MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Time Warp

"After I get all these picture organized I have loaded to Flickr I hope to be able to post a few new pictures everyday."- This is what I posted on December 16th, and with only one post since then it seems that I have lied, sometimes lying is acceptable (sure Santa is real), but this time it is not alright and I apologize. Well Today is an extra special Christmas post, and if you are one that does not celebrate that kinda thing, then I'm sure you can still appreciate the cool things that can be created from all those lights everywhere. This was taken at the Plaza in Kansas City, my camera was on a tripod and I had my 18-55mm lens on. I then zoomed from 18 to about 35mm to get this effect. I have many more festive shots I experimented with, but am not quite ready to share them with the world quite yet. 

New Friends

Run This Town

It is probably noticeable that I get leery of people talking to me whilst shooting, as seen from previous posts i.e. Send Help and the Shuttlecock photo from November HDR. This suspicion has been proven to be unjustifiable, since everyone I have talked to while out shooting has been more than nice, and these two guys are not an exception. I was shooting here at the Liberty Memorial getting alright pictures, but since they all seemed boring I was getting ready to move on, then these two guys came and was just standing, looking out over the Kansas City skyline, I then asked if I could take their picture and after they agreed I took a quick snapshot, thanked them and prepared to move one, the guy on the left, whose name I remember to be Derryl told me to hang on and ran up to talk to me (starting my usual cautiousness) but he seemed very interested in what I was shooting picture for and where he could see his picture. After talking for a bit I told Derryl that I was unsure if I would actually put his picture anywhere (mainly because I wasn't happy with the fist snapshot) but told him we could take a few more if he'd like. So him and his friend (Whose name I almost instantly forgot) got up on these stairs and did this pose. More happy with this silhouette I took his email and told him I'd email him a link to the blog, but was never emailed back, explaining my confusion with their names. 

Random Downtown St. Joseph

Finals are finally over, but before I go off to drink beer for a month straight, I needed to make one last post on this fabulous bandwidth here. I have also uploaded every single image I have up to Flickr and will be downloading everything off of my computer onto a huge 2TB external HDD along with burning the important stuff to DVD and keeping those at my mothers house so I can get that 2 hard copies and one off site copy. I did not have anything in particular to post today, so I will just post these few random favorites I have taken over the last month or two from downtown.

After I get all these picture organized I have loaded to Flickr I hope to be able to post a few new pictures everyday. 

 Alley Beauty

This is outside an art studio downtown in the side alley.

Yellow Cab Co.

Gutter

I was listening to a photographer on a podcast state that the best pictures he has ever shot has came from heavy rain conditions, he however did not mention how miserable it is to shoot in the rain. You can't tell from this long exposure, but it was pitch black with very fast winds, I had an umbrella over my camera leaving my self exposed to the rain(priorities), which caused for some very awkward looks from some of the drunks leaving. 

Red on Downtown

These are actually a couple of my favorite shots. I have heard that when you see the color red then it is time to take a picture. This time it worked out, and I love the simplicity.

Red on Downtown

Red on Formal 

Aaron and Amelia Engagement Shoot

 So here I am at my cousins house with this bandwidth I was speaking of, so I will take this time to load these pictures from this engagement shoot I did last month. This was actually my first engagement shoot, but of course I told them that it was my third (this week). I will refrain from adding titles to these, mainly because I cant think of 10 titles. If for some reasons these appeal to you I am always looking for models, and I work cheap, maybe for lunch.

This is where Aaron proposed. Nice, huh? well a word of advice, please pick someplace to propose that is photogenic, for my sake. Yes it's nice and romantic, but not photogenic, the location is surrounded by thick shrubs and trees, making them blend in like Waldo. So what to do? When all else fails, history brush.

We made it through ten whole photos and not one HDR, you guys proud of me?

Two Panos

Guess what!!! It's Panoramic Wednesday! Though not all Wednesdays will consist of panoramics... in fact this may be the only panoramic Wednesday.... EVER! I just need some kind of intro... So enjoy this P.W. since it will be the last. 

 Independence Day

This is another one done with the help of HDR. I promise that not everything on here will be HDR, I just needed it this time for those clouds... Look at those clouds, they're worth it. 

So why was this one entitled Independence Day? Is it a real patriotic picture of my city hall? Is it a political statement on the metaphoric "dark clouds" that are heading our way as a culture? No, and no. This one is entitled Independence day because the clouds remind me of that sweet mothership from that movie... Independence Day. We are really starting to get a look at how deep I am... sad isn't it?

Send Help

Taking pictures in downtown St. Joseph gets annoying. This annoyance is not caused by the bad lighting conditions the buildings make for, or from the lack of landmarks that grasp attention, but rather for the people down there. At the very end of this street my car is parked, hopefully out of frame. Well a group of people were walking towards me with shopping carts. Not wanting to risk my camera, equipment, or life I walked back to my car and made it there before them and locked the doors. Yes I know  what you're thinking "this guy is paranoid, lacks humanity, a pessimist, etc." These all maybe true to some extent (or completely true) but I have good reason.... People in downtown St. Joseph... smokes crack. This applies to everyone downtown (of course excluding me at this very moment... maybe)So I'm in my car and one of the guys points over at me and breaks from the group and starts heading towards me. As he is a few feet in front of me I wave him on, showing him I'm not interested in a conversation and he turns and walks back to his group cussing about me, I called the session there quits for the day. I know, I know you were expecting a more exciting and adventure packed story, but instead you are left with just a rant about wanting crack heads to stay away from me. 

Fall Fun

These are the photos I submitted for the October photo club meeting, before the HDR assignment. The October theme was "Fall Fun".

And It Was All Yellow 

This is from a set of engagement shots I did for my friend and his fiancé. I told them the entire time how awesome this tree in the background made them look until they believed it... fools. I do really like this one though, I will probably post the rest from this set on Thursday, on account that my interwebz are terribly slow at my house and there is a lot of them to upload, so I will wait until I can use my cousin's bandwidth. 

Red On Night

This is an HDR I made at Missouri Western State University, where I attend. I liked this one because the color from the statue matched the trees. 

Tree Stages

Another one taken at MWSU. I don't know what they use that  field for in the background, being there is a much larger one just to my right, out of this frame. With this one it shows the stages of fall colors from green to yellow to red. this is how they appeared that night also, no color manipulation was done in post production.

November HDR

So, I attended a local camera club meeting last month and their challenge until the next meeting was HDR photos. I had been playing around with HDR stuff for a few months now and was glad to have an excuse to make HDR photos for an entire month. So this post will be showcasing those photos, along with some earlier HDRs I turned out.

 I found this car behind a creepy old abandoned barn, on a gravel road somewhere in Kansas. People would occasionally drive by in their trucks that were lifted an unneeded amount and I kept fearing that this would soon turn into a Deliverance and/or Texas Chainsaw Massacre scene

 This picture was taken of an old wagon outside the Pony Express Museum.

 Taken at the Nelson Atkins Museum. While there taking pictures a white van drove up "bumping" and a bunch of qustionable people got out and started walking towards me on the front lawn. Given this was later in the night I was the only one on the grounds and began to panic. The people eventually got up to me and explained they were from Florida and were not able to get any pictures of the Museum due to their broken camera and asked if I could get some pictures of them before they had to leave in the morning. The people couldn't have been nicer, and even asked for me for tips on cameras to buy.

 Again Nelson Atkins looking across the Bloch lit pond

 This was taken at the most popular fountain in Kansas City at the J.C. Nichols Plaza. Short history lesson, The Nichols Plaza was actually the first suburban shopping mall in America.

 An HDR look at downtown K.C.

 This was actually my first HDR photo I created a few months ago.

I like the colors in this shot, and the "pop" look. I found these stairs leading up to a wall, with a DO NOT ENTER sign to the left to be ironic.

Welcome to BEARable Photography

Welcome to BEARable Photography (see what I did there with the last name, clever... I know) This is my first time to the site also, so it is a new experience for the both of us, exciting I know.

After getting back into photography, and into digital photography for the first time, I needed someplace to share what I'm doing since I have a self-centered personality. I thought about the regular outlets such as Facebook and Flickr, but found them not to be personal enough. I also thought about Tumblr, but did not like all the reblogging action. So, here I am, after not wanting to give my money to a web host.

Please send me any messages, and encourage any critical feedback for improvement, but let it be noted I am highly sensitive and cry easily so please present them politely.

I feel good about this and hope that if anyone stumbles upon this blog it does something for them.