The Photo Way

That First Roll

2012-01-28T12:17:00.009-05:00

There's a lot to be said about the first roll of film that comes out of a new camera. Simultaneously bringing all your experience to bear on a new photographic tool. The feeling of uncertainty that comes with film, followed by the satisfaction of getting that first roll back from the lab. It's completely intertwined with the act of photography itself.

Occasionally it results in disappointment. The first time I went out to shoot with my Xpan, I completely botched the film loading process. After walking all over downtown Baltimore to finish a whole roll, I opened up the back of the camera only to find the film lead just sitting there. In the end, I simply had to write off the whole thing as a "scouting opportunity" and move on. It wasn't until just a couple months ago that I returned to some of those places for a do-over:

Of course, the real reason for this article is my first roll through the Leica M6, which I acquired about a month ago. This thing certainly lives up to the name. The meter only worked for about the first half of the roll before the cold killed the batteries. No matter though, because this is a fully mechanical camera. As long as you can set the shutter speed and aperture, it will gladly keep shooting.

I'll admit, eyeballing the exposure was a bit intimidating at first, growing up in an automatic age. A little practice with a free Exposure-Mat and soon I was memorizing f/8 exposures for all kinds of situations.

I was also afraid that the pictures wouldn't have enough contrast since I didn't have any E39 filters. I almost always use a 49mm Orange(G) filter on my Xpan to add contrast. Lo and behold, the legendary Leica lenses came through, adding their own creamy contrast.

The sheer simplicity of it really is mind-boggling. And nothing else in photography feels quite like the smooth, manual action of winding the film crank on a quality camera. Just wow. Need a Leica alternative? Fear not, the winding action on the venerable Nikon F3 is extremely impressive as well.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about photography, not mechanics. It's that clean, featureless simplicity that allows the photographer to focus on being a photographer.

Here's to another amazing tool in the toolbox.

Camera Porn How To

2012-01-16T18:28:00.010-05:00

Product photography is a curious thing. For instance, here's a picture of a Leica M6 with a dual-range 50/2 Summicron with ugly goggles, an uglier strap, and tape all over it. Yet you still want it.

Sometimes it really is the object itself that you want, and it doesn't matter how good or bad the photo is. However in most cases, people have probably never actually touched the object, so all they have to go on are some pretty pictures and reputation/cache/speculation/marketing (cough X-Pro1). Curious.

Anyway, here's a little how-to for creating your own camera porn for the masses. It's pretty straight forward. All you need is:

A semi-long lens (100mm+)
A soft light source (indirect light from a large window, or a softened off-camera flash)
A clutter-free background (any plain wall will do)
Oh yeah, and a camera

For these shots, I used an old Nikon SB-28DX flash triggered from my 5D with a low-end Pocket Wizard. The flash fired at 1/4 power through a Westcott umbrella, which softened the light.

Initially I tried using my trusty 50/1.8 lens, but quickly discovered that this was not long enough to keep the background clutter out of the lens's perspective. I switched over to the 24-105/4 (at 105mm), which did the trick of narrowing the perspective of the background, removing unwanted junk from the scene.

I also wanted to make the object stand out, so I had to make sure that there was enough light fall-off between the object and the background, so the object would be much lighter. To do this, I had to keep the light source close to the object (about 2 feet), but far from the background (about 12 feet).

In order to kill any ambient light in the shot, I used the fastest shutter speed I could. The 5D syncs at 1/200, so all the pictures were taken at 1/200 at f/11.

For more information on general product photography, I highly recommend you go check out Strobist. And now back to our regularly scheduled camera porn...

Gearing up for Southern Africa

2011-12-17T07:20:00.008-05:00

The following is a guest post from my good friend, Tom Hennen. He and his wife recently returned from a three week trip to southern Africa. I've asked them both to share some of their experiences in a series of blog posts.

One of the first things I learned about Amy, my wife, was that she wanted to go to Africa. So it was no surprise that six years after we’d met we were finally on our way. What was a surprise was how long we’d be gone, three weeks. Three weeks of scrambling over the tops of waterfalls, game drives and walks, death marches to the bottom of large ravines, ostrich riding, exploring caves, harassing penguins, and petting lions.

Knowing that Africa might be a once in a lifetime trip I wanted to document the trip and take some excellent photographs. When we planned the trip, the little photography experience I had was limited to framing photos with our point and shoot. I didn’t know anything about f-stops, ISO or crop factors. Luckily I had about a year to prepare so we purchased a Sony A580. In order to get comfortable with it I started work on a Photo-a-Week project. Each week I’d post a photograph with a different theme. Many of the early weeks were rough, but I eventually got the hang of it and really learned how to use the camera.

When I started the project I was using the kit lens (Sony 18-55 3.5-5.6) and a telephoto zoom (Sigma 70-300 APO 4-5.6). Between the two of these I was definitely getting the range that I wanted, but I didn’t find it very flexible when walking around. I’d often find myself seeing a great shot but having the wrong lens on. To top it off, walking around with both lenses made for a heavy bag. I knew changing lenses on the trip wouldn’t work since there are so many fleeting moments on game drives. I also knew weight would be a problem since I’d be carrying the camera and equipment around all day. With that in mind I wound up buying a super-zoom, the Sony SAL18-250 3.5-6.3. It’s not quite as long as the 70-300, but the flexibility it afforded was well worth it.

Another concern was how I was going to carry the equipment. Theft is always an issue, no less so in southern Africa. Many camera bags scream “steal me” and since we were going through so many border crossings I thought it was important to have something inconspicuous. After searching for a while I chose the ONA Union Street bag. It had plenty of room for my equipment and other essentials like bug spray and sun screen. Most importantly, it doesn’t look like a camera bag.

With the lens and bag issue settled I had my packing list: camera body, 18-250 lens, charger, spare battery, lens cloth, lens pen, dust bulb, and bag. The only remaining question was if I wanted to bring a tripod...

Zim-Zam Border Crossing

2011-11-27T09:26:00.011-05:00

The following is a guest post from my good friend, Amy Hennen. She and her husband recently returned from a three week trip to southern Africa. I've asked them both to share some of their experiences in a series of blog posts.

One of the things that made me the most nervous when contemplating our trip to Southern Africa was the border crossing at Victoria Falls between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The two countries (especially Zimbabwe) are not known for their stability or lack of corruption. I worried we would try to cross the border in either direction and be told we couldn’t without a steep bribe. However, I really wanted to see the falls from both sides so giving up on it was out of the question.

Doing some research before we left meant that we were as prepared as we could have been. We chose to walk across the border; driving is a bad idea if you want to keep costs down, due to the taxes on cars crossing the border.

We got a double entry visa for $45 at the Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe, which made it easier and cheaper to leave Zimbabwe and come back. The single entry visa is $30 and you can also get it at the airport, but it’s not clear if you can leave Zimbabwe and come back while the visa is valid.

If we wanted a multi-entry visa for $60 it would have been necessary to get it from the consulate before leaving for Africa. When we got to Zambia, we bought a “day pass” visa at the border in Zambia for $20.

One of the most surprising parts to me was how professional and orderly everything was a both border checkpoints. The people working in customs and immigration were cordial and direct. When there wasn’t a crowd in the immigration office, they were downright friendly.

Apart from the customs and immigration the actual border crossing was remarkable. It’s a walk in the hot African sun of at least 1km once you leave the Zimbabwean border post until you get to the bridge over the Zambezi River. It’s a no man’s land that is dry and desolate. It’s nothing like the lush landscapes of the national parks on the other sides of the borders. When we were there, we saw people actually making tar over a coal fire to repair the road. There are also huge trucks that are constantly zooming by because foot traffic, vehicles, and trains share the limited amount of space.

Another option, which we did not choose, is to leave Zimbabwe, but stay in the no man’s land between the two border posts. You can go through the Zimbabwean border post to the zip line / bungee jump / restaurant spot on the opposite side of the bridge without going through the Zambian border. If you do that, you won’t need to “re-enter” Zimbabwe on the way back, but you need to tell the officials that’s what you’re planning to do because you do not want them to put an exit stamp on your passport.

Once you get to the Zambian border, ignore people who want to “help” you get through immigration; you don’t need the assistance. It’s also best not to get too close to the baboons that hang out at the Zambian border post; you won’t need their assistance either. Once past the gate, the Victoria Falls park is only another .5km on the left; you don’t need to take a taxi, though the drivers can be pushy.

I was glad we researched it ahead of time. We did see one couple who hadn’t prepared for this and didn’t understand that the double entry visa they had did not mean it was good at both borders. They likely wound up “burning” one of their entries when they decided to go back and try again the next day.

Most of all, I was glad we did it. The falls look totally different from the two perspectives the countries offer. Zimbabwe views are close, straight on, and you can feel the mist from the falls. Zambia looks down the falls, so it’s a different perspective. From the Zambia side we hiked down to the Zambezi River and we walked on top of the falls because it was the low season. Viewing the falls from both sides is an absolute must!

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Awesome Batch

2011-11-23T16:57:00.007-05:00

You know it's a good sign when your scanned film comes back from the lab, and the CD jacket has "Awesome batch!" handwritten on it. Needless to say, this required immediate attention. Here are some of the highlights, including semi-recent trips to Philadelphia, DC, and Baltimore.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend.

FotoWeekDC

2011-11-03T21:00:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to remind everyone that FotoWeekDC starts this weekend. If you live in the Baltimore/DC area, you owe it to yourself to head down and check out some of the great lectures and exhibitions. It's also great to be around other people who love photography. We see plenty of photo-enthusiasm online, but physically being there takes it to a whole new level. I hope you can make it.

Real Notes from Rome

2011-10-22T10:01:00.018-04:00

My original Notes from Rome article wasn't terribly informative about Rome itself, so this is a do-over. I tried to think of questions we had before the trip, and the answers we discovered along the way, so I've opted for a Q&A format. I hope you find it useful.

Where did you stay?

In a studio apartment rental that I found on Roman Reference. I had a €102.91 down payment and then had to pay the balance of €534.06 in cash on arrival.

May is a popular time to visit Rome, so I booked the apartment near the end of February.

We called the key-holder when we arrived at the FCO train terminal to arrange a time. He was right out front waiting for us when arrived at the front door.

Does FCO have easily accessible payphones?

Yes, at the gates, airport terminal, and train terminal. I ended up using my iPhone4 though. It took a moment to connect to the TIM network, but otherwise worked just fine. I think the one-minute call to the key-holder cost a couple bucks, probably due to initial registration fees and such.

How did you get to your apartment?

Our apartment was located just south of Piazza del Popolo on Via del Corso. We took the Leonardo Express from FCO to Termini, then took the metro A line west to Flaminio station.

Just a heads-up, the Leonardo Express drops you on the far end of Termini Station from the metro lines. It was probably just under 1/2 mile of walking. Just keep following the signs and you'll make it.

Also, the Leonardo Express ticket machines only speak Italian, and appeared to only accept chip-and-pin credit cards. If you buy your tickets from the person at the kiosk, you have to pay cash.

And don't forget to validate your Leonardo Express ticket before you board. There are little validation machines that look like parking meters near the beginning of the platform.

Where did you eat?

We usually ate dinner in the back streets along Via del Corso. If you eat along the main drags, you're going to pay a lot more. Stick to the little places along the alleys and you'll find great food at reasonable prices.

If you keep your eyes open, there are little grocery stores available as well. We found one along Via della Fontanella di Borgese, walking west from Via del Corso. I think there was another one on Via Antonio Canova. Just keep an eye out. They both accepted American Express.

How did you pay for things?

The amount of cash required in Rome caught me a little off guard. I'm used to paying for everything with a credit card, for the points and the protection. Pretty much all the restaurants accepted credit cards, but a lot of the tourist attractions required cash. There were plenty of ATM's around though.

If you use your credit card in an ATM, remember that it counts as a cash advance, and starts accruing interest immediately. Use your normal ATM card if you can.

How was the water?

We drank the water without any ill effects. However, water pressure is low. The shower in our apartment came out as a trickle. According the owner, all of Rome suffers from low water pressure. At least the water was hot.

Was noise a problem at night?

Even though our apartment was in one of the busier parts of Rome, we didn't have any problems with noise. Our little balcony was on the third floor overlooking a small courtyard. Very serene really.

How did you get around?

There was quite a bit of walking, but since we were near Flaminio station, we opted to get the CIS unlimited weekly ticket for €16 each. It actually worked really well. The bus system is also really useful, albeit confusing. We were able to find a bus map on the wall just inside Flaminio station. As a starting point, pay attention to the bus numbers you see in your area when you arrive. The busses are totally safe too. We even saw small school children riding the bus alone. Believe me, your feet will thank you for using any kind of transit, even if you end up going the long way around.

How much did it cost to rent bicycles?

We only used bicycles on the Appia Antica. It cost about €22 for two bikes for about four hours. They had to be the most rickety bikes I've ever ridden on, but when you hit those cobblestones, you'll understand why. They were otherwise very comfortable bikes with a convenient step-through design. The ride was an amazing experience, with tons of great stopping points; well worth the cost. Traffic was almost non-existent. Remeber to bring your passport along, as you have to leave it with the rental shop while you have the bikes.

What did you do for lunch?

On our first day, we went to one of the grocery stores (see above) and picked up cheese, crackers, canned chicken, bananas, and some other snacks. Each day we brought a portion along in our backpack and found a shady bench to relax and enjoy. It really hit the spot.

As a side note, pay attention to the label on the canned chicken. We made the mistake of buying "pollo in geletina" (chicken in jello). It was edible, but definitely less than ideal.

How did you get into The Vatican?

The huge line in front of the Vatican is for St. Peter's Basillica. The Vatican Museum entrance (and line) is on the north side of Vatican City. We got to the museum at about 1pm and didn't have to wait in line at all.

Also, the tour guides in front of the basilica are extremely persistent in trying to get your attention. At first we tried simply ignoring them, but that didn't work at all. If they start trying to offer you a tour, just say, "we're fine," and they'll quickly move on to the next person. They are actually offering legitamate tours (and quick access) for about €40 each, so if you are interested, by all means, talk to them.

I do wish I'd had a my 17-40/4 lens to capture some of the amazing painted ceilings and walls in the museum though.

And the Colosseum?

Buy your tickets for the Colosseum at the entrance to Palatine Hill just south of the Arch of Constantine. The line is much, much shorter.

How did you get back to the airport?

We had a morning flight out of FCO, so we opted to avoid the trains and caught an early (early) cab that was waiting in Piazza del Popolo. Surprisingly, the cab driver was the only Roman we encountered who didn't speak any English at all. However, we were able to overcome the language barrier and get to the airport in record time for just under €50. In hindsight, it would have been helpful to know that the Alitalia flights to CDG are out of Terminal 1.

After a brief series of unintelligable exchanges with driver, he eventually stopped in front of Terminal 1 and simply asked, "A qui?" (here?). I figured we could walk to any other part of the airport if we had to, so I replied, "Si si," and gave him the full 50 to include a little tip, and got out. Surprisingly, he actually tried to give me change, to which I gestured no thanks and said, "Prego," which appears to mean all-things-good.

Conclusions?

Go to Rome, but don't over plan it. Have a key objective for each day, but leave time to explore. Rome will not disappoint.

Unlimited Color

2011-10-16T07:07:00.003-04:00

I know the blog has been lacking color lately. Fortunately, there's an unlimited supply of color photos that I've been meaning to put up. These are a few shots from my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton in July, 2008. Obviously, they're a little overdue. As always, more on Flickr. Enjoy!

MoMA

2011-10-10T19:12:00.007-04:00

I haven't been to MoMA since a date slip-up back in 2008. This time I was going solo, taking advantage of "Target" Free Friday Night after the O'Reilly Strata conference. It was great. The staff had the free tickets laying out on the counter just waiting to be plucked. The longest line I had to wait in was at the bag check.

The Sum of Days exhibit has to be one of the largest works of art I've ever seen. It's not as big as the Statue of Liberty, but it helps to think of it on that scale. Oh yeah, and it's indoors. If you do go check it out, be sure to go all the way up to the sixth floor to look down on it from above. The railings aren't very high though, so vertigo is not recommended.

Along the way, I stopped to check out van Gogh's Starry Night. As you can see in the picture, he knows how to draw a crowd. When I stopped in the gift shop to pick up a postcard print, I realized that most prints can't possibly do it justice. In addition to being the wrong aspect ratio (too rectangular) the vivid colts and textures just don't come through.

There were too many other amazing exhibits to list out here, so all in can say is, "Go!"

And be sure to stop at The Cart on the opposite corner afterward. When you think you've put on enough white sauce, put on a bit lot more. Somehow I'd forgotten that rule in the past couple years since I'd been there. Even in the rain, there were still plenty of places to sit on the sidewalk and admire The City rising above in every direction. It's a little bit like being on top of a mountain, or looking up at the stars, feeling big and small at the same time.

Forbidden Pittsburgh

2011-09-10T09:53:00.009-04:00

It seems wrong to banish oneself from a city because of one bad experience. Then again, when a taxi wedges your car up a barrier wall, it tends to leave an impression. I may return some day, but there are too many other places on my list for Pittsburgh to come up again any time soon.

Luckily no one was hurt and the weekend had been good up to that point, with many Xpan opportunities in the steel jungle that is Pittsburgh. If you should decide to go, be sure to check out the Phipps Conservatory (with Chihuly glass), the Dusquene Incline, and downtown, including Point State Park.

And please, watch out for taxis.

Macro in Gunpowder

2011-07-10T16:28:00.013-04:00

"I need to photograph some water," said Tom's text message. I was pretty wiped from the hike up to Weverton Cliffs earlier that day, but when a friend needs to photograph some water, who am I to refuse? Eventually we agreed on Gunpowder Falls State Park at 9am the next day.

I still wanted to keep it simple though. I decided to focus on getting some macro shots with the 5D, 50/1.8, and EF25 II while Tom did water shots. By the time we were done though, I didn't think I'd come away with as many good shots as I'd hoped; at least not as many as I got at Patapsco last year. I was wrong.

The real stars of the shoot were some very cooperative spiders though. I'm still amazed at the detail of these shots. It seems like a crime to only post the shots at web resolution though, so I've included a couple extra shots at (nearly) full resolution. I never knew a daddy longlegs had eyes like that. And is that the male hanging out underneath? Crazy.

Here's another spider that was just hanging out in the middle of his web near the ground. Just to give you a sense of scale, his legs spanned about the size of a dime. I didn't even notice the "large" hairs on his legs until I pulled the image up at full resolution.

I also came away with a few interesting leaf structure shots. Mother Nature is clearly a graphic designer.

I used the same techniques as I did in Patapsco last time, so check out that article for more info. By the way, the gear I used can be had for about $1000. Happy shooting.

Notes from Rome

2011-06-05T07:46:00.030-04:00

Itinerary

Day 1 (May 19, 2011): Check into our apartment near Piazza del Popolo, get groceries, eat pizza at 06 Cafe, visit Spanish Steps.
Day 2: Castel Sant'Angelo, Vatican Museum
Day 3: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, night pictures along Tiber
Day 4: Bike ride along the Appia Antia
Day 5: Basilica San Giacomo, Pantheon, Piazza Nuova, Villa Borghese
Day 6: Ostia Antica

Gear

Canon 5D
Canon 24-105/4 L IS USM
Canon 50/1.8
Canon S95 (amazing P&S, BTW)
Canon SD800 (knock-around/backup)
Slik Mini-Pro V tripod
Kelty Basalt backpack
Think Tank Chimp Cage
Think Tank Pee Wee Pixel Pocket Rocket
Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket

Etc.

Photographic fulfillment can be an illusory beast. While Rome was very personally rewarding, the 10 pictures I took at the Suburban Airport seem more photographically rewarding than all the 450-ish pictures I took in Rome. As a photographer, it's difficult to separate personal fulfillment from photographic fulfillment. If being a visitor automatically makes you a tourist, then how does one find photographic fulfillment in a sea of tourist photography?

Some would say that it's a film vs. digital thing; that shooting film forces you to slow down and take more care on when and how to shoot. To some extent I agree, but there are other, more important factors to consider.

If you are traveling with others, you have to put the group's priorities first. If the group's priority is not photography, then you're simply going to have to make due with the time and place as is. Waiting for the Light does not apply.

So this begs the question, should one bother lugging a DSLR if there's a high probability that most of the photos are going to be of the tourist variety? I'm still not sure. While there's no question that the quality of the photos coming out of the DSLR are going to be higher, there's a lot to be said for lightening your load.

It really comes back to personal priorities. If you just want to take pictures for the memories, then a point-and-shoot will certainly do the trick. If you're going for more of a photo journalistic approach, then a DSLR and a solid general zoom is probably your best bet. If you want to play Henri Cartier-Bresson, then take a rangefinder with one good prime. And if you want to get all lomographic and artsy, then take a toy camera.

I tend to lean toward the photo journalistic approach, which is why I took the 5D and 24-105/4 as my primary camera. It's a solid combination that's going to reliably come away with good pictures. In other words, it was the safe option. Can great art come from playing it safe though? Is the safe option always the boring option?

I do wish I'd taken a wider lens though. The 17-40/4 would have been great for capturing the immense art and architecture. Whether I should have taken the Xpan is still debatable. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to waste a bunch of film taking tourist photos, but it's hard to shake that romantic Xpan in Rome ideal.

In the end, it's best to be thankful to be on this Earth; even more so if you have a camera in your hand.

Delta, you idiot

2011-05-28T11:03:00.003-04:00

I'm going to try to keep this one short. On the way back from Rome last Wednesday, Delta flew us back from CDG to PHL on a 757. A seven-fifty-seven! It might as well have been a 737. I have to say, it was one of the most cramped, uncomfortable flights I've ever been on. You could tell the flight attendants didn't like it either. Serving eight hours worth of food and snacks to all those passengers on a narrow body jet must have been painful.

Delta, I'm sure your accountants thought this was a good idea, but single aisle airplanes have no business crossing the Atlantic. Your passengers don't appreciate it and your employees don't appreciate it. Stick to wide body, two aisle jets like the 767, 777, and eventually the 787. Meanwhile, try moving your accountants' offices to the coach section of a decommissioned 757, then see what bright ideas they start coming up with.

Suburban Airport

2011-05-26T06:10:00.004-04:00

Ok, just got back from Rome. The pictures aren't even copied off of the cards yet, so in the mean time, I thought I'd post this article which I meant to post just before I left...

I came across this rustic airfield one evening in early March. It was completely open, without even a fence separating it from the road. TSA would probably have you believe it's a hotbed of terrorist activity, but for a photographer, it's a gold mine. There was only one other car in the lot, and not a soul in sight, so I started wandering around the shacks hangers. I found an old roll of Provia 400F in my bag, so I popped it in the Xpan along with an 81A filter to warm things up (Provia tends to be rather frigid).

After a few shots, a gentleman came out of the "terminal" and started watching me, so I walked over. I told him I saw this place from the road and just had to stop and take a few pictures, if that was ok. He said it was fine, and to be mindful of my surroundings since they occasionally get "B landings." I assume this meant pilots sometimes use this runway as a backup in case they can't land at their intended runway. Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

As I took more pictures, the sleepy winter soul of this place started to show itself. Ten frames later I felt like I'd captured just enough, and left a little for next time. The sun had set, and it was getting cold. Time to go home.

National Gallery of Art

2011-05-08T20:26:00.004-04:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art is a work of art unto itself. It's confusing as all-get-out to navigate, but its hard to beat as a photogenic open space to explore. These are some pictures I took with my Xpan on a cold weekend last January. I.M. Pei's fractal-like application of triangles throughout this structure is brilliant. And with the free admission, you get way more than you pay for. Also, they allow shoulder (camera) bags, but not backpacks. Last time I was at NGA, they made me check my backpack, but this time they didn't care about my camera bag. They just said not to put it over my back. Maybe they're worried about people backing into works of art inadvertently. In any case, make sure you stop in next time you're in DC.

Euro Woes

2011-05-06T18:05:00.011-04:00

We're doing a vacation rental apartment for our upcoming trip to Rome. This means we have to pay the balance of the rental to the owner in cash, on arrival. Since I like to know I have a place to stay when I arrive, I wanted to have the cash ready and waiting before departure.

#1

My first attempt to get euros was with Wells Fargo. It sounded simple enough; go online, buy euros at a decent exchange rate, and have them shipped to me.

Well the first transaction failed due to "technical difficulties." Ok, I can deal with that. I tried again a couple hours later and got the same error. I called the phone number listed on the website (1-800-626-9430) and gave the guy my info. Little did I know he was just entering it into the website as well. Obviously, the response was, "Uh, I'm getting the same error." Thanks buddy. He said that perhaps my credit card was blocking the transaction.

Fair enough, so I called my credit card company. The lady who answered said there were not one, but three transactions listed for the full amount I was attempting to get. She assured me I would only be charged for one of the transactions at most.

Needless to say, I was getting fairly frustrated at this point, so I called Wells Fargo back and explained the situation. "Have you moved recently?" the woman asked. "Yes, about a week ago," I answered. "Bingo!" she responded, "We would never ship to a new address like that." I asked if I could just tell my credit card to approve the transaction, but she said that was not how it worked. I asked her how long I needed to be at this address before the transaction could proceed. Her response? Six months! Not terribly useful. So much for Wells Fargo.

#2

Attempt number two was with Travelex. Their rates were basically the same as Wells Fargo (1.56 dollars/euro), and I discovered they actually had a physical location in my area. Great, I could just walk up and get my money.

I walked up to the counter the next day only to discover that their in-person rates were 1.68 dollars/euro. For a small amount of cash, this wouldn't make a huge difference, but we're talking about several hundred euros here, so it adds up. On the plus side they said I could order the euros online at 1.56, then pick them up the next day at the counter. "Great, I'll do that."

Or so I thought. The online transaction gave me a transaction ID, but it stated that the transaction failed. Again, I called the number listed on the Travelex website (1-877-414-6359) and gave them the transaction ID. The only answer I got was that, "some of my information could not be verified." I told the guy straight out that I had recently moved. He didn't say that was the problem, just that some of the information could not be verified. Ok, strike two.

#3

Third time's the charm. I just walked up to the Travelex counter earlier today, gave them my credit card, and lo and behold, they gave me euros. On top of that, the rates had dropped slightly to 1.66, so I didn't have to bend over quite as far as I originally thought.

I guess the moral of the story is, if you're going to buy foreign currency online, make sure you do it before you move. Furthermore, if I had purchased a camera of the same cost, I certainly would not have gotten the virtual third degree.

I'd also like to point out Steven Frischling's excellent article on the topic of foreign currency exchange, from which I based this little adventure.

I'm ready to be in Rome.

Lens Selection Anecdote

2011-04-17T08:37:00.007-04:00

My friend Pat recently came to me for some lens selection advice, so I thought I would do the right thing and pass it along here. He'd just purchased a new Canon 60D, but he did the smart thing and bought it body-only. His brother had recently purchased a Nikon D3100, and he was disappointed with the kit lenses that came with the camera. I had also advised him against the kit lenses since there are so many great lenses out there that are better suited to particular tasks. In Pat's case, he wanted a good low-light lens, a good portrait lens, and a good travel lens, all for about $1200.

He'd already ordered the 24-105/4L IS and the 50/1.8. While I'm definitely a fan of both of these lenses, but I had to explain that the 24-105 simply wouldn't be wide enough for travel photography with the 60D's cropped sensor. Also, being an f/4, it's not the greatest portrait lens. His counter argument was that he could just get a wide prime later for travel. While this was true, it would also have all kinds of drawbacks:

You're traveling, so it's essential to keep things light and simple; don't take two lenses when one will do.
Two lenses at the wide end will usually result in many lens changes when traveling. This means you're going to hold up your tour group and/or miss the shot.
Every lens change when you're out and about just gets more dust on you sensor.

Luckily he'd ordered the lenses from B&H, so the return policy for the 24-105 wasn't a concern. Now we just had to figure out which lenses he did need. The new EF-S 17-55/2.8 was tempting, but it just didn't seem like it would be quite long enough, plus it would have blown his budget if he still wanted to get a portrait lens. After a bit of discussion, he ended up going with the EF-S 18-200/3.5-5.6. Even though I'm generally not a fan of lenses with variable apertures, I think this was a good choice. My Nikon friends seem to get decent shots out of their equivalent DX 18-200 lenses, so Canon should at least be able to match that (don't worry, I have a soft spot for Nikon as well).

With the travel lens decided, we now had to figure out a portrait lens. This was actually an easier choice, since Canon has always had many great USM primes to choose from. Back in college I used to drool over the 100/2 prime. This would have been a bit on the long end for his cropped sensor though, so I ended up recommending the 85/1.8. It should compliment the 50/1.8 nicely for outdoor vs. indoor portraits.

So in the end, Pat will have a great Canon travel and portrait kit started with a 60D, 18-200/3.5-5.6, 50/1.8, and 85/1.8. I'm looking forward to his pictures.

Return to Summit Point

2011-04-06T17:26:00.009-04:00

I've been to Summit Point more times than I can remember. It all started with my friend Chuck and his 300,000 mile Mazda Miata that still ran like a champ after 15 years. He told me that the great thing about Summit Point is that there's no one there that isn't into the actual racing. This isn't NASCAR, where the people go to get drunk, listen to a country concert, and watch horrible wrecks. Here it's about breaking, acceleration, consistent lap times, and just having fun. You can even walk through the pits and paddock and talk to the actual mechanics and drivers; no need for a pass or special ticket ($15). Of course, in this environment, the Mazda is an extraordinarily popular car for amateur racing. Just go to one SCCA event and you'll see a flotilla of Miatas going around the track (there are other great classes as well, like Formula Atlantic). Great stuff.

On this particular trip, last weekend, I was there to get pictures of the WERA Pirelli Sportsman Series motorcycle races. It was also a chance to dust off my 1D Mark II and make sure it was still in good working order. Sure enough, it lived up to its pro-level design and worked like a champ. There were only two incidents where it gave me Error 99 problems, and I think it was due to the CF card. Popping the battery out and back in cleared the problem immediately. I also had my concerns about the batteries still being able to hold a charge after so much time on the shelf. Ni-MH is dated technology, but I blew through well over 400 frames without the battery showing any signs of running low.

All in all, a great day. By the way, you can get a good, used 1D Mark II for about $850 these days.

Uncommon Places

2011-04-02T11:13:00.007-04:00

I've hinted about Uncommon Places in some of my flickr comments, but I've been meaning to post about it for a while now. I finally received it as a gift this past Christmas (I try to resist buying photography books for myself). I remember the first time I saw it at Borders. I was instantly captured, and I don't think I've looked at spaces in quite the same way since. On top of that, Stephen Shore actually makes you want to get in a car and go to middle America. Quite an accomplishment. Pictures on the computer screen don't do it justice either. For example, this picture seems like nothing to write home about when viewed online, but it's one of the first pictures in the book, and it blows me away.

Related: America

Playing Catch-Up

2011-03-27T08:09:00.010-04:00

Ok, so let's see if we can do a little catching up here...

We stumbled across the Continental restaurant (pictured above) while we were looking for breakfast on our trip to Philly last month. This picture only partially captures the awesomeness of the decor. The food was also great. Highly recommended.

More recently (like yesterday) we went down to the Newseum. It's been on my todo list for quite some time, so I'm glad we went. The tickets were a bit pricey, but they've got a pretty impressive collection of exhibits. They're big on timelines and multimedia, which makes sense. Their collection of old newspapers and Pulitzer prize photographs was also impressive, as was the view over Pennsylvania Avenue. I also enjoyed the Walter Iooss exhibit, which is only there until the end of March, unfortunately. The food court was clearly an afterthought. Also worth noting is that the tickets are good for two days, so if you're in DC for a weekend or something, don't feel like you need to do the whole thing at once.

Also worth checking out is Cameron Booth's redesign of the DC Metro map. If history is any indicator, he will be ignored by the powers that be, but let's hope I'm wrong. His interstate highway map is also cool.

On the camera gear side of things, I've discovered that the framelines don't change in my Xpan when I put on my new 90mm lens. Now I often find the viewfinder half-way between the 45 and 90mm frameline windows, so something is clearly loose or broken. I have to tilt the camera to the right to get the 45mm window to fall back into place. Needless to say, I was disappointed, especially since the camera was fixed and CLA'ed last June. I've contacted Hasselblad in NJ, so hopefully they'll cover it. We'll see.

Weekend Update

2011-01-30T15:53:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to share some more Xpan shots from the batch that came back from NCPS. I also tried out the new 90/4 down at the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art yesterday; some great I.M. Pei architecture to admire. I just hope my hand-held shots are steady enough.

Also, the Nikon FA thing was a bust. I put the new battery in, but the shutter jams on every other frame. The only way to unjam it is to switch into M250 (mechanical 1/250 mode). Luckily I didn't put any film in before testing it out. Switching the camera back and forth out of mechanical mode may be making the problem worse for all I know. I'd consider getting it repaired, but I can get a used one in excellent condition for about $120, which is probably less than the cost of a repair. I think I'd much rather have the classic workhorse F3 anyway. Now that's a camera you can go out into the middle of nowhere with.

Trois Neopan

2011-01-28T17:30:00.005-05:00

Three new friends arrived in the mail today with my Xpan 90/4. I've never shot Neopan before, but I'm looking forward to it.

I also got a fresh CR-1/3N battery for my trusty Nikon FA. I don't know if it even works any more, but there's only one way to find out. The last roll of film I put through it was back in 2005. It was a great camera in Paris, but it let me down in Krakow and again in Budapest, so I just keep it for sentimental value now. I think it will be ok for non-critical, local shooting around DC or something. It will be great to shoot with a camera that has an actual film crank again.

Florida

2011-01-27T08:31:00.009-05:00

My film finally came back from NCPS yesterday just before the snowstorm, so I've been busy posting pictures to flickr. We covered a lot of ground, including St. Augustine, Everglades National Park, and South Beach. I was somewhat underwhelmed by my DSLR pictures from the trip. My hit rate seems to be much higher with the Xpan, probably due to the extra time taken for Xpanomics. As such, I've pretty much decided that my Rome kit will consist of a nice P&S (S95, DMC-LX5, etc.) and the Xpan. I finally ordered the Xpan 90mm lens too. I think this will make for a nice, light travel kit. The Leica bug is still in my ear, but getting pictures like these helps me shew it away for a little longer.

This is what I'm talking about

2011-01-18T18:31:00.008-05:00

Pictured above is my carry on from a recent trip to south Florida. For the most part, it flies in the face of what I've been trying to achieve in terms of traveling light. The laptop's there, there are two camera systems (Canon and Xpan), the binoculars are there, and I brought along the tripod. I think I'm going to create a new rule of thumb: if I bring the laptop, then I'm probably not going to serious enough to use the tripod, so why even bring it.

The binoculars also come into question. However, they are nice for enjoying the moment or passing the time while waiting for the light.

As for the two camera systems, I'm not sure what to do here yet. Part of me is tempted to just take the XPan and a nice digital point and shoot like the S95 or LX5. However, it's hard to argue with the results of the good ol' 5D. I just wish its lenses weren't so flippin heavy. Maybe I should switch back to my Australian kit: 5D, 17-40/4, 70-200/2.8, and small Slik tripod in a backpack. The 24-105/4 is great, but it can't touch the unique perspectives of 17mm and 200mm.

Regarding my last post on Xpanomics, I think Tokyo Camera Style was either reading my mind (or my blog?) because suddenly there were posts on how to roll and develop film at home and how to improve as a photographer in 2011 with the one-camera-one-lens project. Filmus Monochromus was particularly informative. Unfortunately this also reignited my desire to own a Leica.

A Leica kit would certainly weigh less than a DSLR system, which fits nicely into my goals of minimalism. Hmm. Unfortunately it would also minimize the money in my bank account. :-(

Speaking of which, you can help support this blog by using the product links to Amazon. You don't even have to buy the item I've linked to, just go to Amazon through my blog and The Photo Way gets a small percentage of your purchase at no cost to you.

In any case, I'll try to get some Florida pics up soon. Happy 2011!

Xpanomics

2010-12-14T16:48:00.035-05:00

So I just wanted to make a short post about the economics of shooting various types of film with the Xpan. The film prices here were pulled from B&H on 12/14/2010, and the processing and scanning prices were pulled from North Coast Photographic Services (NCPS). It assumes about $0.50 of shipping for getting the film from B&H and then shipping it to NCPS, then shipping the processed film back. It also assumes you get 21 panoramic shots out of a roll of 36.

Film	Roll	Ship	Proc	Scan	Total	Per Pano (21)	Per Std (36)
Fuji Provia 400X	$9.89	$0.50	$8.25	$5.49	$24.13	$1.15	$0.67
Fuji Astia 100F	$7.55	$0.50	$8.25	$5.49	$21.79	$1.04	$0.61
Fuji Velvia 50	$6.95	$0.50	$8.25	$5.49	$21.19	$1.01	$0.59
Kodak E100VS	$6.99	$0.50	$8.25	$5.49	$21.23	$1.01	$0.59
Fuji Pro 400H	$6.89	$0.50	$5.50	$5.49	$18.38	$0.88	$0.51
Ilford XP2 Super 400	$5.64	$0.50	$5.50	$5.49	$17.13	$0.82	$0.48
Kodak BW400CN	$5.25	$0.50	$5.50	$5.49	$16.74	$0.80	$0.47
Ilford FP4 Plus 125	$5.09	$0.50	$5.50	$5.49	$16.58	$0.79	$0.46
Kodak 400TX (Tri-X)	$3.45	$0.50	$5.50	$5.49	$14.94	$0.71	$0.42

So we can clearly see that the venerable Tri-X is the most economical to shoot, but obviously it may not give the desired results or grain. I was a bit surprised to see that Provia came out to be most expensive. $10 per roll is way too much; not sure why it's that high.

Now the real trick is to not think about how much each shot is costing you, causing you to hesitate as The Moment passes. This is especially true of street shooting. I'm curious to hear what others do to mitigate the recurring costs of shooting film. Developing and scanning yourself seem like the obvious choices, but the time and tedium (not to mention chemicals) have their own costs associated with them.

I prefer to think of the cost in terms of something to pass the time. I could pay $20 and go to an amusement park, or eat at a semi-nice restaurant... or I could shoot a roll of Pro 400H for less. For me the reward is often being there, and the pictures come afterward.

If this post bored your completely, then check out how Steve Kamb is going to travel the world for $418.

Seven Forty Seven

2010-12-11T07:58:00.005-05:00

This is really more of a reminder to myself for future reference. When flying United to/from Narita (NRT), connect through Chicago (ORD), not LAX. Generally I'm not a fan of delay-prone ORD, but ORD to NRT gets you on a 747. LAX to NRT only gets you on a 777.

The route from LAX to NRT is entirely over water; it doesn't even come close to Alaska or Hawaii. The two engines on the 777 are impressive, but there are only two of them, and the Pacific Ocean is a monster body of water.

The route from ORD to NRT goes up over Alaska and northeast Russia. It's a barren world of ice, but it's something. Besides, you've got the 747's four engines to carry you over it all. This route also gives you some amazing views below if you get stuck in a window seat.

Bangkok

2010-12-11T06:50:00.007-05:00

I didn't have a lot of time in Bangkok this past week, but I did get to do a little exploring. My friends and I took the Skytrain from Siam down to Saphan Taksin on the Silom line. Our original plan was to take the express boat from there up the Chao Phraya River to Wat Po. Unfortunately, it appeared the regular boats had shut down early due to the holiday (the king's birthday). Luckily, help is never far in Bangkok, and it readily presented itself along with a price. The first guy wanted 600 Baht (about $20), which we all scoffed at. After a little wandering around, we talked to another guy who started off at 500 Baht. We asked for 400, and ended up meeting in middle at 450.

That kind of negotiation is pretty much standard on taxis, trinkets, and boats. It can be frustrating to approach every situation as a used-car-style negotiation, but there are a few things to keep in mind: 1) they really are trying to make ends meet, 2) they're expecting to be talked down, 3) there's another guy selling the exact same thing just a few steps away, and 4) the stakes are pretty low since you're usually talking just a few dollars difference.

In any case, the ride up the Chao Phraya river was so worth the 450 Baht. If you don't have much time in Bangkok, I recommend it as a way to get out of the bussel and see the city from a different perspective. Here are a few of my shots from the river and around the Grand Palace and Wat Po.

Docking Bay

2010-10-23T07:15:00.007-04:00

This picture has nothing to do with anything. It's not even recent. I just felt like posting it along with a few interesting, unrelated links:

Probably the most beautiful bicycle I've ever seen (and a cool photo project) at #BikeNYC.

Slow motion video of the 5D shutter. Look at the way the mirror bounces at the end. It's no wonder mirror lock-up reduces vibration.

I'm looking forward to the Fuji X100. I hope it lives up to expectations.

This makes me want a Fuji GA645, though when I held a Fuji 6x9 at B&H a while back, it really did feel cheap. It's tough to argue with results though.

Valid code quality measurement, reposted from Chris Gooley a while back.

Flight Control is probably the best game I've ever played on the iPod. $1 addiction.

Return to Delaware Water Gap

2010-10-16T08:58:00.006-04:00

Last weekend was a great chance to capture some fall color. This season seems to be the most gradual transition to fall that I've seen in a while, so there may not be one big explosion of color this year. This is fine by me, as I never really look forward to the grays of winter.

This year we decided to head up to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and stay in Matamoras, PA. This gave us great access to Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, though we didn't actually make it into latter of the three. Also, hotel rooms are pretty cheap in this area, so don't do like I did last time and sleep in the car.

I also simplified my gear for this trip, only taking the 5D, 24-105/4 IS, 17-40/4, and 50/1.8 (why not). I also had a small tripod with me, but it stayed in the car the whole time. The 24-105's IS was good enough that I could get shots of the waterfalls at 1/4 sec. hand-held.

We also lucked out with an amazing sunrise over Port Jervis on our first morning. We drove a few miles up both sides of the Delaware River. For future reference, you can skip driving up the Pennsylvania side of the river north of Matamoras; it's all private residences. The New York side was amazing along highway 97. There were some great overlooks and we caught some rising fog along the hilltops.

A useful strategy we've developed is to get up early, explore, take a mid-day nap, then explore some more in the afternoon and evening. The light is better at the extremes anyway, plus the crowds are nonexistent early in the morning. After our nap, we hit up some more trails at Dingmans Falls and Raymondskill Falls. I felt like I captured Dingmans Falls reasonably well last time, so I tried to focus more on close-up details and other elements that usually get missed.

This last picture was one I particularly wanted to get since these very same leaves saved me from a downpour last time I was on this trail a couple years ago. Thankfully we had great weather this time around.

Make sure to take advantage of the fall color this year. It seems like every fall is a little different. Some are better than others, and sometimes the weather is against you, but there are almost always opportunities to be had. Happy shooting!

Cloudy Sunday Blah

2010-09-26T09:00:00.014-04:00

And I mean that in a good way. We all need that solitary downtime. A good low-contrast day to let our minds explore and relax. Listen to some Chopin or Gershwin while you're at it. Make a photo book, perhaps. Here's a photo book I recently made from my Alaska trip last year:

As an update to those interested, here are a few photos from our summer trip to Rochester, Niagara Falls, and Toronto (plus the image up top):

Macro in Patapsco

2010-07-04T16:00:00.008-04:00

Ok, back to actual photography. Today I took my 5D and 50/1.8 to Patapsco Valley State Park in Elkridge, Maryland. I was somewhat confined to a particular part of the park though, so I decided to take my extension tube (EF25II) and explore my little corner of the park in macro. As always, God is in the details, and if you're shooting macro, the world is suddenly a whole lot larger.

I was shooting everything handheld today, which is somewhat tricky for macro photography. A couple things that helped though:

Use AI Focus or Continuous focus mode. With such a shallow depth-of-field (millimeters), you and the subject will inevitably sway towards and away from each other. AI/Continuous focus can help compensate for the constantly changing distance between you and the subject.
Switch to manual focus when auto-focus fails you (it will at times), or as a starting point before you turn on auto-focus.
Shoot subjects that are in direct sunlight, with shade in the background. The sunlight/shade contrast will help your subject stand out from the background. The direct sunlight will also give you the high shutter speed you need to compensate for all the little movements that can occur in the macro world.
Don't be afraid to shoot without looking through the viewfinder. Good macro subjects are sometimes high, low, or in tight spaces. Aim the camera as best you can and give it your best shot. If your camera has a Live View feature, then definitely use it.

Here's my top five for the day. There's a little more detail in the flickr comments for each photo, so click on the image if you want to know more.

Happy shooting, one and all, large or small.

Xpan repair story

2010-07-01T17:42:00.025-04:00

Ok, so this travel blog is turning into more and more of an Xpan blog. But hey, why not run with it for now...

After my Shendandoah trip, I started to notice that the parallax focusing prism was just not right. I would focus on the same object from the same location with the camera in different orientations (i.e. horizontal vs. vertical) and get different distance readings on the top of the lens. Not really a problem when shooting landscapes at f/16, but nonetheless, just not right.

I briefly entertained the idea of trying to fix it myself, but after loosening a few screws to remove the top, I concluded that I was only going to do more harm than good. It was time to bite the bullet and ship it in to someone who knew what they were doing. But where to begin?

Hasselblad.com listed Greg Hollmann as the regional partner for Maryland, so I dropped him an e-mail at ghollmann@hasselbladusa.com:

The rangefinder focus on my Xpan does not seem to be completely accurate sometimes. I'd like to have it looked at, but I don't know where to take it or ship it. I'm currently residing in Baltimore.

He promptly replied:

Hi Bill,
We have a service center in NJ, they will be able to take care of you. Here is the contact info:

Hasselblad USA - Camera service center
333 New Road, Suite no. 5
Parsippany, NJ 07054
USA
Phone number +1-973-227-7320
Fax +1-973-227-1063

Great! I carefully wrapped and boxed up the Xpan with a formal letter enclosed (headers omitted here):

To whom it may concern,
The parallax focusing mechanism on the enclosed Xpan (serial no. xxSSyyyyy) appears to be loose. It seems to go completely out of alignment after I have the camera tilted to the right (i.e. right end of the camera pointed downward). By tilting the camera to the left, then shaking lightly, the focus mechanism seems to fall back into place. It's difficult to be certain that I'm getting proper focus again though. Please examine and repair if possible.

I shipped it off via USPS with delivery confirmation and $800 of insurance for $17.95. Not bad at all. Three days later I received an e-mail from Maryann Murphy at Hasselblad:

Mr. Allen
We have evaluated your camera and determined it needs to be cleaned and calibrated. It also needs the Prism to be tightened. The cost of the repair is $193.00 including shipping.

Please advise if you want to proceed. Your repair # is xxxxxx.

Generally when I think Hasselblad, I think big $$$, so it was a pleasant surprise to get a quote of $193. Of course I gave the go-ahead. The following Monday I received another e-mail from Maryann:

Hi Bill,
The repair has been completed to your xpan. It has been calibrated, cleaned and the prism tightened. I just need a credit card and it will be shipped.

Now I can be slightly paranoid when it comes to credit card numbers, so I decided to give her a call the next day instead of simply e-mailing her my credit card number. She was ready with my order when I called though, so the call was about as painless as possible.

The camera arrived a few days later via UPS (after a three rounds of delivery tag). I took it out of the box and was very pleased with what I saw. The viewfinder was pristine and the focusing mechanism was smooth, tight, and accurate. If it weren't for the wear on the finish, I'd have thought I was holding a new camera. The only down side of the whole thing was that the battery had run down during the journey, but that's no big deal. I keep spares in my Xpan Go Bag.

So if your Xpan (or any Hasselblad) is starting to show its age, I hope this article helps quell your fears a bit. Of course, this is the USA, so I have to list the following disclaimers:

Your mileage may vary greatly in terms of pricing and timing depending on what's wrong with your camera.
I have absolutely no relationship with Hasselblad; I did not get any freebies, discounts, or other compensation for writing this article.
Please confirm any contact info I have listed here, as it may have changed. Do not blindly ship your beloved camera to Parsippany, NJ.

And don't worry, I'll get back to posting pictures soon.

Xpan in Port Covington

2010-06-20T21:58:00.006-04:00

Here's one of the two shots I took with my Xpan last weekend while finishing up a roll at Port Covington. I'm really liking this Kodak E100VS. The colors you're seeing here are straight out of the camera. Awesome. This shot also makes me really want the 90mm lens. Maybe when I get the Xpan back from the shop... More on that later.

Shenandoah Follow-up

2010-06-19T16:21:00.010-04:00

This is just an Xpan photo follow-up to my trip report on Shenandoah National Park. Enjoy!

Early Morning Do

2010-06-12T11:30:00.011-04:00

Do get up about 45 minutes before sunrise.
Do go to a spot you've been meaning to explore for a while.
Do take your favorite camera(s).
Do shoot, shoot, shoot.
Do stop for a few minutes to breath in the air and take in the location.
Do shoot as you leave.
Do leave slowly.
Do return.

In my case, I'd been meaning to go to a spot behind the Sam's Club in Port Covington, just south of downtown Baltimore. After exploring it further on Google Earth, I realized it was actually an old, over grown dock with some great views of the harbor; stuff the tourists would never, ever take pictures of, even though they'd readily go into the Sam's Club. Heck, they might even buy a new camera at the Sam's and never notice that some cool pictures were right around back.

Anyway, my main mission was to finish off the final roll of film from Shenandoah. As you'd expect, that didn't take long. Of course I had to take a few pictures of the Xpan setup with my 5D. I took my film to the post office once they opened. Just $1.95 to mail two rolls from Maryland to California... not bad. Hopefully they will be back in the next week or so. In the meantime, enjoy these shots from my 5D with the 50/1.8.

Enjoy, and don't forget to do your do's!

At Last, Shenandoah

2010-06-07T17:29:00.014-04:00

Who knows how many times I've flown over Shenandoah National Park. Dozens? Yet I'd never been there. I was always headed to "bigger and better" things out west (Yellowstone, Denali, Zion, etc.). That all changed last weekend.

With the Xpan stuffed in my backpack, we headed west. We shot around the DC beltway, out on I-66, then down US-29 to VA-211. As we reached Sperryville, our lunch options began to dwindle. Luckily, we found High on the Hog BBQ for some good local "grub". Topped off, we wound our way up 211 and headed further back in time.

We entered the park at Thornton Gap. The friendly ranger gave us a map, told us it was a free weekend, and waived us on through. Excellent. With the Skyline Drive in our sights, we headed south.

After some stops at various overlooks, our first main destination was Limberlost trail near mile marker 43. It's probably one of the easiest trails you'll find in the whole park. It's paved with gravel and rated as ADA accessible. This isn't some blah trail though. There's plenty to see and photograph if you pay attention to the details and patterns. Also, if you wear some boots and long pants you'll have a little more freedom to get off the trail to explore different angles.

When we were done with our hike, we continued to head south to the Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows. The Meadow is indeed Big, especially by east coast standards. Unfortunately, heavy rain and fog rolled in just as we got out of our car. After sitting tight for a little while, we decided to start working our way north again, toward Luray.

We checked in at the Days Inn. The accommodations were completely adequate for our needs (bed, thermostat, shower,... ahem... free wifi). Also, if you find clashing decor entertaining, then this is definitely the place for you. After we got settled, we headed into town to find some food.

Artisans Grill was actually one of the surprise highlights of the trip. We settled on it after driving up and down Main St. a few times. The food and service were excellent, and the prices were reasonable. It will almost certainly be our go-to spot the next time we find ourselves in Luray.

After dinner, we made a cold, windy, and brief attempt to watch the sunset from one of the overlooks. With the Sun setting so late in the evening though, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.

The next morning, we reentered the park at Thornton Gap and headed north on the Skyline Drive. It was a Monday, so unfortunately the free weekend was over. I gladly paid the $15 though; it was certainly going to a good cause.

The Fox Hollow Trail was our next major destination. This was also a worthwhile hike. Though not as easy as Limberlost due to its inclines. It's still one of the easiest trails in the whole park though. We were amazed how different this trail was from Limberlost too. The huge poplar trees seemed to loom over the entire forest. Be sure to pick up a $1 guide book at the trail head. There's a lot of history along this trail, so you're going to want to follow along.

With another great hike behind us, we made a brief stop across the street at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center. As we headed north out of the park and into Front Royal, we could satisfyingly say we'd been to Shenandoah National Park.

--

The main book we used on this trip was Best Easy Day Hikes, Shenandoah National Park. While not photographically oriented, this book does give some great tips on where to go. When you're reading it though, keep in mind that when they say "day hikes", they mean "day hikes." In other words, make sure to look at the distance, difficulty, time, and your supplies before picking a hike. On the plus side, many of the hikes are out-and-back, so you can turn around when you've had enough. Also, for the photographer, finding "easy" trails is important when schlepping camera gear. Pick and choose what you take.

Another useful book when visiting any national park is the National Audubon Society Guide to Photographing America's National Parks, which you may have seen me mention before.

Alas, there are no pictures to share from this trip yet. That is the price of stepping back in time and shooting film. More to come...

Geometric Getty

2010-05-23T19:50:00.009-04:00

Besides being an architectural masterpiece, The Getty Research Institute is the perfect place to practice your your geometric photography skills. What am I talking about? I'm talking about clean lines and simplicity that generally lead to better photos. In other words, think of your photos more in terms of graphic design, with a few clean shapes, solid colors or smooth gradients.

John Shaw goes on a bit about this near the end of his Landscape Photography book when talking about the Palouse region of Washington. The book may be out of print now, but its lessons on composition still apply. It also has one of the best explanations of exposure (i.e. what "stops" are) that I've ever read.

Anyway, back to the Getty. Absolutely go there, enjoy the architecture, and start thinking of your photos more in terms of clean, abstract graphic designs.

My shots here were mostly taken with the 5D and 50/1.8, but you really don't need anything more than a point-and-shoot to take advantage of the amazing architecture. I feel like these photos only scratch the surface of possibilities at The Getty.

Happy shooting!

The Joshua Tree

2010-04-11T07:56:00.009-04:00

Before leaving for Los Angeles, I was trying to pre-visualize some of the shots I wanted out of the trip. Joshua Tree National Park was one of our planned destinations, so naturally U2's The Joshua Tree came to mind. The funny part is, I never actually looked at the album cover for inspiration. I just sort of assumed it looked something like the shot above. I came home, processed the image, and posted it on facebook and flickr. At some point it dawned on me that I still hadn't actually seen the album. Much to my surprise, it looked absolutely nothing like the shot above, nor did any of the other album art. Perhaps this is a technique I should try more often. Pick a song or album and shoot my vision of the cover, then compare the two afterward.

This next shot is one of my other favorites from the trip. I didn't quite pre-visualize this one as clearly as The Joshua Tree, but I did know that I wanted to try capturing the sheer open spaces and big sky out there. I had forgotten just how many planes fly over Joshua Tree though. Normally this would annoy me if I was trying to get a clean, natural landscape, but in this case, it worked out just right, adding an interesting contrast between the natural whispy clouds, and the distinct contrail lines. As usual, I had my ideal general purpose lens mounted, the 24-105/4 IS. Part of me wonders if 17mm would have been better, but shooting that wide may have made the distant landscape a little too, well, distant. Personally, this shot also reminds me of the classic game, Missile Command, after all the cities have been destroyed. I prefer not to think of Joshua Tree National Park as a post-apocalyptic wasteland though. It's quite the opposite, full of life and wonder.

Here's to another great trip!

Another wave of photos

2010-03-30T20:16:00.006-04:00

I've been pretty bad about posting lately, so here comes another wave of photos, this time from the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. I walked in with nothing but the 5D and, more importantly, the 50/1.8. The thrifty fifty saved the day in those dark aquariums. The only problem is that it makes me want the 50/1.4 even more. Hmm. Anyway, enjoy!

You are what you schlep

2010-03-30T19:28:00.005-04:00

I've recently been inspired by Jason Travis's Persona series that was commissioned by The Atlantan. The basic concept is that "you are what you schlep." Pretty simple, but amazingly insightful. On top of that, Jason takes some pretty cool portraits. As I currently only have myself to profile (and I don't feel like taking a self-portrait tonight), I decided to go more in the direction of The Items We Carry flickr group. What I find particularly interesting about these photos is that, while they answer many questions about a person, they seem to inspire even more curiosity. Why should a person suddenly seem much more interesting simply because they've emptied their pockets for the world to see? The human nature of curiosity is a powerful thing.

Aftermath at Night

2010-02-07T08:42:00.010-05:00

The snow had ceased and the sky had cleared. The sun came out briefly, just in time to exuberantly set. I took a brief trek to the subway station with my Canon G9 to survey the aftermath. The streets of Baltimore were truly surreal; eerily silent compared to the standard bustle. The usual visual queues of the street were also gone. There was no sidewalk or street, crosswalk or curb, just snow with the tracks of previous transients. I decided to return for my 5D and 17-40/4:

By the way, I'm so glad my car was in a parking garage for all this. I can't even imagine shoveling snow for four hours just to get my car out. What a bunch of %$#^%$.

Staying In

2010-02-06T09:34:00.011-05:00

It's looking a little post-apocalyptic outside today, so here's an interesting link to begin the many hours of today's web browsing: Shane Rich. He's selling each photo for the same price as the day of the year (i.e. Jan. 1 = $1, Dec. 31 = $365). If he succeeds at selling one photo per date at his price, Scala says he'll gross...

println(List.range(1, 366).reduceLeft(_ + _))

$66,795. Nice.

Lingering in Locust Point

2010-02-05T12:43:00.014-05:00

It's cold. It's cloudy. It's sunrise. Should I sleep in for a few more hours, or return to Locust Point? As you may have guessed, I donned my long underwear (etc.) and chose the latter a couple weeks ago.

I'd been meaning to return to Locust Point for over a year. Ever since my tour of Silo Point last winter, I've been drawn to this nice, out-of-the-way neighborhood of Baltimore. It's a peninsula of row houses surrounded by docks and train yards. Good neighborhoods don't usually play nice with industrials zones, so finding a safe place to park and walk about is tough. Locust Point is the exception with plenty of good street parking and easy access to views of the surrounding industry. The only trouble is that now I just want to go back and capture it from yet another perspective. My 24-105/4 IS was good, but the 17-40/4 seems like it would yield even more interesting shots.

I've also been wanting to try shots with the camera set down on the ground, inspired by Kevin Meredith and his Low Down series. Locust Point seems like a great subject, though the streets of downtown Baltimore should also work nicely. I wonder if it's possible to attach a small point-and-shoot camera to the side of my shoe for more discrete shooting... hmm.

Veiny

2010-01-17T15:50:00.007-05:00

It's been raining here in Baltimore all day, so I figured this would be a good time to play around with my new Canon EF25 II macro extension tube. After a few close-up shots of my Xpan, I decided that the world didn't need any more camera porn today. I switched over to the broccoli plant that's been surviving living by the window for the past several months.

I don't have a true macro lens to compare it to, but I do notice quite a bit of softness in the full resolution image. This could be due to the excruciatingly narrow depth of field. I suspect that it's actually due to the fact that the lens is being pushed beyond its normal parameters by the extension tube. The image that's projected from the back of the lens is significantly larger when the extension tube is attached. As such, any softness in the lens quality is much larger as well.

This is similar to the rule of thumb when using teleconverters. A 2x teleconverter will double your lens's effective length, but will also halve its effective sharpness. This is fine if you've got a very sharp lens, but if you're using a zoom, you may be making some real sacrifices in image quality.

Hopefully I'll get my hands on a true macro 100/2.8 soon so I can make a real comparison. For now though, the EF25 should do for the amount of macro shooting I do.

In the meantime, maybe I'll try shooting in the rain...

G9 Walkabout

2010-01-02T09:59:00.007-05:00

In keeping with all the other blogs out there, I figured I should start the year off right and wish both all of my subscribers a happy new year. Happy New Year!

Baltimore rang in the new year with some surprisingly nice January morning weather, so I decided to take the G9 out for a little walk and see what I could find. I was going for something a little more artsy/Ben Roberts. I need more practice.

Two things I love about living downtown are: a) there's a virtually unlimited number of routes you can take wandering around, and b) the city is always changing. It's organic. Not so much the product of man, but men (men-made not man-made). Anyway, here the take:

Also, as some of you might have noticed, I've been adding more back-dated content to the blog. Ever since I took the old TopFivePhotos.com down, I've been wanting to give this blog a little more meat. It's going to be a gradual process, as there were over 200 entries on the old site. The old TopFivePhotos.com didn't have any mechanism for readers to enter comments, so if you have any questions about the older content, please don't hesitate to post.

Happy shooting in the new year!

Crop This

2009-11-17T18:48:00.012-05:00

8x10, why must you be so square? Your frames and mattes are so readily available, and yet you are virtually useless when it comes time to make a wide landscape print. Your cousin, 8x12, is much more reasonable, and yet nowhere to be found at Michaels or A.C. Moore. If only Aaron Brothers hadn't moved out of Maryland, there might be some hope.

In case you haven't already guessed, I've been in the process of making a lot of prints lately. This seems to happen every year as the weather cools and more time is spent on my butt indoors. It's time to put down the camera and make use of all those photos taken during summer travels. Nostalgic, isn't it?

As for the 8x10 dilemma, perhaps I should just start shooting everything with a Mamiya 7 like Ben Roberts. Then again, he also shoots with an Xpan. :-)

By the way, here's a shot from last March during a special overnight trip to Rocky Gap State Park here in Maryland. It's called Sidling Hill. It's worth a brief stop if you find yourself driving along the I-68 corridor.

This is also one of the photos I had to painfully crop down to 8x10. While it does still work, I think the drama of the striations is significantly diminished. Luckily the trees are still there to provide some struggle.

Reproportion

2009-11-16T17:27:00.006-05:00

Photojournalists, cover your ears (or eyes, in this case). This does not apply to you.

One of the interesting properties of landscapes is that they can usually be stretched horizontally without anyone noticing. Hills become more gentle, rocks become flatter, but there's nothing particularly odd about that, so most people never question it. Why do we care? Because this can be very useful for creating a panoramic image from a relatively square one.

Not only can the image be stretched, but it can be selectively stretched. Here's an example with a single image of Chelsea:

The top image is the original, full frame of the photo. Chelsea clearly wouldn't appreciate it if I'd simply widened the whole image (and her figure along with it). Instead I widened only the areas to the left and right of her by doing the following:

Resize the canvas (not the image) to the desired width.

Select the landscape to the left of her with the Marquee tool.

Edit -> Transform -> Scale...

Stretch the selected area to the left until it fills the left side of the canvas and press Enter.

Now do the same for the landscape to the right of her.

What I find amazing about this is that widened areas of the image blend right into the unaffected areas. It's a neat trick that can be selectively applied around people, trees, or any figure of known proportion. Give it a try!

Budds Creek

2009-09-13T21:16:00.004-04:00

At some point last night, I was poking around flickr (again), and came across some cool motocross photos. Since the greater DC area seems to have just about everything, I figured there had to be some motocross racing around to shoot. Google revealed that Budds Creek Motocross Park was only about 90 minutes away. And wouldn't you know it, there were races this weekend. Perfect.

Before I was even through the gate, I could already tell that this was going to be different than my usual trips to Summit Point. They made everyone sign a waiver on entry, and with good reason; the motorcycles aren't just on the track. They share the pedestrian paths and tunnels throughout the park. Granted, the bikes aren't exactly quiet, but when there are dozens of them running around, some piloted by eight-year-olds, you better watch your back Jack.

For this trip, I'd brought along the trusty 1D Mark II, 17-40/4, 70-200/2.8, and 400/5.6. As you know, I prefer to pack light, but seeing as this was a new venue and sport for me, I figured I'd bring a wide range of lenses. It turns out that I used them all at one point or another. In a pinch, I probably could have done without the 400, but sometimes it's nice to compress the action and force extraneous details out of the frame.

The 1D Mark II is a beast of a camera. It's heavy and it doesn't have a lot of the standard features that have been added to cameras since 2003, but as a raw picture taking machine, it's very hard to beat. Nikon couldn't touch it until they came out with the D3 last year. I know this because my former D2H forced me to switch to Canon in 2005.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how wide the 17-40/4 looked with the 1D's 1.3x multiplier. 17mm comes out to about 22mm, which is still wider than my usual 24-105/4. I kind of threw it into my bag as an afterthought, but I shot quite a few pictures though it. I guess that's also a testament to how close the action is at Budds Creek.

One last note, watch out for all the Amish buggies on MD-236. I didn't encounter any in the morning, but on the return trip, there must have been at least a dozen of them on the six mile stretch.

Unforgetting Philadelphia

2009-09-07T22:44:00.001-04:00

It's easy to forget how close Philadelphia is to Baltimore. In some ways, it's closer than DC. Likewise, it's not too far off the path to New York City, and yet it continues to be forgotten. We finally put a stop to some of the ignorance on Sunday.

Even though this was mainly an exploratory trip, I can recommend that you check out the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. You can walk all the way across on either side of the bridge, though the south side seemed more scenic. You can get on where the bridge intersects with 5th Street on the Philadelphia side.

Also, The Bourse is worth a quick stop, even if you aren't looking for fast food. It's a former stock exchange floor with plenty of character remaining in its atrium. Oddly enough, there's also a Mexican consulate located on the third floor. If only it were a British consulate, then the irony would be complete.

Granted, we barely scratched the surface by mainly staying in the ~~touristy~~ historical sections of town, but we had to start somewhere. Additional depth will have to wait until the next trip. And now that we know how close it is, there will certainly be a next trip.

Botanical 50

2009-08-30T16:49:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to slap the 50/1.8 (thrifty-fifty) back onto the 5D for a while. Lately it seems like I've been shooting everything with the 24-105/4, but there's no substitute for getting back to basics. Yesterday I took the opportunity at the United States Botanical Garden. By using the 5D's monochrome Picture Style with a red (digital) filter, I was able to bring out some of the contrasty patterns in the plants. I can only imagine what could be done with a real macro lens.

The botanical garden is often overlooked in DC, but it's worth a quick stop. It's not that large, but has a great variety of plants and environments. I was expecting it to be deathly hot inside in the middle of summer (i.e. greenhouse effect), but it was surprisingly pleasant, especially in the dehumidified desert section.

National Building Museum

2009-08-30T15:24:00.003-04:00

Made a stop at the National Building Museum yesterday. I'd been once in early 2005, and I've been meaning to go back ever since. This time I was shooting with a 17mm lens and a full-frame camera. Last time I was there, I had a 20mm lens on my ~~trusty~~ D2H; not what I could call ultra-wide. Even without a wide lens though, it's still got some great patterns and repetition that are just begging to be photographed. The daylight pours in through the building's enormous windows too, so you won't be hurting for photons.

We also had the good fortune of catching the museum's photography exhibits for Philip Trager and Camilo José Vergara. Trager's architectural photography was excellent, and the prints were very well executed. Vergara's exhibit of storefront churches was less about form and composition, and more about interesting subjects. Both are worth checking out.

Most tourists and locals completely miss the National Building Museum. If you find yourself in DC, you need to make a stop. It's just a few blocks north of the National Gallery of Art and the National Mall, so it's an easy (and safe) walk.

Turnagain Arm

2009-08-25T23:52:00.004-04:00

Turnagain Arm will take your breath away. Just head south out of Anchorage along Alaska route 1 (Seward Highway) and you can't miss it. Be sure to stop at Beluga Point. Watch for whales and bore tides. Don't walk on the sand/silt, as the extreme tides can turn it into dangerous quicksand. Also stop at Bird Point. It's got some similar views, as well as displays that explain the scenery, whales, and bore tides.

Here are a couple shots I grabbed with my Xpan:

Alaska Gear

2009-08-25T22:14:00.002-04:00

I think some people have been wondering what camera gear I took with me to Alaska, so here's a quick post to fill in the blanks:

Canon 5D with extra battery and charger
Canon G9 with charger
Canon SD800 with charger
Canon 17-40/4 L USM
Canon 24-105/4 L IS USM (my default lens)
Canon 70-200/2.8 L USM
Canon 50/1.8 II
Hasselblad Xpan with 45mm lens
Gitzo 1155 Traveler tripod with G1077M ball head
Manfrotto 488RC0 ball head (heavy backup head, never used on trip)
Approximately 15 GB of compact flash
Two rolls of Fuji Velvia 50
Two rolls of Fuji Velvia 100
Dust brush with blower
Lens cloth with cleaning fluid (had to check this)

I used a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 to carry everything but the tripod during the flights. My Xpan Go Bag fit perfectly in the bottom. Once I arrived, I put only what I needed for the day in my Kelty Basalt backpack. The backpack itself was checked for the flights. I kept my North Face rain coat in the bottom of the backpack to provide padding.

I think that about covers it. Notice that there's no laptop in that list. I did have my iPod Touch with me, but Internet access was fairly scarce. I didn't go all the way to Alaska to browse the web though.

Now get packing!

The Other Air and Space Museum

2009-08-24T22:26:00.004-04:00

The Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum is well worth the trip. My friend and I drove out there yesterday. It had been on my list of places to visit for far too long.

The museum was much larger than I expected. It's about the size of the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, but much more open.

As with all the Smithsonian museums, admission was free. Parking was $15 though, some of which probably gets kicked back to the museum. This gets no complaints from me; they deserve it. I think the parking fee is also there to discourage people from using it as a parking lot for Dulles Airport, which is literally right next door.

I was very impressed with the way they had all the aircraft lit. Most museums seem to be satisfied with harsh top lighting, but not here. They had the undersides and crevices illuminated so everyone could appreciate (and photograph) the details of things like air intakes and landing gear. If you ever want to learn how to properly light an aircraft, you need to check it out.

I was impressed with how many aircraft they'd fit into a single building, though it did get out of hand at times (see left). I was especially looking forward to seeing the Concord, but was disappointed to see that it had so many other planes encroaching on it. The SR-71 and Enterprise were very well presented though, and it was great to see them in all their glory. Other favorites included the F-14 Tomcat, F-35 Lightning II (STOVL), TDRS satellite, and the New Horizons probe.

All in all, I only wish I'd allocated more time, and that I'd brought a wider lens. I only had my usual 24-105/4 with me, but the 17-40/4 seems like it would have been very useful in some of those spaces. On the flip side, the image stabilization came in very handy in all that low light. I generally had to shoot at ISO 800 and was getting shutter speeds below 1/30. Thanks to the reciprocal rule, this should be fine at 17mm, but would be pushing it at 40mm.

Anyway, whether you bring your camera with you or not, don't put it off like I did. Go check it out!

Portage Lake

2009-08-23T07:42:00.001-04:00

On August 6th, 2009, I had the opportunity to take the Gray Line tour of Portage Lake, south of Anchorage (map). From what I'm told, Portage Glacier is relatively small, as glaciers come. It looked big enough to me though. The deep shades of blue that were buried in the crevasses were amazing, even from a few hundred feet away. Overall the tour took about an hour. The tour is operated by a private company, but a Forest Service employee gives an excellent narration throughout the tour. It was a nice little side trip before I had to depart Alaska. I'd recommend it if you only have a little extra time in Anchorage.

Zap

2009-08-21T22:24:00.001-04:00

Ken Rockwell pointed out a simple way to get cool pictures of lightning with a point-and-shoot. With tonight's storms rolling through Baltimore, I thought I'd give it a try. I used my little Canon SD800 to get this shot about an hour ago.

The building that's second from left is the Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) building. I guess they know some secret about lightning, because it seems to rarely strike their building... Hmm.

Anyway, I set the camera in manual with ISO 80, tungsten white balance, and continuous shooting mode. The camera automatically selected a shutter speed of 1 second. I then propped the camera up on the window sill and held down until I got something cool. It really does work, so give it a try.

Also, I'm kind of excited about the S90. Let's hope its as good as everyone says.

Byron Glacier

2009-08-20T07:54:00.005-04:00

Byron Glacier (trail head) is an easy, worthwhile stop south of Anchorage. It's very close to the Gray Line and Begich-Boggs Visitor Center. The trail is only about 0.8 miles long. It's a well-kept gravel trail that granny's motorized wheelchair could probably traverse. When you get there, don't be afraid to hike out across the rocks. Just don't get under any overhanging ice, as large chunks can break off and fall at random.

The Essential Notepad

2009-08-18T22:49:00.009-04:00

I was reading the Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing today, and it reminded me of something I've been doing since at least 2006... carrying a notepad and pen. I know what you're thinking, "Haven't you ever heard of a PDA?" Of course, but an electronic gadget is often more trouble than it's worth for quick notes. I can keep the notepad in my back pocket for an entire year, sitting on it day after day, without fear of breaking it. A notepad doesn't need batteries or a connection to the Internet cloud. It doesn't need to boot up. It doesn't crash. It's also got convenient history and messaging functions; turn back a page or pass a note.

Obviously, the other essential item is a pen. I prefer the Zebra F-301 blue or black pens. They look sharp, handle well, and haven't failed me yet. The pen lives in my the left pocket (I'm left handed) of my jeans, clipped to the top, near the back. It stays put surprisingly well too, ready for the quick draw. My Swiss Army Knife also has a pen, but it's small and awkward, so it's strictly a backup. As a side note though, I heard Swiss Army officers were originally issued knives to sharpen their quills for record keeping.

And as you can tell from my blog, I've got a ways to go on my travel writing...

Williwaw trail

2009-08-18T20:37:00.008-04:00

Williwaw trail, near Portage, has one of the nicest boardwalks I've ever seen. We stopped there for my last night in Alaska. Along the trail there are great places for viewing salmon and local plant life. I was amazed how green the Alaskan summer was. The plants apparently have to take full advantage of what little summer they get. Overall the campground was nice too, though the provided fire pits didn't allow any air in from below. We just made our fire outside the pit instead.

Mount McKinley

2009-08-12T23:11:00.006-04:00

In case you didn't know, Mt. McKinley is big. In some ways, it's bigger than Mount Everest. It's usually enshrouded in clouds, but on the second day of my trip to Denali National Park, it fully revealed itself. Luckily, this was also the day that I was on the park shuttle bus to Wonder Lake (more on that in another post).

This uncropped shot was taken at 200mm on my 5D (full-frame sensor) from a distance of 33 miles, at Eielson Visitor Center. Thirty-three miles, and it still filled the frame. Those little mountains you see at its base are about 7,000 feet tall; not exactly small.

I'd thought about lugging my 400/5.6 on this trip, but it's probably better that I decided not to. There was quite a bit of haze in the air from regional forest fires, so there's only so much sharpness and detail you can achieve, no matter how long your lens is. I had to up the contrast quite a bit in this shot to get the level of detail you see now. Luckily, I remembered to expose to the right without blowing out all the highlights, so pulling back the color and contrast wasn't a huge problem when I got home.

If you make it up to Denali National Park, I hope you're lucky enough to see Mt. McKinley in all of its massively huge glory too. Happy trails.

Pocket Ref

2009-08-11T19:14:00.006-04:00

This is in no way related to Alaska, but I've been meaning to tell everyone about Thomas Glover's awesome little Pocket Ref. If you're planning to travel anywhere with less-than-stellar Internet availability (i.e. airplanes, Wyoming), then you need to drop a few bucks and get one of these. It's like having a little bit of Google, Wolfram Alpha, and Wikipedia in the palm of your hand. Want to know the difference between a cirrocummulus and a cumulonimbus cloud? Page 652 (with pictures). Want to know how to tie a blood knot? Page 537. Want to know the chemical composition of azurite? Page 342. Want to know how to convert from ounces to grams? Page 719. I could go on and on, but needless to say there's a lot of great stuff in this 5.6 ounce (158 gram) book. I found my copy at the bookstore hidden in with the dictionaries and thesauri. Check it out!

Savage Xpan

2009-08-10T21:27:00.004-04:00

Ok, I've been bad about posting lately, but hey, I did just get back from Alaska. I plan to have several small posts about the trip in the coming weeks. I think it would take too long to write a huge post about the whole trip; just look at how long my PAGC post turned out to be.

In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy this shot I took through the viewfinder on my Hasselblad Xpan. It was taken at Savage Creek in Denali National Park a couple hours after sunrise. The yellow box in the middle is the parallax focus area. The mounted lens is the 45mm, which only blocks a small corner of the viewfinder.

In case you were wondering, the shot through the viewfinder was taken with my little Canon SD800 in macro mode. Pretty cool.

Denali Air

2009-08-01T16:45:00.006-04:00

I'm sitting in the back seat of a Piper Chieftain. The pilot fires up the two props and taxis out to the end of the grass strip. A quick 180 points the plane toward Denali National Park.

Full throttle. The small plane rises so gradually, that it's difficult to tell whether we're still rolling on the grass. A quick glance down reveals that all is well. The tips of the tress are indeed below, and I'm suddenly glad that Piper blessed the Chieftain with two engines, not one.

The pilot banks west over Parks Highway, the Alaska route 3. We pierce the park's invisible wilderness boundary line and throttle back. Ground below, clouds above, Mt. McKinley ahead.

The headset clicks. Our ascent and pre-recorded audio tour is suddenly interrupted by the pilot. Dall sheep on the cliffs at 3 o'clock... not below, straight out the window. Perhaps I should reach out and grab some wool, but the comfort of the enclosed cabin makes me think twice. The pilot comments on the joys of flying below the clouds, between the peaks, now that the weather has cleared. Indeed.

Surrounded by cliffs, glaciers, and mountain passes, our plane dips and banks to their every breath. My back and hips absorb the undulations as though I'm riding on the back of a horse. The lens hood on my 24-105/4 occasionally bumps the Plexiglass window in spite of my attempts at stability. As the vastness of patterns and colors outside reveal themselves, there are simply too many pictures to take. Image stabilization is a wonderful thing.

Suddenly, we've reached our destination. We're eye-to-eye with McKinley massif, or at least we should be. Clouds have moved in. The pilot offers to zoom us around to the west side of The Mountain in an attempt to get a clear view... for an extra $100 (each). A quick look at the clouds brings a quick consensus among the passengers. No thanks, McKinley can keep its cloudy reputation.

Our course dwells momentarily as the plane turns slowly east. We're graced with the same amazing cliffs, glaciers, and mountain passes on our return, and my 5D continues to click away. As we approach the runway, I switch to taking video with the SD800; no need to "turn off all electronic devices" here, thank you very much.

The landing is as smooth and gradual as the takeoff; much smoother than I've felt on most commercial airliners. The Chieftain rolls to a stop, and the pilot shuts down the right engine. After all, there's no need to taxi with two engines after a perfect landing.

The plane is returned to its patch of tarmac. The pilot turns around and finds nothing but smiling faces. He tells us a little about the plane. Its engines are overhauled every 2000 hours. It spends its winters (September to June) in Anchorage. Personsonally, I prefer to winter in Miami, but Anchorage seems sensible. The pilot also mentions that he's been flying at Denali for 27 years; almost my entire life. Good to know.

After some pictures next to the plane, we return to the car. As we drive back to Riley Creek campground, we agree that Denali Air was a wise choice over the ATV tour. $250, 45 minutes, 180 pictures, and an unforgettable perspective of Denali; sounds like a deal to me.

Pennsylvania Grand Canyon

2009-07-12T15:31:00.021-04:00

For this year's 4th of July weekend, my girlfriend and I decided to get the flock out of the DC area and go camping at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon (PAGC) in Leonard-Harrison State Park. We were definitely in vacation mode this time around, so photography was less of a priority. There would be no getting up at the crack of dawn for sunrise pictures, nor would we be rescheduling dinner around the sunset. Nonetheless, the 5D was with me, along with my new-ish 24-105/4 L IS.

We hit the Rattlesnake Rock Trail on our first evening. This trail had a really deep, dark feel to it. The trees ascended the mountain on the west side of the trail, making the canopy seem particularly thick. The creek along the tail provided a nice clearing through the dense forest. The trail head also had a cool meadow, pictured below. Just don't go wandering too far off the trail, several people reported seeing rattlesnakes nearby. I guess the trail lives up to its name.

When we got back to the campsite, we decided to get the fire going. When we'd arrived around 1:30pm, most of the campsites were empty, and the park ranger said we were free to gather up as much wood as we wanted. The down side was that most of the wood had been left sitting out in mud and puddles for a while, so it was quite damp. The wood that was dry was often infested with a variety of ants. We were able to find a few good pieces though, and plenty of kindling. After persistently feeding the fire with kindling (along with the help of some lighter fluid), we finally got some hot coals to dry out more of the wood. The fire pits at Leonard-Harrison State Park are fitted with fold-over grates, which we used to hold up the cast iron skillet. After enjoying some pork chops, we hit the hay.

In spite of our best efforts to sleep in on this trip, we actually got up by 6am both mornings we were camping. The birds dutifully announced the sunrise, so we simply decided to get an early start on the trails. On the plus side, we didn't have to wait in line for the shower; there was only one for men, one for women, and one in the "family" restroom.

The second morning we decided it was time to hit the local tower overlook. When we got there, it was totally unmanned and looked about as rickety as a ride at a state fair. The entry gate was operated automatically via a credit card reader, which was somewhat unexpected given the tower's remote location. The charge was $3. I ended up having to swipe my card twice; I'd given the gate a half-push, which was enough to make it think I'd gone in, but not enough to actually move the gate. I'd recommend standing in the gate then reaching back to swipe your card rather than swiping then stepping in. In any case, morning was definitely the time to go, as we had the whole tower to ourselves, and the view was very nice. I imagine it would be even more spectacular at sunset. In hindsight, I'm also curious if we could have seen some distant fireworks that night.

Once we were done at the tower, we decided to hit Leonard-Harrison's feature trail, the Turkey Path. Undiscouraged by the hazard signs at the entrance to the trail, we worked our way down, enjoying some of the best waterfall views I've seen outside of the Pacific Northwest. This is also where the image stabilization on my lens really amazed me. I was able to get some excellent shots of the waterfalls at 1/13 of a second hand held. While the optimal shutter speed for waterfalls is actually 1/3 of a second, 1/13 isn't bad and saves the time, trouble, and weight of a tripod. Here's a shot of Lower Little Four Mile Run Falls.

When we were done on the Turkey Path Trail, we headed over to Darling Run Station for some lunch and a walk along the Pine Creek Trail. We were vastly outnumbered by people on their bicycles on this long, smooth trail. The trail can get a little monotonous at walking speed, so I'd recommend biking it. Then again, from a bike, it would be difficult to get a shot like this:

After a lazy afternoon nap, and a beautiful drive up to Hammond Lake (and a brief stop at the Tioga Central Railroad), we decided to forgo the local fireworks and start on the fire instead. This time around, I decided to try a different fire starter... dryer lint. I was skeptical at first, but it just took a handful of lint under some kindling to get the fire going; no lighter fluid required. It probably helped that we had more dry wood to work with this time, but if you ever need fire starter, look no further than your dryer.

Whether you call it the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania" or the "Pennsylvania Grand Canyon", it's very cool, and well worth a stop.

Return from Rocky Mountain National Park

2009-06-13T09:27:00.019-04:00

Just got back from Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado last Wednesday. I wanted to share a couple photos and other observations.

Early June may be a little too early in the season for this park. My girlfriend and I definitely got snowed on multiple times, though none of it stuck. On the plus side, it was true mountain weather; if you don't like it, wait 15 minutes.

The active weather was actually a plus for photography as well, since there were almost always dramatic clouds in the sky. The clouds would build up behind the mountains, then gradually roll down and dump on us for a while, then clear up again. I mean, just check out this cloud drama:

The other plus of early June was that the park was not very crowded, which meant we had no trouble parking our car (rental Buick LaCrosse) or getting a campsite.

We also encountered plenty of elk, chipmunks, and Wyoming ground squirrels, but only a couple marmots. The ground squirrels liked to hang around our campsite, but were never a nuisance. We were pretty diligent about keeping our food put away though.

Sunrise was at about 5:30am. I was able to pop out of the tent in Moraine Park campground at 5:15 and make it to the spot to take this photo at 5:30 without too much of a rush.

Also, we found the Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker's Guide particularly useful. It's also got some good photos to give you an idea of where to go for what. The only error we spotted was that Bierstadt is actually 2.0 miles from Bear Lake, not 1.6.

Ok, here's one last shot near Deer Mountain.

Xpan Go Bag

2009-06-12T21:00:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to show my Xpan Go Bag. The basic idea is that I can toss it in a backpack before a trip and have everything I need for a few days of shooting. Here's a list of what's included:

Xpan body (can't forget that)

45mm lens

Think Tank thin shoulder strap

hot shoe bubble level

extra CR2 batteries (the Xpan needs two)

six rolls of film (126 panoramic shots)

Hoya Orange(G), 85C, and 81A multi-coated filters

shutter release cable

aluminum bracket to recenter the tripod mount

two 1/4" x 1/2" thumb screws (easy to lose)

I think I could get the 90mm lens in there too, but I don't have one yet. There's probably a more compact way to hold the filters as well, which I'll have to look into. Overall, it weighs in at about 7 lbs with my Gitzo 1155 Traveler tripod.

Also, my friend Chuck was nice enough to make the aluminum bracket for recentering the tripod mount (pictured above). I'm not sure why Hasselblad put it so far off to the side. Having it centered allows the camera to be much more balanced on the ball head, which means I can use a smaller and lighter ball head. The bracket is threaded on one side so the tripod can screw into it, and clear on the other so the thumb screw can go through and screw into the camera. There's some cork glued on one side to make things nice and snug. The separation between the holes is 2 inches, center-to-center.

Also, wanted to share this Xpan link to a Luminous Landscape article by Australian photographer James Pierce.

Happy shooting!

How to Photograph America's National Parks

2009-05-13T20:09:00.003-04:00

There's a new edition of AAA's National Park Photography, which I've praised in the past. This time it appears to be sponsored by the National Audubon Society. After flipping through it though, it appears to be the same great book. I'm sure there are some updates here and there. In any case, go get a copy.

At a friend's gallery showing last March, a budding photographer asked me how I find the time to visit so many national parks. I told him the trick is to simply visit one national park each year. It's a reasonable and achievable goal if you can budget your time and money for the year. Maybe you'll get great pictures, maybe it will be cloudy, but at least you can say you were there. Simply being there seems to be largest problem most photographers face.

Guadalupe River State Park

2009-05-12T22:55:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post to say that if you ever find yourself in San Antonio, take an evening and drive up to Guadalupe River State Park. It's not very large, so you can certainly get the whole experience in a few hours. It's a great escape from the endless strip malls and access roads that seem to plague Texas.

When I was there last March, I took nothing but my Xpan with 45mm lens and hiked the Loop 3 trail with ease. Very enjoyable. Here are the results...

Hurry Up for Robert Frank

2009-04-25T17:13:00.007-04:00

So I know this is late notice, but tomorrow is the last day to see Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I stumbled upon it today while studying the architecture of the East Building by I.M. Pei. A very pleasant surprise indeed.

It's vastly easier to appreciate a photographer's work when properly presented; printed from the original negatives, matted, framed, and properly lit. Sure you can see it on the interweb or in a book, but it's surprisingly better when it's the real deal.

Go see it! Even if you're not all that into street photography, you'll enjoy it. The exhibition is on the west end of the West Building.

More info on Robert Frank

Also, I snagged this shot with my Xpan before going through the tunnel from the confusing East Building to the West Building.

Hold the laptop

2009-04-04T11:06:00.005-04:00

Next time you take a photography trip, leave the laptop behind. You don't need it. Go get yourself a Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket, pop in ten compact flash cards, and go. Take tons of pictures, relax in the evening, and save the post-processing for when you get home.

Ten CF cards at 4 gigabytes each gives you 40 gigabytes. I shoot at about 10 gigabytes per week with a 5D in raw. Even if you're twice as trigger-happy as me, that still gives you two weeks of shooting, sans laptop.

Ken Rockwell pointed out that shooting film actually forces you to save the post-processing (or any kind of processing, for that matter) until you get home. There's no reason this can't be true for digital as well.

This is especially true on international trips. It's just another juicy target for thieves and customs. The price is not just in dollars either; imagine the amount of personal data that's on your laptop. If you really feel the need to stay connected and browse the web, go get yourself an iPod Touch.

There's also the weight savings. For the weight of a laptop, you could carry another lens or two. Better yet, you could just save those extra pounds and be more mobile.

"The things you own end up owning you." Choose wisely.

As as side note, there may be hope for the 1D Mark II after all...

5D's for Everyone!

2009-03-04T19:39:00.014-05:00

And by 5D, I mean the original, Mark I. The release of the Canon 5D Mark II has put a ton of used 5D's out on the market, ready to be grabbed up by aspiring photographers. It is pretty incredible that a full-frame DSLR can be had for a little over $1100 (and dropping).

I bought my 5D new in the summer of 2006 just before my trip to Australia. It proved to be a truly excellent travel camera. There's just no way I could have covered so much ground in Sydney and the Blue Mountains lugging my huge 1D Mark II. It's just the right size for a small camera bag or backpack with a couple lenses (the 17-40/4 and 70-200/2.8 at the time). The charger and batteries weren't a burden either, which is a real consideration when traveling with a digital camera. Have you seen the charger for the 1D?

I was considering buying a 5D Mark II when it first came out, mainly for it's HD video feature and 14-bit color depth. Since then, I've started to lean more toward film as a real option for color depth and resolution, keeping the original 5D as my general camera. I'm also expecting the second generation of video-enabled DSLR's to bring some great improvements.

So before you blow your dough on a 5D Mark II, consider the original 5D as a real option; it still rocks. Instead, spend that money on some sweet glass that you can use for many (more) years to come.

Other 5D Mark I links:

Panomoto (he also uses a G9 as a backup)
Luminous Landscape Field Report
Flying With Fish on the 5D
Ken Rockwell on the 5D
The Naked Run Travel Blog (he appears to use a 5D for all his amazing travel photography)

Positively Cinematic

2009-02-26T19:05:00.010-05:00

So I got my Hasselblad Xpan film back from the lab today, much sooner than I had expected. The results? Positively cinematic!

Here are three pictures taken on or near Rockefeller Center. I popped over there on the Monday morning of Fashion Week when they first opened at 8am. Surprisingly, it seemed a little warmer at the top than on the ground (out of the wind, of course). My guess is that the tops of buildings in New York get dramatically more Sun than the streets and therefore warm up earlier in the day.

It does indeed force you to see the world in something resembling Panavision.

I'd say the main disappointment of this film experience was that the six-year-old Provia 400F I was using had developed a bit of a magenta cast. This was easy enough to remove by selecting the white point in Photoshop with a curves adjustment layer. I also need to practice with correct exposure; chimping since 2004 has really spoiled me in this regard.

Here's one final, less cinematic shot. It's actually Provia 400F that's been converted to B&W in Photoshop.

Meanwhile, in New York...

2009-02-22T21:11:00.008-05:00

Last weekend I was in New York City for Fall Fashion Week. Surprisingly, it was even crazier than Spring Fashion Week last September. I didn't even get in to the Diane Von Furstenberg, Jill Stuart, or Tracy Reese shows. Eventually I realized that enough was enough (especially for fashion) and decided that I needed to take advantage of being in one of the greatest cities in the world.

After grabbing a slice at Pronto Pizza, I hoofed it over to Penn Station to drop off my backpack with my clothes in it. All I wanted was a locker for a few hours until my train left. The Amtrak baggage check agent informed me that all the lockers in New York had been removed after 9/11... Thanks terrorists. He did say that he could hold it until my train left though, but that it would cost $4.50. This seemed odd to me since I could check one bag for free. In any case, I certainly didn't want to lug my clothes around the city for the rest of the day, and I didn't want to check it since my train would be arriving in Baltimore late that night, so I coughed up the $4.50. All I had on me was a $20, but another Amtrak employee (who apparently dealt with a lot of small denominations) was kind enough to make change. Perhaps I should have pretended to check the bag, then picked it up before the train arrived.

Since Penn Station was so close to B&H Photo, I decided to drop in there for about an hour. They've got pretty much everything, and it's fascinating to watch their system of queues and baskets in action. The folks at IMG who handle Fashion Week may be able to take a few hints from these guys. Anyway, after a brief stop in the used department to check out a Fuji 690 III (surprisingly cheap feel) and Leica M7 (utterly solid), I picked up an orange Hoya multi-coated filter and two rolls of Ilford ISO 400 B&W film for my Hasselblad Xpan. The 45mm lens on my Xpan takes a 49mm filter, which is not as common as I'd like.

Xpan in hand, I hopped on the A train, and headed up to Columbus circle to explore Central Park a bit. I quickly polished off the roll of Fuji Provia 400F that I'd started at the top of Rockefeller Center, and switched to the Ilford XP2 400 (C-41) B&W film and my new filter.

And this is where the story ends somewhat abruptly. I'm still finishing off that roll of B&W film. I mailed my two spent rolls of Provia to the lab earlier this week for processing. I guess I won't really know how good the Xpan is until I get those back. Based on it's solid feel, and the praise it's gotten from other photographers, I'm optimistic.

Also worth mentioning is a very entertaining show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which my friends and I saw that Saturday night. Buy tickets in advance so you can get in early enough to pick a seat away from the isle (unless you enjoy getting plucked from the audience). Also try to forget what a fire-hazard the theater looks like on the inside, and enjoy the show.

What's in a Camera

2009-02-07T16:45:00.017-05:00

I just wanted to post this photo to show that composition and timing matters more than the camera. I took this photo with a little Canon SD800 in the Outer Banks last May. "f/8 and be there," as they say.

That being said, I've had my eye on the world of film lately, especially rangefinders. In particular, I was drooling over the Leica M4P and M6, thanks mostly to the recent rants of Ken Rockwell. I was especially interested in the light weight, high build quality, and excellent optics that the Leicas had to offer.

Luckily I took a deep breath before buying anything. I realized a few things:

There are other high quality options that cost less and offer more features.
I needed to think about the kinds of pictures I really want to take with film (as opposed to digital), and where I was planning to take those pictures.
The Leica is just the main example Ken Rockwell is using for his fanatic crusade against the Nikon D3X. Leicas are still expensive (and obviously give a very healthy kick-back for referred sales).

Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus on landscapes when it came to film. Leica's reputation for street photography is alluring, but the idea of taking pictures of strangers on the street doesn't seem right, plus it's too experimental for anything but digital. I also don't have any upcoming trips where electricity and batteries will be scarce, which is another situation where the Leica would excel.

Inspiration! After reading many posts on photo.net, and looking at many rangefinder photos on flickr, I came across the Hasselblad Xpan. A film camera that can be switched into true panoramic mode, perfect for landscapes. On top of that, the optics are excellent, and the build quality is very high. I was particularly moved by Mathew Joseph's work, and his love for this camera; I believe the quote was, "Lost for words..."

My Xpan should be here next week. I'm anticipating a bit of a learning curve due to the panoramic format and the reintroduction of film in my work. Hopefully I can get comfortable with it this spring in time for my cross-country road trip this summer. I'm really looking forward to some panoramic Fuji Velvia.

In other news, I've been working on a way to get a lomographic look from the 5D in-camera (no Photoshop). I thought about buying an LC-A+, but I have trouble justifying the recurring costs of film for experimental snapshots. Anyway, I think I'm almost there with the 5D. I'll be sure to post my findings once I refine the idea a bit.

Links

Fifty

2009-01-28T20:46:00.006-05:00

I've recently rediscovered the simple joys of shooting with the Canon 50/1.8 II (thrifty fifty). In a world full of huge, image-stabilized zooms, I'd forgotten how small, light, and fast the 50 was. Slap that sucker on the 5D, and suddenly you've got a surprisingly small, light, full-frame, natural perspective camera for street photography. I even took it with me to a blues bar last weekend, and my mostly sober friend didn't even notice that I was "packing heat" until we were about to leave.

One of the features I like about the 5D is its support for Picture Styles. For street photography, put it in Monochrome, bump up the sharpness, and you can come away with some pretty interesting street scenes. The Monochrome Picture Style also supports electronic filters in yellow, orange, red, and green. You can apply these filters without carrying any addition equipment. If you shoot in raw, like me, you can apply these filters in Digital Photo Professional. If you shoot in color, you can apply similar filters in Photoshop using Channel Mixer adjustment layers.

The 50 is also a great way to focus on composition. Even an experienced photographer can use a refresher in composition. One of the things I remember reading in Annie Leibovitz At Work, was that she could only afford a 50mm lens when she started shooting in the Bay Area in the 60's. Many of her classmates had 35mm lenses, which were looser and allowed them to put more in the frame. She said that the 50 forced her to focus on composition to get the shot. I think she was on to something.

Last Friday the weather here in Baltimore was bearable (about 50 degrees, heh), so I came home early to do some street photography. I was walking along West Pratt Street when I came across this spot next to Camden Pub. I've walked by it more times than I can remember, but I'd just never noticed it before. Generally I steer clear of power lines and telephone poles, but for some reason it just worked this time. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mode without the 50 in hand...

Goin' to Miami

2009-01-15T22:24:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow afternoon I depart for South Beach. Three nights and two shoots worth of gear in just two carry-on bags. I've even got my beach towel and sandals in there.

My bags of choice for this trip are the Think Tank Urban Disguise 60 and the Kelty Basalt. Both of these bags are deceptively small, which is exactly what you want these days with Revenue Control Agents and picky flight attendants lurking about.

Since it's such a short trip, and I have my iPod Touch with me, I won't be lugging a laptop. This not only saves weight, but also opens up the laptop slot for two shirts. If you think a little outside the box about the spaces in your bags, you will be amazed by the amount of stuff you can fit into a couple small bags.

And I'm not just being thrifty by using carry-on bags. Packing light puts you in a more agile mindset. Plans may change, but that's ok because there's no giant albatross to burden the journey. I also don't support the first checked bag fee that many airlines are starting to charge, so I'm trying to minimize their opportunity to implement that fee.

Anyway, as I look at the weather report now, it's 16 degrees here in Baltimore and 65 degrees in Miami Beach. I just can't get there fast enough.

Richard Franiec Custom Grip

2009-01-08T22:32:00.005-05:00

The custom grip for my Canon G9 arrived today. It definitely improves the feel of the camera.

The grip itself is heavier than I was expecting, but then again it is a solid piece of metal. The G9 is a very hefty point-and-shoot anyway though, so I wouldn't call this a real problem. It does seem like the all-metal design will suck the heat right out of your fingers in winter. On the flip side, the grip vastly improves handling when wearing gloves; it no longer feels like it's going to slip right out of you hands.

I am impressed with how well it fits the features of the camera's body, right down to a slot along the edge to accommodate the existing rubber strip/grip. The texture of the grip is also less course than I was expecting, but it seems sufficient. I was also a little surprised to discover that the grip is held on with very strong double-sided adhesive tape. I guess I was expecting it to latch on mechanically in some fashion.

In any case, if you're planning to stick with your G9, I recommend this little upgrade.

AAA's National Park Photography

2009-01-06T16:40:00.005-05:00

AAA's National Park Photography is a book that never seemed to get much attention. I have found it quite useful when my time in the park is limited. There have been a few occasions when I was traveling for other business and decided to tack on an extra day to explore a nearby national park. This book shows you where the "hot spots" are so you can prioritize rather than aimlessly wandering through the park (though there's something to be said for aimlessness when time is on your side). It also tells the best times to visit the park, which can be very helpful.

Will you come back with pictures that have been taken before? Of course. Will you take other pictures along the way? Most likely. Will one of them be original? I hope so.

My only gripe with this book is that the binding is somewhat poor, causing pages to fall out. This can be turned around into a bit of an advantage though, because it means you only have to take the pages that concern the park you're planning to visit. Every little bit of weight savings helps when you're packing, and this is no exception.

The bottom line is that this book can be a big time saver and has the tips that most photographers are looking for.

Farewell to JPG Magazine

2009-01-06T15:54:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I was sad to read that JPG Magazine is shutting down this month. I always looked forward to each new issue full of colorful, creative, less-is-more photos. Pretty much all the images were available online, but it's not the same as seeing them in print. I got my first issue at the PhotoShelter Photography 2.0 event in New York in 2007.

Similar photography can still be seen on sites like Lomography and Flickr, but it was nice to see it collected into one place in print six times each year.

I was able to snag the last issue off of the shelves today. I'm wondering if there's still another issue in the pipeline that will come out. We'll see.

Sticking with the G9

2009-01-04T19:33:00.015-05:00

Somewhat recently, Canon replaced the G9 with (you guessed it) the G10. The G10 does show much improved noise reduction, and a much wider lens. Unfortunately, Canon removed one of my favorite, albeit odd features - time-lapse video mode.

Making your own time-lapse video is non-trivial with most cameras. Having the ability to put time-lapse videos together in the field, on the fly, in-camera is pretty powerful, not to mention fun. I've posted a couple camping videos on YouTube from my trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone (embedded below) last summer. You can even plug the camera into the TV and play the video back; very entertaining.

The G9 also makes a great backup camera for portraits and landscapes. In the past, I had to lug a 5D and 1D Mark II if I wanted to have a backup body. On top of that, the batteries and charger for the 1D Mark II are huge and heavy. Nowadays I just toss the G9 in with my 5D and I'm off. Of course I won't get pictures as spectacular as I would with the 1D Mark II, but I certainly won't be heart-broken if all I had left was the G9.

The G9 also has an excellent flash sync speed - 1/1000! This beats the pants off of the 5D's pathetic 1/200 sync when it comes to killing the ambient light. If you don't know what on Earth I'm talking about, you owe it to yourself to head over to Strobist. I took the swimwear shot on the left with the G9 and a little SB-28DX (fired remotely via a PocketWizard). The Sun was still about an hour from setting, so the only way to kill all that ambient light was to bump the shutter speed up to 1/1000. This would not have been possible with such a small flash had I been using the 5D.

Not only am I planning to keep the G9, I actually just ordered the custom grip from Richard Franiec. I'll let you know how that goes, but based on the review I read on Luminous Landscape, it's a must-have.

Annie Leibovitz At Work

2008-12-14T23:04:00.002-05:00

I finished reading Annie Leibovitz At Work today. I'd highly recommend it if you have any interest in photojournalism, celebrities, or photography in general. She doesn't get bogged down in the technical details, though she does touch on it every now and then. She talks more about how she came up with the ideas for her photos and how she interacted with her subjects. She also talks about the many photographers and editors that have inspired her over the years. This book is also interesting because it covers her work right into 2008, so it's easy to relate to current events. Check it out.

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?

2008-05-26T17:33:00.006-04:00

Just finished reading Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm. It's a fun read. The 270 pages flew by. Thomas manages to describe each scene in detail without slowing down the pace. He also dispels many of the myths that tend to romanticize travel writing. If you're going on a trip and need a light-hearted and light-weight book to read, I highly recommend it.

Transporting framed prints

2008-05-17T17:32:00.004-04:00

I'm in the process of moving into a new apartment in downtown Baltimore. As with most photographers, I had some framed prints hanging on my walls. Moving them from one place to another can be easier said than done though. I think I've found a cheap and easy way to do it though. I'm using some three-sided cardboard science fair stand-ups I had been using as cheap reflectors. Just lay the frame face-down on the large center portion of the board, then close the flaps and start taping. The trick is to pinch the top and bottom parts of the board together as you're taping, resulting in a nice, snug fit on all sides. I haven't tried any drop tests yet, but I imagine the board would take the brunt of the damage.

Of course, this will also work for unframed prints that you don't want to roll up.

Best view of Baltimore... for now

2008-05-05T20:44:00.009-04:00

Exploring the west side of downtown Baltimore can take some guts, even in your car. But on this clear, August day, I was determined to find this particular shot. So many times, I'd seen the Baltimore skyline light up in the evening as I was driving up I-95. So many times I'd wondered where I could set up my tripod when the haze relented. After what felt like a couple of hours of driving up and down the roads near I-95, and a couple of dead ends (eek!), I finally came upon Carroll Park off Washington Blvd. It should have been obvious from the start. The park is basically comprised of flat land with a big hill in on the western corner. Perfect. It also should have been obvious because I could actually see my apartment window from this newfound spot (can you guess which one?). I guess it's all about perspective.

Every now and then I go back to that spot when I think it might be a particularly nice evening. This shot was taken about a month later.

I actually went to that spot again this evening for the first time in months. Unfortunately, the air was not as clear as I'd hoped, nor was the sky as interesting. What caught my attention the most was that one of the trees in the foreground had grown significantly in the past few months, making it impossible to get the same shot. I had no doubt that it was still the best view of the city, but it was like part of my discovery had disappeared.

To go off on a slight rant tangent, in many US State and National Parks, there is a battle between the viewpoints and the trees that always seems to be won by the trees... in the foreground. It seems obvious that the trees weren't in the way when many designated viewpoints were built. Yet no one seems to be willing to cut down/back the foreground trees to preserve the magnificent views. How are photographers supposed to get the shot? More importantly, how are people supposed to be talk about the magnificent vistas if they can't see them? How are they supposed to be motivated to preserve the forest if they can only see the trees? Clearly, a few trees have got to go for the good of the forest.

Anyway, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Location
Carroll Park, Baltimore, Maryland
39° 16.746'N, 76° 38.557'W

Gear
Canon 5D
Canon 70-200/2.8
Bogen/Manfrotto 3021PRO tripod with 488RC0 ball head

I didn't have my TC-80N3 at the time, so I just used the mirror lock-up and 2 second self-timer.

Spring Break in Paris

2008-05-01T18:28:00.008-04:00

In 2003, my friend, John Etherton, and I got it in our heads to go to another country for spring break. At the time, he had never been to Europe, and I'd only been to the UK. Our other condition was that English could not be the country's primary language. For us, that basically narrowed the list to France and Spain. In the end, we picked Paris because we felt that we could actually tackle a city in a week, and it was a chance to cross off one of the "cities of the world" from our to-do lists.

Itinerary
Friday, February 28, 2003
Depart: ATL (Atlanta), Delta Airlines
Arrive: CDG (Charles de Gaulle), March 1st (Saturday morning)

Accommodations: Woodstock Hostel, 48 rue Rodier 75009 Paris

Saturday, March 8
Depart: CDG, Delta Airlines
Arrive: ATL

One of the aspects that made this trip possible was that we were able to use Delta buddy passes to buy our plane tickets, thanks to John's granddad, who used to work for Delta. A buddy pass is basically a cheap standby ticket ($300 round trip) where you get to fly in any leftover seats on the plane... including first class.

Gear
Nikon FA
Nikon F3
Nikon 135/2.8
Nikon Series E 50/1.8
Nikon Series E 28/2.8
Fuji Velvia 50
Fuji Provia 400F

The Nikon FA was a brilliant camera. It was the first camera with Nikon's famous Matrix Metering. In spite of the fact that it was created in 1982, the metering was dead on. It was simple, yet clearly ahead of it's time. There were many, many things I liked about this camera, but I'll let you read some of the online info. If you've got a hankering to go old school, get your hands on one of these.

I borrowed a Nikon F3 from Georgia Tech's photography club for this trip. It's such a solid camera, with such a smooth winding action. I could see why it was the go-to camera for National Geographic photographers for so long. I used it as my secondary camera on this trip so I could have multiple types of film loaded at a time. There were some peculiarities about the F3 though. For instance, it didn't have a hot-shoe, but instead had a special mount off to the side. It also only had center-weighted metering, so it was much less "advanced" than the FA.

The Implications of Shooting Film
There are aspects of shooting film on a trip like this that have been mostly forgotten in the days of digital. I certainly don't reminisce about the days of film, but I figure they should be documented, at least for history's sake.

On this particular trip I shot nine rolls of film, which amounts to about 324 pictures. In the digital world, that would be nothing for a week long trip, but on film, that was a lot.

Film also meant you couldn't switch to a different ISO any time you wanted to, unless you carried two cameras, one with fast film, and one with slow film. There were some days where I might only shoot one roll of film, so before I loaded it, I had to think about what speed I was going to need over the next day.

Furthermore, different films had different color properties, so you had to think about what you were going be taking pictures of during that roll. Vevia was amazing for landscapes, but could murder a portrait. Provia was cold, and therefore was good for city scenes and sports. Astia was mind-blowingly good for skin tones, but too warm for most other things. And then, you always had the choice of black & white for artsy or high ISO needs.

On top of that, you could shoot either negatives or slides. Negatives usually had more stops of latitude, but slide had much better color saturation. There was also some processing latitude with negatives, which meant the shot may have been better or worse than what you got back from the lab. Slides did not suffer from this problem, so if the shot was messed up, you knew it was your fault.

Before I'd made the switch to digital in early 2004, I was shooting almost exclusively slide film, except for my pictures for Technique.

One particular advantage of shooting film is that the cameras require much less power. I would seriously change the batteries in my cameras once every 6 to 12 months. This meant I didn't have to bother with charging batteries every day. This can be huge when you're in the middle of nowhere, or you don't have a place to leave your charger for a few hours.

A disadvantage of film is that you had to worry about x-ray machines. I used a lead-lined bag to protect my film through airport security. I'm told this is only a major issue with high ISO films, but it's better to be safe than sorry when you only have one copy of your pictures.

What Worked
When I'm going on a special trip, I try to do something I call "pre-lagging." The basic idea is that I switch my body's clock to the destination timezone days before I leave. Being a student at the time, my schedule was pretty flexible, so I was able to start getting up at 3AM EST for about five days before the trip. Obviously, this is not very comfortable at first, but more importantly, it meant that I wouldn't have to go through that same discomfort during the trip, and I would be able to take full advantage of my time there.

Friday
The buddy passes were a huge hit. We showed up at the airport a few hours early for our first possible flight. Not only did we make it onto the first flight, we got into first class. Just imagine two college students flying first class to Paris on a Boeing 777. It was amazing.

Saturday
Our train ride from CDG to Gare du Nord didn't give us a very good first impression of Paris. There was a bunch of graffiti and garbage everywhere. I knew Europe was better than that though, so as soon as we finished getting settled at the hostel, I took John down to Notre Dame Cathedral so he could get the right impression. I definitely think it worked.

At least attempting to speak French is important. People often comment on how rude the French are, but the people who don't even try to speak French are the rude ones. I learned just enough French to get around (on top of the Russian class I was taking that semester). The bottom line is that starting with bad French, then letting them make the switch to English is much, much more polite than just starting off with English.

After we were done at Notre Dame, we decided to wander around the Seine for a little while. We made our way into the Latin Quarter where we found some great crepes from a street side vendor.

We thought about heading into the Louvre next, but one of the artists on a nearby bridge was kind enough to tell us that all the museums were free on the first Sunday of every month. We decided to hold off, and do some more exploring instead.

Sunday
We started each day with a free breakfast consisting of a coffee or hot chocolate and a bagget with jam. The flavor of the jam seemed to be randomly chosen. It was probably the cheapest flavor the good folks at Woodstock could find that day. It was a light breakfast, but it was a good way to start the day. I will say that by the end of the trip, I was really craving a glass of orange juice.

Meeting other people in the lounge was also a good thing. If you're in a new place and want to guarantee that you'll meet some new people, stay in a hostel.

In addition to the lounge, Woodstock also had a very nice little courtyard in the back. The surrounding buildings were a great buffer from the street noise, and it was a nice place to chill in the morning. The courtyard was closed in the evening though to keep noise down since the hostel's private rooms surrounded the courtyard.

We tried to get to the Louvre fairly early so we would have plenty of time inside. Even so, the line was out the door since it was the free first Sunday of March. I imagine it's much worse during the summer, but we didn't have any trouble in March. The Louvre was well worth visiting, and I would definitely go back. John actually wanted to go back on one of the non-free days, but we had plenty of other things to see.

After we were done at the Louvre, we made our way over to Musee d'Orsay. The line was much, much longer than it was at the Louvre. I actually didn't think we'd make it in before the museum closed, but John thought we should give it a try. He was right. The line moved pretty quickly, and we got in with plenty of time to explore. The huge atrium and excellent artwork made this museum at least as worthwhile as the Louvre. Needless to say, I'm glad John convinced me to try going in.

Paris is a beautiful city at night as well. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken a small tripod with me to steady my shots. Even so, I was able to prop the camera up in a few locations and get some night shots. Unlike most cities that just have a bunch of white or yellow or blue lights, Paris seemed to have a wider variety of nice colors to capture. Don't put your camera down when the sun goes down. It is "The City of Light" after all.

Monday
After our usual start on Monday morning, we went to the local metro station to purchase a Cart d'Orange metro pass, which was good on the Metro and RER for the rest of the week. Remember that the week starts on Monday in Europe, so don't purchase it on Sunday. The process of buying our passes was interesting because we needed a photo to put on the pass. Luckily, there was a photo kiosk in the station. The interesting part was that the kiosk's interface spoke only French. When you're talking to a person that doesn't speak English, you can usually muddle through some kind of understanding, but with a machine, you just do the best you can. In the end, the machine spit out the pictures we needed and we took them back to the woman at the counter.

Multi-course, combination meals are the way to go in Paris. We walked through the Latin Quarter around sunset and were greeted by owners, managers, and waiters standing outside their little restaurants clapping, whistling, and singing to get our attention. Some of them had a three-course meal for 10-14 euros, which we thought was very reasonable for some authentic French cuisine. Being college students though, we only did that on a couple of the nights we were there.

Tuesday
The weather was still cloudy, so we decided to head over to Les Invalides museum. This was definitely a worthwhile stop that I think most people miss. Even if weapons and military history aren't your thing, I think you could still come away with an appreciation of the elaborate craftsmanship that's gone into weaponry throughout history. The part that impressed me the most though was the World War II section. It basically took up three floors on one corner of the museum. Much of it was devoted to the American war effort, and all of the exhibit descriptions were in both French and English. Apparently, even "surrender monkeys" give credit where it's due. The other extremely impressive part of the museum was Napoleon's tomb. I never thought a country would honor a man who'd crowned himself emperor in such ways.

After Les Invalides, we walked by Ecole Militaire, then made our way through the Champs de Mars to the Eiffel Tower. I highly recommend taking some time to just walk around the Eiffel Tower. It's a bold, yet elegant structure. I used my 135mm lens to try and get some detail shots of various parts of it from different angles.

Wednesday
We decided we should finally check out Sacre Coeur and Montmartre since it was just a few blocks north of our hostel. We made our way up the stairs, which aren't nearly as daunting as they look. The view from the front of the cathedral was amazing, and really gives a good idea of the layout of the city.

We walked around the west side of the cathedral and found a square plaza full of artists (mostly painters) displaying and working on their craft. The one that grabbed our eye the most was a beautiful painting of the skyline of Paris. It used many shades of blue, and had an amazing, roughly textured surface. Unfortunately, the artist wanted 300 euros for the full-size version, and 150 euros for the smaller version. It was about 30x12 inches, so we also had no way to get it home.

We continued to make our way into Montmartre, where we came across an immaculate Audi A1 parked along the side of the road. After we stopped to take a look at it, we saw a sharply dressed man get in. When we looked up the road, we saw a small film crew setting up their camera. We had inadvertently walked into a commercial. The film crew was actually ok with us being there, as long as we stayed on the far side of the road. We stuck around to watch them do a couple of takes of the car going around the corner at high-speed. It was pretty cool.

The weather had finally started clearing up, so after stopping for some pastries in Montmartre, we hopped on the Metro down to Arc de Triomphe. When we came out of the Metro station, we discovered that we were outside of the insane traffic circle around the Arc. John wanted to play frogger through the traffic, but I knew there had to be a better way. After looking around for a second, we noticed that there was an underground walkway. I've heard of people that have made their way through the traffic, but I think they were the lucky ones since Parisian drivers are known as some of the craziest in Europe.

We decided to pay to go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. There was a small museum inside that didn't have much to it. The views from the top were excellent though, especially since the weather had cleared up. We could watch the crazy traffic below, and look all the way up and down the Champs Elysees, from the Louvre to La Defense. The view of La Defense was particularly cool.

We walked down the crowded Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde then split up for a little while so I John could relax and I could get some pictures around the Louvre. Once we got back together, we decided to head over to the Pantheon area.

We came out of the Luxembourg station, and found ourselves in the middle of a huge protest over the planned war in Iraq. Being Americans, we decided to keep moving through the crowd and keep our mouth's shut. After watching the protest for a little while, it was really more of a parade and dance party. We also found out that the students of Paris skipped school that day as part of their protest. One of the trucks in the parade was loaded down with huge speakers blasting dance music with a large crowd of young people dancing behind it. Clearly, this was the popular place to be, so the group of actual protesters was probably much smaller than the crowd.

We went into the Pantheon for a little while, then made our way back down Boulevard Saint-Michel to a fast food place called Quick. In there, we talked to a couple of French guys who told us that the protest had actually been anti-Bush and anti-war-in-Iraq and was not anti-American, which made us feel better.

After dinner, we stopped in a nearby record store (that sold actual records) and decided to explore some of the titles in there for a couple hours. I can't even remember the name of the place, but if you can find it, I recommend checking it out.

Thursday
One of the other reasons we chose Paris was that John knew a couple of girls from UNC that were there for the semester. After multiple attempts to call them, we finally met up on Thursday at a modern art museum where they were having one of their field trips. The professor was kind enough to let us tag along as he gave the tour. He got annoyed when John reached over and tried to move an exhibit consisting of cars that had been crushed into a big cube. John is a hands-on person, so to him it was just a bunch of crushed cars, but to the professor, it was art.

When we were done at the museum, the UNC girls needed to pick up some Eurail passes to go to the Alps, so John and I followed them through the Metro system. To this day, I have no idea where we went, but we did get to see how much variety there was in the different Metro stations. Eventually we made it back to the Louvre area where we found a place with some great creme brulee.

The girls knew I was into photography, so they decided to show us a secret spot on top of La Samaritaine at sunset. The view was indeed amazing. I was able to get some cool shots of the sunset reflecting off the Seine River with the Eiffel tower in the background. I can't remember the exact details of how we got on top, but I do recall that we had to go to the top floor, then go through some random door in the back of the store. Unfortunately, it appears the store closed in 2005 for major renovations.

Friday
We decided to try getting out of downtown to explore some of the outskirts of Paris. Our Cart d'Orange passes would only take us as far as La Defense, so we went there first. It was an interesting switch from the classical architecture of downtown to the modern, corporate architecture of La Defense. It was still a worthwhile stop though, especially since we could get a good look at La Grande Arche, and look all the way down the Champs Elysees to the original Arc de Triomphe. We also saw another car commercial being shot in the main plaza in front of the Arche.

The UNC girls had recommended we check out a St. Germaine en Laye, which was one of the endpoints of the RER, so we bought tickets from La Defense out to there. Overall, it was a neat suburb, with some beautiful homes, and a good view of the Seine, La Defense and Paris in the distance.

What Didn't Work
Charles de Gaulle is an odd airport. It seems open and airy with lots of glass, but at the same time, it can be smoky, smelly, and crowded. Our first impression of the airport was actually before we ever reached the terminal. The airport doesn't have many gates, so instead our plane just parked out in the middle of the tarmac, at which point several elevating buses arrived. The buses rose up, loaded, lowered, drove to a gate, rose up, and unloaded. John and I basically agreed that it seemed like a hack.

On our first day in Paris, we went to a convenience store near the hostel to buy a phone card. The pay phones in Paris don't take change, so we had to have the card to call home and to call the UNC girls. It was about 7.50 euros to 50 "minutes." What we didn't know was that the minutes would tick off much faster depending on where we were calling. We burned through about 15 minutes with two, two minute calls home.

In addition to long distance calls, the Telecart burns faster if you place a call to a cell phone. In Europe, incoming cell phone calls are free, but that means the caller has to pay more. It's kind of an odd system, since the caller needs to know if they're calling a cell phone to know how much they need to pay. However, it did foster the rapid adoption of cell phones in Europe.

We decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower on Monday, which was a cold and cloudy day. In hindsight, I wish we'd held off until the weather improved. At the time though, we didn't know if the weather would improve, plus I think we had the mentality of getting the major things out of the way early, which wasn't really necessary. On the plus side, the weather may have kept the crowds down, but we can't be sure.

Paris basically closes at sunset during the week. John and I didn't realize this at first, so when we went out looking for pastries one evening, we accidentally wandered into the red light district near Moulin Rouge. John was almost assaulted by one of the pimps along the way because he thought he knew what John wanted. We weren't looking for that, and we knew better than to follow some guy down some dark alley. Needless to say, we returned to the hostel with no pastries.

The hostel had a small refrigerator, so we thought we'd be smart and go to the grocery store for a few lunch items, so we could make sandwiches all week. It really didn't pan out. We didn't have the proper utensils, and we never really knew what our plans were going to be. I do recommend checking out the extremely compact grocery stores though; everything you need in a tiny place.

At one point we were on one of the Metro trains, when we heard some loud American girls going on about how they found it so annoying that people wouldn't speak English to them. It made me feel a little ashamed to be associated with them in any way. Remember that even in a foreign country, there are others that speak your language, so don't mouth off as though no one can understand you. In the case of these girls, I think I would have pretended not to speak English too.

On Wednesday night, John and I decided to check out the view from Sacre Coeur. For some reason, we decided to race up the steps. This was not a good idea since I was carrying my camera gear. I managed to pull my right knee, which crippled my ability to walk for the rest of the week.

The lounge at Woodstock Hostel was sometimes very smoky in the evening. One night, someone was smoking something in there that just made my throat raw for the rest of the week. I believe the smoking laws have changed somewhat since, but just be aware that smoking is very popular in Paris.

When we were done enjoying the views in St. Germaine en Laye, we tried to walk back to the station through the woods, but we got lost and found ourselves near some kind of French military installation. We made our way along the road, which luckily took us back into town. We did not have a detailed map of the area though, so we had to wander the streets until we eventually found the RER station. A GPS (which was not as common back then) or even a compass would have helped greatly.

On Saturday morning, we got up and packed to get to the airport early. The plan was to ride the RER as far as our Cart d'Orange passes would take us, then buy a ticket for the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the train didn't stop at the last station in our zone, so we had to ride it all the way to the airport. When we got there and put our tickets in the turn-style, it wouldn't let us through. We looked around for a ticket machine, but couldn't find one. We had no choice but to hop the turn-style. Luckily, no one said anything to us about it, and we went on to our terminal.

Miscellaneous
The Metro stations are somewhat basic and exposed compared to American subway stations. For instance, all of the local utilities might be strung over the station's roof, then hung off the sides. In addition, the doors to the Metro trains don't open on their own. There's a latch you have to pull in order to open the door. Fortunately, the latches won't open the door when the train is in motion.

On our walk from the hostel to to Anvers Metro station every day, we had to walk through a children's playground. Instead of grass, it had some kind of cheap astroturf. I felt a little sorry for the kids not having real grass to pay in.

The other thing that caught my attention was that all the children speak French. Obviously, this makes sense, but at the time I subconsciously thought of all foreign languages as second languages, so it took me some time to wrap my brain around the idea of little kids speaking another language better than me. The funny part was that I could tell the kids were saying basically the same things they do in America, and that parents have to say the same things to them; "why?"; "say please", "say excuse me".

Water is not cheap in Paris. In fact, wine is cheaper than water. The French seem to have a natural aversion to drinking the water because they think there are bad things in it. This means they also don't use ice. In fact, they don't like cold drinks because they feel it goes against the natural temperature of their stomachs, and is therefore bad. Also make sure you know that there aren't any free refills in Europe.

Green means clean in Paris. The French have gone to a lot of trouble to make color-coordinate their garbage-related stuff to green. Everything from their garbage bags to their street-sweepers are green.

Stores in Paris seem to be grouped together by type. For instance, you'll find all the clothing stores together, all the antique stores together, etc. We could not determine if this was some form of zoning thing, or just the way the stores grouped themselves together over time. It was probably the latter.

Conclusions
Bring a compass just to stay oriented.

If you're going to be in Paris for a week, try to go for a Cart d'Orange if you can.

The Eyewitness Top 10 Guide to Paris seemed to serve us well.

You can cover Paris much more efficiently if you plan, but be open to random exploration. Leave unplanned time.

Don't bother trying to drive around Paris. The Metro/RER is an extremely effective way to get around.

Make sure you take time to sample the French cuisine, even if food isn't your thing.

Try to make it to the museums on the first Sunday of the month, but get there early, especially during summer.

Don't assume other people around you can't understand what your saying just because you're speaking English.

Paris doesn't always look good or smell good, but that adds to the character.

If you want to meet other people, stay in a hostel.

Cascading Mountains how-to video

2008-04-28T21:24:00.013-04:00

This is my first attempt at making a video. I filmed it using my little Canon SD800 point-and-shoot camera, so I apologize for the low quality. I used Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 to put it together. I hope you find it helpful.

Location
Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California
37° 11.959'N, 122° 12.054'W
March 17, 2008

Gear
Canon 5D
Canon 70-200/2.8
Canon TC-80N3 remote
Cokin 2 stop neutral gradient filter
Slik Mini-Pro V tripod

In a car, down by the river!

2008-04-26T23:47:00.020-04:00

The plan was to drive up to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to get some pictures of the fall color, and to just explore the area. Not everything went as planned, but I came away with some cool pictures and interesting memories in the end.

Itinerary
Depart Baltimore at 7am on Friday, October 19th, 2007, and drive through Harrisburg and Allentown, Pennsylvania, to avoid the usual tolls and traffic on I-95.

Sleep in the back of my Mazda3 somewhere inside the park.

Drive to Trenton on the 20th for a shoot on the 21st.

Gear
Canon 5D
Canon 400/5.6
Canon 70-200/2.8
Canon 17-40/4
Canon TC-80N3 remote
Bogen/Manfrotto 3021PRO tripod with 488RC0 ball head
Cokin 2 stop neutral gradient filter
Kelty Basalt backpack

What Worked
Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of rain that Friday. However, because I'd decided to stay in my car instead of a tent, I didn't have to deal with sleeping on the wet ground or packing up a wet tent.

At one point while walking along the boardwalk to Dingmans Falls, it started to pour down rain. Now, since I hadn't really paid attention to the weather before I left home, I had also neglected to bring a raincoat. Luckily I found a tree with thick, sturdy leaves to stand under. I was amazed how dry I was under there. After about 10 minutes of standing there, the rain let up just enough that I was able to walk back to the car.

Since I was spending a significant amount of time in my car due to the rain, I decided to stop by the grocery store in Milford and get some snacks. Grocery stores are often good places to find cheap food while traveling. Most people skip over them and just eat out, which is comparatively costly. As Ken Rockwell's brother says, "Most people are too stupid to be poor."

After much exploring of the park in Friday afternoon's rain, I found a good spot to park my car for the night and get some sleep at the Dingmans Ferry Access boat ramp, which was closed for the season. It was out of the way enough that I probably wouldn't be bothered, and it was close to the toll bridge, so I would be able to get to another person if there was some kind of problem.

I was particularly happy with my pictures of Dingmans Falls on Saturday. I discovered that an exposure of about 1/2 second is long enough to produce very nice looking water. I thought the exposure would have to be much longer. However, it was also important to keep the front of the lens covered when I wasn't taking a picture since there was a significant amount of spray coming off the waterfall.

On my way out of the park, I was originally going to stop by Kittatinny Point (just off I-80, no toll eastbound) before heading south. However, I decided to see if I could get good afternoon shots across the river from the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. I drove north along River/Old Mine Rd., part of which was alternating one-way. About four miles later turned onto Campground Rd. where I found a good spot to park and get access to a good part of the bank with an unobstructed view of both sides of the river. There was even a guy fly-fishing to add to the ambiance.

What Didn't Work
The weather did not work in my favor that Friday. I had planned to take the time for this trip well in advance, so I decided to go no matter what the weather report said. This resulted in clouds and light rain on the drive up, and a couple downpours that afternoon and evening. Basically it meant that I had to spend most of that Friday in the car even though I arrived at about noon.

Since I was coming from the south, I had decided to enter the park from the southern end through Stroudsburg, PA. Unfortunately, a combination of construction, rain, and a Wal-Mart led to some major traffic. Because I drive stick-shift, a traffic jam was the last thing I'd wanted to see at the end of a long drive.

In spite of the snacks I found at the grocery store in Milford, I still wanted some cheap, cooked food. The lady working the grocery store checkout directed me towards Westfall, PA, where there was (another) Wal-Mart with a Subway and a McDonald's. What I didn't expect was a Friday night football game at the high school right next to the Wal-Mart, and a parking lot full of loitering teenagers. Apparently the McDonald's was the place to be, because the line was out the door and around the corner. Luckily the Subway inside the Wal-Mart was much more tame. Still, I decided to eat in my car with my gear with so many bored, rural teenagers around.

The TC-80N3 was a new toy for me, so I decided to give it a try with some extremely long exposures of cars crossing the Dingmans Falls toll bridge. We're talking 10 minutes at ISO 400. This place was dark. After a few tries and a lot of standing around, it didn't seem to produce any usable results. The cars were few and far between and only lit up the top parts of the bridge. There was some light fog hanging over the water, but that never got much light. In the end, the dark areas came out noisy, and the cars just blended into one big streak of light.

Sleeping in the car with nothing covering the windows was a little creepy. I had this vision of someone standing next to my car looking down through the window at me laying there in the middle of the night. Luckily it didn't happen (that I know of), but I think I'll have to find a way to cover the windows next time. Psychologically, it's interesting to consider that a tent would have felt safer, even though a car is clearly more secure.

Conclusions
On the whole, this was a successful trip, especially given Friday's abysmal weather. Even the bad weather added to the memories though.

Camping in the car works, but will require some practice, and window coverings, to perfect.

Sometimes even the longest exposure can't make up for the lack of light, and will probably result in very noisy images, even at ISO 400.

The tripod contributed greatly to the sharpness of the pictures, and was well worth bringing since most pictures were taken within 1/4 mile of the car.

Baltimore to New York... by train

2008-04-26T10:07:00.014-04:00

The plan for this trip was to have a little solo adventure up to New York City by train, then stay in a hostel for the night. I'd never taken a train or stayed in a hostel in the US before, nor had I ever spent the night in Manhattan. The ideas was that I'd be able to explore the city on my own and take whatever pictures I wanted. Here's how the experiment went...

Itinerary
April 22, 2008
Depart: Penn Station, Baltimore, Maryland, train 94, 14:47
Arrive: Penn Station, New York, New York, 17:21
Cost: $87

Accommodations: Gershwin Hotel near 27th and 6th, $41

April 23, 2008
Depart: Penn Station, New York, New York, train 187, 21:05
Arrive: Penn Station, Baltimore, Maryland, 23:33
Cost: $61

Gear
Canon 5D
Canon SD800
Canon 24-70/2.8
Canon 400/5.6
Canon TC-80N3 remote
Mountainsmith Tour bag

What Worked
Took the Baltimore light rail up to Penn Station from University Center for $1.60. Make sure to get on the train marked "Penn Station." And yes, I got on the right one.

The train had two standard electrical outlets for every pair of seats. I didn't have anything to plug in, but if I had, that would have been a huge plus.

I was able to easily walk from Penn Station to the Gershwin Hotel, though the 23rd Street Subway station seemed to to be closest.

Took the subway up to 96th on the west side of Central Park to get to the reservoir, so I could get some sunset shots of the city across the water. There were a ton of runners on the path around the lake, so I had to watch out for them. Luckily, I accidentally walked across the park to the north side of the lake, which meant I could work my way around clockwise, which was the same direction the runners were going.

After the sun set, I switched the camera into Monochrome (black and white) Picture Style with a Red Filter option, and bumped up the ISO 1600. This gave some pretty cool hand-help pictures of the city at night. The contrasty red filter and the high-ISO graininess reminded me of good old Tri-X 400 from my days at Technique.

Chicken dinner for $6 at a street-side vendor at 53rd and 6th, near the Hilton. Known as The Platter. Get the rice and pita bread. I hear the sauce is good too, but you have to ask for it, which I didn't realize.

There are many drug stores in the city, mainly Duane Reade and CVS. These are enormously useful if you need a cold drink, snack, or if you forget your shampoo or allergy medication. Incidentally, the grocery stores in the city don't seem to carry many over-the-counter drugs or cold drinks, probably due to the number of drug stores.

The hostel dorm rooms at the Gershwin Hotel are co-ed. The two girls in the next bunk were in the city shopping for a week. One was an acting major from Newfoundland, Canada named Annie. The other was on a five-week tour of the Americas from Amsterdam. Apparently, the big thing right now is for Europeans to come to America to go shopping. The girl from Amsterdam kept going on about how cheap everything was since she was spending dollars instead of euros. Annie, on the other hand, was just happy to find more clothing variety since there aren't a lot of options in Newfoundland. In particular, she complained about how her underwear was the same as her boyfriend's ex's, so she couldn't surprise him. I think she will after this trip though.

I'm glad I went by Roosevelt Island, just to see a different aspect of the city that most people don't both with. I took the Subway, but the tram/cable-car looked like it would have been fun.

Sitting down and looking at a guide book makes you looks less like a tourist than standing up and looking at a guide book. If you really want to avoid sticking out, duck into a coffee shop. There are Starbucks everywhere. I used the Not For Tourists 2008 Guide to New York City with some black tape over the shiny title. Overall a good little book for finding the closest whatever. The Central Park map could have used much more detail though, and going from one part of the city to another required looking at multiple pages.

Swinging by the Guggenheim Museum was a good idea, even though I decided not to buy a ticket. The lobby/atrium is free though, and often has some pretty interesting temporary exhibits. They also have some cool stuff in the gift shop.

The Post Office at the intersection of 91st and 3rd allowed me to buy individual postcard stamps. I was able to write my postcards in the shade of the buildings outside.

There seems to be random open wifi all over the city. This worked really well with my iPod Touch, and was especially useful since I hadn't bothered to bring my laptop.

The map store at on 43rd between 6th and 7th had many interesting maps and guide books, but nothing from Liberia.

I made a stop in Bryant Park to rest on the grass and try to take some time-lapse photos. There was a surprisingly large number of people there. There was also free, open wifi which I used to browse the web on my iPod Touch while the camera snapped pictures of the crowd automatically. In the end, the time-lapse experiment didn't go too well. However, as I was leaving, I walked by the New York Public Library and noticed a great view of the Chrysler Building in the setting sun. I busted out the 400/5.6 and mini-tripod and was able to get this shot.

I happened to get onto my return train in the "Quiet Car." I thought this was a pretty nice feature, since it meant no loud conversations or cell phones were allowed. The ironic part was that the intercom seemed to be even louder in the Quiet Car than the regular car. This may have been to wake people up so they wouldn't miss their stop.

I was impressed with the consideration of the attendants on the train. When they took my ticket, they gave me a card with my stop marked on it. I then placed it above my seat so they could see that they had taken my ticket. They also used this to notify me that my stop was coming up. If I had fallen asleep on the return trip, this would have been greatly appreciated.

What Didn't Work
I got to Baltimore's Penn Station way too early. I didn't know what to expect, so I figured I'd give myself a wide margin of error.

The Baltimore light rail only seems to run until 11pm during the week, so I had to take a taxi home for $9 (includes tip). I wanted to make this trip entirely without using a car, but it didn't happen.

The Gershwin Hotel did not have full-size lockers, just small laptop-sized ones. I was able to put by bag in storage though, which worked out just as well.

I did not need to bring my own pillow, towel, or blanket to the Gershwin. This would have significantly lightened my load.

Going to Roosevelt Island in the morning to get some sunrise pictures of the city didn't work as well as I'd hoped. In particular, I wasn't able to get to the southern tip of the island which was closed for construction. From the southern tip, I would have had a much better angle of the UN and possibly the Chrysler Building.

The touristy parts of New York were even more crowded during the week than on the weekend, which was unexpected. I'm guessing this is because the number of tourists is fairly constant, but when you add all the business people that are there during the week, it gets even worse.

The Apple Store on 59th and 5th was insane. I'd been to that one before, but it seemed like there were twice as many people in there this time. Of course, it seems like Apple's market share has about doubled since I was there last, so maybe that was it.

Planning to spend the entire day exploring and taking pictures was a bad idea. I was on my feet at 7am to get some morning pictures of the city. However, my train didn't leave until 9pm. By the late afternoon, my feet were in such pain, that I couldn't even walk around for more sunset pictures. I think this had more to do with the length of time on my feet than the distance traveled.

I took the 400mm lens so I could get some "different" pictures of the city. This only partially worked. It seemed to be too long for most things in such a packed city. I think I will stick to the 70-200/2.8 in the future.

On the whole, my pictures didn't focus on the details enough, which is where NYC really is. I actually did a better job of this last time I went to the city with friends.

I got to New York's Penn Station too early as well. It wasn't as bad as in Baltimore though, since this station was much larger, took more time to figure out, and had many more food options.

Miscellaneous
I thought I was going to be a bit of a trend-setter by taking the train. I thought the train would be mostly empty. I thought I'd have my choice of window seats. I was wrong. There were many (normal) people taking the train up from DC to Philly and NYC.

The Gershwin Hotel was right next door to the Museum of Sex. Yep.

Conclusions
The Gershwin was fine as a hostel if you'd just looking for a place to sleep. Bring earplugs.

Amtrak was a great way to go to and from NYC, especially solo. Very punctual as well.

New York is in the details. Focus on them.

A medium telephoto zoom is more useful in a city than a long telephoto lens.

Pack light.

Don't overdo it on foot.

Virginia at Georgia Tech women's basketball

2004-02-12T12:00:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving in Astor

2003-11-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving in Astor, Florida.

UNC at Georgia Tech football

2003-11-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

UNC loses to Tech, 41-24.

FAU and Purdue at Georgia Tech swimming

2003-11-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

FSU at Georgia Tech volleyball

2003-11-08T12:00:00.003-05:00

Tallulah Gorge

2003-10-26T12:00:00.002-05:00

Tallulah Gorge in north Georgia.

Fall Break - Key West

2003-10-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

Maryland at Georgia Tech volleyball

2003-10-03T12:00:00.002-04:00

Georgia Tech at FSU football

2003-09-13T12:00:00.001-04:00

An amazing loss to FSU, 14-13.

Spring Break in Paris - Friday

2003-03-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

La Defense, San Germain, and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Spring Break in Paris - Thursday

2003-03-06T12:00:00.002-05:00

Cimetiere Montmartre, Woodstock Hostel, and the Seine river (from La Samaritaine).

Spring Break in Paris - Wednesday

2003-03-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

Montmarte, La Defense (from Ache de Triomphe), Garden de Tuileries, and Musee du Louvre.