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5D mkIII - The new camera has arrived

2012-05-24T09:00:21Z

Ohh YEAH!

So a little while ago in Guatemala I was abruptly parted with my 5D mkII and 24-70 f/2.8L a camera and lens I'd used almost daily for 3 years. I love cameras but always thought of the 5D mkII as more of a tool rather than an attachment but when it left my life I was sad to loose it. I was devastated to not be able to record my life, travels and people I meet but I assume all things happen for a reason and that good is everywhere.

So the day after being parted with the camera and after all nessesary formalities had been carried out I began plotting and planing on ways to get another camera. As it turns out after much careful research I found that the newly announced replacement the 5D mkIII was almost about to hit the stores. When exactly I wasn't sure because the two biggest distributors in the US B&H and Adorama both having stores in NYC and both websites said preorder only. But after checking back a few hours later Adorama had updated their website to say shipping. So I frantically called them to ask if they really did have them in stock and if they could hold one for me. Naturally some guy in Singapore answered and he only knew what was in their international warehouse not what was on the shelf in New York so more digging was required to find the actual number for their store.

Why not get it shipped to Guatemala, Belize or Mexico? Well lets just say a $3500 camera in transit to any of these countries just didn't sit well with me. That and the last thing I'd want is to haggle in my broken Spanish with a customs official looking for a quick bribe or a fancy new camera. Besides I'd always wanted to go to New York and what an excuse! Flights from Cancun to NYC were cheap, I'd get to visit some amazing galleries and as it turned out make some great new friends.

So I managed to get someone on the phone from the Adorama store in NYC who confirmed that yes they had a few in the store. I booked the flights and then a day or so later set out from Panajanhel towards Belize and Mexico seeing the sites along the way... sans camera. It was a nice change travelling without a camera, not needing to push myself to get a good shot no waking up early or staying up late and just having good times with the lady friend. But man there were some great places that I would have loved to of had the camera and well the iPhone camera is good but meh!

NYC was a great city and the feeling of getting my hands on the camera at the store the day afer I arrived was like a new breath of life.

The 5D mkIII fresh out of the box

Some images from NYC

Postcards - Tilo, Chetumal Mexico

2012-05-22T19:45:08Z

I sat and spoke with Tilo for what seemed like an eternity waiting for a bus from Chetamal in Mexico to Belize city. We shared stories from our experiences in life but as the conversations and hours went on I came to know him as I've knowen few people. He had a lot on his mind and I was more than willing to lend him an ear and offer some perspective if I had it.

He was on the way home to his parents house after being in rehab for alcohol abuse for the third time in as many years. He was straight with me and spoke of his deep concerns about returning back to his home town where his long time friends would be and also the fact that his return was likely to be a celebration. He said that this is how he had failed on his last two attempts at being sober, he arrives home his friends want to celebrate and as a result have a drink.

Later in the morning just by chance one of his old drinking buddies walks past stone drunk at 9am with a bag full of beer. While his friend staggered to the bathroom I told him what a crazy position he was in, right here right now. Here he is with a bag full of beer in his hand, a friend just a few minutes away and an incredible opportunity to realise his future both the sober and drunk. I told him that this was almost divine and he agreed, it was a real chance to have perspective over his life at the crossroads.

What happened after? well Tilo rightly gave his friend back the bag of beer and sent him on his way and we parted ways after a few more hours on the bus and much more conversation. As the bus pulled up outside his village I bid him a very warm farewell and offered him all the strength and willpower he needed to keep away from the drink.

Postcards - Times Square, New York

2012-04-27T23:12:40Z

Walking into the midnight mayhem of New York's Time Square is the most eye popping man made visual overload I have experienced. The midnight sky above is a bright haze of soft purplish blues while the scene at street level is indescribable... but I'll give it a go. TV screens that cover entire buildings for blocks flash no-stop consumption recommendations to the bewildered masses peering up from below in awe. Perfume, cars, cloths, TV's, shoes, jewellery, phones food, brands you know and then some brands that you don't have any idea what they actually do like Bayer.

I chose this image because I love the juxtaposition of the flashy polished and perfect Time Square vs the old sanded down dull lines of an american classic being restored. While inside the car itself the same struggle exists with the American classic luxury sports car a symbol of consumerist independence with the Cuban flag hanging from the rear view mirror.

Festival Atitlan, Guatemala - Travel Photography

2012-03-23T16:24:58Z

What better rason to arrive a few days early in Panajachel than a Festival!

In Search of the Miena Cider Gum - Eucalyptus gunnii spp. gunnii

2012-03-16T00:49:18Z

Eucalyptus gunnii spp. gunnii or as its commonly known Miena Cider Gum is an endangered species of Australian tree endemic to the Tasmanian highlands coldest and most spectacular areas. For 25 days I took part in and documented the most comprehensive distribution study of the tree ever. The study was undertaken because of the rapid decline of the species over the last 30 years.

Gunnii is thought to be a climate change indicator species as it is the most frost tolerant Eucalypt species only growing on the boundaries of frost hollows in Tasmanias highlands. Even in the middle of summer night time temperatures can regularly drop below -5 degrees celsius and winter maximums rarely above 15. Gunnii manages to survive in these frost hollows because of its unique adaption of having a very sugar rich sap. Sugar is a natural anit-freeze so while the other eucalyptus in the area are at best dormant Gunnii thrives, or at least that's the evolutionary idea.

However, more than 60% of the know population of this tree has expired in the last 30 years with the primary cause being global climate change. Long droughts followed by warmer winters are the primary cause of its rapid die back as well as the impacts on soil from sheep and cattle grazing in the area. With much of Gunnii's theoretical distribution laying inside private land owned by Gunns, Tasmanias biggest logging company, its true numbers were highly speculative and until this survey largely unknown.

The vast majority of the known population is in close proximity to the town of Miena 140km from Hobart hence its common name Miena Cider Gum. The other half of the name "Cider Gum" refers to historical accounts of its unusually sweet sap being fermented and drunk as an alcoholic beverage by local aboriginal groups. Exacting scientific accounts of its traditional alcoholic use are nonexistent but there is abundant hard evidence that they did at least harvest the sweet sap. I had the opportunity to taste the sap straight from the trunk of a tree we discovered during the survey and it is as sweet as honey but with a slight eucalyptus flavour.

While the population close to Miena has has been carefully studied the properties further into the wilderness owned by Gunns have never been surveyed due to Gunns obvious economic interest in not knowing. However the recent acquisition of many of Gunns properties by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) allowed ecological scientists access for the first time. These photos are from that first round of surveys covering 63 sites on 7 different properties and covering a very large area of the Tasmanian highlands.

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico - Travel Photography

2012-03-10T06:27:07Z

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San Chris as it called by those that have been there too long is truly a magnificent city in the south of Mexico that everyone that is thinking of travelling to Mexico must go to.

When I say this please don't assume that I was always going to from the first moment we arrived. To be quite honest San Chris the first time around was quite a challenging place for me. Challenging not in the way of language or climate but more in the way that many travellers with their pockets full of money and heads full of back home ideas would pass judgment. It was grinding on me for the first few days of our stay.

This judgment would be that the people on the street usually Mayan were in a desperate state and selling their wares to you while you sip on an espresso confirmed this. Truth is an espresso costs 15 pesos which is a decent chuck of their daily wage and chances are that their family has grown coffee for as long as gringos have been drinking it. Its as if most do gooders believed that because they (the Mayans) aren't sitting in the sun drinking coffee or having a glass of wine in the bar at night they need saving and or are unhappy.

A new friend of mine Jannis from German and I spent hours in conversation debating the good, bad and the ugly of this and other similar perspectives. As our conversations wore on into the night and the wine I concluded that once again my eyes were only seeing what they knew and not what they could learn. What they could learn was that while women and children were selling everything from clothing to shoe shines to individual cigarettes at all hours of the day it was hardly, in comparative terms, a hard life. They would joke with each other between sales; be around their family all day; probably make more than being someone's house maid and the kids would play but only when away from the tourist hot spots.

This all happened in the same street as the above do gooders would only see poor women and children with puppy dog eyes. All I can say about this is that it worked and once again the travellers had been out smarted by as they say the mother of all invention necessity.

It wasn't until my second visit to San Chris that I really grew to love this street theater that played out at all hours of the day. Walking the street day and night I wanted to find the things that made this place special for the people that lived there but also the tourists. It wasn't a singular place or a singular time of day but, and it might sound a little cliche, it was the sum of all its parts that made it special.

The colours of the houses; gnarly uneven sidewalks; great weather; fascinating modern Mayan culture; trendy cafes; urban styles of the Mexican youth and a very healthy mix of world wide travellers calling it home are a few that come to mind.

Did I say earlier that "you must go".

Zipolite, Mexico - Travel Photography Blog

2012-03-01T01:20:34Z

Travel is ment to be an adventure mixed with moments of personal awakening, frustrating challenges and coma like relaxation.

Zipolite is almost the essence of the latter, coma like relaxation.

It's a town that sits on a coastline with numerous stretches of beaches separated by impressive rocky headlands and dotted with everything from resorts to grungy hippy hangouts. It is regarded as the hippies hippy hangout and has been for decades. Its very common to meet the outer stratosphere of the hippy kind on their third visit since the seventies. For example the Norwegian guy staying in the room opposite complete with thinning waist length dreadlocks and over tanned leatherish skin was on his 3rd visit in as many decades, so its no exaggeration. It's that kind of place and from all historical travel accounts hasn't changed much over that period except for a few new places to stay.

Zipolite was recommended to me by at least two friends back in Australia who told stories of regge bars on the beach thick with the fumes of weed. Ok you can stop there, I'm sold, I'm sure was my response at the time but it turned out to be a much more than this hedonistic Mecca. In the week we stayed there we went snorkeling twice including a tasting of the local mussels and sea snails fresh caught by hand by our deep diving guides. Found the most beautiful and delicious traditional Mexican food made and served by truly passionate people. We made two amazing new friends Jannis and Jessica and enjoyed life in a way that you could only be lucky enough to a handful of times in your life.

It really was that good, good enough to delay our departure twice and cut out another town we intended to stay at. For me it was hard to leave but after a solid week of this Mexican beach side paradise it was decided to leave while still riding the crest of the wave. It would be a shame to overstay in such a place especially since my quota for naked old people was reached 30 seconds into our first walk on the beach.

Oaxaca City, Mexico

2012-02-14T03:51:06Z

Central Oaxaca with colonial style houses

Beautiful! It's a luxury to be moving away from American culture which seems almost too familiar in a way and into a culture with a little more texture and individuality. Oaxaca is a great place to get your bearings in Mexico especially if you've never been to Southern Asia or North Africa and experienced all the joys of difference. Oaxaca City bears some recognisable elements of past colonial days thanks to the Spanish the easiest of these elements to see is the architecture.

In the city centre you see street after street of colourful colonial style buildings giving Oaxaca City a very charming atmosphere. Its not until you get out of the city centre that you begin to see the real Mexico and I don't want to put any ideas into your head like rural poverty or something of the sort. It just were your made aware of the general living standards of "most" Mexicans which is not the charm of Oaxaca City centre is a country of more than 112,000,000 people.

Away from Oaxaca city centre

The city centre is where you'll see the wealthy, the young and of course the tourists. This mix for any fresh off the plane westerner new to town is very reassuring after nearly everyone you've met the last few weeks told you that's it dangerous, you'll get robbed. After my first few hours in the streets I relaxed, I kept my camera around my neck and was not phased be getting my phone out to check the time or the maps. For the most part I was far from being the best dressed or the cleanest shaved so I felt quite at home.

The youth of the city fascinated me as with most places in the world they have been heavily influenced by western fashion. I found the contrast between them and the older generations which dressed more conservatively, very much like the town itself. Like the people the buildings were going through change getting a facelift and a new paint job to bring them into a new phase of their cultural existence. Once again both of these fade as you travel outwards of the centre to reveal the cultural and economic base lines.

With the selections of shots posted here I've done two things which are quite out of style for me. One I've taken on a very voyeuristic, shoot from the hip approach to getting the photographs, not asking permission to take someone's photograph is an ethically cheap way of shooting. However this time for me I realised that the language barrier at this stage in the journey was too great as well as the shyness of the people. I don't plan on using this style where its not applicable for example villages and places where photographs obviously should not be just taken. I'd like to maintain my ethical stance here and always ask permission.

Secondly the shoot moved away from clarity of technique into a very loose style. I used manual focus and a shallow depth of field to get images that have little to no areas of true classic focus because this I felt added to the esthetic of the voyeuristic style. The release from technical sharpness I hope translates into a sharpness of style where the subject, camera position and technical looseness come together coherently.

Landscape Photography, it’s a patient mans game

2012-02-12T11:20:36Z

I’m sitting in LA airport waiting from my flights down to Oaxaca Mexico and I’m sitting here with mixed feelings about my time here is the South West USA.

Mostly the way I’m feeling is quite natural I think for this stage of a journey, the end of a photographic dream to in my own time explore the south west and a healthy trepidation for my time ahead in Mexico. But there is another feeling that I’m sure most creatives have to pass through at this stage and that’s a feeling of did I achieve what I set out to do? Did I make the shots I planned to? and shit, are they any good? - (Ok that’s actually 3)

As time passes and wipes the slate of the recent past clean I’m sure that it’ll all work out with the expense of money and time being a very worthwhile investment. Personally I know that I’ll never look back at the South West US and say I was in anyway disappointed with the scenery. You can never get a true sense of what it’s like to be at the rim of the Grand Canyon and look down into the endless abyss or to watch the very first rays of light hit the Mountains around Death Valley without being there.

All you can do as a photographer is sum up your emotions for that place and time using your bag of technical tricks and that fore mentioned patience. Its easy to write this and recall with clarity what indeed it was like to stand in a blizzard at Monument Valley. It was extremely cold, windy, bleak and unbelievable. But do the photos I collected portray that or do they just look like a photo of some stuff covered with snow.

Well as I’m concluding at this very moment it doesn’t matter whether or not I got “the shot”. The personal experience of being there at that very special time made it for me photographic result or not.

I guess that this is what we all as photographers might have to live with, that balance of getting the shot over what it was really like to be there loving every second of it. Sometimes we don’t get the shot and sometimes we do but the simple fact that we have the opportunity to be there in the first place is and should be reward enough. The stories of the “one that got away” or “it was this big” will no doubt be just as valuable as the pixels that portray them perhaps even more so.

Photographing the South West USA. Part 3 - The End

2012-02-11T14:55:37Z

So I did mention the Grand Canyon previously and that is where I let off with the last post. It was a very difficult place to leave as can you ever get the photo that sums it up. I believe nothing that big both in physical scale and reputation can be contained or contended with photographically over the course of a few quick days. Photographers have spent their lives living at the canyon making a living from the tourist trade and spending untold days in the remotest areas being back the unique images we all expect to get.

The Shot of the Grand CanyonAt the end of my time there I was happy with one photo, yes just one shot that for me conveyed the things that I believe are the most difficult to do at the canyon. Portraying its sheer immensity, the subtle color variations between the rock layers and the environmental timeline both geological and seasonal are for me what has to be in the shot.

It was a very opportune morning, my first there as it would turn out, where all three of the prerequisites came together. Unfortunately as it would turn out the following early mornings and late afternoons yielded not quite a shot. Here is where it gets tricky being a landscape photographer do I stay with the hope of another perhaps grander shot or do I go to my next location.

I chose to move on. Page Arizona was my next location with two spots that I had hoped to shoot Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. Horseshoe Bend is on the Colorado River north of the Grand Canyon and as it name suggests it’s quite a bend... shaped like a horseshoe oddly enough. The qualifying geological significance of it however is more the fact that it’s a 300 meter vertical drop from the rim to the river.

Antelope Canyon just 30 minutes away is in the Navajo Nation and is very reminiscent of a place in Central Australia, Redbank Gorge right at the base of Mt. Sonder in the West MacDonnell Ranges. It’s a very narrow Canyon where a creek has carved its way through the soft sandstone. The trick here is the play of light and shadow on the canyon walls as the sun passes over head. The best time to shoot the canyon is summer when the sun is high providing many more opportunities for well lit walls.

It was hard shooting and the clock was ticking every hour I spent there added to the cost of being there which compared to everywhere else was expensive. It cost me $60 to stay there for 3 hours which is cheap when considering the summer prices. I have to say the time limits and constant chatter by the guides helpful to the cause of finding what it was all about and photographing it. However it was still a great location and I did get a shot that I was happy with and with the lack of freedom to explore further I again hit the road.

My next location was something of a mystery as it was a well known park but I could find no information on the National Parks Service website. So after doing what research I could, or was willing to about the park before going I drove the last half hour in. The Valley of Fire State Park was now part of the Navajo Nation and again required a separate fee to enter.

Let it be known the counterproductive nature of additional fees for parks which are not well setup and more importantly offer little to no cultural experience to warrant the charge. I know it sucks to make such statements and believe me if there was a perceivable value add because of the fee I’d have no problems paying. So as it was going to cost me another $20 just to enter the park and another $20 to camp I simply turned and went, unfortunately sometimes you’ve got to make the call.

A hard decision it was but the second chance prize was another day in Death Valley and it was a great thing to have. Death Valley was my favorite location for this trip because of its abundant differences on the small scale. In a single day you could shoot so many texture rich environments including the famous sand dunes, salt lakes, mountains, canyons and still have time to relax before going out at sunset.

This time around in Death Valley, yep it was my second time for the trip (see part one), I wanted to get onto the salt lakes and explore the textures and patterns as they vanished into the horizon. The first day I was there it was very overcast with heavy clouds and for a few precious seconds it did rain. The clouds and the atmosphere provided a perfectly matched look and feel for a special location where the salt flats are the gnarliest I’ve seen. The scene is what might come to mind when you hear of a place named Death Valley is mentioned in a conversation. For this reason I am very happy with how this image portrayed the environment.

The image is very much not your typical landscape photo with its decisively hellish vision but it is an accurate depiction of what I tell people is a very polarized location. Death Valley is at the very extreme end of environmental systems and for that reason this images sits well with me. To contrast this hellish vision the very next morning well before sunrise I was treated to quite the opposite end of the spectrum just a few minutes walk away. Pure white salt flats with incredible amounts of built up crust around the edge have always fascinated me and this was the first time I’ve had to shoot such a subject.

But that morning it just didn’t work for me and I just couldn’t find a composition I was happy with. The large plates of salt just didn’t sit well in the frame for me and while I kept trying alas it was just not my morning. The next morning was a little different as during the day while the sun was high I had though of better ways to use the lines to my advantage. This second morning was a very successful morning as I knew my location and I had a much clearer vision to act on when composing the final shot.

Standing on that salt lake as the first glimmers of light rises of the surrounding mountains it really did sink in just how harsh this environment must be. I was there in the middle of winter making it a very climatically pleasant place to be and yet not a single bird, insect or mammal could be seen or heard, I could not recall a place where this silence had been so noticeable. Its moments like these that add so much value to the experience of being there at such special times of the day. Following up on my previous post to this blog (Landscape Photography, it’s a patient man’s game) I’d have to say that if for the second morning in a row I didn’t get the shot this realization was indeed reward enough.

In conclusion to my time in the South West I have to be quite honest and say that it was hard, I stank and it sucked to eat such crap food and drink terrible coffee. However the grand visions that great the visitor and delight the photographer are numerous and remarkably varied. I’ve been to many places in the world and after an intense trip visiting many places in a short time as this one was I became saturated with scenery and unfortunately lost vision.

Like never before in my life did the South West maintain a constant sense of amazement with every location and around every corner. If I had to think of something I’d do differently next time it would have to be allow time during the middle of the day and night where I photographed the human side of these places. The small town and people that lived in them were as much a source of inspiration as the nature. My rationale for not taking these photos was to concentrate 100% on getting the landscapes on this trip and perhaps later in the year when or if I’m lucky to return with my partner I’d focus on this task more.

If anyone reading this has a desire to get to the South West you can consider my words and experiences testament to it being a lifetime experience photographer or not.