My brother and I recently hiked up to the base of Notchtop mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park to get some dawn images of Lake Helene. To have enough time for the 3.2 mile hike up, we had to meet at the trail head at the ungodly hour of 3:15 AM…which actually meant that I had to get up at 1:45. Ouch. It was a great hike though and we had the advantage of an almost full moon which provided some nice light on the trail.
Nikon D300, 18-200mm, Singh-Ray Gold & Blue Polarizer, f/16, 30 sec, ISO 200
We arrived at Lake Helene well before twilight so we had enough time to explore the area before we had to set up our cameras. We ended up finding Two Rivers Lake which is just to the east of Lake Helene. Above you can see the nice pre-dawn view from Two Rivers Lake. We both stood in the shallow water to take the shot. I used my Singh-Ray Gold and Blue Polarizer to accent the great colors of the sky.
After grabbing a few shots at Two Rivers, we had to hustle back over to Lake Helene to setup in time for sunrise. We ended up getting sorta cornered in a marshy area along the shore and weren’t able to navigate to the best vantage point in time for first light. But I think I came away with at least a “blog worthy” image of Lake Helene. I would have preferred some clouds in the shot, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers :)
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/16, 2.5 sec, ISO 200
It was pretty chilly up there at 10,580 feet. / 5AM. I thought a lot about the approaching fall and winter and how I need to discover a new level of perseverance and determination in myself if I’m going to get some good winter shots this year.
For awhile now I’ve been wishing I had a simple point and shoot camera to take with me on trips so I could capture some of the more typical vacation moments and leave the serious photo work for my Nikon D300. Of course the Nikon would provide much better image quality and features than a compact camera, but who wants to lug a bulky DSLR and lens around if you’re just going out to dinner or documenting some touristy moment?
Since I’m going to Hawaii in September and might be doing some snorkeling…I thought it would be nice to get a compact camera that was waterproof…actually submersible, not just weather sealed. I didn’t know if such a camera even existed. I also wanted some video capabilities since my D300 was made just before the recent DSLR video feature craze. With these parameters in mind, I quickly discovered the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1. I had already been impressed with the Lumix TZ5 that my family and I got my Dad for his birthday last year, and the TS1 seemed to have all the features I wanted, so I went ahead and ordered one.
Overall, I have been pleased with the TS1. The very first time I took it out was on a whitewater rafting trip with my co-workers down the Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colorado. It was the perfect test for a camera like this. The TS1 got completely submerged in water several times, knocked around in the class 3 & 4 rapids and even smashed between the floor of the raft and the sidewall. It performed very well in this environment. The still photos that we took that day impressed me for their sharpness, low noise and relatively good exposure. Of course, the TS1’s quality is no where near that of a DSLR, especially at ISOs over 400, but I never expected a tiny waterproof camera to blow my socks off with image quality. It does, however, produce more than adequate images for casual snap shots and video clips.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1, f/3.3, 1/1000, ISO 80
Speaking of video clips, you can see one below. It’s a little choppy, but that might be because I de-interlaced the video when I converted it for the web. Finding a program on the Mac that could open the AVCHD lite video files was a major challenge. Toast Titanium 10 of all programs was able to open and convert the videos.
The most serious flaw I’ve encountered with the TS1 is how easily it is disabled at cooler temperatures. On a recent sunrise hike up to Lake Helene (10,580 feet) in Rocky Mountain National Park, the TS1’s autofocus system became totally confused and would not focus on anything. The temperatures up there were likely in the upper 30s to low 40s which is really nothing as far as cold temperatures go. Granted I was not carrying it close to my body to keep it warm during the hike, but I really think a camera that’s touted as being so rugged should be able to stand a few hours of 40 degrees.
Other gripes about the camera are really very minor. Overall it produces nice images & HD video, is reasonably compact and rugged with regards to water and being knocked around. I’m sure it will serve me very well. Just be warned that it may let you down on those cold alpine mornings!
Dream Lake Reflection - Nikon D300, 18-200mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/16, 2 sec, ISO 200
I got up at 2:30 AM yesterday, drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and met my brother at the Bear Lake trailhead. We hiked up to Dream Lake in the dark and proceeded to find a good location to capture the sunrise on Hallet Peak. The traditional vantage point from which Dream Lake is photographed had so many photographers packed into it that it looked like a presidential press corps. I was looking, however, for as much of an untraditional way to capture Dream Lake as I could find. I saw this very artsy looking log along the shore and decided it looked great with the reflection behind it.
Early morning up in RMNP is a beautiful experience. It’s painful to get yourself up for it, but I highly recommend hiking up there for dawn, whether you’re a photographer or not. After I was done taking pictures, I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting on the shore of the lake and observing the start of a new day (while swatting mosquitos, of course).
Mt. St. Helens - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/22, 1/5
Just returned from a great trip to Portland, OR. This shot is one of those that surprises you after being discouraged by weather/light conditions. We had been told by the rangers that the mountain was obscured by clouds and not worth going out of our way to see. Well, good thing we pressed on because this beautiful field of wild flowers was one of the most spectacular I’ve seen. And I kinda like the fact that part of Mt. St. Helens is covered in clouds in this photo…it gives it a more mysterious quality.
Bryce Canyon - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/18, 1/20, ISO 200
My brother and I just returned from a Memorial Day weekend photo outing in Southern Utah. From past trips around this time of year, we were expecting the usual weather…hot, dry and sunny during the day and cool at night. Instead, we experienced gray, stormy skies and near constant rain. The sun was seen for only a few rare and fleeting moments during the trip and on each occasion my brother and I scrambled to grab our cameras and capture whatever was being bathed in light. Most of the time, though, the sun was well behind a thunderstorm that was either raining on or threatening to rain on us. It was challenging to find creative ways of capturing the iconic Utah landscape without the low angle sunrise/sunset light that makes it look so stunning. I think I’m glad for the weather we had because we came home with some images that are probably more unique than the many other Utah photos out there. The photo above, however, was taken in one of those few moments where the sun broke through. Stay tuned for more images…
Early on in processing my Africa photos, I stumbled upon the Nik Software suite of plug-ins for Photoshop and Aperture. I had heard good things about Silver Efex Pro for converting color photos to black and white, but I was also in need of a output sharpening solution. So I decided to give their whole set of plugins a test drive. I immediately saw how powerful they were and bought the Complete Collection which includes Viveza (dodging and burning on steroids), Color Efex Pro (tons of useful color processing filters), Silver Efex Pro (black and white tools), Define (noise reduction), and Sharpener Pro (creative and output sharpening).
I have used at least one of these plugins on almost every single photo I have processed from my recent trip to Tanzania. The thing I love most about these plugins, is that they work as Smart Filters in Photoshop so I can work completely non-destructively. This has been a huge workflow victory because I generally create two versions of each photo…a screen version for display on the web and then a print version which is tweaked to look good printed with pigment inks on my favorite paper, Museo Silver Rag. I can easily go back to any stage of my editing process and change settings so that the image looks good for the output medium.
The feature that makes these plugins so powerful in the U point technology which lets you chose areas of the photo that you want to be affected by the plugin. It creates very accurate masks of whatever you’ve clicked on which greatly reduces the need to create complex layer masks to isolate certain areas of a photo. I just wish there was a way to export the masks that it creates so that I could use them with other Photoshop tasks.
I also use Capture NX 2 from Nik Software to initially process most of my RAW photos. Although Capture NX 2 is powerful, it does lack the nice intuitive user interface that the plugins have. In fact, Capture NX is so clunky, I sometimes find it hard to believe that it came out of the same company as the plugins. The reason I use it instead of Adobe Camera Raw or Aperture is that it is specially designed to process Nikon NEF RAW files and gives me access to some of the in-camera processing features on the Nikon cameras. In side by side comparisons, it also yields the sharpest RAW conversion between ACR and Aperture…although Aperture is a close second. Strangely, ACR is in distant last place in my quality tests of RAW conversion.
Anyway, I just thought I’d share my experience with the Nik Software plugins. If you’re curious, download the trial, but be prepared to fall in love and thus have to spend money :)
Today I welcomed a Canon ImagePrograf 6100 24″ wide printer to my studio! I’ve been spending all evening installing print heads, ink, paper and calibrating it. I’m so excited! Now comes the journey of learning how to make great prints of my photos. I’m intimidated by all the intricacies of the process, but I know I’ll like it ’cause I’m a geek like that :) Stay tuned for some exciting news in the near future about what I plan to use this printer for!
I promise, one of these days I’ll stop writing about Africa :)
So you’ve got the bug…you want to go to Africa. Where to start. If you’ve done even the smallest amount of research, you’ve probably realized that there are a TON of decisions to be made. You want to make the right decisions because this trip will likely cost a good sum of money and it might be a once in a lifetime experience. Having been through the dizzying experience of planing a safari, I wanted to put together a quick executive summery of things you should consider. Obviously this isn’t the end-all guide to safari planning, but maybe somethings here will correlate to other things you read on the net and help you plan an amazing trip to Africa. So here it goes.
It won’t be a PERFECT trip. This is international travel to the third world. Something might not go as planned. Having an easy going, flexible attitude will help you to have a whole lot more fun.
Make sure you research the time of year you are traveling and see which areas are best. You may want to shift your travel dates to avoid rainy seasons or the hottest months. Extreme weather is no fun.
When searching for guide companies, make sure they are approved by the tour operator’s association of the country you are traveling to. This will ensure that you’re going with a legit company. For Tanzania it is here: http://www.tatotz.org/
Do yourself the favor of going on a private safari with a guide just for your party. Do you really want to be crammed into a vehicle with other random tourists who may have different agendas than you?
Use Trip Advisor to research other people’s experiences. Find out from the message boards who the established guide companies are and if people had good experiences with them. When you’ve narrowed down a list of companies you’re considering, google the heck out of them to make sure there are no bad vibes out there.
Buy trip insurance!
Have a Dr. prescribe a powerful antibiotic like Cipro and start taking it the instant…and I mean the instant you start having diarrhea on your trip. Throw in some Immodium too. (Of course, don’t drink the water or eat salads in the first place).
Carefully consider what kind of accommodations you like. The cheaper places tend to be big hotel-like lodges with hundreds of tourists. The more expensive places tend to be smaller, isolated and high on ambiance…but you may give up some creature comforts. Think of those places like ‘luxury camping.’
If you don’t like dust, bugs or bumpy roads, Africa may not be for you.
Meet other tourists on your trip. It’s fun to get to know people from other places and compare experiences. Some lodges have evening hikes and other group activities. Take advantage of them!
