Category Archives: my other sites

Hotel Carpet

I announced this on Facebook earlier but neglected to do so here. I’ve launched a new site, Hotel Carpet, to showcase photos of rug patterns I encounter while traveling. It’s an idea I’ve had for a while and I wish I’d started documenting these carpets earlier but I haven’t always traveled with my iPhone and that has proven to be the most efficient way of recording these floor coverings. At any rate, I’m doing it now and you can find the results at: http://michaelcsnell.com/hotelcarpet/

There’s not much here in the way of serious intention, more just observation. It seems that – especially among chains in the U.S. – hotels are gravitating toward really wild, bold patterns in their carpets. It’s a trend that I’ve decided to document and share. You’re welcome. 😉

I’ve had questions about whether I’ll accept submissions and, for now, I’m just testing the water with a couple of people. Down the road, I may add a way for more people to participate by uploading their own images but, for now, I’m keeping this simple and manageable. If things change, I’ll announce it on the “about” page of the Hotel Carpet site.

Updates will be sporadic, just like my travels. Enjoy.

The image I launched the site with, from a hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. See more at Hotel Carpet.

New website launched today

The lack of recent posts has been, in large part, due to the fact that I’ve been rebuilding my website at www.michaelcsnell.com from the ground up. Not only is it a total redesign with expanded and updated galleries, it’s also the beginning of a new effort to have tutorial content, books and other products on the site.

For a long time my website has been a fairly static portfolio site. Now I want to push it in a more dynamic direction where I can expand on some of the things I do here on the blog. The portfolio will still be there — and more robust — but I’m really excited about the addition of two new sections of the site: the Toolbox and the Store.

The Toolbox will be my place to share tips and tutorials. I’ve started with the obligatory “What’s in my bag?” article but plan to add many more on photography, post-processing, workflow, etc. I’ll wait until CS6 and LR4 are officially released but there might be some Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets on their way, too. So much to do, so little time, but it will be fun to see where all of this leads.

The Store is where I’ll be launching several lines of books and maybe a few other surprises. The first books I’ll focus on are what I’m calling “The Journals of a Travel Photographer” series. These will essentially be “scrapbooks” of the images I’ve made during specific trips, whether it was a weekend in St. Louis or two weeks in Thailand. I’m also planning a series of “how to” books (or possibly e-books so that they can be a bit more dynamic) and there are ideas bouncing around for a few art books, too. I’ll announce it here on the blog when new books become available but I’ve also put links on the site where you can sign up to be put on our e-mailing list for new product announcements.

There’s more info about all of this on the site. Check it out — and sorry if there are still a few bugs in the system. It just launched a few hours ago and it’s definitely in a “phase one” state. Much, much more to come…

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!).

Travel by the Pint redesign

Winter is typically a quieter season for me but my workload seems to be picking up this year — something you won’t catch me complaining about. I made things worse for myself by vowing to redesign my own websites this year before my travel schedule starts to pick up in the Spring. Progress is beginning to show, however, and last week we re-launched our Travel by the Pint site:

For those of you who haven’t visited Travel by the Pint before, it’s a video podcast that we created to feature some of the great brewpubs and microbreweries that we run across as we work on travel stories around the country — and eventually (we hope) the world. The episodes can be viewed within the website or you can subscribe for free through iTunes and other online media stores.

A redesign of my photography site is planned as well. At least you now know where to get a good beer while you wait…

The winter of limited progress

091213website_sotc

I’ve made a long overdue update to my website by changing the home page photo to a couple from my Feb ’09 Egypt trip. It’s something I’ve always intended to do on a monthly basis at least. This time it went for over a year.

This winter I made plans to make lots of updates to the site, this blog, and especially to my other Shade of the Cottonwood site. I usually have a lull in travel over the holidays and winter months so I thought it would be a good catch-up period.

Well… that was the plan. Reality often bears little resemblance to my plans and, so far, this winter is no exception. It is becoming one of those “one step forward, two steps back” periods. When I returned from Mexico in October, I planned to get through the processing of images from that trip and then I’d be free to dig into my “winter projects”. Then the cat fell from the balcony and broke his leg resulting in 8 weeks of heavily supervised recovery. While hanging out with him in his cushy rehab pad (actually Sally’s sewing room) we noticed the carpet was damp. After some exploration, it was discovered that the hot water heater was leaking and, although there is a floor drain less than three feet away it’s apparently uphill from the water heater. Plumber called, new water heater installed and now we are in the middle of the carpet drying process — pulling the carpet and pad up, fans everywhere, etc.

I won’t go on with my entire list of distractions (and there are a lot more), but you get the picture. Today I decided to ignore everything else (except the cat duties, of course) and make a dent in the web site updates. Much progress has been made but it will be a while before you begin to see it online. Hopefully not too long.

To help me get down to work, I used up some remaining credits I had in the iTunes store and added Ceu’s “Cangote” EP and Minipop’s “A New Hope” album to my library. I find it really helpful to crank up some new tunes when working at the desk. It’s a trick I use when post-processing a shoot, too. I usually buy some local music while I’m on the road and then I listen to it while processing the images. Listening to Chinese pop while processing Shanghai images or a Desert Beat compilation while going through an Egypt take keeps me connected to the place. Plus, music makes a great souvenir that’s easy to pack.

Happy New Year!

Here it is, 2009. Where did the time go? 2008 was an amazing year for me, filled with plenty of travel — even though we swore we would cut back so that we could buy a new house. While we did buy a house, move, and sell the old one, we didn’t do a very good job of cutting back on the travel which made for a very busy, very hectic year. I even started traveling earlier than normal with a February trip to Banff:

Banff, Alberta, Canada

Hard to believe that was less than a year ago. That trip set a great tone for 2008. Truly an amazing destination. This year will begin with another amazing place and I’m starting 2009’s travel even earlier. The first week of February will find me in Egypt. The rest of the year is a mystery at this point but with a start like that I’m sure it will be a wild ride.

The past month has had me furiously processing the images from 2008. I normally don’t like to be more than one trip behind but I didn’t even come close this year. I’m now in shouting distance of being caught up and may be finished by the end of the weekend. I want to feed all of my stock outlets before I start the 2009 travel so I need to keep moving. The China trip has been fully processed and is already in the hands of one stock agency. Once I see what they accept, I’ll place the rest elsewhere. I’ll show more here over the next couple of weeks as well.

Enjoy the new year everyone! I hope it brings success, health and happiness to you all.

Back to business

Banff, Alberta, Canada

With the move more or less behind us it’s time to get back to business. Today that meant catching up on some stock submissions that had been accumulating in my outbox. This shot of Vermillion Lakes near Banff, Canada, among many others will soon be available for licensing through Robert Harding World Imagery. I’m still backlogged in my post-processing but it feels good to be moving forward. I have two weeks before my travel schedule picks up again. We’ll see how much progress I can make before then.

Vermillion Lakes, Banff

Most of yesterday the weather was not kind to this photographer but perseverance paid off and just before sunset the clouds finally started to break up and the sun peeked through for a great evening shoot at Vermillion Lakes. I don’t use my Nikkor 10.5 fisheye all that much but I like the effect here. It looks like you’re on top of the world. I have to say, though… looking at that foreground ice now… I’m wondering how it supported my weight.

Huh.

Mount Rundle, Banff The spot was perfect as it allowed for several shooting opportunities. Nearby hot springs had kept this body of water open and the stillness made for perfect reflections of the nearby mountains — including Mount Rundle shown at the right. Ice around the edge of the lake provided a good surface to shoot from as well as some nice leading lines and foreground elements. in other areas patches of golden reeds broke the surface of the water giving some nice warm color and a very different look than shots that were dominated by the ice. In the end I was able to grab lots of different images that don’t all look like they were shot in the same place or on the same evening. A very versatile location. What a great way to end a day.

A quick word of thanks to Bob for stopping by and leaving a comment yesterday. It’s always great to hear from you. Hope to see you again one day soon.

Michael C. Snell photography blog

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