rona jobe

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to get into food photography for one main reason – I love food.  I haven’t been able to because I haven’t had many chances to find the right light or build a proper studio.  Finally, after taking some pretty terribly-lit photos of my dinner one night, I decided it was time for a change.  So last week, I decided to make a light box, in other words, a small photo studio.  You can buy them for about $40 or so at photography stores on online.  Instead, I decided to saver some money and build my own.  I used the design from Strobist, with a few changes.  I found an empty box in my basement.  Instead of using tissue paper or tracing paper, since I had neither, I used a regular printer paper – oh the sides and at the top.

Above is the result. It is baked Rotini with mozzarella and parmesan with steamed broccoli on the side.  I had two light sources for the photo, one on each side (left and right). I may be taking more pictures of food in the near future!

I was told earlier this season, that according to the Farmer’s Almanac, this winter is supposed to be the worst one in many many years (in this area).  I am feeling the cold.  In my basement, I need a robe, gloves, and two blankets to keep me warm.  Luckily, we have a wood-burning fire place in the basement.

Above, is a picture of said fireplace in the basement.  The photo was taken the night of December 18, when the Washington DC area got dumped roughly 18 inches of snow within 24 hours.   Before we were snowed in, the husband picked up some wood (and attempted to find a snow shovel) from Home Depot.  It was the first time we had ever used our fireplace.

Below are some metadata on the photo:
Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1250
Exposure Bias: +1 EV
Flash: No Flash

At 1/8 of a second, there was no way I was going to get a clear picture.  I had the camera resting on a stool some 15 feet away from the fireplace.  Photo was edited in Lightroom afterward.

Last week, I had the pleasure of working with Jodi’s family and taking pictures of their newborn Celia. She is such a doll with those searching eyes and expressive eyebrows.  Looking at baby Celia, I can’t help but think about my little one when he was at that age. Time really does fly.

Anyway, above is one of the last photos we took during the session.  There is something inherently precious and beautiful about seeing a mother hold their newborn.  In my opinion, producing photos like this is one of the most rewarding part of children/portrait photography.

Almost a month ago, we visited the National Christmas Tree as a family (for the second year in a row). Like last year, there was a train set around the tree, there were other small trees around the large tree representing each state, and it was cold. Unlike last year, there was a lot of snow on the ground, a Santa in his workshop, and hot cocoa (which we never found btw).

The picture above is of my husband pushing our baby in  his stroller and the National Tree to the left.  We were walking back from a failed search of the hot cocoa.  In the same night, we met a man carrying a loaf of bread telling us he was God and that he was going to smite China down because he didn’t like what they were doing.  We, of course, walked away as fast as we could while being cautious of the icy sidewalks.  I also lost a glove that night. I put them on the baby because he lost his, and on the way back to the car, I noticed he only had one glove on.

Almost as inevitable as food, gain weight, PTOs and decorations around this time of year are Family Pictures.  You know, those cards you get in the mail with you friends/family smiling at you while donning matching red and green outfits?  Yes, those.   These recent weeks, I’ve been doing a few of them – we even had our own family pictures done (by a friend) for the holidays.  With the little ones, it’s just nice to have, even if you’re not sending them out as cards – you can compare year to year what your little one(s) looked like around Christmas time.

Above is one of the most recent photo-shoots for the Holidays that I just finished.  It was taken at the Pentagon Row, which is normally decorated with Christmas Trees, bows, etc. around this time of year.  As you can see, in the background, there is also a skating rink.  There were good and bad things about having your photos taken at places like Pentagon Row.  Although it’s nice that the place is decorated and cheerful to match the occassion, it tends to get pretty busy, which means people may be in your background and if you have a baby, s/he can be distracted.  Nevertheless, I think we did pretty well during our session.

I can’t believe how quickly time has passed.  Summer is gone, Fall is here, and Winter is definitely creeping in.  October is such an odd month, there are days when it’s in the 40s here and days when it’s nice in the upper 60s and low 70s.  Earlier this month, we took our 16-month-old son to a “Fall Festival”.  We never had such a tradition in my family, but I thought it would be nice to start one with the baby.  Although he was still a little too young to completely enjoy everything, he had a blast nonetheless.  Above is my baby boy whose hair is much too long for him (so we put it in a little tie), running towards my husband who had  just released the shutter button. That’s me in the back, btw.  We had just about perfect weather that day, the sun was out, there was very little breeze, and it wasn’t too hot.  Fast Forward to a couple weeks later and it is in the 50s and low 60s:

Still had fun despite the cold, but C’s  huge jacket was definitely a detriment to his running abilities. On the bright side, it made it a little bit easier to chase after him.

September was the travel month.  We hit 3 states in 3 weeks – Rehoboth, DE to Daytona Beach, Fl to Orlando, Fl to the San Francisco Bay Area, CA and finally back home…

Unfortunately, I haven’t  had time to upload many (or any) pictures, with the traveling and crunch time (i.e. work nights and weekends too sometimes) at my full time job that has left me little time with blogs and whatnot.  I digress…

I was asked to be the photographer for one of my good friends’ wedding out in San Jose, Ca, and gladly I said yes. It was tiring, fun, and memorable.  As much work as it was for everyone, especially the bride and groom, I can tell it was worth it.

Above is a photo of half of the wedding party.  We did a pre-wedding photoshoot the day before the wedding and the above picture is one of the firsts ones i’ve churned out.  There’s a few more under: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abadjobe/sets/72157622484177484/

I had such an awesome time this morning taking pictures of two fun little girls.  Like their parents, they were very sweet, friendly, and just great with each other.  O is the older sister and J is the younger sister.  About two and a half years apart, I can see the chemistry between the two, despite their difference in age and personalities.  O is a great example and very patient with her sister, and J listens quite well and I can see she looks up to O.

The photos were taken mainly in the shade this morning in and by the Theodore Roosevelt Island in Arlington, VA – off the George Washington Parkway.  The challenge with taking pictures in that area is there are a lot of runners and bicyclists.  And although most of them let you know they’re coming, it really only takes one reckless, or perhaps absent-minded/in-a-daze biker to get too close or come crashing into you.  We had our own little close call with one of the bicyclists.  Other than that, the view, the setting, everything was great and just gorgeous.

The above photo was taken on one of the paths inside Theodore Roosevelt Island.  Taken with my 28-105mm on a D90 at 46mm.  Aperture is at f/6.3, 1/140 sec, no flash and on AP setting.  Imported and adjusted in lightroom – cropped, increased clarity, color, added vignetting, increased blacks, adjusted saturation on some colors, and voila.

The rest of the sampler pictures are HERE.  I will add more this week.

I was still waiting for the baby and the hubby to finish their dinner while I was still sitting at the table, so I took the D90 out and tried the macro setting on the old 28-105mm (f/3.5 – f/4.5).

We had meatloaf, rice and steamed green beans for dinner.  You can still see the remnants of ketchup on my plate in the background, and if you look far enough, the ketchup bottle beyond the glass.

Photo was taken at 70mm at f/5.6.  No flash, but exposure compensation was set at +0.38.  The D90 is a great camera, but a lot of times, the AF doesn’t agree with me.  I try switching it around at times, but sometimes I end up shooting manual.  I did get lucky with this one and it was shot with the AF on, although it took a few tries.  It was adjusted it lightroom afterwards: increased exposure, added fill light, increased blacks, clarity, vibrance, and decreased saturation a bit.  Also added a bit of vignetting.

I’ve been meaning to watermark the photos I’ve been uploading on my website, flickr, on my blog, etc. lately and until this past week, I haven’t had any time to seriously look into it.  Late one night, I thought I’d give it a try.  The funny thing about Lightroom is watermarking is pretty limited.  Certain web galleries that are provided under lightroom will allow it, but others do not.  And if you’re looking to export a jpeg with your watermark, well… Lightroom doesn’t have that capability.

The solution?  Install a plug-in.  The one I’ve found, which I’ve been happy with so far is Timothy Armes’ LR2/Mogrify.  Not only does it watermark, but it adds borders, multiple text annotations, etc. etc.  I found out about through Camera Dojo.  What it does is it adds the watermark, annotations, etc during the export.  The downside – you don’t see what it looks like until you export – so you may export a few times to get it right, but once you do, the settings are saved.  I’m not going to go into detail on how to use and acquire this helpful little plug-in because you can read that in the links provided.  The plug-in is free if you’re only exporting 10 images at a time.  If you make a donation, you can choose the amount to donate, you are emailed a serial number to unlock the plug-in and you’re free to export as many images as you’d like.