Photo Traveler

New Hope: In Character—Reception Timelapse

Bob — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:10:44 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

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…..

If the NRA taught travel photography….

Bob — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:07:53 +0000

Don't click this, it's just a screen grab!

….they couldn’t do any better than Geographic shooters, and all around wags, Cary Wolinsky and Bob Caputo did in this short piece. Talk about being shot out of a cannon (that’s cannon with two “n’s”), they launched their new blog, Pix Boom Bah, with this wacky video.

The site looks like a place where humor and high production values will help teach basic photography concepts, served up by these two veteran Geographic shooters (and fledgling standup comedians!). Finally, photography has its own mini Monty Python troupe!

Nevada’s Wisdom, Where’s Jim, Stephen’s High Jinx, Joe’s Swami….

Bob — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:28:44 +0000

Some of my friends and colleagues have been sharing some great information lately.

Nevada Weir, adventure travel photographer extraordinaire, shares a great post: The 10 things she wished she knew before becoming a professional travel photographer and the 10 things she’s glad she knew. Take number three in the “glad she knew” category:

I knew that I had some great traits for a traveler: I can handle alcohol; I can sleep anywhere; I have an “iron stomach”; I have a bad sense of smell; and I remain very calm in times of stress or uncertainty. All very useful for the solo traveler.

Funnily enough, I have all those same traits (especially the alcohol-holding abilities) EXCEPT that I do go to pieces in times of stress and uncertainty….but I’m working on it, sometimes even without the alcohol part!

To find out where Jim Richardson has been parking his fedora,why Stephen Alvarez craves getting high above all things, and why Joe McNally won’t confess to a swami, hit the jump.

I was wondering where Jim was as I often try to hit (and indeed have a link to) his Working Photographer blog and it seemed that he hadn’t updated it in months.

So I gave him a call to commiserate on “blogger’s block” (it’s just like writer’s block, only you don’t lose money if you don’t write, because nobody pays you anyway!), only to learn that Jim is far from battling blogger’s block, he’s just moved his blog to National Geographic’s site.

So if you’re missing Jim’s insights, head on over to the new site to get your fix.

And Stephen Alvarez, one of my favorite Geographic shooters, has found the ultimate toy for photographers. It’s not a camera or lens. But it’s guaranteed to get you high.

Trouble is, these things cost more than my car is worth (yes, I drive a cheap car, but it’s not that cheap). I’ve been looking at something similar, but I can’t justify $9 grand for something I’d probably crash the first time out. But we can dream can’t we? A nice late summer’s night dream…

And finally, my buddy Joe McNally is afraid I’ve gone all swami on him, and that he won’t have anybody to confess to….not so, my son, your old Father Bob is always here for you!

Samples with the new AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

Bob — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:42:45 +0000

Photo © Bob Krist

Nikon announced several new lenses today, one of which I got to play with a while ago.

Of course, I knew that an announcement was forthcoming, I just didn’t know when (because like the husband, the photographer is always the last to know).

In fact, If I hadn’t gotten a nasty email from a Czech photographer this morning who absolutely hated one of the pictures used in the official Nikon web announcement (namely, mine!), I would have never known the lens was launched.

Ah yes, there’s nothing quite like getting a new orifice torn while you’re enjoying your morning java to really jump start your day!

Unlike my critic, however, I was blessed with the opportunity to play with a prototype of the 28-300mm for a couple of days out in San Francisco last February.

I have to say that this lens, along with the venerable 18-200mm Nikkor, has completely turned my head around when it comes to the viability of a variable aperture uni-zoom as a professional tool. This one, in particular, blew my mind and spun my head around 360 degrees…(think Linda Blair in The Exorcist!). I couldn’t find a downside to it.

It’s sharp end to end, not too big or heavy, and ergonomically pleasing to use. It features a zoom lock, which is important because, while it’s not overly large for what it is, it’s a substantial piece of glass, and I highly recommend keeping the zoom lock on while you’re walking around. You can read about the specs here and also see the full-sized samples here .

You know I’m not too technical (they had to loan me an FX camera, a D700, to shoot with) but I can tell you that this is an awesome piece of glass. You literally could shoot a whole job with this baby with no compromise that I could discern (although I’m sure someone in, um, the Czech Republic might be able to!)

The VR works well and makes up for the F/5.6 at the long end (although, as a regular user of the 70-300mm VR on my D90, this is no surprise, or hardship, for me). If I were an FX travel shooter, this lens would be in my bag (paired, most likely, with the 16-35mm f/4 VR).

Man, that would be a combination (throw in the 24mm f/1.4 and the new 85mm f/1.4 for available light and bokeh issues, and you’re in FX travel-shooting heaven, my friends! Four lenses that can do it all). But if you could only carry one lens for your FX explorations, this would be it, no doubt.

Here’s another frame of a very cool performance artist called Chi Energy, whom I bumped into while shooting the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco:

Photo © Bob Krist

Hit the jump for more of Chi and San Francisco with the new lens…

Photo © Bob Krist

Wide and Tight

Bob — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:29:35 +0000

Photo © Bob Krist

Tech info: D90, 18-200mm

One of my favorite ways to use a wideangle is to move in really tight on a subject, getting as close as I can to it (without being pecked, kicked, slapped or arrested) and have it fill one side of the frame, while letting the background fill the rest.

It’s a great way to create a strong, storytelling picture of inanimate objects or people (or roosters). You just have to be careful, with people, not to get so close that you distort their features (unless you want to).

Here’s another example, using one of the Gorgon heads at Magnis Lepta in Libya as an anchor for the composition:

Photo © Bob Krist

Tech: D70, 12-24mm

Or this shot of the Place of Refuge on the Big Island:

Photo © Bob Krist

Tech: D80, 12-24

Most of the time, the side of the frame I place the subject on depends on which way he, she, or it is looking. You always (well, almost always) want the subject looking into the frame (don’t ask me why, it just feels right).

For the Hawaii shot, it was a gray afternoon, and it wasn’t twilight yet, so I set the WB to tungsten, orange gelled my SB 800 flash (which was being held by my brother Gary, who was the writer on the piece, and fired through my little portable handheld umbrella system). I underexposed the background by about 2 stops and ramped up the flash till it looked right.

So move on in with the wide angle for stronger compositions….but be careful not to ruffle any feathers!

Terrorists sick of being treated “like photographers….”

Bob — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:05:13 +0000

This just in: In England, terrorist organizations have hit out at the police crackdown on citizen journalism, which has led to radical extremists across the country being treated just like common photographers. Oh, the humanity!!!!

Don’t believe me? Why not? I read it on the internets, so it must be true:-).

http://newsarse.com/2010/08/06/terrorists-sick-of-being-treated-like-photographers/

Is Travel Photography Dead?

Bob — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:44:51 +0000

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.

Nobody needs more shots of the neon-festooned hotels in Miami's South Beach, but a story about a cool character who lives and works there, like muscian Leo Casino, might find a market in the new media environment. Photo © Bob Krist

It’s finding the stories in our travels and a personal way of telling them, that may help us all survive in the new media market. And it sure jibes with my experience. A lot of travel photography I see (and have done myself on occasion) lately is trophy hunting more than story-telling.

Like the photo tours and cruises, where the leader takes the group to all the best spots so everybody gets “the shot.” Or going and nailing the skylines, the icons, etc. that have been done before (and yes, we try to do them better, but sometimes, in the older professional travel photography business paradigm, you just needed them).

I know that my last few months have been spent grappling with new media, trying to learn the new grammar of visual storytelling with moving pictures.

It’s all brought me back to wanting to tell stories, like the picture page spreads I did on local characters in Jersey City and Hoboken for The Dispatch back when I was a fledgling news shooter in the mid-70′s, rather than shooting single iconic photos that have been done before.

Problem is, there’s no clear market for these stories, local or exotic…. yet. But hopefully there will be, because the net is very niche, and because the billions of pictures of every place from the Taj Mahal to Monument Valley out there being licensed or sold outright for pennies, combined with the dearth of editorial outlets, really have doomed the old paradigm.

And I’m hoping, but not entirely sure, that the new paradigm might include a pay-to-play, decent-money-for-decent-content, business model.

So besides learning a new way of telling visual stories, I’m also going to try to go for a new paradigm in my own travels. Just like the Slow Food movement has taught us to slow down and really eat, I’m thinking of Slow Travel—-go fewer places, stay longer, and dig out the stories of the people who are in the place.

That doesn’t mean I won’t accept the run and gun assignments that have been a career staple (I say that knowing that although no photo editors read this blog, I should cover my kiester just in case one stumbles upon this post… Yes, Mongo have camera, will shoot fast for food and mortgage money!).

So, like Andrea Pistolesi, I’m hoping that professional travel photography (and photographers!) don’t need a requiem just yet……maybe just a major makeover!

New and Old Friends

Bob — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:02:01 +0000

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of catching up with some old friends, and meeting some new colleagues, on a couple of projects I’ve been working on these last few weeks. I’ve learned a lot from these guys and I recommend hitting their websites/blogs for some excellent inspiration and instruction.

Reznicki Rules–I’ve known Jack Reznicki for years and long admired his people photography, but I had never heard him speak until I caught him at a recent conference. Wow, his talk was funny, informative, and just loaded with terrific images! He is one of those rare shooters who not only makes great pictures, but he’s able to break it down and teach the process as well. His books and website are highly recommended. http://www.reznicki.com/

Dynamite Dave–Veteran sports shooter and speedlight maven Dave Black is a delightful guy, major talent, and great teacher. He regularly runs “Workshops at the Ranch” which are always popular. I had a chance to watch Dave at work recently. Although Dave is famous for his sports photos (and rightfully so) I love his feature work and the stuff he’s done with lightpainting and speedlights, especially at Arlington National Cemetery….haunting and beautiful. http://www.daveblackphotography.com/

Corey is Cookin’–I also recently met Corey Rich , and he is a one man visual dynamo as well as an articulate teacher. Long known for his outstanding adventure and extreme sports photography, Corey has made the transition to video and has made it with a bang. I admire him not only for his eye, but for what he’s had to climb (hint: El Capitan, for one) to get that eye in the right place at the right time! http://www.coreyrich.com/

In Praise of Pea Soup

Bob — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:15:17 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wicked Good Workshop Week in Maine

Bob — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:16:35 +0000

Just finished up my annual Maine Media Workshop class, called “Digital Travel Photography: A Sense of Place,” and it was a great week. I had 13 diverse and talented students from as far away as New Zealand, and by day two, we all felt like family.

Everyone was pushed beyond their relative comfort zones in photography and broke new ground in their development as visual storytellers. I learned as much as the students did, and went away envying their talent and great eyes.

I’ve been teaching up here for about 20 years now, and it never ceases to amaze me how students can surprise me in a place I know like the back of my hand.

So hit the jump for a gallery of the student’s work, including the above shot of Marshall Point lighthouse from our Kiwi classmate, Lottie Hedley.

Anne Wishard caught this stunning aerial view of a sailboat coming into Camden Harbor….it was her first time shooting aerials!

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Barry Smith made this gorgeous portrait of some kids enjoying a hot summer day in Rockport.

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Claudia Colety captured this delightful moment on the street in Camden as a youngster gets an eyeful and earful.

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Eighteen-year-old Colleen Hogan, our youngest classmate, managed to capture both mood and energy in this twilight view.

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Jenn Schorf made good use of a long lens and soft light to make this working portrait of a yachtsman stowing sails.

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Veteran shooter Jerry Zimmerman caught this lovely scene on a sunset windjammer cruise.

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Texas-based newspaper photojournalist Joe Duty captured a high five (or is it a high ten?) between a crew member and her pup on another windjammer cruise.

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B&H Photo’s own John Faison took my class and caught a portrait that rang true. John was doing double duty, repping B&H and taking the class, so he was a very busy man.

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Guidebook publisher John Harries made this stunning view of the bridge in Belfast on a foggy, rainy evening.

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Multimedia producer Marj Kleinman caught a classic working sail moment in a heavy fog.

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This relaxed environmental portrait is part of a picture story Peter Thorne did about this violin maker.

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Steve Arthur made good use of a wideangle lens when he made this twilight view of Marshall Point lighthouse.

The class may be putting up a Flickr gallery of their whole final slideshow….watch this space for the announcement!