Fifty Word Bio

Recently I’ve been updating an old story I wrote for The Sentinel that will be reprinted in Idaho Magazine’s November issue. They’re running my photos, as well (see my favorite below).
But the hardest part of the entire thing is penning a 50-word “mini-bio” of myself that they will run on the Contributors Page. I didn’t realize how hard writing about myself could be.
But, after toiling for more than a few hours, I finally finished this little paragraph:

A recent college graduate, Jake Donahue is a journalist in every sense of the word. He’s covered student government scandals and opined the cons of handicapped parking; photographed everything from pelicans to panoramic; but above all else, loves newspaper design immensely. He’s a Little League coach, freelance designer and soon to be married.

And here is one of the photos I used in the original article, hopefully they pick this one, as well:

ACP Best Front Page Nominee

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this little ditty I discovered earlier this month: I’m a finalist for the Associated Collegiate Press’ Design of the Year competition, specifically the Front Page category.
Talk about an honor! Here is the page that won:


So, come Saturday, Oct. 31, at the 88th Annual ACP/CMA convention in Austin, Tex., I find out whether I won 1st through 6th place. The top winner receives Adobe software (I guess I can sell it, as I already have CS4). Needless to say, I’m beyond excited. This page already won 1st place in the Non-Daily Broadsheet Cover category for the Student Society of News Design’s University of Missouri design contest. I do have to mention that one of my favorite photographers made this page possible: Tim Sorenson, who shot the helicopter photo and ASNIC pic.

Here is my competition. They all look pretty damn good, and they’re from way bigger schools with proven track records in design success. Cross your fingers!

University of Illinois: The Daily Illini

Columbia College: The Columbia Chronicle

University of Indiana: Indiana Daily Student

North Carolina University: The Technician

University of Washington: The Daily

Tilt-Shift Photography

Thanks to inspiredology.com for showing me a new photo-editing trick. Apparently you can you do this with a special camera, but I’ve now discovered the effect is greater if you edit the photo in Photoshop.

Here is insiredology’s description of the technique:

Tilt-shift photography involves using both tilt and shift camera movements to simulate the depth of field of a macro lens, making life-size objects appear as though they’re actually miniature in scale. The effect can be incredibly powerful, instantly turning a sprawling metropolis into a miniature village or toy town. Many people have been tricked by it over the years and you’ll have to inspect the stunning images below carefully to believe that they are, in fact, real.

While some photographers prefer to use expensive cameras and lenses to create their tilt-shift images, others choose to use postproduction techniques instead. By blurring the top and bottom of an image, as well as increasing its contrast and saturation, you can create a tilt-shift miniature fake that looks just as good (if not better) than the real thing.

Click here to view their page showcasing “40 Stunning Tilt-Shift Images of Urbanity.”

Needless to say, I don’t exactly have many personally-shot photos of “sprawling metropolises.” Thus, I borrowed these original photos from Google images and Stock.Xchng. But, after following the editing techniques I learned from this tutorial, voila!

 

Best Business Cards … EVER

I had seen this website a long time ago, but finally remembered to revisit it yesterday. I’m not sure how some of these people got them made, but I hope to make a new one worthy of this list.
Here is the list of all the cards posted by the Design Inspiration Lab at Inspiredology.com. However, here are some of my favorites:

This is my card, as it stands now… Definitely not as creative as the ones above. Hopefully that will change soon:
 
I rushed to get this design printed as fast as I could before I left for the Poynter fellowship in Florida, as they advised bringing personal cards.

A Jakewood Milestone!

Holy hell! I was dinking around in my Google Analytics account today and just noticed something I was wondering about: How many unique visitors have I had to my blog? Conisdering I don't advertise it at all (aside from a few Facebook notifications), the only traffic I get should be from people I inform. Sure, there were a bunch of Google referrals -- albeit the mighty iPhone -- but when it was all said and done, yesterday marked my 1,000th unique visitor!

Mother of God.

While there are blogs who probably generate that much traffic on a weekly (if not daily) basis, I was astounded. That seems like a big number concerning how I semmingly blab about nothing important; in my life, however, everything seems important.

Finally, stay tuned. I am in the process of moving this entire project over to Wordpress. It will become part of my personal website, a massive project I am undertaking involving my graphic design portfolio, writing portfolio, my online photo gallery and of course, my blog. It will be a one-stop-shop pertaining to everything Jake Donahue-related, much like a Costco (except you don't need a membership card at ww.JakeDonahue.com

Anyway, it's a long process, and since I'm working on other sites as I learn HTML and website design, don't expect anything soon. But there will be a big announcement when the move takes place (maybe then I will start advertising. How else could I get people to check my portfolios?)

Lastly, to those who continue reading this often, let me offer a mighty THANK YOU! While this whole thing started as an outlet for me to force myself into writing as much as possible, seeing comments and hearing that people are reading Jakewood make me want to continue as long as possible.

So Thanks, stay tuned, and let's shoot for 2,000!

Beer slushy

I put a beer in the freezer this afternoon to get it chilled. Two hours later, it was definitely chilled – it poured like a 7-11 slushee. After sitting in the glass a few seconds it grew … and grew … and grew!

More Photo Edits

Here are some more before and after edits of photos I had on my computer. I’m still in disbelief how easy it is to make a boring photo look great …

 

 

 

 

 

By request…

The Original Sausage photo.

Photo Madness

Well, now I know how people take good photos – Photoshop!
Oh, sure, I’ve always been a fan of the infamous photo-tweaking platform, and I knew photographers used the tool to edit their pictures to a certain extent. However, after some online research and tinkering of my own, I just discovered how make a bad photo look good.
I mean BAD photos look GOOD. Take this before/after for example, it only took five minutes to edit the hell out of:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

I mean, seriously, holy hell! I feel lied to. I feel betrayed. I feel like every time I’ve seen a photo I admired it was a sham! I’ve spent so long trying to capture the exact image as it should be in my viewfinder when all I needed was Photoshop.
Yes, there is always some editing to be had – whether vibrancy, saturation or brightness/contrast. I just never assumed it would be to this extent!
Here are some more before/after pictures I edited tonight. I am in awe of how big a difference some retro tints and vignettes can make.

A Sausage by Any Other Name…

…would still not look as good as this bad boy! Unless it had onions and sauerkraut, of course.

Blackberry Storm + Photoshop CS4 = Awesome