I JUST BOUGHT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR $11.

Wait....whaa?

I saw this on a geeky tech-nerd website, and for $1 per letter you can buy any word, and that word will forever be defined with the website you provide. So for example, I paid 11 bucks for "photography" on The Big Word Project so now anyone who clicks on or looks up "photography" on that website will eternally be directed to rcjonesphotography.com. I think that's neat. And by the way, the site is in the middle of an exciting update and will be launched within a week. Lots of great, new stuff happening over here, and once everything is set in place I'll be making an official post about with all the details.

Kinda dorky, kinda weird, but definitely kinda cool too. And plus, $11 for some fun viral marketing? Sign me up.

ENGAGEMENTS: REBEKAH & JOHN

Click here for slideshow:



If you were to ask how excited I've been to post this engagement session, my answer would be "super mega [excited]". Ever since John came up with the idea to head to the old Downtown Fresno firehouse to do their engagements, I've been thinking of how I can combine the intensity of firefighting with the intimacy of an engagement session. Thankfully, both Rebekah and John were incredibly easy to work with and let me extrapolate my crazy ideas into something really cool. But I really must give credit where credit is due, and John was the one who had the idea for the shot of them two overlooking the city, which I think is one of my favorite engagement shots to date. So to Rebekah and John, I hope you guys had as much fun as I did, and thank you so much for trusting in me to photograph your big day. To everyone else, enjoy the show. It's a good one.













Look at those eyes!

ENGAGEMENTS: SHANNON & JEFF

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This is my first engagement session of the year after a much needed wedding break over winter, and it was a great way to start off the busy 2008 wedding season! I met Shannon last year, who was Aubrey's maid of honor (of the awesome Ian & Aubrey wedding) and heard back from her in September, when Jeff proposed to her in beautiful Lake Tahoe (good job Jeff). Shannon said they wanted some more rural pictures with country-ish backgrounds, and I knew just the spot because I actually shot there a couple years ago when I first started photography and thought it'd be a cool place to come back to. Back when I first started I was attracted to big, dark, trees, and have kind of forgotten about photographing them, but when I saw the tree in this photo shoot I remembered how cool old trees really are. But I digress...

Jeff & Shannon, you guys were an absolute pleasure to work with, and I hope you enjoy the images. See you in September!

INTRODUCING: FINN

Most awesome baby portrait ever? Probably. Click here for slideshow:



Last week I had the chance to shoot brand new baby boy, Finnegan Bruce, who is a whopping three weeks old. If all babies are as fun as this little guy, I really may have to start shooting more portraits for little ones, because I had a blast interacting with him. Our session was wedged between food and nap times, so I was able to get some fun shots of Finn chowing down and sleeping it off. The slideshow's song is Ben Taylor's "Nothing I Can Do", which actually about his mom, so I felt the sweet song was fitting. [Sidenote: Ben Taylor is James Taylor and Carly Simon's lovechild, and Ben's voice is eerily similar to his dad's]. To Melissa and Brett: thanks for bringing me along to take these first photos of Finn for you; I'm honored. Enjoy!

MIKE VITALE

This weekend I had the chance to shoot for über-talented Orange County singer-songwriter Mike Vitale. I met Mike back in my Jungkshen days and we played a bunch of shows together in Fullerton, and every time I saw him I got a baby-bit jealous of how ridiculously good he is. So for those of you in Orange County, check out Mike's myspace to get tour dates and head out and support this guy. He's good, and he's going somewhere.

THE U.S.S. SIGMA

This week was the annual PMA (Photo Marketing Association) trade show in Vegas, something I went to in '07 but just couldn't pull it this year. This is where all the cool new toys come out that I'll be spending the rest of my year wasting my money on. This one, however, I probably won't be making the plunge quite yet. This is a real lens, no joke. It's a Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 that weighs 35 FREAKIN' POUNDS.

And in case you're wondering, that's a camera on the right side of the lens -- a full-sized, SLR digital camera. I don't think the price has officially been announced but I've seen numbers ranging from $15-20,000, which is slightly less than I paid for my Honda. Nice.



Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired