Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop IV with Michael Mariant. Day 28: At Sea.
It was a sea day aboard the MV Explorer as we traveled from Dublin, Ireland to Dover, United Kingdom. As the sun was beginning to set the clouds developed an intense orange color. As soon as I got up to deck 7 at the rear of the ship, I could see a cargo ship may pass directly between us and the sun. One of nine images I captured during the Spring Enrichment voyage of a ship passing in front of the sun at sunrise or sunset.
Sunset on the English Channel. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer on the way to Dover, England. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 800, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Japan. Street Photography Workshop with Steve Simon and Soichi Hayashi. Day 2: Tokyo (Shinjuku Station, Harajuku, Shibuya).
The sky cleared, and the rising sun was reflected into my hotel room off the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. It took six images to get the entire building in order to generate a composite image. I still need to work a bit on the geometry of the two towers.
Reflections of the Sun Rising. Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building from the Keio Plaza Hotel. Composite of six images taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
The first stop in the morning was the Shinjuku Station. This is the worlds largest and busiest transportation hub. We got there in time to observe the morning rush. I have never seen so many people moving in an almost choreographed manner. I couldn’t really figure out how to capture the frenetic activity in a single photograph, so decided to make a short time lapse video of passengers entering and exiting at one of the main entrances.
After this I went outside to clear my head and look for another subject. I found a pedestrian bridge where I could watch a busy street crossing from a distance. The folks in Japan only cross at intersections when permitted by a green light. As soon as the green light starts blinking the pedestrians start running to avoid being in the cross walk after the light changes. These images of folks starting to run rather than walk were taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera with a 70-300 mm VR telephoto lens in burst mode.
In the afternoon we traveled to the famous Harajuku area and Shibuya shopping district. I am starting to lean toward a theme of folks taking pictures with phones, especially if I can see the image within the image on the back of the phone. Despite my preference for B&W, I have to show the two women in Harajuku with brightly colored hair. I noticed a large number of non-Japanese tourists during this walkabout.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
South Texas Birding Photo Safari with Jason Odell Day 3.
Male Northern Cardinal Feeding Breakfast to a Young Cardinal in Southern Texas. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 140, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec).
Male Northern Cardinal Feeding Breakfast to a Young Cardinal at Dos Venadas Ranch in Southern Texas. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 140, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec. (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Japan. Street Photography Workshop with Steve Simon and Soichi Hayashi. Day 1: Tokyo.
May 17th is the day that Norway celebrates its independence. There was an article in the newspaper delivered to my hotel room where Japan congratulates Norway, and comments on the shared goals of both nations — especially having to do with the sea and fishing.
The sun rises very early here in Tokyo — at 04:35. Combination of latitude, and not adjusting the time in the summer (daylight savings time in the US). I am not sure how the local residents use this daylight time in the morning. I did see a group doing stretches and exercising in Chuo park near Niagara falls at 06:30. I took some pictures of the group from my hotel room (on the 20th floor, distance about 400 meters). Then played with the scripts/statistics function within PhotoShop to try to indicate the motion. Later on after breakfast I went for another walk in the park.
Pink Poppy Flower at Shinjuku Chuo Park in Tokyo. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. (David J Mathre)
The Street Photography workshop started at noon, with a lunch and initial classroom session. After an initial greeting and orientation we got to look at some samples of the workshop participants work, and expectations of what we would be doing for the next eight days. Each day we would have a review session of the images taken the previous day. We also needed to decide on a theme/subject/story line for what we would be photographing. The definition of “Street Photography” can be nebulous. After the classroom session we did a photography warm-up walkabout in Shinjuku. There area is visually overwhelming, and I was having trouble even deciding on what to shoot. During the classroom session, Steve suggested using prime lenses, aperture mode (relatively wide open with a narrow range of focus), a high shutter speed of > 1/400 second (to stop motion — both subject and photographer), and auto ISO (up to 3200 depending on camera sensor). The two cameras that I am using for the workshop (Leica CL, and Leica TL2) do not react and focus as fast as some of the Nikon Pro cameras I am used to. I selected the mirror-less cameras and lenses that I would be using based on their lighter weight (both for travel and being smaller and less conspicuous for street photography). I set the cameras to display the B&W image. I also chose to mainly work with B&W images for this workshop (although I saved the raw images so I can get to the color images). As you can see from the street walkabout images, I was struggling.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
South Texas Birding Photo Safari with Jason Odell Day 2.
Male Painted Bunting About To Have a Bird Bath at Campos Viejos Ranch in Southern Texas. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014.
Male Painted Bunting About To Have a Bird Bath at Campos Viejos Ranch in Southern Texas. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014. (David J Mathre)
