New Solo Photography Exhibit at the Rok Bistro in Sunnyvale

I am pleased to announce a new solo exhibit at the Rok Bistro restaurant to highlight two new series of photographs: “Rockscapes in the Valley of Fire” and “Rock Textures in Point Lobos.” The display includes a selection of my award winning Yosemite images including my “Nature’s Firefall” image.

I created two new series for the Rok Bistro capturing the natural beauty of rock and “rockscapes” with their unique textures and colors in dramatic lighting and in some of the most beautiful locations. These are two of my favorite locations to shoot and visit – my goal was to capture images that reminded me of a place I wanted to be on a Friday afternoon. I have a selection of 16 images on display and for sale. The exhibit will run through 2009.

The Rok Bistro Restaurant is a new fondue and "Hot Stone" restaurant in downtown Sunnyvale at 124 S. Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, CA

(Photograph above is Copyright PQ Photography)

Sunnyvale Community Services benefit Auction

As some of you may know, I donate a portion of portion of my proceeds to Sunnyvale Community Services - an organzation here in Sunnyvale that provides food and assistance to people in need. It really is an amazing organization! They provide so much good in the community especially during hard economic times like these. I highly recommend you take a look at what they do or contribute to help yourself. Nancy Tivol is the director of the organization and has created a real model of success for a non-profit and voluteer based organization. Donating from proceeds from my artwork is a way that I can give back to my local community (and my real job employer, Symantec, matches my contributions!)

Sunnyvale Community Services held their annual auction Thursday night. It it a great event put on with many local community leaders and the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce. This year I donated a framed photograph titled the "Last Images of the Grant Road Farm" that was auctioned off. That really brought back memories for many people who remembered the pumpkin farm and Christmas tree sales they would do there. It is truly one of the last farms in silicon valley.

Sunnyvale Community Services is starting up their Community Christmas Center to provide gifts and food for local folks for the holidays.

I am glad to be able to share my gifts and give back to the community in many ways.
Enjoy!
John

A few additional awards from the Palo Alto Camera Club

Wednesday evening, we held the final photo competition for this year at the Palo Alto Camera club. We had prints and digital competition. Quite an array of images including many with fog in them! I guess the weather has been quite foggy in the morning.

I am always amazed at the array of images. I submitted 3 images and 1 took a second place award, 1 took a third place award and then the image my wife hated- got blasted by the judge (I was trying to be a little TOO creative). Taking risks and trying new things is part of the creative process! I will continue to push the edge and try new things... in the mean time.... I should have listened to my wife! I will listen to my wife. I will listen to my wife. I will listen to my wife :-) I should have seen it as fate when I caught my three year old drawing on my freshly printed image (the one my wife didn't like) that was sitting in our other room! Hmmm... did she put him up to it?!?! I will never know! I am just happy to have done so well with my other two images!

The two images I entered that placed were: 2nd place, Winter Storm over Mono Lake at Sunset that is at the top of the blog and I received a 3rd place award for one of my new images that is debuting at the Rok Bistro restaurant as a new image in my series "Rockscapes in the Valley of Fire" - "Sunset at Rainbow Vista in the Valley of Fire" .

It was a fun evening with quite a few amazing image - the Palo Alto Camera club has an AMAZING group of talent and strength of images - I am happy just to participate and share!
Enjoy! John

Art Exhibit at the Pacific Art League Gallery in Palo Alto this Month

This month the Pacific Art League Gallery is having a 'Portfolio' exhibition. I am displaying my "Nature's Firefall" framed 18x24" image and then have a selection of about 30 various matted prints. I have a variety of some of my favorite images including fall colors from Yosemite, Point Lobos, Big Sur, Grant Road Farm and some others.

There was an opening reception in Palo Alto tonight that I attended. That is truly my favorite part- meeting and talking to people about photography, capturing images and visiting fun places. It brings back great memories for me each time I recant a story. Whether it is vacationing with my wife, Mary, and the kids in Pajaro Dunes, or with the family in the dead of winter in Yosemite... it brings hapiness to me when I capture images from these fun locations. My new moto for images I take.... "I want to be THERE with a beer and a chair on a Friday afternoon." Let me know what you think and if that resonates with some of my images!

Cheers for tonight.
John

Last Day for Voting in the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop Contest

Thanks SO much for those of you who have taken the time to vote for my image in the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. There are over 1200 images that have been submitted and I am excited to see that I am in the top 5 of the images!!! This is a judged competition so it will be up to the judges and NOT from vote spamming like some of the images have. I encourage you to view many of the other images and only vote for mine if you feel it is worthy of your vote!

To see all of the photos, you can click here and then there is a drop down menu in the top right corner (it says MOST RECENT) and change it to "MOST POPULAR." The "Nature's Firefall" image is in the top 5 depending on the voting!

Thanks again for your support and encouragement for my passion of photography!

Email me to find out about my first SOLO EXHIBIT at the Rok Bistro Restaurant which is featuring two new series of photographs!

Cheers,
John

Finished the Pictures from Steve and Crystals Wedding

I just finished editing and organizing the images from Steve and Crystals wedding! I have found new respect for those wedding photographers! Some really nice images came out. Take a look at the two videos below or the photo gallery here.

Another Quick Video for Crystal and Steve!

Animoto is fun! I might have to get the full access to the site instead of just the freebie 30 second clips! Steve and Crystal (and any of those crazy family members viewing here) hope you enjoy the vids! Your wedding photos are coming along and will be posted to www.jharrisonphoto.com any day now (half of them are up there!)

Enjoy!
John

30 Second Video From Steve and Crystal's 30 Second Wedding!

Here is a quick video I created with Animoto with some images from Steve and Crystals wedding. It was an awesome quick Las Vegas wedding, so what is more appropriatte than a quick video to highlight it!

I took a few pics while at their awesome wedding in Las Vegas! More images/videos to come. Enjoy! John

Yosemite and Mono Lake Fall colors

Just wanted to share a few images from my recent trip to Mono Lake and Yosemite in early October. It was 90 degrees the first few days and then an early snow dropped 6 inches of snow! The fall colors together with a fresh snow was a nice surprise!

I am partial to water, sunsets, moons and reflections and will go out of my way to chase these.

The "Painterly Aspens in Snow" was a new technique that a friend of mine uses quite often and I thought I would try - free hand panning (one of those few times the camera is off of the tripod!). I have quite a few images that DIDN'T turn out - this will take some time to perfect. I am VERY eager to see this printed on canvas.

The "Storm over Mono Lake" image was captured on a day with 1-2 foot waves that created this salt-brine foam around the edge of the lake - the 20-30 mph winds and sub-30 degree weather presented some challenges for this shot. I opted for a long exposure (4 second) to smooth out the waves to give a really mystical and different look of Mono Lake.

Critique, Comments and feedback are appreciated. Let me know which images you like the best!

Thanks,
John

"Reflections in the Eastern Sierra"

"Sunset at Tenaya Lake", Yosemite National Park - Tioga Pass

"Early Snow and Fall Colors in Yosemite"

"Painterly Fall Aspens in Snow" Yosemite National Park

"Storm at Sunset over Mono Lake"

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Epson Printer Utility 2 for my Epson 3800 keeps crashing!!

Argh!! Frustration! The Epson Printer Utility 2 for my Epson 3800 keeps crashing!! I am running OS X 10.5.5 on my dual G4 1GHZ MDD Mac. It seems to occur when I am doing a head cleaning to try to unclog the heads (the Epson 3800 is fanastic for NOT having any clogs but after not using it for a few weeks it has a few dots that won't print). It looks like Epson hasn't updated the software in this century - so far, this has been the only frustrating part of owning the Epson! Otherwise it prints beautiful images!! Stepping off soapbox. If anyone happens to know of a fix or wants a crash log to look at, feel free to post here! Thanks! John