In 2002 I was pretty excited about my newly purchased BMW motorcycle. I had wanted a BMW for some time and after my Yamaha died the previous year I eagerly awaited the opportunity.
This photo was taken while on a ride through the Marin headlands in the middle of a beautiful summer day.
Since it was the middle of the day, the overall lighting wasn’t fantastic (in the background) so it was an easy decision to keep the focus pretty limited. As for what to focus on? What other than the most identifying aspect of the BMW twins – the boxer engine.
With those decisions made, it was just a matter of framing up the shot. I still wanted the bike (while out of focus) to be recognizable so I kept the overall focal length wide enough so as to not render the bike a complete blur. I also wanted to clip the BMW logo, so that it would appear in frame, but not fully (this being the other key identifying aspect of the bike).
I was pretty happy with this shot which, like my last post was shot with a Nikon film camera, developed and printed at Photoworks where I got the full borders on the image.
This shot makes me think that I need to get out and ride more.
This photograph is from a Yosemite backpacking trip back in 2001. This was my big break from work during which I took several trips both international and throughout the US. One of those domestic trips was a ‘family’ backpacking trip in Yosemite with Karl’s family and a few stragglers (including me).
I took this picture of Cindy, sitting along the ridge of Yosemite Valley, just around the corner from Yosemite Falls. I was going for a farily typical environmental portrait, placing emphasis on the individual while still providing details of the surrounding area. In this case, the valley assisted in the set up. First, the sheer distance between the subject and the valley floor (3000 feet straight down, well over a mile to the trees and mountains in the background) provides a good separation and easy focus isolation. Second, the frequent campfires in the valley campgrounds create a hazy distance, which bumps up the relative clarity of the near subject.
This picture would have been taken with my Contax camera (I’m fairly certain) though it could also have been one of my earlier Nikons. I most likely would have been shooting a Kodak color negative film. My negs and slides are in deep storage now so I can’t know for sure without digging. It was printed at Photoworks though and then the print was scanned back in on a Canon flatbed scanner – that was how I did things back then. That I know because of the ’sloppy’ full borders around the image.
The safari experience I had in Africa will definitely stay with me for a long time. It’s hard to believe that it was already a year ago and it’s equally hard to believe that we didn’t go back this year. OK – perhaps it’s not that hard to believe – I wish we had the ability to go again – but the money and timing aren’t there this year.
So much of that trip was so memorable, and of course top among them are the many safari game drives that we went on. Early morning or late evening drives around the plains searching out different animals of all kinds became daily routines that we quickly adopted.
One of the aspects that our guides tried to convey was the hunt for the animals – it wasn’t all about just pulling up and seeing them – afterall, you can get that in a zoo. This was much more about keeping your eyes open and searching the landscape for any signs of the animals around you.
This was not always easy and the guides easily put us to shame. They are so in tune with their surroundings they can just as easily identify animals by their sounds or their tracks as they can by their sights (sometimes silhouetted in the far distance).
I wanted to capture some of what that was like in this image: the idea that this massively deadly animal was only feet away from us and easily missed was not short of hair raising. We would watch animals like this leopard and then when he sat low in the tall grass we would lose him immediately – right before our eyes. Turn your head and your chances of rediscovering his sitting spot was close to impossible.
For this shot I wanted especially to capture the leopard’s eyes staring back. There’s something just so direct about it – he’s there, in the grass, in control and he’s got his eyes on you. Ultimately I think the photo is pretty successful – it would be nice to have more of the eyes exposed but at the same time, the whole point is to have the leopard partially obscured by the grass, so overall I was pretty happy.
After South Africa, our next destination in Southern Africa was Namibia – a parched country on the Western coast of Africa. We had an amazing time in Namibia and I would unhesitatingly return in a heartbeat. We found the people to be friendly and the country easy to travel in but the reason we traveled there was because of the desert.
The desert in Namibia is a sight to be seen and the apex of that experience is the Sossusvlei pan in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Here the Orange dunes lurch out from the desert floor.
We arrived before sunrise – as the general custom is to enter the park and watch the sun rise above the dunes. We raced through the park as the sun came up over the horizon stopping along the way to photograph the scenery. Some of the dunes attract hikers looking to summit just as the sun comes over the surrounding dunes and mountains.
This photograph captures one of those climbers on his way up (a little late for the rising sun).
Even within a short time of entering the park, I was taken with the scale of the surrounds. I wanted to capture the diminutive size of the person compared to the scenery. There are a few aspects of this photo that I think help capture that feeling. First, I wanted the tree to draw in the eye as the immediate subject. This immediately puts the figure as a lesser character. Second, framing the image with the dune taking up the majority of photo and the person squeezed into the top of the frame helps convey the overwhelming feeling of the space. Finally, the lighting, with the distant dunes (just visible behind the person) a darker shade helps establish depth, and the sense that the dune being climbed is not among the larger dunes in the park.
Overall, I was pretty happy with the photos I took in Sossusvlei even though I wasn’t thrilled with the overcast lighting that day.
After our desert adventure, our next African stop was Victoria Falls and it couldn’t have been more of a contrast. We were there during the height of the Zambezi river flow and after spending more than a week in the desert it was quite a thing to see so much water.
This photograph was taken as the sun was lowering in the sky (in fact, we were among the last visitors to the falls that evening exiting just after the sun dipped below the horizon). I like the way the light – though not obviously coming from the side at first, highlights the water to give it a sense of depth. The mist from the falls was quite amazing as evidinced in other photos from that day but in this image, it didn’t effect the contrast too much.
I took several photos, but I liked the closeups the most, even though they might not convey the full breadth of the falls. These closeups are not as successful as others I’ve taken at Yoesmite, but that’s a post for another day.
Last year this time, Meghan and I were down in South Africa exploring the countryside. We had already been in Africa for about a week, and on this day we were driving ourselves from down South around Agulhas to the wine country just outside of Capetown.
I’m a big fan of straying from the beaten path, so on this part of the trip we were wandering around some dirt roads through the farmlands. Along the road we saw different animals – especially birds, as well as spectacular scenery.
This image I like because of the way the different patterns emerge. I love how the clouds in the sky mimic the plow rows on the field and how the horizon line of the hill cuts a wave through the scene. The dual track road splits across at an odd path heading up and over the hill.
Of course there’s nothing about this photo that screams “Africa.” It could have been taken anywhere. But much to our surprise, a lot of the African outback had that feel. Once we got out of the cities, the countryside could have been European or Asian (or I’m sure South America, though I can’t say from experience). To some extent, that never ceases to amaze me as I travel around – so much of the countryside the world over is so similar.
I look forward to getting back to Africa – and (at least for now) I plan on more random exploring through the countryside when I return.
One of the first entries I made on this site was from this road trip I took across California and Nevada. That was a great trip; rather spur of the moment. Webb called me up saying he was going to be in Las Vegas so I hopped in the car and drove out to meet him. I took the scenic route there and back, stopping by in Death Valley on the way home.
I really love the East side of the Sierra Nevada – both the mountains and the desert. Death Valley is perfectly situated so that you can get interesting views of both.
This photo was taken on one of the many dunes that form around the park. I was up early and hiking around when I came across these tracks. The desert is really alive though you’d be fooled if you only looked from a distance. When you get up close you see all sorts of little creatures making a successful living.
I really like how this image captures the different ways that nature makes its mark on the landscape – and in this case, in very fleeting ways. Within an hour (or more, depending on the wind) this view would be quite different. Already the rabbit tracks are starting to fade back into the sand.
Despite the lack of color, this is a color slide image, taken with my old Nikon. I like that there’s just a hint of color in the photo – it adds to the texture of the sand.
It’s been a long time now since I’ve been to the desert. I am way overdue for another excursion. It looks like this spring won’t happen but perhaps I’ll make it back in the fall. I can’t wait.
Last year, San Francisco (and much of the world) was getting ready for the summer Olympics in Beijing. San Francisco had vied for the honor of hosting the games but was beat out by, well several cities actually. We didn’t make it into the final rounds of consideration.
But, we still had the privilege of having the torch travel through our city. The nature of what that honor represented however, was brought into question by supporters of the Tibetan freedom movement. The Olympic torch, on its way to Beijing, was slated to go right through the Tibetan plateau. This was, by some accounts, a smack right straight in the face to the Tibetans by the Chinese who, from the same viewpoint, have occupied and irreprably damaged Tibet and its culture.
And so, in Europe and elsewhere, the Olympic torch relay had had its share of troubles and it was shaping up that San Francisco would be the scene of a pretty large clash. Here we have a very large Chinese population (especially when you add in all the folks who were bussed in from throughout the state by Chinese supporters) and you also have a very liberal population – one with a definite bias towards a free Tibet.
I spent a few hours with the crowds, photographing Chinese and Tibetan supporters as they marched, demonstrated, and participated in the freedoms we enjoy so much here in San Francisco. It really was a brilliant day with only one thing missing – the Olympic torch. It seems the City deemed it better to shuffle it off to another part of town without telling any of the masses who came to see it and express their views; or to any of the news media for that matter, who were gathered around looking rather lost. It was incredibly disappointing.
This photo I like as a portrait of a protestor: The masked face, the distant gaze, the hat pulled low over the face. I also like the framing and composition of the shot. IT was rather difficult moving among the crowds taking photos – and in this photo I used my 80-200mm zoom lens – a great lens, but one which really draws the subject near making shots like this difficult to achieve in such a crowded space. I was shooting at aperture priority, looking for a narrow depth of field to keep only the one person in focus and I think I did a reasonably good job (the focus is just a shy too narrow, favoring the closer side of his face).
It’s hard to believe that this was already a year ago, this week.
In 2003 I journeyed off to Thailand after taking a leave from work.
This was anonther in a series of departures for me – starting with leaving college, followed by moving to San Francisco, leaving my job at Intuit, and this time, leaving my job at Wells Fargo – each time without a job lined up. And this would not be the last.
I really enjoy the freedom of having time off and being able to take stock of my life and see a little of the world. Taking time between jobs (or when moving, leaving school,.) has been a great way to take that time and see things that have really changed my perspective on the world.
In Thailand I started in Bangkok, traveled North to the hills, and finally made my way South to the beaches. I was taken with the country and the people (as I find most people are) and have recommeded Thailand as a destination to just about anyone who will listen.
This photo was taken in Chiang Mai, in the Northern hills of Thailand. There are many temples in Chiang Mai, this image is from Wat Chedi Luang – known more for its elephant-adorned facade. This statue was in a small building on the edge of the property. There were several of these monk statues, each fitted out with gold leaf. I loved the way the gold leaf flaked off of the statues and I loved the light coming in through the openings in the building – large windows and doors which allowed light and a good breeze to come in.
Being 2003, I was still shooting film at this point. I had recently converted from my Contax system so this image was taken with my Nikon N80 camera and a standard zoom lens (24-85 AF-S ED G 3.5-4.5). I still own this lens and while its small size and shooting range are convenient, the variable 3.5-4.5 minimum aperture is annoying.
I shot this using Kodak Tri-x black & white film, by far my favorite black & white film. It is a little on the slow side but I just love the quality of the images it produces. Occasionally I would play around with other film, Fuji, other flavors of Kodak (tmax, which I’m not a fan of), but my usual go-to film was Kodak Tri-x or it’s higher-sensitivity cousin Plus-X.
On trips like these I would carry an average of at least 1 roll of film per day (so I had about 40 rolls for this trip) and on any day walking around I’d be carrying 4-6 rolls with me as well as a film-puller, which I could use to switch film before the roll was used up. This was handy when moving from daylight to indoors or lower-light situations, but it was more critical for switching between black & white and color. It’s amazing to think of where we’ve come with digital.
I really like the way this image came out – it was fairly dark in the room, though not as dark as this image would have you believe. I shot the image a little dark, so as to keep details in the gold leaf (and to avoid a slow shutter speed and the accompanying camera shake). After scanning in the image I darkened it a bit more to darken out the background but keeping in enough elements to keep the sense of place.
Later on this trip I ventured over to Japan, spending a few days around Kyoto. There too I visited many temples, which were quite different from Chiang Mai but still maintained much of the same tranquility.
Last year Meghan and I took off for a couple of weeks to Belize. It was an awesome trip.
On one of our days on Caye Caulker we went snorkeling and I took the opportunity to test out my underwater housing that I bought for my large point-and-shoot Canon G7. I purchased the underwater housing from B&H as a bit of a test – underwater photography was something that I had been interested in for a while – and after the last couple of trips to Thailand where the snorkeling was amazing, I was really intrigued.
The set up worked pretty well. I opted for a cheaper housing, which is basically just a really robust ziplock with a rigid front for the lens. As such the controls were pretty hard to use once underwater – so set it before the camera goes in the bag.
This is one of my favorite photos from the day. After shooting a few fish and coral bits, I saw this image of folks from another snorkeling outfit listening to instructions from their dive master. Meghan calls this the Jaws photo.
Shooting underwater required a bit of setup but once done, the pictures turned out pretty well (I think.. judge for yourself). I had to set the white balance – and the ‘underwater’ setting on the G7 worked pretty well. I also set the ISO for a slightly darker image (as the light falls off pretty quickly underwater and the built-in flash is useless with the underwater housing). I then opened up the apeture as wide as it would go – meaning I had to give the camera time to focus before firing to avoid the blurs. Zooming wasn’t possible with the housing so I just shot everything wide and cropped when I got back. This also helped as framing the subjects was often a challenge.
After this experience I will definitely continue to bring the housing on future trips – and if I were to get serious about snorkeling (is there such a thing?) SCUBA, I would like to invest in a proper housing for the SLR. But until then, I like the setup that I’ve got.
As an aside, I also used the housing for our trip to the ATM cave inland in Belize which was pretty cool as I was the only one who was able to take photos of the hike in because everyone else had their cameras packed away in the waterproof bag.
Finally, choosing only 1 photo each week can been a challenge – for various reasons. This week’s challenge was choosing 1 image from the Belize trip. This was my runner-up. It was taken in preparation for the trip to Africa later in the year (shooting animals). It was also taken with the Canon G7 – a camera I’ve since replaced with an updated G10 model because my G7 got damaged. It’s on my list of posts (for knuetter.com) to write about my impressions with the G-series cameras from Canon. The short: It’s a camera I recommend highly.
This photo is from a trip to Thailand in 2007. Meghan and I spent a few days in Bangkok and then went up North for a bit of an adventure through the hills of Northern Thailand. We rented some motorbikes (OK.. scooters) in Chiang Mai and then spent the next 4 or 5 days circling around the ‘Golden Triangle.’
One day in particular was memborable for the scenery and roads. On this day we drove through small villages and on these small roads that twisted through the steep hillsides. We saw some amazing sights and beautiful scenery.
I had a few cameras with me on this trip (which I usually do). In addition to my SLR, I packed a smaller point and shoot camera which was handy for walking around at night or quick movies or action shots.
In this case however, I had my SLR (a Nikon D70) slung around my neck. I snapped away happily while driving along. During stops I’d look at the exposures and decide what to change for the next stretch of road. In this series of photos I opened the aperture a bit so that I’d get a bit of leeway on the focal range and also to slow the shutter speed so that I could include a little blur. In doing so, I was able to capture the feeling of motion as we wind our way through the narrow roads.
I love the way that the road blurs, the lean of the motorbike (granted, Meghan’s not scraping any knees here*), and even the over-exposed section of the road out there in the distance – it’s like we’re driving into the unknown – which of course we were. We were driving along pretty small roads here, and we never knew what would be around the corner – a village, a truck, a pig or a chicken?
This was definitely a highlight of our trip and both of us are looking forward to our opportunity to do it again.
