Sunday, June 29, 2008

The deal.

like the olden days. If I shoot it, she'll cook it.


Well, it's kind of the other way around, and I'm shooting the meal with a camera.

Sarah, my wonderful girlfriend has started cooking more, and I help where I can without burning down the kitchen. What she plans to do is post the recipe on her blog along with a picture. I've never photographed food before, all I know is that back lighting and simplicity is key, it will be a fun new challenge for me.


JUMP
you can see Sarah's blog here and the recipe
http://chalkonthesidewalk.blogspot.com/


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Meredith Shoot

Meredith is an old high school friend, and still a good friend today. She loves the camera and as I've progressed as a photographer she's always been there eager to shoot, even when I first got a camera.


The streets and lights in the background is the downtown Denton square. This was a test shoot so I played a lot with lighting.

m on white


NOTE
David Wixom was my lighting assistant.
Thank you David.


JUMP
more pictures from the shoot here.


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Mckinney Cliff Jumps

An aerial shoot gave me a chance to fly over and photograph a place I used to visit back in my highschool days.


Friends and I would make the trip out to this rock quarry for some adventurous cliff jumping, but I also took many pictures back then (amateur/hobbyist at the time) of the beautiful teal water which gets it's color from the limestone. It's such a unique place, especially for the DFW area.



It's rumored that a construction crew was digging and hit an underground aquifer, thus creating a spring that quickly filled up the area. Big trucks and all the equipment were left behind as workers ran for dry land. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it sure sounds cool. You can still see some of the equipment submerged in the shallow area.



But this part wasn't always covered in water. Shown above (left to right) is me, chopper, josh and mark standing on the same tractor in 2004 that is shown submerged (2008). By comparing images of the area, I've concluded that the water has risen about 30 feet over the past 4 years. The water table does vary a lot I imagine, as locals spoke of the jumps ranging from 45-90 feet.



Now the fun pictures. The left photograph is me on the large cliff, and on the right is Bober on the smaller cliff. (Bober has jumped the larger one, so I have to give him credit).

The quarry is unknown deep. I jumped off the 75ft cliff and swam strait downward untill I raw out of breath once, and still didn't hit bottom. As far as the location is concerned, the city is the only information I'll give you, as it's now trespassing to get out there, and well... obviously dangerous. Oh, the good ol days.


JUMP
to see more photos from the 2008 flight click here
to see more photos of the 2004 cliff jumping click here


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Animated bride, and I loved it.

I shot Lillian and Josh's wedding earlier this month. Lillian is a friend of my brother's, it was good to see her again, and really great to see my brother again at the wedding.



Everything was beautiful about this wedding, the people, the church, the reception site, the marriage, just everything. The reception was at this modern-historic place in downtown Mckinney called lavender lounge. Se the coca-cola on the old brick wall, too cool.



Lillian was such an animated bride. Her facial and body expressions were priceless. see...




JUMP
see more pictures from the day here.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034478&l=f068a&id=194602817


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

First magazine cover.



I'd like to pretend this is not a big deal, but it's a pretty exciting thing for a 21 year old, still in college. I've had a fair share of published work, but this is my first commissioned magazine cover shot.


This is the inside spread.

These are print screens from the digital magazine edition. Posted with the publisher's written consent of course. This is the July-August issue that will be out soon, but not yet.

JUMP
to see more pictures from this shoot, and more pages from the magazine click here.
To the the magazine's web site go to http://simplyhomemagazine.com
The publisher's web site is http://cuttingedgemedia.com/



-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography

Monday, June 16, 2008

spontanious shoot w/ sarah

Sarah, my girlfriend over 2+ years, came over to bake a cake for my birthday and wearing a very cute outfit.


So naturally while the cake was in the oven, we killed some time with a mini photo-shoot.




This was just in my room and the wall behind her is an ugly light yellow. I have 3 blue gels stacks onto of the flash that's hitting the wall. Then I'm using an orange gel on the flash that's hitting her. I really didn't want a light yellow background.

With all the commissioned work and being so busy, these spontaneous shoots seem to become more and more rare.
It was fun, and the best part was.. cake! :)



JUMP
If you'd like to see pictures of the lovely cake we made and more pictures from the shoot here.


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography
UNT Photography

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Back in the Air

It's aerial photography season, and I love it. There's no better feeling than flying, and I'm blessed to have the opportunity to so often.


On the latest shoot, I had a little "self-portrait" session. The downtown skyline is right behind my me, but my huge forehead got in the way. No pictures of the assignment, aerial shoots tend to be more exclusive stuff, clients typically don't want their photos of their properties spread all over the web. My pilot was Geir, he's a pretty cool guy.


JUMP
For those of you who don't know. I have a aerial photography company:
DallasAerialPhotography.com


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Lillian Bridal Pictures

Lillian and I went to the The Dallas Arboretum for her bridal portraits. It's absolutely beautiful there, I recommend any photographer to go there for portraits.


Sarah was my assitant, as usual and did a great job. The photo on the left we were looking directly into the sun, with a harsh reflector. This style reminds me of what you might see on a bikini shoot, and Lillian totally pulled it off.

Take a close look at the picture on the right, then look at my last couple of posts. See anything familiar? :)


VIDEO

If the video is not showing, you can see it here:
http://animoto.com/play/ofGXNPz1u72puEbJ1H7QvA


JUMP
There were so many great pictures. I just posted the ones I could talk about. To see all the pictures from the shoot click Here, the direct link is:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034159&l=fee8d&id=194602817


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography.com
UNT Photography

Friday, June 13, 2008

Wedding on campus

Shot a wedding on the UNT campus for Larry and Heather. The ceremony was at goolsby chapel and the reception at the silver eagle suite. very comfortable and familiar terrain.


My girlfriend and assistant Sarah Kay Matthews was able to get us in a very special place. The balcony of Maple Hall! You have to climb through a window to get up there, and according to everyone it was not easy and it was hot. Because of this, I didn't get a chance to go up, but oh well. I have better pictures than this, but this shows everyone and the balcony nicely.

Maple Hall was very significant to this couple.


JUMP
to see more pictures from this album click here or visit
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034122&l=57286&id=194602817


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography

Thursday, June 5, 2008

CDI contractors

Promotional pictures for CDI contractors, who built these structures. I also took some aerial photographs for them. The three posted are of the atriums of hotels for consitancy, but I shot multiple "rooms" in the hotels, along with other structures.


Embassy Suites - Frisco, Texas

This may have not been exactly what they were looking for, but I did my fair share of playing around, and gave them a wide variety of pictures and panoramas. Above was my favorite from the shoot.


Prava Suites - Dallas, TX

Formerly the Hilton suites, yeah, that caused some major confusion when I had to make all the phone calls to the hotel managers and such. The Hilton suites had never heard of CDI, and could only assume I was a terrorist trying to take photographs. - that may be an exxageration


Renaissance Hotel - Richardson, TX

Now, I love what I do, weddings and portraits, etc. But I will say this was a nice change in type of photography job, no directing people how to stand, no special lighting, no high operation costs, and got to use a tripod and bump the f-stop way up :) mmm.

JUMP
see more pics here.


-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography
UNT Photography

My most challenging wedding so far.

from a lighting perspective. The sun was extremely harsh, directional and splotting through the trees, and the shadows were dark as could be, but I found that I was able to work with it.


Here's wide shot @ 16mm, with no fill flash. This nicely shows how I was pointing literally directly into the sun. (See how the shadow on the pathway appears to be a strait line toward me.) I used a strong fill with a scope to overcome the backlighting, something I've never done to that extent before, and it actually made for nice photos. You can see more examples in the Jump.


These are two of my favorite from the wedding day. The A&M gardens in Azle, TX were absolutely beautiful.

All in all, another successful wedding in the books.


This girl was so cute, she was passing out fans to guests since it was outdoors. It reads "M" for matthews "Katy and Phillip May 30, 2008".


JUMP
To see more pictures from the shoot click HERE.

Above is the usual link to my facebook album, but I wanted to offer everyone a chance to see all my photos from one wedding. The client's album on my store-site is public. you can visit it here and see all 400+ photos. This is a bold and nervous move for a photographer to do.



-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Denton Wedding Photography
UNT Photography
UNT Photo Club

Monday, June 2, 2008

Heather Bridal Portraits

Another great shoot at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth


I chose this as the feature, because of the color, this is not my favorite from the shoot, In fact I didn't even post my favorite. There were so many great shots, so make sure to check out link in the JUMP to more photos.



Charlie Mcrae (phlezk.com) came along to assist with lighting and gear. Thanks Charlie. The photo below is credited to him


I love this picture. Looks like we're both having fun and comfortable with each other. She has/had a great smile the whole day.

VIDEO

Click here if video is not showing.

JUMP
Click HERE to see more pictures

-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography
UNT Photography

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Carolyn Senior Pictures

Known this girl through so many different connections and since before she was in pre-school, I can't believe she's in college now.


She's been bugging me all year to take pics for her, and I've always been a little hesitant to, cause of one of the connections. But I was in (her) town this weekend for mother's day, at her (dads) place, had all my gear, so wth, why not.


The left picture is my favorite from the shoot. The picture to the right seems so iconic of a senior picture, with just a little touch of her high school colors. (gold and black).

The shoot was pretty much improv. Shot at my mother's house in Parker, TX and a near by abandoned house. Overall, I think they turned out great, she was fun to work with and not to mention really pretty.

VIDEO

click here if video is not displaying


JUMP
See more pictures from the shoot HERE.



-Jonny Carroll
Photographer

jdonut photography, LLC
Denton Wedding Photography
We Make Virtual Tours
Dallas Aerial Photography
UNT Photography