Plan Ahead and Adapt

Last week featured several of the more amazing sunrises I have seen in many a year.  One morning in particular I remember red skies and the cloud cap atop Mt Rainier and the calm waters of Puget Sound.  I was on a bus heading off to the ferry at the time and could not even grab the iPhone in time for a quick photo.  Some moments are just that way.

This morning featured fog and the potential for some amazing skies yet again.   And this time I was prepared with my Nikon D300.  Setting out a bit before sunrise, I drove to the spot where I had witnessed the red sky/Rainier view the previous week.  The fog was of varying intensities and shrouded a passing ferry.  Mt Rainier was clearly blocked by clouds or far distant fog.  So the image I had planned for was clearly not going to materialize.  But there were other photo opportunities that presented themselves, for instance a ferry passing through the fog.  I'm partial to ferries and fog (witness my blog "header"), so this was a natural shot for me. 

But my favorite and most unexpected shot of the morning for the march (or float) of the ducks.  There was little color due to the fog; I went even further and de-saturated the image in Lightroom and then cropped it into more of a panaroma to strengten the horizontal layers of the photo.  It becomes almost a compostional study, rather than a wildlife or landscape.

         

There was a reason that I went out this morning, camera in hand. To take photographs. Only the subject was different than I had planned. Adapt! And, maybe next time, a red-capped Mt Rainier may be the subject. Or not.

iPhones and Camera Liberation

Advise usually given to those striving to be a "Photographer" with a capital "P" is to carry a camera with you at all times - you never know when THE image/scene/event will come into view.  Easier said than done, especially when your camera is an SLR (single lens reflex) that doesn't fit in your briefcase and weights more than you would like to carry to and from and within everywhere. 

Point-and-shoots have been the "back-up" option, usually much smaller and lighter, often fitting into a shirt pocket or purse (no, I'm not into purses personally).  Resolution and lens quality suffer, of course, but sometimes better than no camera at all.  I've never been too thrilled with the results of my shots using a point-and-shoot, even when I've post-processed the digital files in Photoshop or Lightroom.  Too much effort for too little results.

Then I discovered the iPhone.  OK, lens quality, when compared even with point-and-shoots, basically sucks, as does the 3mp resolution.  But, since some/many/most photos these days are shared via e-mail or blogs or via Facebook, the smaller images and file sizes are just fine.  And with the amazing ease of exposure adjustment (such touch an area of the screen to darken or lighted the exposure), the results can be suprisingly good.  And using a program such as PS Mobile (a free Adobe app!), other simple and creative adjustment can be made.  And then sent off to the 4 Fs (friends/family/fans/followers) with suprising speed and ease.

"Sunrise Through Downtown Seattle"

Will I rely on my iPhone for travels and fine art creativity?  No, of course not.  I still want the multitude of adjustments (shutter speed, aperture, white balance, ISO speed, etc.) and lens options that my SLR gives me.  But as the carry-at-all-times option, I don't leave the house without my iCamera.  Oh, I mean iPhone (I think I can make calls on it - need to check!).

Two Alternative Ways to Travel

I've been following two bloggers recently doing two out-of-the-ordinary trips.  The first, Nicolas Rapp, is intent on driving around the world (with a few water crossing enroute).  He's been on the road since November and is current in Costa Rica, having experience several vehicle breakdowns enroute.  His blog could use some spell and grammer checking and his photos are OK, but its still an interesting endeavor he's undertaking and I'll probably keep follow his blog as he travels onward.

Andrew Evans, who left DC on New Years Day, is traveling to Antarctica by bus.  Interesting concept (again, a water crossing or two or three enroute).  He's already made it to Costa Rica and is now onboard a National Geographic cruise ship to Panama.  His blog, naturally, is hosted by NG (he's a contributing editor to NG Traveler).  The writing is crisper and the photos a bit more illustrative and the trip, clearly, a bit faster paced.  Not that I envy days and nights in a row on a Greyhound, let alone a Guatemalan chicken bus.  But, to each his/her own - but I'm always envious of folks on the road.   

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2009/12/introducing-the-bus2antarctica.html

http://transworldexpedition.com/

Dawn's Changing Light

Its already getting a bit lighter a bit earlier now that the winter solstice has passed and on this morning dawn coincided with my mind-wandering time.  Looking out our upstairs window, the light was pretty amazing.  And, instead of just sitting and staring, I dashed for the camera and starting taking what "I knew would be" wonderful photos.  And then I noticed that there was no memory card in the camera.  The universe speaks in its own way sometimes.  But, also believing that the universe was not telling me never to shoot again, I inserted a memory card, went out on the balcony, and captured the passing moments of changing light.  First the purple lights of dawn across Port Orchard Bay; second, the golden tones of sunrise through a Twilight-inspired forest portraying motion and apprehension; and finally the blues of the sky overhead in an abstract as dawn makes way for day.  All within a ten minute period, all from basically the location, all of the same sky - only different!      

The Traveler's Inner Journey

"Yes, the desire to go traveling is not always about wanting to reach place X or Y.  It's about making a particular change in ourselves.  The journey we really require is inner.  Therefore, it would be good if people in the travel industry gave a little recognition to this."  Alain de Botton, from an interview by Frank Bures on WorldHum. 

This is the sentiment that I convey, though maybe not as eloquently, in my Travel Planning workshops.  Its the "Why" of travel, rather than just the "Where."  Its what makes a trip satisfying and beneficial, what makes us want to keep traveling and willing to put up with the really-in-the-long-run-minor hassles that attempt to discourage us in our travels, but really have no effect on "our journey."  Journey On!   

http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-interviews/interview-with-alain-de-botton-a-week-at-the-airport-20091031/

Taking Photographs that Move You

It was quite clear the moment we arrived at Del Rey Beach that I was in my element.  Midway between Astoria and Seaside along Oregon's northwest coast, Del Rey is a flat, sandy beach fronting the wild Pacific Ocean.  Tillamook Head is visible to the south; fields of golden dunegrass top the sand dunes; and the relentless waves keep coming.  I hadn't taken "non-family" photos in a while, but within moments of arriving, I was doing nothing but.

There is no place closer to heaven and the Spirit than at an ocean beach (IMHO).  The winds blow, the waves come, the sky goes on seemingly forever.  At locations such as Del Rey, there is little human habitation in sight (especially when looking out to sea!).  The power of the waves, breaking off shore and then rolling up the beach in unpredictable ways, is awe-some and mesmorizing.   

Arriving there close to sunset meant an everchanging palette of sea and sky unfolding before me.  By re-framing the shot, I was able to portray the ocean as one of power and might or as a place of seemingly calm solitude.  The colors, too, enforced the themes, with the golden hues connoting royalty and power, while the blue tones denoting solemnity and quietude.

 

Two memory cards later, with the sun down and the sky ever darkening, it was reluntantly time to move on.  I returned to the Pacific the following two days at different times of day and different locales, always driven to photograph yet again.  Sometimes we need a little push to get back in the photographic mode.  When you need that push, going to the place where you can be in "Your Element" is a sure jump-start.  The ocean is one of those places for me.  Find yours.