12 Days in California: Days 10-12

With the workshop over, I had 3 days of making my way back to San Francisco. Time to retrace my journey north on Hiway 1 with a stop at Big Sur. Wouldn't you know they closed Pfeiffer State Park for the rest of the season because of the fires and road repair. This is the big area directly around Big Sur...major disappointment. I decided to stay at the Big Sur Lodge which is at the entrance to the park and figured I would find something interesting on the 2 trails that were still open.

Montana de Oro gallery.

From Los Osos I woke up early (hooray!) to head up to Montana de Oro and Morro Bay State Parks. The wind was blowing hard and it was cold (well cold for me) but I was determined to finally get some morning light. Montana de Oro had a eucalyptus grove and a great coastal area but honestly the weather was pretty bad. After some shots here I headed out of town through Morro Bay SP which was very small. Got lost finding gas and finally got onto Hiway 1. Stopped at a few turnouts for some pics. The coast is incredible. I also saw in the light what I drove through in pitch blackness. You know why they put a 25 mph limit on those curves...because it you run off the road you literally go off a cliff into the sea. Yes, has-ta la vista, you are a gonner.

The rain started up and by 4:30 I checked into the Big Sur Lodge and got a nice cabin for $135. Most of Big Sur is a major tourist trap because it is in the middle of nowhere and the choices are slim. Dinner plans? Got a burrito and apple at the local gas station...cost me $12, ouch, but I was good for the night. Rain meant no sunset so I was relieved not to have to chase a location for that. From the weather report it looked like the front was locked onto the coast with crummy weather all weekend, so the plans for the morning were in the air. I think I'll sleep in. The next morning the rain let up and I rushed to the window to make sure that I didn't miss a gorgeous sunrise. Why can't we let it go? So we miss the most fantastic sunrise ever to happen at Big Sur...what's the big deal? It was a late breakfast at the lodge restaurant and then onto the Buzzard's Roost Trail right across the street. How convenient. The rain had let up, it was cloudy, and the wind died down, lovely conditions for a hike and some pictures. I had a great time and ended up taking 4 hours covering 1/3 of the trail (never did the portion that climbed to the top of the ridge).

  

Big Sur gallery.

From Big Sur I drove to Monterey and stayed again at the Best Western. Best $65 deal in town. The rain came down in sheets and I settled in. My thoughts surely were continued rain throughout the next day. Sleep in!! The next morning I was awakened by the pink sky of a gorgeous sunrise...OMG, the rain stopped. So what is the plan for the day? I happened to glance at one of those hotel books on Monterey and noticed that Michael Kenna was exhibiting at the Monterey Museum of Art...keep reading...exhibition Feb 9 - July 13...missed it. The title: The Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing. I remembered that Moss Landing was a city nearby. Hmmm, good enough for Michael Kenna, good enough for me. Onwards to Moss Landing.

As I started driving north the sun was going in and out and to my surprise a huge rainbow appeared on the ocean. I was approaching Sand City (appropriately named) and wanted to find an exit that would take me to the shore. I got off but found myself in the wrong lane to loop to the shore, and ended up back on 1 going north. I was driving like mad to get to the next exit and then backtrack. All this was happening while I had the rainbow in clear sight. Finally when I found the backroad to get to the ocean the rainbow had all but disappeared. So much for that. Moss Landing was ahead and I could not wait to see what Michael Kenna found there.

As I approached the main entrance I could see a car stopped near the gate. A closed gate? What was this? There seemed to be cars in the parking lot, but the gate was locked. I read the sign: Parked closed on Mondays. WTF? Of all the stupid things...who decided this? There was only 1 other location open, a boat ramp. What a disappointment. Just couldn't believe it. I wasted my morning shoot for a boat ramp? Well, I headed for the boat ramp hoping for a happy ending. By this time all traces of any clouds had disappeared, the sun was in full force in a blue sky. Just a lovely time for landscape photography. Well the boat ramp confirmed my complete and utter disappointment. After now seeing Kenna's portfolio, I should have made the best of it to photograph the fence posts, sea gull droppings, and power plant smokestacks, but I just called it a day and decided to move on to San Francisco. I had a great 12 days, lots of great shooting, and some days you just enjoy driving around in Castroville - the artichoke capital of the world!

Do something nice with your photography

We just finished a shoot with a good friend whose daughter has autism. Some families have it tough and sometimes a few good photos can help out in a difficult situation. The daughter was leaving for school and being separated for the first time. When you can help out your friends or those in need it brings back many rewards to you. We get tied up in the economics of every decision, and with all this talk of recession and crashes, it's easy to retreat into your safe harbor. Do take your gift and share it with others in need. You will be glad you did.

My most productive day?

I am returning from a week in NYC attending the PDN Photo Expo and then staying on to visit with my daughter and playing tourist. PDN (as usual) was awesome and it reminded me of attending the computer shows back in the late 70's, full of excitement. I fell in love with the new 5D MkII...I actually had one reserved at Hunt's Photo and turned it down. Just doing a little proactive recession proofing. Boy this market is crazy and I'm taking a major hit.

  

After the Expo we visited the New York Botanical Garden, did Central Park, and then the Metropolitan. On the last day it was rainy and I was beat, but I still wanted to get out to the Financial District with a possible visit to the Statue of Liberty while everyone else was shopping. Now I get lost just going to the store at home so navigating the subways and streets of NYC is a major challenge for me. In the rain hauling camera gear in the cold, wind...well you get the picture. I decided to go with one body and my 24-70 and 70-200, with a Think Tank Change-up bag. I was still pretty obvious walking around in my bright red ski jacket with this big camera -- tourist alert! I started out around 9 am and took the Green line to Wall Street. As I popped out of the ground Trinity Church was on my right...I was there!

 

So I found the famous Wall Street which to be honest was not all that impressive. The New York Stock Exchange building was obviously closed to the public and had an enormous flag draped across the front of the building. I guess they wanted to demonstrate the patriotism of losing trillions of dollars in this holy institution. Across the street was the famous statue of George Washington at the Federal Hall Building, witnessing the mess this country has created. Security was very tight and despite the rain, there were many tourists wandering around, primarily from Europe and Japan. 

From Wall Street I made my way to Ground Zero. I did not know what to expect. I walked north on Trinity Place up to Liberty and headed west. As I approached the site I could see that everything was boarded up at street level, again very tight security and lots of construction equipment. I passed the 9/11 memorial musem and had intended to come back but never did...next time. It was around lunch time and very crowded. I was hanging around one of the construction entrances taking some shots when this huge construction worker starts walking towards me. I expected him to start telling me to get lost but I smiled and waved and he then asked me if I was getting some good shots. He told me to go to the Winter Garden Court in the World Financial Center for the best overall view of the site.

At this point I really needed to find a restroom so my potty radar was on high alert as I entered the World Financial Center complex hoping that I would blend in with all the suits walking around. This building is huge and I spotted a sign to the Winter Garden. This is actually a huge food court within a bunch of high end shops. I found the viewing area and just stood there, looking at the site through the windows. I started to get quite emotional as I saw all the American flags on the cranes and the enormity of the site. And then I started thinking about what it was like when it happened, and the clean up, and the lives that were affected. I just stood there and looked.

 

Then I remembered that I really do need to use the toilet and I really do need to make some images so it was images first (of course!) and then on to find the public restroom. I grabbed a sandwich and planned my next stop...the Statue of Liberty. I decided to walk on the Esplanade at Battery Park City, so I could fully experience the wind chill coming off the Hudson River. Judging from the total lack of people I was convinced that it was too cold for any rational human being to be walking around.

The ferry to the Statue and Ellis Island leaves from Battery Park, and as I walked up to the ticket booth they were telling everyone to hurry up as this was the last ferry of the day, and that it was too late to go to Ellis Island. So I think I got the last ticket (my style) and I ran to catch the ferry. Of course they had the airport security set up and I had to strip off the camera gear, shoes, etc. while I could see the boat waiting to leave. Oh those tourists! The ride on the ferry was fun as it allowed me to reach another level of coldness as the spray added some moisture to the air. Curious there was no one on the back railing of the boat taking pictures...everyone was huddled inside as any sane person would do. I was hanging off the back hoping the spray would keep off the lens.

Before you knew it Lady Liberty was right in front of us. We docked and I headed to the park visitor center to get my National Park Passport stamped. You approach the statue from the back, walking around the base you can get a sense of the scale, and then the impact hits you when you walk around to see the face. Brilliant. As I was shooting the light was changing and the conditions were just perfect for what I consider a great day to be out in the cold. These clouds are not Photoshopped! At 5:00 the last ferry was leaving so I made sure I wasn't the last one. On the ferry the sun came out for a brief moment to illuminate the city with the light of liberty.

In retropect this was one of my best days for images. What made it special? The locations, the weather, my frame of mind? Special days are to be cherished because they don't happen very often. When they do we celebrate and give thanks.

Week in NYC gallery.

FCTM Fashion Show

My daughter Diana Eng never ceases to amaze. She just presented a keynote and fashion show at the annual FCTM (FL Council Teachers of Mathematics) conference in Jacksonville held Oct 16-18 at the Hyatt. Diana's presentation "A Mathematical Fashion Show" covered the use of mathematics in fashion design, followed by a runway show of her recent designs. Diana Middleton of the Florida Times Union produced a great article for the paper.

Diana is a very focused and determined individual willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill her vision. I take a lot of inspiration from that. Is learning from your children a return on investment? I'm enjoying it.

The final roadtrip home: Montréal to Jax - Part 1

We received an offer on our condo within 3 weeks of listing it. So the time has come, time to pack and time to say goodbye. Moving is tough both emotionally and physically. I did not want to ship anything back, so the furniture was sold with the condo and everything that would not fit into the SUV got tossed or was given away. I also had 3 bikes, tons of books, and clothes. My decision was that after closing, we would make our way west along HW 17 through Ottawa, Pembroke, North Bay, Sudbury, through Sault Ste-Marie to Munising  MI. This would allow us to see some peak foliage in the Michigan UP. Then we would drive south through Columbus to visit with relatives, with a quick stop in West Virginia and then back to Florida. I had spent the week previously packing and visiting with friends. The execs at my office invited me to a farewell dinner which was very touching. I received gifts and well wishes from everyone. This made it all the more difficult to leave. As we turned in our condo keys and headed out of town Dorian and I were in tears. It was very sad and both of us knew that we were closing out a very special time in our lives. The weather matched our feelings as it was drizzling cold rain. I met my close friend Ed outside the city to give him my phones and router. We hugged and said goodbye.

Québec/Ontario Autumn gallery.

Soon we crossed into Ontario and we noticed the foliage was brilliant. Although the rain continued the trees were in their peak transition. We managed to stop at several parks and turnouts along the way. First night was in Pembroke at the Econo Lodge. I made reservations on line at various places. You never know what you are going to get but we were please with the accommodations. Night number 2 was in Sudbury at the Parker House Inn (a B&B). I would highly recommend this place, great restaurant and very nice people. After 2 days of driving we crossed back into the US at Sault Ste-Marie into Michigan and headed to Munising . When we crossed the border I had another moment of sadness as I said goodbye to Canada. The Soo locks were very interesting and we did not allow time to photograph there (next time) as we wanted to make it to Munising before dark.

We arrived at the Sunset Motel on the Bay and Lake Superior greeted us with rain and gale force winds. Forcast? Rain and wind for the next 3 days. Lovely.

The final roadtrip home: Montréal to Jax - Part 2

Musining MI is a nice small town. In the October cold rain, the streets were quiet. I could see this place hustling during the heat of the summer, but now it was bordering on total desertion with just a few locals tending to their business. One thing about cold, rainy, off season days...the parks should be empty! We planned on two days at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, day 1 exploring the west side and day 2 driving over to the east. One of the main roads through the park was closed, so we needed to make a big loop to get to the other end.

   

The first day was a bit ridiculous. Winds at 30-40 mph on the lakefront blowing cold rain. I've shot in the drizzle before but this was insane. There were periods of reprieve. In fact seriously, I find changing weather conditions more productive than bright cloudless days. Day 2 the rain let up but the wind did not rest. At Sable Falls we had a chance meeting with Nancy Rotenberg...what a nice surprise. Go figure, what are the chances? Nancy's work is very influential in my development and I experienced one of her great workshops at the Adirondack Photo Institute.

 

Michigan UP and Pictured Rocks gallery.

From Musining, we took H13 south to Lake Michigan, then east on H2 towards Mackinaw City and hook up with M119 (the famous Tunnel of Trees) between Petosky and Harbor Springs. Our goal was to reach Flint MI by dark. The rain seemed to follow us as we stayed slightly ahead of it. Along H13 we took a small side road which turned into an ATV trail. Some really nice foliage but I was wondering what we would do if an oncoming vehicle approached us...there was no room to turn around. After about a mile of getting totally lost we were deep in the Hiawatha Forest and  decided to backtrack and eventually found our way out.

  

From here H13 runs into Lake Michigan. Going west on 2 to Manistique we stopped at the lighthouse, and then onwards to the Mackinac Bridge. There is a nice visitor's center at the base of the bridge on the south end, so we stopped for some photos. Then onwards to find M119. It's a bit of a haul to get to on backroads but worth it. Everything was still green and lush, the trees literally formed a tunnel. Traffic was somewhat heavy and we did not stop. The road is primarily residential and developed. We got to Flint well after sundown. From Flint it was on to Columbus OH.

Makinac Bridge gallery.

The final roadtrip home: Montréal to Jax - Part 3

Sometimes I like taking the road less traveled. Interstates are nice but you can't really see or experience America sandwiched in between 2 tractor-trailers and eating at Cracker Barrel. Driving through Ontario and then Michigan was actually enlightening, to see the farms, the small towns, and the locals going about their day, totally separated from the hustle and bustle of the city. Well, the rain finally let up...lets see it's been 5 days of downpour now. We took a "shortcut" to get from Flint to Columbus, at least that's what I was told. We passed an old drive in movie that I now wish I had stopped to photograph. Plenty of old gas stations, barns, and shops. The highlight of our stay was meeting Emma our grand-niece. As you can see she is cute as a button and we spent plenty of time getting some good pictures.

   

We left Columbus and headed to Canaan Valley, WV...yahoo! I was familiar with this place when I attended the very first NANPA Regional event held here in May 2006 (my gallery from this event). The foliage was in good form, and the weather...well it seemed like the rain had caught up with us. We felt like we were jinxed, out comes the camera, down comes the rain. As you can see the overcast skies worked in our favor. I would rather dodge the raindrops than deal with the full sun. We debated staying one more day since I missed the morning fog in the valley. I have a tough time catching that fog! We decided to head out per schedule, one more night in Cornelius, NC and then home at last.

   

Canaan Valley Autumn gallery.

Autumn in Québec

To experience autumn in Québec is, well, to experience autumn. In the competition for color, scenic beauty, and the overall ambiance of the season, the Laurentian Mountains really know how to throw a party. I've been up here for 3 years and yet to find the time or conditions to do justice to the change of the seasons here. That means I will just have to come back. I had the privilege of staying with my dear friend and co-worker at his cabin in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. He treated me to photography at Lac Méduse and gourmet dinner...what more can one ask for? It's lovely in the mountains and that's why so many Montréalers have a place "up north." The next day I drove through the Parc National du Mont-Tremblant. In the winter this is a huge ski resort, in the summer a mecca for camping and hiking. I will miss the access to such wonderful places to photograph and wonderful friends to share these times.

Québec/Ontario Autumn gallery.

Far above Cayuga's waters...

Yes I graduated from Cornell in 1976 and getting back to campus is always somewhat of a rejuvenating journey back to the past. Our son's girfriend's brother is attending the engineering school so we made a trip over to visit with all of them. Cornell has a beautiful campus, and there were a lot of changes (hadn't been back there in almost 10 years). But some things never change...like the clock tower, the Straight, and the gorges. We explored the Cornell Plantations for the first time. For the 5 years I was there I never went. And we made it out to Treman State Park one of our favorites.

 

Cornell University gallery.

  

Robert H. Treman Park gallery.

We took a side trip to Corning NY home of Corning glass and the museum. Again this is a place we never visited in our time up here. The exploring and discovery never stops, nor should it.

 

Corning Museum of Glass gallery.

Final days in Montréal

My official "day job" retirement date has been set to Sept 1, so I will be saying goodbye to all my friends in this wonderful city, and regretful for all the pictures I never got around to taking. Montréal is an optimum location for photography and I don't think I took advantage of it. I'm hoping that it will take a few months to sell my condo so I will have a chance to get final shots in. So the big lesson for me is to always be in "visitor" mode when you are on location, and get the shots you want because who knows what will happen and when you will return. I will always be thankful for the opportunity for living here and the images I was able to make. With all of this in mind my boss took me to the Laval Centre de la Nature which is right around the corner from our office. Actually we got lost getting there so we missed the sunrise, but this is a bit of an oasis in the middle of a city. We had a lot of fun testing out his new Nikon D300 and being late for work.

The next day I did my farewell visit to the Jardin Botanique de Montréal, one of my favorite places of all time. I will really miss being able to escape to this incredible place. My goal was to document as many of the plants and flowers as I could, but I was never able to dedicate myself to working through this.

Then I took some interior shots of my condo for the realtor. Finally got some use out of my TS 24mm lens.

 

  

Lightroom Catalogs

The organization of my LR Catalogs has put me in a quandary. Too many questions, not many answers. Do I put everything in one catalog?, do I have one catalog for each year?, should a catalog contain images not on the physical drive that it is saved on?, what happens when my catalog gets corrupted?, how many catalogs should I be managing?, can I search across catalogs?, how many images can a catalog hold...how many images should a catalog hold? I was trying to do a search on strategies for setting up and organizing catalogs and came up short. I know when Adobe designed this concept, they had something in mind, but they failed to give some good examples of catalog organization for different scenarios. Like giving you a box of Legos without instructions. Ok, so I came up with my own organizing thoughts, some of which may be based on false assumptions (please tell me if you know otherwise).

Point 1: Only a single catalog can be searched/filtered at one time. The software can point to only a single catalog, there is no facility to search multiple catalogs simultaneously (a great feature to have), at least I haven't found a way to do that yet.

Point 2: Based on Point 1, a catalog should contain all the images that you want to be able to filter and search on in one operation. So, you should not have a separate catalog for 2008 and 2007 if you want to have a collection that contains images from both years.

So, the strategy is to define a catalog based on a type or category of photos that you want to be able to search. In other words, it may not make sense to store your family snapshots and your flower abstracts in the same catalog. Thinking about this, I set up 4 main "categories" of photos I am producing:

1) Stock images (nature, buildings, objects, people, abstracts) that I feel may have some value to be sold as stock or something I may want to someday hang on my wall. A majority of my images are in this category

2) Snaps (family, friends, personal travel photos, ebay shots) are images that have no commercial or art value but satisfy the need to document trips, the kids, or other personal things - like my messy garage before and after...never got to the after image yet.

3) Events (science fair, reunions, weddings, communions, etc.) are images for a specific event that I get involved with (can you take some pictures of Joey's graduation since you have a nice camera??) and has little or nothing to do with my main body of work.

4) Projects, like Photographers for Freedom, which are composed of multiple shoots, but may need to be referenced collectively.

I will define catalogs based on these categories. This seems to make sense to me at this time in my appreciation of LR Catalogs. At least it is a step to avoid keeping all images in one Catalog. As for the answers to all the questions I posed above, I still don't have clear answers. But we have to go with something and I'll let you know what I end up putting together.

Lightroom resources

My adventure into Lightroom has begun. The web has so much to offer, and it it easy to get lost in what is available. From the Adobe site Lightroom product page you can go to the Design Center for a bunch of related links for tutorials and help. A good Lightroom forum can be found at http://www.lightroomforums.net/

George Jardin's blog (former Adobe Lightroom evangelist) http://www.mulita.com/blog/ There are several Podcasts and interviews that are VERY insightful for Lightroom and photography in general. Unfortunately George left Adobe in July but his podcasts are still available on his idisk. Grab them now before someone takes his site down. I spent several hours last night listening to interviews with Jay Maisel, Steve McCurry, Greg Gorman, and others.

Lightroom Tutorial Podcast #45 The Lightroom Catalog - Part 1, or “Where Are My Pictures?” is particularly insightful on what is going on with Lightroom file organization, and why most people (including me) are completely confused with a database approach vs. a file browser approach. Then listen to the interview with Maisel, Gorman, and Resnik (Podcast #42) to ask yourself why you are bothering to go through all this to store your images.

On an unrelated note, I ran into this link for interviews with great contemporary photographers http://bermangraphics.com/gallerypress.htm

Enjoy!

Lightroom 2.0 upgrade

Today I upgraded my Lightroom to 2.0 and re-confirmed my commitment to the software with my wallet. I promised myself to work through my internal resistance to change workflow, and now I am narrowing my excuses. Adobe is doing a great job of hyping the new release, and I am always a sucker for a good sales pitch (bought a few Magic Bullets a while back). I've started going down the Lightroom path at least 3 times, and now I am going again. There are several big mental obstacles to overcome and it means just setting one's mind to the task and doing it. Old habits are hard to break and this old dog needs to learn some new tricks. The first big rock to overcome is convincing yourself that your existing tools and ways just cannot accommodate what you want to do. Here is my situation:

I have been shooting digitally since 2004 and have amassed around 280 GB of photos, mostly RAW, numbering in the neighborhood of 28,000 images. These are all organized on several external HDDs, my 1 TB drive has everything as a master archive, a 250 GB has 2007/2008 and is my "working" drive, and an additional 160 GB drive has 2006-2004.

I am tired of looking for images based on memory of when and where they were taken. As I venture into selling stock, I need to be able to not only find images but keywording is essential. If I take the time to title, caption, and keyword an image I only want to do this one time for all eternity, and I need a place where this can be done efficiently and in an organized way. I'm not going to re-enter the same title for my pBase site, Zenfolio site, PhotoShelter, etc.

Although Canon DPP has served me well, it is time to move on. The editing tools in LR are far superior, and the integration with Photoshop is designed to help your workflow.  I'm looking forward to the upgrade.

Life Images Acceptence

This email just in, I'll keep you posted on what issue the photos appear in. Hooray!

----- Original Message -----

From: Staci Dumoski

To: doug.eng@comcast.net

Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 5:52 PM

Subject: Life Images Submission

Hi Doug, I¹m happy to tell you that your submissions "Three Lotus Leaves" and "Autumn Start" have been chosen to appear in Life Images. I will need you to send me the high-resolution file by July 18.   Please be aware we cannot, at this point in time, guarantee your photo¹s appearance in print; space limitations and production demands sometimes result in photos being delayed to later issues or canceled altogether (if the high res files are determined to be insufficient quality for print). We are seeking one-time-only publication rights, and you will retain full ownership of your photos; a copyright in your name will be printed along with the image. In exchange for letting us print your photos, we will send you a free copy of the magazine when it appears, and a 50% discount on any additional copies you may with to purchase.   Congratulations,   Staci Dumoski Managing Editor

To shoot or not to shoot

That is the question we answer each day. Do you feel guilty when the answer is NO? Like an athelete training for an event, we feel the need to exercise our craft everyday. So is it acceptable to "think" about photography, or do we need to actually pick up the camera to do something meaningful? For me the guilt is there, especially when I know the external conditions are right (availability of time, location, light, wind conditions, temperature, etc.). But there are things we must do, to manage the rest of our lives, and the rest of our photography. I think each of us must resolve this question for ourselves. There is comfort and solace being behind the camera. But there are also realities of life that ask for our time and attention.

Boston July 4th holiday

We had planned to be in Boston for July 4th to be with Donald and Sophie. Diana came in from New York. We flew in from Jacksonville and got a hotel room in Burlington which was about 15 miles north of the city, and it was a haul to get out there. Luckily with the holiday traffic was “mild,” but roads in Boston are a mess, much worse than Montréal (if that is possible) with no logic to the streets. I guess they were all laid out by randomly walking around because nothing is straight, and there are few street signs. Even the GPS was confused. But the potholes and road conditions were the worst I have seen, it looked like a war zone. We stayed at a Summerfield Suites in a big two bedroom suite with full kitchen for $199 a night, which was quite decent for Boston for the holiday weekend. Our itinerary for the holiday: USS Constitution, Boston Pops pre-concert, New England Aquarium, July 4th Fireworks, the Burlington Mall, Costco (college kids go here for food shopping), and the movie WALL-E.

Getting around in Boston is not that easy. Traffic is a mess and parking is expensive. A full day in Cambridge is $22 and downtown it is about $30. Since Donald lives on the MIT campus, we decided it would be easier to park in Cambridge near Kimball Square (behind Legal Seafood) and take the T downtown. Plus due to the holiday concerts and fireworks, several of the roads were closed, which added more confusion to an otherwise impossible situation.

USS Constitution This was always one of my favorite tall ships and I was so excited to be coming here for the first time. When we arrived the lines were decent. There is a security checkpoint and full airport style inspection before entering the ship. I immediately noticed the small crane at the front and the ship looked almost naked. It is in mid-process of restoration with most of the masts disassembled, a missing bowsprit, and a rear deck reconstruction going on. So most of the rigging was down and the tops of the masts and yardarms were all taken down. I was bummed out about that. We took the tour and went down to the decks below, more restoration going on all over the ship. I’m sure it will look marvelous when they are finished.

  

Boston Pops Hatch Shell Concert This is the classic pre-concert on July 3 before the big one on the 4th. We arrived 4 hours early to get a seat and the place was already packed. The area we entered was secured and there was a full inspection of bags before entering. We picked our spot and waited. At around 6:45 an announcer came on and told us there was a front approaching and that we had better seek shelter in the nearby tunnel. We decided to wait it out and huddle under the umbrellas. At around 7:15 the rain and wind came and we stayed tight. We also took advantage of the fact that a lot of people ran for cover so we conveniently moved our spot closer to the stage and we were just in front of one of the camera stations. The rain finally ended at around 7:30 and we settled in for the concert which was to begin at 10:00. It was a long wait.

We heard the Boston Pops play a selection of Leonard Bernstein tunes. Then after a brief intermission, Rascal Flatts played with the Pops until the grand finale. Its funny Donald’s friends never heard of Leonard Bernstein, I never heard of Rascal Flatts. But we all recognized the music. Now unbeknown to us we were positioned right in front of the confetti machine. At the end of the concert with the Stars and Stripes in the background, the machine started up and the paper was flying.

 

New England Aquarium Ok if you really want a challenging day of photography go to the New England Aquarium to shoot the jellyfish, then follow up with some night shooting of the July 4th fireworks in Boston Harbor. Both locations perfect for some outstanding and challenging photography.

Walking into the aquarium it was dark, very dark. I forgot about that. The tanks are lit but you are still shooting at ISO 1250 – 1600 and f4 or wide open at 2.8. I had my 100mm macro, 70-200, and 24-70. The next challenge is you realize these things are moving around...fast. No fish is going to stop and pose for you! Plus, since we were there on July 4th, the place was packed with kids and parents chasing their kids. So we did the best that we could.

The aquarium shots of the fish were a disaster. Everything blurry, you cannot stop action at 1/40 sec. I did better with the anemones, but again with available light your are not going to get any DOF or freeze any action. There was a large area with penguins and they were being fed. These guys are comical, but there is always something sad about animals in captivity.

Jellyfish are one of my favorite subjects. The Atlantic Sea Nettle tank was backlit with a fluorescent blue with some spot lighting. These large animals were floating and moving around, it was mesmerizing just to watch. The tank is quite large so it was easy to get into position for a front, top, and bottom view. I was using my macro and enjoying the view through the lens. I was trying to get a good single portrait, a detail, and then a composition with two or more animals. The last proved the most challenging.

 

Fireworks We made our way to the Harvard Bridge which is where Mass Ave crosses into the MIT campus. We arrived at 6:00 PM (fireworks at 10:00 PM) but people were already lining up. We were lucky to find a good spot on the bridge right up against the rail. I set up the tripod and started shooting some skyline pictures as the sun started to go down. As people started to pack in, a lady just rolled out her mat right under my tripod and sat down. People seem to be very aggressive in Boston…we experienced a lot of this at the Pops concert, people very territorial and rude in claiming their viewing “spot.” It was clear that this lady was not going to move, and I asked her to not kick the leg on my tripod. The river was full of boats of all kinds…it was a fun scene.

At around 8:00 the concert began, it was essentially the same concert as the one we attended yesterday. There were speakers set up on the bridge to broadcast the music. At the end of the 1812 Overture (halfway through) there was a fireworks teaser. The real show did not start until around 10:00.

I noticed that the wind had completely died which is not a good thing for fireworks, as the smoke tends to linger over the launch zone, covering the subsequent explosions. This proved to be the case…the show started shortly after 10:00 and the first few fireworks were clean and the smoke started to build. I started at ISO 100, f8 on bulb for a 2-4 sec exposure. Progressively the images started to look blown out in the LCD so I went to f9, 10, and 11. I ended up still being at least 2 stops overexposed. In the excitement I was not checking the histogram, which is certainly what one should ALWAYS do because you never can trust the LCD.

The fireworks were breathtaking and with the music and people it was a very emotional experience. Part of me just wanted to watch and not fuss with the camera. There were all kinds of special effects that I had never seen before. Out of about 60 exposures I rescued a few. Good thing I was shooting RAW so I could at least get 2 stops of exposure adjustment, but the smoke really obscured the view. At the end of the show there was a mass of humanity leaving…they say over 500,000 crowd the banks to watch, I believe that. Everyone was hungry so we decided to go to IHOP which was a drive. By the time we got back to the hotel with was 2 AM…what a day!

Link to Boston gallery

A view of New York from Brooklyn

Last night I was shooting with André Walker in Brooklyn, at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge and further south looking west to Manhattan. What a good time we had. It seems like it was difficult to get a bad shot, as I was thoroughly excited by the power of the city, and the bridges that connected to the island. We arrived after sunset but there was still some color in the sky. We were treated with a fireworks display near the Statue of Liberty at about 9:30. We then made our way back to Fulton Street and shot around the base of the Manhattan Bridge. I have a weakness for bridges and could have stayed there all night. Next time we will take the stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge and shoot from there. André provided the transportation and I realized how important it is to have a “local” guide who can get you around quickly. This save both time and experimentation and is invaluable in a place like NYC. This city is huge, and you can waste a lot of time trying to get around and find good places to shoot. We are just beginning to explore this place, so you can expect a lot more from me on locations.

Link to gallery

Photo shoot in NYC

As all of you know my daughter is writing a book on fashion and technology, and we did a photo shoot on 12 of her projects for the book. I invited my good friend and fellow photographer André Walker, to lead the shoot, while I provided the documentary and candid shots. I was also serving as André’s assistant, which proved to be a fun experience. We were able to use the EOS Utility to tether the ID Mk2 to my laptop to give instant feedback on each shot, so that Diana could ensure that she got what she wanted. This proved to be a very efficient way to work, and provided the instant feedback for adjustments and assurance that we got the shot. I set up 2 Speedlights to grab my candids in between shots. As you can see I captured some good artistic collaboration. With the music going and everyone in the flow, we were having a creative play day. The female model was extremely professional and it’s amazing the difference she made in the ease of the overall shooting…no direction required. It became apparent to me that my next educational emphasis is on lighting, on location and studio. It is very clear to me that lighting makes the shot. With the setup we had (3 strobes w/1 on a softbox and 2 on umbrellas), we were able to provide consistent quality light throughout. But I was satisfied with the Speedlights too, as they performed very well and were easy to move around. We will certainly pursue more effective use of these little guys too.

  

I surrender...Lightroom is in

You can say I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid using Lightroom and Photoshop in my work. Possible reasons:1. Learning to use software in a royal pain 2. I am hooked on DPP for 95% of the work I need to do 3. I’ve been producing primarily for the Web, when I make prints I’m definitely in PS 4. I’ve never had to keyword or title my stuff

As I get more serious into management of my “assets” (funny, I never considered my snaps as assets before because I never felt they were of much use to anyone) I know I need to get into some professional tools. Honestly if they added the following two features to DPP, I would be a happy camper and would continue to use it for most of my workflow: 1. Add/modify EXIF data and keywords 2. Free Transform the image (for straightening and perspective correction)

DPP is FAST and it writes all non-destructive changes within the CR2 file itself, no sidecars, no major databases to sync and haul around. My other choice is to convert everything to DNG and have the same idea, but this means I am into Bridge or Lightroom and still leaves the chore of archiving the original CR2s (which I probably should be doing anyway).

From what I can see if I am going to get into stock I need to keyword, and the best way to do and manage that seems to be Lightroom. I’m sure I will get over my cold feet with this program, but honestly I have tried to get going with this on three separate occasions and each time I gave up because it just seemed too hard. The concept of the “database” holding everything is different. I should know better as this is the basic architecture of any version control or content management system used in my work. I think in Adobe’s attempt to hide this complexity from the end users, it leaves most of what is going on with the file a complete mystery, which disturbs me. Yes it’s time for an old dog (Doug) to learn some new tricks. Adobe spent millions of $$s on this program and spoke to hundreds of pros, so it’s not like the program was developed by some guy in a closet. Who is to say I cannot adopt to a new workflow designed to make me more productive? You cannot resist the Force!

So I am going to start Importing my Tuscany images into Lightroom, and expect that ALL of my edits, cloning, crops, and color corrections with DPP will be lost. I’m crying now…I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

PC and 5D together in perfect USB harmony

I've always wanted to control my camera from my computer and decided it was time to see if I could get this to work. I knew that Canon had some utility to do this, but didn't have an idea where to start. Looking at my Start menu under Canon Utilities I saw an item called EOS Capture 1.5...hmm, looks promising. Upon expanding that item it had two choices, Readme or Uninstall. That stinks. So I went to the Canon website and navigated to the download section for my 5D. There was an Updater for a program called EOS Utility 2.4 (not very descriptive) so I tried to download this. I received an error message that since I didn't have the previous version, I could not install it. That stinks. So how does one get an old version? I am up here in Montréal and do not have all my regular CDs and stuff but luckily I had an older EOS Solution CD. It had software for ZoomBrowser, DPP, EOS Capture, PhotoStitch, PhotoRecord, etc. but no EOS Utility. So I decided to try to install the EOS Capture again since the version on my machine was impotent.

I loaded the CD and went through the install for EOS Capture and it told me the software was already installed so it didn't do anything. That stinks. So I exited the install and uninstalled EOS Capture, went back and loaded the CD and tried to install it again. So it managed to install some files, I rebooted my computer (no small task as it take 5 minutes to go through everything). Went back to the Start menu to EOS Capture and crap, same two items: Readme and Uninstall. That stinks. Obviously I was doing something wrong. I read in the Software Guide (I was getting desperate) that the camera needed to be attached and switched to Communication: PC Connect. Aah...was this my problem? Didn't make much sense to me so I repeated my steps and ended up with the same result. At this point I was ready to call it quits.

I uninstalled EOS Capture again, went back to the Install CD and decided to install ZoomBrowserEX 5.5, what the heck, this was the only utility I didn't have and I figured someone may be assuming I need this to get the EOS Capture to work. This was a big program. After rebooting my computer (third time) I went looking for EOS Capture and no luck. So in desperation I fired off ZoomBrowser and saw that it had an Acquire and Camera Settings "task" so I started clicking in there, finding a Remote Capture feature. I was able to change the camera settings and click the shutter all from this little dialog box. How cool is that? But wait, where were the images going. I set the location of the captured files to a folder but nothing was coming in. Nothing was being written to the memory card. That stinks.

I went back to the download page and decided to get the updated version of ZoomBrowser. The version I had was 5.5, and the new one was 6.0.1c. So I did the download, went through the install and fired up the new version. Under the Acquire & Camera Settings, I selected Connect to Camera and received this new message:

 

WTF!! Ok, I was getting quite upset with this whole ordeal. Out of complete desperation I went to grab the EOS Utility again. Under the description for the file it confirmed that this was the program I should be using for remote capture. I downloaded the install, fired it off and it got safely through, no message telling me a previous version was not installed. I rebooted one more time, and kept my fingers crossed (not really...I knew this would work!). After clicking on the shortcut I was able to see again the Remote dialog box, and able to set the images to go directly to DPP (Canon's RAW file utility). So I was able from the laptop to change aperture, ISO, click the shutter, and see the image appear in DPP for immediate review. How COOL is that? Redemption at last.

BTW, EOS Capture never did intall correctly. Which goes to show how utterly sick, cruel, sadistic, and idiotic all of this is on us poor techno-phobes, who only want to get something simple to work.

 PC and 5D, together at last!