JJP Designs | Photo Ninja

So I wasn't planning on doing a BLOG on this but it was quite the journey so here goes... I got a new toy. Grabbed the BtS shots at the last second when it occurred to me to do  BLOG... ugh - should have done a VLOG! A  Light Tube - specifically a $45 LUXCEO RGB "Portable Wand"... I had been looking at various ones for a while and they were just honestly expensive for what I saw their usefulness as. Jump to Christmas and I have a $50 Amazon gift card - and I happen to see a YouTube video reviewing this little $45 Light Tube... so I bought one... I know - SHOCKER! Okay, so enough on my G.A.S. psychology... let's get on to the toy! So I decide I need to do the one thing that a Light Tube seems to be born to do... Swing around during a nice long shutter drag to create patterns. Let's start with The Setup: Monster on Plexi Platform held up by two boxes... LED wearing FESNEL modifier off to camera left... Light Tube behind Plexi - and it gets swung aro

We made a quick trip to Cosley Zoo (great place to visit if you are looking for a quiet spot to enjoy - and photograph - some animals) in Wheaton, IL, arriving right at opening that morning, and found this beautiful bird still snuggled in and not quite ready to start the day. Most of the animals were lounging around and awaiting their morning keeper visits but this one just looked so snugly and perfectly content. There is something to be said for waking up in the perfect position and being so perfectly comfortable that you just feel like you need to just stay there and enjoy the moment until you absolutely have to move. In my head, that was what was going through this bird's mind that morning. Sometimes the worm just ain't worth the tradeoff... Sometimes you just gotta' enjoy the moment and accept that there will be another worm tomorrow.

So I was doing some photos and video for a project and decided to shoot some extra images for myself... Of FIRE... and SMOKE! Well, just a bit-o-fire and a bit-o-smoke... And, did I mention, I had to set things on FIRE! Okay, it was just candles... Small space... Daylight... Ya' know - my usual... So first I wanted the fire - the color, the texture, the symmetry (of my candle holder thingiemajiggie)... A little depth-of-field playing aroundness... Again, my usual... But then, as I was photographing the fire, I realized there was SMOKE! Oooooh - COOL! Yes, I am easily entertained... And my lighting was already setup to make the most of said smoke! Light arranged in relation to smoke to shine through it. Extra COOL! Yep - me, easily entertained... again. First shot - pretty much straight on from above... Next, some angles to see how much I can do with perspective... this impacting not only the depth of field but also how the candle holder did or did not reflect the candle light - w

Glass is always an interesting subject in that it is very unforgiving regarding lighting... and reflections of said lighting... and of just about everything else in a 5 mile radius of your location... Now take that glass and bend it around so that it is curved and contoured... And then shape it into a vessel capable of containing liquid... Then try to photograph it with specific highlights and lines - and not others... And now we come to In Vino Veritas ... Because in your endeavor to control all light and reflections while photographing said glass vessel of liquid you will become suddenly and painfully aware that the truth is that you need a wine... stat... in great volume! Which reminds me, I need to restock my wine rack. Okay, so it's not THAT bad... but it can be challenging... While also quite a bit of fun and a tremendous learning experience... Recently, I had a bit of a go around with a camera, some strobes, a few modifiers, and a bottle (or few) of wine... My first sh

Ah, yes... the Roarin' 20s! No more war - soldiers comin' home... Automobiles... Electricity... Everything was getting better, bigger, and easier to get your hands on... The economy grew by 42%... Forty Two Percent!!! Jazz was in the air... Flappers were swingin'... Booze was flowin'... Shhh... Don't tell anyone about that last one... Prohibition, ya' know. And raging debates were taking place among paleontologists... Um... wait... what!?! Paleontologists? Hey, buddy... is someone zozzled on foot juice? Yep, paleontology. Apparently the Tyrant Lizard King (Tyrannosaurus Rex) was having a bit of an up hill battle in claiming the thrown. You see, there was some debate as to its classification... and you know how those paleontologists get when they can't agree on classification. Um, yeah - they snuff at one another and storm off to measure some things and jot notes detailing millimeters and geology terms. Okay, so these paleontologists (Matthew, Brown,

For those of you who read my blog on "The FIXER", here are some shots my son let me setup with him of Ignatius... The goal for these shots was dark/harsh light, hard contrast - moody... And I dropped an led (some shots white and some shots red gel'd) in the camera to get the light coming from it... I put a small strip box to his left (camera right) with a grid to really focus the light but along his full height... And black v-flatz to his right (camera left) to eliminate any light bouncing back from that size... and a pop-up black backdrop behind him... And I pushed the contrast and clarity to get the hard/sharp edges of texture and light I was looking for in post... I'll drop a photo of the basic setup at the bottom of this post... Remember, don't make eye contact! ;) In my mind, this is the photo of Ignatius Scardino Onofrio - the guy you do NOT want to make eye contact with - I.S.O. - - - The other shots are James doing cozplay of Ignatius - Hence, Ignati

So a friend asked for some advice... She had been trying to get some photos of her daughter playing high school basketball and facing the eternal challenges of photography in a school gymnasium... She brought her camera and lenses over and explained that she had spent SOOOO much time on YouTube watching videos and finding that none of the tips she gleaned from them seemed to help... I decided that instead of walking her though what would likely have been her 4,738th lecture on the 'exposure triangle', I would try to distill down the relevant pieces of information she would need, and only those pieces, into something easy to remember but solid enough of a base that it could be built upon going forward... So, I decided to create a character. In my head I called him Ignatius Scardino Onofrio - I.S.O.... FYI - Scardino and Onofrio are family names from my lineage... Ignatius is just a fun name... ;) Before introducing her to Ignatius I gave her some core relevant bits on