Italy, Day 5

Our second day in Rome opened with wandering through the Campo Dei Fiori – Rome’s oldest open-air marketplace. The market is fun to wander, with everything from clothes to spices available for purchase.

As a photographer, I found I preferred the hands-on activity of the fishermen at the Rialto Market in Venice to the relatively inactive sellers at the market in Rome, but there were plenty of fun shots to be had.

After walking through the various areas of clothes, food and flowers, we followed some small signs a couple of blocks toward the Pantheon, finally emerging in a large square where the ancient temple sat surrounded by modern apartment buildings.

Stepping inside the 1900-year-old building was a instant transport back to the days of ancient Rome, with the huge dome arcing overhead with one bright sunbeam coming through the center.

Nearby Piazza Navona was a sight to behold as well. The long, football-field shaped rectangle was once the home of chariot races. Now, artists tried to capture those scenes (possibly based on Ben-Hur), or the romantics walking by the huge fountains.

The biggest stops today, however, were the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.

If there was one thing I wanted to see in Italy, it was the Sistine Chapel – I’ve been seeing that famous portion of the ceiling forever. But what you’re not prepared for is the sheer scope of Michaelangelo’s brilliance – the entire ceiling is a masterpiece.

There are photographs allowed everywhere except the chapel, and the guards are very vigilant about policing cameras.

After seeing the chapel, we made our way up to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica, for one of the best views of the trip. It was very crowded, though – the narrow steps to the top plus the dozens of people packed in hoping to see sunset made it borderline unnerving.

Once the sun went down and we escaped the masses, we had dinner at Spirito de Vino, a well-reviewed place on TripAdvisor. The meal earned the restaurant’s notices, as did the ancient wine cellar, which is allegedly older than the Colosseum.

Italy: Day 3

Even in Italy, sunrise is early.

As we hustled through the streets again, trying to make the photographer’s deadline of being in place at the golden hour, it seemed very early. But people were already out and about – a baker arranged pastries in a window, fruit and vegetable carts prepped their wares, and refuse sweepers were cleaning up the remnants of the night before.

As we burst into Piazza San Marco again, we saw we just made it before sunrise, as gentle light lit the skies and marble buildings. I composed and shot as quickly as I could, trying to utilize the morning sunlight as best I could.

The acqua alta – high water - had reached its peak and was just starting to recede, leaving pools and puddles for reflections. I was far from the only photographer there – a squad of would-be shooters were doing their best to capture the sights.

The water rises high enough in the square that the city installed a walkway across the square for commuters, but restaurants in the square have to keep their outside tables from floating off. (There’s not much storage room anywhere).

As the morning blossomed, we took a break for breakfast, then ambled through the Rialto markets – a huge open-air market with every kind of fish, vegetable and fruit you can ask for.

For photography, I found I preferred Venice’s Rialto to Rome’s Campo Dei Fiori (more on that later) – I liked the wider selection of fresh foods and examples of butchers and fishermen cutting up their product.

The piles of squid and fresh veggies drew my camera.  Fish, crabs and clams so fresh they were still twitching lined the stalls. Four-foot swordfish heads jabbed the air.

After lunch, we hopped on a boat for Burano, one of the smaller islands surrounding Venice. The bright colorful buildings were a stark contrast to the gray ornate stone of Venice.

The island was practically deserted, largely because we were traveling in shoulder season – mid-November – but several of the shops were still open and offering locally made goods.

Waiting for the ferry back to Venice, we were both starting to feel the gnaw of hunger. A nearby shack – similar to the fried seafood huts in every coastal town in New England – offered up some of the best calamari we have ever had. Not overly salty – a frequent issue for us with calamari – but tender and just right.

That was only a snack, though, and for dinner we visited Testiere – a clearly tourist-friendly place, but not tourist trap by any stretch.

This was one of our splurge meals for the trip, and it was worth it. Dinner was marvelous - scallops on half shell with orange and fish soup as appetizers. Dinner was pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with sea urchins for my traveling companion, and Mediterranean tuna with fresh porcini mushrooms for me, turbot fillet with citrus and fresh herbs.

The tight quarters led us to start chatting with the table next to us – some wonderful Brits friendly with the restaurant owner, and we chatted and sampled the specialties of the house (wine!) deep into the night.

Italy: Day 1

Starting a vacation with a headlong sprint isn’t my idea of a good time.

But there we were, ducking, bobbing and weaving through Heathrow Airport, trying to catch the last connection for a trip we had been planning since the flight back from our last trip to Europe, four years ago.

We were Italy-bound for the first time – if we could just make it to the gate on time.

I’m sad to say – this oxygen-deprivation exercise was my fault.

Our travels started smoothly, including a splurge on a first-class upgrade between Dallas and Boston on American Airlines. The second leg, on British Airways, was less comfortable – six hours in a tiny middle seat were not fun.

In the midst of trying to juggle Kindle, drinks, carry-on and other assorted travel paraphernalia, I put my passport in the seat pocket in front of me.

Two words: Rookie mistake.

After 18 hours of travel, we staggered out of the plane and up to the first security checkpoint, only to find that a certain sleep-deprived writer/photographer had left his passport on the plane.

While I can’t say much for the accommodations, the customer service from British Airways was excellent. Within 20 minutes, I had my passport in my hand. The next issue, however, was getting from our gate, which I’m convinced was on the far end of Scotland, to our connecting flight.

Twenty minutes of sprinting mixed with trying-desperately-to-be-patient-but-dear-god-can-this-security-line-move-faster patience, we charged into our gate area and down the ramp…

Where an airline worker held up a hand, begging for calm. “It’s okay, you made it,” she said, as we walked into the plane…and found it completely empty.

We had sprinted past first class check-in, business class check-in, soldiers, mothers…the whole lot. We made it to our seats and collapsed in laughter, as everyone else started filing on board and looking at us strangely.

Still chuckling three hours later, we landed in Venice. After checking into our hotel – Ca’Dogaressa, a very nice space that was convenient to local transportation and sights – we staggered around for a bit, but the very long travel day – including a nasty head cold for my traveling companion - landed on us hard and we passed out early.

Arizona & Utah, Day 5

In a pattern we’ve almost gotten used to, we’re up and out the door again before dawn.

(I say almost because one of our number – who shall again, remain nameless – was a little slow out of the blocks that morning and nearly missed the ride.)

We cannonballed out to Canyonlands, just making it to Dead Horse Point in time for sunrise. Similar to Horseshoe Bend, there was nothing protecting us from a long fall but our own good sense.

It was a beautiful sunrise, lighting up the red rocks as we tried to capture them for the people at home.

It was a short hike from the parking lot out to the point – just long enough on the way back to make me wish I could stay a bit longer, even though I knew it was time to go home.

Back at the hotel, our group went its separate ways – I had to get back to Texas, and Ian’s wife was kind enough to give me a ride to the Moab airport.

A bumpy puddle-jump to Denver and a hop to Dallas later, I was walking out of the airport with some of Arnie’s words ringing in my ears.

“This isn’t a photo trip – this is an adventure.”

Postscript: After I came home and started editing my images, I posted a few on Facebook. The event co-ordinator at the San Antonio Public Library saw them and asked if I would be interested in having a photo show in the library’s gallery.

It was the second time my photos were shown publicly – I had a small show at my wife’s library, but there wasn’t a reception. For this one, we decided to pull out all the stops. It was entered in FotoSeptiembre USA, an international photography festival.

We had a big reception (for which I lavishly overbought in food and booze - seriously, we've still got wine from this event), and it was a great time.

Postscript II: I’ve still got some Utah pictures to go through, but these are some of my favorite pictures. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tale – if you’ve got any questions or thoughts, feel free to drop me a line.

Arizona & Utah, Day 4

  Heading into Arches National Park, we all craned our necks to look up at the huge red stone building blocks and the – yay! – blue sky beyond.

We start with Balanced Rock, and shoot steadily for an hour or so. That stop resulted in one of my favorite shots from the trip:

Those wisps of clouds started to thicken into the deadly flat white sky as we reached the Windows, big almost-matching arches.

There were a lot of tourists, but Chris and I avoided them by walking through the arch and doing our best Spider-Man impersonation on the ledges on the other side, reaching a small ledge where we perched to shoot back through the arch at land formations on the other side.

After making our way down, we headed over to Double Arch, two huge arches that had tourists climbing all over the base.

We set up near the trail nearby. With some advice from Ian, I pulled out the big zoom I rented for the trip and got some nice detail shots of the arches intersecting – thereby cropping out the myriad of tourists below.

All this time, it’s getting darker…

After lunch, we took a siesta, and I wandered the streets. As rain began to patter down, I realized I had forgotten a raincoat, and picked one up, along with a new Otterbox for my phone.

I keep all my notes for stories on my phone – both written and in voice memos – and the black casing – the most reliable phone case I’ve ever had - had finally worn out. When I peeled it off, grains of red sand from our adventures pattered on the countertop in the store.

The rain continued, but we braved it, heading back into Canyonlands in a storm that swept through the canyons, slowing us down at times to a walking speed.

At one point, we see a storm sweeping across an open plain to our right. Braving the rain, Chris, Ian and I dashed out to the cliff’s edge, setting up and shooting while trying to keep our gear dry with middling success.

The rain broke again as we headed for Mesa Arch – one of the most photographed arches, and really a unique challenge compositionally. The rock detail is amazing, but the view through it – to the plains and mountains beyond  - requires a very high f-stop.

And oh, by the way – the arch is right on the edge of a thousand-foot drop. It’s been photographed a lot and by the best, but it’s still stunning.

After Mesa, we hauled back to the car and headed for the Green River Overlook again, hoping to get one shaft of sunlight to break through the morass of storm clouds.

We waited.

And waited.

While we were waiting, I turned around for a moment and looked behind us. This rainbow appeared, centered over the old, worn tree.

I shivered – but that might have been the rain and falling temperatures.

And….the waiting finally paid off.

At the last gasp, one beam of sunlight broke through and lit up the canyon walls on the far side of the overlook. We all shot furiously, trying to capture it in the few seconds before it was gone.

Day 5: Heading home

Arizona & Utah, Day Three

My photography bucket list took a beating the first two days of our trip – Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon had been on it from the first scrawl.

One shot that I’ve been wanting to get for a long time is a star trail show – those nifty pictures of stars swirling around the North Star.

Since I live in the light-polluted environs of San Antonio, I don’t often get out to areas where the skies are dark enough for such a shot.

Waking up at three a.m. on the top of a mesa, I thought I’d have the perfect chance. Groggily, I unzipped my tent and took a look outside.

It was dark, all right. Black. 100C, 100Y, 100M, 100K, for any print folks out there. Which meant that it was too dark for any chance of a starlight shot.

Foiled, I tried to get back to sleep, but ended up reading a new Harry Dresden novel until the rest of the crew rolled out. Sadly, no magic could make the sun burst through the filmy gray clouds.

Headed off the mesa, we stopped at Spider Arch, the first of the big arches we see. Chris and I carefully climbed up the rock face to a closer spot, while Bob and Arnold stayed closer (and probably safer) to the ground.

Down the mesa we went in the truck, nearly nose first at times, but Ray pulled us through. We transferred our gear to Ian’s truck and headed north to Moab, a three-hour trek.

Arriving in town, our first stop was lunch. A bar and grill filled with the neon and carbon fiber of exuberant mountain sports yuppies was a jarring contrast to the poverty we saw in the Navajo town of Kayenta.

After lunch, we dropped off most of our gear at the hotel and headed out to Canyonlands National Park and the Green River Overlook. The clouds stayed and darkened through the afternoon – not giving us any dynamic frames, but gave us a chance to look at some of these viewpoints as people, and not just photographers. (Yes, there is a difference.)

Equipment-related digression: For this trip, I rented two lenses to go with my Sony A99 body – a Zeiss f2.8 16-35mm lens, and a Sony f4-5.6 70-400mm zoom. Since this was my first trip into the area, I wasn’t sure what I was going to need.

I was hoping for a rattlesnake sighting that would give me reason to pull out the big zoom, but it was close to a waste of money. I only took it out once or twice, instead relying heavily on the 16-35, which I was very happy with.

My Sony tripod was iffy for a lot of the trip – I had to spend too much time tweaking it and making sure it didn’t slide on me. The Gorillapod was useful, but I think next time I’ll invest in a Manfrotto tripod and ball head. The images were processed using Photoshop 6 and Nik software.

Day Four: Drip, drip, drip…

Arizona & Utah, Day 2

We’re up with our friend O:DarkThirty again, heading out to Horseshoe Bend, one of the most recognizable canyons in the world.

It’s funny – in some areas, places like this would probably have ropes or fences keeping you from the edge.

There is nothing between you and the edge at Horseshoe Canyon. And it is a long way down – nearly 1000 feet - to the tiny boat landing on the inside of the curve where we saw people camping.

One of our tribe – I won’t embarrass him by calling him out by name – was more than a little nervous about being that close to the edge. I don’t blame him, either, but I had seen a shot like the one above of Horseshoe many times, and I wanted one of my own.

So I made an effort not to look to closely at the river at the bottom of the canyon, crept up to the edge, and shot.

I wasn’t the only one, either – thousands of dollars in camera gear was inches from hundreds of feet of flight as we lined the rim, photographer crows on our perches.

After the sun came up, we made our way back to town for breakfast. Page is a mid-sized town – Ian said there were 17 churches, but I didn’t get a chance to count them. As we drove through the center of town and past a high school, baseball players were dragging the field, red dust puffing up behind them.

After breakfast, we headed out to Lower Antelope Canyon. The parking lot is on the other side of the road from Upper Antelope Canyon.

In Upper Antelope, you walk straight into a cliff face cracked by the slot canyon. In Lower Antelope, you walk down some stone steps and small ladders to the canyon floor.

As our group waited for its turn to go down in the caves, we got a bit of a chuckle listening to the guide give people instructions on taking pictures in the canyon.

He repeatedly told people to use “Beach Mode” on their cameras, and it quickly became our catchphrase for the rest of the trip.

“Got that in focus?” “Yep – got it in Beach Mode. I’m good.”

Lower Antelope proved to be more narrow in spots than Upper Antelope – less than three feet wide in places, making for some bending and twisting.

The canyon walls were lighter and more colorful. Bracketing our exposures – shooting the same frame with multiple exposures - was important here to get the rich colors and shadows in detail.

Thanks to Ian, we hit the Keyhole – a hole in the rock façade that has a beam of light shine through it for about 15 minutes during the day – just in time to capture that. Ian played the part of Sandman, bringing the light into sharper focus.

As we progressed through the canyon, crowds were noticeably less than in Upper Antelope, but the narrow pathway made even a steady single-file stream seem busy.

We came to a steep, nearly vertical metal stairway/ladder, and then a switchback metal stairway to climb out, with about a 15 minute walk across sand back to the parking lot.

Post lunch, we packed up and headed east to Hunts Mesa in Monument Valley.

As we rolled into the valley, it felt like we were entering the domain of giants. Huge red monsters loomed over the landscape.

After a pit stop, we met our guide, Ray, who took us around Monument Valley and through Kayenta, AZ. (You can’t get to the mesa from the park by road…in fact, unless you’re hiking or ready for some off-roading, you can’t get there at all.)

Bull-rushing across dunes, with sand kicking up as high as the windows, there were a few white knuckle moments as Ray whipsawed the truck to keep it moving.

Once past the dunes, we did a slow crawl up the narrow trail to the mesa’s peak, just in time to catch the last few minutes of daylight.

It was short-lived, though – a blanket of clouds descended and took the glowing hills away. Unfazed, we channeled our inner Ansel Adams (with the help of a flask or two) and went for black and white moments.

Ray and his assistants were excellent campfire books, and we crashed early, hoping the clouds would clear off in the night.

DAY THREE: Arch hunting

Arizona and Utah, Day 1

After far too much time, I’m finally getting around to recapping the five-day photo trip I took in May 2013 to Arizona and Utah.

This area has always been high on my photography bucket list – when I drew up my first list, the glowing depths of Antelope Canyon was the first thing I wrote down.

I had a hard time giving myself permission to take the trip, though. Even though I was making some good money freelancing stories and photos for the local newspaper (on top of the Day Job), it seemed like an extravagance.

Talking it out with my wife helped me realize that not only could I go, I could take the next step and set up my own company, marketing outdoor recreation and travel stories with photography.

On New Year’s Eve, I was looking at various photo tours in the Arizona/Utah region when I came across Ian Whitehead. I had seen his site before when daydreaming about these trips, but now that it was more serious, I reached out to him to see what tours he had available.

Five days, four people, Antelope Canyon, Alstrom Point, Hunts Mesa/Monument Valley, and the parks around Moab. Perfect.

I might have pelted him with e-mails to the point of drowning, but he was very patient with me, advising me on all the gear I needed.

Before I knew it, it was early May, and I was flying in Flagstaff. We pick up the story at 0:DarkThirty…

Day 1: Sedona, Arizona-Page, Arizona Or, it would have been O:DarkThirty, but by the time the O finished yawning and it got to Dark, we were on the road and headed for Page, a two-hour-plus drive.

After a late night flight into Flagstaff and drive into Sedona the night before, it was a slightly sleepy me that got into Ian’s truck for the ride north with the three other photographers – Chris, Bob and Arnold.

With a breakfast stop for sugar and caffeine though, we were good to go.

One of the quirks about traveling through Arizona is the difference in times. I live in Central Time, and Arizona is on Mountain Time, but it doesn’t recognize Daylight Savings. Navajo Nation – the parts of three states that fall under the Native Americans - does support Daylight Savings Time, but Hopi Nation – a smaller state within Navajo Nation – does not.

Coordinate your timepieces. And your codpieces.

Our first day’s schedule was busy – Rattlesnake Canyon, Upper Antelope Canyon and Alstrom Point. We didn’t waste any time hustling up the road to Page, our headquarters for the next couple of nights.

Getting to Antelope Canyon itself can’t be done on your own – you need to hire a Navajo guide. We arrived at the wide spot in the road outside of Page where the tours start and transferred to a large truck.

The truck drove into a big, sandy wash for between one and two miles from the parking lot to our first stop – Rattlesnake Canyon.

Rattlesnake and Antelope canyons are what are known as slot canyons – narrow clefts in the rock that allow for thin beams of sunlight to slip down to the canyon floor, making for some elegant lighting and beautiful images.

Rattlesnake was a good introduction to photographing these – there were virtually no crowds (or room for any crowds). Climbing up a couple of ladders to the shallow slot, we squeezed our way through the narrow passage one at a time, trying to protect lenses and tripods from the walls and each other.

I was using a Sony tripod at this point, but for this canyon, I’d probably use a Gorillapod to save on space.

After about an hour, we drove the rest of the way down the wash to Upper Antelope Canyon – a photographer’s mecca.

There are good things and bad things about meccas – they are wonderful places, and they draw armies of people.

Surrounded by people toting iPods, iPads, point-and-shoots, DSLRS of every make and model, large-format cameras - probably even pinhole cameras - we walked into Upper Antelope Canyon.

The Navajo guides do a fairly good job keeping the groups separated – only rarely did someone from another group stumble into my frame. This was a place where Ian definitely earned his keep, too – getting his group to the right places for dynamic frames, offering exposure tips and making sure we weren’t rushed and/or blocking traffic.

It was tight quarters, though – there are areas where photographers were lined up in murderer’s rows, tripod to tripod with the person next to them.

--SPOILER ALERT-- I’m going to spill a secret here – those beautiful light beams that filter down, framed in swirling dust? That dust doesn’t get there by itself, folks. The guides spend a lot of time lining people up in good photography spots, then dashing over to the side of the lightbeam (out of the frame, usually) and tossing handfuls of sand into the light as we snap away. --END SPOILER--

After two hours, we found our way out, cameras full of cool images. Also noticeably dehydrated – it wasn’t baking hot, but the moisture does disappear from the body noticeably out there.

We had a needed siesta, then headed out to Alstrom Point for sunset. Alstrom Point is a remote spot that requires a four-wheel-drive with sturdy tires to get to.

Our four-wheel-drive was lacking in sturdy tires, popping a rear wheel about halfway there. Ian again came to the rescue, changing the tire and getting us out to the point in plenty of time for sunset.

The point overlooks Lake Powell and Gunsight Butte – with just the five of us spread out along the point and no service, it was easy to feel like we were on a different planet.

After sunset, we crawled back into town, exhausted at the end of a long day. We shoveled in food at a local steakhouse and tried to catch some sleep, despite the atrocious karaoke/cover band combination polluting the air from across the street. DAY 2: Into the Canyon and Up to the Mesa

Catching up: Photo show, Doctor Sleep, and Italy

Photo courtesy of FotoSeptiembre USA

So, we’ve gone from fireworks season to pumpkin season between posts. At least it is still baseball season (for the Red Sox, at least).

THE BIG NEWS: The opening reception for Point the Compass was August 28, and it was a rousing success. We drew between 175-200 people for the opening reception, and I sold several of the pieces in the show and some loose prints I brought with me.

The commentary was generally very positive, including random e-mails I received from people who visited the gallery and appreciated it.

I was having a bad day until I stumbled into your exhibit at Central Library. I have always dreamed of seeing the slot caves. Excellent work!

- one of the e-mails I received

There were some odds and ends and issues while putting it all together – I’ll detail those in another post – but in general it was a very positive experience. I’m not sure when I’ll try and do another show – it’s an expensive habit, and I’ve got lots of trips I want to take and camera gear I want to add to the toolbox – but it was definitely worth doing.

THE NEXT NEWS: Six weeks from today, we’ll be in Italy! Venice, Rome and the Amalfi Coast will be holding our attention for two weeks, and I can’t wait. Looking into photographing Venice, and I found this site, which is loaded with information. Great work.

IN OTHER NEWS: Currently catching up on Grimm, which I quite enjoy – it takes the fairy tale monsters and runs them through a dark strainer (Nazis – I hate these guys!) and keeps the cutesy to a minimum. Also watching the HELLYEAHAGENTSOFSHIELD…sorry, was I drooling? And Marvel’s holding my wallet? How’d that…oh, never mind, just take my money.

Stephen King’s new book, Doctor Sleep, is quite excellent. I read it far too quickly the first time – now I need to go back and savor it. The Shining was one of the books I grew up with, and to see Danny Torrance back is a treat.

So – another entry before the end of October? Why not?

Point the Compass update, and some thoughts on The Wolverine

The show. Theshowtheshowtheshowtheshow. That about sums up the progression in my head these days, with just over five weeks until the opening reception for my first gallery show. #pointthecompass #knowitloveit

I’m trying to squish every detail I can so it doesn’t become an issue later, and so far, so good. The prints are printed, and are currently being framed – with any luck, I’ll be signing them this week.

Among the interesting experiences that have come with this have been getting interviewed for the first time. It’s an interesting experience from the other end, I must say.

The Wolverine has come and gone, marking the end of summer movie must-see blockbuster season.  (Summer movie Netflix season just doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

I thought it started off very strong, dissolved a bit in the middle and rebounded fairly well. It benefits from comparison to the wreckage that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand. Not an adamantium bullet to be seen, thank goodness.

One of the bigger surprises was the effort made to tie The Wolverine into that universe – with all the ballyhoo about him being alone in this movie, the tie-in to his humanity was a very clear reference to the events of X3.

Hugh Jackman continues to bring his A-game to the role, and the fearsome sidekick Yukio, a cross between Jubilation Lee, Hit Girl and Gogo Yubari,  adds some spice to the mix. I hope she makes the transition into the full-fledged X-Universe.

I could have used a little more berserker vs. ninjas, but it sound as if that’ll be appearing in an uncut version on blu-ray. And yes – the mid-credits scene was awesome.

It's going to be a really big shew...

It's been a month of Big Giant Scary Endeavors. Kind of like The Lone Ranger, but hopefully without as many plot holes. The biggest BGSE is the photo show. Or, as it's been clamoring in my head for the past month, "THE OMIGOD HOLY CRAP PHOTO SHOW!!"

If you've swung by my Facebook page, you know that I'm putting on a photo exhibit for the month of September at the San Antonio Public Library's Central Branch.

It initially was going to be in August, which induced a minor amount of freaking out when I looked at the calendar and saw it was already June. Then, it was pushed back to September (pause freaking out)...so it could be part of Fotoseptiembre.(freaking out recommences with extra sauce.)

Fotoseptiembre is an international photography festival held annually in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country. (The international part is from exhibitions in Switzerland, Thailand and India, among other places.) So, kind of a big deal in the South Texas photography world.

My exhibit (titled "Point the Compass") is the library's entry into the contest. Add to that several other firsts - my first gallery show, my first opening reception, a few other odds and ends - and it's been a little crazy round these parts.

However, thanks to the awesome photo trip earlier this year with Ian Whitehead, (which I still haven't fully detailed here yet, but will), I'm really looking forward to this. I've got my files off to the printer, and things are *knock wood* coming together nicely.

There isn't much better than making your pro debut

Sometimes freelance assignments are a drag. People are bored, they don’t want to talk, you’re being a pain in their backside…it happens.

Sometimes, however, they are gold. This was one of those golden times.

In March, I was contacted by Beckett Sports Card Monthly and asked if I could follow the winner of the Topps Make Your Pro Debut contest around, documenting his day in words and pictures. (The resulting story ran in the July, 2013 issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly.) An early shorter piece is here.

The winner’s prize was a day with the Corpus Christi Hooks – signing a contract, getting a uniform, working out with the team, and meeting team owner Nolan Ryan. I couldn’t say yes fast enough – I love baseball, and this sounded like a great assignment.

I met Tim, his son Peyton, and his wife Dani around 11 in the morning, and followed them through a tour of the park. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and the grin on his and his son’s face when he saw his jersey with his name on it was priceless.

After Tim got into his uniform, he started throwing with the team. This is when this assignment started really getting fun – I was asked by a Topps representative to photograph Tim for his baseball card.

Not a promotional gift thing – a real baseball card. The 2013 Topps Pro Debut Set will feature a card of Tim and Peyton with my photo.

Head. Explodes.

After Peyton threw out the first pitch and presented the lineup card, he and Tim stayed in the dugout for the first three innings. Then, they moved up to sit in the owner’s box with Nolan Ryan.

The Nolan Ryan. The same guy my father and I had talked about for years – he was Dad’s favorite baseball player, and he always wanted a copy of Ryan’s rookie card (which he finally broke down and bought when I was in my late teens).

Now here I was in a room with the legend, listening to him tell stories about his favorite parks (Kansas City, Anaheim) and his least favorite (Cleveland, Candlestick), the hitters he liked to face (big power hitters like Reggie Jackson and Jim Rice) and least liked (slap hitters such as Tony Gwynn).

Head. Explodes. Again.

After Ryan left, Tim and Peyton headed back to the dugout, where they stayed for all of a 19-inning marathon. I had to head back home – I had to work at the day job early in the morning – but I left with a full notebook, a full memory card, and a smile on my face.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Photo Contest Finalist!

 

Wow.

It has been a madhouse of a month, in just about the best way possible. I’ve got tons of photo-related stuff that I’m going to be blogging about in the next few weeks, but I wanted to get this one out there.

I’ve been shooting steadily for the last several years, but before I bought my first digital camera, my shooting was very sporadic. Once I got a tool that could handle shooting a lot without spending thousands on developing film, I started shooting a lot more.

The next question was – what do I want to shoot? With a full-time job, it can be hard to find time and willing subjects. Setting up a formal shoot can be exhausting.

A couple of  week after getting my new camera, I took it with me on a hike in the Hill Country State Natural Area. Monarch butterflies were migrating through the area, and I started shooting. Not fussing over shutter speeds, white balance or apertures – just shooting.

Many could have benefited from some technical know-how, but I also got this photo, which is still one of my personal favorites.

After posting them on Flickr, I shyly showed a few to some of my coworkers. Their kind words helped me get out and shoot again.

So – fast-forward a few years, and a lot of experimenting and shooting in the Texas state parks, and I’ve gotten a little better and a lot more experienced.

There’s still a long way to go, but I was confident enough that when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department asked for entries for a 2013 photo contest, I didn’t hesitate to submit a few.

Last week, I found out that the top image of the two bison – shot at San Angelo State Park - was selected as one of 20 finalists out of more than 1,650 entries.

You can get up close and personal with the bison in San Angelo - they'll come up to a thin wire fence (under the watchful guide of a park ranger) and you can get close looks at them. Highly recommend it if you are interested in wildlife photos.

I’m thrilled by this honor, especially after seeing the other images in the competition. I can’t wait to enter again next year!

Taking Steps

It’s official: Josh Trudell Imagery, LLC. Forming a corporation is one of those things that felt as if it was absolutely enormous and a huge commitment and OMIGODHOLYCRAPSCAAAAAARRRRRYYYYY – then I went through the filing and found it was about a 20-minute online process. I got the confirmation e-mail a couple of days later.

Not such a big deal.

But, for someone who has worked for the man his entire life, it is a big deal, or at least it feels like one.

It feels like I have something of my own – something to protect and work for - and that’s a good feeling.

I’m admittedly only dipping my toe in, compared to some – I’m not opening an office or buying lots of new equipment (at least, not yet). The work process is still ongoing – freelance travel and outdoors stories, photography, graphic design.

So far, this year has been a lot about formalizing ideas I’ve had in my head – forming the business and meeting with an accountant (another first). I’m hoping the rest of the year will have creative inspiration built on this foundation.

In other news:

- I’m happy Argo won Best Picture at the Oscars. I know, even at his lowest point Ben Affleck was getting paid $20 million a picture to make Bounce and Gigli, but the blowtorching he took for his personal life was ridiculous.

He earned his way back to the top of the Hollywood heap with hard work and smart decisions – I respect that.

- Red Sox 2013  -Cautiously optimistic they aren’t as bad as last year. Reserving further judgment.

- Counting down to a big photography trip in early May to the canyons of Arizona – that’s been a dream of mine for a long time. I can’t wait.

- I turned 39 this year. It seems as if that should be important,  but it doesn’t feel like it yet.

New Camera, New Zoo

Some people have work-related hazards such as ergonomically incorrect keyboards or desks that leave them bent in uncomfortable positions.

Others are Iike Maricela, the nice lady at the San Antonio Zoo in charge of the parrot cage. While most of the streaking rainbows buzzed around the cage, Snowflake sat on her shoulder, nibbled on her shirt collar, then finally nestled into her hair.

Finally, Maricela was forced to swing her head side-to-side to shake the nesting bird loose.

The parrot, dislodged but unruffled, promptly hopped back onto her outstretched hand and headed back toward her shirt collar, nibbling on the button hole.

The parrot cage, and the zoo as a whole, is my go-to place for testing new camera gear. In this case, it was my new Sony A99.

My initial verdict is very positive. The images are very, very sharp. It's a little disconcerting to have the LED viewfinder show the image I just shot before going back to live action, but I was getting used to it by the end if the day.

The manual focus option is also different - it can be locked in through a menu, or if you just want it for one shot, hold a button on the back of the body and focus. Take your thumb off the button, though, and it snaps back to auto.

I found the light sensors to be a vast improvement over my A-350, which is forgiving in its own right. Having a sunny day helped, but on shots in dark shade, I was getting good results at ISO 100.

It had been at least two years since I had been to the zoo, and I was more than a little impressed with the number of improvements and additions it has made. The interactivity has increased a lot, especially in the birds area - I nearly stepped on a couple of tiny birds on a walkway through one of the cages.

Zoos are always a little sad after a while - I like to see animals in nature rather than behind steel mesh. But in comparison to other zoos, San Antonio has one to be proud of. The rest of my zoo pictures can be seen here.

My Favorites from 2012

Choosing your favorite pictures is like choosing which Avenger you'd rather be. One or two get to be in the movies - the rest are stuck with sly nods in the TV shows and maybe a cameo in Iron Man #1 in Marvel Now.

Without further ado - some of my favorite pictures from 2012.

A Photo Story: My New Camera

I've been saving for several months to buy a new camera body. On Christmas Eve, I was finally able to pull the trigger on a new Sony A-99. Full-frame, 24.3 megapixels, various and sundry pieces of awesomeness. (If you're a camera nerd like me, you can read up on all the specs here. Instead of writing a lengthy blog post extolling its virtues, however, I thought a little iPhone documentary would be a little more fun. Hope you enjoy.

So there it is - my new A99. New Year's Resolution is to learn to use it in time for the big fall trip. Stay tuned, and Happy Holidays!

Some thoughts about In$tagram

Realizing that it is already mid-December makes me want to go find a big blue call box. When the hell did this happen? It is that time, though, and a good time to take a minute. I can look at this year as one that has been generally pretty good on a professional level, if occasionally confusing.

I started out with a site that wasn’t active and was difficult to update (and for a buyer, to use). Now, I’ve got my own site (version 2.0) which is much easier to use and buy from. And, I had my first public photo show. Things are improving.

Part of marketing my photography more has been figuring where and how to show it.

There are SO MANY options: Flickr. Picasa. Facebook. Twitter. 500px. Coroflot. The list goes on and on.

Which means, in a way, it was good news that the news came out this week about Instagram’s change in policy (which was made after Facebook’s purchase of the company).

In their own words: "To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

In my (admittedly blue) words: Get fucked.

Now, I’m not an Instagram user. Never have been (and now, never will be). I’ve got no real use for an app that makes photos look like my mother’s 1970s Polaroids.

Everyone has their own ways of making photographs. Speaking just for myself, I don’t believe that the effects that make the picture. Sometimes they can bring added dimensions. But if the photo sucks, no filters are going to save it.

But the larger issue is this: No one has the right to use my work for free, especially when they are using it to pimp their own stuff. And I’ll never start using something that thinks it has the right to do so.

Do I put photos on Facebook? Yes. Now, that would seem to be a different opinion on the same subject. But – my photos there are heavily watermarked and low-resolution. They aren’t much use for anything other than decorating my fan page and pointing people to my home page.

I don’t expect everything on the web to be free – I pay for my site hosting, my Flickr Pro account and my Photocrati theme. I have taken advantage of things online that were offered for free – sites such as dafont or the Green Bulb Gang.

But I’m not offering – and certainly not for corporations who could buy and sell my photo gear without thinking twice.

Photography is my passion, and I spend enough time thinking about my photos to consider them – if not children, certainly close friends. People who think they can abuse them piss me off and make me start calling lawyers.

John Scalzi recently posted some thoughts on the subject when someone asked him to write for free. I highly recommend them, but to sum it up: Fuck you, pay me.

EDIT: Apparently it didn't take long for Instagram to figure out that this posture is a failure. They released a statement today saying, in part:

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question.

and

Ownership Rights Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed.

Interesting to see them back down so quickly  - but I wonder how things will go once they are completely under the Facebook umbrella.  I expect it will take some time for them to rebuild consumer trust.

Rebooted, and it feels so good...

Already? Yes, already.

I built this site in the spring of 2012. Here in December (actually, it launched in November, but tempus, it fugits), I’ve rebuilt it.

Why, you might ask? (God knows I was asking at some points.)

Because I fell prey to some designer-hubris – I’ve got a million ideas and I want to implement them all, without stopping (or at least slowing) to figure out what worked and what was too much. Who has two thumbs and needs a good editor? This guy.

So, after the glow of creation wore off (it’s kind of a gamma-ray green that often results in HULK SMASH), I was able to see it for what it was – a somewhat disjointed mishmash. Some things worked, and some things didn’t – at least in their context.

Between life and, y’know, life – it took me some time to get back to it. But that also gave me time to figure out what I really wanted it to be able to do:

Show my photos, sell my photos, blog, and show graphic design work and published written pieces.

After some research, I went with a Photocrati Wordpress theme. I learned HTML and CSS for the first site, but if I’m going to be able to spend more time updating, I need to spend less time coding.

I had been working with SmugMug to sell prints. Nice people, but it’s not the easiest site to use in the world. I consider myself pretty tech-savvy – I swim in the Adobe Creative Suite all day long – but getting what I wanted done without hiring someone was not easy. Frustration led to wanting to spend less time on it. Counterproductive, to say the least.

I stripped off a lot of the geegaws and widgets - yes, the photo rollover trick is fun, but I don't need it on EVERYTHING - and got back to basics. Words. Photos. Speak for themselves.

Now it’s very much plug and play, which is great. It's easier to shop, it's easier to use and it's easier to add to. I’ve got a local lab lined up to make prints, and I’m off and running again.

Buckle up, buttercup.

Big Bend, Part III - Rafting, Rafting on the River....

As we sat in the Chisos Mountain Lodge and watched it storm, one thought kept running through my head.

“There’s going to be enough water for rafting tomorrow! Awesome!”

The rafting trip on the Rio Grande had been one of the planned highlights of this trip – I had been dying to photograph the steep walls of Santa Elena Canyon, in particular.

Most rafting trips on the Rio Grande leave from Terlingua, about 45 minutes from the lodge.

With the lodge restaurant not open yet, we had an 0-dark-thirty start, and stopped at India’s Coffee Shop and Bakery for breakfast.

If you’ve ever lived in a small town, the scene changes, but the morning formalities remain the same. Here, we sat out on a patio framed by Christmas lights, and listened to the locals bullshit each other as they sipped coffee. An Australian drawl added a little flavor to the fluent Texan being spoken.

As the sun drew a line across the mountains in front of us and slid down, we loaded up on fantastic homemade tacos and a breakfast burrito like no other.

The peaceful easy feeling from the great breakfast and the sunrise was dinged a bit, however, when we found that Santa Elena Canyon was not available for our rafting trip. Not because the river was too high – but because the road to the take-out point had been washed away.

We would, however, float Colorado Canyon, which was not as dramatic.

I’ve got to admit – I was a little disappointed at this point. This trip had been up and down a little too much for my taste so far. But, buckling up, and renewing determination to enjoy what I could get at, we jumped in the van and headed out.

Bouncing down the bumpy roads on our way to the river, the burrito might have momentarily felt like a bad idea. But it, and we, survived, and before long we were loading onto rafts and into the river.

With all the hot air and self-importance about borders, it seems natural to think of rivers that serve as borders as huge bodies of water. The reality is much humbler – for virtually all of this trip, I could have walked across the Rio Grande and not gotten my belt wet.

The guides told us of often meeting the vaqueros who herd cattle on the Mexican side, occasionally in the sights of border guards who hadn’t counted on the people who lived on the river when the political walls grew higher.

As we rafted, we looked up at the hundreds of feet of canyon wall and couldn’t help but wonder why exactly politicians thought we needed a manmade wall. Kids occasionally hopped over to the Mexico side and then giggled back to their rafts.

While the canyon wasn’t the one I hoped for, being there for the rain showed how quickly the river can be reborn. Thick green sheaves of river cane flourished on banks that had been brown or yellow just a week ago. Our guide said it was the greenest he had seen it in three years.

As we pulled the rafts out, I looked at the river – both life force and barrier. Living here means living on the edge – if the water goes dry, you’re done. But on this day, the river offered stillness, peace and a snapshot of the rebirth simple water can bring – more valuable than any photograph I could hope to take.

Faith in the trip – renewed.

Next: The ruins of Terlingua.