Devil's Den State Park Photography
Jennifer took this picture of me last Saturday morning when we were at Devil's Den State Park:  After all the must have shots were in the bag, I spent some time experimenting with my camera on a painter's pole setup which allows me to raise the camera about 5' above my head. I may get a longer painter's pole eventually, but for now this will do. I purchased it at a yard sale several years back for practically nothing. In this shot below I'm configuring the camera, not taking a picture:  I plan to post a video on this soon, but the basic setup is a Bogen Super Clamp with a Manfrotto 056 junior head. B&H sells this combo as a kit for, at the time of this writing, only $66.50. You can clamp your camera into a lot of strange places for $66.50! :-) It's a great deal. I use the Phottix Plato 2.4GHz wireless set from Hong Kong purchased off of eBay to fire the camera wirelessly while I hold the pole over my head. Just in case, I drilled a hole through the painter's pole and tied on a string with a small metal clamp on the end which I attach to the camera as a safety cable.  The assembled contraption allow me to be downhill from the CCC Scenic Overlook at the park and get a wide-angle shot that wasn't looking up, and thereby distorted. It's not as could as it could be because the brilliantly warm sunrise light had already gone, but I was mainly just testing the setup:  A few minutes can make a big difference in light. This was shot just a few minutes earlier (on a tripod, not on the painters pole):  Labels: Arkansas Photography, travel photography
Thalys train at Gare du Nord station, Paris
I love Paris, and I think I get most excited when one of my pictures from Paris is licensed. The picture below is of the Thalys train at the Gare du Nord station in Paris. It was recently licensed for an advertising piece in the U.K. Is it drop-dead stunning? Admittedly no, but it worked for this client likely because of the combination of the clock, train in clear view (bright red at that), and the two travelers in the distance rolling with their luggage. Plus, it leaves a lot of room for text to be overlaid above and below.  A high speed Thalys train at Gare du Nord station, Paris, France. I'll soon be returning to Gare du Nord station when my wife and I take the Eurostar from London to Paris on an upcoming trip. It's officially a vacation and not a business-paid-for photo trip, but of course, I'll be taking tons of pictures as always! This will be my second time to London and fourth time to Paris. I've been doing a lot of mental planning on my shooting strategy. I have a set of subject matter I'm going to focus on that are not so much the top tourist locations: local markets and shops, shopping, etc. I've been fortune to have licensed many images from both London and Paris, but I hope to build more depth to my collection. Choo Choo Labels: Paris, travel photography
Moonscape Picture - Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Landscapes... seascapes... cityscapes... Mmmm.... I guess this is a moonscape?  Labels: travel photography
Saint Louis Cathedral, New Orleans Pictures
Last December I was in New Orleans for a couple of hours before my cousin's wedding later that day. I didn't have much time to photograph, the weather wasn't great, and my wife and I were giving my family a short tour of New Orleans. Even still, I managed to squeeze in about 15-20 minutes of picture taking around Jackson Square and the Saint Louis Cathedral. It was horrible light really, but every now and then the sun would pop through and light everything up for just a moment. I've just now gotten around to editing those images, and I came away with several that I'm quite pleased with given the limited time I had. This first one is not a panoramic as far as its dimensions go, but it was actually 7 to 8 different shots that I shot in panorama-like fashion and blended together. This was the best light I had all day, so I shot fast:  Shortly thereafter you can see that the light is already going away with a little dodging and burning I was able to pull a nice frame out of it:  Here I was trying to get a different angle:  I had a number of shots that looked very similar and also very boring and bland. I adjusted these to get them to where I wanted them, something unique and with some variety across the shots:    There are a lot of crazy people, with very boring shots, who run around screaming "don't fix it in Photoshop". Why not? I'm not a news reporter. I'm an artist. I create images, both at the point of capture and in the computer. Truth, in this circumstance, is boring and irrelevant. Especially in travel photography, which has nothing whatsoever to do with truth. The RAW files for these next two images were cloudy, dull, and otherwise rejects. I used the clouds to my advantage to add drama. Sorry, that's DRAMA. This doesn't always work. I'm using to my advantage the history of New Orleans itself and its associations with ghosts, Voodoo, scary drunk people, etc. My hope is that these shots will someday be used in a story or book where some dark, menacing New Orleans artwork is needed.   Labels: travel photography
Oahu, Hawaii Panoramic Photography
Until recently I would stitch together a panoramic and then crop it to whatever dimensions it happened to be. I've recently started cropping all of my panoramic shots to a 3 by 1 ratio. I really like the consistency it has added, even though some of my pans could be 5 to 1 or 6 to 1 ratio. The later is really too much actually. I will still shoot it as wide as possible, but then forcing myself to crop it to 3x1 makes me select the most important part of the image.    Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Napali Coast Aerial Photography from Kauai, Hawaii
Waterfalls of Kauai, Hawaii
Here are some waterfalls shot from a helicopter over Kauai. This first one has the nickname "Jurassic Park Falls", because it's the waterfall when the helicopter first approaches the mysterious island in the original movie.   One of the many amazing things about the waterfalls in Kauai is how the cascades flow one into another into another, like Namolokama Falls:  Mount Wai'ale'ale is the wettest spot on Earth. Basically, clouds always cover the mountain, and it always rains. It's also one of the coolest places on Earth you can visit from a helicopter. Cool in both ways. The temperature drops several degrees as you enter the crater as well.    This Kauai waterfalls link will take you to a search results page on my website where you can see more. You can also visit my Hawaii photography gallery. Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Waimea Canyon, Hawaii Photography
Some credit Mark Twain with calling Waimea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, but my guidebook, honest to the point of boredom, says he actually never visited Kauai. Oh well, it's still a big hole in the ground. This panoramic image shows the view from the public overlook:  To the left is Waipo'o falls:  This an aerial shot of Waipo'o Falls from a helicopter.  This shot of the canyon is one of my favorites from Kauai. I love the light and dark contrast looking down into the canyon.  You can view more of my Hawaii photography by clicking the link. Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Red Dirt = Nice Landscape Photography
One afternoon on Kauai I set off in the rental car to do some landscape photography. Along the way up Waimea Canyon Drive I came across one of the many things Kauai is known for, it's red dirt. They actually dye and sell 500 T-shirts out of just one bucket of the stuff. My guidebook, in retrospect, said "Kauai's infamous red dirt has ruined many new pairs of Nikes in its time." That, I can attest, is true! In fact, there are still red dirt stains on my Nikes to this day.  Waimea Canyon Drive is a twisting, turning road straight up. It's also a fun ride back down, after dark, and driving as fast as you can. I squealed the tires on the rental car on more than one occasion. By the way, this shot would look great with a red Ferrari digitally comped into it. If you're an automotive advertising image buyer, by any chance, give me a ring!  I had pulled over to the side of the road and immediately heard the water from this little water fall (more like a tiny drip, drip by Kauai standards): 
I'll be posting images of Waimea Canyon and Kauai's waterfalls later this week. Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Watch Your Coconuts
I finally wrapped all of my editing from Hawaii. I'll be posting Hawaii travel photography all of this week.  Caution Falling Coconuts sign at Salt Pond Beach Park on Kauai, Hawaii.  Sheraton Kauai Resort on Kiahuna Beach, Kauai. Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Is travel photography supposed to be fun?
I got back from Washington D.C. last Wednesday. I haven't blogged about it since then because I've been too tired. For that matter, I had plans to shoot some travel photography videos during the trip but I was too tired for that as well. Several people have asked me if I had a good time. I know they mean well and it's a usual thing to ask, so I say, "yes". The truth is I didn't, nor did I mean to. For me there is a difference between a trip meant for fun and a work trip. I take some trips as vacations (though I'm always shooting during them anyway), but for a dedicated travel photography trip there is rarely any fun involved, especially with business money backing it and knowing I must perform to recoup it. There is just nothing about it that is fun really with the sole exception of when everything comes together and you can create some great photographs. That euphoria lasts until the next shutter click and then it's over. In D.C. I walked almost everywhere. In fact, I think I walked more than on any other trip I've every taken, and if you were to know some of the things I've done before to get a photograph you would know that's not a goal to aspire to. I shot from sunrise to sunset every day. Most days I took a Subway sandwich back to the hotel for lunch and took a shower while my memory cards were transferring then it was back to it. Most nights I was in bed at 11 with memory cards or backups still transferring. It was HOT in D.C. for those days. Luckily, I had great weather other than that though. It only rained the morning of the day I flew home, and I think I used it to my advantage during my shooting that morning. A couple of days into it my travel injuries came back like they always do. My right calf hurt for several days. The middle toes on my left foot are still very sore. I couldn't move them for several days. The longer I walked on them each day the more the pain went away. Then there's the pain in my left ankle that first appeared after my kamikaze photo walk all the way around San Francisco, across the Golden Gate, through Sausalito, and back up the San Francisco hills to my hotel. That was several years ago. It comes back like travel's version of Santa Clause, just without the shiny bows. I got some great material though, including some of a particular subject one of my editors had pointed out for me. It's really not covered by any of the major stock houses, and I'm hopeful that those images will pay for the trip themselves and sales from the rest will be profit. It's impossible to say though. The truth is it's entirely random. Of course, that's never mentioned in the photo books but it's reality. You create the very best pictures you can, but the reality has been for me that my best pictures by any aesthetic or technical standards rarely produce well. More often it's the totally unexpected or run-of-the-mill shots. Out of all of pictures on my first trip to D.C., when I was an aspiring pro but still very much an amateur, I took one shot that has been licensed more times than any other during my still young career. I doubt it has produced more in total revenue, but it certainly has been licensed more times. There's nothing wrong with the shot, but if you were to ask me to assemble my top 1,000 photos I've every taken, irrespective of financial gain, that shot would not come close to making the list. I tried going back on this trip and making the same shot. I hoped to update it to a digital version from the original scanned 35mm transparency. It wasn't there. I thought about going back and trying again the next day, but why? Whatever magic that particular frame had has already come and gone as far, at least with me behind the lens. I don't mean to give the impression though that traveling to D.C. for a few days as an American photographer is much of a hardship. It certainly isn't, not when you're in your own country. I don't believe your senses are quite as awakened either. Working in another country is always harder but more exciting as well. I was reading Joe Morahan describe a photo safari trip to Africa in Rangefinder magazine today. I've never really known if all travel photographers work as hard as I do, or if I was just being stupid. I felt a lot parallels in Joe's statements though: A photographer's day begins long before snrise and ends well after sunset. To paraphrase the old Irish proverb, "You can sleep when you're dead." Well, I was close; I was dead on my feet. But the beauty of Africa defies description.
The trip was an opportunity of a lifetime. The costs are high, and Africa's fragile political landscape is constantly changing, rarely for the better. As a result, there is no time to waste. Shoot, shoot, shoot--plan the shoot, shoot the plan. When not shooting, I was ready to shoot--you just never know what you will see next in Africa.
...How long does it take to cull, edit and prepare a month's work? A long time if you have 22,000 pictures to review. But what a trip it must have been for those relaxed campers. I now see in print what they were viewing live and I hope I captured the essence of the safari experience A few days in D.C. is no comparison with a month in Africa of course. I identify with him though, especially the strenuous days and the feeling of not really experiencing any of a trip until you are back home. And with editing, it took me a year-and-a-half to edit my last trip to Europe and that trip was my honeymoon! I guess when you spend more time touching your camera on your honeymoon than your wife you are either mentally unstable, have an incredibly understanding wife, or... maybe both. I shot a few thousand images during my short D.C. trip. With each day I shot more and more on "Continuous High" mode on my Nikon DSLR, otherwise known as "machine gun" mode. Just trying to guarantee I got the shot I wanted, often stretching what is possible when hand-holding a camera. Culling through my images this weekend I found that I shot 4 panoramics of exactly the same scene, each about 12 shots each. In all, I shot nine panoramics at that same location plus medium, wide, and telephoto shots all within a matter of a few minutes. I don't even remember all of it. I knew I shot a panoramic or two, but nine? In retrospect, I know what I was thinking. I will shoot panoramics on a tripod around home but when traveling I often shoot them handheld. If you don't pause completely between each shot you'll have one or more frames blurred, screwing up the whole pan in the process. I've done this often. So, if it's worth shooting once why not shoot it four times? Over the years this has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn really. In short, "Shoot it to death and ask questions later." Looking back through all the pictures it's like I'm just know seeing them, where I'm not rushed and can study them. As I edit through the images, with each great shot I breathe a sigh of relief, but it's really all the missed shots and missed opportunities that I spend any mental cycles on. The shots that I got I don't really care about. Instead I think about the locations I didn't get to, when I should have gone to the trouble of hauling around a tripod but didn't, or when I should have hauled around my 70-200 2.8 but didn't, or when I should have gotten closer or gotten lower or held the freakin' camera more steady. Most of all, I think about the next trip, and how I'll plan and shoot it all so much better the next time. As a travel photographer I think that is where the fun comes in--anticipating the next trip. Labels: travel photography
Photography of the USS Arizona Memorial in Oahu, Hawaii
I recently finished up editing my photography from Oahu including these pictures from the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Hope you enjoy them.     USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii Labels: Hawaii Photography, travel photography
Venice, Italy
I recently updated the Venice, Italy photography gallery on my website. Please go check it out. This image below was created after I had been shooting gondoliers for awhile and wanted to do something beyond just a standard shot in order to capture the motion of the gondoliers and the gondolas. Fortunately, I had found a canal that was a popular gondolier hangout with gondolas passing by every few seconds. Southern Americans might equate this particular canal to their local Sonic Drive-In on a Friday or Saturday night. One of things I lucked out on was the combination of capturing the motion just as I intended and having a gondolier subject in the frame that was dressed, well, like a gondolier should be. If you've never been to Venice I don't want to spoil your idealized visions of it for you, but the truth is some gondoliers, certainly a minority, look more like teenagers at a Sonic Drive-In than gondoliers. This one though clearly has his gondolier wardrobe altogether.  Gondolier in Venice, Italy Labels: Italy, travel photography, venice
Vernazza on the Cinque Terre, Italy
Vernazza is one of the most magical places in Italy. It's one of five sea-side (cliff-side more like it) villages that make-up the Cinque Terre. It's main economy is tourists these days, but the local fishermen still go out each good-weathered morning to keep up Vernazza's sea-faring heritage.  Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy  Fishing dog resting on a boat in the harbor of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Pastel-colored buildings of the village of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy. Sunsets are unbelievable in Vernazza. This kitty has the best viewing spot already staked out.  Kitty on a rooftop int he village of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Village of Vernazza and its protected harbor on the Cinque Terre in Italy beautifully lit by the evening light from the sunset. No, it's not digital manipulation. The sunset really was this wonderful:  Sunset off the coast of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy. Sometimes you just get lucky and a fisherman has perfect timing to setup your composition:  Boater at sunset in front of the village of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Woman watching the sunset from the village harbor of Vernazza on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Vernazza at dusk on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  The Ligurian Sea off the coast of Vernazza at dusk on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Vernazza at dusk on the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Vernazza at night on the Cinque Terre in Italy. Labels: Cinque Terre, Italy, travel photography, Vernazza
Quiet Beach
I like the quiet tones and symmetry of this image. I may make a fine-art print out of it in the future.  Sandy beach of Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre in Italy Labels: Cinque Terre, Italy, travel photography
Beach umbrellas closed until next year
 Sandy beach of Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre in Italy Labels: Cinque Terre, Italy, travel photography
Bay of Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre in Italy
 Bay of Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre in Italy Labels: Cinque Terre, Italy, travel photography
Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre
 Fort protecting the bay of Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre in Italy Labels: Cinque Terre, Italy, travel photography
Leaning Tower of Pisa picture
 Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy Labels: Italy, Pisa, travel photography
Tuscan Sun, Pisa, Italy
This week's blogs will feature images from Pisa, Italy. I thought I would start things out with something other than the Leaning Tower. Below is a photo that I had forgotten I had even taken until I started editing through my images. By itself it doesn't scream "Pisa". It still needs companion images to complete the story, but for our purposes here it will serve as a preview of the great light that I had in Pisa on this day.  Tuscan sun reflected in a building window near the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) in Pisa, Italy Labels: Italy, light, Pisa, travel photography
Hawaiian Surfing Dog
This dog in an original member of The Beach Boys, Canine Chapter.  Woman surfing together with Pug dog on surfboard on Kiahuna Beach, Kauai, Hawaii, USA.  On our last morning on Kauai before flying home later that day, I got up early with plans to drive to a nearby botanical garden and get some shots of the beautiful Hawaiian flowers and fauna. Much of Jurassic Park (as well as dozens of other movies) were filmed on Kauai and at least one of the scenes was filmed in the botanical garden just down the road from our hotel. In slow motion, it seamed like, I got my photo backpack together, grabbed the tripod, and made sure to pull all the memory cards out of my laptop from the night before and then slogged down my tired body down to the rental car one last time to get some parting shots only to find... that the car wouldn't start! The battery was dead. So while I felt blessed that I was finding this out a few hours before we had to get to the airport on time, I was still very worried about getting the whole mess straightened out, whether we would have to exchange rental cars, etc. The rental car company was great though. I have to give Budget credit. They sent someone out fast to jump start it and all was good. While the Budget guy was jumping the car battery the Pug dog that you see here ran right past me like he owned the whole beach. He knew exactly where he was going! (No swimsuit either. Very confident in his dog-inity!) Then I noticed the girl with the surfboard go by and shortly thereafter saw the dog get ON the surfboard! After everything with the car was straightened out, I had to make a choice. Should I continue on to the garden and get photos that any photographer with a tripod and macro lens could capture, or take a shot at the surfing duo and hope I might get a model release? I had to give it a shot. I put on my Nikon 70-200 VR lens, walked down to the beach, and started shooting. As it turns out, a lady came up to me on the beach asking about my lens and she turned out to be a professional photographer from California. A bit later she asked me to take shots of her son and daughter who had been taking surfing lessons. I didn't mind and she was more than willing to sign model releases for me in exchange for prints. (I also provide models with the images online where they're able to order prints at cost with no markup on my part.) I was able to get some great shots of them. I might post a blog of those pics in the future. I started focusing mostly on the two kids but every now and then tried to get shots of the girl and dog. She had not gotten out of the water though, so I had given up at that point on getting a model release from her. It wasn't until I started walking back to the hotel to start packing my bags that I noticed she was paddling on her surfboard in the same direction and about to get out of the water. I waited for her to shower off and then I approached her about signing a release for me. I admit that even though I've shot plenty of people before whom I've only just met and gotten releases from them, most of the time, in fact nearly all time, I ask beforehand! It's a bit intimidating to approach a beautiful woman in a bikini who you have been photographing from a distance and explain yourself! Luckily though, she didn't mind at all, and she even mentioned she had been wanting prints of her and her dog. (Sorry, I don't remember the doggie's name.) In hindsight, I would have taken hundreds of pictures of the two of them surfing and really wish that I had done so. As I started editing the pictures I found I had a lot fewer shots than I thought, especially ones without other surfers in the frame. I suppose the lesson learned from this experience was to never assume you might not get a model release. Shoot like crazy and hope for the best. By the way, the doggie was a surfing animal! (pun intentional) Every now and then she would go out in the water without him and he (or she) would pace back and forth on the shore watching her every move! Waiting to go again! The waves would come in and he would run toward the ocean as the waves receded and then run away when the next wave crashed on the beach!  Labels: dogs, Hawaii Photography, surfing, travel photography
Stairway to Heaven
Where is the Stairway to Heaven? At the Vatican of course! It's actually a ramp. Maybe because it's easier to go down than go up? Hummm... I'll let you add your own commentary about the direction everyone is going in the first picture.  Spiral Staircase at the Vatican Museum in Vatican City, Rome, Italy.  Spiral Staircase at the Vatican Museum in Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, Spiral Staircase, travel photography, Vatican, Vatican Museum
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Here are some shots from my last trip to The Vatican that I just completed editing. It was the second time I visited The Vatican, and one of the things I brought along to Europe with me on my last trip was the super-fast, Nikkor 50mm 1.4 prime lens. I knew from prior experience that it is very difficult to get sharp shots inside the large cathedrals of Europe, and they tend to frown upon photographer's setting up tripods inside churches and telling the priests to "strike a pose". St. Peter's gets more light inside it than most others, but still it is a challenge. Even with a 1.4 lens I still had to shot at ISO 800. St. Peter's is so big and filled with so many Japanese tourists (no offense to the Japanese) that is nearly impossible inside it to get grand, wide-angle shots, so I focused on a lot of details.  St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy.  Sculpture of St. Peter at The Vatican. Vatican City, Rome, Italy.  Cobblestones in Piazza San Pietro in front of St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy.  Columns lining the facade of St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy.  Church pews inside St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy. Michelangelo was the original architect of St. Peter's. His design called for a "plus shaped" nave, but it was later extended to the longer "cross shaped" nave. The dome of St. Peter's was designed by Michelangelo, though not finished in his lifetime.  The spectacular dome of St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy.  Sumptuously decorated Interior St. Peter's basilica in Rome, Italy.  Catholic priest walking into a confessional inside St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican City, Rome, Italy.  Detail of the intricate marble floor of inside St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.  Minor cupola inside St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Michelangelo was 25 years-old when he finished this Pietà .  Pietà by Michelangelo in St. Peter's Cathedral. Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Labels: architectural photography, Italy, pictures, Rome, St. Peter's, travel, travel photography, Vatican
Back from Hawaii
My wife and I returned this past weekend from a week in Hawaii. All of my blog posts from last week were actually scheduled in advance. We spent 3 nights in Waikiki on Oahu and then flew to the island of Kauai. While this was a vacation and not a dedicated photography trip, I spent plenty of time taking pictures of course. My total for the week was 2,583 pictures but that number is really meaningless because I was in a lot of rapid-fire mode situations. The first was a helicopter tour of Kauai (with no doors on the helicopter) during which I took 600 shots trying to get something, anything, sharp. I love shooting from a helicopter though my wife only managed 4 shots with her point-and-shoot because she insisted on holding on for dear life! (Actually, considering how she is very afraid of heights I'm just proud she went at all.) My stomach was fine during the flight but afterwards I was instantly very queasy thumbing through the pictures on the back of my camera and thinking that nothing whatsoever came out sharp and usable. Thankfully though, having just completed a pre-edit checking for sharpness I'm happy to say that I did get some great shots, though there are also tons of pictures in there I wish were usable but are simply not. Lightroom 2.0 has been invaluable to me as I compared duplicates side-by-side on my second monitor to judge which one was sharpest. I also did several snorkeling "dives" with the Canon G9 in an underwater housing. My first few attempts were really horrible, but I made some progress and continued to refine my camera settings and technique. On our last full day of the trip we drop to Tunnels beach on the north coast of Kauai, and WOW was it great! The water was crystal clear with tons of fish. I still didn't get anywhere near the number of decent shots that I wanted, but I did manage to see a sea turtle and get at least 2 or 3 good pictures of it. I'll blog more about my snorkeling photography experiences soon. We had a good time, and I'll be posting pictures from Hawaii during the coming weeks.  Sunset on Waikiki beach on Oauh, Hawaii. Labels: Hawaii, Oahu, travel photography
Domes across the skyline of Rome, Italy
If you walk from the Colosseum through the Roman Forum past all of the "old stuff", as my wife calls it, and up to the top of the hill, you are greated with this view overlooking Rome. The dome in the back (middle one in the picture) is the Vatican.  Domes across the skyline of Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
Roman Backstreet
 Narrow backstreet in the Piazza della Rotonda area of Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
The Pantheon - That great big hole in the sky.
Our tour of Rome continues with a visit to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was destined to be the world's first dedicated astronomical observatory; however, the telescope had yet to be invented so the hole was left empty:  Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Do you own one of those small, table-top tripods? Do you wonder if anyone actually uses them? Well, here is one instance, a very rare one for me actually, where I kept one with me during the day and actually used it. The Pantheon is fairly dark. With one hole in the center of roof I guess they didn't feel the need to install electricity and artistic mood lighting. Originally the Pantheon was a pagan temple, or something to that effect, but a few years after the Romans killed Jesus they had a change of heart and setup a chapel inside the now Holy (pun intended) tourist attraction. The area below was roped off, so I setup my tiny table-top tripod on the floor with my large DSLR attached (which it could barely support):  Chapel inside the Pantheon, Rome, Italy. A technique which I use far more often than the table-top tripod is to simply place the camera on the floor and shoot straight up. I always keep a soft, stretchy neck strap on my camera (it's easy on the shoulders and neck) and will often put it underneath one side of the camera in order to shoot up at an angle. This next shot was a 3 second exposure. It's possible I used the table-top tripod on it. I don't really remember, but most likely the camera was placed on the floor.  Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Here are some parting shots:  Light shines through the Oculus of the Pantheon onto the decorative coffers of the dome. Rome, Italy.  Light shining into the Pantheon highlights the hollow decorative coffers that reduced the weight of the dome. Rome, Italy.  Portico and granite columns of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.  Granite column base of the portico on the Pantheon. Rome, Italy.  Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Pantheon, Rome, table-top tripods, travel photography
Pictures of The Colosseum in Rome, Italy
I'm continuing to edit, caption, and keyword pictures from my last trip through Rome. The good news is I'm half-way done with Rome. The bad news is I still have a backlog of 4,000+ images (not all from Rome) in my digital workflow left to go! Here are some recent selects of the Colosseum:  Via Sacra sign in front of the Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Some of my favorite Colosseum shots though are still from my first trip to Rome in 2004. Here are a couple shots where I first tried to eliminate all the clutter, traffic, period Roman Soldiers posing for pictures (only when paid of course), trinket salesmen, tour group salesmen, and all the other tourist madhouse "local color" that surrounds the entrance to the Colosseum:  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Labels: Colosseum, Italy, Rome, travel photography
Rome
 Piazza di Sant'Ignazio is Filippo Raguzzini's masterwork of Roman Rococo in Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy
The late afternoon light on the Trevi Fountain in Rome only lasted a minute or two when I took this photo. It certainly did not resemble anything like this when my wife and I arrived. Probably 500-800 tourists surrounded the fountain and initially it was not lit by sunlight at all. This is where it pays to just keep shooting and shooting and working angles. I was able to get a lot of shots without the crowd and some with for the wider-angle perspective. What my wife remembers most though is the Italian leather purse she bought at a shop a few feet away! Oh wait, correction, that I BOUGHT her a few feet away. Editorial Correction 8/14/08 2:13PM: Ops! My wife very quickly informed me after reading this blog post that she bought the purse and not me. :-)  Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
|
|
