2013 Jacksonville Jazz Fest

I went to Jazz Fest last year for the first time in Downtown Jacksonville and had a great time so I was looking forward to going again this year. We were excited to see the two headliners, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Trombone Shorty.

Upon arrival, I started shooting the scene.

I'm going to need to make a separate trip to downtown to shoot some buildings.

This was Memorial Day weekend so I shot a few flags. This one I thought to do something different and rotate it 90 degrees.

While the girls were shopping, this Jerk Chicken establishment was making our mouths water.

Random bike just standing on the curb unattended.

We chose to eat some flatbread pizza which was delicious.

It was cooked in this portable brick oven. Looked more concrete or stone than actual brick but the fire was real.

Spotted some celebrities in the crowd. Here is Cee Lo Green.

Not sure what these people were looking at but it looks interesting.

The crowds were thick as we started looking for a spot to setup our chairs for the headliners.

Another flag waving. I cropped this shot a little and accidentally left "GO" in the background. I like to think it was a happy accident as Bob Ross called them. Go USA!

Our view of the Swingin Stage once we setup for BBVD.

BBVD rocked. This was the best I could come up with. I changed to my 50-200mm. Since the stage was lit pretty good, I was able to shoot with the widest available on that lens at f5.6.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at Jacksonville Jazz Fest 2013

Here's a video of BBVD playing

It was so dark in the park area we were sitting in but I was able to somewhat capture a few of the dancers.

As the show was going on, I noticed a few photographers shooting to my left. I noticed the moon rising, so I took a stab at it too.

Switched back to my 50-200mm to get a closer look. The moon moved quick.

Day two of the festival gave me an opportunity to shoot more of the environment. I didn't really take advantage but I did capture this cool piano art.

While listening to a latin band playing, this old man sat at the base of the statue at Hemming Plaza and he just looked cool. It looks like he has several lifetimes worth of stories to tell.

Homeless Dance-off Crosses the Line

As we made our way to the Swingin Stage to setup for Trombone Shorty, we saw a crowd cheering some dudes dancing. It looked like they were having an innocent, old school, dance-off. Someone decided to tip the dude a dollar and then another and the other guys decided to step it up to make some money. Well, watch for yourself. I was a little grossed out.

Trombone Shorty at 2013 Jacksonville Jazz Fest

Despite seeing the dance incident earlier, once Trombone Shorty went on stage, all was good. I filmed this one song and it turned out to be one of the longest of the night. 

I had to leave early because Trombone Shorty was really loud. Much louder than the previous night for BBVD. I enjoyed their performance and would have liked to finish but it was all good. We got an early lead to the car before the massive crowd let out. Which was beneficial because I forgot where I had parked and had to walk up and down Bay street to find the garage.

I have a few additional photos over on my Flickr site if you just didn't get enough of the 2013 Jacksonville Jazz Fest.

BioLab

Holly needed to go to her lab to set up some samples before dinner.

I started looking for interesting angles.

They say to get a better shot to go in closer so I tried and I agree, sometimes...

I thought this vacuum thing looked cool

This was actually the first image I saw but took the others first.

I thought these hoses would make for a better image. Not bad I suppose.

Holly doing her thing

This is great. I went across the shelf and focused through the containers and shot just as she looked up at me.

Then I was asked to take a few shots of the experiment so I did.

Check out the full Flickr set for a few additional pictures.

Portfolio

Here's a first look at my portfolio. I joined 500px because they now have a portfolio service/section. I uploaded some photos. I need to make it better but check it out while it's in it's infancy. jal316.500px.com

I may also move my domain to the portfolio once I have it setup and link this blog from there.

Epic Jenga

Game night on Sunday was special. I took Jenga. The first game ended rather quickly but the second was epic. It got to a point where I started Googling the Jenga world record. At one point we only had three moves left below the top two rows.

When we realized it was a game for the record books, we started shooting with our phones. As we kept going, I pulled out my dslr and got a few of the last moves.

 Holly had her Jenga face going

I'm not immune to the Jenga face

Jenga master

 First shot with my DSLR. Black and white for dramatic purpose. 

Contemplating a piece. Not many options left.

The piece that ended it all

Great game.

Rock Climbing

I went rock climbing at The Edge Rock Gym on Saturday. They have a few routes to climb at various levels of difficulty. I hadn't been rock climbing since a cruise I went on last year and that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but I've lost some weight and I'm possibly in better shape and thought it'd be fun.

We got a day pass and did the instructional safety video. Once they did their safety check to confirm we could clip in to the auto-belay, we were on our own. I didn't have my camera but toward the end of the climbing day, I decided to get some pictures with my cell phone.

 Holly chalking up on the intermediate route

 This was one of the beginner routes but the overhang and small holds made it difficult for me.

We'll be going back again. It's a fun way to spend the day and a pretty good workout as well.

Beach walk. Is there a possible contest winner here?

I went to the beach with my girlfriend to walk her dog. I took my camera since it was a nice day. There were a lot of people by the area where we parked so I didn't want to be a creeper. A few blocks down, the beach cleared up and and we came across a nice sand castle.

One side had an Angry Birds scene

After I took a few shots of the sand castle, she let Jake, the dog, off the leash to run around.

Leash not on dog

I really like this image. I think I'm going to make a large print of it. 

There weren't many photos. I entered the last two in the FroKnowsPhoto photo of the month contest. The theme is "reflection" so let's hope they're chosen. 

See the entire 15 photo set on Flickr

Room Tour

MrThaiBox123 primarily provides tech reviews on YouTube. I've been watching his videos for a while now. He got a new desk custom built and asked to see his viewers setups so I decided to make a video.

At first I did a typical tour video just holding the camera and moving around explaining things but that was boring to me and I don't like the sound of my voice. So I decided to get my DIY track dolly and move the camera around and add some music. The pan shots are on a loose ball head since I don't have a fluid head. I didn't add any additional lights so I shot at f2.8 and my focus wasn't spot on. However, I'm not displeased with the result:

Room Tour

Ellen's Graduation

Today I went to a friends graduation and a celebration dinner afterward. The ceremony was at the Veterans Memorial Arena so I didn't want to hassle with my camera bag. I decided to take my camera with my Sigma 17-50mm f2.8. It clearly wasn't long enough from where we were sitting. Examples in a bit..

Before arriving, I read on the FSCJ website that they had a city bus listing all the names of the graduates as a congratulations. I wanted to see it and it was pretty difficult to miss.

City bus wrapped with names of graduates

Close up of city bus names

Test shot of arena as graduates entered. I ended up liking it with this black and white edit.

An example of having the wrong lens. I used the big screen to take a closer picture of my friend as she walked on stage.

This was shot at 50mm from a long distance and cropped over 100%.

We trekked across the arena to meet the graduates as they left so Elin could give Ellen her flowers. The moment was captured but the shot was missed in my opinion. Two things went wrong. The hand in the way which I had some control over, and the focus mode was on single instead of servo or continuous.

After the ceremony, waiting for dinner, a little nap time.

Still napping. I tried to get the dogs eyes closed. Converted to B&W. I dropped the clarity to make it look slightly dreamy.

My lovely girlfriend relaxing under a blanket on the couch.

Gift time. It's not easy to shoot Ellen with a smile.

Another smile with her gift.

Arwen, an older cat didn't get along with the new kitties too well.

Final image of Ellen with her four foster kittens.

Although most images were posted, check out the full set over on Flickr