Photo of the Day - Sunrise at Slemmer Barn

Waking up early has it's benefits..

With a full time job, photography, and a 2 year old running around the house, I don't get as much sleep as I should but after shooting this wonderful sunrise at Slemmer Barn, I think I need to shoot more sunrises. To me, the light seems just a bit different in the mornings and coupled with the fact that the days are getting shorter, I am less likely to capture sunsets given my current work schedule and family life. For the fall and winter months, expect to see more sunrise photos. Hope you all enjoy!

Coupled with the rising sun and the cloud cover, it really made for a colorful morning.(5) bracket HDR 16mm@f/5.6 ISO 400 — Coupled with the rising sun and the cloud cover, it really made for a colorful morning.
(5) bracket HDR 16mm@f/5.6 ISO 400

The Master's Challenge in the Arcanum - Where I live

My wife and son like to walk here from time to time so that my son gets a chance to release some energy and run around without disturbing his neighbors.

I PASSED MY FIRST OFFICIAL CRITIQUE!

I am not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about getting my work critiqued by a professional photographer and thought I wouldn't do very well. Surprisingly, I passed and yet another milestone has been completed in my journey. I will say that I have received a lot of feedback from my teacher/peers during the critique session and my biggest take away from all of it is that I want my photos moving forward to tell a story. I have determined that if I am able to tell a story through my photo, regardless of the interpretation, I have succeeded as a photographer

My wife and my son Cameron enjoying the night out

I find this new outlook on photography very enlightening and I find comfort knowing that I now have some sort of a defined path I want to take. Since I want to tell stories with my photos, I have made a commitment to myself that I would take my camera everywhere I go so that I can catch daily life as it happens. I have also disciplined myself to shoot with one lens a month since I believe that this will help me get to know the limitations of my gear and also help me find new and creative ways of composing photographs. After doing this for a month, I have learned that the lens you put on your camera pretty much dictates the composition you want in your photos. This whole process that I am putting myself through has given me many different framing/compositional ideas and since I run with only one lens at any given time, the side effect is that I don't have to worry about gear - I can just focus on creating the photo with just the gear I have with me.

Bar seems a bit lonely - at least I'm here

Now that I have passed my first ever critique in the Arcanum, my next challenge was to produce (10) new works while taking guidance from the fellow peers and teacher. As mentioned, I want my photos to tell a story to my viewer and I believe that I have successfully accomplished this in the photos you see here.

I hope you enjoy them and will see you next time.

The feet of my family.  Mine excluded and probably for good reason too — The feet of my family. Mine excluded and probably for good reason too

KEEP ON KEEPING ON!

Ladies enjoying a cigarette at the end of a long day.

A women standing on the stairs at the train station.

Water drips from the snow melt from the drain. Its the beauty in the little things that we miss in our daily lives.

My son Cameron in thought.  I am not sure what he is thinking about but his expression is timeless — My son Cameron in thought. I am not sure what he is thinking about but his expression is timeless

The morning commute - in the snow no less

Been Busy but for Good Reason!

OK IM BACK!

REALLY

I AM ;-)

When I first started this blog, I had every intent of keeping this updated periodically with my photographic experiences with the added side benefit of improving my writing skills. As with many excuses for not doing things, I have actually been quite busy but for good reason.

As many of you know, I have recently been picked to be a part of The Arcanum ( http://www.thearcanum.com ) which is based on learning art the "old way" using a Master/Apprentice learning method. I actually had heard about this a year ago and signed up for it when it first rolled out. A month ago today, I finally got accepted by my Master John Arnold ( http://www.photowalkthrough.com ) to be part of his cohort so I figured since I've had a month being in the Arcanum, it would be a perfect time to update the blog.

My month so far in The Arcanum has been truly an eye opening experience from a photography perspective and I am very thankful for being a part of it! I have learned so much in 1 month than I ever had on my own and the best part of it all is that I have learned mostly from my peers. I think the one differentiating factor in this program that has made it so successful for me is the whole community aspect of it all. All of us in the cohort all have the same goal - which is to become better photographers and to take our artistic skills to a new level. The Master plays more of a facilitator role in it all and his main purposes is to guide us in finding direction with our art. The community is close knit and I talk/converse with my fellow members all the time and to be honest, I am starting to get attached to them. It's almost like a second family.

The feedback/advice that I have received from my cohort along with my master has proven to be invaluable and after (1) month, I see noticeable improvement in my work. I am actually at the cusp of reaching a major milestone which is getting my first official critique from my Master and fellow cohort members this Thursday 2/26. I will be graded/critiqued on 5 of my best photos so I will make sure that I update the blog with the results. Im pretty excited about it!

Now that I have found a nice group of photographers online to share my experience with, I think its also important to shoot with other photographers as well. I have spent some time hanging out with a good friend of mine Jenn ( http://www.wildflowerstudiodenver.com ) and recently, we shot a wedding together which was very fun but also quite stressful as well. All in all, we had a good time and I think we did a great job in capturing the event! We have another wedding lined up this September so things are moving along quite nicely and I highly recommend you check out her website since her portrait work rocks!

So as mentioned, I have been quite busy - but for a good reason. I still intend to get this updated at a faster rate than I have been so thanks to all who have stuck around thus far!

P.S I am always posting online via 500px and twitter so make sure to check the "Whats New" section of the site for the latest and greatest!

John

Making a left turn although by the photo, you would think that I was pulling the handbrake in the snow!

A skater performs a nose manual before dropping in

My sons Radio Flyer.  Since he is not riding it, I will photograph it — My sons Radio Flyer. Since he is not riding it, I will photograph it

Kids walking home trying to get out of the elements.

Castlewood Canyon at Dawn - Good start to 2015!

Beautiful way to start the first Sunday of 2015!

I woke up pretty early and decided to see if I can catch a sunrise at Castlewood Canyon State Park. On the way there, I kept looking at the sky and did'nt see any clouds to the east so I thought that I may have been wasting my time. Once I arrived at 6AM, the sky became more lively and shot photos as I hiked.

It was very quiet and quite cold. I brought my camelback with with me to keep myself hydrated and when I set up/took my first shot, my drink tube froze solid. I hiked the whole canyon without water which sucked but what can you expect at 5F? Lesson learned and love the photos I came back with.

Look forward to doing this again in better weather :)

New Beginnings for 2015 - A reflection of my experience in photography

I'll be honest, the only reason I bought a camera was to take photos of my soon to be son and never had any intention of taking photography past that. This was back in the beginning of 2013 when I bought my first decent camera - a Nikon P510. After learning the basics of the camera and using it in "Auto" a majority of the time, I was taking photographs of things here and there purely for the excitement of having a new "toy" to play with.

It was shortly thereafter that I realized that this was the beginning of a new hobby and this new "craft" that I had picked up sparked a feeling within myself that I hadn't felt since I was a kid. Growing up, I loved art and loved to draw. Even though I was not good at drawing, I enjoyed the process of creation and It was a source of excitement for me to create something on a blank piece of paper. As I grew older, I drew less and less and eventually, gave it up all together. I am not sure how I got to that point but I suspect that the catalyst was joining the military which meant I had to grow up and not be a kid again. Whatever the case, I am glad that I got that feeling back with photography and haven't felt better!

Fast forward to now at the close of 2014, my journey via photography has been a wild ride. I am at the point now where people are starting to notice my work and some are even asking me to do work for them! It's very exciting to say the least and I never thought that this would turn out the way it has. Everything just sort of happened and I am curious to see where this takes me in 2015!

Thank you for visiting my blog and I plan to keep this updated on a regular basis with random thoughts, experiences, and insights as I progress on this creative journey. There is so much to learn in photography and will always have a beginner's mentality when shooting. It's important for me to not lose sight of that because once you do, I believe your progression in this craft stops and I definitely do not want to stop progressing!

Happy 2015 and thank you for joining me on this adventure!

John