Are my photos for sale?

While all of my photographs are copyrighted, they are available for non-exclusive licensing and I also sell large size prints. Contact me via email at greg.jones.design@icloud.com for pricing info.

Welcome

to my personal blog. Here I post examples of my photography and writing. I specialize in making unique and highly detailed photographs. Notice I said making and not taking. Yes I take photos but a lot of time and work is involved in pushing and punishing the pixels in my images to achieve the look I like.

Please feel free make comments about any of my words or photos. I enjoy constructive critiques, learning about locations to shoot or photography techniques. Click on the "Share Article" link to share any of my photos via Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Want to use one of my posts in your own blog? No problem, but please make sure it links back to the original post here and do the right thing and give me credit. Don't copy my words, crop the images, remove the watermarks or claim my work as your own. This has happened more times than I can count so I've had to report copyright violations to ISP's and regrettably the violators blog is usually taken down.

Can't we all just get along?

Sunday
Sep152013

Step Right Up But Don't Call it a Swan

Two car shows in one weekend. Southern California Bomb Club show in Whittier yesterday and The Cruz'n for the Roses show in South Pasadena today. Kathy would say I wasn't trying very hard. I've known her to visit 3 or 4 shows in a single day! Anyway, this hood ornament was located on the front of a spectacular 1948 Packard Super 8 I found sitting in the sunshine on Mission Street. The owner was very cool and chatted with me for a few minutes letting me know that this was a Cormorant and not a Swan. I think I took 50 shots of this non-Swan alone. Even took a few with my new Lensbaby Edge 80 lens. I was baffled by  a couple of people who, using their cell phone's camera, stepped in front of my camera and tripod telling me "you look like you know what you're doing, let me get this quick shot". I informed them that they were being rude and to ask before stepping in front of me. Glad I look like I know what I'm doing. Mission accomplished I guess.
Sunday
Sep152013

Lead Sled - Slammed '60 Caddy

I spotted this slammed 1960 purple Cadillac at the Cruz'n for the Roses car show this morning. The owner closed the trunk and removed the entry paperwork from the front window so I could get a cleaner shot. He didn't have to do that so that was pretty nice. Unfortunately it didn't stop people from stepping into my shot of course but that's kind of expected. I was being patient but the owner was saying "tell them to get out of the way!" What great style this car has. Check out the bed-of-nails  grill.
Sunday
Sep152013

Getting All Up in Your Grill

Face full of a '39 Chevy Master Deluxe from the Southern California Bomb Club's car show held in Whittier, CA this morning.  They don't build them like this any more boys and girls. You have to see one of these rolling masterpieces to appreciate the exuberant styling Chevy's designers imparted here just as the world was exploding into war.
Sunday
Sep152013

Bomb Club Bokeh - Plate 1

I went to a car show early this morning. It was hosted by the Southern California Bomb Club. The show didn't officially start until 11:00 AM but roll in for the cars was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is when I arrived. By that time there were already about 100 cars there and while the sun was bright it wasn't really hot yet. I set right to taking as many photos as I could before the sun drove me to take cover. There were a ton of awesome hood ornaments and since the cars were parked side by side, lots of chrome to provide the bokeh dots!
Tuesday
Sep102013

Heavenly Light (and Timing)


I was sitting in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, San Francisco when the sun's diurnal track across the sky allowed it to quite suddenly shine directly into the vast, towering space, illuminating it beautifully. While very long, the roof skylight isn't very wide so the effect only lasted about 10 minutes but it was cool! I was fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time with a camera and tripod.

Tuesday
Sep102013

Non-Linear

I saw a photo of this atrium on a Washington DC tour book. I showed it to Kathy and she said "I know where that is, National Portrait Gallery." We were staying not too far away so we visited. The evening was really nice, with cool temperatures and the undulating atrium roof was spectacular. The locals seem to hang out here, buying coffee and pastries and chatting one another up. Kathy is sitting on a planter on the left patiently waiting for me to finish shooting some photos and video. The "no tripods" rule is in full force here so to get this shot, I had to hold my camera over my head and press it firmly against a wall while shooting 3 frames for this HDR composite. I was able to hold it perfectly still and it worked just fine. After walking around the nearly empty galleries, we walked to a local restaurant in the fading light and had dinner.
Monday
Sep092013

Woodly Park Zoo Station


This is the Woodly Park Zoo metro station in Washington DC. I have always found the architecture of DC's metro stations to be interesting and very worthy of a photo or two. While the stations are nice,it can be a little disconcerting when an express train blasts through the station without stopping or seeming to slow down. You can kind of see one on the right side of the photo. Just look for the semi-transparent blur.
Monday
Sep092013

Multiverse

Just prior to Kathy and I traveling to Washington DC, I had been reading a very interesting book about Hugh Everett's "Many-Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. One of the concepts the reader has to wrap his or her head around is that of the existence of a multiverse, where there isn't a single universe but instead an infinite number of them which are constantly splitting. One where you ate breakfast in the morning and one where you didn't, one where you posted a photo of an interesting art installation and one where you didn't and on and on. Anyway, there are many Smithsonian art museums but on the National Mall there are two that have a walkway between them which is located below ground level. At some point a very interesting art exhibit called "multiverse" was installed. It consists of thousands of LED lights that race around making patterns that are really compelling. You can walk the length of this tunnel or ride on one of two moving sidewalk conveyor belt thingies like the two guys in the photo are doing.
Wednesday
Sep042013

Hotel Window View of Downtown San Diego

Josh, Alexandra and I spent the weekend in San Diego. This was the view out the hotel room window. Sorry about the reflections on the glass. Not much I could do about them. I didn't have my polarizing filter with me.
Wednesday
Sep042013

Dream Car

As usual, Kathy and I were very excited that the day of the annual Uptown Whittier Car Show had finally arrived. We were out very early and I quickly decided that the first car I wanted to photograph was this beautiful Chevrolet Bel Aire. The owners son sleeping in the passenger seat seemed to take all of the excitement in stride. Never stirring once even with all the noise my DSLR's shutter and mirror were making right next to the car door.