Gone to See California. Day 1: Flight from New Jersey to San Francisco.
Aerial Photography — Somewhere over the middle of the country at 30,000 feet. I don’t know where we were, but it looks like a small town and farm land. This is the last day of winter. A lot of brown, not much green yet. I didn’t have a window seat, so only had this one chance to take an image while the person sitting next to the window was in the restroom. The flight was totally booked, and I was in the very last row. Sitting in the back row has many problems. I couldn’t lean the seat back and I now have a backache. They ran out of food, and I now have a bad headache, and I was right next to the very busy restroom. I prefer driving, even if it is all the way across the United States.
Middle America from 30k Feet. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec).
Winter Nature in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Delaware River Flooding at Lambertville and New Hope.
When I checked the USGS website this morning I saw that the Delaware river was above flood stage at Lamberville/New Hope. I cross the Delaware River at the Lambertville/New Hope bridge when going to work in Pennsylvania. I went to take a look and took a few images. The river level was high enough to start to flood the Lambertville Inn parking lot and deposit a lot of trash and debris. Every several minutes a tree floated down the river. The Lambertville Inn is built to allow flood water to flow through and not reach the main floors of the building, and have an image looking through this open space. I assume that the Inn was built this way to protect it because of a history of flooding at this location.
Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville and New Hope Bridge from the Lambertville Inn Parking Lot. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 5.1 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec).Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec).Delaware River — Flood Stage. Looking under the Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec).Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 7.5 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec).
Elderhostel “Photography in the Southwest” Workshop Day 3. Cow Canyon Trading Post and NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.
An additional example of the new NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. The image of the Cow Canyon Trading Post was taken on day 3 of the 2008 Elderhostel “Photography in the Southwest” workshop at while driving through Bluff Utah. The first image was converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro 2. The second image is the original RAW image processed with Capture One Pro 6.
Cow Canyon Trading Post. Image taken with a Nikon D300 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.
Gone to See Patagonia 2010/2011. Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 22: Back in the USA!
I arrived in Miami at about 5 AM, made it through immigrations but had to wait for my luggage. After going through customs I couldn’t directly recheck my luggage to Tampa because I didn’t have a boarding pass. It was a long walk to Terminal D. The problem with the boarding pass was I had multiple reservations on the AA flight. Once that was resolved, I had to go through security again. I just barely made it to the AA Tampa flight. The flight arrived in Tampa on time, but now we are waiting for the rain to stop so they can unload the luggage.
Jens Picking Me Up at Tampa International Airport
22-January-2011 edit: Check out Thom Hogan’s blog about being held hostage in southern Chile.
Gone to See Patagonia 2010/2011. Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 21: Beginning the Journey Home!
Yesterday we moved from the Hotel in Puerto Natales to the Red Cross Refuge center (in the E3 School). Early in the morning we thought that things were about to be settled and thought about a dash in a bus to Calafate Argentina. Our local guide visited the nearest barricade and found that the protesters were in no mood to let anyone through. Therefore, we decided to go with the safe option. By the time we got to the Red Cross site, they had us stand in line to be registered. A line in the main auditorium was for folks wanting to go to Calafate, Argentina, and another line in the gym for folks wanting to go to Punta Arenas. Looking at air schedules out of Calafate, made it look like we could be there for a week or two before catching a flight. Punta Arenas had more flights and appeared to be a better overall choice (even though it is still blockaded from the city 24 km away). Lunch for 1000+ in the Red Cross center was pasta, some meat sauce, an apple, bread, and orange juice – a typical elementary school meal on the school lunch trays. By late afternoon two buses had been organized to bring folks to the local airport. The initial selection was families with small children, elderly, pregnant women, and sick. With my cough, I ended up on the 2nd bus, and the rest of the photography group was with the 3rd group.
NOTE: As we were leaving and going through the roadblock we saw others being separated from their transportation and having to walk the 10+ km into Puerto Natales rather than being pointed to the local airport for transportation out of southern Chile.
After running the blockade and being dropped off at the local airport, the Chilean Air force transported us to Punta Arenas via a B737. This got us past at least 6-10 additional blockades. I ended up sleeping in the airport and taking the first flight out at ~5:40 AM to Santiago. I am currently working in the LAN Executive Salon waiting for a flight to Miami that leaves late tonight.
LAN Business Class Seat – Back as a full lay down bed (David J Mathre)
22-January-2011 edit: Check out Thom Hogan’s blog about being held hostage in southern Chile.
