FotoMonkey – Fotomonkey Photography

Vision is seeing what others miss.

Oct 31

by FotoMonkey in growth 0 comments tags: astro, personal growth, reflection, spacex

Letting Go

I think as photographer’s we always want to be in control. Whether it’s controlling our subject, or the light, or in my case, the gear. But if we stop worrying about the technical and mechanical things I think we’ll find that things will just fall into place. This is the story of one of those times which just happened. I had just returned home from a trip to Arizona for my first Milky Way shoot. While it wasn’t everything I’d hoped for, I was very pleased with some of the images I came home with. Needless to say, I was riding on a high. I’d taken the week off from work following the trip and decided to use it to get back behind the camera some more. My mom told me that the SpaceX launch was happening Monday morning and, although I was tired from the trip and had planned on sleeping in, I decided to head to the beach to see if I could capture any cool images. I was loaded for bear. I had my Fuji X-1H with the 100-400 and my Sony A7iv with the 70-200. I arrived well ahead of the launch, setup my tripod and […]

Oct 29

by FotoMonkey in editing 0 comments tags: jupiter, styles, vgp

On My Way to Jupiter

I’ve been using Capture One styles from Dave Herring and Very Good Presets for a couple of years now and they always seem to deliver. One of the styles I tend to gravitate towards is Jupiter. There are two presets provided, RGB for color and Mono. I find both are quite lovely. I recently rented the Sony 16-35/2.8 GM and, while I didn’t have very good weather over the weekend, I headed out to one of our local preserves. Unfortunately, the weather really put a wall up. I’d forgotten that we had a king tide, so the high tide was considerably higher than normal. The preserve is on the Intracoastal waterway and I only made it about 50′ before the path was flooded. I wasn’t feeling that adventurous so I stayed dry and took advantage of other opportunities. Since this is about the preset, I’ll get into the lens later. I just thought I’d share a few images so you can see a real-world comparison. All of these were shot with my Sony A7iv. Jupiter RGB Jupiter Mono + High Contrast Overall, I’ve been very pleased with this particular style. As I mentioned, it’s probably the one I lean on […]

Sep 27

by FotoMonkey in film-recipe 0 comments tags: fujifilm, xt30ii

Phoenix Bound

It’s time for another trip to the Phoenix area. Well, more like the Route 66 area! In less than two weeks I’ll be heading to the airport to spend a few days in Ash Fork, Arizona. I have some big plans around capturing more of the spirit and essence of Route 66. One of my biggest goals is taking advantage of the new moon and trying to capture a Route 66-related Milky Way shot. In preparation, I’ve been trying out some old and new film recipes for the XT-30ii. I’ll be taking my Leica M6 and the Sony A7iv as well, but each camera has its own special role on this trip. Still trying to decide which is going to be my go-to recipe. Here are some test shots from around the neighborhood. Vibrant Arizona Portra 400v2 Kodachrome 64 Old Superia Daily Last Summer Roll Ethereal Street I really think I’m leaning towards Last Summer Roll. I love the warmth of it without being overly warm. Vibrant Arizona might work for some shots but both it and Portra 400v2 are coming off as too warm for me. Superia Daily and Kodachrome 64 Old are more similar than I realized which […]

May 25

by FotoMonkey in wildlife 0 comments tags: de leon springs, florida, lake woodruff, nwr

A Walk in the Woods

One of the volunteers at Merritt Island encouraged me to make the 2-hour trip again today, only to visit the Lake Woodruff NWR instead. She said that the both the pileated woodpeckers and swallowtail kites were abundant and that babies had been spotted. Despite being tired from yesterday and not looking forward to another long drive, I loaded up and headed out. When I arrived at the Visitor’s Center, there was my friend from Merritt. She and her husband just moved onto the property. She gave me the scoop and also let me know that even the alligators were hatching early. Excited to see what was in store, I hopped back in the car and drove the next 1-2 miles to the first parking lot, for the Mayaka Loop. As I was unloading, I was pleasantly surprised by the sounds and sights of my beloved pileated woodpecker! There were two of them right at the edge of the parking lot. The lighting really wasn’t working with me and to be honest, I could barely see them against the trees. Fortunately, the Sony saw a lot better than I did. I was surprised when I got home and could actually make […]

May 24

by FotoMonkey in wildlife 0 comments

Just Need a Little Space

Or maybe Space Coast. Faced with a long, holiday weekend, I decided it would be good to rent a supertelephoto lens. I got my hands on the Sony 200-600 and I have to say that it’s a beast. I hopped in the car, pointed it south, and drove for two hours until I reached the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The NWR borders Kennedy Space Center and the Canaveral National Seashore. I stopped at the makeshift Visitor’s Center (the real one is undergoing construction) and the ladies were very helpful. They told me which areas to visit for certain animals and gave me a great route to take. I was surprised that most of the trails are hard-packed road so you drive most of the time. I turned left right out of the parking lot onto my first loop, Gator Creek. While I didn’t see any gators, I did see some birds right off the bat. They didn’t seem too bothered by my presence. I left Gator Creek and headed towards the Seashore, turning off onto Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a very nice, 7-mile drive with a nice brochure and numbered stops to tell you about the area. […]

Apr 19

by FotoMonkey in events 0 comments tags: a7iv, mural, sony, Springfield

Spring Mural Jam

Today was a pretty good day. I wanted to get some photos in since I figured I’d be sticking around the house with Easter. A quick check of the local events calendar showed this mural event in what’s known as the Phoenix Arts District. This is a location I’ve visited before but I found a whole different area what I hadn’t explored. There was a ton more to see and the artists were out en masse working on new pieces. There are plenty of abandoned and partially demolished buildings for the murals to be done on. Of course, if you’ve read many of my posts, you know that I love abandoned buildings. There really was some outstanding work. I was also surprised at the artists. There were families, buff gym guys, solo women, and what looked like groups of friends. It was clear that this was their passion. Some worked out of their cars. Others had elaborate trailers. There was some serious energy going into these pieces. Some of the pieces were just insane. Or looked like they were going to be. The event ran until 6pm and I left around 4. I will definitely be going back to see […]

Mar 09

by FotoMonkey in events 1 comments tags: festival, film, kodak gold, m6, music festival

It’s Festival Time!

The time is changing. The weather is warming. Spring is upon us and it’s bringing a sundry of festivals with it. Last weekend kicked things off and this weekend we have another music festival. The Blues festival is right around the corner. It seems like every weekend has multiple festivals to tickle your fancy. Music. Seafood. Strawberries. You name it. There’s bound to be a festival for you out there. This weekend, I headed out to the Natural Life Music Festival at Jacksonville Beach’s Seawalk Pavilion. I wasn’t familiar with anyone in the lineup, but they still entertained. Heck, I even found myself tapping my foot to the beat a couple of times. This is going to be the first in a series. I’m thinking of calling it Festivals on Film. We’ll see if it sticks. Regardless, it was an opportunity for me to take out my Leica M6. I had a Summicron 35/2 v3 and several rolls of Kodak Gold 200. I shot everything at box speed. I didn’t stay for the entire day since it’s a small area and I felt like I just kept running into the same people. There were still some interesting characters out there, […]

Feb 09

by FotoMonkey in events 0 comments tags: car show, m10, small town, xt30ii

It’s a Classic

I was scrolling through Facebook last night when an ad popped up for the 8th Annual Hastings Blvd Car Show and I felt like it’d be a cool thing to check out. I’m always looking for something to do on the weekend that allows me to take some nice pictures. So what the heck is a Hastings? Hastings is a small town in North Florida. It’s got a population of less than a thousand and it’s another one of those towns I’ve driven through countless times but never took the time to stop. The day started off pretty bad. I had this great vision to capture a nice timelapse with my GoPro only to realize that I’d forgotten the screw to secure it to the mount. I managed to find a hollow wall anchor in the car that actually held it in place, though. Win! Well, not for long. I was using the media mount and there seems to be some sort of issue with it. Every time I’d turn it on, it would just keep cutting and powering back on. As soon as I took it out of the media mount, it’d work great. Ok, no problem. Ditch the […]

Jan 17

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: canon, israel, jordan, paris, rebel

End of an Era

In 1991, I purchased my first SLR. I was in the Navy and had come home on leave. I knew that I’d be traveling the world and I wanted to make sure that I’d be able to capture it all. I walked into Wal-Mart and walked out with a Canon EOS Rebel. It was an absolutely fabulous camera. This camera literally traveled the world with me. I had both a 35-80 and a 75-300 and they made a great combination. They weren’t the greatest lenses ever made, but for a poor sailor with an incredibly low income at the time, they were fantastic. I also had a pretty extensive collection of Cokin filters. Everything you could image. I had graduated filters, starlight, neutral density, and more. I built a nice collection of images from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I had the opportunity to take pictures in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and many more exotic locations. It was so cool to see with my own eyes places I’d only seen in books. In the last image in this set, wild camels are roaming the banks of the Suez Canal, for example. I’m still in the process […]

Jan 12

by FotoMonkey in journal 0 comments tags: leica, photowalk, st. augustine

Braving the Cold

I hate to see a weekend go to waste, but things weren’t looking so good yesterday. Not only was it pretty cold (high in the 50s, which is cold for us) but the skies were cloudy and overcast. This morning, I woke up to colder temps, but sunny skies. After breakfast and coffee, I loaded up and headed to St. Augustine to see if I could capture any new images on familiar grounds. Arriving in the early afternoon, I was rewarded with some pretty good lighting and shadows along St. George Street, the main tourist thoroughfare. The crowds weren’t too bad considering it’s still somewhat the holiday season. Unfortunately, many of the ideas I had never fully came to fruition. I’d hoped to take advantage of some nice juxtapositions of light and shadow with color-coordinated subjects but the crowd didn’t seem inclined to cooperate. I probably ended up capturing more empty scenes than I’d planned for. There is a landmark I’ve wanted to stop at so many times yet I never made the effort. And now I can’t. The Kings Head British Pub, an icon located on US1 between Jacksonville and St. Augustine has been providing British fare, beer, and […]

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