Beautiful Skies

Pittsburgh

Even though it is dark by 5:15pm, I found myself in a wonderfully timed situation to grab some pictures of our fair city. I was headed back from picking up framing supplies in Sharpsburg when I saw the sun and clouds above Downtown Pittsburgh. I immediately scanned the map in my brain for the best place to shoot. I just so happened to be close to the 40th street bridge. I cut across, found a spot to park, grabbed the gear and headed out across the bridge before the light changed too much. The contrast of the bright sun peeking through the clouds against the river and the city was too much. I remembered that my camera had an “HDR Mode” built in, but it required me to shoot JPEGs, not RAW. I tried once with the normal settings, but it was too intense. I sighed and searched the menu for HDR Mode. A few clicks later, I was fairly satisfied with what I had gotten. The result (after very little tweaking) was this:
HDR mode in camera shot from the 40th street bridge
An Explosion Of Clouds Mirrored In The Allegheny

Feeling the need to “cleanse my palette”, I threw on the 70-200 and zoomed in for a tighter shot of the railroad bridge and the reflection. This is the result:

Forty Streets OutForty Streets Out

A break from editing portraits..

Uncategorized

I’m glad that it wasn’t overly sunny and beautiful today. It would have made it infinitely worse to sit in my office and edit the 3 overdue portrait sessions that have been waiting for me. It has been a silly week filled with too many things. I’ve worked my usual “nine to five” (ish) and installed 120SqFt of tile in my mom’s kitchen. I managed to get some new rooftop images of Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning (coming soon), and even snagged a couple of fall pics on Friday afternoon. After sorting & culling images from the past week’s sessions, designing a case for a client’s wedding images, created a new business card, modified an old one, and sending all of that to the lab, I rewarded myself. I edited a couple of the shots of a glowing autumn tree from Friday’s quick shoot. Enjoy!Autumn GoldShowing Off At SunsetThe Sky Filtered Through Golden Leaves

Nine & Twenty – from the Copper Creator

Product Photography

Towel rack / paper towel dispenser
Towel rack / paper towel dispenser

Being a photographer in a group of artistically minded and creative friends has its perks. It also means that I get called on from time to time to help document and promote their wares. My longtime friend, partner in crime, drinking buddy, and former landlord, Nate Bell has opened a storefront to his re-purposed copper pipe works.

 

Beverage Unlocker
Beverage Unlocker

 

 

 

I shot a few pieces to help get the site up and running, had a session in the workshop for Nate to submit for a ScoutMob site, and most recently captured images of new works like the ones you see in this post.

Sexy bottle opener
Sexy bottle opener

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I <3 Lamp
I <3 Lamp

I really dig the way that he has utilized a material that, generally, no one sees and assemble pieces in such a way to make an aesthetically pleasing and functional piece of art.

 

 

 

 

Have a look at his site, Nine&Twenty!

 

(for those trivia buffs out there, Nine & Twenty, or 29, refers to the atomic number for Copper)

Fall Foliage + Waterfalls = Awesome

Nature, ,

Autumn At The FallsIt is that time of year again. Summer has waved goodbye until next year, families are lining up for portrait sessions, and the leaves are changing. One of my favorite combinations of nature’s events to capture is the Autumn waterfall, complete with orange, red, and yellow leaves. I accompanied two great photographer friends of mine to the waterfall at McConnell’s Mill for a half day of climbing and shooting. Being the ridiculous creature that I am, I took the steep and most direct way down to the falls. This was something that my companions just shook their heads at and headed off to the “long and safe” way around.

The day was a lWhere The Water Flowslittle too sunny for my taste, but it still yielded many, many great shots. There were a lot of green leaves still on trees, but more than enough on the rocks surrounding the waterfalls. It was the first time that I had been out on the rocks in nearly 6 months. There were a couple of slides and (somewhat) close calls that yielded scrapes and bruises on my knees and legs. I accepted these with a childlike joy, as if I was some rambunctious toddler without fear.  At one point I looked over at the other two to see that one had caught a salamander and was quickly running to show the other who had never seen one before. I laughed and shook my head, now realizing that we were all feeling like little kids at that moment. It was a departure from what this group usually does, trading abandoned buildings for the great outdoors. I mentioned that climbing on the slippery rocks, shimmying down fallen logs, and leaping from rock to rock over the drop of the falls was only slightly less dangerous as some of the things that we had done as UrbExers.Homage To The Fallen

I cannot wait to visit some of my other local spots for more water and leaves. Perhaps this afternoon, in the spirit of adventure, on a day that is set aside to honor a person who, at the very least, had a sense of adventure. There’s no need to talk about all of the “not-so-nice” things that Cristóbal did. I’ll leave it at that.

-Jason

Long time, no update…

Uncategorized

So it has been a while since I’ve posted anything here. A lot has been going on since my last post. For those who know me personally, this may be old news. I moved from Washington to Erie for a bit and when that didn’t work out, I moved back to the Pittsburgh Area. I spent 2 years living in Beechview with an old friend. I had wonderful access to the City of Pittsburgh and photographed there often and frequently.  I got a job working in the West End for a company that had a data entry contract. That job changed my life for the best. I met a wonderful woman that I will be marrying on the 10th of August of this year.

2012 was a great year for my photography. Although the commercial aspect of the business was slow, I undertook a grand project that spanned an entire year. I started a Picture a Day project. I set strict guidelines for myself. Each day I had to shoot a new image for that day only. I had to shoot it between 12:00am and 11:59pm, edit it, and post it online. I didn’t even realize until the middle of January that it was a leap year. 366 images are now part of my 2012 Picture a Day project that I successfully completed on New Year’s Eve 2012. One of those images received a great deal of exposure and made it’s way around the social media outlets. It was a lucky snap of multiple lightning bolts above Pittsburgh.

In the summer of 2012 I met a great group of people that share my love of Urban Exploration. We visit old and abandoned places, capture images and document the state of things and share our view of these places with the world. I’m so fortunate to have met up with such a great group of new friends and talented photographers.

 

At the time of writing this, my fiancee and I have been in our home for almost a year. Oh, how the time flies. It seemed like only yesterday that we closed and took a picture of the two of us holding the keys to our new home.

I am now in the process of updating my antiquated website and building a stronger presence on the web. 2013 and beyond will see me concentrating more on my work, both commercial and personal. I will attempt to keep up with this blog to the best of my ability. Here’s to a great rest of 2013!

©2013 DivineMayhemStudios

Sus & William

Engagement, Mountain Playhouse, Sus and William

Sus & William’s engagement shoot at The Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown, Pa was a real treat! Being the location of their wedding as well, I had to try and hold back some of the sweetest spots for formals on the big day. It started to sprinkle halfway through the shoot, but we still managed to get some fantastic shots. Here are a few of my favorites!


©2010 DivineMayhemStudios