For those sweating out the latest heat wave or monsoon, or someone who just has some time on their hands, I’ve completed posting galleries from our recent Southwest US road trip to my Adobe Portfolio page. There is some stuff there that I haven’t posted here (yet) but a lot of it just expands on photos I’ve already shared. Just be aware that there are 1155 photos over 11 galleries! 🙂
One of the bloggers/photographers I follow is Om Malik. He recently posted an article titled Future Of Media – A Quick Reality Check that I found interesting.
I started my blog back when blogs were ‘cool’ as a way to share my written thoughts as well as my photographs. More often than not, my posts were a way for me to clarify my own thoughts on a subject, rather than just writing for writing’s sake. It sort of morphed into – for me at least – an alternative to social media. Yeah, I’m on Facebook (sort of) and Instagram (sort of) and I have a Twitter account that I never look at. But mostly I have this blog. And while I appreciate every person who comes and looks, especially those who take the time to leave thoughtful comments, I would probably do it even if no one visited or commented. I suppose it is my version of a journal, although one that anybody can read.
The passage in Malik’s post that I found especially valuable is the one where he talks – referencing still another article on the subject – about the distinction between blogging and social media:
Marc Weidenbaum, a music enthusiast and founder of Disquiet.com, expertly captures the distinction between blogs and social. “Social media expects feedback (not just comments, but likes and follows),” he writes. “Blogs are you getting your ideas down; feedback is a byproduct, not a goal.” In other words, one is a performance for an audience, while the other is highly personal, though others may end up finding it interesting. Weidenbaum also admirably points out the difference between blogs and all the suddenly ubiquitous newsletters. “And newsletters = broadcasting,” he says. “Blogging is different.”
Feedback is a byproduct, not a goal. I don’t write for Likes or Hearts or Thumbs-up, just for me. I post on Instagram, and while I don’t obsess over whether anyone “Likes” my photos or not, it’s nice when they do. And a few of the people who follow my Instagram will never read my blog. And that’s OK.
Just last night I had someone tell me, “I see your photos (on Instagram) from all these far-off places but never know where you are.” I explained that I always add the location, you just need to look at the text. And he replied “well, I just look at the pictures, I don’t bother reading anything.” Well, OK then. That’s how people use social media, and that guy will never read my blog. But I love him anyway. 🙂
It’s a bit of a paradox for me – it’s hard to make a bad picture of the Grand Canyon. But yet, it’s hard to make a really good picture of the Grand Canyon. Not because it is one of the most photographed places on Earth and has been done a bazillion times and a bazillion ways, but because it is so darned BIG!
Of course it is impossible to imagine what something like the Grand Canyon will look like in person. I’ve been to Niagara Falls, and it is big. I’ve been to Alaska, and places like Glacier Bay, College Fjord, Denali? Indescribable. But the Grand Canyon? I’ve seen it from the air and didn’t realize what it was, because it is so vast. And down on the ground where you can only see a small part of it, while that part was so big, well. Words fail me although it doesn’t stop me trying. 🙂
We originally weren’t planning to stop at the Grand Canyon, figuring it would be overrun with people, with no place to park, overlooks and shuttle buses crowded with people. But no. We arranged our schedule to get there on a Monday in early May, which turned out to be a great choice. We got a good place to park, never had to wait for the next shuttle, had very few people at the overlooks, and relatively light crowds in the Grand Canyon Village. We even got a reservation for lunch at the El Tovar Hotel and a table with a canyon view. Sweet!
We only had a day, so we made the most of it. We didn’t try to get there for sunrise or stay until sunset, partly because I knew that early and late in the day, when the canyon is all in shadow, is generally not the best time to photograph it. The middle parts of the day provide good, even lighting, while the hours before and after can provide some dramatic shadows. It’s also important (I think) to have some nice clouds to provide an interesting sky. We sort of lucked out on all those counts.
It was a good day and we were both very glad to have made the effort. There are a lot more parks that we want to see, and once we finish up our 50 states project, getting to those parks is going to be one of our priorities. The list is long! 🙂
As I’ve been doing, for those who are interested or just bored 😉 I’ve added a Grand Canyon gallery to my Adobe Portfolio site.
I’m back at the computer and trying to finish up my photos from our visit to the southwest. I’ve recently posted new galleries to my Adobe Portfolio site and am continuing to add more as I go. It feels like I’m only halfway, but I think I’m a little further along than that!
We visited Saguaro with our friends Cheryl & Mike, over the course of two days. The park is divided into the West and the East, and we visited the East on a cloudy afternoon, and the West the following day with sunshine and blue-sky. The sunshine and blue sky made all the difference in the world in appearance, quality of images, and not least, the heat! It gets warm in the desert, although not nearly as warm in April as later in the summer!
The Red Hills Visitor Center in Saguaro East was especially picturesque, with the lattice roof casting dramatic shadows at mid-day. Interestingly, I’ve seen very few photos of this, although I managed to make more than a few of my own! Maybe I just didn’t look in the right place.
Anyway, here is a sampling of my photos from our visit. There are more to be found on my Adobe Portfolio site.
Whenever we travel, one of the dilemmas I consistently face is what and how much camera gear to take with me. Usually I default to my three zoom lenses because they are convenient and cover just about any common focal length without a lot of lens changes. On most occasions I’ll toss my prime lenses into the mix with the best of intentions, but either because I’m lazy or I just want to have the most flexibility, the primes often don’t come out of the bag.
I love my Fuji prime lenses for several reasons. First and probably most important, they give me excellent results – sharp when I want sharp and good bokeh when I want bokeh. They are lightweight and small, so it isn’t hard to carry 2-3 along in a small bag or fanny pack.
But I’ve said for years that the more lenses I have with me the more likely I’ve got the “wrong” one on the camera. So I make a point to putting one lens on the camera and go out and “see” with that one lens. It’s especially useful with my prime lenses, because it really forces me to think about composition and framing, to “zoom with my feet” in order to establish what is in and out of the frame or to give me the relationship I want between near and far objects.
For our recent trip to the beach, I reversed my usual methodology and put the prime lenses into my “every day bag” and put the zoom lenses into my “just in case bag” (I use two bags because I like having a smaller, lighter bag to take on day trips and when walking around and don’t want to carry all my stuff at once). I never took the zoom lenses out, opting instead for using only my prime lenses. To be fair I didn’t shoot a lot (for me) with less than 400 photos over a 2 week period. Most of the time I went out with just one lens on the camera, although at sunrise I went out with all four of my prime lenses, and actually used all of them depending on what I was shooting.
We’re home now for a few weeks, resting up for our next adventure. I’m seriously considering leaving the zoom lenses at home this time, opting for a smaller, lighter kit and keeping things rather simple. We’ll see if I actually have the nerve to do it. I’m betting I will!
When I awoke this morning at 4:50am I knew I was in for another morning on the beach. Sucks, don’t it? 😉 I was greeted by some distant lightning that I wasn’t able to capture adequately, but did get a few more pools reflecting the morning light. A little different from yesterday, but that’s why we go more than once! No promises for tomorrow, but I do have a streak going now. 🙂
Today marks the third anniversary of our retirement. I think we’ve spent our time well and look forward to many more years. We celebrated last night at one of our favorite local restaurants and look forward to a few more days on the beach.
We’ve been at the beach for a week but I hadn’t managed to drag my sorry self out of bed for sunrise – until this morning. I was well rewarded. I’m kind of picky about when I’m willing to get up – tides, weather and sunrise time play a role. I looked at the weather forecast before heading to bed last night and decided it would likely be a good chance for photos. We’ve got some clouds rolling in today with a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon and overnight. Tomorrow might be a good morning too, we’ll have to see if I can motivate myself two mornings in a row. 😉
Believe it or not, this is just the top 2-4 inches of drift fencing that is 3-ish feet high. I guess the fence is doing its job. No, I can’t stay away from these fences – must be some kind of addiction. 😉
I like to photograph the moon on the night before the “full” moon because there is still enough light in the sky, and on the foreground if you have a foreground, to illuminate the landscape and provide some detail. Sometimes, like Tuesday night, the rising moon is actually more full than it will be on Wednesday night. Of course the part that gets all the press is the so-called “Supermoon.” (because now we have to name everything) which “officially” happened this morning, but the moon wasn’t visible here at that time.
According to The Photographer’s Ephemeris, the moon was at 99.65% at moonrise last night and will be at 99.49% at moonrise tonight. What does that get you? Add a couple of bucks and it gets you a cup of coffee.
Photographing the moon rising over the ocean can be kind of boring and usually works better with an interesting foreground. We have some nice trees in front of our rental condo here in Hilton Head, SC. So I was able to have my camera on the balcony while we were having dinner, and managed to take a few shots between bites and sips. 😉
According to my metadata, I only photographed for about 30 minutes on our evening at White Sands. But other than perhaps the evening I spent in The Palouse last fall, it was perhaps the most productive 30 minutes I’ve had with a camera in a long time. The most fun, too!
I “only” took 43 photographs, but have marked 33 of them as “Picks” in Lightroom. That’s a very high percentage for me. 🙂 Of course not all of them will end up on a wall or even on my website, but a few of my favorites definitely will.
White Sands is the kind of place where you can shoot for as long as you have. And unless you really mess something up, you are likely to come back with something you like. Interestingly, as huge as the park is, I only moved a total of about 100 yards (after trudging through the sand and scrub to get to the spot I had found) in that 30 minutes. I shot exclusively with my 55-200 lens, on a tripod, in manual focus mode. All of the scenes I found were that small. For me the tripod is essential in situations like that, because in addition to allowing for critical focus, it is a must for precise composition.
The biggest issue in a park like White Sands is finding places that haven’t been covered with footprints and sled tracks. In fact, there is one setup where I had only taken one frame before a head popped over the horizon, and some dude came sledding down the pristine slope I had been set up to shoot. Luck of the draw.
When we returned the following morning, we found that we didn’t get the benefit of the wind that often “erases” the footprints and that results in pristine conditions. But in a few places I was able to make use of the softened textures in the sand – still remains of footprints but worn down just a bit – superimposed against a crisp blue sky. It was different from the evening before, but very nice.
White Sands is one of those places where you can get something interesting however long you are there. Whether for an hour or two, a day or two, or a week or two. Like The Badlands or The Palouse, it is a place I would love to revisit with more time. But what I came home with is good until I have a chance to do that.
