Archive for the ‘National Parks’ Category

Taxi Driver's Waiting (1/320th at f/2.8 ISO 250)

Coba Taxi Loaded (1/60th f2.8 70mm at ISO 125)

Off They Go (1/50th f/2.8 70mm ISO 200)

Holding hands (1/200 f/2.8 70mm at ISO 200)

Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula is well known for its many Mayan ruins and  thousands of tourists flock there each year.   I visited Tulum’s ruins overlooking the Gulf of Mexico as well as Coba’s ruins which are located slightly inland.  Both ruins were heavily populated with visitors, although the ruins at Cobá were spread out in a dense forest, so it didn’t seem nearly as busy.  Whenever I visit an area with a ton of tourists I try to step back from the crowd and just observe.   I think we miss a lot of photographic opportunities when we just follow along and get lost in the herd.   I think stepping back and taking note and looking for those opportunities is every bit as important as photographing the attraction itself.   Today’s photos are of the many bicycle taxis that were waiting to cart tourists around the ruins.   Many people chose to use their services, while some chose to walk.  I imagine it must have been a very different experience for those who zipped by on a bicycle taxi, compared to those who walked the 1-2 kilometers to see the ruins. A process I think I would have failed to document if I hadn’t stepped back and simply observed.

Two comments from fellow tourists:

The wife says, “Honey, I want to take a photo of you over here.”  Her husband’s response, “But, I’m not over there!”

A gentleman commenting on the ruins, “These weren’t built very well.”

Both comments put a smile on my face.

Goodbye Montana

It’s hard to say goodbye, but it’s time to head back to the windy city. It’s a good thing too because I just spooned out my last ration of peanut butter. “Creamy or crunchy?” you ask. I’ll let you guess. I’ve had a wonderful time here in Montana (as always) and look forward to coming back in the spring. I think I mentioned this before, but I’m planning on doing a Yellowstone workshop next year. Once I get all the details nailed down I’ll let everyone know. If you’re interested drop me a note here on the blog and I’ll put your name on the mailing list. I’ll be tweeting from the road a bit so if you want to follow just click HERE. Be back in online a few days…;)

Cow Moose in the woods

Cow and her calf

You looking at me?

Love can be so fickle.  About 72 hours ago I took delivery of my beautiful  500mm lens.  I had totally underestimated the size of the lens.  The box it came in practically took up the entire back seat of the Jeep.  When I got home and took it out and compared it to my 70-200mm it was obvious how large this Canon was – or more appropriately this “Bazooka”.   Yes, I was developing lens envy.  I thought to myself my trip through Yellowstone the next day with a long lens like this was sure to be fruitful.  Well,  after  10 hours in the car, three pb&j sandwiches and eight cups of coffee I’m here to tell you I didn’t see squat.   Sure, a few bison were around, but I was hoping for a bear, a moose or even an elk. But no luck. And to make matters worse the drive was super long due to construction…I was starting to hate this 500mm.  Now, I’m an upbeat kind of guy. It takes a lot…and I mean a lot, to get me down. So I made the best of it and shifted gears and took some wonderful wide-angle shots. So the day wasn’t a waste, but it just wasn’t what I was hoping for either.

Sunday was a different story.  After an afternoon of being lazy by the fire,  I decided to head to Idaho where I had seen several moose earlier this week.   After scouting out several waterways, I decided to do a little “two tracking” that’s what us guys from the sticks of Michigan refer to as taking one’s vehicle off-road….:)     I hadn’t been off road for more than an hour when I saw in the distance a cow and her calf working in and out of the trees.  I spent the next hour watching them, slowly working my way towards them, but always keeping a safe distance because believe it or not a Moose, as sweet as they look, will charge you.  So I kept my distance from Rocky and Bullwinkle and enjoyed the evening photographing them.    It was a good learning experience for me as well because I was able to better understand the pros/cons of a fixed focal lens of this size.   The obvious pro is you get up close and tight and can be at a good distance away. A noted disadvantage with a fixed focal point is it makes framing the subject a difficult task at times since you don’t have the luxury of working a focal range of telephoto zoom, especially as the subject gets closer. So do I love the lens? Do I sound fickle? I guess I’m not ready to marry it yet but overall I enjoyed it’s use.

I’m off to Jackson Hole today via the park, so who knows, maybe I’ll luck into a bear or bull moose…;)

p.s. A side note:  Many of you on occasion will drop me questions  regarding a post on Facebook.  I would  enjoy responding to these questions but  Facebook makes it nearly impossible for guys like me with fan pages to communicate directly with you without sending a comment to everyone.  So, if you have a specific questions regarding one of my posts, please feel free to drop by my blog so I can respond in a more efficient manner.  I enjoy answering them so please feel free to write…thanks again, john

The Spud Drive-in

It’s been a little too long since I’ve taken a solo road trip dedicated to my photography.  I hate to sound like a narcissist, but there’s a certain level of freedom that one enjoys on a solo road trip. Not to mention the very best part of a road trip – getting to eat all the junk food along the way while listening to your own music. This is key folks.  I know it’s a bad habit eating junk food and driving, but  road trips and bad habits are no stranger to me.  I even debated taking up smoking,  but I was fearful the second hand smoke would irritate my dogs. So I passed and landed on Cheetos instead….;)  The biggest advantage of a solo trip is time….it’s your time to use as you wish.  I made all the stops I would normally make with company,  but I was able to add a few too.   And of course there’s the fun element.  Road trips should be relaxing, memorable, and  above all, fun.  Sure, a long road trip can be a good time to reflect and contemplate the meaning of life, but don’t trip on your way up  Maslow’s staircase by forgetting the number one road trip rule:  have FUN!   This trip I decided to relive my childhood, “a bit” and revisit many of the West’s best tourist gimmicks.  The gimmicks are like a cattle call,  herding in  suckers like me off the highway.  But who could blame me when you have giant man-made critters begging to be photographed.  That’s right, my ipod is littered with photographs of  giant gophers, the jolly green giant and my personal favorite,  the giant jackalope.  I’ve been posting a few FUN shots on Twitter using Jarvis’s super cool iPhone application.  I must admit I’m getting slightly addicted to his iphone application because of its ease of use.   Just in case you missed any you can check them out below.

Jolly Green Giant, (Blue Earth, Minn.)

Badland's Killer Gopher

Badlands iphone shot

My traveling buds, Smokey and Tess

A Mountain Weather Welcome

Wyoming's Giant Jackalope

Moutain Pass

On a more serious note,  tomorrow I drive into West Yellowstone to pick up my 500mm.  I must admit I’m stoked about getting this lens.  I know this makes me sound like a dork, but folks I’m super pumped – especially after seeing a total of four Moose ( not MEESE)  on my drive in from  Idaho.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to get some nice wildlife shots.   A side note: Idaho is really growing on me.  One of my favorite drives has become the stretch between Jackson Hole and West Yellowstone via Idaho.   The vistas are amazing, the landscape is incredibly textural and the farmland is as authentic as it gets.   I could spends weeks photographing  this area.  All potato jokes welcomed…;)

Have a great weekend and enjoy what’s left of the fall… it is already snowing here out West.

Fairy Falls

On the road again…

I’m packing up in the next couple of days and heading back to Montana. I’m going to mix it up a bit this time around and try to get into the park (Yellowstone, as if there’s another) for a few extra days, but this time with a 500mm in tow. I decided to rent a 500mm and a 24mm tilt/shift to add to the list of lenses I’ve been meaning to try. I’ll keep you posted from the road via Twitter.

Misc. items: My logo contest is coming to an end in the next couple of days. Once I have the winner picked I’ll make sure to let you know. I came across a great site for looking at my system fonts. Go to www.flippingtypical.com and type in a sentence and it will display the text using all of your fonts. Pretty cool!

Tomorrow I plan on blogging a bit about David Honl flash system so stay tuned.

….oh I can’t wait to get back on the road again… sing it Willie.

As a reminder

I would like to remind my readers that I’ve made a few changes to the way I deliver my blog, so if you’re not receiving my blog via RSS feed or via email, I suggest clicking HERE to sign up.

"bad timing"

Moulton Barn in Teton National Park

I’m back from dropping my prints off to the National Museum of Wildlife Art and I’m happy to report no broken frames..;)   As a reward for my delivery prowess, I decided to spend the weekend in Jackson Hole and check out the local art fair.  I must say there are some incredibly talented photographers that display their work at that Art Fair,  including:  Randy Napier, Scott Wheeler,  and Shane Knight .

Back in town, I had a chance to visit David Brookover’s gallery and  must say his landscape shots are inspirational.  I had a chance to speak to David, (briefly) and like many photographers I think he was much more comfortable behind the camera  than in person.  He did have some really interesting information about modern film processing techniques that I plan on learning more about.   After visiting David’s gallery, I got it in my head that I would go and photograph the famous Moulton Barn. It seemed as though everyone and their brother had a shot of this barn, so I decided I might as get one too.   I drove out to the late  John Moulton’s farm in the afternoon to assess the scene, and I quickly realized this was a morning photo since I was, at that point, shooting directly into the sun.  I  figured if I got to the location around 6 a.m. the next day I should be all set since the sun was due to rise at 6:28am.  The next morning came, I woke up around 5:30, grabbed some joe and headed to the barn.   Now, I didn’t bring my tripod along with me on this trip because I hadn’t really planned on taking any landscape shots (mistake), so I had to reconcile with myself that I would  make due with a hand-held shot. Plus,  I knew I could always come back at a later date to take it properly if I truly wanted to,  but right now it was just about getting that shot.

Here’s the funny part: while I was heading over there, it never crossed my mind that other photographers would have made similar plans, and to my suprise I was greeted by six well-positioned photographers (probably had been their for an hour prior to my arrival).   Apparently everybody and their brother has the shot, except for me and these 6 guys!  And due to the location of the barn, the dirt road is only about 30 yards in front of the barn, so there wasn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver and still get the shot.  Instead of saying forget it, I marked it up as  lesson learned, (get their much earlier next time, with tripod in tow), and decided to make due with available space.  Much like a fly-fisherman and his favorite hole in the river, when a photographer has a good spot, they don’t move!  I took a few photos, including the “down and dirty”  HDR version above, called it a morning, and moved on to check out the rest of the Tetons.  The lesson: don’t assume you’re the only one out their trying to get the shot, especially  for a photo that can only be taken at certain times of the day.  So learn from my mistake and make sure you’re there an hour or two ahead of schedule.

Teton Magic

I must admit, on occasion I’ll play around with filters. When the storm I was telling you about (yesterday’s blog) began to clear in the Teton Range,  the smokey red sun peeked through the clouds creating some crazy light.  Now, I’m not going to lie,  when this took place I said to myself  “I’m going to have a little fun with this photo.”  I knew once in Lightroom I would be able to extract some wild colors using  a warming/cooling  filter. Some of you might like this effect and some of you might not.  Doesn’t really matter.  To me it’s really more about experimenting ( for better or for worse).   I’m a big believer in trying new things because I feel it’s experimentation that leads to growth.   Now, this photo isn’t something I would say represents my work as a whole, but then again what is my work, other than a collection of my experiments?  You get the drift….as I’ve said before,  go have fun and exeriment a bit….it’s all in good fun!

Oh yeah, that’s right… you don’t really care about the photo… you want to know who won the super cool Souldier camera strap gift certificate!  I drew a name, (actually my daughter did) and the winner is Kristin Pribyla.  Congrats!  If the rest of you want to check out Kristin’s website (I’m sure she won’t mind) just  click HERE.  I just received my new camera strap in the mail  today and it is super cool, I love it.  A special thanks to all of you who entered the contest, and an extra special thanks to Souldier for the gift certificate.   Everyone stay tuned because I have some great contest  ideas for the coming months…;)

Teton Storm

I’m back from my camping/photo  trip and I must say it was a blast.  I plan on posting  a few highlights from the trip this week so stay tuned.  Day 1, we began our trip by driving from Montana to Wyoming via Yellowstone National Park.   As always,  the weather was less than predictable, and when we arrived in the Teton National park we were greeted by a  large storm system.  By 4p.m. the skies were black except for the amazing lightning show which was only to be outdone by slush balls of hail!    I’ve visited the Tetons many times but I’ve never been there during a massive summer storm. The storm came and went, but needless to say, it created some very dramatic landscape photo opportunities.

Some housekeeping…remember, there’s only one day left until I announce the winner of the super duper  Souldier camera strap giveaway, so if you haven’t entered, make sure to click HERE.