Featured Posts
Announcing New Photo Tour to Copper Canyon, Mexico
I'm really happy to announce a new tour that I'll be leading to Mexico's Copper Canyon through Jim Cline Photo Workshops! Join me on one of the great train rides of the world as we take El Chepe train from the town of El Fuerte, near Los Mochis, up and back down the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua State, Mexico, we'll ride it both ways. The photo opportunities are virtually endless as we wind our way among 3,000 foot cliff walls that are a cross between Yosemite National Park … Read More...
Interview About iPhoneography on iSee iShoot iPhone Podcast
Smart phones are coming out of the box with higher quality cameras and easy-to-use features that allow for immediate uploading to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other social media sharing sites. Hugely popular apps like Camera+, Instagram, Hipstamatic, Snapseed and others allow us to post-process our images right in the phone, plus add interesting filters and effects, different crops and a variety of frames. Little by little the point-and-shoot category of the camera market is … Read More...
Participant Showcase: Carol Livingston in Egypt
IN CAROL'S WORDS This vendor at Giza was a lucky shot and, like so many others, I wish I could go back and try this shot again. The haze of the sky and the parched desert background described most of Egypt. This was my first day shooting there and I was drawn to the scarves hanging above. I didn't even notice the man sleeping until much later. Looking at all of my photos almost a year later is a nice task; it reminds me all over again what a great trip that was. Hard at times, but … Read More...
Is It Safe to Travel to Egypt? Part 2
In Part 1 of my two part series titled Is It Safe to Travel to Egypt, I gave my personal experience of the Egypt I encountered on my recent trip to Cairo and Alexandria. Here in Part 2 I'd like to share a video that I made with our tour guide, Maha Mahmoud. In it I asked Maha about the current situation in her homeland. She was a fantastic guide who was incredibly knowledgeable about the sites she took us to, as well as mature beyond her 28 years. Sure, tourism is down by a high … Read More...
Is It Safe to Travel to Egypt?
This is a question I received more than once when I told people I'd been invited to speak in Cairo. The IOETI (International Organization of the e-Tourism Industry) 4th Annual E-Tourism & E-Marketing Conference was held December 18 & 19, 2011, and it was certainly an honor to be asked to present at this event with such short notice, but thankfully my schedule allowed for the weeklong visit. The presentation I gave was entitled "Better Photography for Enhancing Your … Read More...
Participant Showcase: Neil Kristianson
BIOGRAPHY I'm from the far west suburbs of Chicago where I own a remodeling company. I have only recently started photography as a hobby. I enjoy traveling and recording my adventures in bits and bytes. SEE MORE OF NEIL'S EGYPT AND OTHER PICTURES On Flickr by clicking here CONNECT WITH NEIL ONLINE Via Twitter @the_nak RALPH'S TAKE I really enjoyed traveling with Neil and his wife Jennine. Both had an interest in photography and I saw their skill … Read More...
Travel Tips for Reducing Jet Lag
According to Wikipedia, "Jet lag, medically referred to as desynchronosis, is a physiological condition which results from alterations to the body's circadian rhythms; it is classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Jet lag results from rapid long-distance transmeridian (east–west or west–east) travel, as on a jet plane. The condition of jet lag may last several days, and a recovery rate of one day per time zone crossed is a … Read More...
Photo Tips: Capturing History in Old Cairo
As I write this blog post, I'm still in Cairo, Egypt, but unfortunately I'm on a homeward bound plane in just a few hours. Before I leave, however, I wanted to share with you an intense and somewhat emotional experience I had with a door in Old Cairo...yes, a door. In November of 2010 I led a photography tour to Egypt, and on that trip we visited Old Cairo, also known as Coptic Cairo, as it's really a must for any visitor to this country of 80 million inhabitants. The group was … Read More...
Photo Tips: Previsualization Part 2
This is Part 2 of my short series on the technique of pre-visualization (I've seen it with hyphen and without). I spent a great deal of time pre-visualizing before my recent assignment to shoot for a cookbook throughout Mexico. During the 35 days we were in-country, I ended up having to shoot in over 40 distinct locations, and so I didn't have a lot of time to figure it out when I arrived...I had to have a really good idea of what it was I wanted, and more importantly, what the client wanted … Read More...
Photo Tips: Previsualization Part 1
Previsualization is a technique that many professional photographers use and highly recommend. What it means in a nutshell is to have a good idea of what it is you're going to photograph before you even arrive at a destination. There are a number of ways to accomplish previsualization, but they all pretty much come down to doing quality research in the days, weeks and even months leading up to a trip. Even if you're shooting around your own area, practicing previsualization is a good … Read More...
Participant Showcase: Chris Christensen
BIOGRAPHY I live in San Jose, California. I am a Director of Engineering for TripAdvisor.com by day. By night, I am also the host of the Amateur Traveler. The Amateur Traveler is an online travel show that focuses primarily on travel destinations and what are the best places to travel to. It includes both a weekly audio podcast, a video podcast, and a blog. The blog features my photography which is often the only souvenir I usually bring back from my travels and one of the reasons I … Read More...
Photo Tips: Don’t Be Afraid to Point-and-Shoot
Walking all day with a big, heavy D-SLR around your neck or shoulder can become a real pain after a while, so I'll often leave "the big gear" at home or in the hotel room (secured, of course) and venture out with only my point-and-shoot camera. On this particular day in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico, where the above image was made, I'd been out shooting all day with my D-SLR, a Nikon D300s, but later that afternoon when we decided to go out for a bite to eat, I chose to bring … Read More...
Partnership with Charitable Nonprofit 100cameras.org
This is something I'm really excited about... For a while now, I've wanted to combine the work we do on the corporate side of my business at PhotoEnrichment Programs (PEP) with a charitable component. At PEP we offer groups of 10 to 150+ participants a variety of fun events and educational programs that foster creativity by inspiring better photography. So in order to accomplish this we've added Corporate Social Responsibility to the mix by partnering with a great charity … Read More...
Time-Lapse Photography: How To Part 2
The reasoning behind my previous post titled Time-Lapse Photography: How To Part 1, was to provide basic information about setting up to capture the images that would become your time-lapse project. Here in Part 2, I want to discuss what to do with all of those images you created, so here I'll talk a bit about how to post process them to result in an actual time-lapse. First of all, you'll want to download QuickTime 7 Pro for Mac or Windows, which at this time costs US$29.99, but it's … Read More...
Interview on The Candid Frame with Ibarionex Perello
Earlier this year I was interviewed by fellow professional photographer and author Ibarionex Perello for his very popular podcast The Candid Frame. In the interview we discuss a number of photography tips and techniques, photographing in other countries, as well as we discuss the My Shot Lists for Travel app for iPhone. We talk about how I created the app to help users to organize and track their photography so that they return from any destination with a more varied set of images that … Read More...
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