Tag: Travel

My Best Image From 2020-21, So Far

This is the best image I've shot so far in the past year. I took it 2 days ago, during the winter storm we had here in Seattle, at Post Alley near the Harbor Steps. The lighting, the glow created by the falling snow, deep shadows and lots of straight, converging all came together for this long exposure. I tend to be excessively modest about my photography, but this image stood out as soon as I took it and reviewed it in my viewfinder. 
To me, it's just hauntingly beautiful and perfectly encapsulates the feeling I had while walking through the 6 inches of dry, powdery, freshly fallen snow at 4am.
 Because of Instagram's image compression, you miss out on all of the subtle nuances that exist in both the diffused light and shadows. The gradation of both color and tone, the sparkle and texture of the snow, details in the shadows... none of this is visible until you see it in full, 16-bit, ProPhoto RGB color. Because of that, I'm posting it here in full, uncompressed, 16-bit TIF format. No watermarks or BS in the way so you can see it as I do and judge it on its merits. (Warning: this is a 330MB file. Click image for full size)
 Enjoy!

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Why I Bought a Fujifilm GFX

I'm obviously not a professional photographer. Now, some may take that to mean an enthusiast has no need for a "professional level" camera, but that is entirely untrue, even on a general level. What the GFX offers is resolution. 50.1 megapixels of it. What I offer my camera is a crippled body, unable to get the most from any camera body. I can not hike as far, climb as high or go as long as an average photographer. I also cannot drive due to the medications I need to operate from day to day. Because of that, the GFX's resolution returns to me an ability lost by my inability to drive: repeatability.

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This always happens to me: Shimoda Design Action X70

So, 2 full months after I bought my Shimoda Design Explore 40 backpack, they opened a Kickstarter for a new line of packs. Called the Action X series, they're basically a collection of improvements, many of which were universally requested by owners, including myself.

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Sorry I haven’t been posting regularly

I've been really busy lately, traveling up and down western Washington State, hiking and photographing both beaten and unbeaten paths. It began by trying to take advantage of a streak of good weather and morphed into chasing the autumn colors as the weather got colder. Hikes include: Alpine Lake Wilderness, Denny Creek, Mount Fremont Lookout, Annette Lake, Lake Twentytwo and Artist Point. All of these on consecutive weekends, and even some weekdays, over the past 3 weeks. And in that time I think I've posted just once. Maybe twice. So, here are 3 photos from the past week.

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How To: Give Your Gitzo Series 1 Mountaineer 4 Section Tripod Removable Feet

If you didn't already know, the Gitzo Mountaineer Series 0 and 1 Tripods come with fixed rubber feet. I can't speak for the 3 section versions, but generally the Mountaineer Series 2 and up come with 3/8"-16 threaded interchangeable feet, while those below have permanently affixed rubber feet. So I decided to buy a final leg section and foot for the GT1545T Traveler, already knowing it shared the 14.7mm leg diameter with my GT1542 Mountaineer but comes with a threaded cap to support 1/4”-20 interchangeable feet. The part number for the leg section is D106023 and the foot is D108623.

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Some Deer, Residents of Long Beach

Just a few photos of the local deer on our last morning in Long Beach. They came by for breakfast, the doe bringing her two fawns, approaching our balcony as if she’d remembered that I was out feeding them apples the night before. They sat patiently below our balcony as we dropped bananas and apples for them, posing for photos before moving on to the next set of condos. These deer definitely have us trained well.

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Amazon Strikes Again…

So, just like what happened with the deal on the Gitzo Mountaineer GT1542 + GH1382QD kit, I got a price alert on a Gitzo Traveler GT1555 + GH1382TQD kit for 45% off the advertised price of $989. So I bought it, because I have no self control.

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What’s So Great About Gitzo, Anyways? (Part 1)

Serious question: What’s so great about Gitzo tripods? After spending a few hours inspecting my new Gitzo GT1542 Mountaineer Series 1 tripod and GH1382QD Series 1 ball head, for every positive engineering or design decision they made, there’s an equally puzzling or outright poor one. For now, I’m going to focus solely on the knobs for the ball head. I promise I’ll focus on the other things later once I’ve gotten a better look, but the next item will be the leg angle locks.

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Gear Review: SunwayFoto T1A20D Mini Tripod

After the trip to Forks, I realized I needed a mini tripod for those times when I forget my full or travel sized tripod. One that's small enough to carry all of the time and when height isn't all that important compared to just getting the shot. This is one of those things I'll be throwing into the bag whenever I may encounter low light, ensuring I can use whatever shutter speed I need to get proper exposure without fear of instability.

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All the Ingredients for an Excellent Photo Went to Waste by Me. #SeattlePlayedOut

Went to Discovery Park's West point Lighthouse to observe a confluence of events: king tide, strong wind gusts and gradual clearing of skies. The hope was to get waves crashing near the West Point Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the tide began to recede quickly and by the time the light was good, the waves could no longer reach the point. The result was a bunch of mediocre photos that I decided to use for practice in Lightroom instead.

Maybe I can sell a couple of these to a church for use as flyers or book covers or something.

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Feelin’ Monochrome

I went back and took a fresh look at some of the photos taken during my vacation in Long Beach, WA. Decided to process some of them with the Acros emulsion courtesy of Fujifilm and Lightroom. As a peek into my process, I normally shoot in the default Provia simulation but rarely use the OOC jpegs. My preference is to manually post process from a RAW file converted from the original RAF using X-Transformer. The first step in Lightroom is to add a Fujifilm emulsion, either Provia or Astia for portraits, or Provia or Velvia for landscapes. If the photo calls for it, I'll then return later and apply the Acros emulsion once all other adjustments have been completed.

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Keepers.

I ended up taking some of my best photos so far, ones that truly display how far along I've come in my hobby since picking it back up again. Obviously I'm quite proud of these. Side by side with photos I've taken a year ago, the progress made is immediately apparent. Of course I still have a long way to go before I achieve anything truly remarkable, but these are noteworthy for demonstrating my progress.

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Seattle’s 5 Most Famously Photographed Spots and 1 Up and Comer

I'm going to list these 5, famously photogenic Seattle vistas with their proper names, address and an example or two from my own visits there, if I have one. Maybe you're new to town, a tourist, or even lived here a long time but could never find where a few on this list are. Mind you, this is in no way comprehensive; Seattle is full of incredible views with a skyline that's changing by the minute due to incredible economic growth. These are just the 5 most commonly seen and should be automatic for any local or tourist with a camera.

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The Space Needle’s Saucer Section Receives a Glass Cockpit

I went out early on Friday morning to take photos of downtown from Kerry Park and was greeted by wildfire smoke blotting out the sunrise. All attempts to capture a golden sunrise on what was essentially a cloudless morning were thwarted, so I popped on the 50-140mm and 2x teleconverter and aimed the front element at the Space Needle. After spending nearly a year under an ugly veil while undergoing renovation, the scaffolding came off a few days ago and revealed the new, modern look. So, in spite of it all, I ended up getting some clean shots of the Space Needle's new look.

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Nobody Makes the Perfect Bag, so Roll Your Own

If you read my review, you'll know I really like my Lowepro Freeline 350 BP backpack. Despite all of it's improvements over the Peak Design backpack, there's one outstanding regression in the design and that's the shelving and dividers. Peak Design's origami inspired shelving system is possibly the best solution I've seen for carving up bag space to organize and protect your camera gear. Lowepro's solution is adequate but inferior. So I decided to combine the best of each into a FrankenBag.

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