Category Archives: landscape

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.

Red barn

Taking advantage of a nice Spring day, I rode along with my buddy, Doug Stremel, as he scouted a Kansas Byways project he’s working on. We covered a good portion of the northeast corner of the state and ran across some great locations like this amazing red barn. I think I’ll be coming back here once the crops are in — and I won’t be surprised if I run into Doug there when I do.

New project: Away.com

I’ve recently started working with Away.com, contributing slideshows on a variety of destinations for their travel website. I’ve delivered the first five, two of which have now been posted. This will be an ongoing project and I hope to continue to contribute many, many more. The image above is from the first to be posted. It’s a shot from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. A gallery from the Greek island of Mykonos is also now online. To find a directory of my slideshows as they are posted, check out my bio page at Away.com. And — what the heck — book yourself a vacation while you’re there (but don’t expect me to pay for it!).

Late snow

After a weekend of temps in the 60s and 70s, yesterday morning brought a wet 4-inch snow — one of the prettiest I’ve seen in years. The winds were calm enough that the snow could cling to the tiniest branches and grasses creating a wonderland of white. My first thought was to try and get to the KU campus to shoot but the streets looked bad (we have to go up steep hills either way we leave our house) and the temperatures were rising so fast I knew the snow wouldn’t last long. In the end, I opted for my favorite morning walk spot just across the road. You may recognize the trees in the first photo. I’ve blogged them before here.

By the end of the day, only a few patches of snow remained in areas of deep shade and this morning they are predicting temperatures rising back into the 70s again by mid-week.

Escaping Winter

When you start seeing things like this out your front window, it’s time to start thinking about heading for warmer climates — which is exactly what I’ll be doing for the next few days. Actually, I like the snow. If it’s going to be cold, it might as well be snowy. It’s much more attractive than a landscape of leaf-less trees and dead grass and it actually feels warmer when there’s a blanket of snow on the ground. Or the beauty takes your mind off the cold. Whatever… it works for me. But, my plans were made months ago and I must head for San Diego for a few days. Such is life. I’m working on a year-in-review post for 2010 but I don’t know that I’ll have it ready before I need to head for the airport. I’ll post from the road if I can, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be back soon.

Careful on that ice!

Saxon Switzerland National Park

The few hours I had to explore the Saxon Switzerland National Park in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany was not nearly enough. I had only enough time to see this one overlook area and to take a fast hike down through a gorge to the village that you can barely see in the distance on the upper-right-hand side of the shot above. Hopefully I’ll be able to return someday and really spend some quality time. It’s truly a beautiful area.

The gorge hike was amazing but I would strongly suggest to anyone thinking of visiting — do it the way I did and hike DOWN. I believe someone said there were something like 900 or 1000 stairs and my only amazement at that number is that it seems way too small. It was even more amazing to see so many people hiking UP. Insanity! The gorge would sometimes be a fairly wide valley and then occasionally narrow to a crack in the rock that you had to turn sideways to get through. A great hike, but be prepared for those stairs.

Two weeks in Germany

A quick note of apology for my lack of posts recently but I’ve been shooting in Germany and the schedule left barely enough time to offload cards every couple of days (I did, of course, manage to make time for plenty of beer and brats). As of last night, I’m back home and facing a mountain of image editing. Lots to see in the coming weeks — I’ll share as I process the photos — but for now, I’ll leave you with this teaser from a path leading to the Monument to the Battle of Nations in Leipzig.

What a difference a day makes

One waterfall, two flavors. The shot above was taken in the rain last Friday. The one below, barely over 24 hours later on Saturday.

I like each for different reasons but I expect the second one will have more value as a stock shot as I’ve found that tourism folks love those blue skies. Myself, I like the feathery nature of the water on the first shot and others from that day. By Saturday, Friday’s rain had made its way into the stream and the falls were much heavier. Still nice, but a different look.

Lake Superior, North Shore

After a couple of assignments in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I’ve been working my way up the North Shore of Lake Superior looking for Fall color. It’s here alright, but the weather has been less than cooperative. Heavy rains and high winds are making photography difficult and are threatening to strip the leaves away. There have been breaks, however, and I’ve been making the most of them. The rains have the waterfalls running nice and heavy so I’ve been concentrating on shooting those and the breaking waves on the shore as seen above. I’ve made use of the overcast skies and dim light in both instances to get some slow shutter speeds to blur the water and make it nice and silky. To extend those shutter speeds further, I’ve also been using neutral density filters stacked with a polarizer and I’ve been bumping the ISO artificially down to 100 (200 is the lowest “real” ISO on the D700). In the shot shown above, I even added a graduated neutral density filter to the sky to help balance the exposure.

Shooting through all of these filters is a bit like shooting through welder’s glass but it’s doing the job. This shot was made at f/22 and resulted in a 4 second exposure. The waves crashing around the large rocks look almost like fog.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a little dryer but still cloudy. Sounds good to me. At least I’ll have both hands available for adjusting the tripod again. One was constantly holding an umbrella today.