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.