05.25.10 - random thoughts all about photography

out and about last week doing some photography with Sam Whittaker and some faux hdr editing

I'm super impressed with WHCC's customer service. The float wraps I was getting printed didn't look like they were going to make it here in time before I left, so I'm having them shipped to Maryland. I sent a request in and they were very fast in responding and rerouted them to Maryland for me for a low charge.

Pranee Loffer told me about WHCC and I'm impressed for sure. I'm excited to get the biggest prints I've ever had printed. Although maybe we printed 16x24 in SOP? I'm second shooting a wedding with Pranee in July! I'm looking forward to working with her. She's an inspiration.

I stopped by a photo studio today in the area which will remain unamed. I wanted to check on their print prices. They wouldn't give them to me. They wanted me to schedule a sitting, which was real cheap. Then once they've taken your pictures and those beautiful pictures are staring you in the face they try to sell you on prints afterward. Interesting yet pretty normal tactic.

My thoughts on it is be upfront. I want to charge higher on the sitting fee, you're really paying for the photographers artistic ability and skill in my opinion. And then mark up prints around 100% not 400% like a place does in this area. Haha should I be revealing all of my business secrets?

I'm also going to take about 8-10 photos and print them from WHCC and then from walmart to show people the difference. It will be very interesting to see the difference for myself as well. That way people don't think they are being completely ripped off when walmart can sell a 4x6 for 15c and I have to charge $2. At least its not $11.50 for a 4x6 like some places around here... I'm almost positive we're all printing from the same place.

I ordered a new 43" white umbrella and shipped it to Maryland. It took a hard fall when I was shooting for the Erretts and never really recovered. I've had it for over two years and was like $20 so I guess it doesn't owe me anything. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say umbrella, its a white umbrella that you shoot your flash into or through. You can see a pic of what I'm talking about here.

I'm going to be shooting a bit while I'm in Maryland and looking forward to it. I feel like I know the area a lot better there still and have some locations in mind. Going to be hanging out with Jon Barnes and Cory Pampalone too which are some of my most creative friends, always an inspiration to get around them.

Meh... lots of photo talk in this blog. Photography has been on my brain lately.

JIM baker

05.21.10 - april showers bring may showers here in WNY/WPA

flowers from our wedding in the trunk of my car (photo by Sheena Stropas)

When Jess and I got married last August the very generous Robinson family donated all of the wildflowers that we had as table settings. Bruce told me to come out again in the spring to take some pictures of the daffodils.

Nate Blick and I hang out and do photography on Wednesdays and I intended to make it out to the Robinsons in time to take pictures of the daffodils but they had come and gone already.

I was borrowing Ashley VanHouten's 100 macro 2.8 for this shoot.

We met (I re-met) Bruce's son, Bruce Jr. who remembered me from my nursery days at First Cov in Jamestown. You can check out his photography work here.

Anyway, not a whole lot is new. I got 5 free 8x10's from WHCC that look a ton better than wal mart prints. And I just ordered six 16x24" float wraps of some of the portraits of the Okinda Kids.

In other news... Jess and I are headed to Maryland this Wednesday for a week. We're looking forward to catching up with people that we haven't seen in a while.

JIM baker

05.14.10 - African Safari!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. But if you EVER get the chance to go on Safari DO IT! It's CRAZY how close you get to the animals. I rented a 100-400mm lens from lensprotogo for this trip. Masai Mara was a nice treat at the end of this trip.

Here's a video I took with my iphone of how close some of the elephants were.

The overcast weather was nice, I feel like it gave the photos a different feel than typical safari pictures.

I'd love your comments :)

JIM baker

p.s I THINK this will be the last Africa blog... I went and showed my grandma all of the africa pics last nite realized I overlooked some photos. I think I'll go back through the safari ones and post a few from time to time. Thanks for journeying with me!

05.11.10 - photo shoot Jackie Dates

my fav of the set

vertical

high key b/w

purposely edited to give an intimate/doll like feel

green/gold lr preset

Jackie is a friend of ours and I asked her if I could take some pics of her. She did an excellent job. When the weather clears up we plan to do more outdoors.

To see the rest of the set click here.

All using off camera lighting, 580ex fired at 1/32 power through a shoot through white umbrella trigged via pocket wizards. Canon 5dm2 50 1.4 and 100 2.8macro lenses.

JIM baker

05.03.10 - more photos of Okinda Kids

Meet Daniel Samson. He is 14 and in grade 7. He enjoys playing keyboard and playing football and wants to be a submariner.

This is Samuel Moseti. He is 12 and in grade 7. He enjoys drama and singing and wants to be a pilot.

This is George Ouma. He's 14 and in grade 7. He likes playing football and singing and wants to be a psychologist.

This is Austine Ndiege. He's 12 and also in grade 7. He enjoys music and wants to be a lawyer.

When I came back to shoot some more of the students there was not enough light in the location I was using before so I went outside and had the students stand against a wall, which is what you see above.

Here's a pic of Jess amongst a crowd of kids organizing them as I shot. All I did was turn around from where I was shooting and snapped this photo.

At one time while I was taking the pictures I smelt sewage and wasn't sure what was going on. Then I looked down and a couple of feet from where I was standing and raw sewage was in a small ravine. Remember that I was already sick while I was taking these photos. Then out of no where my eyes started burning and tears were just streaming out of my eyes and snot out of my nose. It got so bad that I couldn't see and had to run back to my room and wipe my eyes and blow my nose.

Click here to see video of Jess and I in action taking photos of the kids on the last day in Migori.

This is the last post about Okinda Kids. The next and final post about Africa will be about the Safari we went on. And I guess I MIGHT put some pictures from that trip... would you like that?

JIM baker

05.02.10 - orphans

Maureen Akinyi is 6 and in the nursery. She enjoys singing and her future dream is to pray for people.

Eliavona Aoko is 4. She is in the baby class and enjoys playing and hopes to help people in the future.

Both of these girls were brought to the compound that we were staying in while we in Migori, Kenya. A lady brought them both with death certificates for their parents saying that she could no longer take care of them. John and Pamela Okinda had JUST opened their own personal home for orphans and in a matter of weeks they had 14 orphans living with them.

JIM baker