Category Archives: Fiji

SATW Central States awards

News arrived yesterday that I had six images place in the 2012 Society of American Travel Writers Central States Chapter photo competition. Thank you to the judges and organizers — I’m honored. The real kick for me was in getting 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the People category. What a shock! The photo above was the 1st place winner. I also took 1st in the Action category, 3rd in Food and an honorable mention in International Places.

The awards were announced at the Central States meeting in the Florida Keys last week, which I was unfortunately unable to attend. It’s always great to see the other photographers’ work during the presentation. Hopefully they’ll eventually be posted somewhere online. I’ll share the link here if that happens.

Congratulations to all of the other winners as well!

Year in Review: 2011

Travel started earlier than usual for me in 2011 with a short trip to San Diego in January. The warm weather was welcome as we were having one of our snowiest years on record back home:

In early April, I escaped the cold once more for a couple of weeks in Fiji. I was there for a Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting. It was my last year as Chair of the Freelance Council and Fiji would be the last Council meeting under my term. It was a great meeting and a wonderful destination. One of my favorite memories was an evening on the beach with a bunch of fire dancers. There’s not much that’s more fun to shoot than people spinning burning torches on a beach at sunset. If you haven’t tried it, take my word for it.

It was very warm in Fiji — even without the fire. A jet boat trip up the Sigatoka River was the only time I remember actually feeling chilly:

If those cliffs look familiar, I was told that some of the scenery for Avatar was shot in that area.

I wasn’t back in the states for more than a week before driving to Ohio for a couple of stories. I made sure to schedule in another trip to Hocking Hills to try and get some waterfall shots. The last time I’d tried, it was an unusually dry season and it was like the tap had been turned off. Much better results this year.

Back home in June, I managed to photograph a few Kansas events that had eluded me for years. One was the Symphony in the Flint Hills (which is just as amazing as it sounds — an orchestra playing out in the middle of acres and acres of tallgrass prairie and rolling hills) and the reenactment of the Battle of Black Jack. Here’s a shot of “John Brown” from that day:

A trip to Colorado and over the Continental Divide followed. Here’s a lake that sits nearly on the Divide at Milner’s Pass, elevation 10,759 feet:

Quite a few regional shoots followed which I’ll share later after the stories have run. In September, we were on the road again making a big loop through southeastern Iowa:

and down the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Here’s a shot of the Louisiana State Capitol:

Rounding out the year in November was one more trip over the Pacific, across the equator and the International Dateline to New Zealand. This was SATW’s Annual Convention and I officially ended my term as Chair of the Freelance Council and became the much less encumbered Immediate Past Chair. I truly enjoyed my two years in office and serving on the Society’s Board of Directors but it will also be good to step away for a bit and re-focus on my photography business. The New Zealand Convention was great and I especially loved the four days I spent afterward exploring the Southland from Dunedin down to Stewart Island. Here’s one from the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin:

And I’ll leave you with flowers that were blooming in Queens Park in Invercargill, NZ. It’s not bad to end a year with a second season of Spring:

Sigatoka Market

Life continues to keep things interesting around here so I’ll toss out another shot from Fiji to keep y’all occupied as I dodge and weave. On my last day in Fiji, I had some time to kill and I spent a couple of hours wandering the market in Sigatoka. The place was filled with portrait potential. The light bounced around the stalls nicely and the faces were fantastic. Here’s just one. It’s a bit more “processed” than usual but I was experimenting. I’ll live with this version for a while but I have a feeling this might be a shot I come back to from time to time. It has a painterly quality that I like but I’m not sure it’s coming across at its full potential yet.

Fire dance

The coming week is going to be busy and there’s a good chance that I won’t have an opportunity to post anything so I’ll leave you with a fun shot today, just in case you end up having to stare at it all week. This one’s from an evening spent photographing fire dancers on the beach in Fiji. Not really an evening as much as a few minutes. There’s a brief period when the sky is dark enough but not too dark to balance with the fire and the light being cast by the fire. It’s fast and exhilarating — made more so by the bits of flaming material that occasionally gets flung in your direction. These guys and gals were amazing and put on quite a show.

For those of you interested in technical stuff, this was f/5.3 at 1/6th of a second. It was shot at 6:28. The entire shoot lasting from 6:17 until 6:37. 400 shots in 20 minutes (I’m glad I wasn’t having to change film). There are plenty more fun ones from this series which I’ll share in the coming weeks.

Palm trees, two ways

This is the idyllic view that I had from my hotel room for most of my time in Fiji. Abstracted to just palm fronds, trunks and ocean, it tells the story of a perfect vacation spot. I shot this view several times over the course of my stay, taking advantage of different lighting, clouds, etc., but perhaps my favorite version of it was the first one I shot, and in the most imperfect situation:

It was hot in Fiji. And humid. And when I checked in to my room, the air conditioning was cranked to the point that water was condensing on the sliding patio door to my balcony. It was also a bit cloudy that first day which, in combination with the “rain” on the glass, painted a very different picture. As a stock image, I like the way this shot says “the vacation that wasn’t”, “rained out”, etc.

When traveling — and certainly when on vacation — I would much rather have the first scene be the one outside my window, but I’m very much hoping that some photo editors out there are in need of the second version.

Back from Fiji

The Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council (which I currently chair) held its Spring meeting in Fiji last week. In between business meetings, professional development sessions, and some spectacular events put on by our hosts, there were a few hours left to squeeze full of all manner of touring and photo opportunities. Caving, cruising, fire dancing — you name it. Quite a week indeed.

This was my first outing with the Nikon D7000 and my new Think Tank Photo sling bag. Both performed admirably. The sling was a bit less comfortable than my old backpack on long airport treks between gates (anyone dashed the several blocks between LAX’s terminal one and the international terminal lately?) but it more than made up for it when it came to accessing gear. It’s really nice to be able to swing it around and open it up from the top, regardless of which shoulder you’re wearing it on. Nice work Think Tank! The smaller size made it super easy to get into overhead compartments, too.

The D7000 and I had a few issues at first but we’re working them out. The focus seems a bit quirky to me but I probably just need to explore the various settings a bit more. The really odd thing to me is that I always have to refocus when shooting video. I tend to take a still first to test exposure, but when I then switch on live view it’s out of focus and requires another half-press of the shutter release — which is kind of counter-intuitive given that you have a separate button on the back for video. I don’t know what’s up with that. I also had some trouble early on getting my exposure to match my manual settings for stills but then realized there is a menu setting where you can turn on “manual movie settings”. It’s off by default, evidently. I guess I should have devoted a bit more time to reading the manual before I left. Oh, well.

Anyway… more on all of this soon. The mad rush to get these images catalogued before the next trip is on. As usual, I’ll share a few shots as I make my way through the shoot.