Photo Traveler

Bob Krist’s Travel Photography Blog

Tailor-made Multimedia

Audio,Career issues,Technology,Workshops & Seminars,multimedia — December 29, 2009

While the tips for the camera bag contest keep pouring in, and the judges continue with their evalutions, I wanted to point you to a cool little multimedia project about George de Paris, tailor to the last six or seven American presidents. This site not only gives you the behind the scenes stuff, but also has some clever interactive flash games where you can “dress the president” with different suits, etc.

This multimedia package is a project from a bunch of students in the American University masters program in Interactive Journalism, my middle boy Brian, who works as an online editor for documentaries, being one of them. He sure is having fun, and in his spare time, he’s trying to teach an old dog (me), new tricks (Final Cut!).

We’ll be announcing the bag winner on New Year’s Day, but not too early, so party hearty and have a good and safe one!

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Photo Traveler Holiday Camera Bag Giveaway!!!!

Destinations,Events,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel — December 23, 2009

Okay, a number of emails came through about the Scrooge-like tone of my last post on photo careers (hey, all I can say is, “don’t shoot the messenger.”) and also about my Nutcracker post, questioning the Homer Simpson lookalike reference. You think I would joke about something like that????

So to quell any thought that I might be making this stuff up, I’ve posted the latest author portrait that will run with my next book for Lark Publishers, on the Power of Moment, just to prove that I wasn’t kidding about being more Homer than Nureyev. As far as the photo career stuff goes, well, just ask any recent j-school graduate (God speed Tiny Tim!). But I’ll be writing more about that stuff in the New Year. Let’s try to enjoy the holidays!

"Springfield Bob" has a LowePro bag to give away!

Speaking of which, thanks to the generosity of the folks at Lowe Pro, I’ve got a brand new Outback AW300 to give away. This is the waist pack that I use, which I alternate with another slingbag.

So I thought I run a contest of sorts. I’m going to send this bag to the poster with the best travel photo tip to show up in the comments section of this post by midnight EST, December 31st.

A couple of ground rules. First, you have to live in the 50 states….no, this is not American jingoism. I simply don’t want to deal with overseas shipping and customs.

Second, it has to be a tip that concerns travel photography, not just travel. So all those cool ideas you have about finding cheap hotel rooms and good airline seats etc. you have to save for another blog contest.

If we actually get more than one entry To handle the onslaught of entries, I’ve assembled a panel of the judges who are fellow professional traveling journalist/photographer/video types of my acquaintance. (If I make them judges, then they can’t enter!)

They’ll stay anonymous so nobody knows who to get mad at if your tip doesn’t make the final cut! (And I’m staying out of it altogether). They’ll be looking for originality and real-world usefulness. In the case of similar tips, we’ll count the one posted first.

(Even though it may take me a while to approve posts, they’re all time stamped. And posts have to be approved to appear just to stem the huge flood of spam posts we get—with the effort these spammers put in, it’s pretty clear to me that selling counterfeit prescription drugs and pianofortes (?) are the growth industries of the coming decade)

So have a great holiday, and send us your best travel photo tip….who knows, you may start the new year with a cool new camera bag!

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A coupla old white guys, sitting around talking….

Career issues,Ironies — December 20, 2009

www.whattheduck.net

If you’ll excuse this post’s headline wordplay on the similar-sounding title of a well known play, I wanted to point you towards a post on the blog of editorial photographer David Wells. David is a consumate photo essayist, and although we’ve never met in person, I’ve been a longtime admirer of his work, and now of his really thoughtful, well-written blog and excellent podcasts as well.

Well, somehow we got talking via emails about the old days, and that’s a darn dangerous topic for guys of a certain age in our biz. Because it gets us thinking about the time when the print medium was not regarded as a geriatric basket case, clients had budgets, and photographs (not to mention photographers) couldn’t be crowd-sourced on Flickr and sold for pennies by the bushel on iStockPhoto.

But as David wisely points out, nostalgia is for creative sissies (and I’m paraphrasing here, because David is much more eloquent than yours truly!), and the Darwinian concept for survival as an editorial freelance photographer is the same in the 21st century as it was last century: adapt or die!

I think the problem many old timers and every newcomer is having at this time of flux is this: “adapt to what, exactly?”

Yes, there really is no clear-cut new model to replace the old paradigm. And that, dear reader, is the rub, if the dozens of emails I get from kids and late-career changers wanting to break into the business are any indication. It becomes very difficult to advise anybody getting into this business who doesn’t already have the thirty year headstart that I and many of my fellow dinosaurs currently enjoy.

Hit the jump to continue reading one mastodon‘s musings on 21st-century photo careers. Read more…

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Les Flics du Photoshop (aka The Photoshop Police)

Ironies,Legal Issues,Photo Gear,Travel — December 17, 2009

Step away from ze Wacom Tablet!

There’s a movement gaining traction in the French Parliament to require advertisers who use Photoshop to enhance a photograph to disclose it in writing or face big fines!

Ooohh la la, wouldn’t that be a kick? Leave it to the French to shake the foundations of our culture to the very core.

(And those foundations are?)

1. The inalienable right to bare arms–our Michelle doesn’t need any software help but I can’t vouch for Ms. Bruni, because her husband certainly did.

And:

2. The right to tart up advertising photos in Photoshop.

You know what this means, right? It means job growth in the photo industry!

I already have my application in for a position as a detective in the Photoshop Gendarmerie (“You airbrush it, we will crush it” is the motto I’m proposing for the force).

I can’t wait to say “step away from ze cloning tool and keep your hands where I can see them” in my New Jersey-accented French.

Um, and, I’d just like to say that I’m a people person and I’m willing to relocate, you know, move to Paris, wear a trenchcoat, smoke Gauloises, affect a world-weary shrug and sigh as I smite the offenders with huge fines, and do close examinations of the live model’s proportions compared to the photo of the model.

And you thought travel photography was a dream job? Mon Dieu! Not compared to this!

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Keeping on your Toes, Philadelphia-Style!

Audio,Destinations,Events,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel,multimedia — December 14, 2009

Photo © Bob Krist

I just posted an audio slideshow about the Pennsylvania Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker in Philadelphia and boy, did working on this really put me in the holiday mood. You have to love the dedication and the skill levels of professional ballet dancers…if I ever get reincarnated with a body more like Rudolph Nureyev than Homer Simpson, I would love to move with such power and grace… but as far as this life goes, all I can say is, “D’oh!”

I was impressed with the talent and discipline of the kids in the cast as well….what a cool childhood memory they’ll have working in this gorgeous staging by the Pennsylvania Ballet at Philadelphia’s beautiful Academy of Music.

For tech stuff, It was done with 2 D90′s and a D300s, ISO 800-1600, Automatic White Balance, and 12-24mm f/4, 17-55mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8VR, plus a little 35mm f/1.8, 10.5mm f/2.8, and 85mm f/1.8. This show is running, in a smaller size, on National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel blog too.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go have a doughnut and practice my plies and jetes!

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Ken Rockwell shut me down…

Ironies,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Technology — December 10, 2009

courtesy www.whattheduck.net

Wow, I had no idea what it was like to be one of the popular kids….until Ken Rockwell put a link to one of my posts on his blog. I’m a fan of Ken’s analyses and advice, and apparently, so are thousands of other folks!

Because once that link appeared, this little blog was immediately swamped with a 400% increase in traffic, which caused my hosting company to shut down my site. I had a little shared server which was plenty to handle my normal traffic, but it just melted down at the onslaught of Rockwellian readership.

And all it took was the immediate payment of triple my normal yearly fee to get the bandwidth I needed to stay up. Oh fifteen minutes of fame…. nobody told me you’d be so costly!

All of this because I admitted to shooting (and occasionally even using) JPEGs along with my NEFs. It’s clear to me that file format and raw processor choice is only a slightly less controversial topic than global warming, health care, or Apple vs. PC (wait, wait, is there still even a question about that last one:-)

It’s clear that you guys love techie posts, like Don’t Ask, I’ll Tell and What’s in The Bag, and are not so much on “state of the biz” or “what I’ve been doing lately” posts. That’s cool.

In an effort to keep some of you coming back to visit now that I’ve actually got room at the inn, I’d like to point you to a couple of older techie posts that answer a lot of questions raised in the comments and emails generated by those other two posts.

First, the question of what else I pack and take besides the camera bag: check out this post and this one too. If you’re interested in audio gear for multimedia, take a look here.

I’ll have more tech posts coming up but I wanted to try to keep some of you guys here by pointing you backwards a month or so. Because, truthfully, most of what I’ve got coming for the next couple of weeks are witty think pieces (he says modestly!)….oh, and an audio slideshow featuring beautiful ballerinas…shot in NEF (but not in the raw)!

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2010 Spirit of Place Calendar is here!

Destinations,Travel — December 7, 2009

photo © Bob Krist

We are expecting the just took delivery of our annual calendar, Spirit of Place. Finally! This is a calendar of worldwide travel photography that I produce every year as a promotional piece that goes to clients and friends.

This year, though, we’re doing two things differently.

First, the calendar is all black & white infrared images. Usually it’s all the bright, saturated color pix that you’d expect in a calendar. But I’ve been amassing a nice collection of worldwide imagery in black and white infrared, and since I’m the publisher, photo editor, and the main client for the project, I said screw conventional calendar wisdom, I like these B&W’s so let’s go with them! (It’s good to be the client…I’m not used to wielding this kind of power!)

Second, we ordered some extra for sale as a fundraiser for the Jonathan Krist Foundation. The calendar has become very popular over the years and folks are always asking buy extras for gifts etc, so this year we thought we’d oblige.

All proceeds (not just net proceeds) will go to the foundation and its projects; bringing much needed wells to African villages, and funding music programs in underserved American schools where music has been cut from the curriculum. These were two of my late son’s charitable activities as a student leader, and the foundation basically carries on that work.

We’re not set up for e-commerce on my website anymore, but if you’re interested in a copy ($25 includes shipping), drop me an email (bobkristphoto@aol.com) with your phone number and somebody from our vast organization will call to get your credit card info and address, or you can send a check for $25 made out to the Jonathan Krist Foundation to : 10 Old Mill Road, New Hope, PA 18938. Be sure to tell us where to send it.

CORRECTION: My CFO has just informed me that we haven’t been able to take credit cards for awhile now (shows how much I pay attention), since it was costing us more in maintenance fees than we were making in sales in our vast e-commerce operation. So the only option to get a calendar, alas, is to send a check to the foundation. Sorry about that!

Here’s the back cover:

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Take two tablets, but don’t call me in the morning…

Career issues,Ironies,Technology — December 6, 2009

I know, everybody’s just quivering about what Apple is going to do with the tablet. I love my Kindle 2 as much as the next guy (probably more—-I really adore that thing for travel), but leave it to the Brits to put the whole tablet thing in perspective and make it easier to swallow!

Watch the video above, and then tell me why it’s better than this, pound for pound, or in our case, dollar for dollar?

Yeah pen-touch interface…you go boy!

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Yo, Guido! You goin’ down the shore??

Destinations,Ironies,Travel — December 4, 2009

JerseyShore2

Oh, my poor New Jersey; state of my birth, view out my back window. Getting slammed again by the mainstream media (MTV—yes, don’t kid yourself, it’s totally mainstream) in the form of yet another reality show depicting garden variety, Garden State stereotypes. First, it was the horrible harridans of Ho Ho Kus in Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Now, it’s Guidos and Guidettes going to the beach in Jersey Shore, premiering this week on MTV.

Already, there are anti-defamation groups calling for the show to be pulled. If those groups happen to be from Jersey themselves, you know they’re gonna make it happen because, um, they’ll know where the kids of the MTV execs go to private school and, well…..I’m just sayin’, is all.

Of course, I can “just say” because I am a born and bred Jersey boy. We’ll slam our own state, thank you very much. We don’t need no metrosexual, Viacom suit who commutes to Manhattan from Park Slope to do it for us.

I’m not going to say that the Shore doesn’t have its fair share of Jersey stereotypes, but if you’d like a more balanced view of this fascinating, oft-maligned region, you couldn’t do better than picking up one of these:

Now, I don’t want to put any ideas in MTV’s head, but if they bought one of these fine volumes for everybody in the afflicted anti-defamation groups, wouldn’t that be a wonderful PR gesture (and, er, by “PR,” I mean public relations) during this holiday season?

In fact, they should probably buy a copy or two for every member of the cast and crew and anyone else even remotely associated with the production (and get some for those New Jersey housewives over on Bravo too, while you’re at it).

What’s that you say? Isn’t that my book? Why yes, as a matter of fact it is! Aren’t I blowing my own horn?

Naw, I’m just sayin’ is all…..

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What’s In the Bag, Lately

Ironies,Photo Gear,Travel — December 1, 2009

Note: Hit the movie start button above to empty the bag!

I’ve been updating my Keynote presentations for next year’s series of National Geographic Traveler Photo Seminars (coming soon to a city near you!) that I present with my colleague and good buddy Ralph Lee Hopkins. While working on the “what’s in the bag” section, I came to the blinding realization that I’m pretty much using small, variable aperture zooms as my main glass for travel assignments these days.

This is something I swore I’d never do, because I loved my f/2.8 fixed aperture zooms as much as life itself. Of course, I am also the person who was quoted at a seminar presentation years ago as claiming that “I’ll switch to digital when they pry the Nikon F100 from my cold, dead hands….”

So the takeaway lessons? Stuff happens, things change, small lenses get sharper, VR gets better, and sore backs get older. Oh, and also; I have a big mouth into which I insert my foot on a regular basis!

For a rundown of what I’ve been carrying for the last year, and what I wish I could add to it, hit the jump. Read more…

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