Jim Baker Photography in Hawaii?!

uh... THIS will probably be the last post here...

2008-04-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

If you want to see photos from my other classmates you can check them out here. Our school leader just put up this website.

I miss living in community.
jim baker

back home

2008-03-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

hey everyone...

i'm back home and am not to impressed with the cold and cloudy weather.

why can't i see the ocean in the horizon? all i see is dead trees...

i'm going to be streamlining all of my blogs soon but thank you for tuning in and checking out the things that I've been doing over this past three months.

for now I'll be posting back at...

http://www.jimbakerphotography.blogspot.com

see ya there,
jim baker

03.22.08 - its all over...

2008-03-22T16:14:00.001-07:00

Last night we had our exhibition of all of our work. Here is a picture of my display. We had a couple of hundred people come through last night.

I'm working on debriefing and trying to process everything I learned on all levels and also start the cleaning and packing process.

I fly out Wednesday night back to the east coast. Lets hang out soon.
jim baker

03.20.08 - another slideshow

2008-03-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

an slideshow of my work from the past 3 months.

enjoy...
jim baker

Latvia Documentary

2008-03-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

Discipling a Nation

If you remember last spring I went to Latvia with Seth Rainwater and spent a week shooting video for a documentary on the lives of Chris and Lydia Bischoff, two American missionaries in Latvia. Here's the finished product.

1 week left here in Hawaii...
jim baker

p.s I miss Latvia a lot...

a day in the life of Phil Cunningham

2008-03-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

When we had photojournalism week we had to shoot a photo story. I originally wanted to do my photostory on Phil but part of the assignment requirements was to get off campus.

So this past Friday we had a free day to work on the final assignment so I took the morning to shoot and the evening to edit. This is my first photo essay.

I really admire Phil because its not typical for a guy to uproot his family so that his wife can pursue one of her dreams. And not only that switch roles and do an awesome job of taking care of his daughters. Phil's a hero of mine.

For more information you can check out his blog at...
http://www.philnamy.com

music by:
www.simplefoolmusic.com

enjoy,
jim baker

03.17.08 - final project?

2008-03-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

Last night I pulled an all nighter and printed all the prints I needed for my final project and matted the ones I needed to. Printing is rough... it totally reminds me of recording music, all of the imperfections stare you in the face. It will be interesting to go look at the stuff again today now that i'm rested.

Weak pictures make for even weaker prints. It takes a special piece to be enlarged... and the closer you get it in camera the better... tons of editing looks like crap once its printed.

I'm really glad to be done with printing and matting, now I just need to get a few small things done and thats a wrap.

Here's some shots I did the other night with my new light set up that I showed you.

The model is Amanda Morgan and she did an awesome job.

Off camera flash shot reflected into an umbrella, 45 degree angle, white paper background.

10 more days...
jim baker

p.s happy st patty's day

03.12.08 - 15 days left...

2008-03-12T10:31:00.001-07:00

I took my final exam last week and got a 93%! Highest grade I've gotten on an exam in a long time... haha.

Next tuesday our final project is due which is 60 pictures, 40 color and 20 black and white and about half of those have specific requirements or categories that they have to meet.

One of them was to show textures, so I side lit these two dollar bills and a quarter to show texture.

And every tuesday night they do a skate night in the Ohana Court for the community. Probably about 50 or so kids come out and they set up ramps and stuff for the kids to skate on.

I've been saying since I got here that I wanted to shoot one of these nights but something always came up. Since I realized there aren't to many tuesday night skate nights left I decided to get down there and do it.

Our exhibition is next Friday and then I'm wrapping up and getting outta here on the 26th.

Crazy how time flies.

I'm looking forward to kickin' it with you if you live in MD though. How's the weather?

jim baker

03.10.08 - the little red church

2008-03-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a group of us went to the little red church. The pastor spoke to our school a few weeks ago and since we weren't in the kitchen we decided to check it out.

We drove about 20 minutes out of town and came upon a scene that seemed like it was out of a movie.

We started the morning out by doing a bible study under an olive tree.

and then the church service began inside of this little tiny church.

It's informality and genuine sense of community was refreshing in the age of mega church standards.

jim baker

strobist gear :)

2008-03-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Well... on Monday in the mail I got the things below... it doesn't look like a lot but I think it might just revolutionize the way I shoot... or something like that.

two pocket wizards, miniphone to hotshoe adaptor, 43" umbrella and a 6' light stand.

and this is the result using the new gear and my 580ex flash.

jim baker

03.04.08 - Results from our last field trip

2008-03-04T14:33:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we went on our last field trip as a class. We went to the painted church and the city of refuge. Here's a few pics from the painted church.

only three more weeks left. :(
jim baker

Classmates and pictures of them...

2008-03-02T16:28:00.001-08:00

and here are some pics that our school leader took of us on the around the island trip.

back to the kitchen,
jim baker

03.02.08 - Happy march...

2008-03-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

yesterdays 365

Kitchen duty all weekend... its been pretty chill though.

Stanley Leary asked us when we started studio lighting what the next piece of equipment we would buy would be? I had just returned my 50 1.4 because I realized that there was no point in having a 60mm macro 2.8 and a 50 1.4 because they are way to close in focal length so i was going to buy the 28 1.8.

But he asked us if we wanted to know what one piece of equipment would start to set our work apart...

And he busted out his lighting kit.

So while we were on the around the island trip I ordered some new gear
and its sitting in the mail room waiting for me but the mail room is closed for the weekend...

So be looking for some new pics soon strobist style. :)

In the meanwhile...

Check out some of my nashville peeps photo blogs.
(Why is there a whole crew of us that went from music to photography?!)
Maybe photography pays better...

Hannah Elaine

and

Jesse Koska

adios,
jim baker

02.28.08 - results from around the island

2008-02-28T15:20:00.001-08:00

We got back from our around the island trip last night. I took 350 photos and here are my top 10.

antique shop

textures on a chalk board

behind a coffee shop

propane tank

south point

sophia in the fog

volcano steam vents

some plant with morning dew on it

volcano tube

waterfall

peace,
jim baker

02.26.08 - check check is this thing on?

2008-02-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

6:24am... does anyone read this?

I just packed to go on the around the island trip, I'm headed down to breakfast and away we go!

Be looking for some pics soon,
jim baker

02.24.08 - some other ones...

2008-02-25T01:57:00.001-08:00

Here's three other favorite ones from the week...

Kaarin in the studio

Ji at airport road after sunset

Emily in the studio

I got to show my portfolio to Stanley our guest teacher and his uncle Knolan this week. I got a really good critique. It was a good critique because they told me what I do wrong consistently and I'm really excited to work on those things.

I should go to bed...
jim baker

02.24.08 - outdoor lighting assignment

2008-02-25T01:51:00.001-08:00

This is an assignment I shot tonite that is due tomorrow.

We had to show...

The lighting set up

what the shot would look like without a strobe

and the final shot. :)

big thanks to Kaarin who did an awesome job of modeling and Cliff for doing an awesome job assisting me.

I think I want to stay in photography school forever... when I get home I will be taking your picture.

jim baker

02.24.08 - Studio Lighting

2008-02-25T01:46:00.000-08:00

This week we've been doing business principals and studio lighting.

Studio lighting is one of the things that I really wanted to learn while I was here...

Here's the results from my studio assignment of classic lighting styles.

Rembrandt lighting

1:3 lighting ratio

Butterfly lighting

cheers,
jim baker

02.16.08 - sick

2008-02-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

Queen's Bath...
pulled from the archives. I'm absolutely convicted today that I need to get out and shoot more than I have been.

I've have a headcold this week and last night I was up a bunch of times visiting the bathroom. I'm not sure if its something that I ate or if I have the flu thats going around. You're not suppose to be able to be sick in paradise.

This upcoming week we have Stanley Leary
who is teaching on studio lighting and business.

adios...
jim baker

02.16.08 - enviromental portrait

2008-02-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

A host and hostess stand outside of Bubba Gump's Restaurant in downtown Kona Hawaii.

Jim Baker

02.16.08 - photostory

2008-02-16T12:20:00.001-08:00

One of our assignments this week was to go shoot a photo story. All of my original ideas fell through so I just walked into town and found this story.

Jake (27) sits on a tree stump on Alii drive weaving coconut palm leaves into baskets and hats.

Jake helps a tourist try on a hat. "These can last anywhere from 40-60 years." He says.

"How long does each piece take?" I ask. Jake responds, "The bowls take anywhere from thirty to forty-five minutes and the hats about an hour, hour and a half."

"I've been weaving for about three and a half years, I learned up here on Alli drive by watching Dennis Cashell for two and a half weeks."

"Sales are a hit and miss, it's totally random, some of the people that buy are tourists but some locals buy too."

"Hats go for $15 and the baskets go for $10."

"A good artist always cleans up after himself." Jake says proudly as he takes his scraps to the trash and packs up for the day.

Enjoy,
Jim Baker

02.14.08 - Happy Valentines Day

2008-02-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

or singles awareness day as some would like to call it...

"Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life."
Proverbs 4:23

Today is the half way point for our school... it's been six weeks and we've got six weeks to go.

I've got a cold... I shouldn't have a cold in hawaii.

This week we're learning about photo journalism from Louis Deluca who is the senior staff photographer at the Dallas Morning News.

We've got two assignments one to do an enviromental portrait and also to do a photo story. I need to get my rear in gear. Cause so far I've got nothing.

Adios,
Jim Baker

links you should check out...

2008-02-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Here's some links of class work from all of the students that you can check out...

Portraits

Panoramic

Spot Color Assignment

Selective Color

Here's a blog of a classmate Kaarin and on it is one of our short assignments. She also does a really good job of giving the details of everything that is going on here.

Kaarin's blog

Here is another classmates blog.

Cliff Cordes

And another's....

Johnny Koster

And lastly this is Amy's (classmate) husband's blog...

Phil Cunningham

I'd love to hear from you guys... drop me a comment or an e-mail.
jim baker

02.10.08 - Portrait Series

2008-02-10T21:30:00.001-08:00

Our assignment this weekend was to take portraits in color, black and white, and one with added texture. Pranee had asked me earlier in the week to do some family portraits for her so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Pranee and Hannah

SMOOCH!

family shot with subtle texture

this upcoming week we are covering photo journalism.
jim baker

02.09.08 - thought this would brighten your winter day

2008-02-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

I was transfering files from early on in the school and I came across this one. I think this is "that shot" that I've been looking for to show you Hawaii even though our school leader despises sunset shots. I actually took this the first week I got here but used a de-saturated version because I couldn't get the colors looking how I wanted them. Now that I know how to use lightroom better I was able to recover this pic.

enjoy,
jim baker

02.07.08 - pano

2008-02-07T09:39:00.001-08:00

cyan

Stitching together in Photoshop cs3.

8 vertical pictures and a sunset.

jim baker

02.05.08 - selective coloring/hand painting

2008-02-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in class Gary zipped through what all the tools in photoshop do. Then he showed us how to do selective coloring and hand painting and gave us the assignment to do it as well. Here's a picture of my roomates juggling soda cans.

Steven
(selective color)

Cliff
(hand painting)

looking forward to what we learn today,
jim baker

02.04.08 - color spots

2008-02-04T23:14:00.000-08:00

Gary S Chapman is teaching in our school this week on photoshop and lightroom.

This was our first assignment, go out and shoot spots of color and then use the print portion of lightroom to e-mail a pdf

pz
jim baker

02.03.08 - assignment 6

2008-02-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

I said I'd be in bed tonite by 10:00pm... its 11:02pm. The reason I wanted to be in bed by ten is so that I can get up in the morning and get some things done instead of just rolling out of bed and into class. Anyway...

Assignment 6 is due tomorrow and here are two of my favorites of the 36 shots we are turning in showing our understanding of color temp and white balance and also using a flash.

Morning light, daylight white balance, medium grey cloth included in shot as required.
This is my film SLR which I have yet to use out here...

This is Malachi. Malachi is Pranne's husband. Pranne is in our class and they have the most beautiful baby ever named Hannah.

This is bounce flash used as fill and dragging the shutter to show ambient light.

This upcoming week we have Gary Chapman (not to be confused with the guy who wrote the book The 5 love languages) and he will be teaching on photoshop and lightroom. I'm really looking forward to it.

jim baker

02.01.08 - Solemn

2008-02-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

This mornings assignment was to shoot, edit and submit a photo with the theme "solemn" in less than an hour and a half.

Happy February.
Jim Baker

12.31.08 - The Hilton Color Composition Project

2008-01-31T16:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to the Hilton as a class and had to demonstrate 5 pictures of color composition....

bold color

color harmony

High Key

Low Key

Monochromatic

welp... see ya later,
jim baker

01.26.08 - another one of last weeks shooting assignments

2008-01-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

Pick a peice of paper out of a hat and you have 10minutes to go shoot.

(her name is Emily Green... get it?)

jim baker

First Assignment

2008-01-24T13:11:00.001-08:00

Our first shooting assignment was due this morning...
Motion and Depth of Field.

panning

stop motion

blur motion

shallow depth of field

deep depth of field

jim baker

01.19.08 - efs 60mm macro

2008-01-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe our school is already a quarter of the way over. I just woke up from a pretty long nap its 2pm here. It's our weekend again for kitchen duty so we all were up at 5am and served breakfast to around 400 people. We're going to be back in the kitchen again in an hour to serve dinner.

One of my classmates Johanna (pictured below) has the EF-S 60mm Macro lens and Sophia (another classmate) was borrowing it and doing some awesome portraits with. You can see Sophia's work here. So I decided I'd try it out as well, its a great focal length for portraits as well as macros so here's a little taste of both. I was looking at this lens before I left but I didn't end up going with it. I wish I would have... Anyway, onto the pics.

Johanna

red flower

Sophia

saltines

Jim Baker

01.16.08 - more pics

2008-01-17T00:57:00.000-08:00

you know you're in photography school when there is more film in the fridge than there is food

salt of the earth

fill my cup to overflowing

i started out shooting a volleyball game this evening but we got bored...

leave me some love,
jim baker

Address...

2008-01-13T12:11:00.001-08:00

you know you're in photography school when scenes like this break out during the ice cream party.

Incase any of you wanted to snail mail me something...
(hint hint)

Jim Baker
UofN
SOP 1
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #257
Kailua-Kona HI 96740-2199
USA

01.12.08 - goya 4's

2008-01-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

G.O.Y.A stands for get off your arse and I heard about it through Rachel Barker who read about it on Zack Arias website. It's pretty much just getting out and shooting something you don't usually shoot... so here was my weekend goya presented to you in series of 4. I hope these show up.

jim baker

01.12.07 - end of week one

2008-01-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

What's up everyone? Here is a few pics from this first week. We haven't' had any photography assignments yet but I did manage to get out and shoot a bit. This school is going to be great. Its so awesome to be surrounded with like minded people that have a heart to do more with photography than just make bank. I'll do my best to keep this updated and let you know what I'm learning.

"magic sands"
taken with my sd870 point and shoot

sunset picture in b/w

a hill in hawaii

jim baker

01.06.08 - Bethany and Zade

2008-01-06T23:17:00.001-08:00

What's up everyone? I'm safe in Hawaii... i went out today and shot (non assignment) an engagement shoot for a friend of mine that is here visiting her family and her fiance. Classes start tomorrow... so far we've done orientation and work duties. Our weekend work duty this weekend was cooking and cleaning up breakfast and dinner for about 400 people. :) So this one will be short, I'm pretty tired.

Onto the pics...

Zade and Bethany
Hawaii in Jan. :)
Which I had a wireless flash I could have lit them up better...

The ring

desat and contrast

b/w
(my personal favorite image from the shoot)

on the hammock

sitting at tables

Zade and Bethany!

Jim Baker

Gear?!

2008-01-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

If you were following my regular photography blog you know that there was a large list of WANTS for this upcoming school. Well I am proud to tell you that I have everything that I wanted except an ipod touch. Here's a picture (not the greatest pic) of my gear. If you want a detailed list of everything you can check it out here. Frankly, I don't care what gear you have, if you can shoot, you can shoot. Less talk about gear and more shooting. :) I always despised (was jealous of) the kids that had gibson guitars and marshall amps that couldn't play. I'm coming to the realization that you do indeed need different gear for different gigs but I feel like this stuff here is a good overall bag of tricks. (Probably to much stuff in reality) We'll see what happens.