Because of Scott Kelby and Others

Spring 2005 - My Own Wedding That Started It All


My interest in photography began when we received our wedding photos back for the first time, over 6 years ago now.  I've talked about that before.  Since that time, I wanted to pursue it more and develop a skill in it.  The problem was having the time to do that.  I already worked full-time as a graphic designer and part-time as an illustrator.  Unless I was willing to give up sleep, photography, then, didn't fit into my life.  There just wasn't room.    

Winter 2009 - The News No One Wants to Hear

I was diagnosed with Leukemia (ALL) in January of that year.  Over the months that followed, treatment ensued, and I wasn't able to return to work for 9 months.  The radiation and chemo had stolen my ability to draw, write, and accomplish simple tasks.  There were days that I couldn't even button my own shirts, let alone draw something with my numb, tingling hands.  It was depressing to have something you were good at your entire life be stripped away.  Even after returning to work, my ability to draw the way I used to, hadn't returned yet.  I needed another avenue for venting my creativity.  It became clear that learning about photography was now or never.  So, I did what any husband would normally do - I turned to my wife and said, 'I want to do this, and I need you to help me.'  And she did.  My wife has this incredible ability that's both mesmerizing and maddening in the same sentence.  I'll go to her with an idea that I think is fabulous and she'll say, 'well, that's cool...now take that, plus this, and THIS, and do that instead.'  And you walk away thinking, how the hell does she do that?  My neurons just don't fire that way.    


Christmas 2009 - A Surprising Gift

I was pretty sure I was getting my Nikon that I currently use that year as a gift.  What I didn't know, was what would accompany it.  As my wife knows, if you give me the tools and the means necessary to do a job, I'll get it done, on time, and to the best of my ability.  In addition to the camera, she got me a book.  She said, 'I've talked to a lot of people about this, and if you want to learn about photography, Scott Kelby is the man to learn from.'  She handed me a copy of The Digital Photography Book, Book 1, written by Scott Kelby.  I read the book cover to cover in an evening, and then read it again the next day.  Then I went and bought Books 2 and 3 and did the same thing with those.  These books are really amazing and here's why.  They're not all techy.  I'm a show-me kind of guy.  Don't give me a book with a bunch of specs and technical garbage that I have to decipher...show me how it's done.  And these books do that.  It says in there explicitly - if you want to get this kind of a shot, do this.    


2010 - Experimentation and Learning

That year was spent mostly learning.  I'd shoot whatever I could, whenever I could.  I learned about f/stops, shutter speeds, long exposures, focusing, tri-pods, and the difference between lenses.  I took my camera everywhere with me.  Even to the grocery store.  I read somewhere that a photographer's first 10,000 photos are the worst, and from there, you get better.  So, I figured I'd better get busy.  I couldn't draw, but I could push a shutter button.  And being that I was graphic designer and had been for years, my experience with Photoshop had been very familiar.  I love it.  It's my comfort program.  If there is such a thing.  It was another tool in my arsenal of graphical weapons.  Photography and Photoshop go together like Kool-Aid and sugar.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


Spring 2011 - On Meeting Scott

In April, my buddy and fellow photographer, Kiely and I went to one of Scott's Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it, seminars.  If you ever get the chance to see him in action and you want to learn about the field as a whole, go to one of his seminars.  Don't think.  Just go.  He makes it fun, interesting, and keeps people passionate about photography.  We were in a room with over 400 other people and while he was talking, you could of heard a pin drop.  And when he finished, the silence was quickly diminished by the roar of applause.  I met him later that day, and he was very humble.  He wasn't too proud to take a minute and talk with me.  I admire people who do that.  In spite of their success, they don't treat you as if you're beneath them.


Autumn 2011 - Inspiration

Illustrating used to be at the forefront of my interests.  It has since taken a passenger seat, along side photography.  Not a backseat, because I still do it often enough.  And here's why.  There's no drawing I could personally draw on the planet that would replace the rewarding feeling of downloading an image from my camera and thinking, damn, I totally nailed that shot.  And I owe those continuing rewards to Scott Kelby, my wife Katie, my buddy Kiely, and several other people who have helped in my learning process.  Do yourself a favor...If you are thinking of learning photography, or you just want to look at some great photographs, look at these people listed below, and let the inspiration consume you.  


www.scottkelby.com
jeremycowart.com
www.joelgrimes.com
www.joeyl.com
www.aboutrc.com
www.joemcnally.com
versacephotography.com
www.facebook.com/Natureswonderphotography
www.jaymaisel.com
www.bestofben.com 

Why 1800flowers.com Rocks

Yesterday was my sister's 30th birthday.  Earlier this week, I decided to have a plant delivered to her at work.  She lives 90 minutes from me, so taking time to drop in and see her, isn't always easy.  I had no idea what local florists were around her area, so I went to www.1800flowers.com, picked out what I wanted, paid for it, done.  A little while later, I received the confirmation email and then the shipping notification.  Cool.  I'm good, right?  


The next day I received a call from them.  This is how the conversation went:


Operator:  We shipped your order on time, but UPS is telling us there's a weather delay and the shipment might not arrive until tomorrow.  


Not good.  Her birthday was that day.  I was about to cancel my order.


Me:  What can you do in a situation like this?


Operator:  What we can do is contact a local florist and have them deliver a bouquet of flowers.  We saw that it was her birthday and didn't want her to not receive something from you.  


Me:  That sounds great, but how much is that going to cost on top of what I've already paid?


Operator:  Nothing.  Free of charge.  We're just really sorry we're not able to come through because of a shipping issue that's out of our hands.  But at least she'll get flowers and receive something from you on her birthday.  Your original gift may still show up to her today, but at least this way, it's guaranteed.  


Both orders ended up showing up to her that afternoon.  She was happy, surprised, but wondered why I sent her two things.  I could then tell her what happened.  Now, because of that, will I order from them again?  You betch-yer ass.  It's nice to know there are still a few of us out there in the world today, even businesses, that care about getting the job done, and will go to great lengths to see it through to completion.  


1800flowers.com rocks.        

Archiving Photography and Ancestry.com

Over the last few months, I've become immersed in ancestry.com.  So much so in fact, that I've became a paying subscriber.  It's a very interesting website and lays everything out for you in terms that's easy to understand.  You still have to do your research as much as possible with verifying family member's names, birth-dates, death-dates and that sort of thing, but in the end, this makes the process much easier.  What's really nice, is being able to connect with other members and access the information that other family members have put up.  It helps expand your knowledge of your own family tree, quicker, I think.

My great grandfather and great grandmother on my Mom's side

Before digital photography, most people had real albums for their photographs.  Albums you could hold in your hand and flip through.  And if you are like my wonderful Aunt Evelyn, you wrote people's names and dates on the back of those photos.  Now, if I could only get my memory to be as astoundingly awesome as hers.  But I'll get back to that in a minute.    


How far have I been able to trace back?  On my father's side, to the early 1600's.  On my mother's side, to the mid 1800's.  So far.  The search for more information, I've discovered, is a never-ending quest.  This isn't a short-term project, for sure.  


Am I related to anyone famous?  Yes.  Well, more like infamous and then later famous.  My 11th great grandfather was someone pretty darn savy.  But I'm not going to say who, yet.  I will tell you that he was born in England, where he became sought after by the Bishop for his religious teachings.  When I say sought after, I mean, he wasn't exactly on the Bishop's Christmas card list, if you know what I mean.  After leaving England, he came to our country and founded what would later become Hartford, Connecticut.  Like I said, savy.  I'll talk more about him in a later post.


Getting back to what I was saying about older photos...with the advent of digital photography, nobody writes on the back of their photos anymore.  Sure, we archive with hard drives, backup drives, rely on Flickr, or Picasa.  But how are you archiving them so that in 40 years, your kid's kids will know where those pictures came from, or what day they were taken?  After going through a ton of old photos in the last few months, proper archiving of the pictures I've recently taken, is becoming a high priority.  And trust me, the digital camera data that's embedded in the photo itself, isn't always reliable.


More later...
       

Drawing with the iPad & iPhone

My final opinion came to fruition on this just last night, after weeks of experimenting.  The iPad and iPhones are great for what they were designed to do, as tools.  I own both and love them both, for what they do.  Drawing however, is not something they're good for, in my opinion, unless you've got a ton of patience and a whole lot of time.  I don't have an abundance of either, but I decided to give it a fair trial before placing judgement.  


My first obstacle was using finding a decent stylus pen that would work on my iPad.  Before I began the hunt for that, I made a drawing with it, using just my finger.  Mind you, this is just using the Penultimate app...nothing more.  (I'm aware that there's a lot of others out there.)  

It was just the first thing that popped in my head.  Nothing too extravagant.  It is after all,  a finger painting.  


After buying a stylus pen that was somewhat reasonable, I tried yet another drawing.  This time more detailed.  

The black lines and some color were all done with the iPad.  But here's the kicker, I got so frustrated with trying to complete it with the iPad, that I gave up, and finished the drawing's colors in Photoshop.  I spent all of about 10 minutes on the color in PS.  The app wasn't the problem.  The stylus pen was not the problem.  The problem was with the screen on the iPad itself.  Like the iPhone, it senses everything you touch.  Whether it's with your finger, or even your palm.  Most people I know rest their palm on what ever it is they're writing or drawing on, right?  (And yes, I did tweak the wrist protection settings.)  That becomes especially hard to control with lines and color you don't want in certain places.  You find yourself constantly erasing your 'palm marks.'  I'm not Rita Skeeter, and I can't write with my stylus pen by just waving my hand.  But I would like to be able to apparate.  Now, that would be sweet.  And a dragon.  I want a dragon.  A big scary one.  Anyway.  

Not willing to give up too easy, I decided to try it instead for just writing and taking notes.  I watched a 2 hour webinar last night on photography.  When the show got into some issues I wanted to write down as notes, I grabbed the iPad and started writing.  The same thing happened.  I had half a page of notes that were messy and had unwanted garbage all over the page that I had to keep erasing.  That lasted about 10 minutes before I literally just grabbed a real paper and pen, and continued on.  

At the end of the day, the iPad is a great tool and has its uses.  For me, drawing is not one of them.  I'll stick with my Wacom.  And my dragon.  While apparating.     

An Ant-Learn to Read - The Art Process Part 3 (HD Video)

Below is a brand new short video I made very recently.  It's time-lapsed to nearly 3X normal speed, but you can get a better idea of how using Illustrator can be effective.
  

Like anything else software-related these days, Illustrator has its uses.  And it's very good at it's own uses.  Illustrator is not Photoshop.  They're similar in a lot of ways, but different in just as many.  Photoshop is a raster-based application that's confined to the realms of resolution, as it should be.  Illustrator is vector-based, meaning resolution doesn't become an issue until the project goes to print.  That's the short, long, er, short of it.  Some of you may be thinking, I have no idea what he just said there.  I understand.  It took me years to get it too.  Try thinking of it in terms of HD Television.  In Photoshop, you can make your image [this big] in HD.  In Illustrator, you could take an image [that's this big] and make it billboard size, in HD, without losing resolution.  Make sense now?  Good.  Now we'll start doing astrophysics.  Let me grab my telescope.  

As mentioned before, it has its uses.  For my digital inking, Illustrator wins, over Photoshop WHEN I'm not having to create the drawing from scratch.  If I'm starting from the ground up with an idea that I need to sketch, Photoshop wins.  Photoshop is way faster, simpler, less clicks, less layers, less everything.  Now, you're wondering, ok, so which one does he prefer?  I'll give you my answer.  Both.  And I see it staying that way for the future too.  People have their own styles.  They have their own ways of creating things and using what works for them.  It's not predictable.  It's not foreseeable.  It's just the way it is.  

Next, we'll finally get to iPad art, and what I've discovered with it.  Stay tuned for more.         

An Ant-Learn to Read - The Art Process Part 2

It all starts with a company called Wacom.  I'm pretty sure they wrote the book on this and revolutionized the graphics industry ever since.  These tablets are used in illustration, photo-editing and countless other ways.  Chances are, if you think it might be able to do it, it already can.  These tablets are really, really, really great.  Why?  One word.  Well, two.  Production.  Fast production.  

Those of us who operate under strict deadlines every single day, know that time is short.  People want results and they want them fast.  Any edge we can get to combat this from day to day, helps.  These tablets help.  I  like help.  


Illustrators like myself in years past, and even today, grab a piece of paper and a pencil and start sketching.  They finish their sketch, maybe ink it, or color it, depending on the artist's style.  All with pencils, markers, fancy ink pens or whatever they want.  There's nothing wrong with doing it that way.  It's art.  You can create whatever you want, when you want, how ever you want.  

The next step would be to scan the work, make the appropriate crops, or other edits.  Then you can publish it online.  All this take time.  

Wacom Tablets work in nearly every application on your PC or Mac.  It's not a replacement for your mouse, but more like a supplement to it.  I have been known to use my tablet for surfing the web even.  My Tablet is actually tired and in need of replacement, as it is about 4-5 years old.  


In the children's book, An Ant - Learn to Read, all the inking and coloring was done digitally, using Adobe Illustrator CS4, with a Wacom Tablet and pen.  What people might not know also, is that all the drawings I did were also exchanged through email.  There was no paper involved at all.  My publisher would send me 4 drawings attached in an email at at a time, and I would ink them and send them back to her the same way.  I should mention that no scanners were harmed in the making of this blog post.

In the next post, I'll unveil a brand new video that I put together.  And I'll go into my review of using Adobe Illustrator - the good and the bad.  Stay tuned for Part 3.    

An Ant-Learn to Read - The Art Process Part 1

The children's book I helped ink is now available for purchase on Amazon.  It's called An Ant - Learn to Read (Book 1 of 3).  That can be found here.  It was very neat to see the culmination of everything come together for the first time.  In a book.  Published on Amazon.  Holding it my hands for the first time was a bit of a surreal moment.  I haven't had a large number of things published and on the market, so seeing this was a big deal.  Like, huge.    

I have gotten asked a lot about this, so I thought I'd try and make things easier for people to understand.  Keep in mind, this is just the art process.  The writing portion/publishing is a completely different animal.  Let's go behind the scenes on the art.  

As you can see in the layout below, there's 3 images.  The sketches (top) in blue pencil;  The inks, (middle);  And then the color (bottom).

Example Illustration 1

I'm basically bringing the sketch artist's vision into black and white, and giving the colorist a map to follow.

Example Illustration 2

Now, you're automatically thinking, oh ok, he just grabbed an ink pen and went over it.  Nope.  The inking and colors were both done, never having touched a real pen or marker.  How?  This is where the plot thickens...

I'll show you for the first time how this is done;  Where it's taken me as artist;  What processes I'm currently using;  And what the future holds for me and Illustration.  I'll give you a hint...it doesn't involve real pens and pencils.  But it does involve iPads and iPhones and two Adobe products.  Stay tuned for Part II.                

The Scott Kelby Story

Earlier this month, a friend of mine and I attended a 400+ people photography seminar in Indianapolis, hosted by worldly known photographer Scott Kelby.  The seminar was wonderfully done, easy to understand and exciting to attend.  Before returning from our lunch break, I ran into the restroom.  As I rounded the corner, I noticed Scott was washing his hands alone at the sink.  I said the only words that came to mind.  Thank you for doing this Scott;  This is so great.  He turns to me, with a big smile and says, Are you kidding?  Thank you for coming!  Are you having a good time?  I explained to him that I was there with a friend/fellow photographer, and that we were having a great time, and that him and his team had made this a fun, exciting day.  He asked me if there was anything I would've changed about the seminar.  Not a thing.  He even asked me what my name was.  As we re-entered the lobby area, I shook his hand and we went our separate ways.  Scott was incredibly humble and easy to talk to.  Him taking the time out of his insanely busy schedule to just talk to me for 5 minutes, completely made my day.  Or, my month for that matter.  I sat back down in the seminar room next to Kiely and said, dude, you'll never believe who I just ran into in the bathroom...  

Transformed

With a HUGE special thanks to my wife for being instrumental in this long, tedious process, this site has finally taken new form, and should be working fairly smoothly.  I still have a few issues to work out, and let's face it, certain details are never finished, but the core of the redesign is complete.  If you see find something that isn't working, please email me and let me know.  Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused in the last 24 hours.  MUCH more to come.

We Turned 6, 34, 2 and more!

In addition to my anniversary, my brother's birthday, my nephew's birthday, and my aunt's birthday all happening in the last few weeks, I sort of forgot my own little birthday.  This website turned 6 years old last month.  Doesn't seem like it's been that long.  I'm going to have to see if I can dig out my old previous designs.  That could take a pretty big shovel.  I'll save that for another post.  So, let me say this...


Happy Anniversary to my wife.  She's been putting up with my crap for a long time.  And my mud-flinging dog for that matter.  I've told her a thousand times, she's the light in all my dark places.  


Happy birthday to my brother, Justin.  After all these years, you're still crazy.  We tried to warn Amber early on, but that feat was proven fruitless.  


Happy 2nd birthday to Ryan, my little tip-toed nephew.  Kid's got better balance than I do.  


And happy birthday to www.jonathonrose.com.  It's been a great 6 years and this site has grown tremendously in that time and continues to do so.  Thank you to all my visitors, fellow bloggers, commenters, photographers, illustrators, Cardassians, Borg, Hobbits, and even Transformers.  I love you all and I'm extending my respect knuckles from the chest.


~Jonathon

They're Cloners...Darn Good Ones too

I need a housekeeper, a carpenter, a painter, and someone to take care of my yard.    Only problem is that my wallet of course, disagrees.  My ideas and my wallet aren't usually on speaking terms.  They're not friends.  I'm taking my lunch to write about this, because I can't seem to squeeze it in anywhere else any more.  Time is becoming too valuable.  I need a blogger too.  Did I mention that?  I mean, someone who can read my thoughts and type what I'm thinking, so that way, I won't have to.  Right.  That'll happen Jon.  Right around the time I get a degree in Astrophysics.  I need a web editor too.  


I need a clone.  A clone of me.  I don't know how to contact the planet Kamino on the outer rim, so that idea is out.   My manners aren't good enough for them to like me anyway.  


While all this sounds bad, stupid or even crazy, I'm loving it.  I'm having fun doing all the things I want to be doing.  I'm up to 90-some drawings with the children's books.  Photography starting to bust loose.  Which by the way, to my 3.8 readers - the Photography section was recently updated with some pictures never before seen.  Really.  They're from another planet.  And they have Nikon Cameras there.  And Photoshop.  


I don't know how people with children take on two to three jobs.  Or four, with hobbies.  Something's gotta give somewhere.  And I don't even have kids.  Spring hasn't even started yet, and we're wondering how our yard is going to get mowed this year.  I spend on average about 12-14 hours per day behind a monitor doing something.  Sometimes more.  I actually squeeze in guitar playing while my backups are running to relax me a little.  I've been virtually non-existent on Facebook.  Except for the occasional exploding hot dog.  Those who saw that know what I mean.  I'll link this post on FB, and then people will think I'm lying, because if I don't have time, what the hell am I doing on Facebook?  Then we'll go in circles and there will be drama.  And anarchy will prevail.  Cats and dogs will live together.  And I'll still be drinking Coke.  With a smile.           

The Circle is Complete

I got married in 2005.  I know.  Shockingly surprising...but I did.  At a restaurant, no less.  I actually had not one, but two receptions.  Even after 6 years, I still haven't figured that one out.  The 3.8 people that read this who know me will think this is mildly entertaining, but understand why.  I'm getting to why this is important...just bear with me.  At the time, we wanted to splurge for our wedding photography, because we thought that if you're going to have one thing that you can physically document and keep, it should be be timeless, right?  So spend the money where it counts.  To us, that was photography.  We didn't need a $4000 wedding cake, and my wife spent WAY less than that on her dress.  And trust me, you're not going to eat that leftover cake slice on your one year anniversary anyway.  You'll take one look at it and think, I'd rather punch myself in the face.  With a shovel.  Twice.  Please note that these photos are NOT mine.    

After careful weeding out of the photographers we didn't want, we hired the best one for the job.  Soon after the wedding, we got our prints back.  This was a moment of shock and awe for me.  I was taken aback by the quality and the moments that our photographer captured in a photojournalistic style.  

Ever since then, I made it my mission to someday be THAT good.  To be the one that captures those moments.  To be the one that provided people with that same shock and awe that I felt when I first opened our print book.  I'm on that road still.  I may be traveling by horse and buggy, but I'm moving forward nonetheless.

A week or two ago, I was asked by my good friend Kiely to be her assistant photographer at a wedding this weekend in Indianapolis.  After careful consideration, I accepted it.  We're going.  She's taking me under her wing so I can learn.  At a wedding.  Where it all began.     

Piece of Cake, Right?

I have a completely new respect for photographers these days.  Last week, a gentleman in our department at work was retiring.  Over the last few weeks, people began planning party for him.  As time went on, a co-worker noticed I had a decent camera, and asked if I would be interested in shooting the party.  I responded, with absolutely!  Sure!  While thinking, holy crap, what did I just step in to?  The dog lover in me lifted my foot to my nose to double-check.  Nothing there.  Jon, what the hell are you thinking?  You're not a photographer.  Oh, shut up...it'll be a piece of cake.  


Almost immediately, I sunk myself in Google and photography books.  I think I was reading with one hand and typing Kiely with the other.  Thank you for the tips Kiely!  


As a result, my perspective on photography has changed.  You have to approach the meanderings of the event, whatever it may be, with a different set of eyes.  A different angle.  For instance, there were several speeches given.  During those times, most people's eyes would be on the speaker.  Not mine.  I was looking at the recipient's reaction to those spoken words to get the shot.  I feel like in some ways I missed parts of it because I was trying to so hard to capture it all.  Being responsible for someone's memories is tough.  And this was just a retirement party.  A wedding?  Senior pictures?  Those are the things that only happen a few times in someone's life.  No pressure or anything, I can do this.  


Ironically enough, my favorite photo among the 120+ photos I took, ended up being of a slice of cake.  I probably shouldn't post pictures of all the photos I took because most of them have the 56,786 people who attended, whom I don't have permission from to do so.  I don't know where it goes from here and if I have the ability to the learn the profession at that level.  But I know one thing for sure - My father asked me over the weekend, so after all that, would you do it again?


In a heartbeat.

Children's Book Revealed

After getting permission from my publisher today, I'm able to share with my readers what portions of the children's book drawings look like.  I'm sure the 3.8 readers I have will be excited to see them.  


There's a lot of talent involved with these books and I'm grateful to be a part of it.  Someone does the sketches, which are in blue pencil.  Following that, the drawings come to me to ink digitally in Adobe Illustrator using my Wacom Tablet.  Afterwards, they receive color which is again, done by someone else.  It's very similar to the process of how comics are published.  

In with 2011

Spammers and trolls have sunk to a new low.  You ever get one of those emails that starts off, 'My name is Xanita Iamspammingyouwitz.  My father has become deathly ill and we are in desperate need of means to transfer our life-savings...blah blah.'  Yeah, ok.  Let me get right on that for you.  Let me introduce you to the delete button.  Him and I are friends.  You and I are not.  This wasn't an actual email, but in a private message sent to me from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's message forums.  I'm like, really?  As if scamming of that nature isn't bad enough, we're going to scam off cancer too?  Nice.  


I changed my banner up top, in case you hadn't noticed.  Ah, the power of HDR.  


I need to update the photography sections and some other things too.  I've been pretty occupied with working on the illustrations for the children's books and our new photography blog.  Which can be found here.  In the meantime, I'll see if I can post parts of the inking I've done on the books so my readers can have I idea of what they look like.  


~Jonathon