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Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture Value: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO - 80

The weather around the area really hasn't cooperated with my desire to use my camera. So I decided today, for the daily post to do some processing on an older image. This one was taken the day after Veterans Day at the Olympia Capital Campus. It was a fairly decent day with a few good sun breaks. This image I think looks much better in black and white then in color. Not to mention I love the effect on the rose in the bottom left corner. Well hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. That's it from me. Until tomorrow...

Jason 

Hot Off the Sensor

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 14mm
Aperture Value: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO - 100

Here's a delightful photo that I took just 3 short hours ago. It had been raining pretty badly all morning and when we finally had a sun break we were rewarded with this wonderful rainbow. I couldn't resist taking a picture and suprisingly it turned out fairly well. Hope everyone enjoys. Not sure if the webpage will be updated this weekend but we'll see. Kindof busy...

Jason 

Hamas

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 45mm
Aperture Value: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/8 sec.
ISO - 100

First of all let me say to my new audience, the wonderful individuals at the NSA, welcome. You have reached what I believe to be one of the best photo blogs on the internet. So now you must be wondering what does Hamas have to do with a photography blog? Absolutely nothing... However, as a student of Political Science I feel an obligation to talk about it. Because this this is a photography blog I will keep this short. The world either got more violent or more peaceful today. Democracy works even if the results may be undesireable for some. Today and for the next few months this election needs to be taken in context. I am certainly surprised that it did happen but not at all surprised that it could happen. Before peace is ruled out we must wait for Hamas to make their first moves, towards successful politics or sustained terrorism. Whether America or Isreal likes it or not Hamas is now a political party, a politcal party with political power. Lets let them decide what kind of party they will be, and how they will preside in the Palestinian Authority. *Steps off his soapbox*

Back to photography... So I thought I was going to have to throw out this picture of the Sounder speeding through Edmonds, as it was much to dark at the time, but fortunately it gave it a very abstract look. I mean who likes perfectly still images anyways. Pictures are supposed to convey reality and well movement is part of reality and hopefully it was captures well in this photo. Not much else going on today, spent most my day reading the newspaper or online articles. So maybe this weekend I'll finish the update, probably not as I have a paper but we can all hope. That's it for today, and if you haven't yet take some time out of your day and read the headlines today about Hamas. Like it or not events halfway around the world DO effect us all...

Jason 

Edmonds, Washington

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 14mm
Aperture Value: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO - 100

Well I said I was going to go to Edmonds and take some photos of what was a beautiful sunset. I took a good 120 photos or so, and certainly got some keepers. Still trying to learn about my camera, what works and what doesn't. It's a slow process but I can certainly see some improvement in my pictures since the first day. Which is the goal.

In other news got visits from three more countries in the past few days; Gambia (which gives me visitors in every continent except Antartica), Turkey, and Mexico. The visitors numbers are still going up and down. Not sure what I can do to get more visitors though I'm trying to do some networking, trying to get my work out there. Anyways that's enough about my quest to be a professional hobbist photography. Hope everyone enjoys the photos.

Jason 

Sunshiny Day

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 22mm
Aperture Value: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec
ISO - 80

So I'm pretty sure that sunshiny isn't a word but luckily this blog isn't concerned with spelling or grammar. Nevertheless today is indeed one of those few sunny winter days. On the agenda today will be a bit of a road trip up to Edmonds, where I took pictures with my original Olympus some 5 months ago. Hopefully I'll get a good sunset, but at the very least the Cascades have a great deal of snow on them so that should make some nice pictures. Anyways not much new really, finished one midterm so maybe my posts will increase. That's it for now, maybe if I'm feeling energetic this evening I'll post another picture, though I doubt it.

Jason 

Train Tracks

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 25mm
Aperture Value: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO - 100

This by the way is a control switch for a railroad track. Kindof hard to tell or maybe not... Either way the weather around here is getting a little better so I took the opprutunity to take a few photos around my father's house. Got some decent ones, some will show up here and others on my Deviant Art account, a new addition to my photography life. So here it is, my DA account address. http://usarca2001.deviantart.com. Hope everyone enjoys it, I'm hoping that it will lead to some increased networking. We'll see... Still working on studying, kindof, so that is it for now...

Jason 

Working and Studying

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 14mm
Aperture Value: f/22
Shutter Speed: 8 sec
ISO - 100

Here's a nice photo of Seattle at dusk. Playing with a slower shutter speed and different apertures. I'd say it turned out pretty well. Saddly though my sunset pictures did not work out so well. Oh well got plenty of other good photos.
On the webpage front should get something accomplished this weekend, hopefully in the form of an update. We'll see, no promises. Well that's it for now I have a midterm to study for so blogging might take a back seat for a little while...

Jason 

Statistics

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture Value: f/3.3
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec.
ISO - 80

Well for all those viewers in California here is another photo from my trip to Mountain View. I'm going to break today from my normal routine of talking about myself and photography to tell you, my viewer, a little bit about your fellow viewers. I use Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) to determine what kind of exposure that I am getting on a daily basis here on my blog. I've started tracking my exposure since the 15th of November of 2005 and here is what I've learned.
For the most part I average about 4 visitors everyday. My maximum visits in one day occured on November 16th and January 16th; with a total number of visits of 11. I have had a total of 212 visits since November 15th(not unique); about 60 percent of which were unique. The majority of my visits are from people directly typing in http://raptimagery.blogspot.com, or from bookmarks. The vast majority of my visitors are from the United States, followed by Canada and then the United Kingdom. Within the United States most my viewers are from Washington (where I'm from), then Illinios and third California. My page has been viewed in a total of 9 states and 10 countries in four continents, no one yet from Africa.
Well those are the stats after about two months. I feel that I've done pretty good so far and hopefully the next two months will show even more improvements and more visitors. Unfortunately my comments aren't reflecting my number of visitors so I encourage everyone to send a few comments, providing me with feedback with what you like and what you don't. This will help me focus my photos to my audience. That's it for today. Thanks as always for viewing.

Jason 

Oh What to Post...

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 28mm
Aperture Value: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec.
ISO - 80

It's starting to get harder and harder to determine what I want to post and what I'm going to put on the website and what is just crap. I decided that I'd save some of my better pictures from my E-500 for a future update to the webpage. Along the lines of the webpage I've done all the post processing and added borders to all the images so it is simply a matter of putting those images on webpages and then upload to the server. I was hoping to finish that yesterday but I was distracted by dinner and a movie. Maybe this week sometime.
What I will say about the next set of pictures is that it shows a marked improvement on my composition and subject matter. I'd say that my images have improved a great deal since I started this whole blog and webpage experience. I've had a bit of feedback but I would still like some more so that I can mature as a photographer, it's important trust me. Anyways I do appreciate you taking time to take a look and hope you enjoy the photos. That's it for today...

Jason 

C-17

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 150mm
Aperture Value: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO - 100

Well this shot took a bit of doing... I sent this one to my brother, who also does photography (http://www.thephotoevangelist.com), last night so I'll simply quote from my email...

I had noticed this plane doing it’s touch and go’s but didn’t think it would fly right over where I was. I had my wide angle lens on when I saw that I was going to fly just about right over where I was and switched my lenses faster then I would have liked; I think it took my like 2 seconds total to switch… But I got the shot!

It was great fun... I spent just about all of yesterday doing photography, which is why I haven't posted in a while. But I hope this makes up for it and the cose to 400 pictures I took in the last 24 hours. Sadly though I've been having problems with my xD card and lost about 100 pictures, some really good one, but what can you do right? Well that's it for now. Still trying to update the webpage and all that.

- Jason 

The Good with the Bad

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 45mm
Aperture Value: f/9
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO - 400

There are of course good and bad things when you finally decide to change cameras. First of all depending on if you change horizontally (a similar class of camera) or vertically (a differnt class) there presents different problems. So far all of my changes have been verticlal, moving from a simple point and shoot (Olympus Stylus 410) to a more complex point and shoot (Panasonic DMC FZ-5) to a Digital SLR (Olympus E-500). Each time there has been a learning curve that had to be mastered before I could fully use the camera effectively.
Currently I am facing one of those learning curves a much steeper one then before. Moving from a point and shoot to a Digital SLR is a whole different world. Mainly there is very little assistance before you take the shot. You don't get the ability to roughly see how it will turn out but rather have to rely on your knowledge of aperture value and shutter speeds. Of course you can cheat and using the fully automatic mode, but where would the fun be in that. But as with any camera you must know what it can do, what it can't do, and simply how to do what it can do. I am still very much in that stage with my new camera, and my results are marginal.
On the positive side of things a vertical change should give you better pictures, especially since I both raised my megapixels and quality of camera and lenses. There is also an intangible result, passion. Yes that's right getting a new camera gave me a new found passion for photography, not that I wasn't passionate before but I find myself wanting to take pictures all day of everything. Now maybe it's the sound of a shutter, which I believe to be one of the greatest sounds in the world, or maybe its just wanting to play with a new toy. Either way I've taken hundreds of pictures in the last 48 hours. Hopefully I will continue to have time this weekend to do the same. Well that's all for now, the rambling is over; for now.

Jason 

New Camera

Olympus E-500
Focal Length: 45mm
Aperture Value: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec.
ISO - 100

Well here it is ladies and gentlemen the first picture that I am posting from my new Digital SLR camera. I did a few test shots yesterday with it, just to get a feeling for it, during the breaks in the rain. Unfortunately today there has been absolutely no breaks in the rain so photography is kindof out of the question, at least outdoor photography. Hope you can tell the difference, you may not as the image is so small but take my word that the full sized images are incredibly sharp even at 100% magnification. All in all photography life is good.
Not much else to report really. Since I've only had the camera for a few days I haven't really had time to take webpage worthy shots, not to mention the weather hasn't exactly cooperated with me either. I should be updating the webpage this weekend or something soon with the last set from my Panasonic DMC FZ-5. More then likely I won't start continuously posting images from the E-500 for another few weeks, still working on my image base. As always though if you are interested in photos you see on here or on my webpage shoot me an email and I'd be happy to make prints or send you the file for a nominal fee. And as always thanks for taking a look and hope you come back repeatedly.

-Jason 

Photography News

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture Value: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec.
ISO - 80

Well here's a change... I actually have something photographic to post today. In fact something very important to report in my journey to be a semi-professional photographer. Yesterday at about 5pm I purchased my first Digitial SLR camera. An Olympus E-Volt 500 to be exact with the two lens kit. Needless to say I am a happy camper. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures to show yet from the new camera, though I have taken some.
What you do get today is some more of California and this time not a drain. This picture was taken about 10 miles south of Half Moon Bay along the side of the road. Hope everyone enjoys. I should begin posting pictures from the new camera in a few weeks, we'll see... That's it for today.

-Jason 

Back Home

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture Value: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec.
ISO - 80

Well I have returned from my trip to Mountain View, CA. Other then the circumstances of my visit it was a good trip. For the most part the days were temperate and there was certainly alot of sun. On the photography front I did get some pictures taken and most of them turned out very well. Spent a little time at Half Moon Bay and a little south of there and took some pictures of a beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. So that is certainly something to look forward too.
Trying to return things to normal around here; not to mention look for an apartment. This month has already proved to be interesting and shall remain so. We'll see... That's it for now enjoy the picture and it's good the be posting again...

-Jason 

Out of Town

As of about three days ago I left home to attend two funerals in California. For this reason I will be indisposed and unable to post till around the 9th of January. Unfortunately my hotel room in California, despite the fact that I'm staying near Silicon Valley, does not have internet access. I should be back to my daily posts on or about the 9th. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year.

Jason

Changes...

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture Value: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 2 sec.
ISO - 80

Whew... Decided to do a few changes. First of all I am now hosting it on my own server, well the one I'm paying for from Yahoo anyways. So now the blog is also hosted at http://blog.raptimagery.com, as well as it's previous resting place at http://raptimagery.blogspot.com. It is my understanding that it will rest in both places. We'll see after I post this one.
Here is another picture from my outing on Christmas Eve in downtown Seattle. Can't remember what peir I'm on but obviously I'm looking towards Harbor Island. Hope you all enjoy. Trying my hardest to link my actual website to my blog, we'll see how that all works. Thanks again for viewing my website. I will say I may be MIA for the next week as work seems to take up most my time these days and then school starts back on the 3rd so bear with me. That's it for the day after Christmas...

Jason

Merry Christmas

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture Value: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/4 sec
ISO - 80

Merry Christmas everyone! And for those who do not celebrate Christmas, a big Happy Holidays to you all (I like to be equal opprutunity). Here is a nice shot from downtown Seattle looking into the Seattle Art Museum on Christmas Eve, it wasn't open sadly. Sorry its been a long time since I've posted, been insanely busy with work. Nothing new just waiting to go back to school. Hope all is well and everyone is enjoying their holidays.

Jason 

"If you want to make God laugh...

tell him your plans." -Woody Allen


Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture Value: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO - 80

"I think that its brainless, to assume that making changes, to your windows view will give a new perspective." -Death Cab for Cutie "Blacking out the Friction"

I little thought about moving... Luckily I'm not looking to change perspective, at least not through moving, but rather to close a few distances. I will say that being aware of your "windows view" will give a completely new perspective. Tomorrow I go and look at a new apartment building, very close to where this picture was taken in fact (though I'm not lucky enough to be able to afford such a view). It many ways it will be an end of a phase of my life as I've lived in my place here in SeaTac for close to 3 years, it was my first apartment as well. Moving on is a good thing though and I look forward to being actually in the city! But enough about my life and philosophy, as that's certainly not why you are here, well perhaps not...
On the photography front I'm steadfastly working on my post processing for some images, on top of my blog posting every night. It's certainly getting harder with working so you'll all have to bear with me. Additionally with the holidays just around the corner well you get the idea. But enough excuses from me, enjoy the picture, playing a bit with color temperature on this one in an attempt to make my photography more complex. Hopefully it worked...

Jason 

ICE

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 20mm
Aperture Value: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec
ISO - 80

Well I regret to say that I did very little work on my webpage this weekend. I had of course meant to but good intentions don't necessitate action. I did however, sleep alot this weekend and talk ALOT of pictures. So I'll have even more fresh content for my webpage whenever I update it.
Spent a good portion of today having my hands frozen as I took photos at a park with a waterfall, or several waterfalls, in Olympia. Got some great ice pictures, one of which is posted above. This one didn't turn out how I wanted, probably because by this point the heat of my car was beckoning me and it was my last shot. But it did turn out decently and is here for your viewing pleasure.
Should have some very nice waterfall pictures posted either here or on the webpage shortly, so stay tuned. My break is going to be breakless, as I'm going to work all through the break, so don't know how much work I'll be getting done. We'll see I guess. That's it for now, time for some tea and then sleep.

Jason 

Power!

Panasonic DMC FZ-5
Focal Length: 6mm
Aperture Value: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO - 80

Another image from the Snoqualmie region. This one looking up at, I think, part of the power generation plant there. Unfortunately there was no way to get really close to these pipes so it was taken behind a fence. I think the fence though looks pretty good in the photo.
Lets see here as for other business still trying to work on my webpage. Should have at least something done tomorrow, we'll see. Well this is it for now. I'm going to play around with some black and white too.

Jason