Recent favorites

Here are a few favorites from recent shoots.

I love the reaction in this photo! This was also a test drive for a new Lightroom preset.

Very cool panning catch.

Hello, Melody

Here’s a few pics from a shoot today with my friends Mandy and Joe and their new baby, Melody.

I love this next one.  Definitely my favorite of the shoot.  Melody was so relaxed.

Check out maternity photos and more from this newborn shot here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonwilliamson/sets/72157622612280384/

Dilapidated

I found these old buildings next to Glendale Shoals in Spartanburg, SC after a recent photo shoot.

Invisible dogs swarm Brooklyn!

If one person does it, it’s weird.  If 1,000 people do it, it’s cool.

From the archives

I’m attempting to complete the tedious task of importing and cataloging all my work into Lightroom.  While this is quite arduous, it is giving me an opportunity to revisit a lot of old photos and find some hidden gems.  Here’s a few of them.

The toolbox in the singer’s hand is actually a musical instrument.  It’s filled with things that go “clank” along with a microphone.

An introduction into the world of maternity photos

Photos were taken at Glendale Shoals, in Spartanburg, SC of my good friends Tim & Hailey with their daughter, Hayden.  This is my first attempt with maternity shots and should be some good practice, since I have another shoot coming up in two weeks.

This was fun and I enjoyed taking these in an outdoor area with some architecture around.  I really enjoy the contrast of the new, growing life with this decaying, old bridge.  It was a challenge to integrate the gorgeous backgrounds without taking away from the highlight of the photos; motherhood.  Maternity pictures are all about the mother, much like a wedding is to a bride.  Combining outside elements like rocks, trees, bridges and sky instead of using a studio and simple backdrops was tough, but easier than I expected.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but this was also my first time at this location.

See all the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonwilliamson/sets/72157605486345620/.  Click on the thumbnails near the bottom of this set.

A tour of Ansel Adams’ home

See more from Marc Silber’s blog:  http://www.silberstudios.com/blog/

Beware: Cat will yell at you. A lot.

Check out this video Elizabeth shot of our cat, Gilligan, a few months ago.  He freaks out when he sees another cat outside and goes into these long meow sessions.

Deep sea fishing

Heading out to the intracoastal waterway and the Ft. Pierce inlet.

Reeling in the big one, while Mark gets ready to gaff.

His and Hers matching dolphin.

My first photos…ever

I recently stumbled upon the first real photographs I ever took and thought it would be fun to show you where I started.  These were from the 10th grade in my very first photography class, taught by Marsha Sesack.  She was one of the most inspirational and encouraging teachers I had.  She had patience with us when we were taking our first photos or developing our first roll of Tri-X film.  She also never stood in our way if we had a creative idea (at least, if we thought it was creative).  It’s funny, the same type of shots I took way back then are still some of the shots I go for now.  I’m glad to see that I have evolved, but that my foundation was strong.  Out of all the things she taught me, I can pull out the main two.

1. You can take a great shot, or you can make a great shot. The lesson here was that you can plan your shot (or even be spontaneous) once you developed your eye and your relationship with your camera, or you can compensate by spending extra time in the lab (or in front of a computer) post-processing and correcting for all your mistakes.  I’m kinda lazy, so I prefer to take a great shot.  Granted, some people can do wondrous things with Photoshop and other programs, but it’s just not my bag, baby.

2. Always find the good in someone’s work. No matter how crappy our work was, Mrs. Sesack always found the silver lining.  She never lied to us (at least, I don’t think so) or inflated our egos, but she critiqued so well.  I’ve left other critiques defeated, thinking my work was garbage (and it might have been), but she found the right words to keep us inspired.

So, without further ado, here are my first three photos I ever shot.  The only thing I did to these prior to uploading was some dust removal since these were really old prints that were scanned in.  Aside from that, what you see is what I got.

This first one is a photogram.  It’s a photographic process that creates an image without a camera.  We found a variety of opaque and translucent materials and placed them on photographic paper while exposing it to light.  Once developed, it left a cool negative print.  I remember picking this conch shell because I could see some contrast when I held it up to the light and I thought the shape was interesting.  With this photogram, I was practicing my “rule of thirds”.

This next one was shot with a pinhole camera I made (and I wish I still had!).  I shot this in the front lawn of our school, laying on the ground (which I like to do a lot).  I was very proud of myself when I took this back to the lab.  I think I was the only person who got a good exposure on their first try.  This makes me want to build another pinhole camera.  For those non-photographers out there, a pinhole camera is basically a light-tight box with a piece of photographic paper taped inside (this is your ‘film’).  The ‘lens’ of the camera is a pinhole that is covered up or taped over until you are ready to ‘shoot’ (or expose the paper to light).  You control the exposure by varying the amount of time you expose the paper to light and by the size of the pinhole.

If I remember correctly, this photo was the first that I took with actual film.  As a class, we walked to a nearby park and with our partners we could each take 2 photos on the roll of film.  I still have these negatives to prove it!  Again, I liked to get in crazy positions and find something different (there were a lot of photos of the same tree in this class).  With this shot, I layed down and peered through a small sewer to the other side.  There was a little bit of water at the bottom, which provided a reflection of the sticks and grass at the other end.