My "Best Of" from 2009

jeffreaux2 · January 5, 2010

May as well jump on the bandwagon....:D

2009 was the first year that I had no goals with my photography. Before, I had always set goals to accomplish certain things by years end. For instance, I wanted to have begun using off camera flash by years end 2008 and be set up to use a long telephoto for portraits. I made that goal, but had set no expectations for 2009.

So what happened for me in 2009 with no goals?

I learned that I HAD to add umbrellas for my outdoor off camera flash portraits...and did.

I began shooting "manual" in ALL situations, where I used to choose "aperture priority" most of the time.

I gave up on TTL metering, and instead began using the histogram as my sole guide for exposure...something I had done before....but usually only for indoor weddings, or bright conditions outdoors that prevented image review on a LCD due to sun glare.

I had fun!....and hope you did as well!!!:thumb

Without further ado...

(a handfull of these were shot at the very end of 2008....AFTER I put my best of 2008 slideshow together so I included them here)

1-

2-

3-

4 and 5

6-

7 and 8

9-

10-

11-

12, 13, 14

15-

16, 17

18-

19-

20-

21-

22

23-

24, 25

26, 27

28-

29-

30

31

32

33-

34-

35-

36-

37-

38-

39-

40-

41-

...and on a more personal note

42- My youngest on the evening of her last Homecoming Dance.

43-My older daughter - We had just moved her into her first apartment, away at college.

44-Our oldest, my son, painting the kitchen in the home(his first) he bought this year.

45- Maggie....a new addition to our family

lilmomma · January 5, 2010

Hey Jeff can you post a link to the slideshow? For some reason embedded slideshows aren't showing up for me on my work computer, and I really want to look at these! Thanks!

edit: wait, is there a slideshow or just pics in the post?

Qarik · January 5, 2010

hahaha...21 kills me!

heatherfeather · January 5, 2010

Oh good. You added more. I kept thinking... "Wait! Where is such and such photo!?"
Love them all!

But your little doggie is super cute... and one of my favorites!

jeffreaux2 · January 5, 2010

heatherfeather wrote:

Oh good. You added more. I kept thinking... "Wait! Where is such and such photo!?"
Love them all!

But your little doggie is super cute... and one of my favorites!

Im done adding....

Theres more....hard to choose.....but......I dont wanna bog anything down.

I was putting a video of faves together for my blog, but am having issues with getting to the right format from Adobe Premiere to Smugmug.

...and the pup (Maggie) still has much to learn...

We love her, of course, but still miss her predecessor.

adbsgicom · January 5, 2010

Very nice stuff Jeff!! A very good year, IMO.

Agnieszka · January 5, 2010

Beauuutiful!!!

I have to say I was missing your senior & other portraits in the last couple of months.

Really nice work Jeff

CTUphoto · January 5, 2010

As with my comments on Heather's "best of" thread, I've been stalking your work for quite some time as well. Your Senior portraits are out of this world. You've done some amazing work this year. Among my favorites....22-23, 37-38, and 42...those series as a whole really stand out. Finally, while not your specialty, the series around #40--wow!--what an event. You did an excellent job capturing all of the emotion at that game (and putting it into words for us here).

Keep up the outstanding work Jeff. You are truly an inspiration to me.

Now....off to learn more about shooting with histogram only

~jb

Elaine · January 5, 2010

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I'm loving seeing these reviews!

You had a splendid year. Can't wait to see what you capture this year!

divamum · January 5, 2010

So many of my own favorites of yours in this batch, Jeff - really, what an inspiration. I feel so grateful that you were one of the first people to "talk" to me in this place, starting out by and were so encouraging from the beginning - really, you telling me to stop watching and start DOING the challenges was the push I needed to give it a try and .... well, now look what you've gone and created!!

I love the ivy+red dress, and the shadow from that e-session has always been one of my very favorites of yours, but to single those out wouln'dt be fair to the other awesome shots you have in here. Bravo!

VayCayMom · January 5, 2010

Ok, I was shocked to read about your goals, off camera flash by end of 2008, I had you pegged for someone that had years and years of pro photography under their belt.

Well that makes me even more impressed.
Always a treat to see your posts. I love what you do with seniors, teens etc. great stuff.

l.k.madison · January 5, 2010

Bre's so beautiful, everytime I see her, she's more and more striking, and as always, you capture her spirit in every photograph.

And you never cease to amaze me, your pictures make me warm and fuzzy inside (I blame it on your coloring), they really do, almost calming but in a non-stalker, I-promise-I-really-am-just-a-huge-fan kind of way.

And Maggie, oh Maggie, what a cute little devil she is. I still can't figure out how she managed to un-tie my shoe, but that's just what dogs do

.

Stunning. Amazing. Beautiful. As always.

And slightly off topic, Lauren (the senior, not me) looks a bit like a younger version of Alanis Morissette, anybody else see it besides me?

rwells · January 6, 2010

Jeff,

I hadn't seen a lot of these images, very very nice work

Thanks for taking the time to post these!

jeffreaux2 · January 7, 2010

Thanks all....for having a look and taking the time to comment.:D

jeffreaux2 · January 7, 2010

CTUphoto wrote:

As with my comments on Heather's "best of" thread, I've been stalking your work for quite some time as well. Your Senior portraits are out of this world. You've done some amazing work this year. Among my favorites....22-23, 37-38, and 42...those series as a whole really stand out. Finally, while not your specialty, the series around #40--wow!--what an event. You did an excellent job capturing all of the emotion at that game (and putting it into words for us here).

Keep up the outstanding work Jeff. You are truly an inspiration to me.

Now....off to learn more about shooting with histogram only

~jb

..as for the histogram....

...why trust some Canon or Nikon engineer to decide whats "correct"....?....especially when they aren't stood shoulder to shoulder with you to know the situation and what you are trying to accomplish?

...you'll never go back!!!:D

Thank you for your kind comments.

jeffreaux2 · January 7, 2010

divamum wrote:

So many of my own favorites of yours in this batch, Jeff - really, what an inspiration. I feel so grateful that you were one of the first people to "talk" to me in this place, starting out by and were so encouraging from the beginning - really, you telling me to stop watching and start DOING the challenges was the push I needed to give it a try and .... well, now look what you've gone and created!!

I love the ivy+red dress, and the shadow from that e-session has always been one of my very favorites of yours, but to single those out wouln'dt be fair to the other awesome shots you have in here. Bravo!

Thank you DM.

Let's hope we can meet the expectations of 2010!:D

jeffreaux2 · January 7, 2010

VayCayMom wrote:

Ok, I was shocked to read about your goals, off camera flash by end of 2008, I had you pegged for someone that had years and years of pro photography under their belt. Well that makes me even more impressed.
Always a treat to see your posts. I love what you do with seniors, teens etc. great stuff.

Well I have been a photography enthusiast for well over......well....for a long, long time.....but only got seriously interested in portraits around 2007. Then...for the longest...I was hardheaded about being an "existing light" photographer. Live and learn , eh?

Each step....adding flash....adding off camera flash......has been a quantam leap in rewards as far as the end result for me.

Thanks for commenting.

lilmomma · January 7, 2010

looks like a great year Jeff! you are definitely someone to look up to and learn from. I too was suprised
to find out about your goals from 08! Off camera flash is something I plan on working on this year. Thanks for the inspiration!

My "Best Of" from 2009

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