Category Archives: photography

I like my water clear, thank you

Adjusting this photo from Saturday’s NE Kansas excursion was a little more work than it needed to be. This is the Buffalo Soldier Memorial at Fort Leavenworth and apparently someone thinks the water looks better dyed an unnatural blue/green color. That, or it’s been this way since St. Patty’s day. Maybe there is some other perfectly reasonable explanation for the water’s color, but it looked really, really strange in the falls below the sculpture. You can see for yourself in the un-fixed horizontal version below:

Note to all fountain owners — green water doesn’t look better! In Lightroom, I had to go through a whole process of selectively desaturating the aqua range of the color spectrum and painting in with the adjustment brush a combination of increased contrast and desaturation until things were looking somewhat natural again. Whew.

By the way, I was also putting a new camera bag through its paces on Saturday. For my upcoming Fiji trip in just a few days, I picked up a new Think Tank Sling-O-Matic. Here’s a photo of it from their site:

I had originally planned on getting the smaller Sling-O-Matic 10 but it wasn’t in stock locally and upon seeing the size of the 20, thought it might better fit my gear. This bag is slightly smaller than my Think Tank Airport Ultralight and is a sling-bag instead of a full backpack. While I’ll miss the distribution of the weight across both shoulders, I welcome the ability to swing the bag around to access lenses without taking the bag off.

The bag worked great on Sunday and I look forward to seeing how it does on a longer trip. My Ultralight fit nearly every overhead compartment I encountered although it was a bit tight in some. This one should slide right in, but the laptop will have to be carried separately in its own sleeve. There is a side pocket that will take the laptop on the Sling, but an inch or so sticks out and I’d be a little nervous that it might work its way out while out of my view on my back (the way the pockets work is that they’re top-opening when you sling the bag ’round front, but are side-opening when worn on the back).

I’ll report back after the Sling has logged a few air miles.

So long, old friends

I’m saying goodbye to two fine traveling companions — my Nikon D200 and D300. They’ve served me well and we’ve had a great many adventures together.


Easter Island, shot with the Nikon D200 in 2006.

I picked up the D200 in 2006 just prior to a trip to Chile and Easter Island. What a way to start. It was almost literally like going to the ends of the earth. The D200 was my main body for a couple of years and never gave me a bit of trouble. In 2008, I borrowed my brother’s D300 for a back-up body when a trip to China suddenly came up. Upon returning home, I bought it from him.


A low-light shot from China, taken with the Nikon D300 in 2008.

The two traveled well together but the D200 was semi-retired in early 2009 when I added a D700 to once again have a full-frame body. I like to carry two bodies both for back-up purposes and to have two lens options quickly available at all times, but carrying three is too much for me. Still, I hung onto the D200, thinking that I might convert it to infrared. It was tempting but I never got around to it — partly because I didn’t know how much use I’d get out of it and I didn’t want to have the extra weight in the bag at all times. If it’s not with you, you won’t use it, right? So… it never happened.

The D300 and D700 have accompanied me to Egypt, Canada, Dubai, Thailand, Jamaica, Germany and other exotic and not-so-exotic places but the time has come to make a change in the lineup again. I’ve been feeling the need to add more video capabilities and the new DSLRs that shoot video would allow me to do that without carrying much extra gear. So, I’ve ordered a Nikon D7000 to become the new traveling companion for my D700. I’ll fill you in more when it arrives.

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.

Whale watching in the Pacific

Oh, warmth. Where have you gone?

Pardon me while I escape the reality of single digit temps outside my window and I relive my visit to San Diego last week. For those of you who are also snow-bound, maybe you can live vicariously through the images and know that warmth will one day return to you as well.

Today I’m reminiscing about a whale-watching trip that we took from San Diego out into the Pacific. I’ve been on a couple of these before, but always in the Atlantic off of Canada’s coast and always on smaller boats. The bigger boat definitely made for fewer people going to the rail seasick than on the smaller boats but I also found that it puts you a bit high for photographing the whales. Sure, you have a good view of them, but from a small boat your lower perspective shows how large they really are with their flukes breaking the horizon as they prepare to dive.

That said, it was a great day to be out on the water and the whales showed up right on cue and put on quite a show. We saw at least 10 or 11 and had a pod of 6 all together in the end. My 200mm lens was barely up to the task, however, as the whales are always some distance from the boat. The dolphins, on the other hand, would practically attack:

If it makes you feel any better on this January morning — it was chilly enough out on the water that you needed a jacket.

Sorry!

Year in Review: 2010

2010 was a year of contrasts for me when it came to travel. I started off with a quick stop in Dubai on my way to Thailand. Dubai is absolutely incredible. The amount of construction going on is mind-numbing — dozens of new skyscrapers going up simultaneously, each trying to outdo the others in terms of whimsical and ground-breaking design. And of course, no trip to Dubai these days would be complete without a stop at the current world’s tallest building, seen above through a bus window as I was on my way to the indoor snow skiing slopes. That’s right. Indoor snow skiing slopes. Dubai was a trip.

But the trip wasn’t over by a long shot. Next came Thailand.



Thailand is one of those places that sticks with you. The longer it’s been since I was there, the more I seem to think about it. I have a feeling I’ll be back.

Next, a quick trip to Jamaica:

The highlight of which may have been this night visit to the bioluminescent bay. Organisms in the water cause it to glow when the water is disturbed — as it was here when a couple of people from my boat took a swim:

Tough to shoot, but a fun experience.

There were several US trips that I won’t take the time to list here, and a Fall drive up the North Shore of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, Canada.


On the heels of that trip, I was off to Germany:

Crossing the bridge in that first shot, I actually set foot in Austria, too.

2010 was a great year for me in terms of travel. I enjoyed each and every place I visited and would eagerly return to any of them. 2011 is already shaping up to be another busy one, however. I have one more year to serve as the Chair of the Freelance Council of the Society of American Travel Writers and already have a fair number of SATW meetings on my calendar including one in San Diego this week. Fiji and New Zealand are also on the agenda for 2011 and I’m sure there will be some surprises as well. Stay tuned…

Kansas City Plaza holiday lights

The Country Club Plaza lights are a holiday tradition in Kansas City. They’re lit on Thanksgiving and stay on until New Years. It’s been a while since I’ve photographed them so I wanted to make sure to do it this year. The thing is… I wanted a day that wasn’t cloudy (low clouds turn brownish when they reflect the lights) and wasn’t too cold. Oh, and I obviously had to be in town.

As Christmas was rapidly approaching, the weather was not cooperating. Clouds, cold temps AND high winds were pretty much the daily norm. It was beginning to look like it might not happen this year. The week following Christmas wasn’t much better until yesterday. We actually hit 70 degrees and there were only scattered clouds. It was windy, but the wind began to die down around 3:00 and I decided to go for it. I called by friend and fellow photograper, Bhaskar, who has recently moved to KC and we arranged to meet on the plaza.

I arrived less than half an hour before sunset. Bhaskar had already scouted around a bit and I found him along Brush Creek where we began our 45 minutes or so of frantic shooting. I like to catch that cobalt blue sky that happens right after sunset and before it goes solid black. Those few minutes go by fast when you’re trying to cover a several block area of a landmark 1920s shopping area. The creek was still frozen from the previous cold days and it was killing the reflections so we headed to the streets and eventually the tops of two different parking garages. The light began to die while we were on the first garage and was pretty much gone for good when we arrived at the second one:

My last shoot of 2010 but the weather was so amazingly cooperative! This morning I woke to the sound of sleet hitting the roof and windows. Not just light sleet, but a regular downpour. Lightning and thunder soon followed and by the time the sun came up, my front window was iced over like this:

I’m thankful for that one summer-like evening but it looks like we’re solidly back in winter again.

Context

In my last post I talked a little about how the things that you leave out of an image can change the impression given to the viewer. Here’s an example of going the opposite direction. I first made the shot of the RSA office tower in Mobile, AL, that appears on the left. It’s a clean shot. Simple. Nothing extra. But there is no context. The building could be anywhere from Mobile to Moose Jaw. I took a few steps to the side and took the right-hand shot, framed by some palm fronds. Now the viewer has a little extra information. Climate. You’re somewhere warm and tropical and more of your senses are engaged.

I’m not saying either of these is a great shot — I’m just trying to give an example of how including one extra element can sometimes provide a lot more information to those viewing your photos. While I agree that it’s generally best to edit a scene as much as possible and include only those critical elements in your frame, don’t go too far and eliminate something that can add a little context.

Changing perspective

Reality and truth are concepts often discussed when it comes to photography these days. With the rise of Photoshop, people question what’s real — or perhaps they don’t question it enough. When I’m shooting for editorial use, I try to be “truthful” and show the “reality” of the place I’m photographing, but that doesn’t mean that some interpretation doesn’t creep into the images. In fact, it’s often my intention to boil an image down to focus on one single concept rather than to convey an entire, complicated reality.

There are often many truths and many ways of expressing them. Take these shots of downtown Mobile, Alabama. The one above gives the impression that the city is historic and shares much of the character that one thinks of when one thinks of New Orleans – brick buildings and ornate cast iron balconies. I would say that this is true of Mobile and it’s an accurate representation.

Then there’s this shot taken of the same block but from a higher vantage point. The same brick building can be seen in the lower foreground but this time it is minimized by the office towers looming above. Now Mobile appears to be a progressive city, a growing urban center.

Taken just a few blocks away, this photo shows yet another side of Mobile — one of a city that is struggling. Empty storefronts are emphasized by the camera viewpoint being moved back inside a shop entrance with vacant display windows. The vibrant shopping area that actually flanks this particular shop is hidden from view, giving the impression that this is a neighborhood in decline.

None of these images have been manipulated in Photoshop to give a false impression. The three sides of this city are conveyed simply by camera position and the choices made in composition. Is one shot more real than the others? I feel that they all represent my reaction to the city I was exploring. They do, however, contain my own personal point of view and reactions. Put a dozen photographers in Mobile for a day and you’ll have a dozen different perspectives. Maybe a dozen different truths?

Rainy day options

I talked a little bit yesterday about how to best handle less than ideal weather situations. My day in Passau was white-skied and a tad dreary. I actually like that kind of weather and think some great shots can be made when there’s a little more “atmosphere” than usual. Unfortunately, from a business sense, my likes are trumped by what sells. I’ll still shoot for myself and make the shots available to publishers, but they’ll typically take those dramatic sunsets or clear blue skies over this:

That’s the Passau I saw last month. Beautiful city, actually. And I had a great time wandering its streets finding incredible vantage point after more incredible vantage point. But… reality sets in and you need to make some photos that will sell, too. Heading inside is one option as seen by the church interior at the top of this post. The softened light from the overcast skies didn’t give those dramatic shafts of light that you might sometimes see streaming through the windows but — with an interior as bright and white as this one — you don’t really need them. The soft light did a great job of modeling all of the ornate features and did so with lower contrast than direct sun would have.

Passau also has a great glass museum. We’re talking about a rambling, multi-story maze of room after room of extraordinary glass. You can seriously get lost in there, but you won’t mind much because there’s good stuff around every corner. The lighting doesn’t look too sympathetic to photography at first. There are all different color temperatures from pink to blue to green. Happily, the auto white balance on my Nikon was able to clean that right up without a second thought from me. I just popped on the 60mm Micro lens and went crazy. Most of the glass was behind glass, but limiting depth of field and blocking the background with my own body allowed me to deal with most reflections. Some of these shots will make nice cutouts (like the one on the right) for those guidebooks that want a little detail shot to break up a long block of copy.

All in all, not bad for a rainy day’s work.