tuesday I burned my hand with hot oil making fried chicken, Thursday I had to go to the dentist and later that afternoon had to bushwack through a bunch of thorns to try and retrieve a fishing lure. I thought you all might like to see the most photogenic of my injuries.

Me and the Bird

This is me and Eleanor, the red-tailed hawk I've been working with at the raptor center. The photo itself isn't really that great, but that's because it wasn't me taking it. I put in some other pictures below this one to show her in a bit more majestic way. There's not much to say since we've only been working for a week and a half, but I'll keep you all updated.

Eleanor 2

Eleanor 1

More High Contrast

Maybe its just a phase, but it seems like a lot of the stuff I'm doing lately is high contrast B&W.

Nebraska

On my trip across the country I had planned on taking all sorts of photos of interesting places along the road. Turns out its a lot more difficult to just pull over and take pictures on a six lane interstate so the few pictures I got were on the rural highways of Nebraska and Iowa.

Just some more flowers from the mountain. They lent themselves well to a high contrast finish.

Back from the Summer

Hey everyone, I'm finally back on top of things after getting settled in at school and I've got some new photos to put up (finally). This is of a flower I found up on the mountain by the cabin while I was at home. It's obviously been tweaked a little bit but I think it ended up with a pretty cool effect.

Part III

This is part III of the flowers I shot today...there are plenty more but this is all I've finalized so far. This one is probably my favorite though, I think the color scheme is great and the framing worked out well. I didn't even need to crop the piece. Very simple, but I think its effective.

Pat II

Part two of the flower series.

Some New Stuff

Well I finally motivated myself to go outside today and take some new photos. The crab apple trees are all in bloom here so its not a bad time to leave the ol' dorm room. Unfortunately about halfway through my little jaunt it started to get cloudy and since I only had my big lens along with me it was a little tough to get my shutter speed high enough to actually take sharp-ish photos. I know I should spread these out through the week, but from the looks of it I will probably be studying for most of my free time. Might as well just post a few now.

Portrait Practice

Just trying some new stuff out. This one actually took me a while to get right. Mostly removing the original background from the photo of me. Hope you like it. I'd even think about taking some suggestions on this one.

Sorry It's Been So Long

Well, It's probably been so long since my last post that no one really checks this regularly, but a combination of tons of schoolwork and a computer that's not running very well at the moment didn't leave me with much leeway to do any work. This is just a fun little experiment I'm working on with photoshop mostly as practice, but occasionally I come up with something interesting. Here's me and the dogs on the famous Arctic Expedition with my old friend Admiral Robert Peary.

Skua-The Classical Period

Well I'm running out of photographs to do stuff to again, but I thought this one of Skua looked decent with a little work and a watercolor finish. I was thinking about how I can't wait for summer so I have plenty of time to work on photos, but then I realized that the computer with photoshop is going to be in storage all the way across the country...Oh well, we'll figure something out.

Ummmm....

There's really not much I can say about this one that the photo can't say for itself...things have changed since I came back after spring break.

battle of the titans

I just thought this one was pretty cool as I was going over what I'd shot during the break. I didn't have to do much editing on it at all, just a little bump with some saturation and a slight change to the contrast. I really like the way the point of action at Skua's throat is the focal point, the eye is drawn to it as the sharpest point of the photo. The blur makes the action seem that much more intense.

Finally

Well, I recieved at least one complaint while I was home that I hadn't posted anything on here
for a while. My only explanation is this: I didn't have anything to post. I hadn't shot anything new in a long while. But I got some stuff to work with over spring break and I guess we'll see how it goes. This photo is of a new member of the family I met a couple days ago. Tucker is a little sweetheart to people, but I'm sure the other dogs would disagree. Anyhow, this is my work for the day and there should be more coming soon.

Pauline

Alright, this may actually be the last of the raptor pics. I know, I know...you all want more but if the decent weather holds out tomorrow I'm going to make myself get out and shoot something new. This is a bird that has already shown up at least once so far, but I thought it would be interesting to produce a finalized picture of her along with the raptor program stamp. If you look hard at the stamp in the lower left corner you should be able to see that this is the photo from which it originates.

Turns Out That Wasn't the End

Well, I found some more of these photos to work on this weekend. Not much new to say about them except that the instant I sell one I'm quitting school haha.

Last in Line

Well, this is probably the last of this round of photos focused on the raptors. This final one is the female red tail hawk. I haven't done much work with her, but I did put her outside on the day I took the photos. If anyone who reads this would like a print of any of these photos just let me know, I'm testing out an online printing company tomorrow after I finish this hellatious round of tests with one of my smaller photos of the eagle-owl to see how well it works. If I'm happy with the results, I can get you most of the photos in almost any size up to about 60" which seems like it should serve just about anyone's needs. Those are about $60 to print though (we can discuss prices that would make me a profit haha), so if you aren't a Jorgensen Photography fanatic (I don't know that any of those exist) there are smaller ones for quite a bit less. So yeah, let me know if you want one mailed to you and I'll try my best to get it done.

Red Tail Part III

This is the last of the red tailed hawk photos and nearing the end of my recent series of bird photos. I don't know what I'll find to take pictures of next, but I seriously doubt they'll turn out as well as these. I'm currently searching for a good place to get large scale prints made (like 30"x50" or so, maybe a bit smaller.) If anyone wants to buy one just let me know.

Red Tail Part II

Well I doubt anyone even looks at these anymore, but I'm still hard at work with the photos. This is another photo of the red-tailed hawk.

Red Tail

This is one of our red-tailed hawks, the species responsible for pretty much all those majestic eagle sounds in movies. I have actually had the chance to hear this one vocalize from only a few feet away and it was pretty amazing. Well, as you can probably see I won't be running out of bird shots soon (and I can't think of anything else I can shoot that will come out as nice) so get used to it haha.

Barred Owl

This lovely lady is one of a pair of barred owls in residence at the center. They are universally beloved because of their tolerant personalities. Not much to say about the photo, just wanted to post something today and thought she was pretty good subject. Hope you like it.

Goshawk Hybrid

This is Paula, one of the sweeter birds at the center, she's a mix between a northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Her plumage makes for a great black and white. You may notice that she's actually been in all three of these bird photos...she was my model for the raptor center stamp (yeah, I made that too...don't know if I mentioned it).

This of course is a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) is the largest of the American owls and another interesting character at the center. I haven't ever had to directly deal with the eagle owl, but I'm sure this guy gives him a run for his money...but I feel like we've bonded anyway. I don't really have much to add to the last post but I hope you like this one too.

Back on Top

The next couple photos I'm posting are easily the best I've ever taken of any animal...I'm honestly more proud of these than I have been of pretty much anything I've done in a long time. Everything in these photos I created, including the raptor program seal in the corner (I'm sure the photo that came from will be posted soon enough). I have copies of these without the text or stamp, but since the aviaries are where I took these shots I figure I can give them a little credit and maybe get some of these published. This particular bird is a Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo), the largest species of owl in the world (body length of 24 - 29 inches, a wingspan of 5 - 6 feet, and weighs 3 1/2 - 9 pounds), and I think its obvious why I photographed him. His eyes really are that color...and he's generally quite a bit more ornery than he looks. He's one of three birds that requires a full arm glove to handle, the others are our eagles. Hope you like it and I hope Dr. Parks Likes it.

Even Jesus Loves Brazil.

Well, I've just been messing around with some of the photos I took in the cemetery before I came back to school after Christmas break. I tried several different looks before I came out with this one, and I'm not quite sure how much I like it. Originally the background was the Brazilian flag and it meshed in nicely, but I thought it would stand out a little better in white. I was right, but I wasted a lot of time lining things up just to delete it in the end. I also would have curved the yellow portion a bit more. I am, however, very pleased with the globe. The stars aren't exactly right, but I think it works out well enough. That's about all for today; if I haven't mentioned it before now...someone should be paying me for this stuff.

Back to my Roots

I've been fooling around in photoshop for a few weeks now and I think I've come up with some decent stuff, but I don't think its a good idea to forget where you come from so I'm coming back to my beginnings as a photographer. I started out using an old film camera and focused mostly on black and white film. There just seems to be something about the medium that enhances mood, and often the impact of the subject. At least in my opinion, much of the time the removal of color is equivalent to the removal of distraction. It allows a greater focus not only on shape and texture but on the symbolism behind the subject. I really need to get back to work on things that will get me a grade but I wanted to put this up during my break. Enjoy.

New Ads

Just finished work on another ad for the business that won't ever sell anything. Hope you like it...yeah, I do a lot of stuff with my dog.

Business Card

Well since 50% of the people who read this requested that I post the ol' business card I thought it might not be a bad idea. Let me know if you need to give me money to do this...yeah, I'm talking to you again South Africa.

New Beginnings

This is the first of my posts, hope there will eventually be more than just my sisters reading this but for now that's good enough...as long as they choose to commission some huge projects. Either them or, as you may be able to see to the left, some country with a burgeoning tourism market. The original photo for this one isn't mine, but it took me quite a while to rework it to this point. Especially since I have about that same amount of time in experience with photoshop. I'm sure no one reading this knows what a gannet looks like but they certainly don't look like this. I reworked it with the colors of the South African flag and I'm pretty happy about how it came out. I think the white is a bit understated but since I decided on a white background I didn't want to lose the chance to lose some of the more vibrant colors. I tried out using the South African flag as a background but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Maybe when I'm a little bit better at this it won't be a problem, but at this point the white was a better choice. I certainly appreciate the work it takes to do some of the more commercial photography and editing but it was a lot of fun. Give me some feedback.