Why not

It's been a while since I've taken any pictures of myself, and when I got home there was just enough light left to snap a few pictures of what I was wearing today. This sweater is pretty much my favorite sweater, and although it looks excellent with the bow tie in the last picture under it, I wore a long tie today. I thought about changing to the bow tie for the pictures, but how could I resist that little dimple under the knot? I simply couldn't!

Yeah, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to men's clothes. I'm way too into them. If I'm at my computer and I'm not on Flickr, there's a good chance I'm perusing a menswear blog instead. It can definitely be an expensive obsession sometimes, but so are cameras!

man in the mirror?

I heard the most interesting Radio Lab a couple weeks ago. It was about symmetry in human life, and one of the segments told the story of a man who, simply by changing his hair from a right part to a left part, completely turned his life around. Jad interviewed the guy and he explained that while looking in the mirror, he had thought he was looking pretty fresh; however this was a backwards image and the rest of the world didn’t see him the same way. One day he realized this and decided to swap the side of his head the part was on, from the right side to the left, to see what happened. That night, he went out and met up with a big group of kids down by the aqueduct; a group that had previously ridiculed and even beaten him, most certainly for being a nerdlinger. Strangely the group welcomed him with open arms.

Jad and Robert went on to discuss this phenomenon and offered an interesting picture of President Lincoln. This is probably the most standard image of Lincoln you’ve ever seen, however they also showed it flipped horizontally, assumedly showing us what Lincoln would have seen in the mirror. It was a stark contrast to say the least.

Interested in this, I went back and looked at some pictures I’ve taken of myself in the mirror over the years. All pretty standard, but when I flipped them I nearly flipped out. OK, not really, but it was pretty surprising. “Wait a minute” I thought, “is this how people see me? How do I have any friends?!” Alright, so it wasn’t that bad, but I did wonder if that’s what I looked like to everyone else. Then I got to thinking about some of the pictures I’ve taken of myself using a tripod, so there isn’t any flipping going on. I looked at a few of these and was relieved to know that I don’t look all that much funnier than what I see in the mirror every day.

This got me thinking about how we perceive ourselves, and if a photographer who is prone to take a lot of self portraits using a tripod has a better idea of what they look like than someone who only looks at themselves in the mirror. Here are a few of me, taken using a tripod, so I assume this is how people see me. I think I look alright, and hopefully everyone else does too! Try the mirror trick out sometime; take a picture in the mirror, then flip it in a photo editing program. I think the result will surprise you, it sure did me. Although to be fair to myself, I only really looked at outtakes that I didn’t like in the first place.

Also check out that Radio Lab episode here. Look at that Lincoln picture too (just click the picture of Lincoln for it to flip).

Look Down!

A few weeks ago I told you the virtues of looking up every once in a while. Today, we’re going to talk about looking down. Now, like looking up, you need to be careful not to run into anyone as it could result in a most uncomfortable situation. Looking down isn’t quite as exciting as looking up, unless you’re somewhere like the Grand Canyon or the Hoover Dam, where looking down is expected. I like to look down as I’m descending a staircase; I find that watching where I step has led to a much safer trip down. Looking down can be especially good if you’re wearing a particularly fine pair of shoes and want to remind yourself of that fact; this is something I do often these days. Other situations where looking down can be fun are if you’re on a diving board, standing in the ocean, or maybe looking at a lost feather, or even your reflection in a pond! So many possibilities!

In other news, I hope everyone is having a good week. I’ve been busy this week and haven’t been doing much in the way of photos, but things should pick up. I have some rolls to scan, hopefully this weekend, and I have two rolls almost finished so maybe I can kill those this weekend and have them developed. We’ll see.

a momentous occasion

What a year it’s been! To recap: Started off living in southern California, visited Portland, moved away from California, lived in Wichita for a couple days, moved back to Kansas City, and ended it practically living in Oklahoma. I visited Portland; Minneapolis; Wichita; Tulsa; Alaska; Chicago; various other parts of Oklahoma including Durant, Ponca City, Muskogee, Okmulgee; various other parts of Kansas including Lawrence, Toronto Lake, Waverly, and Burlington; Michigan; and Colorado. I ate some great food, took some great pictures, had some rough times, and took some terrible pictures. I increased my camera collection from two to like seven now (I just found one hiding in my desk that was in storage).

All in all it was a good year and a good 365 project. I definitely learned a lot and I think I’m a better picture taker thanks to it. Maybe I’ll do it again some day. Some day far from now.

new site!

Welcome to my new site. I felt like the old one was too stuffy. jeremyjewell Photography? What am I, a business? No, I'm just a guy with some cameras. Lots of cameras. Speaking of cameras.. I bought this freaking sweet Hasselblad a couple weeks ago. This is one hell of a camera. The first time I played with one in the camera shop in Irvine, I had no clue what I was doing. Luckily the fella behind the counter showed me how it worked a little bit. I almost bought a really janky one that day at an amazing price, but it had some mechanical issues, so I said no thanks. I finally found one at a good price and jumped on it. After I got it, I met this really nice lady named Rachel for lunch and she showed me the in's and out's of it. I'm sure this is all very boring, so I'm sorry, but I need to give credit where credit is due. So I'd also like to thank my friend hannah for first of all, making me do film photography, then urging me to get a Hassy, then introducing me to Rachel.

Sorry for the boringness, really. Here are some pictures I took with it. The first one was not at the lake, the rest were at the lake. Except for the last one; that one also was not at the lake.

Oh yeah, before the pictures I'd suggest you check out my Flickr from time to time. I probably won't post all my Flickr pictures on here. I will however give sneak peaks of pictures on here before they can be seen on Flickr, so there's your incentive to visit here. Plus you get to read my thoughts. No matter how boring they may be. Usually they'll be exciting and entertaining.. Entertaining at least. Also if you want to see these baby's bigger, just click on them! If it says you can't see it, it's just because it's one of the sneak preview ones, so wait a few days and come back to see it big.

Oh one more thing, my cousin told me the other week that my aunt didn't know I was doing a 365 project (where I take and share a picture every day for a year). Well, I am, and I post them ALL on my Flickr, so check that out already. There's always a link at the top of this site. There's also a nifty thing at the bottom that shows my last 9 uploads to Flickr.

Oh sorry, but one last thing, I imported all my old posts, so the archive is still alive and well. Sadly, the email notification feature will not be joining my new site. Unless there is overwhelming demand, in which case I can shoot you an email every time I post. If you want it, just email me, call me, or yell at me.




Josh was skipping some rocks on the water, so I was all "hey huck a big rock in there" so he did.








And of course, me!

Multi Me Dia

Here's some more of me for your Monday.  Taken yesterday, and no, there is not any photoshop trickery here.  I don't take enough pictures at f/1.8.  I've got this fast lens and I'm always shooting landscapes and stuff like that with smaller apertures to get more in focus.  This was at 1.8.  Sweet.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:25 7:31 PM
Exposure time	1/50 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/1.8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Me for Monday

Here's a little bit of me for your Monday.  I took this back in July of 2009 while in Vidalia, Georgia.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:07:23 4:33 PM
Exposure time	1/4 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/3.5
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

New Equipment!

As I alluded to in Slender-Snouted Crocodile, I recently bought a new piece of equipment; a vertical battery grip.  It's a pretty sweet little accessory for my camera.  It attaches to the bottom of my camera and has a shutter button and all of the other necessary buttons for me to control the exposure of my photographs while holding the camera in the portrait orientation.  It also holds two batteries which were included in my purchase.  When I bought it I figured it would be nice to have while shooting in portrait, but I hadn't expected it to be as much fun as I have found it to be.  Having this should encourage me to shoot vertically more often.  I don't regret this purchase for a second.

You can see the new grip at the bottom of my camera in this self-portrait I took while in Texas last week.