Category Archives: Travel

Touristy Haze

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Have you ever looked at something vast, like the Grand Canyon, or Cologne Cathedral, and thought “WOW”, only to have your pictures turn out “Blaah”?

One reason is haze. Grand things are big things, and big things involve distance, and distance involves haze. And haze makes for “blaah” pictures.

Unless you make that haze into a benefit. Make lemonade out of lemons. Like here:

London is hazy, foggy (what else is new), but by placing a sharp object in the foreground I have made this haze into a benefit. The haze now accentuates the foreground object and makes it look extra sharp. At the same time, we no longer “blame” the photo for having haze in the background. This is a trick, in other words, to have the viewer “allow” haze.

Easy, no? Use any foreground object – preferably, of course, one that is relevant to the photo’s setting. But it can be as simple as your travel companion, your car, whatever – and you’re done!

 

A few snaps

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Today, just a few old images. Why? Because I am printing, for an art council awards ceremony on October 10, where I will be selling some of them.

But since this is an educational blog, let me add at least a couple of words of explanation to the shots.

Julius Caesar (not “Ceasar”!) at the British Museum in London:

I got close and aimed up in order to get rid of distractions.

That takes us to Rome and the Pantheon:

I laid down on the floor to get the shot. I do not care what I look like.

And since we are under Rome’s domes… to the next one:

St Peter’s Basilica’s dome. High ISO, since no flash is allowed, of course. And best shot from the gallery half way up the dome. A lineup, but worth it.

Off to Sweden: Stockholm; old Stockholm to be precise (“Gamla Stan”):

The thing here is to balance light in the dark street with the sky and reflected skylight. perhaps bracket. And to wait for the street to be empty.

Not empty: the royal palace and its guards.

Here, the trick was to get close enough to crop out other tourists, cars, etc, and yet not to be bayonetted. And – to get the right light (onto his face, with the sky in his helmet).

ZAP! We are in Melbourne, Australia, and the backlit morning fog is dancing around the city’s tall buildings. All I had to do is avoid flare (remove any filters, beware of window reflections) and expose accurately.

Not -zap – we are in New York, at the Chelsea Hotel:

That calls out for B/W, as does the reception desk:

Nothing to do except high ISO, snap, and leave before being challenged. Either that or just ask for permission.

And one final ZAP – back to London, where Big Brother watches:

And to leave just as the cameras swing towards you (yes, they do – eerie).

That was a quick world tour, wasn’t it? And that is what photography does: take you to different worlds. Take you back there long after you were there. Time travel. If I can perhaps paraphrase Mad Men’s Don Draper:

Your camera isn’t a camera, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again.

Word.


The Telling Details

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Travel photo tip, today: often, it’s the little things that make the photo interesting. The telling details, as I like to call them. Not just the big things, the Eiffel Towers of the world.

Can you spot what I mean here? What is the telling detail?

Yes, the man.

And here, the Telling Detail is the Kosher McDonalds sign – because it was a Tel Aviv airport, a few years ago.

And the telling details here are the Hebrew on the Coke, and the Middle-Eastern dishes on the menu:

And the “Big Brother is Watching You” dystopian cameras at Paddington station – a far cry from the cuddly bear in wellies:

More travel info to come. And a tour: Wales, next year, 10 days with me teaching photography. Details soon, but keep the dates open: 20-30 June 2014. 8-12 students only, and a guide, and me teaching!

 

Bail me out

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When you travel, it is fun to do themes. Trees, say, or doors, or whatever fits the location.

Whatever fits the location – and there’s the secret: ask yourself that., and you are half way to a good picture series already.

What fits – which in Old Las Vegas is, of course, Bail Bond brokers. Here’s just a few, from the other day:

And that picture of a thriving industry took just a drive through: Looking at these, it seems that all the citizens of Las Vegas do is get jailed and get bailed out.

Yes, as you know, I have this too, but it’s only one small part of Vegas:

While this is needed, the Bail Bond pictures speak to me more. Sometimes you see more about a place when looking at detail than you would looking at the “big things”.

 

The Seven Benefits To Wide

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A lot of my teaching involves lenses, and lens choices. Tough choices, especially when you cannot just “bring them all”, for example when you travelling.

For travel, my favourite lens, as you know, is the extreme wide angle. “Wide angle” for me in this context means 16-35 on a full frame camera (10-20mm on a crop sensor camera); used usually on the wide side (16mm, for me; 10mm on a crop sensor camera).

Yes, the first reason is obvious: a wide angle lens allows me to “get more in”.  But this “pedestrian” reason is not at all the main reason I like it. First there are three additional “creative” advantages:

  1. I get nice diagonals.
  2. I can easily introduce depth (“close-far”).
  3. The wrap-around feeling that is so good for environmental shots – which is what travel shots often are.

There are three practical benefits, too:

  1. A wide angle lens is usually smaller  and lighter than a longer lens.
  2. I can shoot with slow shutter speeds without blurring the image.
  3. It is easy to get very extended depth of field, even at low “f-numbers”.

Now you see why I like wide angle lenses. “It’s like you’re there”:

___

Did you know I can teach you the ins and outs of your specific camera? Come to me for a short 1-2 hour session and we will fully set up your camera; I will teach you its menus and its custom settings; you will learn its quirks; and I will answer all your questions. Any camera type/brand; $125 per hour.

 

Families, and what precedes them (weddings)

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Why do I love to shoot weddings and families?

Because we live to love. We live a short time (although my son Daniel, when he was perhaps nine years old and I said “life’s very short!” instantly responded “No it isn’t: it’s the longest thing you’ll ever do.”)

In any case, capturing personality and life events is one way we can be immortal. Look at this kid at a portrait shoot I did yesterday: four different looks in a few minutes. Happy and open; death stare; typical teen Facebook pose; and cool. If you were the parents, would you not love immortalizing your daughter this way?

And just think at the excellent pictures mom and dad will be able to project onto the wall at the time of her wedding (or more likely by then, holographically project in front of each guest).

Talking of weddings… I just got back from Jamaica, and my mission there was to tell a story. Not just to get the standard wedding shots – the ones you might get when you hire a local resort pro – yes, those too, but so much more: the story of the entire trip. Smiles. Moments. Love. Beach. Fun. Friends. Outings. Jamaica. Airports. Buses. The entire trip. One of the bride’s best friends (and bridesmaids) just responded to teh slideshow I put together:

What an amazingly great job on the video Michael! I LOVE the pictures!!! I laughed and I cried! I flashed back to the great times we had on the trip…and it made me wish I was closer to my friends! THANK YOU so much!! Amazing, amazing, amazing job!!! 🙂

And THAT is why I shoot destination weddings: I met great people and I made a difference to them by enabling them to remember and relive this life event forever.

And that of course must include a “b-roll” of pictures that include:

  • fun.
  • events (like “the plane ride”)
  • background, to show the environment.

Like these:

Most of these were taken at 5:30AM on the day of departure. All of these are extra to a “normal” wedding. No local wedding pro will every get you anything close to that. So if you want a wedding trip to remember, bring your own photographer.

So when you make a trip:

  1. Tell a story! And to do this:
  2. Look for markers – moments in time that mark a transition, like airport arrival; climbing up the waterfall; leaving; entering the bus; that sort of thing. Every time a new phase starts.
  3. “If it smiles, shoot it”.
  4. Look for anything funny and capture it, too.
  5. Carry the camera when you think you will NOT need it. Some of the best pictures arrive without warning.
  6. Look for background, the “B-roll”, to remind people “what it was like”. Signs are good. So are views. The food. The detail; the little things you notice when you arrive. Shoot them; later, sort out of you want to use or not.
  7. Sort into the right order later.
  8. Make a slide show – or make multiples, maybe 5 minutes each. Background and “Ken Burns effect” are good.

That’s what I do when I shoot a destination wedding.

 

Tropical Paradise.

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If you are thinking of a destination wedding, I say two things:

  1. Do it – you will never regret it. The beauty is amazing, and “all in once place just metres from your room” is great for a relaxed wedding. Marry in a beautiful resort and your images will show that beauty.
  2. Bring your own photographer. He will be able to capture your wedding better, but he wil also capture more than just the wedding, in a way no local hotel photographer can ever do.

Jamaica was fabulous. The people, the wedding…

A few tips.

In terms of light, I did several things. Mainly, create colourful backgrounds by exposing for those backgrounds, and then use flash to light the foreground; as in the image above.

But I also did some with blown out backgrounds: look at the background:

The first has no flash, and is exposed for the couple. The second has flash, and is exposed for the background. Both are good, and I advise all photographers to do various styles: “your” style, but also other styles, and then you choose the best later.

And d not be afraid to use high ISOs. You may need them in order to get fast enough shutter speeds.

I also encourage shooters to use selective lighting, like I am using here at Dunn’s River Falls:

My flash was zoomed to 125mm even though I was shooting at a wide angle, and it was aimed at the subject. Magic!

Do not be afraid of rainy days. They are beautiful, as in Nine Miles here (where Bob Marley was born):

Now, back to my photo finishing – which will take me a little while (think, all week). I will leave you with one more Jamaica image:

Yah man!

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I am in Jamaica, to shoot Kristen and Dan’s destination wedding.

This week will be intense, and fun. Lesson one: bring, among others, a wide angle lens. Wide angles are easy (great DOF, slow shutter possible) and offer dramatic perspectives.

Lesson two: shoot a story. I have shot the happy couple since Pearson airport, and will continue until they land again at Pearson. Stories are much more gripping than random shots.

Jamaica is wonderful and the people are amazing. The Riu resort is good. My only drawback so far is that I had to pay $400 extra to get a room with Internet, and slow Internet at that, and handicapped (only port 80 browser. No email, etc, so I have to work around that). More costs extra. There goes my profit for the shoot.

But look for lots of travel and wedding shots. Until then: cheers!

Aftermath – Abandon All Dreams

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“Aftermath” – a short series I shot in a foreclosed home in Henderson, Nevada yesterday.

The contrast between the beautiful home and its present gutted nature, the abandoned dream is so great, and so sad.  None of this was staged, of course. The stories are human (look at the card in one of the shots: in fact it says “For Mommy, With Love”.)

 

What to bring on a trip?

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Reader George asks:

For leisure traveling which gear would you take with you Michael? I’m off to China for 3 weeks in September and still can’t decide what to take with me having 6 lenses /3 primes;28,50,85 and 3 zooms 16-35, 24-120, 70-300/ and one body d300. Looking to buy a used second body either d700 or d7000 since I believe I need a back up just in case. As for packing I have already few Think Tank bags to chose from.

Well. Here’s what I will bring to Europe when I travel to the Netherlands late August:

  1. A camera – Canon 1Ds Mk3 or 1D Mk4 (if I had an 1Dx I would bring that).
  2. A backup camera (quite so, George): a Canon 7D in my case.
  3. Two speedlights
  4. 16-35mm lens
  5. Probably also the 24-70mm lens, but this is not strictly necessary – after all, the 16-35, when used on the 7D crop body, is like a 24-50 lens.
  6. If I have space, the 70-200mm lens: but unless I travel to Africa to shoot lions, this will be my least used lens.
  7. A prime lens: probably the 35mm f/1.4.
  8. A light meter.
  9. Batteries, chargers, plug converters
  10. Memory cards
  11. Flash modifiers
  12. Ziplock bags, dental floss, pen, business cards, and so on.
  13. Laptop.

And indeed, a Think Tank air travel bag that everything fits into. so I can bring it on board rather than checking it. Packing this bag is an art and will take me many hours: the restrictions of airline policy is the greatest factor in limiting what one can bring on a trip.