IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR IR

I had off from work today but the weather was bleak and dreary. The sky was white with no blue or clouds in sight. I was so upset but decided to make the best of it and work on editing photos. I got a number edited but not as many as I would have liked.

I started an Excel spreadsheet to track all of my photo folders so that I have an idea of what is contained in each file folder. I'm 1/4 of the way done but still have a lot of typing to do.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be beautiful and I can get out there and take some photos of something...somewhere (possibly the horse farm).

I worked on a lot of IR conversitions today which I think came out great. Some favorites conversions from today are below.





To view more of my Faux (fake) IR conversions click HERE.

Played with Panorama Today

Wasn't insprired at all while driving home from work for any photographic opportunities (I couldn't think of anywhere different to photograph).

So, I went home and set up the tripod to try out taking shots for a panoramic stitching.

I didn't have any kind of "breathtaking" scene so I just took a 360 degree view of my back yard.

This is how the panoramic stiching of about 10 photos came out in Photoshop CS3. Click on the image to view it a little larger (I saved it at 3 feet wide so this sample doesn't give it much justice)....



After this exercise I'm excited to try this out with a beautiful scene. If I create enough of them I'm thinking of making a "panoramic" section on my website.

I also worked on converting a few photos to Faux IR (infrared) again (I love this technique!) These are 2 favorites that I converted:



This is my "creep-ified cornfield":




If you'd like to see more of my Faux (fake) IR conversions click HERE. If you like this kind of photo editing there are many more conversions on the site that that you might enjoy!

Made a Stop on the Way Home

Half-way home from work (a camera always in my possesion) I decided to stop at a portion of the D&R Canal (Delaware River) that I pass everyday on my way home from work for a few minutes.

I took a few shots of the canal and some reflections of the trees in the still water:



The think what upset me the most with this photo shoot is the sky. To the human eye it was blue with a few clouds dotting the sky here or there but almost every shot I took at every angle had a blown out sky...it's so frustrating....

No one can seem to figure out how to avoid this issue but I guess the positive is that I pass this canal everyday on the way home so I can re-shoot time and time again but it's just terrible when you get blown skies during a one-chance-only opportunity.

Besides snapping some photos of the canal I walked over to the historic Bridge Tenders Station (circa 1830) that sits beside the bridge that runs over the canal. Next to the Bridge Tenders Station is the Bridge Tender's Garden. I got a good photos of about 4-5 varieties of flowers and a few with large Bumble Bees.





To view more of my waterscape photography click HERE.
To view more of my bug & butterfly photography click HERE.
To view more of my flower photography click HERE.

Marveling Over the Sky

Last night I was marveling about the moon and today I'm marveling over the sky...I'm drawn to the sky when there are amazing clouds like this.

When I see skies like this I start to grow impatient for the work day to end so that I can get out and capture it.

Yesterday was an awesome sky and today was even better!

(Click photo to see a larger image)


To view more of my skyscape photography click HERE.

FULL MOON

I took the full moon tonight (well last night to be exact because it's after midnight now).

Since I got the new tripod I was finally able to photograph the moon and all it's glory - with extreme clarity compared to previous handheld shots. I used the remote control which helped avoid camera shake and I'm so pleased with the results.

Thank goodness for the new tripod!

Image was taken around 9:45pm. (Click photo to see a larger image).


To view more of my night photography click HERE.

Engagement!

I attended my friend Tara's engagement party today.

It was a hot & humid day so I spent most of the time indoors chatting and catching up with my college sorority friends.

Tara & her fiancé Adam:



I also got some great shots of 2 of my friends beautiful girls:

Keira:



Cassidy:



To view moreof Tara McCarthy's Engagement party click HERE.

Editing, editing, editing

Haven't taken any photos since last weekend...boo....it's been raining all week.

Finally stopped raining today but it was hot and muggy to go out.

The positive part about the rain and the hot muggy weather is that I was able to do a lot of editing of the "Roller Girlz" series all week...and I'm FINALLY DONE (for the most part...maybe some minor edits)!

Boredom Kicks in....

Got really bored this weekend so I did some self portraits to test the use of my new flash (Nikon SB800) and Manfrotto tripod.

Until I get some more friends and family to volunteer to be my models I guess I will have to settle for myself! LOL! I'm please with the results of the editing of skin, eyes, and use of filters on the shots.

To view the gallery with all of the self portaits I've done click HERE.

Example #1


Example #2

Booooo Hoooooo

Bad weather...so no photo hunt today.

Just staying in all day getting some editing done on my backlog of photos...so that is a positive! I'll be tied to my desk chair all day!

Today's Festivites

I added my friend's baby shower today (8/18/07) and I appointed myself party photographer! I got some wonderful shots of the day of all of the party attendees as well as some that I felt "photojournalistically" captured the day:





On the way home from the party I spotted an amazing sky that I just had to capture so I found a place to pull over and got some wonderful shots:





To view more of Nicole Roedl's baby shower click HERE.

My Day Off...Around the Old Neighborhood

I had off from work today :) and I decided that I'd take the day to go off on my own for some photography.

Last week I saw some things that I thought would be good for photographs and I made a mental note of them. Today was a great day to head out and capture them.

I headed to Hellmetta, NJ (which borders the town I grew up in) for my first stop of the day. My subject was the abandoned Helm Snuff Mill. Click here for background on the factory.



I also visited an old cemetery with stones dating back to the 1700s. For some reason I love photographing cemeteries (not in a creepy way). I love to look at the old stones, find the oldest one, and photography the monuments.



The last place I stopped by was the lake next to my grammar school. I got some shots of the lake and a collection of great dragonfly photos (which took A LOT of patience!!)



Later tonight on our way to/and as we left the store we came accross the most beautiful clouds...like a spotlight shining from the heavens...breathtaking!

On the Way Home...

Stopped at the park on the way home from work today to try to capture some butterflies ad flowers.

I was successful in capturing both butterflies and flowers but I was upset that I wasn't able to get there sooner. I had limited time before the sun started to go down behind the trees.

A few from today before it got too dark:

New Jersey Diners

After photographing an abandoned New Jersey Diner on Route 22 today I realized that I'd love to photograph more of them.

I googled New Jersey Diners and found 2 sites which highlight Central & North Jersey diners as well as a link highlighting a book all about New Jersey diners:

http://www.dinercity.com/njDiner/centralNJ.html
http://www.dinercity.com/njDiner/northNJ.html
http://www.njdiners.com/

Many of them are very retro & shiny looking and would make for great photography. Now I have another photo op to be on the look out for...LOL (like I needed another thing to be obsessed with hunting down for photography!!)

Here are a couple from today's shoot:

I'm Crazy About Faux IR Photos!

Well, it looks like I've found a new photo editing obsession ---> Faux IR's (Infrared) conversions!

I found a tutorial a while back while doing a Google search and only tried it once but last night I decided to start using the tutorial again.

The shots I did in last night's post (below) came out great with the Faux IR conversions so I decided to go crazy and scour through all of my photos and convert the heck out of them! LOL!!

To see the madness go to my Faux IR Gallery on my webpage: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3298872/1/183703402

I think the results are awesome and now when I spot a photo of mine that I think has good IR potential I'll be sure to do an extra conversion of it for the Faux IR gallery!

B&H and Port Elizabeth

Today my sister and I left early in the morning to head into New York City to our favorite camera superstore B&H Photo on 9th Ave. Best place around - I could spend hours there! I stopped to visit our favorite Nikon rep Gerry to get some advice on Macro lenses and tripods. The lens I was interested in was out of stock so I concentrated on the tripod purchase and a new "small" backpack to lug my gear around on our photo journeys.

On our way home from New York City we stopped somewhere we normally wouldn't....a really industrial area in Elizabeth, NJ. My sister had a customer in that area so she knew of a good place to take a few shots of the Goethals Bridge. Click HERE to learn more on the Goethals Bridge.



After we shot the bridge stopped at a park on the water where we could see the loading area for a huge container barge. I don't normally see things like this so it made for interesting photography and it was what I considered a "great cloud day."



I never thought that tanks like this could be beautiful but maybe it's just that sky that can turn any scene beautiful to me!

Color & BW version below





And I just turned the shot into a FAUX IR (infrared) shot and I LOVE the results!!!



To view more of my photography of bridges click here: http://www.jenweaverphotography.com/gallery/2907807

So behind....

Nothing much to report in the world of Jen Rinaldi Photography....I'm so backed up on my editing of photos that I haven't gotten to June or July (or any I've taken in August).

I've also been working on editing the photo shoot I did of my 2 friends Tiffany & Jen. It was over 500 shots and I don't even think I'm half way through the editing. I can't wait to finish!

We're going to do the 2nd session of the "series" next Thursday (8/16) so I'm sure I'll have another 500 or more shots to edit from that series as well!

I wish there were 3 of me to do all this editing! LOL!!

I would a sneak peek of the Glamour Girls shoot but I don't want to spoil it!

Well...back to editing! Gggrrrrrr!

New Flyer to Advertise...

I created a basic flyer last night for my sister to use at the "National Night Out" in her town but the bad news was that she wasn't able to make it to the event. Hopefully she can display the flyers in her store. You never know who will walk in and see them!

It's very basic but it advertises what type of photography I enjoy and you never know when a flyer can come in handy! I used one of my most recent favorite photos taken at a local park in Somerset, New Jersey.

To view that photo and more on my website (www.jenweaverphotography.com) click HERE for the "butterflies & bugs" gallery.

I made my 1st photo sale!

Thanks to my friend Gordon, who I work with, I made my first official photo sale of the photo below:

The photo was taken the day after the N'oreaster we had in New Jersey back on April 15th. 2007. I stopped to capture this scene while I was driving around to check out the aftermath of the flooding in my area.

I pass this farm everyday on my way home from work but the road is so tight that there is no way to pull over to take the photo unless I wanted to pull right into the farmer's driveway and I wasn't going to do that!! LOL!

So, because the road in front of the farmer's house was flooded (and I couldn't drive any further) it was the perfect opportunity to shoot the flood but then turn around and take a photo of his farm and his barn, which is another shot I also love (below).

While I was driving that day I also stumbled upon the scene below. The person got out okay but I can't say the same for their car!

Anyway, back to the original subject.....so, I sold the farm scene photograph at 18 inches wide adhered to a black backing board. It's a "large format" print so the printing and application to the special backing board was done at my sister's graphics shop. She uses the same large machine that prints the graphics for vehicles/signs, etc that prints on huge rolls of vinyl. So people can get their photos as large as a bus (no kidding!!) or as small as an 8x10. We're going to try to get more business based on large format printing (besides me trying to sell regular prints). (her website http://www.cranburycustom.com/).

I guess you can say this is my 3rd "sale" (but I'm using "sale" very losely)...My mom was the first person (besides myself) to have one of my photos blown up into a large format print and my grandfather had the same photo blown up (but not as bis as moms). This is how mom's photo of the Manhattan Bridge & the Brooklyn Bridge (where she's from) looks in her office:

My sister will be at the National Night Out in Hightstown, New Jersey tomorrow selling graphics/decals, etc so if you're in the area - stop on by and pick something up!! She'll be featuring the sale of large format photography printing featuring our photographs.

Maybe I'll make another sale somehow!

Below is the flyer she'll be sharing at the event. If you know anyonw who is interested in Large format digital prints of their own photos or any photos featured on my website http://www.jenweaverphotography/ call Cranbury Custom Vehicle Lettering & Graphics at 609-587-6444:

Welcome to my new blog!

My name is Jennifer, I'm from New Jersey, and my passion is photography. I decided to start a blog so that I can showcase some of my favorite works (although all of my work can be seen on my website: http://www.jenweaverphotography.com/ ).


This is me and my camera nicknamed "The Gun" - we go everywhere together:










Today my sister and decided to drive around our area and see what we might find to photograph. We had no were in particular to go so we drove around aimlessly. When we saw something that looked interesting we'd stop the car, get out, take a few shots and move on. It was a beautiful day weather-wise so it was nice to get out of the house.


After I dropped my sister off at her car I headed home. On my way home I noticed a local farm market that sells flower, etc. I pulled over and shot some photos in their field of flowers. This is my favorite shot of the day: