Photo Traveler

Bob Krist’s Travel Photography Blog

The TSA’s War on TSA-Approved Locks.

Ironies,Legal Issues,Photo Gear,Travel,Workshops & Seminars — October 29, 2009

Goldfinger teaching Bond a lesson....

When James Bond kept taking runs at Goldfinger, Gert Frobe (the wonderful German actor who embodied the Golden Guy) delivered these words of wisdom regarding his actions:

“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times, Mr. Bond, is enemy action.”

So, that makes 6 times, what? I’ll tell you. It’s simply all-out war.

And that is how many times in a row that the TSA has opened one of my bags (secured with the TSA-approved Travel Sentry locks), inspected the contents, and then proceeded to toss the lock away (or resell it on EBay, or whatever the hell they do with the locks) and six times in a row that they’ve neglected to put in the required sheet of paper explaining that my bag has been searched, yada, yada, yada.

What are we to make of this? Hit the jump to find out.

Attention DC-Area travel shooters…

Events,Workshops & Seminars — October 24, 2009

Last call for any travel shooters in the Washington, DC area!

This Tuesday, I’ll be giving a three-hour program at the VisArts Center in Rockville, MD on the “trials and tribulations of a travel photographer.” It’s funny, it’s informative, and it’s only $25!

That works out to $8-something an hour for some primo edutainment—-that’s only about a buck over minimum wage in Maryland (hey, don’t blame me, somebody’s been trying to get that number up, but noooooo! That would be socialism).

Anyway, politics notwithstanding, it’s gonna be a great night and there are still places left at this price. By Monday, it’ll be scalper city—-why, Mick, Keith, and I have been known to draw $1 to $2 above the printed ticket price on the actual nights of our gigs! Don’t be a chump! Gather some moss and pre-register for this event!

Comments (11)

Don’t Ask, I’ll Tell…

Photo Gear,Photo Techniques —

An in-camera jpeg. Photo © Bob Krist

I have to get it off my chest…I have to come out of the closet and confess something so shameful and so heinous that it will probably cost me dearly in terms of career, family, friends, and maybe even my ASMP membership. What is this horrible secret?

I shoot JPEG.

Wait, wait, before you click off in horror and disgust, I always shoot RAW too, always. But for the last six months or so, I’ve been shooting RAW +JPEG Fine, and about 80% of the time, I’ve just been using the out-of-the-closet, er, I mean, out-of-the-camera JPEGs. Hit the jump for details on how I found myself in this position—and how it is saving my sanity.

Gourmet: Going, going….Gone:-(

Career issues,Ironies,Legal Issues — October 19, 2009

images images-1

November will be the last issue of this grand old foodie mag published by the good folks at Conde Nasty. In the 90′s (that is, last century), Gourmet was one of my best clients. Their jobs were like a rich dessert: you stayed at the best hotels, ate at the best restaurants, and were treated like a king by everyone from chefs to PR folks.

Irwin Glusker was the AD and he always made you look good in the spreads with big pictures and pages and pages per story. Ah the good old days.

Then came the internet, and with it, the corporate lawyers who decided that locking up “content” was the way to go to preserve Gourmet and Conde Nasty. So, overnight, the contract went from what was then the normal “one time use” to the following, now famous, bit of legalese:

“For these considerations, you hereby grant Conde Nast the copyright to these photographs in this or any other medium, now in existence, or hereinafter developed, throughout the universe…..”

The galaxy wasn’t enough for these guys, noooooo, they had to lock up your work throughout the universe. So just in case Gourmet launched an edition on say, the planet Rigel VII, they still wouldn’t have to pay you, the “content provider,” another nickel over the old “one-time use” Earth dayrate.

Set your phasers on stun, and hit the jump to find out how we handled those odious snippets of legalese. Read more…

Comments (13)

Last Tango in Buenos Aires

Destinations,Travel — October 16, 2009

Photo by Bernardo Galmarini

Photo by Bernardo Galmarini

——————————————————————————————————————–

Well, my time in Buenos Aires is drawing to a close. I won’t be able to share any pictures from the assignment with you until National Geographic Traveler publishes the story (in February, I think). In the meantime, I have to share these behind the scenes shots.

The shot on the left was taken at the Feria de Mataderos, a street fair on the fringes of Buenos Aires. I was shooting the street dancing when a local lady grabbed me and pulled me out to dance. It’s a quick little two-step, called a zamba, that I was able to figure out fast, so I was able to keep up. It’s always a good idea to join in the fun, at least for a little while, to break the ice with the locals.

A couple of guys in gaucho getup came up to me after this number and called me “Meeester Fred Ah-Stare!” We had a good laugh and then they let me photograph them doing their thing during the rest of the afternoon. In fact, I got nods and smiles from many of the locals after my little two-step. There weren’t many foreign tourists at this event and I guess I stood out.

But being willing to make a bit of a fool of yourself is often a way to endear yourself to the locals and a great way to get some pictures…works for me at least!

The other picture, with the tango dancer Claudia in Caminito de Boca?

Well, there’s no photo lesson there. Claudia and her dance partner were modeling for me, and I just wanted a picture with a pretty young dancer to keep Peggy guessing. Yes, we’ve been married 35 years, but she shouldn’t get too overconfident.

Actually, Bernardo said it looked more like a beautiful dancer sitting on Santa Claus’s lap than a sexy tango pose. Maybe that’s why Peggy is so confident….

So, when it comes to dancing, I ain’t quitting my day (and night) job…but I am entertaining several offers of seasonal employment from department stores and shopping malls!

Comments (12)

Stills AND Video, Stills OR Video, (and what about the Audio?)

Audio,Destinations,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel,multimedia — October 14, 2009

Hindu goddess Durga is well equipped to handle the demands of multi-media journalism. Photo courtesy

Hindu goddess Durga is well equipped to handle the demands of multi-media journalism. Artwork by sound-hindu-god-photo.blogspot.com

One thing that is really throwing me about trying to become a multimedia journalist is the fact that I’ve only got two eyes, two hands, and one slightly-damaged, but still functioning brain. However, it seems to me that the Hindu goddess Durga in the above illustration, is much better equipped for multimedia journalism. I’m realizing that you need more like 6 hands, 4 eyes, and multiple brains to do multimedia…

Let me explain. I’m a travel guy, and many of the things I witness that would make cool audio slide shows are events—festivals, dances, rituals. Or situations, as in my recent visit to the Lipizzaner Stud Farm in Slovenia, where you have a very limited (in this case, 2 hours) time to do your work. This was brought home to me a couple of days ago here in Buenos Aires, where I attempted to cover the Feria de Mataderos for an audio slide show treatment.

As any experienced shooter knows, it’s hard enough to capture peak moments with your still camera when you’re covering a one hour dance festival, or a horse race, or any event with a start and a finish. But what is throwing me is this:

How do I know when to shoot video, when to do audio, and when to just take some “pitchers?” Read more…

Comments (9)

Getting High in Buenos Aires

Destinations,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel — October 11, 2009

Photo © Bob Krist

Okay, everybody who read the headline and thought you were getting advice on scoring mind-altering substances (and I’m not talking about yerba mate, either) in Argentina, you can leave now….

Unless your mind gets altered by awesome angles and overviews of cool architecture. MIne does, and to that end I’m fortunate to be working with Bernardo Galmarini as my fixer on this gig.

Bernardo has an awesome collection of images of Buenos Aires, and he’s always researching new angles and talking his way onto new rooftops and overlooks. Like this one.

As I explained in the previous post, National Geographic Traveler doesn’t want me spilling any photos before the story runs, so I can’t show you what we shot. And this is a fresh viewpoint, so I could tell you where we are and what we’re looking at, but then Bernardo would have to do me in! He worked hard to get us up here.

So, I’m caught between a publisher and a pal, and that means it’s another stealth post from Buenos Aires. I can tell you that the Portenos are among the friendliest big city folk I’ve ever run into. It’s so refreshing, after working in some big cities where nobody wants to cooperate and everybody’s got an angle, to be welcomed by every venue we’re supposed to photograph with open arms, and usually a nice cup of strong coffee.

The strong coffee is key, as Bernardo and I, on our third straight night of shooting tango nightlife, (not to mention days shooting all that other stuff) are in serious sleep deprivation. Our challenge is staying awake in the taxis long so we don’t sleep past our destinations (although, when riding in a BsAs taxi, it’s probably best to keep your eyes closed, and your lips murmuring prayers).

Comments (10)

Sleepless in Buenos Aires

Audio,Destinations,Lighting,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel — October 8, 2009

Well, I told you it was going to be slow, and now that I’m almost a week into the assignment to shoot this incredible city, I can say it may be slow for my blog, but for me, it’s been a whirlwind.

As I mentioned (and confirmed with my editor), I’m contractually forbidden to share the pix I’m shooting here in Buenos Aires until after National Geographic Traveler publishes the story.

BUT, I’m not forbidden from sharing a production shot or two, like the above shot, of my fixer Bernardo (a great guy and a wonderful photographer) holding my “SB 800 on a stick” to shoot the action at Salon Canning tango milonga…taken at about 2 am on a freakin’ Tuesday night!

Yes, the Portenos tango to a different drummer from this old Norte Americano. I like to go to bed at about 11pm. By midnight, I’m a pumpkin.

But this is my schedule here: Up at 9am (yes, I hear you calling me a lazy S.O.B., but just read on) Download, caption and backup until 12 noon. 12 noon to 8pm=shoot the restaurants, shops, hotels, sites, street scenes, twilight scenes, required for the story.

Eat dinner and try to lie down at about 9:30pm. Try to sleep…until midnight! Then get your old Norte Americano keester out of bed and go out at midnight….and shoot tango, jazz clubs, dance clubs etc. until 3-4am. Then go to bed for real, and start the whole cycle over again at 9am the next day.

Oh yeah, it’s a glamour profession…if you’re 19-year-old lounge lizard!

BTW, that pole Bernardo is using is a RODE mic boom. It’s not as easy to use as the paint pole that the Strobist and McNally folks have been raving about (it has, like, 5 sections) BUT, and this is a big but, it breaks down to under three feet, as opposed to just over 4 feet of the painter’s pole.

That means it will fit into normal sized rolling duffles. The 4 foot model requires oversize baggage, and that means excess size and charges, and that means less money to spend on tango shoes! I’ll keep you posted….

Comments (15)

It’s gonna be a little slow around here…

Audio,Destinations,Travel,multimedia — October 1, 2009

I’ve been going like a banshee (or as we say colloquially, like a McNally) lately, and I’m heading down to lovely Buenos Aires today for a couple weeks to shoot a city story for National Geographic Traveler.

So I’m going to be up to my eyeballs in shooting, captioning, renaming, backing up, and trying to find attractive couples, waiters, waitresses, chefs and all the beautiful people for those all-important service photos!

I’m really excited about the job, because it includes producing a couple of audio slide shows about Tango. Could be good! Biggest challenge for me on this whole story? Staying up late enough to shoot all the legendary nightlife.

I’m an old Norte Americano—-you know, the type that goes to bed at 10pm and gets up at 5am, whether I have to or not. My lounge lizard days are behind me…oh, who am I kidding, I never had an after-hours life. Which is probably why I’m still married to my first wife. (And we still like each other…). Go figure.

In the meantime, I’ve posted a little audio slideshow about the Lipizzaner Stud Farm from my trip to Slovenia here. It’s not landmark photography, but for two, two-hour visits with no special access, it’s the best I can do.

For contractual reasons, I won’t be able to post any pix from Buenos Aires as I go along, but maybe I can do some text posts….oh, yeah, that’s a good idea for a photo blog, eh? Posts with all text and no pix?

Well, blame the lawyers.

So I’ll try to give you something between now and Oct. 16, but if it gets slow, check in again after that….I’m going to keep up the 2x a week posts as long as I legally can!

Comments (5)