More from L.A.

I thought I’d post a couple of more photos from my trip to Los Angeles back in June. These are a few I enjoyed.

I enjoy this photo because of its angle. I was just trying new things.

Again, this was a new angle for me. I just stepped on chair and shot down on the notebook. Makes for at least a fairly interesting composition in an environment that didn't lend itself to many of them.

I stepped on a chair and shot down on this group of students in L.A. This is very much a PR-style photo.

It was difficult for me to shoot in this small theatre because it was so dark. But I liked the way the bank of lights appear in this photo.

I was in line at Universal Studios in Hollywood and saw this girl leaning up against a post. She looked depressed, so I snapped the shot.

Las Vegas Photos Update

I mentioned a few posts ago that I would pick some of my favorite individual photos from each of the slideshows I posted and present them here. Next up would be some photos I took from my trip to Las Vegas last summer. I went to a couple of casions while I was there, but I really used it as a weekend to take some photos of my neice and nephew, specifically. I shared those photos earlier, so I won’t be reposting them here. The pictures I took in and of the casinos are nothing special, so they’re not much worth sharing.

Chicago Trip

I mentioned a few posts ago that I would pick some of my favorite individual photos from each of the slideshows I posted and present them here. Next up are some photos I took from my trip to Chicago last summer for an AEJMC conference. I went to a couple of sessions while I was there, but I really used it as a weekend to grab the camera and take some photos. I went to Navy Pier, to a Cubs game and downtown to snap some shots. I got some photos I'm actually quite proud of, and I'll be sharing those here.

I caught this girl anxiously chewing her nails. I'm not sure what she was waiting for. But it's a candid moment. And I like that it was shot through the bars.

There were a bunch of kids playing around this wall of water when I was at Navy Pier. I caught this girl alone, staring wonderingly at the water. You can't see her face, but I still think this is effective.

I like bringing my camera to day baseball games. You can catch people in completely candid, vulnerable moments. I caught these two kissing. It's a bit obscured by the woman with blond hair. And the photo is a little dark. (I didn't have time to adjust the exposure before she went in for the smooch.) But I like this one nonetheless.

A colleague of mine was interested in sign photography last summer, and I guess he influenced me to give it a try. So I shot this sign at the entrance to Navy Pier. I tried angling the shot a little bit, and I liked how it turned out. Angling is gimmicky, for sure, but this one feels OK. (This one may look blurry. That's because I had to scale down the file size of the photo to upload here.)

After I took this photo, I thought of starting a Flash-based Web site with the URL: www.section215.com. I was going to fill it with some of my photography, and there was going to be a special section on the site for photos of signs that said Section 215. I had this dream of going to sporting venues and taking pictures of their Section 215 signs. Well, it's a year later, and none of that has come to fruition. I still may try to do it.

Here's some more of that gimmicky angling. But I think this works OK, too. This is a vendor at Wrigley.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos. I found this old water fountain across the street from Navy Pier, so I started shooting it. I don't normally like turning photos black and white, but for this old piece, I think it works because the fountain has some character already. I shot it in color, and I like the B/W feel here.

Here's another photo favorite of mine. I have this on in color, too, and I'm not sure which one I like better. But the black and white effect works well with this one, so I don't mind using it here.

Newton-Proctor Wedding Album

I mentioned a few posts ago that I would pick some of my favorite individual photos from each of the slideshows I posted and present them here. Next up are some photos I took from my aunt’s wedding last summer in Wilmington, N.C. She essentially hired me out to be her wedding photography. (It was free labor, of course. That’s what family is all about.) I tried to convince to hire a professional, telling her she’d want fantastic photos of her wedding to remember forever. But she said I’d do well for her and insisted that I shoot the wedding. I obliged, with a healthy dose of skepticism in my abilities. But it was a fun experience, and I learned, which, I guess, is what benefitted me the most. I took a few low quality photos, some decent ones and a couple of good ones. Here are a few of the photos that I really did enjoy.

My aunt B.Jay and her husband, Graham, after the ceremony and the reception had ended. It's just a happy photo of the two them that was taken crisply and cleanly in a dark party room. I like that the lighting turned out well here.

The big lesson you learn from doing wedding photography: Follow the bride. Here, I caught my aunt in a candid moment, as she shares a loud, long laugh with a friend of hers.

My aunt B.Jay slides the ring onto Graham's finger. As I mentioned, the room was dark, so it became difficult to get great shots. I kept taking photos that were either too dark or too exposed by the flash. Occasionally, I would get the mix right, and something nice would turn out. This isn't necessarily one of those circumstances, but it is a photo of the ring sliding onto Graham's finger, which I enjoy.

Here are my Dad and my sister. Want to forget about the rule of thirds? Then just zoom in tight. I like this photo because it's exposed well and because both my sister and dad are photogenic.

This is simply a candid shot of one of my aunt's friends at her wedding. I caught her in a moment of emotion, the photo was lit well and the picture is clean.

Here's Graham with his sister Margaret. She's scratching his beard, and you can see his reaction. A cool pic, I think.

Ainge Children

I mentioned a few posts ago that I would pick some of my favorite individual photos from each of the slideshows I posted and present them here. Next up are some photos I took of my niece last summer when I visited Las Vegas with my wife. These were just some typical family photos, but I took a few that I really enjoy. In fact, there are two shots here that are a couple of my all-time favorite pictures. It doesn’t hurt that my niece Madison is uber-photogenic.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos. I can't fully explain why. But here she is peering from behind a couch. You can really only see the left eye. The rest of her head is obscured. It's her at her most innocent. She loves having her photo taken, but at this moment, being photographed wasn't something she really wanted to do.

Here's Madison kicking at some palette's outside the new house here parents were building. She didn't really want to be there. It was hot, and she was tired. And I think that comes through in this photo. It's my other all-time favorite.

This is similar to the other photo, but she's more squared up. I know angling the camera like I did is a bit gimmicky, but I think it works here.

Madison was brushing my wife's hair here, and I just turned the camera upward and shot. It's a nice shot to me because of the dark lighting. I know it would be more effective if she were standing through a bright blue sky. But this one touches me anyway.

Paris Slideshow

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I would pick some of my favorite individual photos from each of the slideshows I posted and present them here. Next up are two photos from the trip my dad, wife and I took to Paris. There weren’t too many that were great photos. Just a lot of family and touristy stuff. But these two weren’t so bad.

These two random women are standing in the atrium of the L'Ouvre and looking at a map of the massive museum. I like catching random people in normal moments. I happened to catch these two. There's not much depth of field, and it doesn't follow the rule of thirds. But it's not posed.

A random tourist does a sketch of a sculpture in the L'Ouvre. My dad is in the background.

New Blog!

Pardon this brief interruption ...

Hey, everyone, let me hype you to new blogs I've helped start that you definitely need to check out.

1. Pick and Pop. (http://pickandpop.wordpress.com/) I started this blog with my buddy Justin from Maryland. It's going to be a sports-centered blog, but we're going to make it interactive. We'll post polls, you'll vote and we'll discuss the topic of your choosing. We also plan on adding some audio and video elements to the blog to make it more dynamic and unique. Be sure to swing by and check us out. We're ranting on the NBA draft at the moment. But with football season about to gear up, I'm sure we'll shift our focus in a month or two.

And, of course, Prolix Prone is still open for business. I'm going to use this to write about all the other stuff that Pick and Pop and Colin Donohue Photography don't cover. And never fear, Prolix Prone will always be the home for your LeTravel James degradation.

Thanks, everyone.