JasonKimball.org

Another year has quickly come and gone in terms of photography. I am sticking with the theme I used last year due to lack of time. If you haven’t noticed, this website has been neglected in 2011. As far as photography is concerned, I was able to shoot some new and interesting subjects and learn a few new techniques.

I decided that I would used the holiday Scout located at bighugelabs.com to make my best of 2011 series. Although many of the photos are from other years, you can see that I have quite a few from 2011.

You can view the images by clicking on the links below:
1. Another view of Cape Zanpa Lighthouse, 2. Real Fan2, 3. Alex & his bike, 4. Tokyo Stylin, 5. Dolphin hug, 6. Roman statue, 7. York Minster, 8. Stuck in traffic, 9. Sir Tow Mater, 10. Naha Tug of War, 11. 31 Weeks, 12. Do the dip, 13. In the dark, 14. Kilmainham Gaol, 15. Testing out the new bike, 16. Nilu, 17. The lonely shell, 18. Bird Bath, 19. Waiting for the game, 20. Cookies for Santa, 21. The wifey, 22. Royal Procession beauty, 23. Royal Procession, 24. Just Hanging Around, 25. Oki Hut, 26. Tokyo night, 27. Red Red Wine, 28. Araha Hands, 29. Show me your grrrrrr face!, 30. Oxford-31, 31. Mihama Soccer – Feb 2009, 32. Edinburgh, Scotland, 33. Sunabe Marilyn Monroe, 34. Hamaya-Okinawa Soba, 35. It takes two, 36. Sunset beach, 37. We got a floater, 38. My first Strobist shot, 39. Futenma Shrine, 40. Enjoy the little things, 41. Zakimi Castle, 42. Blue Drank, 43. Ikei father and son, 44. You play ball like a girl, 45. , 46. Burnt, 47. Batter Up, 48. In The Woods, 49. Dont play with fire, 50. Cape Maeda at Night, 51. Tyskie, 52. Cambridge – April 2010-7, 53. Reflection, 54. Ruff ruff, 55. Got Ya!, 56. 31 Weeks Sepia, 57. Katsuren Castle, 58. Crete, Greece, 59. Salisbury Cathedral Water, 60. Grand Place Christmas Light Show, 61. Cotswold Wildlife Park -Owl, 62. Kannon temple, 63. Blenheim Palace, 64. Nago Sakura,
65. Outside York Minster, 66. Beautiful Brill Windmill, 67. Salisbury Cathedral Ceiling, 68. Maeda Tourist, 69. Taking a Break, 70. Angry face, 71. Huroster Bay, 72. York Minster

My mom is here visiting for the next three weeks so we have been looking for fun things to do around the area. Brittany and I have always heard people mention the Cotswold Wildlife Park, so we decided to finally give it a try. To be honest, I was expecting to go and be completely disappointed. I figured that we would drive the 1 1/2 hours and they would have some birds and common farm animals for our son to pet. However, I was surprised to find that the Cotswold Wildlife Park was actually a nice place to check out many different types of animals to include giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, and penguins to name just a few.

I can now say that I actually had a really great time and would highly recommend this wildlife park to others that were looking for a fun day out.  Not only did Cotswold Wildlife Park offer some great views, I thought their facilities were top notch and very well maintained. Sometimes you visit wildlife parks and get a sense that the animals are not being taken care of 100%. This is definitely not the case at Cotswold Wildlife Park.

As I mentioned earlier, I would highly recommend this park for anyone looking to have a fun and adventurous day out in the Cotswolds.

As usual, here are some of the pictures I took:

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The three of us decided to take a little trip to visit the capital city of Netherlands in early March. This was my second time visiting Amsterdam and it is amazing how different it was. The first time I visited Amsterdam I was twenty and traveled with three of my good friends. Imagine the kind of trouble a bunch of twenty somethings can get themselves into in Amsterdam. This time however, I was visiting Amsterdam as a parent with my wife and 15 month old son. Although the experience was drastically different, Amsterdam was still enjoyable and offered plenty to see and do.

It has been a while since I last updated this blog primarily due to concentrating my efforts on completing the last couple of classes for my degree and pure laziness.

Lets get back to Amsterdam. The weather was a little chilly throughout the five days we spent in Amsterdam, but we made the most of it. Before traveling I did some research and found a lot of sites listing Amsterdam as a heavy pickpocket city. However, I think if you travel smartly then you should have no worries. We had a pushchair/stroller and a 15 month old and did not run into any issues.

Throughout our five days we visited many of the popular tourist destinations, like the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank museum, flower market, took a stroll through de wallen (Red Light District), ate frites galore, and took a canal cruise. We bought a 72 hour travel card and basically ended up walking and riding trams all around the city, stopping to enjoy some shopping and fine dutch cuisine.

All in all we had a wonderful time during our five days in Amsterdam. We both agreed that Amsterdam offers plenty of vices for those willing to partake.

As always, here are some of the pictures from our trip:

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This weekend we decided to travel north to visit the city of York for the Jorvik viking festival. Once we arrived we grab something to eat at a local pub and sparked a conversation with the owner about the viking festival. Apparently, the Jorvik Viking website listed the days we planned for the trip as the start of the festival but they must have been changed because the pub owner made some calls and it was planned to start the day after we were going to leave. We walked around the city and did not see too much to do with vikings so we checked out the other popular sites.

The weather was pretty cold and rainy so I would say that we did not enjoy York as much as we originally planned. The highlight of the trip was seeing the amazingly beautiful York Minster.

Here are the pictures from the trip.

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I borrowed a Nikkor 105mm AF Micro f/2.8 lens from a coworker and decided to try some macro work for fun this weekend. I ended up going with a matchstick setup so I could capture smoke and a matchstick as it is ignited.

I used a black backdrop, SB-600 Nikon speed-light, and a Lumiquest softbox III for my off camera lighting setup.

Here are some of the pictures from my little experiment.

Every year since I picked up a camera and started taking pictures in 2008 I have done a “best of” post recapping some of my favorite shots of the year. This year has been extremely busy with school and watching my son, Connor grow up.

Needless to say, I have not had the opportunity to take pictures as much as I would have liked. After reviewing my flickr account I noticed that many of my photos that were voted “most interesting” were from 08′ & 09′. Hopefully this is not a sign that my photography is going stagnant. I think this year will be a chance for me to really explore new techniques and really grow as a photographer. Because its difficult for me to choose my top ten images from this year, I decided that I would make a collection, with the help of Scout of my seventy-two most interesting photos since starting in 2008 as well as handful from this year that I really enjoy.

Because most of my photos were taken of our son Connor, I thought I would share a couple of those along with my most interesting from flickr.com.

If you want to see the original images, here are the links:

1. Another view of Cape Zanpa Lighthouse, 2. Real Fan2, 3. Roman statue, 4. Dolphin hug, 5. Stuck in traffic, 6. 31 Weeks, 7. Naha Tug of War, 8. Tokyo Stylin, 9. The lonely shell, 10. Bird Bath, 11. Waiting for the game, 12. Royal Procession beauty, 13. Royal Procession, 14. Just Hanging Around, 15. Oki Hut, 16. Araha Hands, 17. Mihama Soccer – Feb 2009, 18. Sunabe Marilyn Monroe, 19. In the dark, 20. It takes two, 21. Sunset beach, 22. We got a floater, 23. My first Strobist shot, 24. Futenma Shrine, 25. Enjoy the little things, 26. Zakimi Castle, 27. Ikei father and son, 28. You play ball like a girl, 29. Batter Up, 30. Dont play with fire, 31. Cape Maeda at Night, 32. Cambridge – April 2010-7, 33. Got Ya!, 34. Oxford-31, 35. Katsuren Castle, 36. Salisbury Cathedral Water, 37. Kannon temple, 38. Nago Sakura, 39. Beautiful Brill Windmill, 40. Salisbury Cathedral Ceiling, 41. Maeda Tourist, 42. Taking a Break, 43. Angry face, 44. Oxford – August 2010-14, 45. USS Missouri, 46. Brugge – September 2010, 47. Wannabe Rockstar, 48. Futenma ShiSha, 49. Sunny Days, 50. Instant Classic, 51. Let me hear you honk it, 52. 31 Weeks, 53. Beef Stew Bokeh, 54. fcuk, 55. Brill Windmill 2010-2, 56. Tuna Auction, 57. The Big Tuna, 58. This is how we roll, 59. Field of Dreams, 60. Shuri Castle entrance, 61. Shi Shi dog, 62. Tokyo night, 63. Cambridge – June 2010, 64. Niagara Whirpool, 65. Connor-45, 66. Boarstall Tower-5, 67. Tuna on Ice, 68. Hide and Seek, 69. She loves the wine, 70. Looking up at papa, 71. Shibuya Alley, 72. ikei man

Here are a couple of my personal favorites from 2010

Its getting close to Christmas so I thought I would post a great gift idea for all those camera lovers out there. DISCLAIMER: All you Canon fanboys can get your Canon mugs at the same website, so don’t worry!

There are a couple versions of Nikkor coffee mug but I decided to pick up the NIKON NIKKOR AF-S 24-70mm Lens 1:1 Coffee Cup Mug from 100milligrams.com.

The mug came in an authentic looking Nikon box wrapped in a Nikon bag. I was quite surprised with the amount of detail and thought that for $20 it was a pretty good deal. You can also find it here for a little less than $20.

I haven’t used mine yet, but it can be used for both hot and cold beverages. Here are some pictures:

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Everyone wants to be a Rock Star!