two part blog

Alright well I'll start with the storm we had the other day. We had a crazy lightning storm the other day, this summer has been very dry here, so any type of storm was welcomed. Eating at the table I opened up the blind, Melissa and I were entertained by the amount of lightning. I never once shot lightning photos, never even tried so hey why not shoot from inside outa the rain. Not aiming for anything stunning, just some practice shots for the blog maybe and see what works. threw the fisheye on, put the camera in a tomato filled tupperware for no camera shake and ate our dinner as I fired off long exposures, I think we got lucky and captured two good ones I like.

Now on to the 2nd half...Melissa is taking a photo class in college and its sweet for me too, she needs to go out and take photos so it helps me get off my butt and get out there too. We went to the abandoned boiler works in town, where theres a lot of good stuff for her to shoot for her project. I tagged along and just shot whatever with my 30d and 50mm 1.8. The place is huge, and run down but a lot of fun. At one end there was a bunch of light coming through the roof, melissa was framed nice and I got some shots of her that I really like. I really really need to work on shooting with people and shooting lifeys and portraits, as you may know my website is lacking pretty hard in that department. I love it but I never get any shots that are really what I'm looking for. but these shots, I feel, are at least a step in the right direction. Always always always room for improvement but I'm learning. thanks for being a good sport and modeling for me Melissa!

gotta love that smile!

I'm a lucky guy huh!

now just some extras I

took walking around

told you the place was big

then this happened, my 50mm slinged over my shoulder got caught on a chain I was crouched to get under and it ripped the front glass off. did some cursing, surgery and shes back together...so far so good..

enjoy! thanks for checkin it out

-jesse

sunset/sunrise camping

After a day of work on saturday at the farm, I got in contact with my buddy Tim, him and another friend of ours Jeff went hiking all day and already set up camp. I been wanting to go camping up at the location they were at but I haven't had the chance. Luckily, theres a fire access road about a mile from their site that I could hike right up and get to no problem. I got my camera gear together, some hotdogs, beer and jumped in the car. Trying to even get there before dark, I wasn't worrying about the nice looking sunset that I could see through the trees next to the delaware river. Then a roadblock..a wire was down and there wasn't anyway of getting through. I pulled over, called Tim and canceled our meet up, I was bummed. Since I drove all this way, I walked down to the river with my camera and actually caught the last of the sunset, physched I didn't waste ALL of my time,luckily I hiked out to meet up with the electrical crew who opened the road! Called Tim, had him set to meet me half way with lights, it was back on. After parking I started hiking very quickly,although an easy hike, anything could happen in the dark. Met tim and we got to the site where Jeff was hanging out around the fire. We had great temperatures, nice fire, hotdogs, great view on the ridge and a clear night. Just good times. We got to bed early for the sunrise, set our alarms and got to bed. I don't know how our alarms didn't wake us up but we almost missed it, but I woke up just in time. I woke the other two and we jumped out of the tent to see a crazy sunrise! Clouds came in and filled the valley,as the sun rose above, I never knew such a beautiful site was possible so close to where I lived. We were physched! It kinda felt like we were the double rainbow guy. Afterwards,we boiled water for breakfast and just hungout while the sun rose and the clouds started clearing below us. Yet again we we faced with more beautiful scenery! We had our instant soup and packed up, and hiked out. It was great time, I don't know if we'll ever have a sunrise like that again up there but we'll be back.

sunset down by the delaware river

long shutter campsite,tim working on the fire

tim fireside

we woke up to this!

did my best to find good spots quickly, since of course we slept in.

little bit higher sun

the fog reminded me of mt. hood almost

jeff boiling his water

tims turn

getting the fire started back up

more cloud cover came over the fog and made what jeff calls a "cloud sandwich"

started to clear up down below

getting a little fall color

hiking out on the fire road

All in all, I'm happy with the shots I got for the blog, enjoy!

Thanks to tim and jeff!

-Jesse