Category Archives: architecture

Shooting local

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An assignment in my own home town has spurred a new personal project. When I moved to Lawrence, Kansas, a couple of years ago (has it been that long already?) I had intended to begin documenting the town photographically. While it seems like shooting in your own “back yard” would be the easiest thing in the world, it’s amazing how hard it can be to actually get out and do it. It’s too easy to get distracted by work, or mowing the lawn, or just plain every day life. When I’m on the road, I’m there to shoot and nothing else so it’s easy to stay focused. Even if the weather isn’t perfect, I’m out shooting because I only have limited time on location. When I’m home, it’s easy to say “maybe the light will be better tomorrow night”.

But nothing kicks me into action like a paying gig so, when an assignment came along for a story on some local civil war sites, it finally got me out of the house. First stop: the Eldridge hotel.

The Eldridge was burned down on multiple occasions during the years leading up to the civil war by pro-slavery raiders. Rebuilt each time, it is now a local landmark. I wanted a new angle so I contacted my friend, Doug, who offices across the street to see if he could get me on the roof. Being the great guy that he is, he did just that.

After popping off a few exposures of the KU campus (above) I settled into the shot I had in mind for the Eldridge. I wanted a long twilight exposure that mixed the sunset with the street lights below. I framed it up on the tripod and attached the release cord. Then it was just a matter of firing off a few shots every few minutes as the light faded and the shop lights came on.

In the end, I combined a few shots to get this one:

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Since I had shot several variations while locked down on the tripod, I could easily stack different exposures on layers and “paint in” elements of each using layer masks. The bulk of this image is one shot, from late in the set where the sky was darkest, but I did paint in some of the facade of the hotel from a shot prior to sunset to give more detail and balance the contrast a bit. I also painted in a few people on the sidewalk that appeared in various exposures.

I’m going to keep exploring other angles for this shot. The microwave tower behind the hotel is distracting (I could Photoshop it out but not for an editorial shoot – darn those ethics) and I would rather be on an angle with the hotel to add some dimension to it. Next time I’ll try shooting from street level, diagonally across from the building and see how that works.

It’s nice to have plenty of time for this project. Unfortunately, I can’t always spend so much time on each shot but, in this case, I’m looking at the assignment as an excuse to do some work I’d wanted to be doing for myself anyway. And it all goes into the stock files eventually.

Ayutthaya, Thailand

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After an ugly week in Bangkok, the protests have been dismantled and everyone seems to be waiting to see what happens next. This has been a tough time for Thailand. For a country that thrives on tourism, more tough times will likely be ahead. But this is a resilient region and hopefully the situation will remain calm and the tourists will return soon.

If and when you do find yourself in Bangkok, make sure you get to nearby Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The three chedis of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet are shown in both of the photos here. Ayutthaya was the second Siamese capital (founded in 1350) and the city was nearly burned to the ground in 1767 when the Burmese invaded — proof that this region has bounced back before. The remaining ruins are scattered on and around an island created by the confluence of three rivers — the Chao Phraya, the Lopburi and the Pa Sak — as seen on this map from Travelfish. I only visted three or four of these sites and could easily spend a week or more here continuing to explore.

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I’d seen photos of these ruins prior to visiting but still wasn’t prepared for their scale. The woman in the white skirt (above) gives you some idea of just how big these chedis — the bell-shaped towers — are. In this case, the three chedis were built to house the ashes of kings.

One day here was not nearly enough. While it would be hard to say what my favorite spot in Thailand was, this would certainly rank up there in terms of places I wish I could have spent more time. There is so much to see and I only scratched the surface.

Wats of Chiang Mai

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So much to show and so little time. I find myself in a familiar place — not caught up with images from one trip and, yet, leaving on another. I’ll be in Jamaica for the next few days so here’s one more Thailand post to tide you over while I’m away. Of course, I’ll post from the road when possible but you never know if the goddess of internet connections will smile upon you.

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These are a few of the temples I wandered across on my last morning in Chiang Mai. Some small, some large, but they were everywhere. The one above had absolutely no signage in english to help me to identify it but, thankfully, Google Maps helped me out on my return. I was able to retrace my walk on the satellite image and find my temple, nicely labelled in english.

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Now… off to pack… again…

Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai, Thailand

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Wrapping up day two of my Thailand trip were visits to a few temples including Wat Chedi Luang. Images from its prayer hall appear above. There are many, many temples in Chiang Mai — I believe I heard the number put at 1038 which hardly seems possible. On my fourth and last day in Chiang Mai, I took a long morning walk through the old, walled city and found that there were temples hidden around nearly every corner. You wouldn’t know it driving through town but on foot these hidden gems are revealed. More on that walk in a few posts. I’ll try and stay somewhat chronological as I go through the images from this trip.

Kho Panyi, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

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My time in Thailand is nearly over. I’m on the island of Phuket now but I will catch a flight back to Bangkok this afternoon. Tomorrow I’ll begin the long series of flights home, crossing 12 time zones.

The shot above was taken at Panyi island during a tour of Phang Nga Bay. This area was one of the places I had looked forward to the most on this trip and it didn’t disappoint. You’ll no doubt see more of it here in the coming weeks as I get all of my images processed and ready for the stock agencies. Unfortunately, that’s not something I can do well while on the road. My laptop was chosen for compactness and has far too tiny a screen to do any real Lightroom or Photoshop work. Once back in the office, I’ll get to work.

Maybe another posting from Bangkok tomorrow. Then the grueling flight-a-thon.

Wat Tung Yu

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I took a walk through the old walled city of Chiang Mai, Thailand this morning just after sunrise. The place is littered with temples but many are tucked away — out of view from the street. Walking was the perfect way to stumble across these jewels. The shot above is of Wat Tung Yu.

Like visiting the future

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I’m in Bangkok, Thailand, tonight with my first solid internet connection so I thought I’d share a shot from Dubai taken this morning. It’s the Burj Khalifa (formerly the Burj Dubai) — the tallest building in the world. Note to my mother: the observation deck is still closed so, no, I didn’t get to go up.

There will be more Dubai shots later, including the spice and gold markets in the older part of town but how can I mention Dubai and not show this building. The growth in Dubai has been explosive but what makes it special to me is the attention to design. They aren’t just throwing up tower blocks as fast as they can, they are creating one of the most unique skylines in the world, using some the most creative architecture I’ve ever seen. This is the future world that we were promised in sci-fi movies. I almost expected to see people zipping around in their personal jetpacks.

Anyway, more later. I have a 4:30 wake-up call for tomorrow morning to catch my 5th flight of 12 on this trip. I’ll be in Chiang Mai for the next few days and will post as possible. More images will follow once I’m home and can do some proper processing.

Chile, but getting warmer

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Sorry. Bad pun. I’m posting a couple of photos from Chile today since there’s been so much in the news since the earthquake last week. The shot above is from Valparaiso, on the coast west of Santiago. It and the following shot are from a trip I took to Chile a couple of years ago. If you want to see coverage post-earthquake, check out The Boston Globe’s Big Picture here and here. The following shot is of a more modern side of Chile in the bustling capital city of Santiago.

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Chile has also lately been appearing on television in the Amazing Race 16. This show is a guilty pleasure of mine as I love to see the contestants panic when thrown into the various situations that so often come with travel. I had to laugh when the cowboys changed their money for “Brazilian” when they heard they would be flying to Santiago. Obviously, that didn’t work out so well for them upon arrival in Chile, but they’ve been doing much better ever since.

Valparaiso was also the scene of a challenge when team members had to “wire walk” across a deep valley in that very hilly city. I knew exactly where this challenge took place and can say that I would not have wanted to participate myself. In fact, there are few of the challenges that I would want to participate in but I would love to be on the crew of this show and travel to all of the exotic destinations. Maybe be the camera guy that travels with the host, Phil. I imagine they get to stay and eat in the nicer places.

If you haven’t seen the show, check it out this Sunday. I think the cowboys might take the million dollars this year.

Oh, and back to my pun… it IS getting warmer. Finally! The last couple of days it has reached the 60s after three months of deep freeze temps and repeated ice and snow storms. There’s still ice in some areas of our yard but it shouldn’t last long now. I’ll be leaving in a week for even warmer temperatures but more on that later.

Decade in review: 2009

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Winding up my review of the the past decade…

My first trip of 2009 was to Egypt — a few days in Cairo, a flight to Abu Simbel and then a Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor. Egypt is one of those places I had wanted to go to since childhood. I was a kid when they were moving the temples at Abu Simbel to get them above the rising waters of the Aswan dam. The King Tut treasures always seemed to be in the news as well. I remember making drawings of that golden mask over and over again.

Sometimes places live up to our childhood imagination and sometimes they don’t. Cairo was a lot to take in at first. Big and bustling. The pyramids were astounding but hard to really experience amidst all the tourists and people selling everything from postcards to camel rides. Access to the Sphinx was very limited, allowing only a few angles for photography. If I were visiting as a tourist, I’m sure I would have had a very different experience but, as a photographer, I found it difficult.

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Once I was out of the city, the Egypt of my childhood imagination reappeared. Crowds were fewer or gone altogether and the monumental temples and sculptures were more accessible. It was easier to lose yourself in the place. If I were to give anyone planning a trip to Egypt some advice, I’d say to check Cairo and the pyramids out, but be sure to visit some sites further afield. For me, that’s where the magic was. Again, I’ve posted on this Egypt trip before so enter “Egypt” in the search at the top right for more.

Aswan, Egypt, Africa

I had a couple of opportunities to get out on the Nile in felucca boats. But it was the temple architecture that really caught hold of me.

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Oh, and that hot air balloon ride was a highlight, too. That was near the Valley of the Kings across the Nile from Luxor. Walking down into the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and seeing the wall paintings still bright with their original color was something else. That was definitely another crowded spot, though. We were granted special permission for interior photography, then it was quickly taken away when tourists saw us and starting snapping away themselves. But temples like the one below in Dendarra were almost deserted. You could walk around and feel like you were discovering it for yourself (although someone had come along before you to install some fluorescent lighting).

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I must have been making up for the cold weather of Banff the year before but 2009 was mostly hot destinations. My last international trip of ’09 was to Mexico — Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.

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I’m not a hot weather guy and it was HOT. Beautiful and hot, but hot. Steamy, too. I would walk out of my hotel room and find a chair where I could sit for the 15 or 20 minutes that it would take for my lenses to clear up.

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On my last day in Guadalajara, a friend had asked me if I would like to accompany her to some restoration shops run by the local car club members. Shiny objects are always of interest and vintage shiny object especially so. To make things even better, one of the car club guys picked us up in a restored 1941 Packard convertible. We were rollin’ Guadalajara in style.

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But you know the grungy parts of the shops were my favorite:

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Thanks for tagging along as I’ve meandered the backroads of my last 10 years as a travel photographer. It’s been fun for me. I’ve learned a lot by looking at where I was in 2000 and where I am now. In some ways I feel I’ve improved. There are also some things that I think I used to do better. In the early years I was much more in control over where I went and what I shot. As I started making a conscious effort to build my international stock, I started looking for opportunities to travel affordably and then worked out a plan from there. I needed to shoot a little of everything so I would go anywhere. Now I’m beginning to feel like I’ve covered a lot of bases. I have stock from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. I’ve begun working with more agencies so that I can focus more on shooting and less on marketing and sales. When I sold directly, I had to be more focused and niche oriented. Now I can put just a few images of a place with an agency and they will still be found by buyers. I don’t have to be “the Egypt guy” to sell an Egypt photo.

I’m now reaching the point where I feel I would benefit from becoming more focused again. I want to start planning trips that are of particular interest to me rather than taking whatever comes along and seeing what I can make of it. I want to develop some themes and explore them more deeply. It’s a little bit about slowing down, but it’s also about being more productive. It will be a steady transition — I already have multiple international trips lined up for the next two years — but it’s something I want to start working toward.

One more thing I’ve learned from researching these last 10 posts is that I want to look back at every year and wonder how I managed to get so much done. I don’t want to look back at a year of my life and wonder what I did with it. We don’t get many years and we need to make each one count.

Decade in review: 2008

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Continuing my review of the the past decade…

More adventures in Canada in early 2008. This time it was a winter trip to Banff and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. I had visited this area briefly in 2000 on my way to Vancouver. It had been in the spring of that year and a completely different experience. This is grand country but I think it shows itself best in the winter. Still, I’d like to go back in the summer to see the green waters of Lake Louise.

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Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking on frozen lakes — I added a whole repertoire of ways I’ve traveled to get a shot. Perhaps my favorite part of this trip was a moonlit hike up the Maligne Canyon. You strap some steel spikes onto the soles of your boots and start walking up a frozen river at night while the canyon walls climb around you and stars shine in the narrow streak of sky above. At frozen waterfalls, your guide can shine his powerful flashlight behind the ice to illuminate the intense blue and green colors. Slippery, cold and dark… but a great experience.

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2008 was another extremely busy year in terms of domestic travel. Michigan, Kentucky, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico and more. All while buying a new house and moving. It was a crazy year. I remember spending election night in a cabin in the woods in Arkansas and going down the mountain to check email at the nearest wifi hotspot. I had received a last-minute invitation to go to China in less than two weeks. I needed to send my passport in for my visa and luckily I had it with me. The next day was filled with driving back and forth across Arkansas visiting various Post Offices in different towns trying to find where I could get additional passport photos taken and get my package over-nighted to Chicago. No one Post Office seemed to be able to do both of these things but by splitting the chore between two (I believe in Harrison and Fayetteville), it got done. Ten days later, I was in Shanghai.

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I’ve posted about the China trip on this blog before — you can enter “China” into the search box at top-right to find more. The trip started in Shanghai and then went up the Yangtze to several water towns with historic districts built on canals. The colors were phenomenal.

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Those last two shots were from an open-air performance in Zhouzhuang. It was spectacular.

The architecture was also fun to shoot. Pagodas were everywhere, including the world’s tallest in Changzhou that had opened just a year before. Over 500 feet tall, it appears through the glow of the morning sun in this shot on the left:

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The pagoda on the right is from Zhouzhuang. I hope to return to China again soon. It’s a big country and there are so many more things I want to see. But that’s the way it is with the whole world, isn’t it? So many things to see, so little time. I’ll continue to do my best to see and photograph as much of it as possible, for as long as possible.