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Angkor Wat

March 8, 2012 Posted in: Travel1 comment

Angkor Wat. In two words I would say it is extremely impressive.

Today I went to the Angkor Wat temples which let me tell you is worth more than a day trip. There is so much to see I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of basically a city in itself.

Interesting fact: The modern name, Angkor Wat, means “City Temple”; Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagar. Wat is the Khmer form of the Pali word “vatthu”, meaning “temple grounds”.

Built in the 13th century the temples are intricate, and the attention to detail in each of the thousands of carvings in amazing. The trees that cover the grounds are probably just as old and definitely just as beautiful. I have so many more pictures from today but here is just a taste, because a good picture-filled post is way overdue.

So here we go the journey to the temples – it’s always safety first.

Choose your own adventure??:)I think so!

And to finish the day off a SOLAR FLARE.

Posted in: Travel
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by TaylorJackson

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April 22, 2012 - 9:09 pm

Rory - Really lovely work! And “Possibility of Visit,” ha.

Entirely Lost

February 28, 2012 Posted in: personal | Travel1 comment

I am waiting behind the glass of a barred window on a busy city intersection. The cafe I sit in is sweltering – even the buddha on the shrine perched next to my table seems to be perspiring, and the two tiny cockroaches milling around the window sill move slow because of the heat. The menu is small and every frozen smoothie I try to order is not available. I settle on carrot juice instead.

The rest of the menu trails into obscurity and I stare blankly at laminated paper. Khmer characters. An alphabet that makes as much sense to me as written english does to a toddler. I chose my meal carefully, completely by the flow of the script – the design.

I am entirely lost and entirely in love with Cambodia.

food photography

Except from my journal: Feb 27th 2012 12:17pm

Posted in: personal | Travel
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by TaylorJackson

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March 5, 2012 - 2:49 am

Alex - Beautiful words and photo, Taylor. I love it.

For Photographers: VSCO Film

February 1, 2012 Posted in: Photographers2 comments

I have a love/hate relationship with editing photographs. A part of me loves coming home after a wedding or day out shooting somewhere amazing like in Mui Ne. Downloading my memory cards, pulling out my favourites, turning on some mellow editing music (Bon Iver, Jack Johnson, Ben Howard are some of my favs!) and seeing what I can do. But then I can hate it, editing 500 wedding photographs, spending hours colour correcting a photo of cousin sally that will never see the light of day…it can be tedious.

But I recently (maybe three months ago) discovered Visual Supply Co. the creators of VSCO film. An Adobe Lightroom plug-in that has literally changed the way I edit.

VSCO isn’t magic, I need to get the photograph as close as I can to perfect in camera for them to look their best, but VSCO in two or three clicks colour wise I can finish the photo just the way I like it. (Which is amazing when previous to using VSCO I was spending maybe 100 clicks/photo in photoshop.)

With this photo below I was walking along the beach at sunset. (The same time I took these photos). I had the 85mm lens on and though I wish I could have been a little closer to the action, I wasn’t going to interrupt mid flip. I cropped the image tighter in lightroom, then straightened the horizon. A bit of VSCO’s Fuji 400H+ preset and I was set.

When I look back at my older work, I do think I over-processed the pictures quite a bit. I wasn’t as confident with my camera and I thought I could make up for it in photoshop. But the longer I shoot for the less and less I find myself doing in post. This shot below was a two click edit. 1) VSCO’s Fuji 400H+ preset 2) Slight increase to the fill light slider in lightroom to brighten the foreground.

If you have any questions leave a comment and I’ll try my best!

Posted in: Photographers
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by TaylorJackson

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February 1, 2012 - 6:42 pm

Laura Eliza - I want those presets so bad, and you aren’t helping ;) I love the way you used them, though your images were amazing to begin with! =)

April 30, 2012 - 2:22 am

Debra Eby - Get out of town! I am in love with VSCO film presets. I use them for all my editing now. While it’s not film {sigh}, it’s a close second and I’m loving it. Looking forward to officially meeting you soon. <3