Uploads from Jared Kruger, with geodata

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:02:50 -0700

This one's from way back (OK only three months ago, but the last three months have felt more like thirty).
A good friend and I decided to head down to triangle park (more often called Pirate Town by those who know it well - I wonder why) and try our luck with some of the interesting subject matter we'd both seen and heard about. Another friend came along, and we had a blast. Climbing around in condemned, abandoned and decrepit warehouses frequented by talented (and some not so talented) graffiti artists and plenty of other "interesting" people was more exciting than I thought it would be.
An interesting side note: my first mentioned friend works behind a Canon XT, the second is jumping into photography with her dad's old Pentax K1000, and I've been tinkering around with my Nikon D40 for a while. All of us are quite different photographers, with quite different cameras, and photography still seems to do nothing other than bring us together - an interesting concept when we hear so much about the Canon vs. Nikon wars and Film vs. Digital battles. I guess this is my roundabout way of saying enjoy photography for what it is, not for its notoriety or its top dollar equipment, not for its name. Photography is, at its most basic level, about people, and how they take the light around them and turn it into a picture or a photograph or a work of art or a snapshot that says something, and really, anything. A picture can say anything as mundane as "This is Jim and his friend, Samuel Adams." A picture can speak of socially injustice and wrench hearts: "This is the Lei family, the only life they will know is of Guiyu's electronic waste." A picture can also simply ask a question, even if it's rhetorical: "Isn't it beautiful?"
So take pictures, don't get too caught up in the races for the biggest and best, and let your photography speak. Pictures might stutter at first, they might not even have much to say (I know I haven't reached the point where my pictures speak for themselves), but if a picture is really worth a thousand words, they'll learn to talk in due time.

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:57:24 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

I haven't got much to say about these. I'm in the process of learning to compose, edit and present pictures in such a way as to make and allow them to speak.
If you've any suggestions/ideas/challenges/critiques, I'm all ears.

And When I Thought Myself Strong

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:06:39 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

Nothing so quickly humbles me as natural wonders.
Last night was the first Arizona Monsoon for me this year. I've always enjoyed the phenomena: how the lightning frisks, frolics and flaunts in its dance across the sky, how the thunder sometimes mumbles as if it were a very old man telling tales and sometimes booms so furiously and unrelentingly that I could swear I met the wrath of God, and how the rain unceasingly commands me to stop all mental processing, all internal monologue, all worrying, "Shh."
I rejoice at their return. My life is more readily seen in perspective when nature roars and whirls around me - I can't do a thing.

Hephaestus

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:51:05 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

This is the first experiment of many planned in which I am going to attempt to create customizable Photoshop actions based on some of Greek mythology's characters. I still haven't made an action of this one, some more tampering needs to be done.
I'm hoping this will give me an opportunity to sharpen some of my editing skills (not necessarily by having an arson of actions, but by knowing how to imply a certain feel or mood in my pictures).
Anyhow, that's the idea so far. I hope to follow through.

And if you haven't already, get Firefox 3. It finally supports color profiles (if you save your images in Adobe RGB 1998 you will like the upgrade.)

Low Tide Ebb and Flow (When Hearts Wax and Wane)

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:05:25 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

Bigger might be better.

Furrow

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:49:34 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

Yes, another HDR from South Mountain Park.
A few weeks back when Phoenix was having quite a few larger monsoons my mom and I went out to enjoy some of the more "photographable" weather. We saw a few seemingly out of place things that day (I've never seen tadpoles swimming around in puddles where and when the temperature is often above 110°F.
After initially processing this one I was all but sure of how much I liked it. I decided to play with it a bit and now think I truly like it.

Phoenician Sunrise

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 22:46:58 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

Even more High Dynamic Range stitches...
This is from a couple of days ago when my mom and I went out, pretty early, to catch the sunrise and hopefully a little more. The cloud cover was phenomenal. For those who'd like to know, this was taken from the South Mountain Preservation in Phoenix (Arizona).
I don't have much more to say about this... There are some rather obvious flaws, which I didn't have the patience to keep playing with. I still liked it though (and I hope the few people who see this can also see past it's rather conspicuous blemishes).

The Commencement of a Dust Storm During a Most Vibrant Sunset Above a Suburban Neighbourhood

nobody@flickr.com (Jared Kruger) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:39:40 -0700

Jared Kruger posted a photo:

(Or: I Couldn't think of a Good Title so I Went with a Rather Long Description Just for Fun)
The weather down here has been awesome lately. For about the last week it has been pretty wet: there have been thunderstorms, dust storms, and plenty of clouds. I had started to forget how much I enjoyed Arizona's clouds and storms while I was up in Portland. I'm glad to know Arizona is still my home.
This is my first panoramic HDR. I processed the individual shots into HDRs prior to fitting them together (because I took them in RAW and didn't want to have to process the jpegs more than necessary). I used "Photomatix" for the HDR process and "Arcsoft Panorama Maker" for fitting the individuals together. (I've tried Photoshop's panoramic feature and just couldn't get the same results I have with Arcsoft, which is interesting considering that it's a cheap program that came with my old Nikon L4.)
As with most everything, it's better viewed in large.