Photo Traveler

Bob Krist’s Travel Photography Blog

New Hope: In Character—Reception Timelapse

Destinations,Events,multimedia — August 30, 2010

The reception for New Hope: In Character was Friday night at the New Hope Arts Center and we had a large and very responsive crowd.

Besides the local luminaries, many of whom were on the wall AND in the crowd, several old photographer friends showed up, including the Geographic’s Mike Yamashita, NY Daily News sports shooting ace Linda Cataffo (we started at The Dispatch together, but the years have been far kinder to her!) and The Record’s Peter Monsees (we’ve known each other since grammar school), The Intelligencer’s Rich Kennedy, and freelancers Jerry Millevoi, and Arun Paul.

Here’s a web gallery of the show. The prints, some as large as 30×40, were made by Aspen Creek Photo. This is the consumer lab division of West Coast Imaging. We had to keep the costs down on this job and WCI’s excellent custom B&W printing was not in the budget. But Rich Seiling and the Aspen Creek crew did magnificent work on the consumer prints that just looked great.

I’d love to take credit for the good looking files those prints were made from, but it was the  Nik Silver FX Pro plug in that made those flawless B&W conversions so easy, even I could do it!

The prints were mounted by another crackerjack outfit, Philadelphia Photographics. Jack and his crew turned the job around quickly and perfectly….and they even delivered!

I can’t guarantee it would be the same for you, but photographing friends and neighbors was one of the most rewarding projects of my career…and one huge benefit was that all I had to do was walk two blocks to work—no metal detectors, no baggage handlers, and no crowded overheads! It’s the lowest carbon footprint travel photography I’ve ever done…..

Is Travel Photography Dead?

Career issues,Destinations,Ironies,Technology,Travel,multimedia — August 5, 2010

www.whattheduck.net

I just read Andrea Pistolesi’s post A Requiem for Travel Photography, (first brought to my attention on Tewfic El Sawy’s excellent Travel Photographer blog).

For those of you who may not recognize his name, Andrea is one of the busiest and most talented travel shooters around, with a string of publication credits that would choke a horse. If I had a quarter for every assignment I lost to Andrea over the years, I’d be very well off—this guy can shoot (and write, in English, even though he’s Italian!).

I highly recommend taking a read of the whole post, but to summarize, Andrea posits that travel photography as a profession is gone, primarily because most of the publications that made assignments are either gone or severely cutting back. But he ends with a very cogent and insightful observation:

“I keep thinking that the world has a lot of stories worth to be covered photographically. The real task is to modernize our scope, create new ways of distribution (using the new technologies, think of the iPad for example), reach the young reader.

For the Travel Photographer the time has come to drop the “Travel” label. Everybody has a camera in his pocket today. The photographer is somebody able to see in a personal, strong way, and pass the message on..

Wow, Andrea’s analysis really hits a home run (or, more culturally fitting, scores a big goooooaaaaaal). To find out what this might mean, hit the jump.

Read more…

In Praise of Pea Soup

Destinations,Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,Travel,Workshops & Seminars,multimedia — July 19, 2010

Tanzania Photo Safari Redux

Audio,Destinations,Ironies,Technology,Travel,Workshops & Seminars,multimedia — June 29, 2010

I had all but given up on the video footage I shot with my D300s when leading a photo safari in Tanzania last February for National Geographic Expeditions. Although I used a beanbag and did my best, the ever so slight movement of the Land Rover, even parked with the engine turned off, were enough to give most of my clips a little shake. A shake that became painfully obvious on my 30″ Cinema Display!

Of course, I didn’t notice it at the time on my LCD—I thought everything looked solid.  Oh, the lessons learned (see the post–Prides Cometh Before a Fall)

I’m working with the son of a friend this summer, trying to learn Final Cut Express, and together, we tried to salvage what we could from my clips, posted above. As regular readers know, I’m currently struggling with video and wondering if I might be better off forgetting the whole thing and sticking to my strong suit, or plunging ahead.

Plunging…hmmn, unfortunately, that’s still the operative word when it comes to my video chops so far. But I’m not giving up yet!

I spent last weekend shooting video of the first ever Jazz Academy at Solebury School, one of the projects of the Jonathan Krist Foundation.

We had students from inner city Camden and bucolic Bucks County side by side all weekend, learning jazz from some great pros like James McBride, George Laks, Brent White, Marlene Rice, Devyn Rush, Jamal and Nasir Dickerson, Hassan Sabree, and Dave Bachart.

Next week, I’m teaching my travel photography class up at the Maine Media Workshops….it’ll be great to be back in New England, teaching a subject that I know something about!

What’s wrong with this picture, er, I mean, this video…

Audio,Career issues,Photo Gear,Technology,Workshops & Seminars,multimedia — June 9, 2010

www.whattheduck.net

In the midst of the packing and last minute details for an assignment I’m leaving on tomorrow (note to self: no more blog posts about Photoshop or plug-ins…whoa…you guys are tough, tough, tough), I took stock of my upcoming shopping list for gear, gadgets, and software.

And none of it was for still photo stuff.

I should be upgrading to CS5, but all my cameras are covered by the version of Adobe Camera Raw in CS4 so what I’m really getting ready to plunk down near four figures to upgrade is to Final Cut Studio from Final Cut Express, and not from CS4 to CS5.

And yes, I’d like that tiny new 85mm Nikkor DX  VR macro lens, but what I’m actually buying next is a fairly pricey little Sennheiser wireless mic setup. And I’ve been hitting the videography blogs with alarming regularity.

What the hell is going on? Hit the jump to find out just who, or what, has hijacked my brain.

Read more…

May Gear & Gadget Update

Audio,Destinations,Photo Gear,Technology,Travel,Workshops & Seminars,multimedia — May 27, 2010

Large 220V Powerstrip

Compact Magellan Powerstrip

Kodak Zi 8 pocket camcorder

Wide angle auxiliary lens for Zi 8 (caution: soft corners ahead!)

Polaroid Pogo Printer

Bob’s Maine Media Travel Photo Workshop, July 4-10

Jumping through Hoops

Photo Gear,Photo Techniques,multimedia — May 20, 2010

I’m just in the process of ordering the big (up to 30″x45″) prints for my community portrait project, called New Hope: In Character.  I’m working with the great folks at Aspen Creek Photo and West Coast Imaging to do the printing, and I’ll be writing about them soon.

Our exhibit will be up for the last two weeks in August at the New Hope Arts Center, and it’s going to culminate in a big street party outside the center where we bring the prints outside (more on that as the time approaches).

Of the fifty-plus of my neighbors that I photographed, only two pictures will run in color. One of them is of Rachelle, a young lady who went to school with my sons and is currently a professional dancer. One of her specialties is the hoop dance, with a hoop that has built in LED lighting.

It’s just too cool to see her do her thing, and to capture the movement of the lighted hoop, plus Rachelle, we did some slow synch flash, using the same basic broad light I’ve discussed before (see the jump for a picture of the studio setup).

But we turned off the overhead lights and blackened out the windows and went for a long (1/2 second) exposure in the dark, and then the strobe fired to provide the light on her.

It’s a dynamic look, and when I was cycling quickly through the shots in Photo Mechanic to pick the one frame to print, it had a kind of flipbook effect.  So I grabbed all the jpegs from the session and made the timelapse in Quicktime that you see above.

For a look at the studio setup (one 4×6 softbox at a 45 degree angle, basically), hit the jump. Read more…

The Great Video Dilemma…Redux

Audio,Career issues,Destinations,Ironies,Photo Techniques,Technology,Travel,multimedia — May 4, 2010

It would have been cool to have a video clip of these Shinto priests processing out of the temple after a ceremony, but while my video rig wasn't ready, my camera was! Photo © Bob Krist

Well, my marathon trip is coming to a close in beautiful Istanbul. And one other thing (besides the weather) has been bugging me on the trip.

Whether it’s a speed dating tour like the one I’m currently on, or a more in-depth assignment like my recent city profile of Buenos Aires for National Geographic Traveler, I am having a devil of a time fitting in the time to shoot video, let alone collect audio.

I’ve seen such stunning work from younger PJs who are combining both in beautiful stories. Maybe it’s because I’m from a pre-multi-tasking generation, but I really find it difficult to do both, or all three. I’ve written about this before and it hasn’t gotten any easier since.

I think part of the reason is that, while video-enabled DSLRs produce stunning-looking video, shooting video with them still presents, shall we say, ergonomic challenges.

First you put on your Zacuto viewfinder, then you put on your mic, your mixer, and your follow focus rig, and by the time you do that, the subject you want to video is three towns away, and maybe even retired. When, I wonder, will Nikon or Canon come up with a camera with the same chip, that takes the same lenses, but is actually designed to shoot video and not jerry-rigged to do so?

For my speculation on that and other video ironies, hit the jump.

Read more…

One Day in Armenia

Audio,Destinations,Photo Techniques,Technology,Travel,multimedia — May 2, 2010

Our first day in Armenia was pretty much of a washout, thanks to the weather that has been dogging me for seven weeks!

But we did have an amazing second day….We visited the haunting and beautiful St. Geghard monastery, where the choir gave us an a capella concert in one of the monastery chambers cut whole out of the mountainous rock in 4th century.

Then we visited Garni Temple, another ancient structure, where I recorded a man playing the traditional duduk in the ruins. We had lunch at a village house where a woman was making delicious flat bread in an oven in the ground. When she pulled one out, she would fling it like a frisbee towards her helper, who would then ferry them out to us hungry visitors.

And after that, we visited Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the “vatican” of Armenian Orthodox church for a tour of its treasures. In between, we caught some lovely scenery and even a glimpse of Mt. Ararat, said to be the resting place of Noah’s Ark. Not bad for a day’s touring.

These charter jet tours are not photography specific in their design or itinerary, and we move fast. And dare I say it, I’ve even taken to grabbing a shot through a bus window (go ahead and laugh, but that’s the way these things go!) as we whiz by. There’s a couple of those shots in the above multimedia. Thank god for clean bus windows, and the active setting on the Nikon VR lenses!

Next and final stop: Turkey!  I don’t know if I’m more excited about seeing Turkey (a first for me) or getting home….well, I do know, but I ain’t talkin’.

I will, however, keep you posted.

Portrait Session Timelapse

Audio,Technology,multimedia — April 15, 2010

Along with Rich Kennedy, whom I mentioned in an earlier post, my friend, portrait photographer Arun Paul, was also helping me out during the weekend of pro bono family portraits we did for area military families during my New Hope portrait project. While he was busy helping me with the lighting, the posing etc, he also had his D700 shooting a long time lapse sequence which appears here.

Arun is a multitalented guy—-great shooter, and wonderful musician. He even wrote the music that accompanies the time lapse. It also looks like he did some kind of cool B&W action on the pics in the movie.

We had a great weekend photographing the families, and we were very touched by how appreciative they were. It was win/win all around and I bet I’ll be doing it again in the future….feels too good to stop.

Oh, and speaking of feeling good, Photo Traveler was recently cited by Photography Colleges as number 28 in the Top 100 Travel Photography Blogs. It’s a very interesting list of blogs they’ve assembled and I know I picked up a few more bookmarks just reading through it.

I always wonder about these type of ratings, though. For instance,  the number one rated blog was that of an Austin, Texas family portrait photographer who had no travel photography element to his blog at all, as far as I can see.

But that’s okay.

Last year, in another rating of travel photography blogs, I came in behind a blog called “Olga, The Traveling Bra.” So, clearly, I’m moving up in the world;  from lingerie to family portraits. Next year, who knows, I may come in behind a nice boudoir shooter!

Older Posts »