Photo Traveler

Bob Krist’s Travel Photography Blog

Drop, and Give Me….How Many????

Destinations, Events, Lighting, Photo Techniques, Travel, Workshops & Seminars — February 26, 2010

I’m heading off to San Francisco, blizzard gods willing (update: they’re not, I’m holed up in an airport hotel watching it snow after a two hour battle up here because my flight showed “ON TIME” until I pulled into the airport!), to teach a seminar for National Geographic Traveler with my buddy Ralph Lee Hopkins. I’m going to hang a few extra days and shoot some stock.

Okay, stop laughing. Travel stock of San Francisco? Good luck selling it. Yeah, yeah, I know. But I’ve never really shot there, so I’m doing it for the therapy value. Peggy and I lived in the Bay Area when we were first married and I was in acting school (at the American Conservatory Theater), and I hardly ever get back and I always wanted to shoot it. So who cares if it never sells? At least that’s what my therapist says….

So the blog will be a little quiet and I thought I’d share a couple more shots from the New Hope portrait project. Like the one above of Dan and Katie, proprietors of New Hope Fitness. Now that’s what I call strength training. This shot was a lot easier for me to pull off than it was for Dan. All I did was use the regular big softlight I wrote about in the previous post.

A more difficult challenge came lighting Adele, the Ghost Lady of New Hope. Adele gives ghost tours of town, and you really need a scorecard in this town because it’s full of them, from as far back as the Revolutionary War and beyond.

To get the basic “ghoul” lighting, we took the big lightbox off the stand and aimed it up from the floor. That was a cool effect, but the lantern candle wasn’t quite cutting it, and we had a shadow of her arm across her face.

We bypassed the candles (truth is, I knew they’d never be bright enough) and instead put in a little Morris mini flash slave in the lantern to simulate the lantern light. Then all we had to do was balance the light from the box hitting all the black of her outfit with the light from the slave hitting her face—-piece of cake.

Only took twenty minutes until we had enough ND material in the lantern to provide a good balance. Then we had to work out a position where the highlights in Adele’s glasses weren’t too distracting (couldn’t get rid of them altogether—-the studio space we’re shooting in is said to be haunted too, and the ghost just wouldn’t let me have an easy time of it!).

But, thanks to Adele’s patience and good relationship with the spirit side, we got off a fun shot.

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Doctors, My Eyes Have Seen the Light….

Career issues, Destinations, Events, Photo Gear, Photo Techniques, Travel, Workshops & Seminars — February 18, 2010

I had the very great privilege of being interviewed by Jason Odell and Rick Walker, the well-known Image Doctors over on the Nikonians site last Sunday. After we three agreed that it was a fitting reward for old married guys to be able to spend Valentines Day discussing the latest camera gear and talking tech, rather than composing love poems and taking our better halves to a Nancy Meyers movie (hey, I already went to see It’s Complicated….and I loved it!), we got onto the meat of the interview.

We talked a lot about shooting travel and the two new lenses I got to shoot for Nikon recently. The Docs are great interviewers and have been doing this popular podcast for a number of years now.

Of course, choosing to start my Valentines Day hanging out with my new friends probably did nothing to further my cause in persuading “she who must be obeyed” into actually letting me buy the new glass I tested (and an FX body or two).

So I don’t know how smart a move that was….every time I start talking FX (which really only started since I shot that recent gig in Miami—-damn 24mm f/1.4, I wish I knew how to quit you), she brings out the chiropractor bills and the receipts for my Aleve usage to date….not to mention the dismal state of the business.

And speaking of seeing the light, my good friend Brenda Tharp is running a tour to one of my favorite places, Iceland, this summer. I’ve spent a lot of time up there over the years for National Geographic and other pubs, and it is a spectacular location. And you couldn’t find a better leader to show you around than Brenda. It’d be a great place to shoot that new wide FX glass I’m craving….Check it out…

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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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Little Big Man

Destinations, Events, Lighting, Photo Techniques, Workshops & Seminars — November 1, 2009

Photo © Bob Krist

Well, I’m just wrapping up a weekend workshop at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs for National Geographic Traveler and it was a wonderful experience for me and my co-teacher, Dan Westergren. I think the 40 students enjoyed it too!

We certainly worked them hard enough. Saturday afternoon, after a full day in the classroom, we visited the Garden of the Gods. Dan led the landscape shooting group and I had three dancers from the Seven Falls Indian Dancers group as models for a lighting demonstration.

Young Micah was a favorite with our group. After the sunset and as the dusk light was moving in, we put him up on a stone bench, threw an SB 800 on a stand and diffused it through an umbrella, placed at about a 45 degree angle on the left, and did a little slow synch flash.

We got the students up for a predawn shoot at the hotel this morning. When you get skies like this, you don’t mind getting up at Oh Dark Thirty! But then we had another full day in the classroom doing more critiques and programs. The energy level and enthusiasm of the students carried us all right through to the end of the day.

Photo © Bob Krist

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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!

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Picturing Palouse

Destinations, Photo Gear, Photo Techniques, Travel, Workshops & Seminars — July 29, 2009

Photo © Bob Krist

Off for a bit of R&R with Peggy. We visited her family out in Colorado, and now are making a long lazy loop around the northwest. First stop, the Palouse. I was here 10 years ago with one of my sons, and we had a great time, and made a few decent pictures. This time, the weather is a lot more hot, hazy, and cloudy, so we’ll see…

And of course, this time it’s digital, including some black and white infrared with my Lifepixel-converted D70. I get up early, she sleeps in, we tool around the countryside in the evenings…no assignment, no editors, no pressure, not bad! The area looks like Tuscany, but, um, the food and wine (if you can find wine) are a lot different:-).

Last night on Steptoe Butte (where the picture above was made at sunrise this morning, between passing squalls), I met another photographer named Jack Lien. I recognized his name immediately from my research, because he runs a lot of photo tours here. He didn’t recognize my name (so he wasn’t being nice out of professional courtesy) but that didn’t stop him from offering a ton of tasty advice on some of his favorite routes in the area.

It’s great to meet such a generous shooter. A lot of people in his position would be guarded, especially since he makes a part of his living showing folks around. Just based on my brief interactions with Jack last night and today at breakfast (we’re in the same motel), I’d bet his photo tours of the region would be first class. If you’re thinking of exploring this photogenic area (and you should, cuz it’s gorgeous!), you couldn’t do better than tagging along with Jack.

We’ll be here another day or so and then on to Montana. I’ll keep you posted.

Photo © Bob Krist

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High Dynamic Holidays

Destinations, Ironies, Photo Techniques, Travel, Workshops & Seminars — July 5, 2009

I’m just back from teaching a week long workshop at Maine Media Workshops, where I had a class full of energetic, talented, and dauntless students. It poured rain EVERY day of the workshop, but my crew was tireless in making the most of the situation. I learned a lot from them, and will pass on a few of those things in upcoming posts.

In the meantime, I wanted to get something patriotic, albeit late, up for the holidays, and this truck was by the side of the road as I drove home today (and, of course, since Murphy rules the universe and the workshop was over, the weather naturally turned gorgeous!).

Now, I know I’m probably the last photo blogger on the internet to post an HDR image, or at least something resembling one, but I’m sharing this truck pic as an illustration of the pitfalls when a software-challenged, reality-based editorial shooter who got “D’s” in art starts messing with reality!

I know this about myself, but in another example of the triumph of hope over experience, I recently forked over for two programs to mess with HDR, Photomatix Pro and Topaz Adjust , and swore to myself that, by god, one day I might even learn to use them. Right now, I just move the sliders up and down like a chimp playing with levers in a cognitive lab test and it’s fun, not to mention time consuming.

Just what I need, especially since most of my clients won’t touch a heavily manipulated image. But I wanted to see what all the HDR fun was about.

Actually, Photomatix has an “Exposure Blend” mode which is like a more reality-based HDR, combining images of different exposures in a very real-looking, as opposed to “HDR-cranked,” way and could actually be a useful tool for taming contrast in certain situations.

In fact, a good buddy of mine, the great, Philly-based AP shooter George Widman, recently used this mode on a commercial shoot for a hotel, and raved about the ability to get inside/outside detail in room shots without using lights. After seeing his results, and how natural they looked, I’m going to give Exposure Blending, if not HDR, the old college try. I’ll keep you posted….

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When the “best” camera may not be best for you…

Ironies, Photo Gear, Photo Techniques, Travel, Workshops & Seminars — May 11, 2009

Here’s a phenomenon I’m encountering more and more often these days on photo trips and workshops.

A well-heeled photo enthusiast (usually a middle-aged guy, not unlike myself—except, um, for the “well-heeled” part) shows up with tip top photo gear (i.e. two D3’s, 14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm zooms, all the big f/2.8s, maybe a macro or fast prime or two, possibly a flash).

Before every stop on the tour or venture out of the workshop, he asks me, “what gear will I need today?”

When I gently point out that “clairvoyancy” does not appear anywhere in my resume, and stress the need to be prepared for anything, I get the lament “that’s too bad because I don’t want to carry the (fill in the blanks) if we’re not going to need them.” And something always gets left behind, and whatever you leave behind is what you’re gonna need. Yes, folks, it’s a drag to carry your whole kit if you’re not going to need it.

It also stinks not to know when the stock market will spike or tumble, which tollbooth line will move the fastest, or whether or not the Knicks will cover the spread in tomorrow’s game (well, okay, that last one is pretty much a slam dunk “nope”).

The point is, you can’t know in advance what you’ll see in most travel situations. So the question you have to ask yourself is this: which photo gear is better? The heavy “pro” outfit, half of which you tend to leave behind, or the smaller “amateur” outfit that is light enough to take with you and have ready at all times?

This photo below, for instance, would never have been made if I had a D3 instead of a D90 with me on Ibo Island in Mozambique. For the reason why, hit the jump.

Three spots left in Maine

Travel, Workshops & Seminars — April 28, 2009

Just heard from the folks at the Maine Media Workshops that there are only three spots left open for my June 28th-July 4th digital travel photography workshop. Great time to be in Maine (although the sunrises, like this one at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, are early and the sunsets late that early in the summer…but the lobsters are juicy!). Check out the details here.

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