Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been busy and a little lazy lately. However in the time since my last post I've been mildly productive which is always a good thing.

I shot:

Some executives for online start-up company Mpire




Shot local band Ken Parker




Shot local band Madrid live.




Also made a Christmas card for my sister and her husband with a photo I took of my nephew.





The other day Mr.Strobist David Hobby made a post that has been heavily discussed in photo forums and blog circles about the topic of working for free. You can read his article here. I figured I'd throw in my $0.02 on the subject and hopefully see what others may have to say via the comments section.

As a young photographer and relative n00b to the business side of photography I see a lot of opportunity to sell myself short and work for nothing and in exchange not get anywhere or be taken seriously. Don't fool yourself into thinking I charge a ridiculous fee for shooting either, I still feel that I work for cheaper than what I am worth but there is a tradeoff between getting work and having a few extra bucks to throw around and getting no work and having no money to show for it let alone any photos.

In this day and age there are more photographers than ever throwing their hats into the ring, digital photography has really bastardized photographic media in such a way that it makes the market more competitive than ever. It's hard to even score a gig off of craigslist, why? because theres at least 10 other guys that'll do it for 50% less than you will. Will their photos be any good? maybe, but probably not. I feel that anyone who takes themselves seriously and values their craft at all would not work for free and will stand by their fees and have the portfolio to support their argument. As a photographer that is what I strive for. I want my portfolio to speak for itself so all I have to do is shoot and watch the dollars roll in. The odds of me actually accomplishing this feat are stacked up against me though.

There is something to be said for working for charitable causes, in which case working free of charge is rather saintly. If there were a cause I was particularly interested in donating my time to I would be all over it. However I have sent out e-mails to numerous charities and NPO's and have received no form of correspondence which equates to disinterest on their behalf in my eyes. So does this mean working for free is harder to come by than working for next to nothing? You be the judge.

Concert Photography

I'm going to give you folks a look into how I shoot concerts. This is kind of where I got my start in photography and one of the things I do on a consistent basis.

The setup/technique I like to use was actually shown to me by fellow photog Chris Van Wick (who is a great photographer, be sure to check out his work.) I like this setup because it is a little more stylistic than other approaches, allows the use of faster shutter speeds while still adding a punch of color to your subjects, backlighting (I love that stuff) and it just stands out among what everyone else at the show is doing.

So here it is:



I like to use 3 flashes and the following accessories
1 x Nikon SB-800
2 x Nikon SB-24
3 x PocketWizard Trasceivers
1 x Nikon SC-17 TTL cord

The camera/lens combo I like varies but I really like to use my Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye but my Tokina 12-24mm f/4 is pretty great too.

Here is a diagram showing how I place my lights


I place the two SB-24's to the left and right of the stage behind the band ideally about 6'-7' high on light stands. Just to add a touch of color I gel these flashes with whatever colors strike my fancy (ideally complimentary colors ie: red and green.) The SB-800 goes on the SC-17 which is attached to my Nikon D70, I use this flash as my main light and I just hold the ol' fashioned way...with my hand.

Power settings vary but typically I shoot with the backlights around 1/4th-1/8th power and my main around 1/32th. This is the result:

Is Electric


Sower of Dischord


As you can see it gives the photos more depth than what a lot of people do at shows. I see a lot of people shooting with flashes on camera firing straight at the band and it just gives sub-par results.

If you have any questions about this technique or any other please leave a comment and I'll try my best to get back to you.

Been somewhat busy lately, had two shoots in the last week and have another coming up. It's given me a great chance to meet some cool dudes and shoot some quality images for their myspaces and general promotion.

I shot Dressed To Kill last week:


And I shot At Night yesterday:


I'm supposed to shoot Ken Parker on the 25th, hopefully that pans out. I enjoy working with bands immensely because of how much I'm into music, it just feels like I'm contributing my part to the scene in a kind of round-about way.

All in all everything else in my life/career is going well. My new job is pretty sweet, I'm making good money and saving up for a Nikon D300. I have about $600 saved up which means I have $1000 to go. Not that much money when you take into consideration that I've saved that $600 in about a month.

Anywho, long story short I am enjoying photography more than ever and am stoked that I'm getting some new faces in my portfolio. Keep the offers coming.

Well I start a new job today.

I quit my job with the studio on Wednesday due to the fact that I simply wasn't enjoying the work. For anyone who didn't know I was working at a studio that handles school portrait contracts. Great way to burn yourself out on photography is to take the same crappy picture over and over again and not be able to do anything creative!

Anywho, I scored a job with a company based out of Gig Harbor called ArtBeads (www.artbeads.com) they are an online retailer of beads, pretty booming business apparently since they have a big staff and have been growing nonstop for the past 6 years. I got hired on as a image editor, so I work with the rest of the Art Dept. and edit images for publication on the web. During the interview I was told they wanted someone who could also help with and possible do some shooting of the products as well, so hopefully that pans out.

I suppose I'm not terribly stoked about this new job, but that's only because I just want to do stuff I'm really excited about and anything less just seems like...well, work.

I haven't done a shoot in awhile, I need to get back on it. I also need to get back on the gear purchasing train, new camera, new lights, more POCKETWIZARDS!!!

I have a few pet projects I'd like to shoot, just for portfolio use and hopefully I can pull that together by the end of the year, we'll see.

Well, I guess I better be hitting the ol' dusty trail.

Not a whole lot to update about lately...

So here's a picture of my girlfriend's cat!






It is also my 23rd birthday on Sunday, I expect to have a very good weekend.

What to do...

Well it's increasingly evident that to make a go in the photography one must make some decisions. What to specialize in (portraits, still, stock, lifestyle etc.) and who to appeal to/what is your client base?

I was "thumbing" through my pictures on my computer and was realizing that none of my photos have anything in common, I'm all over the place stylistically and I lack a specific "genre" that I operate in.

I believe this means that I need to focus more on the shoot and take the images I need to take by finding a common stylistic ground and making whatever I'm shooting my own.

How in the hell am I going to do that you ask? Well I'm not sure yet, but I swear I'll work on it.



In somewhat related news I was reading up on PhotoShelter and going through their School of Stock and reading their production values section which just made me realize how tired I am of taking pictures of my close group of friends. No offense to Vern, Blake, Trevor and my girlfriend but I'm very bored with all of you. I need fresh new faces but it seems that the way to do that is through models and I'm very unimpressed with Model Mayhem and I can't afford to pay talent for any of my non-commissioned work. So I suppose this is a call for new faces to anyone that reads this.

I'm ideally looking for:

--attractive males/females that aren't overly attractive.
(by this I mean you should not look like a super model, you should be good looking but approachable.)
--clean in appearance
(no tattoos that can't be covered easily, no facial piercings/extreme piercings)
--friendly, professional demeanor. I'm not looking for posers I'm looking for people who look natural

I'm very interested in shooting athletic types and musicians/bands.

I need to start shooting for me and stop shooting out of boredom, it's not that I don't come out with good photos it's just that I need to be taking the photos that will help me get to where I want professionally. It's all about a solid portfolio.

Hung out with Vern, Cassie and Shelby today. Cassie recently purchased a used Nikon D70 and with it being her first DSLR I showed her the ropes. Hopefully she retained some of the wisdom I passed down to her.

Vern was playing with dead grass and putting it through his piercings, made for some funny pictures.



Showing someone else how to use their camera and giving them useful tips for how to take good pictures made me feel good, it was definitely my good deed for the day.

In the past month or so I've been considering the idea of going into the photography business. I've been getting the feeling that it's very hard to earn a staff position anywhere and really my interests I feel lie more with commercial photography than with anything else. I feel like I'm a generalist when it comes to my shooting, however the industry requires me to be a specialist...but I'm not sure where I should focus my skills. I like shooting portraits but it's definitely not what I want to do the rest of my career, unless I could attain the status to shoot politicians, celebrities, important people. I don't want to only shoot weddings. I don't want to only shoot stills/product. I suck at landscapes. Blahblahblah I just don't know man.

Whatever it is I do with my photography I don't want it to become a chore.

Went to Whaling Days in Silverdale yesterday, didn't stick around for long because quite frankly I was kind of bored but I managed to get a few shots of the band that was playing (Rocky Point All-Stars) and some of the kids riding rides. Good day for being outside though, warm but overcast.






Caught these dogs swimming:








Oh and I caught Boo Boo snuggling...

Cleaned up the ol' FLICKR page today. Went from roughly 800+ images down to 232. I got rid of stuff that was unnecessary, redundant, old, etc. If you want to have a look at whats left then go to www.flickr.com/taylorjonesphoto

I had an interview at a local studio today, I feel the interview went well. I'm hoping I can land this job because boy oh boy am I tired of working at Barnes and Noble.

Spent a few days in Bellevue last week. What a great city, full of yuppies but nonetheless a cool town. While we were there we took a trip to Kubota Gardens near Seattle and if you've never been then I must say you're missing out. It's a Japanese garden that was created about 70 years ago and the Seattle Parks Dept maintains it. My dad and I shot a wedding there about two years ago and I was pretty impressed with the place.

Here's some pics from there:




Also shot a wedding last week at Bear Creek Country Club in Woodinwille, also a wedding I shot with my dad. Got some really great pics for my portfolio even though there were some technical difficulties (I don't want to talk about it)

Here's a few pics from the wedding:






I also got an offer to be an assistant at a wedding on Saturday, I am available that day so we'll see if that goes through or not.

I am definitely accepting work so if you or anyone you know is looking for a photographer for anything then send them my way. Just sayin'.

Went out to Tacoma yesterday for Julie's work picnic. Various tribes from the area have an annual canoe journey and about 10 boats came in yesterday and there was a big ceremony and all that jazz. I shot a bit and got some decent shots, there was a photographer there for the Tacoma News Tribune who was sporting dual Nikon D2x's with what looked like a 80-200 2.8 AF-S and a 17-35 2.8 AF-S. He got some pretty good shots too, you can check his out here: Tribal Journey 2008.

In light of seeing his photos I'm curious of how he got such better exposure in harsh light than I did, my photos came out quite contrasty and I had to utilize PS CS3's shadow/highlight tool to salvage the shadow areas of most of my images. Here is one of mine that I liked:



Tomorrow I'm shooting a wedding in Seattle, which is quite convenient since it's Lauryn's birthday on Friday so we're going to be staying at a hotel in Bellevue which will make the trip to Seattle much easier. This should be a good wedding, I plan on trying out some new techniques and trying to further hone my wedding style, I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome!

This is my first post on here and as such I would like to take the time to welcome you and let you into my world, as boring as it may be to me you may find it fascinating.


My name is Taylor Jones and I am a photographer based out of Bremerton, WA. I've been shooting for about 8 years now and I made the leap from film to digital about 3 years ago. I am currently trying to build up a bit of a business for myself so that I can hopefully make a career of taking pictures. I'd like to think I have some pretty reasonable aspirations but I know that it's a competitive world out there and I'm willing to fight for my spot, so I guess we'll all see how that goes. My photos are posted on my flickr page and I currently have a website in the works @ www.taylorjonesphotography.com.

As for the purpose of this blog, I'm not entirely sure what my motivations were for starting this, I doubt anyone but my friends will read it and if they don't then they can all fall off a cliff and bathe in my spite for them. I intend to showcase interesting things I find on the web and there's a good chance they will be photography related.

Anyone that does read this I encourage to comment back and leave me your opinions on my posts, I would like to create an open environment that shares information in a productive manner.