Good things happen when the sun goes down… twilight is often more exciting… and then there’s a clear evening with the stars coming out and some nice palm trees.

In this post I’d love to drive home the point:

Make wherever you happen to be work for you.
And get good at seeking out spots and SEEing the spots you’re at.

Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.

(Above) As you see these pictures you might wonder why they call it Sunset Beach… haha

This day was proof-example, after example, of why going out with a set purpose (set picture) in mind is in many (not all) ways is retarded.
But having a “way point” can be smart.

Yes have plans… but be open to all the amazing things that surround you.

In this case we penciled in Sunset beach for sunset.
When you’re on a road trip with me you realize I’m using a pencil and that pencil has an eraser.

But beyond that when you are wherever you are… be ready to shoot them when they happen. (know how)
And be ready to SEE them.

It makes me wonder how/why those photographers who set out with one specific shot in mind do it.
That would drive me batty… and doesn’t seem like a good idea. (Open for discussion, as long as we’re trying to understand eachother)
(Though perhaps having fewer pictures would sure cut down on processing and make picking easier)

Going back to the car to grab the tripod… low and behold, I saw the light.
I was saying to myself… how do these things like this keep happening to me?
I really couldn’t have planned the mist, the sunlight angle because of clouds, the color of the sunlight is beyond our control as we know.

Yes I put myself in a situation where i could get back lit pictures of surfers when they came out… but I certainly wasn’t expecting this.
I can’t move this dude I’m not in charge of the posing.
I just frame it up to tell the story and wait for the elements to be in a good spot.

This is a big example of just wandering around searching and being in the right place at the right time.
We didn’t write Hawaii 2009 in the sand but we came by literally seconds before the wave washed it away forever.
I barely had time to aim and spray fire shoot it as it got washed away.
The lighting was hardly what people aim for, but I knew that it would make it unique and that I could add back some of the contrast from shooting towards a setting sun.

This was not planned it was a result of waiting around for other people to be ready to go and getting bored and saying… hey why not take pictures of the palm trees.
If only I had my cable release to take longer than 30 second exposures. But that’s what I could do…
and I set the White balance to 2500 kelvin to bring out the blue because the street lights were throwing off the colors.

On this trip I discovered the joy of setting my white balance to Shady A2 to really bring out warm colors
I think any white balance could have worked for this evening and the camera itself would have been stumped with the colors of the sunset at sunset beach.
Don’t just take good pictures and call it good… add spice.

OK obviously the above picture was taken a while before sunset colors hit… but I wanted to show the kind of waves they were looking at.
You’ll see some better pictures of waves coming up… but I take pictures to document what was going around a whole lot.

Now planning your shots ahead of time is not a bad thing… don’t misunderstand.
I planned on being at sunset beach at sunset.
And when I got there an hour before sunset I said I wanted to  be on such and such side of the water/beach.

But the point is: Up until that time (your way-point time) and after and maybe even instead be willing to let your hunches, ideas and the light take you where they will…
Kinda like the waves of see, they go here and there and wherever the wind and tide takes them.
Yes there could have been other paths… but make the path you decided on, or were thrust into work for you

You’ll find some amazing things start to happen.
And you’ll learn to deal with (photographically) what you’re given… and not just search for what you want and always see the green green grass just beyond reach.

I’m saying both things can be good when done correctly.
But don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.

A lot of my pictures are a testament to my laziness… i was shooting sunset here and just didn’t feel like moving.
I was hoping more surfers would just walk past me. (They’ve done it in the past)
So i just sat around, not being pulled in any other way.

So I made where I was Work.
Instead of perhaps finding another better location. (Which might have been good too)

People almost seem to refuse to take pictures when the light is not perfect for them.
I say learn how to deal with the light no matter what it’s giving you.
Use it to your advantage… take the pictures the present light situation is giving you.

Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity… make it the perfect opportunity.
Even better if what’s been given is pretty darn nice!

This day seemed like several days all rolled up into one!

I guess that happens when you get up at 4am to go shoot sunrise a ways away and then shoot all the way until sunset.

When you are taking pictures and think back to that previous day when you were shooting near the lighthouse… oh wait that was earlier today.
Or when at the end of the day you can barely remember the beginning of the day because it seems like you’ve done sooo much since then.

That’s when you know you were pretty effective with the scheduling of your day.

The First “day”

Sunrise on the north point.
It included quite few miles of driving along along the coast line on fun dirt roads.
This was the longest day and we were in a bunch of different towns all along the northern coast.

“Day” 2

This day came in two distinct parts, but felt like they should be combined.
We went snorkeling in a bay and then met up with the wedding family and friends for some lunch and fun on the beach.

Using my little G11 to take some fun underwater shots.

The final “day”

We scouted out the location for the wedding and did sunset shots.

I don’t usually go visit the location before hand to figure things out, but we usually look for a place to do sunset and this was a phenomenal location.
I enjoyed being able to spot the possible locations and possible routes for the sunset since it comes and goes quite suddenly.
Turns out that info came in very handy for the wedding day and being overly prepared helped move things along smoothly.
I was also glad the element of spontaneity was still very much there and the pre-visit didn’t spoil it at all.

Sunset at this beach is pretty crazy awesome, but I thought i’d highlight some late twilight pictures taken a while after sunset.
Tripod required for this long exposure.

Look at the bunch of other “Day 3″ sunset pictures later in this post.

See all the Recap pictures after the jump

DAY 1 – Extra Pics

A Bay where we sat and watched a bunch of surfers (only ones I’ve seen so far)

A drive by of a random building

Yes we painted the jeep a very beautiful color, it was a site to admire
…up until the rain washed it away

Since I wasn’t driving at this moment I had the 70-200 on and grabbing some close ups while I sat on top of the jeep.

DAY 2

This is the first time I met the bride and her family.
It was great to meet them on a previous day so that they were all very comfortable around us on the following day.

Brides sisters.

DAY 3

When that sun gets low it gets BIG.
Using a long lens can help it along.

This was very late and I spent a while and many repetitions to paint in the light with many strokes of the flash.
Fun and informative experiment.
How many flashes did it take to paint this?

This is the Marriot where the banquet/reception took place

I’m gonna go ahead and make a guess that this is one of the more popular locations on the island to take pictures.

With good reason!!

(Above) Documenting the second half of thanksgiving day here are some Thanksgiving sunset pictures
As a sidenote this picture was a 10 second picture and to get low enough I took it off the tripod and propped it on the ground resting on my foot. 2.8 aperture. 250ISO
TIP: Wait about 15 minutes after sunset for the real lights show of twilight.

This thanksgiving I can be specially greatful to have the oportunity to spend 2 full weeks in Hawaii.

I’m also thankful to be able to have the ability to travel all around 2 islands with expensive camera equipment.

I’m thankful to have a Jeep… I would suggest to anyone coming to Kona (the big island) to rent a 4wd vehicle, unless you just plan on going to beaches.
If you plan on exploring at all… consider it a Must.

I’m thankful for sunsets, because they make everything look so much better.

I’m thankful for good company. It really has been very helpful, imagine getting up at 4am to go out to a sunset, one could be very tempted to keep sleeping but knowing I can’t let someone else down and knowing that I get to watch someone else suffer makes it so much easier.

I’m thankful for a great family that took us in for thanksgiving and fed us as much as we could fit.

Above – Guava Cheesecake

I’m thankful for the wonderful bride that decided it was better to have me fly from Utah to do the wedding pictures. I charged less for my travel fee than some Hawaiin photographers from her Island (oahu)

I’m thankful that even though I fell in the Ocean my camera did not go in with about 2-3 inches to spare.
I’m thankful that even though the GPS went in it worked again.

I’m thankful I have a nice computer to do these blog posts even with the very little time that I’m back at the condo and awake.

(More pictures after the jump – or see all the recap pictures on SmugMug)

(BELOW) Of course some more Sunset pictures to end with.

I titled this recap post “Just across the street”
Because that’s where these pictures were taken.

By the time I flew in, rented the car, went to the condo, went and got some late lunch/dinner and bought some groceries It was now to late to travel somewhere to do sunset pictures… so I went accross the street!
What I’m trying to say is for less than the cost of a hotel room there are nice condos for rent in super nice locations.
The search for a good place paid off.

But I thought about calling it “Be ready and Wait for it” because that’s what happened.

To see all the pictures from the small Day 1 Recap go here

I had a great moment when with about 30 seconds notice I noticed something that was going to happen.
I quickly got ready and waited for it. When it happened it happened fast and there were no do-overs.
In those 5 seconds you had to hope all those years of learning how your camera functions best pays off.

The thing is you fire off a dozen or more pictures and then you can’t really decide which one is the best, because the subtle differences offer something good for each.

But when this moment is happening in a flash (pardon the pun) it’s this weird rush of excitement.
Subdued and peaceful, you feel like you want to shout out Yes! but no one is around, and well you don’t want to jinx the pictures anyway.
So it’s a quite victory. Plus you know you didn’t make the event happen, you just happened to be there.

Yes indeed Thanksgiving Day is already upon us in Hawaii!

As the sun disappears.

Looking back I wouldn’t have minded if the boat had passed about 30-70 seconds later when the sun was just dipping.
I wouldn’t have minded a nice 400mm lens to zoom in a bit more and make that sun bigger in comparison.
Getting down a bit lower to bring them right in front of the sun.

Just goes to show that there’s usually always something you can do

I’m sure these pictures will be very representative of many pictures I’ll be working on.

Beach scapes – wide angles showing the shoreline.
And then the lower shutter speeds (under 1/30th of a second like this 1/20th to get the motion of the water coming in.

So I’m glad I had some practice on day 1

A couple of other sunset attractions… Almost anything as a silohuette. And then a post sunset silohuette of someone off in the distance.

This is how the night ended a good 20 minutes after sunset. Taken at 3200 ISO with rather low settings 1/50 2.8
I didn’t bother with the tripod tonight.

As for the weather, this is what I wrote:

When i say the weather is perfect, I don’t mean it’s hot, that’s not perfect for me.
It means I can wear shorts and have the window down in the car and not want to use AC or the Heater.
So yeah… not to shabby so far!

I look forward to not only having the windows down… but taking the top off this nice Jeep

Oh yeah and this is the house and accross the street is the beach where the pics were.

To see all the pictures from the small Day 1 Recap go here

To view the entire album, go to http://jarviedigital.smugmug.com/gallery/8841190_rFjCt

Jules Jewelry

So if I’m not mistaken this might be my first commercial shoot I’ve done.

I offered a friend help with her Jewelry business because she was in need of some good pics.

Photographing 6+ beautiful models was a perk. She even got her son some extra pics for his modeling portfolio.

The ages ranged from 8 to 38

All 500+ Pictures on Smugmug

Soon she’ll have lots of nice new pictures on her website

Me and the crew

Montage Beach in Laguna Beach area.

Note that most of the bridal pictures that day were taken at Soka University. 
But the title of the post is beach bridals so I just added those (just the horizontal ones)

to see full gallery (must have password)

On the way back from taking pictures at a wedding in Los Angeles
I stopped at places like Joshua Tree National Park (Above)

And along the Coast (Above)
And I spent some time in San Diego (Including Old Town San Diego – Below)

And a San Diego Padres baseball game. (Below)

I also took a short 3 hour tour through Mexico (Below)

And Finally I spent 2 days at Zion National Park doing 3 popular hikes. (Below)

Of the 3000+ pictures 150 were selected for these galleries

They are divided into two sections.

LA to Mexico
(which includes a substantial amount of pictures from Joshua Tree National Park)

Zion’s National Park

I drove over 13,000 miles
Visited about 12 countries
Took over 50,000 pictures (over 500GB)

A couple hundred hours later…
It’s been about a year and I’ve just barely gone through all the pictures a couple of times
I’ve selected an average of 35 pictures a day.

I will be uploading a gallery for each day: some will have more than others and some none.
Some of them will be a real treat and others just OK
… there are many more that I took but I had to draw the line somewhere or I would be editing pictures from now until the end of time.

I’ve spent probably hundreds of hours working on going through all these and now editing I would appreciate to hear what you think.

The Galleries (So far)

Day 1 – Airport in Ohio – 4 pictures

Day 2 – From Paris to Bordeaux – 29 pictures

Day 3 – From Bordeaux to Madrid – 17 Pictures

Day 4 – Madrid day trip – 63 pictures

Day 5 – Segovia – 60 pictures (Not Sevilla)

Day 6 – Alcala de Hernares – 11 pictures

Day 7 – Canary Island – 19 pictures

Day 8 – Canary Island (Morning Shore)- 30 pictures

Day 9 – Canary Island (Town)- 12 pictures

Day 10 – Canary Island (Up the Volcano) – 52 pictures

Day 11 – Canary Island (West Shore) – 34 pictures

Trip 1 – Circle around Connecticut
Gallery

I drove around the state of connecticut starting in the southwest corner going up to the northwest corner and all the way to the east corner. By that time it was dark so I made my way back. I started a bit later in the day followed the directions on my GPS device and made frequent stops but often for time’s sake took pictures from the car.

Trip 2 – Connecticut Coast
Gallery

I picked 4-5 parks or wildlife reserves to stop at and went along the coast of connecticut until I reached a lighthouse in Rhode Island where I watched sunset and then drove back.

Trip 3 – New York
Gallery

I walked around Manhattan for hours including central park and then when I was too tired to walk anymore I made my way back to where I was staying in Connecticut.

Trip 4 – Boston
Gallery

After doing the wedding at the Boston LDS Temple I went to downtown Boston and took some pictures for a few hours until it got dark.

See the Galleries:

Inland Connecticut
Coast
Boston
NYC

Where to start with all the pictures?
While I still haven’t posted pictures from last year’s trip to Europe I did decide to work on a smaller event.
I went to DC for two weeks… actually I was also in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

I took 4500 pictures while there and was able to limit these galleries down to 317. I’m pretty proud of myself.
I will also eventually be using over 1600 of these pictures for use in The Envision the World Project.
Many of the other pictures were of friends and family. You can see more information about these pictures on a post on my personal blog.

The galleries are divided up as so…

DC
VA & MD
Gettysburg
Amish
Outer Banks

Continue Reading to hear more about each area.

DC Area – 107 Pictures
Go To Gallery

I visited the District a few times when I was out east.
At various times of the day and several areas.

Many of the pictures will be of familiar monuments or locations.
Some are from inside well known museums. Other pictures are from unknown areas of the District.

Virginia & Maryland – 38 Pictures
Go To Gallery

I stayed in Arlington visited Alexandria a couple times.
Other than that the pictures are from walking to the Metro station.

Maryland pictures are from a trip to the Chesapeake Bay on the Maryland coast.

Gettysburg and around – 43 Pictures
Go To Gallery

We drove much of the loop of the historic Gettysburg war sites.
There were many memorials and statutes I tried to capture some of the other elements.

We then went to a historic round barn where many of the pictures are from.
Other pictures are from traveling to and from these locations.

Amish Country – 54 Pictures
Go To Gallery

First off in respect to these people and their wishes you won’t see many pictures of the Amish people.
Though there are some from far off.

But there’s lots of pictures demonstrating the surroundings of the Amish people .

The Outer Banks (NC) – 75 Pictures
Go To Gallery

Here I was predominately near a town called Duck. I woke up one morning and took pictures on the beach. One sunday a group of us went down to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.
There were many pictures that were taken while in a car with the shutter speed up high on a nice shiny day… something to make the trip past by more enjoyably. Some of them I liked alot.

The skies in this area were dramatic keep an eye out for them.