Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Holly Mosaic

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on here, so here is a something I’ve been working on in Photoshop. It’s just 12 different photos repeated, while Holly is overset and the transparency is tweaked. I think I’ll try a few more with this technique, as I really like the way this simple one came out.

Holly

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Elf Yourself

I guess this thing was pretty popular a while back, but I just saw it and think it's awesome: Holly and I got “Elfed.” This is scarily hilarious…


Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Finally: Portland’s Best View

Ever since moving here, I’ve wanted nothing more than to find a spot where I can take a picture of Portland as a whole. And since I live in the western hills, that should have been easy, right? Wrong.

However, if only I had taken a trail just off the road we drive seemingly every day, I would have found this:

IMG_5923

Getting Mt. Hood in the background was more of a bonus than I could have imagined. I forgot how prominent the major peak was even from Portland. So, my new favorite viewpoint is behind the Pittock Mansion.

It’s been so clear oustside lately (not to mention so cold!), I imagine this must be one of the best views of the entire region at this time of the year. Here’s the picturesque scene just as I arrived before sunset:

Hood

Basketball Program

Once again I get the pleasure to design an event program for North Idaho College’s athletic department: a high school invitational tournament hosted by the college. Unlike last year, where I was given a cover and asked only to design the innards, I get to create the entire program from cover to cover this year.

But before I finish (or even really begin!), I had to design a schedule for the high schools involved to post around their campus. Thus, I came up with this:

Flier

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

John’s Portland Trip

I forgot to post this when I put photos up a couple weeks ago, but something pretty sweet happened during John’s inaugural Portland visit: We won free tickets to a Blazers game at a bar raffle, just two hours before tipoff. Even better, the tickets were located in the Lexus Room, the level where people get all-you-can-eat free food and (sadly) non-alcoholic drinks.

Nevertheless, it was an awesome time. John had never been to an NBA game while I had only seen one, yet amidst everything we still left at halftime (the Blazers sucked that night, anyway).

Here are some of the shots I got from our corner seats, including an obvious indoor panoramic (As always, click to view larger):

IMG_5790 

Blazers02

Blazers01

Friday, December 4, 2009

No “Happy Gilmore” in Canada

happy-gilmore

Remember Happy Gilmore, the greatest golf movie to hit screens since Caddyshack? More importantly, do you remember his awesome  running swing? Well, if you golf in Canada nowadays, that swing is illegal. You heard it, against the law. After a man recently hit another golfer with the ball after swinging like Happy Gilmore, a judge ruled in favor of the victim!

So, even though the shot us by no means against the rules (though it’s not exactly in good taste), in Nova Scotia the shot is against the law.

Read the whole story here.

Website bonanza

It seems like I haven’t posted in over a week. Perhaps that’s because I haven’t!

Well, it’s all in good cause – building a Flash website! I know I’ve inundated this blog with routine proclamations concerning the “new” and “improved” JakeDonahue.com. Since buying my domain name earlier this year, I’ve indeed changed it's homepage more often than not.

But, believe it or not, I’ve finally settled down. Seriously. I’m not even joking!

My indecisive mind eventually buckled down, creating a monster of a website in Photoshop before transferring it to Flash. Sound easy, eh? I’ve worked on just the design in Photoshop for over a week, then spent 18 hours over two days mocking up the Flash file; I’ve since doubled the hours in just Flash, this week alone.

What’s more, I’m simply a Flash novice – no fiend here!

That being said, let me know what you think. I’m still learning Action Script and tweens, motions and dynamic images.

Let it also be said that my inspiration for this site design came from the background photo. It’s a panoramic of the downtown Portland skyline, one that I’ve bee looking forward to shooting since moving here. With my buddy John in town, we walked all over downtown before finding such a terrific vantage.

So, click the image below to view my newest attempt in Flash. Mind you, it’s roughly 80% done (still need to perfect the layout under the DESIGN tab, not to mention import material for WRITING).

Let me know what you think!

JAKEportfolioEDIT