JNTWEB

Thursday, December 13th was Avery's School Band Christmas Concert.  Avery's band teacher had laryngitis so he got the opportunity to practice his public speaking by introducing one of the songs.  Avery's friend Joe did a flute solo.  Great job, both of you.

I also couldn't help myself.  I had to snap a quick shot of this adorable bundle of joy.

We miss you Kirby!   You little lovable fuzz-ball!

You just have to take the camera out and look what happens!

We went with Terri's brother to Jawbone Canyon in the Mojave Desert for Thanksgiving.  We camped in his trailer and deep fryed our turkey.  The kids had a lot of fun.  We only had two minor accidents (Tylor ran into a bush and the red buggy's new roll bar got a test) but no equipment damage or personal injuries. :)

Here is the picture of the day.  This was taken from highway 14 facing west.

Avery was sick during the holiday with what ever bug is currently circulating, but Austyn and Tylor were gathering candy door to door.  Of course Terri and I had to endure the long task of taste testing the candy and inspecting it to ensure quality and safety.  :)

Congratulations Regina and Donny Williams.  Although they hired a professional photographer for their wedding, I was asked to take photos at their reception.  The weather didn't cooperate.  It rained off and on throughout the night.  But the theme of the reception was tropical so we all acted as if it was just a tropical storm in the islands somewhere.

On Thursday, October 18th Austyn had his first choir concert at school.  We were not sure what to expect from him, since he doesn't like being in groups.  Although he was nervous, he managed himself very well.  We are proud of him and look forward to the next concert.  Good job Austyn!

I've spent some time over the last few weeks making some changes to the Gallery.  I've organized the Galleries into categories or sections, making it easier to find similar photos.  I've also added a reference photo for each category for those visual people, like myself, to make it easier/quicker to find the types of photos you are looking for.  Please take a look when you get a chance.  Please click on the Contact Me link to the left and let me know what you think.

Picture of the week?  A bunch of cute faces!

Do you love Golf as much as I do?  Well, then let me introduce you to Top Golf!

                

 Top Golf is new to the States and here is a quote from their website for a description:

 I can't wait until one of these facilities is within "Driving Distance"!  :) hehe!  According to their website , one may be coming to San Diego in the future. That would be a little bit of a "Long Drive" for me (hehe!), but it just might be worth it.

Enough of the poor humor.  If I'm lucky, maybe someone from Top Golf will read this and discover that Bakersfield is currently the 68th largest city in the country.  It also has multiple Country Clubs, public, and municiple golf courses.  So although I wouldn't expect a facility in Bakersfield to be a short term target for Top Golf, it could sure be long range one. 

So check out the Top Golf website .  I think you'll be as excited as I am! 

Note:  If Top Golf is in need of further market research, someone to test or inspect their facilities for quality, or a corporate trainer I'd love to send my resume!  ;)

Looking to buy or sell some real estate?  Well Sue Urner can GIT-R-DONE!

So give Sue a call and let here know that Joe sent ya!  ;) 

On Monday, October 1st Avery left with his class for Camp KEEP (Kern Environmental Education Program).  They will be at the coast for a week, returning on Friday.

Camp KEEP is an environmental education program for Kern County’s fifth and sixth grade students operated by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office.  You can find out more about Camp KEEP here .

Wednesday, September 26th Tylor received the last of his awards from the Kern County Fair for his Reserve Best of Show for his rabbit Mrs. Sniffles.

Monday, September 24th was Skate Night for the kids.

Click here to see more skate photos in the gallery. 

I've been introduced to a great single item promotion per day website.

www.woot.com

You  never know what the item of the day will be.  Each item is only listed for one 24hr period with a purchase limit of three per customer.  Speakers, computers, vacuums, or bar-b-ques.  Anything could show up.  Each new item is posted at midnight central time.  That's 10pm for us on the west coast. 

Canon has released another digital SLR:

EOS 1Ds Mark III

With a 21.1MP full frame senor, CF and SD memory card compatibility, ISO 50-3200, and built in CMOS cleaning this camera instantly jumped onto my wish list to join its smaller brother the EOS 1D Mark III that I reviewed below.  But with a MSRP of $8000 I don't think I'll be purchasing this camera anytime soon.  Although I have to admit that the thought of selling the kids did cross my mind!  ;)  Just kidding, of course.  But honestly, if there is someone out there with $8,000 burning a hole in their pocket, feel free to ship this camera to me.  I'll provide a lifetime of free portraiture in return.

I know everybody hated word problems in math class, but let’s take a look:

You purchase the Canon 1Ds Mark III for Joe at $8000 from a reputable photography store such as B&H .  Joe provides free photography services for life of the purchaser (and immediate family).  If the purchaser used a reputable professional photographer you could expect to pay $350 for a sitting fee plus another $250 dollars for a moderately priced print package.

To be conservative we’ll say that you would get your sittings two times per year.  One at the beginning of summer (when the kids are ending school or even graduating) and one around Christmas for your holiday photo cards.

Breakdown:

($350 sitting fee + $250 print package) x 2 sittings per year = $1200 annual photography investment

$8000 camera purchase for Joe/$1200 annual photography investment = 6.7 years

Your photography investment would pay for itself in less than 7 years.  In fact by the end of the 7th year you will be ahead by $400, 8th year $1600, 10th year $4000, etc.  And if your life exceeds 30 years from the initial purchase your savings would be $28,000.  And this doesn’t account for inflation.

Now that's a smoking good deal isn't it?    

Simply click the Contact Me link in the menu to the left or click here to notify me of your purchase intentions.  I'll promptly forward the necessary shipping information to you. :)

On Sunday, September 23rd Tylor received his bunny awards for Ms. Sniffles Reserve Best of Show at the Kern County Fair.  Luckily, he managed to get his cast removed before the show.

With the County Fair comes the Bunny Show.  The boys entered their bunnies and Ms. Sniffles took 2nd overall with Reserve Best of Show.

Ms. Sniffles presented by Tylor

• 1st in Class
• 1st in Breed
• Reserve Best of Show

Tiger presented by Austyn

• 5th in Class
  

Blueberry presented by Avery

• 4th in Class
  

Derick presented by the family

• 1st in Class 

It's County Fair time.  Super large onion rings, cotton candy, and farm animals.  Does it get any better than this?

We went to Ventura over the Holiday weekend.  We had fun and the weather was great.  Here are some photo samples.

Well, boys will be boys.  Tylor decided to jump off of a trampoline onto the ground (instead of just jumping on the trampoline) and broke his foot.  So now he has a bright red cast around his ankle for the next 6 to 8 weeks until he goes in for his next doctors visit.  I wish I had a swiss bank account with matching funds for all the Copays I've made having three boys! ;)

There are a lot of flowers painting the landscapes around town right now.  I can't help but stop and snap a few shots when I get the chance.  I even found a Cactus to shoot.

I was going through some photos when I came across these today.  My how time zip's by.

The Rum Fits were playing the same night as the 3rd World Assassins so I took the opportunity to snap a few shots of them.  The Rum Fits are from New Mexico and stopped in Bakersfield for one night of their soutwest tour.  Here are some samples.

Be sure to check out their website .  Click here to see more photos I shot of The Rum Fits. 

News spreads pretty quick I guess.  I shot another local band, 3rd World Assassins.  I've posted some samples below.

Check out their website here .  To see more photos I took of 3rd World Assassins click here .  Be sure to send me some comments on what you think.  Especially you Stephanie!

On Friday the 13th I went with some friends of mine to Vinny's.  I ended up taking some photos of the band Dead Aisling during the show.  Here is a sample.

See more photos of Dead Aislling in the Gallery here .  Be sure to check their website here . 

We went over to a friends for a bar-b-que on the Fourth of July.  We had fun in the pool, eating, setting off the fireworks, and of course for me; taking photos.

You're never to old to play with the "Fun Box"!

I was on the way home with the kids last night when we saw some fireworks off in the distance.  I had my camera with me, of course.  So we drove closer to them to watch the show.  Unfortunatly we caught the end of the show, but I was still able to snap a few shots.

For more photos click here or visit the Gallery. 

At the request of a friend, I went to watch and take pictures of his band M.P.D.Q. at the Backstage in beautiful downtown Bakersfield last Saturday. ;) I took my trusty 85mm 1.2 L lens to take shots with no flash. However, little did I know that the club only had four alternating can lights with gels and a seriously bright back lighting strobe. Needless to say, the conditions were not the best even with my favorite lens. That will teach me to leave my camera bag with all my goodies in the car.

Here are some samples.

Be sure to check out M.P.D.Q.'s website  and watch for their next show.  To see more photo's from that night click here .

Recently I had a birthday and my better half surprised me with dinner at my favorite eating spot "Mama Tosca's".  Below is a snapshot taken by my son before we left to eat.

Recently a friend and I went golfing.  I had to take my camera, of course!  :)  Don't laugh at my goofy swing.  It works.

I have added RSS .91, 1.0, and 2.0 as well as Atom and OPML feeds to the homepage today.  The links can be found under the main menu to the left.  Please let me know if anyone experiences any problems using them.

For those family, friends, and casual readers that don't know what RSS, Atom, and OPML are...  The RSS initials can stand for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary".  These feeds make checking your favorite sites, which support these feeds, for updates or changes all at one time.  You will need a Feed Reader to take advantage of them.  I personally us a program called Sage as an addon to Firefox.  I like having my web broswer and feed reader all in one application.  However there are probably hundreds if not thousands of free readers to choose from.   Many include browsers or are addons to broswers.

Sample Feed Readers:

Sage (an extension for Mozilla Firefox)
Google Reader
Awasu
Many more... Just do a search for Feed Readers in your favorite search engine.

Once you select and install a reader on your computer, you subscribe to a feed by entering a link to the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the feeds you subscribe  to, to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time they were checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to you.  That way you don't have to waist time by visiting each site individually to check for new content.  The reader will present all new content to you immediately in one place. 

I have come across another great website for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tips, tricks, and add-ons - www.lightroom-extra.com

This website has some great add-ons.  Be sure to check out the Develope Module Presets in the  downloads section.

There is a great site out there for in-depth Canon SLR body and lens reviews...

www.the-digital-picture.com

I've found it very difficult to find quality, straight forward reviews of Canon camera equipment.  I've been visiting this website for some time now, and the site offers insightfull reviews of each product with ISO 12233 crops for each lens making my equipment buying decisions much easier.  The only thing I wish the site had (to make it just about perfect) would be a bunch of high-res real world image samples for each lens.

I highly recommend visiting this site before making a purchase if you are partial to Canon equipment like me!  ;)

 I know it has been a while since I've posted anything, but my laptop died and I had to send it in for repair.  Luckily, it was still under warranty and it didn't cost me anything.  :)  The bad news is, it took nearly six weeks to get back.  Anyway...

I've come across a great Lightroom information website - www.lightroomkillertips.com.  This site is provided by the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals).  It has a lot of tips via article and video.  You can even get the weekly video by Podcast.

Free PhotoPresets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

onOne Software, Inc., has released a free product developed in cooperation with Jack Davis, author of the best-selling How to Wow with Photoshop book series. The new product, PhotoPresets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, are a collection of 80 + custom presets developed by Jack Davis that permit photographers who use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to apply various adjustment settings at import  or at any time within the Library or Develop modules of the software program.

PhotoPresets are free! You can get them from onOne Software’s website, onOnesoftware.com.

Mamiya is coming out with a new 22 megapixel camera, the ZD.

 I really like what I have read about this camera.  "Yes" I know it's not a Canon product.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 is here.

I had downloaded the Beta versions of lightroom last year and really liked the way the product was advancing.  For me, and what I do the feature set was pretty robust. 

Canon has created a camera worth considering for both images and video.

 Canon Powershot G7

When I first saw this camera, I really got my hopes up.  This 10 Megapixel camera can shoot up to 2 fps for standard images and up to 4gb of HD video. 

Canon has released a new Speedlight:

Speedlite 580EX II

 If I didn't have the first generation 580EX already I'd buy this one.  However, outside of the 20% improvement in recycling time and improved weather sealing, it just doesn't seem worth the upgrade.

Canon has released a new EOS Digital SLR:

EOS-1D Mark III

This is a new 10.1 megapixel digital SLR with 1.3x lens conversion.  It's has impressive specs.  Not that I would turn it down if someone wanted to give me one, but with a MSRP of $4k I've still got my eye on the 5D.

EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

 The specs look like a promising improvement over the previous generation.  Especially at the 16mm range.  I'll be watching the reviews closely.  I need and want a wide angle lens and if things pan out this could be it.  :)