A Casualty

We had another casualty today. This time it was my fault (though I thought about blaming the cat). I brushed by the Christmas tree ever so slightly and wouldn't you know it, one of the very delicate glass balls fell on the hardwood floor and busted. And a red one at that. It's not really that big of a deal, but I really like the red decorations because they stand out more than the other ones we have. Now we have one less...
Little Red Christmas Ball, you were a good ornament.
May you rest in pieces...

"Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies." -- Diane Arbus

A Magical Time of Year

So today I was going through a bunch of old pictures that I had taken years and years ago. It's always fun to look at old pictures and remember all the awesome stuff you did growing up. And sometimes, like today, you get blessed with memories of awesome things that you DIDN'T do! (like take this picture)

As I was going through the pictures, I figured I would take out all of the negatives I was never going to use and try to figure out something to do with them. As I was going through and taking a quick look before tossing them in a box... WHAMO!!! I find a strip of negatives of pictures I didn't take. How random... Now I'm wondering who this kid is and why he has an entire apple shoved in his mouth... Thank you, Wal-Mart, for making my day a little more odd...

PS: Please excuse the crappyness of this scan. I need a good scanner...

"A good portrait is incredibly hard to create, there is too much temptation to pander to the individual rather than portray them as they really were." - Philippe Halsman

You Can Have His Cake And Eat It Too

I got to shoot a couple of cakes for Chef Sam (chef/owner of MasLeon Cakes & Pastries) the other day. The first one was a Vanilla Bean Pumpkin Cheesecake. Now I like cheesecake, but I think this cake has ruined me from being able to enjoy most other cheesecakes I will ever encounter. I just don't think they're going to be able to compare. In fact, I'm pretty sure they won't be able to.

The second cake was the aptly titled Death By Chocolate cake. This thing is huge! Five layers of awesome with chocolate coming at you from every angle. Once you get a few bites in to this cake, you'll pretty much be convinced you would be okay with dying if you could go while eating this... but not until you've started on your second piece.

Finally, I'd like to let you all know that Chef Sam is now on the wonderful world wide web! Check out his website or find him on Facebook. Either way, just get there and order one of his cakes! You won't be sorry (and you can thank me by ordering one for me too). I'm personally waiting to photograph his Double Stuffed Oreo Cheesecake. Yes, that will be a good day...

"Photography is a way of introducing people to other people." -- William Albert Allard

Now on Facebook

Yes, it's true. Jon Chandler Photography is now on Facebook.

Check it out and become a fan today!

No picture this time; just a shameless plug.

"I think the 50(mm lens) is an extremely good discipline lens; it requires you to see in a more refined way, not just tighter." -- William Albert Allard

Overcast=good

I did another shoot with Molly and Hannah for Yes You Maigh the other day. It's the first shoot I've done at my loft and I was super excited to be shooting here. I'm even more excited to be living here! I finally live in a neat place that is picture-worthy. Hooray for cool places, cool people and cool pictures!

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way." -- Carl Sandburg

Chef Sam

I did a somewhat impromptu photo shoot on Tuesday with Chef Sam Pagan. Armed with an SB600, an umbrella and a piece of foam core I went at it. Space was very limited because the restaurant is pretty narrow and they were pretty busy as well (as they should be. Gezzo's has great food and on top of that, every dish Sam makes is killer). My favorite perk of shooting food is that you get to eat it afterwards. And I must say that the tilapia with pineapple salsa was amazing! Hopefully Gezzo's and Chef Sam will team up again soon. When they do, you should do everything you can to make sure you are there... Seriously...

prep work

Chef Sam serving up two plates of awesome

key lime shrimp (amazing)

tilapia with pineapple salsa (oh so good)

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." -- Luciano Pavarotti

I've been around

I took a little stroll the other day and took a few shots around the lofts. Nothing too amazing, but it got me outside and shooting (neither of which I do enough of).

brick wall

power lines

more of the same

that's where I stay

just some sort of cool pipe

I want to do a shoot down there and get a light behind that glass wall

always use handrails for safety.

Loft #5

“The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you're doing, someone else does” -- Anonymous

Hair A Go*Go behind the scenes

Here's a few behind the scenes pictures from a recent shoot I assisted on for Hair A Go*Go in Chattanooga. Everybody was super nice and Chattanooga is a pretty cool town.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I've been moving. Hopefully, I'll be setting up a dark room in the near future. I enjoy shooting film.

"Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair stylist you like." -- Author Unknown

Kim

This past weekend I did a senior portrait session with Kim. I have to say that this has been one of my favorite shoots so far. The weather was perfect, her style was great, the locations worked out well and it was just all around fun for Jen (my lovely assistant/wife/VAL) and I to hang out with Kim and her mom. They're awesome people. But enough of the talking... Enjoy the pictures!

"Once photography enters your bloodstream, it's like a disease." - Anonymous

Lo-fi photography

Thanks to a break in the rain and a little cinefoil, I was able to do some TTV shots yesterday. I had to do something since the rain messed up my other photo shoot. This, in my opinion, is one of the most fun ways to take pictures. I love the quality and the feel of it. I love the dust and scratches, the imperfections and character of it. I like to take a break from thinking in f stops and ISOs sometimes and just shoot. These are also the same reasons I like shooting with my Holga. They are perfectly imperfect. You never know exactly what you're going to get and that's exciting to me. Speaking of which, I've shot up two rolls with my Holga. Now I need to make myself go get them processed. I wish there was a good place on the south side of Atlanta that I could go... Anyone know of anywhere?

Have a good weekend!

"The most important lens you have is your legs." -- Ernst Haas

buzz buzz buzz

One of my friends started keeping bees a while back. I just happened to be over there when they were checking up on them. I just happened to not have my camera (shame on me), but fortunately for me, my friend has one. So I grabbed his camera and shot a few pictures while they worked with the bees. It's a pretty cool feeling to have thousands and thousands of bees flying all around you just doing their thing. They are amazing little creatures. When I have the space, I'd like to have some of my own. Seems like a pretty relaxing hobby with pretty useful benefits.

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.” -- Robert Green Ingersoll

Lumos!

So, I went to the Harry Potter premier with my wife and a bunch of friends, but before that we went to a Harry Potter party at my friend's house where I failed miserably at trivia. A bunch of people dressed up. I took their pictures. This is a few of them. Only one bad guy? Geeze. My wife and I did wear t-shirts to support the bad guys if that counts. :)

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am." -- Luna Lovegood

C is for cookie...

And if that cookie is an Oreo (or 15), that's good enough for me. I took this shot for the second assignment of the Strobist Boot Camp. The assignment was on food, which I've never really attempted to shoot before (maybe because I'm too busy eating it instead), and I really enjoyed it.

Some of my favorite books to buy are cookbooks with big pictures of colorful, delicious food. First I drool over the food then I try to reverse engineer the lighting and take note of the colors and the props in the foreground and background. For me, there's something very comforting in good food photography. I love it. And if you ever need a quick reference to some good food, go check out Food Network. I'm addicted.

Now that I've worked up an appetite, I'm going to make some pan-seared Mahi with spinach mashed potatoes (get the recipe here)... Thanks, Publix.

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony." -- Fernand Point