Photo tours to Cuba, Bolivia, Slovenia, Mongolia

Do these sound interesting?  They are, and are just some of the off-the-beaten-path sort of photo tours my friend, Jeremy Woodhouse is planning to lead over the next year. 

Jeremy is one of the best landscape, and travel photographers I know. He has traveled and photographed extensively all over the world. Beginning in 2005, he began sharing his knowledge when he started collaborating with nature photographer Nancy Rotenberg, and was instrumental in setting up frequent international trips to Italy and Mexico. He went on to lead trips to Guatemala and Costa Rica. As the developer of the Dreamteam photo tour concept, his collaborations have included tours to Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia. In recent years he began adding more exotic locations to the itinerary, as you can see from samples of his photos shown below. 

The trips to Cuba are some of the most popular. This shot of the old car coming through the rain and the one below of the man with a cigar in his mouth carrying the instrument are two of my favorites. 

One of the scenes from the Heart and Soul of Cuba trip.

Ever want to go and photograph Socotra? Right, I never heard of it either.

According to Jeremy's web site, Socotra is one of those “lost world” islands (separated from the world six million years ago) where intrepid travelers – particularly those seeking  exotic nature and wildlife in a remote tropical setting – can go days on end without rubbing shoulders with that less-than-endangered species…the tourist!

Known for decades as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, it is the world’s tenth richest island for endemic plant species,  and the biggest island in the Middle East medewinaring 125 kilometers in length and 45 kilometers across.

Dragons blood trees on the dixam plateau of Socotra.

A bottle tree in Socotra. 

For the more adventuresome, Jeremy also leads a "boot camp" trip to Slovenia. This is an intensive photography workshop designed for those wishing to advance their personal level of photography and take a fresh look at their creativity and style. It is intended for either beginner or a more experienced photographers just wanting to take the opportunity of working in this fantastic location in the company of fellow photographers.

Slovenia is renowned for its stunning landscapes, deep gorges, high mountains and glacial lakes. As the focus of this workshop’s is photography, expect long days out in the landscape often starting well before sunrise and ending after sunset. On one evening, weather-permitting, expect to stay out well into the night for some night photography.  Much of the time will be spent hiking outdoors, so a reasonable level of physical fitness is required.

Lake Bled, Slovenia.

Vinegar Gorge, Slovenia.

Jeremy also has exotic trips planned for New Zealand, Pushkar, Bolivia, and Morocco, and a trip to St. Petersburg, Moscow with a side trip to visit the 2000 year old Golden Eagle festival in Mongolia. These are definitely not your ordinary photo tours. Even in some of the more typical locations of Italy and Spain, you will find that Jeremy has added in some twists to make the trips exciting and unusual.

A scene from the Mongolia golden eagle festival.

New Zealand's Kepler Mountains rise from the background fog.

Close-up of an Icelandic Puffin

Jodhpur - the blue city in Pushkar.

Scene at the Puskar camel fair

If you are feeling adventurous and looking for a photo tour that is not run of the mill, you might want to check out Jeremy's Pixelchrome website.  For an extra savings and to be in on the ground floor of trip planning, take a look at one of his "pre-tour scouting" trips. 

Icaro Caduto at Agrigento from a scouting trip to Sicily

All photos in this post copyright Jeremy Woodhouse (www.pixelchrome.com)

The 50mm Kern Macro Switar lens

Legends of photography:
Photographing with the Macro Switar on a Leica M and Fuji X-Pro1

The f/1.8 50mm Kern Macro Switar lens was made in Switzerland by Kern Aarau exclusively for the Alpa 35mm cameras. It was introduced in 1951 and reached legendary status for its precision optics and hand-crafted elegance. In 1958 the model was modified with the introduction of the Visifocus depth-of-file indicator shown on the lens in this blog post. As the aperture ring was turned, yellow dots appeared in the ring below to indicate the depth-of-field for the selected f/stop. In 1968 the design changed again with the addition of better coating of the  lens elements and a decrease in the maximum aperture to f/1.9.

Early camera lenses did not have the sophisticated anti-reflective optical coatings we have today. Early lens designs had fewer optical elements to control aberrations and so did not require coatings to control reflective glare.  As optical elements were added to lens systems creating more glass surfaces, they also created more problems with reflective glare from the increase of internal glass surfaces. In the mid-1930's a non-reflective coating was first discovered and used to coat the lens surfaces to reduce glare. This was not widely applied until after WWII. It took decades for the development of the sophisticated, multi-lens coatings we use today.

Early lenses have a muted, low contrast effect when used on modern digital camera sensors, which are more demanding than film. The original sharpness of these lenses remains unaffected.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that for the film "Saving Private Ryan" the cinematographer had the lens coatings removed from the Nikon lenses used to shoot the film in order to simulate the effect of contemporary optics.

The electronic view finders and "live view" mode of mirrorless cameras has made it possible to mount many older camera lenses on them. So I decided to try the 50mm Switar on my Leica M and also the Fuji X-Pro1. Interestingly, it is a very small lens for having been intended for SLR use. In fact, it is not much larger than a regular Leica M lens. This, plus its ability to focus close, made it very appealing to try.

The focusing ring has a long throw -- a really long throw.  It focuses down to 1.8x magnification at 11" but takes 2 3/4 turns of the focusing ring to get there. Note the Visifocus depth-of-field scale of yellow dots.

The lens shade for the Switar has an unusual, and innovative way of attaching by means of a single, thin, spring wire that runs along the inside of the hood and protrudes out the bottom. Pressing the bottom loop loosens the tension on the spring so it fits over the lens. As soon as you release the spring tension, the hood is attached. The design is not exactly graceful with the metal loop sticking out from the bottom, but it is very functional and speedy to use.

First thing I noticed about this lens was the low contrast due to its lack of modern anti-reflective coatings.

The images are definitely sharp, but lacking in color punch -- a direct result of the low level of lens coatings.

Normally, the colors in this photo and the one above would be very vibrant. I could have punched the color some more in Photoshop, but decided to keep it as it was to illustrate the muted color palette of the lens.

My preliminary lens tests led me to realize that I should not be working against the grain. If the lens exhibited a low contrast, muted look, perhaps it was better to exploit this quality rather than mask it with some post-processing punch. With that in mind I did the three still life photos below, thinking they would be a little more in keeping with the natural characteristics the lens had to offer.

For all of the above samples, I used a very wide open lens aperture of f/2 and a filtered window light for illumination to enhance the softer color palette of the lens. The muted colors are a product of the age of the lens and its minimal anti-reflective coatings. There is no other post-processing going on here.

The main reason I enjoy using older lenses on modern digital cameras is for the inherent optical effects they offer due to the less sophisticated technology of their age. I find this extends the options of my creative palette.

Here the Switar is mounted on a Fuji X-Pro1 where it acts as a 75mm close-up lens. The pleasing look of the match of camera to lens almost appears as if they were made for each other.

A Metabones Speed Booster adapter is also available to connect Alpa lenses like the 50mm Switar to Fuji X-series.  The adapter preserves the same 50mm focal length when the lens is attached to the Fuji camera.

Taken with the Switar on the X-Pro1, this shot demonstrates the beautiful bokeh in the out of focus areas when working in close at a wide open f/1.8 aperture.

Central Park Project - photographing the Ramble

Cloudy weather in New York has been perfect for another trip to Central Park to continue my "Solitude" book project. This time I concentrated on the Ramble area of the park where I photographed large rock formations juxtaposed with the shapes of trees and vegetation.

Large slabs of Manhattan schist or granite permeate the park and were incorporated into the original landscape design.

The moodiness of this scene reminded me a lot of the Hudson River School painters who were popular around the time the planners were designing Central Park.

 

The picturesque Stone Arch in the Ramble was fashioned from boulders found in the park. The arch itself is only 5' wide.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D800 on a tripod for maximum quality, using both the 18-35mm and 24-70mm Nikkor zooms.  Apertures ranged from f/8 to f/16.

I forgot to bring along a cable release so I relied on the built-in shutter delay of the D800 for my slow shutter speeds. I find this delay feature so convenient, I may just give up on using a cable release in situations such as this.  You can find the "Exposure Delay Mode" in the "Custom Setting Menu" under "Shooting/display" on most Nikon DSLR cameras. It can be set to a  1, 2, or 3 second delay.

Happy 4th of July from New York City!

How to photograph fireworks

It's that time of year again when colorful displays of fireworks will light the night skies in celebration of July 4th.  Obtaining colorful and exciting photographs of firework displays is not difficult, but it does require an ability to work a camera in manual mode with a remote release. Digital cameras have made photographing fireworks much easier and fun to do.  Here is how it is done.

You will need a steady tripod for your camera, a remote release to hold the shutter open, and a lens that will enable you to fill the frame with the fireworks display.   A zoom lens is best because you can modify the cropping as you go by zooming in or out.

Fill the frame with the bursts for the most dramatic effect.  On a dark night you can even leave the camera shutter open to capture several bursts in the same exposure.

 The first thing you need to do is determine where to aim the camera.   Fireworks displays usually go off from a fixed location and cover a limited area of the sky.  You should be able to see the individual fireworks trail as it shoots up from the launch area.  Fix you camera so that it covers the area of the sky where the  full burst occurs.  It is usually best to fill the frame with the burst.  Including too much of the dark sky is dull and uninteresting. 

Set your camera to manual exposure mode.  You will need to also set the shutter speed to B, or Bulb, which will keep the shutter open as long as you are holding in the button on the remote release.  Choose a low ISO setting -- preferably the base ISO of your camera.  This will usually be ISO 100 or 200.  Set your camera menu to turn off the noise reduction for long exposures. This will only slow your camera down and is unnecessary where the dark areas are pure black.

Your lens should also be set to manual mode.  The auto-focus mode may have to hunt for a focus point that will result in many out of focus images.  Note that on most modern auto-focus lenses the actual infinity setting of the lens is often not at the very end of the focus ring range.  You will need to set the infinity symbol on your lens by eye.  Set it for the very center of the symbol.  The focus ring can easily be bumped off of its setting so it is wise to tape the ring securely in place while shooting.

Over-exposing the photo will result in a colorless image, like the one on the right.  Close the aperture down another f/stop or two until you can see some color on your camera display.

The proper selection of lens aperture is a bit of a variable.  Fireworks differ from one another in terms of brightness.  So you will need to do some on the spot testing to determine the best f/stop to use.  The range is usually between f/8 and f/16, but can go as low as f/22.  With an ISO of 100, I would recommend starting with f/8 (f/11 for ISO 200).  Overexposing the fireworks results in washed out bursts lacking in color.  So it is best to keep the exposure toward the darker end and bracket by at least one full f/stop, or even more.  For instance, you could begin with f/8, then try f/11 and f/16.  Check your camera display to see if the color is in the burst. 

To avoid your fireworks photos looking like the bad example above you need to keep your shutter open long enough for the bursts to record in the frame.  When the exposure is too short, the burst does not have enough time to "paint" itself in your picture.  That is why the burst streaks in this photo are so short.  There is also far too much dull, black sky in the photo.  This photo needed to be cropped tighter.

Here the crop was tighter and the shutter was open long enough to capture several bursts of fireworks that allowed them to create long, bright streaks that completely fill the frame.

Timing is very important.  You want to keep the shutter open long enough during the burst so that it "paints" itself on the camera sensor.  This will give you the fullest color. Too short a shutter speed will only record a small part of the burst.  You want to record as much of the burst as you can without over-exposing the photo.  The length of exposure depends upon the brightness of the burst and the sky.  If you have set your camera up properly, you can release the shutter as soon as you see the firework begin its upward motion.  Keep the shutter open during the full burst.  This is usually between three and eight seconds, but could be longer if the sky is really dark. Towards the end of a fireworks display smoke tends to build up. This may cause the image to overexpose.  Be mindful of this and stop down the lens if you see it happening.

If your camera can double expose, you might want to experiment with capturing more than one burst in the same photo.  Alternatively, you can capture a number of bursts and combine them later into one frame during post-processing.

 As the display goes on, the sky begins to fill with smoke.  This smoke reflects the light from the fireworks and can affect the exposure.  You may need to darken your exposure by stopping down your lens aperture by another stop or more. 

These rules should give you a good starting point.  Experiment by varying the lens aperture and the time the shutter is open.  Above all, be aware of where in the frame your bursts are recording and tighten up the crop.   You want your photos to be exciting, and that means filling the image frame with the burst. Crop tight enough to eliminate the dull and uninteresting black areas of the night sky.

Photographing Stained Glass Windows

Over the weekend I photographed the stained glass windows in a little chapel, and later began thinking it might make an interesting blog post. It is not always easy to recreate the original look of stained glass windows. First of all, they often record with too much contrast. Second, it is almost impossible to accurately record the color because it is so dependent upon the light source illuminating it from behind. Plus, determining the correct exposure is complicated because the meter will try to set an exposure to include the interior of the building, which is much to dark by contrast.

I start off by recording RAW images and bracketing the exposures with the camera on a tripod.  The tripod insures that the images will be in register in case I have to overlap them later on to equalize the light. In this case, I did not have to do that.

I include more area than I need so that I can crop and readjust the perspective later in Photoshop. It is important to start with an image (or images) with enough detail to make corrections. This is where shooting RAW with its 16 bit depth comes into play. A good, modern digital camera is going to provide plenty of detail to work with in post-processing. It is very important not to allow the highlight to blow out. That will result in no detail with which to work later.

In the before sample on the left the exposure was very uneven with the left side brighter than the right. There were a lot of bright white areas so I exposed to keep the detail in them and allowed the shadow areas to darken. 

Most of the important work I do is in Adobe Bridge before I bring the image into Photoshop.

In Bridge I use the "Highlight" slider to bring down the highlights. Next I adjust the "Shadows" slider to brighten the dark areas and open up their color. Using these two sliders opposite to each other will bring down the highlights and put detail in the shadows, but also tend to flatten the image. To correct this I increased the "Clarity" slider. I use this instead of "Contrast" to punch up a scene by increasing the contrast. In addition, I also increased the "Lights" on the contrast curve.

Adjusting the color is a bit tricky because a gray card wouldn't work in this situation. I looked for an area of the stained glass that was supposed to be white and used that to click on in Bridge to set the color balance. In the image above I used the white pages of the book.

In this window the shadows were all blocked up and the color was all over the place because the scene outside the window had both a blue sky and green vegetation. I used the white beard on the kneeling figure to set the color balance.

I try to shoot the photos from far away with a long lens so I will have minimal distortion in the perspective, but some keystoning is inevitable. That is why I leave a lot of space around the original photo. In Photoshop I select the entire image, call up the grid overlay by pressing Ctrl-' and use the "distort" transformation tool to adjust each corner separately. By pulling and pushing the corners in and out, it is easy to correct the perspective.  That done, I do a final tight crop.

The color often mutes a bit so I bring back the vibrancy by moving the image in the LAB color space, and use curves to enhance the color channels.

In this before shot I had plenty to work with -- sufficient detail in the highlights and no blocked up shadows. All that was required was to set the color balance, move the "Highlight" and "Shadow" sliders in Bridge, correct the perspective,  and add a bit of punch to the colors.

All photos were taken with a Leica M (240) and Leica-R 80-200mm zoom lens.

The Forest Primeval

I went away for the weekend in upstate New York visiting a friend. Daily thunderstorms in the area have left the vegetation a lush, saturated green, and the nearby forests remind me a lot of the primitive landscape paintings of the 19th century Hudson River School.

I brought only my Leica M system with me and also included a Voigtlander 12mm, and two Leica-R lenses for it, the 80-200mm zoom and 60mm macro.

This forest sunset was taken with the Voigtlander 12mm super wide angle lens, which typically has a heavy vignette. Rather than correct it, I decided to use it for the symbolic feeling of moving from the dark into the light.

This photo and the two below were taken with the 21mm Elmarit lens.

"

"X" marks the spot.  I liked the criss-crossing of trees and branches that formed this composition shot with the 80-200mm zoom.