Here are my top 10 photos of the year, in chronological order:

A friend asked me to shoot his Porsche 996 Turbo.

The Hollywood Sumer Tour – A group of young dancers who come to LA to learn how to be a professional dancer in Hollywood.

Pinar Eris – Winter Collection. I was shooting some catalog images and wanted to do some shots for myself as well.

From a band shoot for The Swellers who are big fans of Venture Brothers. I later shot them on tour with Paramore and Paper Route (pics here).

A shot of my brother from the same day as The Swellers shoot.

At the LA Zoo.

My friend Aaron at MotorSportLens.com took me to shoot some racing. It was a big learning experience.

What a way to end the year. One of the dancers from The Hollywood Summer Tour that I shot the previous year was in LA and I asked her to shoot. I was thinking some studio dance shots would be nice, but she wanted to do something sexy on the beach. Not a problem. More from this shoot here.

Click the link for more pictures (or to buy me one). O-No Sushi

More pictures at NOTCOT

This has probably been the most fun I’ve had working on a movie. Everything looks amazing.

Hayley joins The Swellers on Stage

Last week I was fortunate enough to shoot The Swellers and Paper Route when they opened for Paramore at the Hollywood Palladium in LA. All three bands put on great shows. It was the last show of the US tour and the last show with The Swellers, so I stuck around and shot some farewell photos of all the bands together. Paramore is by far the largest band that I have shot and their fan base is much bigger than I imagined. For example, six of the photos I shot after the show are on Paramore’s website. In 24 hours, the photos have a combined 31,614 views. In contrast, my Flickr account which has 1,300 images including scantily clad women, has 27,400 views in a little under two years. Looks like I need a hit record.

Since this was a big show, I decided to rent the Nikon 14-24 f2.8 wide angle lens instead of my usual 12-24 f4. I had rented it before, but wasn’t terribly happy with it. This show confirmed my discontent with the lens. While the lens is tack sharp, the elements are just too big and bulky for a live show. Focusing is fine for landscape or portraits, but when it is dark and you need instant focus, this lens is too slow.  Another photographer traded his 24-70 f2.8 with me for a song and  most of what I posted from the photo pit was shot with that lens.

Jonathan - The Swellers

After the three song limit shooting from the photo pit, I switched to my Nikon 80-200 2.8 AF-S to shoot from the crowd.

Nick - The Swellers

Hayley from Paramore and Nick from The Swellers

Paper Route

Paper Route

Paper Route

Some post-show farewell photos. These were shot with the Nikon 14-24 and a SB-800 on camera.

Farewell photo from the Paramore tour 2009.

Hayley Williams from Paramore and Anto Boros from The Swellers

Next show – Less Than Jake with Fishbone and The Swellers.

Later in the afternoon, I took a trip to the lighthouse in Newport, Oregon. I’m not a big fan of lighthouses, but I heard the beach was pretty cool.

The beach by the lighthouse was all black rock.

View these images on a map with Flickr.

Mile 28: Took a quick detour to Benton Lane Winery and bought a bottle of wine. I’m not a big wine drinker, but everybody said it was good.

Mile 52: We stopped for a bathroom break. This place was in the middle of nowhere. There was a sign on the wall from somebody wanting to buy four goats for a good price.

Mile 80: We got to Newport a few hours before Kristin’s parents, so we continued on to Lincoln City to look around. We stopped at a glass blowing studio and watched an artist make a really cool abstract glass bust.

Crab shack in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Driving down the Oregon coast.

The beach house in Beverly Beach, Oregon.

Half mile away at the beach:

See these images on a map on Flickr.

Mile 10: Kristin found a coffee shop called HeBrew. I guess a Jewish guy owned it. We thought it sounded cool and it had good Yelp reviews. Unfortunately, we drove around and couldn’t find it. When we got to the stated address, all that was there was a church. I’m convinced its a Jew-trap. So we stopped at Starbucks instead at Mile 30.

Mile 50: Keep an eye on the silver Merceded 7 series in front of me. This douche was zipping all over the place. At some points he had to be doing 110 mph.

Mile 99: The douche in the silver Merceded must have had a radar detector, since he slowed down and got in line with the rest of the drivers right before my little incident at Mile 99. I saw a giant cloud of dust in my rear view mirror and a Police car in front of it. I knew he had gotten me doing about 86 mph. The officer was very nice and wrote me up for 80 in a 70. A $198 ticket later and we are back on the road. You can see that after the ticket I’m driving more in the right lane with the cruise control set at the speed limit.

Mile 160: Stopped to use the bathroom and pick up the essential road trip snacks: Root Beer and Beef Jerky.

Mile 310: We stayed at the Phoenix Inn in Eugene. Dinner was at McMenamins, which is an Oregon chain of bars with decent food. The food was lackluster. Dessert however, was something to write about. Since my other half is the better writer, I’ll just link to her Yelp review here for Prince Pucklers Ice Cream.

Here is the first day of driving from LA to Redding, CA. We woke up early to get out of LA before rush hour. The drive to Redding took 7.5 hours and was 545 miles. Most of California is very flat as you can see in the video. The drive was a bit tedious, but it was nice to be doing anything buy working.

Mile 0: The trip started at Whole Foods for breakfast. Shortly followed by Starbucks at Mile 5.

Mile 350: Lunch at Sonic. There isn’t a single Sonic in LA, but we still see the commercials for them all the time. Kristin and I wanted to stop at one to see if the food lived up to the hype. Sadly, I was pretty disappointed with my burger.

Mile 545: We stayed at the Red Lion Inn, in Redding. It was a nice place. Read Kristin’s Yelp review here.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/gforce/

http://jakegarn.com/the-rule-of-thirds/

Interesting stuff.

More shots after the jump.

My brother Dave selling merch.

Like I said, the 14-24 didn’t focus fast enough.

See the full set on Flickr: A Wilhelm Scream @ The Knitting Factory, LA

Once again 2008 proved to be an incredibly productive year for the many photographers who read the JMG-Galleries blog. The results of this “Best Photos From 2008″ blog project puts a twist to the normal “Best of Photo” list by aggregating links to the work of 93 photographers from around the globe who are passionate and dedicated to their craft.

The results from “Best Photos From 2007″ by JMG-Galleries Blog Reader’s were impressive, but this year not only did the number of participants exceed expectation the quality and vision of those who submitted were exceptional. This year participants ran the gamut of experience from enthusiasts to professionals.

Enjoy and good luck picking out your favorite from these great submissions

1. “My Top 10 Favorite Photos of 2008” – Jim M. Goldstein
2. My Favorite Shots of the Year – View from the Little Red Tent by Edie Howe
3. 2008 Favorites – Photine by Laurie Ballesteros
4. My Nephew – Amit Goyal
   My nephew woke me up in the morning and was in a very chirpy mode when this was clicked
5. Another world (+Vorher/Nachher) – Visuelle Gedanken by Martin Wolf
   
6. Boy, Hanoi – The Sun Shines & The Igloo Melts by Jon Gresham
7. Best Photos from 2008 – Abraham Neben
8. Apocalyptic Capitalism – Sultana Sandwich by James Hill
9. Top 10 Photos of 2008, My first year in Wisconsin – Sierra Visions by Steven Bourelle
10. My Best Photos: 2008 – Shutter Photo by D Travis North
    This past year was a huge growth year for my digital photography skills which I feel is exhibited quite nicely in my photo favorites of 2008.
11. Best Photos From 2008 – G Dan Mitchell Photography
12. Protesting Prop 8 - Quan Photography by John Quan
13. Bir y?l böyle geçti… – Caglar.ca by Caglar Tukel
    Most of Photos taken during our traveling around Turkey and hiking around our hometown, Izmir.
14. My best shots of 2008 – Jonesblog by Bryan WIlliam Jones
15. Flamingo and Desert Landscape – pl?dys’s photoblog by Mike Reys
    Both pictures are from one of the most beautiful places on earth: Chile’s Atacama desert. The salt lakes there provide for some stunning colours and beautiful wildlife.
16. Suspended – Mark Groves Photography
17. My Favorite 10 Images from 2008 – IM Digital by Ivan Makarov
18. My Best Photo of 2008 – Matt Ward Photography
    This photo was taken in Oct at 7am after a cold night in Atlanta, GA.
19. Highlights of 2008 – Lori Jackson Photography
    In 2008, I picked up my camera again after a year long hiatus following pregnancy and my son’s birth.
20. Favorites from 2008 – Adventures Through The Lens by Rebecca Jackrel
21. Top Ten Photos of 2008 – Chris Moore Photography
22. My Photo Record – Kriz Cpec Photo Blog
23. Best of 2008 – Catavino by Ryan Opaz
24. Looking Forward and Back – Graf Nature Photography by Mark Graf
25. Lloyd’s Favorites of 2008 – L.D. Cross
26. My Favorite Photos from 2008 – Epic Edits by Brian Auer
    A selection of my favorite photos from 2008, broken down by each month and supplemented with a few thoughts.
27. Derryclare Lough – Focus Pocus by Albert MacSweeny
    My best photo of the year was when I was lucky enough to get a still lake in the usually turbulent west of Ireland
28. Best of 2008 – News and Views by Dave Wilson
29. Needle – Andel’s Photoblog by Andel Früh
    This photo has been shot with the kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6) in retro position (front lens to the camera)
30. Year in Pictures – Marcin Retecki
31. 2008 Top Ten – Lois Elling
32. My Best Photos of 2008 – Out of My Mind by Steven L. Mullen
    These are travel and nature shots taken in Michigan, China, and locally.
33. One from 2008 – Hockley Photography by Aaron Hockley
    It’s a photo taken at night, looking across a bridge towards another photographer also taking a picture of the same ferris wheel as I was.
34. 2008 in Pictures – Sawlani Photography by Hitesh Sawlani
35. My Top 10 Photos for 2008 – by Neil Creek Photography
36. Best of 2008 – The Quiet Picture by Minna Kinnunen
    My 10 favourites from 2008, everything from flower closeups to landscapes and starry nights!
37. Best of 2008 – by Stig Nygaard
    Just a quick little mixed selection of what I consider my best photos from 2008
38. My Top Ten Photos from 2008 – Korn on the Blog by Justin Korn
    Of the 1,800+ images I uploaded to Flickr this year, these are what I thought were my top 10.
39. Blog Project: “your Best Photos from 2008″ – Jim’s Photography by Jim Wheeler
40. My Best Photos from 2008 – TrevorCarpenter.com by Trevor Carpenter
41. Best Photos of 2008 – by Dave Reichert
42. 2008 Favorites – by Beth Madison
43. 01/01/2009 Best of 2008 – Brad Barton Photography
44. 2008: My Favorite Photos – My Digital Life by Jeremy Brooks
45. 2008: The year in photographs – Katie the Scrapbook Lady by Katie
46. Gotham. Or maybe London – SFT Photography by Steve Thomas
    I love the dark and moody feel, combined with the futuristic look of the building. I really enjoyed shooting it!
47. My Best Photos of 2008 – Malphoto.com by Andre Maltais
    I’m particularly proud of these submissions this year, as it seems I’ve made some great strides in my photography from the beginning of the year.
48. Best of 2008 Project – Photos From The Top Floor by Carsten Fischer
49. La Arcada seating on a rare rainy October morning – gZphotoGraph
50. Jaguar – by Jarrod Erbe Photography
    This jaguar image was taken at the Milwaukee County Zoo. The background was generated using a combination of Aperture, Photoshop Elements, and DFT Light.
51. Best of 2008? – Suzy Walker, Underwater Photoblog
    My top ten fav travel, underwater and macro photos taken in 2008
52. My best shots of 2008 – TemujinPhoto Blog by João Almeida
53. Best of 2008 – by Rick Goldwasser
54. My Top 10 Images of 2008 – The Jim Stamates Collection by Jim Stamates
55. #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 – Mannedspace: Photographs by MT Fanders
56. Best 10 of 2008 – by Duffy Knox
57. Future Christmas Card – by Massimo Belloni
58. Best Photos of 2008 – MIZSPONTANEITY: A Girl With A Camera by Elaine
    I got a Nikon D40X for Christmas 2007, and although some of these photos were with my trusty Sony W70 point-and-shoot, these are my favorite 10 results of my first year with a digital SLR.
59. Best of 2008 – Changing Perspectives by Jenni Brehm
60. My Best of 2008 – by Eliya Selhub
    In 2008, I have found myself increasingly drawn to animals as subjects, and a slight cartoonish absurdity always appeals to me.
61. My Best Photos From 2008 – Lilahpops – Plunging into Photography by Anthea Brown
    Looking back over my photos for the past year shows my increasing interest in post-processing experimentation alongside my favourite macro format.
62. My top 10 favorite photos of 2008 – The Taeleman’s Blog by Kris Taeleman
63. My Favorite Photos of 2008 – Coulter Photos by Scott Coulter
64. Favorites of 2008 – XGray Vision by Stephen Gray
65. My Top 10 Favorite Images of 2008 – Cornforth Images by Jon Cornforth
    Spectacular nature and wildlife photography, photos, and pictures by award winning professional photographer Jon Cornforth.
66. Sitting Backwards on My Horse – latoga photography By Greg Lato
67. Top ten images of 2008 – Enlightened Images by Gary Crabbe
    These are some of the image I took in 2008, and which rose toward the top of the – I Like – pile.
68. Best 10 photos of 2008 – Have Camera Will Travel by Paul Dymond
    Images from professional Australian travel photographer Paul Dymond which ironically were all taken pretty close to home.
69. Best of 2008 – Heidi Donat
70. Best Photos of 2008 – by Luca Filigheddu Photography
71. Favourites of 2008 – by Chris Brown
72. Best of 2008 – by William Kahn
73. Pics of the pops 2008 – fotoVoyager by William Fawcett
74. My Top 10 Photos of 2008 – Always Breaking by Gary Hegenbart
75. Best of 2008 – by Trevin Chow
    This is a set of my best photos that I took during 2008 which is a combination of Flickr’s “interestingness” meter and my own selection.
76. Best of 2008 – Hotel Yankee Foxtrot by Alex McGeagh
    A collection of the better images captured in a progressive and productive year for me.
77. Top 10 Photos of 2008 – Digital Kloc Photography Blog by Brian Kloc
78. Burrard-Lucas Top Ten Photographs of 2008 – Burrard-Lucas Photography by William Burrard-Lucas
    We are brothers from the UK with a shared passion for wildlife photography – in 2008 we followed Meerkats in the Kalahari, stalked Jaguars in the wetlands of Brazil and waded through swamps at night to photograph Caimans…
79. My best 10+3 pictures of 2008 – All Day I Dream About Photography by Antoine Khater
80. Best of 2008 on Highway 89 – Ann Torrence Photography
    Transecting the west from Mexico to Canada on US89.
81. Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance – by Dave Fitch
    A railway bridge in Leith [Edinburgh] that was restored and then left to rot. It’s not perfectly symmetrical, but then neither is the bridge
82. My Top 10 Photographys of 2008 – Nuwomb Bits by Scott Webb
83. Best of 2008 – Matt Sallee Photography
84. My 10 best photos of 2008 – Stephen Trainor Photography
    Mostly landscapes, mostly of the Southwest, but with a hint of other anglophone countries.
85. 10 in 2008 – k|d loftis photography
    My favorite images from 2008 which include weddings, maternity and newborns, families and babies and a few personal images from the year.
86. My 10 Favorite Images of 2008 – Della Huff Photography
    My ten favorites from 2008 include California landscapes and cityscapes, with a couple of extra goodies thrown in for fun!
87. Best Photos of 2008 – by Dave Schumaker
88. Best of 2008 – by Jay Goodrich Photography
89. My best photos from 2008 – All Narfed Up by Bryan Villarin
    Choosing my best photos from 2008 was really hard to narrow down, especially since it was my first year with a SLR camera.
90. Mein Flickr Photostream 2008 – Best of – by Stefan Neuweger
91. My Best Photos from 2008 – Why Yet Another Photo Place by Rafa
92. Best Photos from 2008 – by Daria Sukhanovska
    Only until i created this set of 13 photos, i realized how much progress i have done this year: I have traveled a lot, got one photo printed in the magazine and had my first own personal exhibition in the university library and simply had fun with my photos
93. My Best of 2008 – by Phil Price Photography

Male Pattern Baldness:

Divas of Novella – Production Still:

Walking around in Atlanta:

Streetlight Manifesto at the House of Blues – San Diego:

Fear Nuttin Band at the House of Blues – San Diego:

The Getty Center:

Buy some of this work at

Jim Goldstein over at his Landscape, Nature and Travel Photography blog posted a project to post your top 10 photos of the year. It was a tough pick, which left me with 45 best photos from 2008. I got it down to 10 photos with the help of my girlfriend and art director Kristin. I’ve also posted numbers 11-20 which didn’t make it to this list here.

My top 10 images from 2008 (in chronoligical order, I think):

Shot while doing a swimsuit shoot. I turned around and this is what it looked like. No retouching.

The great Lela Rae in Detroit. Natural light. One is on my fathers couch, the other on my mothers dining room table.

My friend Lindsay who came in last minute to model for Naked i Clothing.

Hollywood Summer Tour 2008:

Thankfully, this liquor store painted their building bright green:

Shot with 4′ fluorescent work lights:

Buy some of these images at Red Bubble:

Continue to my Top 11-20 Photos of 2008.

Website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/gforce/

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=51511

I have been working on G-Force since May. Here is a quick summary of the movie and a few stills released yesterday.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer brings his first 3-D film to the big screen with G-FORCE, a comedy adventure about the latest evolution of a covert government program to train animals to work in espionage. Armed with the latest high-tech spy equipment, these highly trained guinea pigs discover that the fate of the world is in their paws. Tapped for the G-FORCE are guinea pigs Darwin (voice of Sam Rockwell), the squad leader determined to succeed at all costs; Blaster (voice of Tracy Morgan), an outrageous weapons expert with tons of attitude and a love for all things extreme; and Juarez (voice of Penelope Cruz), a sexy martial arts pro; plus the literal fly-on-the-wall reconnaissance expert, Mooch, and a star-nosed mole, Speckles (voice of Nicolas Cage), the computer and information specialist. Directed by two-time Oscar®-winning visual effects master Hoyt Yeatman—G-FORCE takes audiences on a high-octane thrill ride, proving once and for all that size really doesn’t matter. G-FORCE will hit theaters July 24, 2009.

Selects from each band after the jump.

The A.K.A.s

The Swellers

Fear Nuttin Band

Streetlight Manifesto

Here is Atlanta from the hotel room:

My brother, Dave, in the hotel room:

The wedding was an Orthodox Jewish wedding, filled with ritual and tradition. Before the ceremony, the groom and all the men go into a room and drink, dance, and say a few prayers. There were three photographers that were hired to shoot the wedding. I wanted to shoot, but didn’t want to carry a bunch of gear around, so I shot the whole thing with a 50mm 1.8 on my D300.

Then the wedding ceremony, filled with more tradition, but not so much drinking.

After the wedding was the reception, with more drinking and a ton of crazy dancing. We danced for almost an hour before people calmed down for dinner.

Alex played a song for his sister and his new brother-in-law.

The flight home was uneventful. I wanted to take some shots of airplanes taking off and landing before I took off. I saw a great spot at the end of the MARTA station at the airport. I had my 80-200 2.8 out and got nine shots off before a police officer with a dog stopped me. I know I wasn’t doing anything illegal, but I didn’t want any trouble and didn’t want to miss another flight. Here’s one of the nine frames I shot:

]]> http://blog.digitalkloc.com/2008/09/trip-to-atlanta/feed/ 0 http://blog.digitalkloc.com/2008/09/lindsay-fitness-photos/ http://blog.digitalkloc.com/2008/09/lindsay-fitness-photos/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:47:06 +0000 Brian http://blog.digitalkloc.com/?p=74 Here are some shots of Lindsay. She is starting her modeling career doing fitness and swimwear.

See the full set here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157607421987812/

See the full set here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157607005809185/

See the full set here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157606863031586/

Lots more here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157606521778794/

See the full set here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157605867899774/

Here is how to keep Firefox 2 while trying Firefox 3 on a Mac: http://lifehacker.com/371867/try-firefox-3-and-keep-firefox-2-safe-on-a-mac

See the full set here: http://flickr.com/photos/digitalkloc/sets/72157605660623505/