JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 01.05.19
So it’s 2019.
Nice to see you old subscribers here. Welcome to the the new ones.
Starting my 11th year of this blog. Imagine that!
So, any New Year’s Resolutions for you? Any of them photography related?
While I certainly didn’t let myself get THAT out of shape in 2018, I certainly wasn’t as active as I have been in the past. So, 10 days before the new year started, I got myself back into going to the gym and getting my cardio in. I’ve been pretty good so far, but still a ways to go before I feel like I’m really back into it.
I’m also resolving to be be a better parent and husband. I have a 7 year old who wears my patience thin at time. I love the little guy but hooo boy! Just being more patient in life will be better for me.
Photographically speaking, I want to continue to broaden my education lighting. Santa brought me a set of Neewer studio strobes and want to see how I can use them. (Why Neewer? I’ve been very happy with the previous Neewer products I have, and the price was right, too.)
I also want to continue my consistent backup pattern to my workflow. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but 2018 may be the first time in a while that I didn’t lose any files due to a hard drive corrupting, being lazy and not backing up to the cloud, or both. Part of this was due to my NOT using hard drive, but backing up to USB sticks. I just feel they are safer, and more affordable. That said, I now have a bunch of USB sticks floating around, and need to figure out a good storage method for them. But at least I have ALL my 2018 images!
So, what’s on your resolution list this year, photography-related or otherwise? Drop ’em in the comments below!
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This Week’s Links:
What I Read This Week: On The Road by Jack Kerouac (It was never on any of my school reading lists, what can I say?)
What I Watched This Week: Edward Scissorhands (the color palette is incredible)
NY Times: Sir Shadow, Maestro of the last NY Flophouse (well written, well photographed)
Rangefinder: Our Favorite Portraits Of The Year
NPR: Channeling The Pain of Depression Into Photography
FeatureShoot: The horrific brutality of the meat industry (Head’s up: This is a rough article)
Colassal: The beauty of churches (flip side of the above)
“Wherever there is light, one can photograph.” ~ Alfred Steiglitz, born January 1, 1864 in Hoboken, NJ.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2019
Surfing Asbury Park
January 1, and the new year, dawned quite warm for New Jersey.
Yes, I once again photographed the Sons of Ireland Polar Bear Plunge. Still working on that project.
By all admissions, though, the water was still cold. About 46 degrees Fahrenheit. So while the air temp was warmer, the water was still nippy.
But it was super windy down in Asbury Park, too. The easterly wind was blowing hard all the way down 195, right up onto the boardwalk and in to the water.
So after getting down to Convention Hall early for the Plunge, and getting myself all set up, I had some time to kill.
I decided to walk down to Sixth Ave and check out the surfers. And finally I had a decent lens (my 70-300mm) to shoot them with.
The wind felt like little pellets as I squatted down to photograph the cold water surfers, and the spray was blowing off the tops of the tubes.
About five or six souls were in the water, letting the New Year take hold in a wet way. Why not?
They say if you do what you love on January 1, you’ll do it all year long.
They were doing what they love: Surfing.
So was I.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2019
JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 12.29.18
Here we are. The end of the trail, at least for 2018.
So many news organizations have been putting together their year-end missives. I never understood that – what if something rich happens in the last two weeks of the year?
Me, I’ll wait for another week or two (probably two) to pull together a compilation of my favorite shots from the year. I pretty much have them picked out but who knows? Just spent the day in NYC with my family yesterday and there may be a spell-binder in there.
The past week was a busy one, a fun one. Shuttling the kids to and from church for their Christmas Eve program practices (we checked with one king, Balthazar, the donkey that accompanied Mary & Joseph on their trip, and a pig in the stable). Performance went off without a hitch.
Then onto Christmas Day, always crazy. We made dinner for the family that came over (a roast for most, a pan of non-meat lasagna for those of us that have been meat-free since early September) and entertained a couple of more times through the week.
We sandwiched in a couple stay around the house days with let’s get out and do something days. Hitting the road later today for a quick over-nighter in Northeast Pennsylvania. Back tomorrow where I’ll charge my batteries (literally) and get my gear ready to shoot the Sons of Ireland Polar Bear Plunge in Asbury Park on Tuesday. Going to be 60 degrees in AP on January 1. Sheesh!
So we’ll slide through these last couple of days. Once again, the year passes in a blur. I’m just happy my kids and my wife are healthy and strong, we both have good jobs and, every now and then, I get to click the shutter a few times.
Hope you’ll stay with me for another year of adventure.
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What I Watched This Week: It’s A Wonderful Life (while wrapping presents on Christmas Eve)
Also: A new video from my buddies The Vansaders
What I Read This Week: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
What I Listened To This Week: Sweet by Beauty
Also: A new song by my friends, Bobby Mahoney & The Seventh Son
NY Times: Beyond The Myth of the War Photographer
Aperture: What does Photo Editing Look Like?
MetalBlast: How I got Banned from Shooting a Metal Band
TIME: Country Doctor by W. Eugene Smith (he was born today in 1918)
ICYMI: Visual Week In Review 2018
Goodbye, for now: A couple of members of The Battery Electric are heading to California to see what’s what out there. No more TBE shows for a while. Godspeed to Ron and Brent!
“Sometimes the simplest picture are the hardest to get.” ~ Neil Leifer (who had a birthday on December 28, born in 1942).
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2018
Stocked Up With Trubble
Know what I found harder than expected?
Shooting stock photo options of a guy in a fedora.
Usually, when I do my Jersey Noir images, I have an idea in my head, or a location that I want to use. Then I go with it from there.
But a few weeks ago, my co-conspirator, Bard Constantine, asked me if I could shoot some new options that he (and his graphic designers) could use for new book covers for his Troubleshooter series, featuring, Mick Trubble.
Now, I’ve worked with designers on book covers over the past few years, and while they like the stuff I’ve already shot, I know it may not be preferred. To shoot good advertising or commercial imagery, you have to take into account negative space (for type), bleeds to the edge of the frame (while keeping enough image in there too), color tones (to give the designers a good start), and numerous variations.
But, that’s all that I was trying to keep in mind as I ran through a number of variations to shoot.
To accomplish this, I used the following gear:
- “Thunder Gray” seamless background paper from Savage Universal.
- Background stands, also from Savage.
- Vision 4 Strobe, with a diffuser (looks a flimsy bathing cap) from Neewer
- Beat-up tripod
- Canon 70D and Fuji X00T
I kept my ISO’s low and let the strobe (at about 1/32, I think) do some of the work. Frankly, it was so bright in my family room, I had to cover the windows and to kill some of the ambient light. For this project, I wanted the strobe to do a bit more of the work, even though the power was cut down pretty well.
I didn’t process them too much, either. I just wanted to give the designers enough options to play around it. Initial reports from Bard were that these would work pretty well.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how they will be used!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2018
