Hey, Hoser!

I was doing a family shoot at Fire Station #3 in Salt Lake City (They are AWESOME! keep tabs on my photography blog at www.jonwoodbury.net for those images) and I liked how all the hoses were stacked.
We lost the firetruck for about 20 min in the middle of the shoot (the nerve of them to go on a call) but I'm excited about the photos.

I Am

Open to interpretation

Red Door

1963 'Vette

Congratulations to Andrea and Ryan, they got married today! I photographed their beautiful wedding of which this beautiful 1963 Corvette Sting Ray was a part. I HAD to take a bit of a break during the luncheon to shoot a couple of One a Day shots. This was my favorite.

Ghost Window

This house had a lot of cobwebs. Obviously no one had been there for a while. The window was a normal window that looked from the bedroom out into the front yard but for some reason it gave me the heeby-jeebies. The photo captured that creepy feeling. I love it when that happens, that's what photography is all about.

Bench Straps

I've been paying a lot of attention to repetition lately, and how it makes images stand out. I think it works here.

Baby's First Road Trip

I have some other fun shots from this day but I simply couldn't resist this one. Olivia did so amazingly well on our trip considering she was only 3 weeks old! I love this kid.

Hollywood Kitsch

A souvenir shop on Hollywood Blvd. Hannah loved the Walk of Fame, she insisted on walking right down the middle and refused to move for anyone. Oh, the stubbornness of a toddler.

Shopping Cart Log Jam Lit by Headlight

Lori ran into the store to grab something and I sat in the car with the two sleeping girls. No reason I can't take a few photos, eh?
I saw this huge log jam of shopping carts. (Seriously, people, does it take THAT much time out of your day to walk it 15 more steps to the proper spot?) I pulled the car up and back lit them with the headlights. I like it.

Wedding Dress, As Seen By My Cell Phone

Vintage Park

I love this. Image! I have to admit, however, that the parkitect (yes, I made up that word but don't tell me you don't immediately know exactly what I'm saying!) did most the work. The park is up on the hill in Paulos Verdes, CA and had a gorgeous view.

Dare I Name It "Cocky"?

I always seem to get some of the more interesting shots in Tooele. This was actually in Grantsville but they're about the same thing, aren't they?
I thought so.
This is my very first live poultry shot of the year as far as I know.

Valley View Looking North

The Salt Lake Valley from the south.

Rollin' the Hay

Tame Wheat, Late in the Day

Big fan of this one. It's up on the south-east hills of Draper, Utah. I just love the way the sun comes through things when they are lit from the back. I'm actually pretty surprised that the camera phone was able to capture the brightly lit wheat as well as the mountains in the background.

Oh, the Concern of a Two-Week Old!

Such a worried little face, Olivia! I'm pretty sure she's concerned about the trade deficit. It's about time she started to learn about the world, she's two weeks old already!

Noodles on the Stairs

Yep. Swimming noodles on the stairs. Not the most glorious image I've done but it was a busy day.

FYI

So, my phone is going through something right now and won't email or upload anything. I promise I will catch up the blog as soon as the crisis is over.
Thank you.

Why the Long Face? Um...Again.

Yeah, I've used that title before. But this one fits it better...and I only know one horse joke.
This was actually an ornery horse. The owner told me to stay away from him because he will bite. With a blatant disregard for life and limb, I snuck up, took this shot, and ran away screaming like a young girl. I'll do anything for my art, I tell you.

Go see the horse in Why The Long Face part 1.

1960's Camera

I love vintage cameras. I think they are elegant, historic, fascinating pieces of art. I love the irony of photographing cameras.

Self Portrait with a Random Fire Truck

Not much of a story, really. I stopped at a gas station and there was a fire truck and an ambulance parked out front. I saw the shiny bumper and was intrigued.

Fences

Suburban fences out in Tooele. There are some yards that need lawns. I loved the criss-cross of the property lines up to the horizon line with the mountains. Pretty cool.

Hood Shot

I love clouds and these were pretty cool reflecting off the beautifully clean hood of my blue car.

Double Stuff Not Enough?

Lori made a pie with an Oreo crust. My job was to scrape the cookies and crush them up. I got in touch with my inner Frankenstein and created FramkenOreo!! (Cue the thunder and lightning...)
For the record, I didn't eat it but Hannah took a huge bite of filling out of the middle.

Android Mobile HDR? You got it.

Created with PicSay Pro on my Cliq. Single frame HDR image.

If you're not familiar with HDR it stands for High Dynamic Range. It's typically the process of using several exposures of the same scene and combining them to bring out the shadows and highlights to mimic the wide gamut of light that our eyes can see that the camera can not.
This is my first attempt at the process on my Android phone.
I used the photo editing app PicSayPro to make two different exposures of the same frame, one with the clouds clear and correctly exposed and the other with the mountains and foreground correctly exposed. I opened the first image (The foreground and mountatins) in PicSay Pro then tapped "Effects" then "Insert Picture".
I browsed for the second photo, selected it, and chose the entire photo for the crop.
You then have the option to erase portions of the photo. I used a soft brush to erase the mountains and foreground revealing the correctly exposed portions. Voila! Mobile HDR.
You could make as many layers as you wanted and get very detailed but there are limits in PicSayPro, especially in the output size of the image. All images are output at smaller than 1000 pixels on the longest side. That really limits the usability of the process for printing. The other limitation is the size of the screen vs. the size of my chubby fingers for erasing the top "mask" photo.
But it was a fun exercise and pretty cool result considering it was done on a cell phone while in line at In-N-Out.

Setting Out

This is one of my favorite images from the whole year! I saw this random shopping cart on the side of the road, (Yep, Tooele again...the home of the bizarre.) it looked like it was just about to take off on a journey through the field. I took a few minutes out of my busy day to shoot our intrepid explorer. It's images like this that make this project so fun! I probably would have passed it by if I didn't have the obligation to make an image every day. Hooray for The Project!

Night Train to Kathmandu

I had a wedding today and simply didn't have time to shoot anything til I was just about to head home and realized I hadn't taken anything. I thought a moving TRAX train would be fun since the shutter would drag on its own from lack of light. It turned out nicely. I was going to play a bit more with it in PicSayPro but I was exhausted. What an amazing wedding, though!

(Disclaimer: This post has actually NOTHING to do with Kathmandu, the title of the post comes from a random memory of some of my high school friends renting a movie by that name and losing it, incurring quite a hefty fine...you know who you are.)

Car Seat Rolls to go with Chubby Baby Rolls { Newborn Baby }

She's so LITTLE! You always forget just how little newborns are! I took this the first time we put Olivia in her seat. She makes the seat look huge. I can't believe Hannah was ever this small! (She was actually smaller by about a pound and a half.)

OLIVIA ERIN WOODBURY, Welcome to the World! - { Newborn Baby }

This is why we take pictures. All the technical aspects aside, this photo is priceless. This is my new baby girl, Olivia Erin Woodbury, born August 2 at 8:04 PM. I am tearing up just thinking about it. I look at her little face and imagine all the little details the future holds. There will be about 5000 diapers and who knows how many hours of crying or how many sleepless nights but that one time she runs up to you and gives your kneecaps a spontaneous hug and says, "I love you, Daddy" none of that matters. I honestly feel bad for those who have made the choice to not have any children. Sure, they have every right to do so but they have no idea what they are missing. They will never know just how much they can love something. They will never know how frustrated they can get. They will never know true unconditional love. My first daughter changed my life and I am so excited to meet Olivia and get to know her. I love her already.

The Epidural

Yes, my wife was smiling while the epidural went in. Who wouldn't? Something that was so painful just a short couple of decades ago is now a fairly pleasant experience.
I haven't talked much about Lori on the blog so far...and I'm sure she's perfectly comfortable with that. She's always been content to sit in the background despite a dynamic, fun personality and above average social skills. ;) It would be so easy to just take my image of her every day and call it good but that wouldn't push me much, now would it?
Lori is amazingly, bafflingly positive and supportive. She is intelligent and sensitive beyond the scope of mere human ability. I love her so much. She is an incredible mother. She has the ability to boil down a complex situation into child-sized pieces so Hannah understands and can make the right choice. I an constantly humbled by her innate parenting skills. I am honored that she is the mother of my children and my love...and she's very patient to allow me to take pictures at times like this. I love you, babe.

What's up, Dog? or Husky is Not Just the Section I Shopped in as a Kid

Mostly I shot this dog because I don't think I have any dog portraits in the project thus far. I liked the different textures, that's why I shot it in black and white.