JasonKimball.org

The new year is only a couple of hours away and that made me think about the type of year 2009 was. As far as photography goes, 2009 was a year in which I developed the skills I learned in 2008. We were fortunate enough to travel to fun and exciting locations around the world which resulted in several truly fascinating photographic opportunities.

My biggest photography resolution for 2010 is to try new things and push my creative limits to the max. In addition, I want to really develop new techniques in 2010 and grow as a photographer and learn.

Below are some of my favorites pictures from 2009…enjoy!

Click to enlarge

I wanted to get outside and take some photo’s recently so I packed up my gear and headed to Brill Windmill. Brill Windmill is located in the historic Buckinghamshire village of Brill. Although the windmill is not operational, there are continued restoration projects in the future.

Thought to be one of the oldest windmills is Britain, Brill Windmill was erected sometime in the 1680’s. It is considered to be one of the best preserved post-mills still standing from the 17th century.

The windmill itself is open to the public every Sunday during the summer. However, you can still go and take pictures of the windmill and surrounding countryside during the week. I believe I went and visited during the middle of the week sometime and it was just perfect. I didnt have to pay admission but I have seen some websites stating an admission fee of £2.00.

For more information you can check out the Brill Village website.

I must say that Chase Jarvis is a genius because he recently developed an iPhone application for those of you looking to get more out of your iPhone camera. The iPhone app is called Best Camera and it looks pretty cool.

I don’t own an iPhone but I can appreciate how he says,

The best camera is the one that’s with you.

Here is a video with a little more information on the app:

Make sure you check out his blog to find out more.

I was recently contacted by WingBus.com because they wanted to feature two of my photos on their website. Because I love having the ability to share my photos with others I said yes without hesitation!

But wait, what exactly is WingBus.com? After doing a little research I found out the WingBus.com is an online travel community in Korea. Pretty cool huh! I went to their website but unfortunately I can not read Korean or find anywhere on the website that gives the option to translate into English.

The photo’s are of some places I visited and documented in Okinawa while I was there. Both of the images are not currently on my favorite photographs list, but they are what WingBus.com was looking for at the time.

Here are the two screen shots of the photos as they appear on the website:

Many of you are aware that my wife and I recently moved to the United Kingdom. We have been here about two months now and have been fortunate enough to get out and visit some local destinations when the weather was nice.

Since I lacked Internet connectivity for the past two or three months I haven’t been able to post updates often as I would like. I wanted to post a couple of my favorite pictures from some of the places we have visited so far.

Feel free to leave a message and let me know which one is your favorite.

Oh yeah, expect to see routine updates on the site again….yay!!!

To view more photos taken throughout England check out my England Album.

I recently received an email stating that one of my photos had been selected for inclusion on Schmap.com for a Honolulu photo guide. First of all, what the hell is Schmap.com? Well, I checked out their website and apparently this is what they are all about:

Schmap is a leading publisher of digital travel guides for 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More than 90 million Schmap Guides have been downloaded since first release in March 2006: this phenomenally popular series can also be browsed online, with versions optimized for iPhone and Nokia users

The innovative technology behind Schmap Guides lets end users publish schmaps (to share trip itineraries, local reviews and more), and powers a popular range of Schmap Widgets, syndicating more than 6 million maps a month – together with content and event schedules for travel, sports and concert tours – to a fast-growing network of websites and blogs.

The company’s latest releases, Schmap Enable and Schmap.me, go to the heart of the current mobile Internet revolution, allowing websites and end users to share mobile friendly maps with their visitors.

Schmap’s rollout has earned a plethora of favorable reviews, with media accolades including TIME, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, PC World, CNET News, Lifehacker and TechCrunch.

Founded in 2004, Schmap is privately owned and based in Carrboro, North Carolina.

After checking it out, I think it looks a lot like Mapquest with interactive guides and photo’s. It is actually brilliant advertising on their end because they get me to write a blog and link to their website because one of my photos made it into their guides. I suppose we are both using each other because my name ends up on their website next to my picture.

The picture is of the Bowfin Memorial Park at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii . I took it this summer when my wife and I vacationed in Honolulu for about a week. Here is a look at it as it appeared on Schmap.

You can also check out the actual page by going here.

Have you ever wondered what 4:30 a.m. would smell like in Tokyo? Well, today it smelled like a whole lot of fish!

With my second trip to Tokyo quickly coming to an end, I decided to wake up early and head out to the very popular Tsukiji Fish Market here in Tokyo. If you have no clue, Tsukiji Fish Market is one of the largest fish markets in the world. Tsukiji handles nearly two tons of marine product per day and that is evident if you have ever been there during the busy times.

I was surprised that I didn’t see as many tourist as expected until just after 7 a.m. One important thing to remember is Tsukiji is a market and people are there to buy and sell products, so stay out of the way if you can. My biggest advice to anyone interested in checking it out is to get their early and stay out of the way of the people and all of the moving carts.

The best part about all of this is that it is absolutely free. That’s right, free! When you are done checking out the tuna auction and various marine life, go eat some of the freshest sushi you’ll ever eat at one of the local vendors in the outer market.

Here are some of the photos from my trip to Tsukiji Fish Market.

Click to Enlarge

Here are more photos from my day at the market.

[Show as slideshow]

I haven’t had my camera out as often as I planned since arriving here in Tokyo. So, tonight I decided to take a walk around the hotel and snap a couple photos.

To my surprise, there is something to shoot almost everywhere I turned. I love the endless photo possibilities that a city like Tokyo presents.

Here are a couple photos of my walk around the Ginza area.

Click to Enlarge