Travel – Page 15 – Peter Oshkai photography

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014

Christmas lights: unplugging from routine

Breaking away from the daily working routine at the beginning of the holiday season has not been easy. For me, it requires a conscious effort to stop checking and responding to emails that keep appearing in my inbox. Still, both my wife and I are doing our best to unplug after a marathon of dealing with academic matters at the end of the term.

Today, we spent the entire day in the downtown with our friends, looking at Christmas trees at the Empress Hotel, having a leisurely lunch and walking along the inner harbour under rain. Breaking the routine takes me out of a comfort zone, but I know that this is necessary for avoiding burnout. For example, it is the lack of everyday comforts that makes travelling so effective in making us experience the World in a new light. The same effect can be obtained by simply walking in our home town, without any particular goal, looking at the place with the eyes of a tourist.

The term flâneur, which emerged in Paris at the end of the 19th century as a reference to urban exploring through strolling and observing the city life, is based on the same principle. Modern street photography is the extension of this urban observing. Having no particular goal for the stroll and the photo shoot enables one to be present and responsive to the experience of the city life. This exploration mode is similar, in some respect, to the “beginner’s mind”, a state that is tremendously conductive to personal development in zen buddhism and Eastern martial arts, such as kendo.

I think that being in the company of two three-year-olds, who exemplify the beginner’s mind by definition, is particularly amazing. Naturally, my photos today were mostly of them – enjoying Christmas lights and colourful window displays of the local shops.

December 18, 2014

Travel photography

Recently, I listened to an interview with Rolf Potts, the author of the bestselling book “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel”. He made some excellent points on the general idea of travelling and managing information while away from home. I can certainly relate to what he said about the meaning of travel in terms of personal development, and I think that most of the general ideas apply to photography.

For me, one of the most attractive aspects of travelling to other countries is the possibility to return with a different set of views on various everyday subjects or situations. My former PhD advisor called this interaction with other cultures “being calibrated” by them. This makes world travel incredibly valuable – not many other activities have potential (and high probability) of changing me as a person is the span of a few weeks.

In order to achieve this effect, I find that I need to actively resist the urge to continue managing my work and social relationships in the same way as I do this at home. Ironically, it is the technology, which I value and enjoy tremendously, that makes it so easy to continue living in the “business as usual” mode while on the road. As a result, there is a real possibility to spend most of the trip looking at the laptop or a smartphone screen, instead of the new environment I happen to be in.

Another great value of travelling is that it lets (indeed, forces) me to experience the World with what is called in the Japanese martial arts tradition, a beginner’s mind. When I am in a new country for the first time, I am as vulnerable as a five-year-old in many respects: I can barely express myself verbally, it is dangerous to cross a street, I have a very limited sense of what is socially acceptable, I cannot find anything in a supermarket, etc. Actually, it is “growing” through this stage that teaches us the most about the different cultures and the universal aspects of human relationships.

In terms of photography, I think that it is important to follow the same principles, i.e. to keep in mind the original purpose of being away from home and creating a photographic record of that experience. While travelling, I try to change the change the way I approach photo shoots, compared to what I do at home. For example, while some degree of planning is necessary, I consciously reduce the amount of micro-managing of the setting, lighting, etc. to be more flexible and responsive to new situations and opportunities.

Also, I try to capture the moments that are significant because of their emotional content, not just their exotic or famous settings. For example, some of my favourite images from our family trip to France last year are the portraits of my daughter, two-year-old at the time, delighted by the sheer size of the Roman and Greek statues in Louvre. We expected her to be bored by the museum, but it turned out that she enjoyed it so much that did not want to leave.

While on the road, I make backups of everything I shoot, but generally don’t post-process the images to their final form. I used to try to edit photos right away when I started exploring stock photography, but realized that doing so detracts too much from the travel experience itself precisely because it is what I would do after each photo shoot at home. Besides, it is fun to look through the images from a trip after a few months (sometimes, years) after returning home. If all of the photos were down-selected to a “nice” portfolio and post-processed, there would be no excuse to go back to them in the busy day-to-day routine.

December 15, 2014December 15, 2014

On choosing a niche: travel and stock photography

As I mentioned in an earlier post on specialization, although some degree of focus is probably beneficial for photographers, actual selection of the niche can be difficult.

I believe the most important factors in selecting the area of specialization are

What you enjoy doing/shooting.
What you are good at.

Also relevant, but somewhat less important question is whether a lot of expensive equipment would be required (and whether you already have some of it).

Some business experts also suggest considering how competitive the prospective niche is and how well would it pay. I would argue that for someone, who is not looking to immediately make photography his/her main career by abandoning the current way of making a living, these considerations are a poor place to start. Personally, I would not want to trade the enjoyment of photography for potential financial returns, although I find the commercial aspects of photography (as any applied art, for that matter) fascinating.

I started doing travel and stock photography, because it allowed me to add focus to family vacations, and it had a potential for very passive income from repeat sales. Presently, I think that stock photography has two main drawbacks. From financial perspective, the income is very low, and a very large portfolio is needed before any money starts trickling in at all. Perhaps more importantly, from creative standpoint, my stock photos that have been most successful are rather cliché. Taking those kind of photos requires looking at the subject not through my own eyes, but rather through the eyes of a corporate client (which is an average of about all possible clients one can imagine). It can be a fun exercise, but it is not something I would do all the time.

Having said this, travel photography is still tremendously interesting to me. Fundamentally, what I like about it is probably what makes most people pick up a camera in the first place – ability to capture the moment and re-live it later while looking at the photo. Nowadays, when I take photos while travelling, I like to think about what aspects of the experience I want to capture and convey. More and more often, it involves people, whom I meet during the trips.

November 6, 2014November 6, 2014

Baden-Baden: a Russian town in Germany

Last summer, I had a chance to visit Baden-Baden after my research trip to Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. I was fascinated by the history of this charming spa town (“baden” means “bath” in German) and its deep connection to Russia. The wife of Russian Emperor Alexander I, Elizabeth, also knows as Louise of Baden, was born in Karlsruhe in 1779 and often visited Baden (the double name was given to the town later to distinguish it from other European “Badens”). Over the years, Russian royalty, aristocracy and famous writers, such as Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Gogol used to come and live in Baden-Baden.

Nowadays, the town is once again a popular destination among rich and famous, as well as just rich, Russians. The streets have undeniable charm with their neo-classical architecture in a beautiful setting of the Balck Forest. If I had any doubts whether it was indeed a very posh town or if it was just a tourism media hype, it was gone after I saw a traffic jam consisting entirely of Ferraris.

For a travel photographer, Baden-Baden offers a wide range of subjects. I shot some street scenes at a chalk art festival, architectural details of the buildings and the famous buildings themselves (the house where Gogol wrote his “Dead Souls” is just a few steps from the central square). I also shot close-ups of some fantastic dishes and desserts with familiar names (e.g. Black Forest Ham and Black Forest Cake), but that are aWorld apart from their North-American counterparts. This was my first trip, where I realized that Canon’s Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens makes a great walk around lens for street photography.

On my second day in Baden-Baden (the first day I mostly spent at the famous geothermal baths, which are rightly the main tourist attraction, but obviously offer little to a photographer), I took a bus from the central square to the top of Mount Merkur, where paragliders leap off the cliff and catch thermal air currents to soar above the town.

Rick Steeves in his great travel guidebooks tells that a country or a town is like a good novel – it is better when enjoyed the second time around. I am really looking forward to visiting Baden-Baden again some day. I would like to take more street photos and to try to capture the 19th century aura of the town.

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014

Malta: my first travel photography destination

The trip to Malta in June of 2005 is very special for me. It was a combined conference-followed-by-vacation trip, the first one of many that my wife and I took in the following years. The conference was the first one, which I attended for the first time as a professor, not a PhD student. The vacation that followed was the first one, where we specifically included travel stock photography on the agenda. We read travel guides, brainstormed shooting lists, and spend many fun hours tracking down the destinations. For the first time, we packed a DSLR (the original Canon Digital Rebel) and a professional-grade lens (Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM – the link is to the current, second generation.)

We learned a lot about travel photography from that trip, both in terms of technique and logistics. Looking to capture commercially-viable photos was a big departure from my earlier approach to photography, where my audience had been only our family and closest friends (and I don’t mean Facebook friends – this trip pre-dates social networking as we know it!) Looking back at the photos now, nine years later, I can see how different my style and subjects were from what they are today. The biggest difference is that I largely avoided including people in the photos, while nowadays, that are my main subjects. I believe this is a natural initial stage for many photographers – to focus initially on landscapes, architecture, nature, etc. before gradually progressing to portraits of people. “But I am not interested in shooting people!” was my honest statement at the time when I started doing photography seriously, which I often hear from other beginning photographers.

It takes substantial time to develop skill and personal style in photography. One popular statement is that “the photos you take in the first 10 years of shooting are your worst.” On the one hand, I agree with it. On the other hand, some of my favourite photos are from that trip to Malta. Paradoxically, they have a lot of personal meaning for me, despite being shot for face-less stock consumers.

October 19, 2014

Photographing Palio di Siena: logistics of organized chaos

In the Summer of 2009, my wife and I spent three weeks travelling in Italy, and one of the major highlights of the trip was a five-day visit to Siena during its most famous event – the Palio. Palio di Siena is such a unique phenomenon, that to describe it simply a bareback horse race along the edges of Piazza del Campo, a seashell-shaped medieval square, is to give it no justice. Palio is held twice a year, in July and August, and these festivities are a culmination of a year-long strategic battle between seventeen city wards (‘contrade’). The race itself, which involves ten hired jockeys, is just a tip of the iceberg representing tremendous effort and level of involvement of nearly every Sienese. The rivalry between the contrade are phenomenal.

When we started planning the trip, we quickly discovered that it was impossible to visit Palio and not become involved in it. This is no exaggeration, but rather a part of the medieval tradition, where visitors of the festivities (basically, tourists) would lodge within a certain contrada, dine with the locals, spend money and, by doing so, support the contrada. We delegated the travel arrangements of the Palio-related portion of our trip to Vacanza Italy, a travel agent based in Canada, who has local Italian connections. They booked us into hotel Ciusarelli, located just a short walk from Piazza del Campo.

A side note of a curious episode, which was very representative of the whole Italian approach to life, which was very fascinating to us, since we became quite “americanized” in our views (living in Canada still does it to you): We could not navigate our way to the hotel’s front door to unload the baggage, as it would require driving about 300 meters wrong way on a one-way street. After asking a police (‘carabinieri’) lady what to do, we were instructed to do precisely that (drive against the traffic) and park temporarily on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, “because you have a good reason for doing this.”

Our local contact named Stella met us at the hotel and informed that we would join the ‘Lupa’ (she-wolf) contrada. We were delighted to wear out black-white-and-gold scarves for the next four days and to get into the Palio spirit. Unfortunately, it was ‘Civetta’ (owl) contrada that won that time.

As far as photography is concerned, the main challenge with the race itself is getting into the good position close to the track. The best opportunities for shooting are during the practice races that happen twice a day (morning and evening) during the three days before the parade and the final race. Each of the practice races draws an incredibly huge crowd. You can get a sense of the chaos by watching the opening action sequence of “Quantum of Solace”, which is set against the backdrop of a Palio race. To stake a spot by the inner rail of the race track, we had to be there about 3 hours before the event. At the final race, we had excellent seats with the view of the final turn of the track, but numerous delays of the start pushed the race into the twighlight hours, when the light became too challenging to work with. I wish I knew then what I know now about action photography (such as not to be afraid to push the ISO setting very-very high) and that I had my Canon 1D X with me (it did not exist at the time).

Besides the races, there are other tremendous opportunities for travel photography during the Palio: street portraits, architecture, cityscapes, etc. Siena remains my most memorable photography-centered trip. To summarize the take-home message from the experience of photographing Palio di Siena, I can say that it required advance planning of the travel logistics (hotel and tickets have to be booked as a package) and flexible mindset while on site, as things appear chaotic and disorganized, but they do work out – they always have, from the early days of Palio in the 14-th century.

October 17, 2014

Photographing fireworks on Bastille Day in Paris

My work as an engineering professor often takes me to fascinating places for conferences and research collaborations. This is a great opportunity for photography. The only drawback is that usually I have no control of the time of the year when I visit a certain location. But sometimes, everything aligns beautifully. For example, last year’s conference in Paris could not have occurred at a better time – it started right after the Bastille Day (July 14), which happened to be a Sunday. My wife, daughter (1.5 years old at the time) and I arrived before the weekend and had a chance to explore Paris, which was getting ready for the festivities.

On the 14-th, we walked along Champ de Mars in the afternoon, took the obligatory family shot in front of the Eiffel Tower and scouted the location for photographing the fireworks, which were happening at 10 o’clock that night.

In the evening, the family stayed in the hotel, and I took a 30-minute metro ride to Champ de Mars, arriving there at about 5:30 pm. I was carrying my camera bag with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, the lenses (70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM and Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM), a remote switch cable and a tripod. The whole field (Champ de Mars is huge, by the way) was packed with people, standing, sitting, laying down so close to each other, there were not many places to even stand, not to mention setup the camera. Nevertheless, I picked a spot at the centreline of the field, right at the edge farthest from the Eiffel Tower, and waited until the crowd shifted enough so I could set my camera bag on the ground. Then waited a bit more (I did have more that four hours before show after all, so waiting was not a problem) and unfolded the tripod over the bag, trying to minimize my footprint.

Immediately, people who were sitting on the ground behind me informed me in broken English with a charming French accent that “It would be better for us if you were not standing there.” I assured them that I would not be standing there all four hours before the fireworks – I was going to sit down next to them and enjoy watching the crowd. That seemed to satisfy them, we introduced each other, shook hands, chatted about the Tower (“how beautiful she is”), Paris, photography, work and children. During the next four hours, as the sun was setting, I snapped a few pictures and showed them (on the camera’s LCD screen) to my new friends, who apparently also were photography enthusiasts, but were a bit limited by their pocket cameras and lack of a tripod.

The fireworks and the light and sound show were simply amazing. The energy of the crowd was exhilarating. As a bonus, I managed to take a few good pictures. All this gave me enough emotional boost to be in high spirits when I returned to the hotel after walking with the crowd, carrying my my heavy gear, for two hours after the show (the metro was closed, as it was not feasible to accommodate the masses of people that gathered for the celebration). This is when I appreciated, once again, that my tripod was made of lightweight carbon fibre.

As for photographing the fireworks themselves, the technique that works well for me is this:

Set the camera on the tripod.
Manually focus on infinity.
Set the camera to “Bulb” mode (where the shutter speed is manually controlled by pressing and releasing the shutter button).
Set ISO to 400 and aperture to f8.
Use a remote release cable to trigger the camera when the fireworks begin. Experiment with different timing relative to the explosions and different shutter opening times. I find that shutter speeds from 1 to 6 seconds work well (I count “twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, …” to get the approximate timing).

Note: If the photos look good when played back on the LCD screen of the camera, they would be too dark when displayed on the computer later. This is because the LCD appears extremely bright when viewed at night – just something to be aware of.

July 29, 2014October 5, 2014

Disneyland

The ASME PVP conference in Anaheim is over. It was my first major organizing effort. Everything went well, but I must say, I am happy that it is finished. My wife and daughter came with me to the trip, and we are now enjoying a week-long vacation in Venice Beach, CA.

My daughter was talking about flying in an airplane for weeks before the trip, and she actually enjoyed the flights – a rare (I suppose) case of expectations matching the reality. At the Hyatt hotel in Anaheim, we received an upgrade to a “fireworks view” room, from where the daily fireworks shows over the Disneyland are visible. In this case, the reality proved to be too intense for a two-and-a-half-year-old. Our little one is not crazy about loud noises, to say the least. So, by popular request from the audience, curtains were drawn over the fireworks shows.

On Friday after the conference, we went to the Disneyland. It was the first visit ever for me, and the third for the ladies, who went there two times while I was at the conference. After all, apparently, it is the only attraction in Anaheim. Our daughter is a bit too young for most of the rides, but she enjoyed visiting the princesses, the Goofy’s house, a play at the Royal Theatre.

Photography-wise, I tried to follow the advice of Jim Harmer of Improve Photography to take images that have personal meaning and emotional content (he gave an example of a close-up of a child’s sweaty forehead taken while climbing the Eiffel tower over a cliché full-figure portrait with the tower in the background). I took a few pictures of my daughter, all with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens, mostly wide open. The colours in the Disneyland are so bright and open, that even when the surroundings are completely blurred out.

Each day during this trip is ending by either my wife or me reading a book on an iPad to our daughter before bed. “Varezhka”, based on an old Russian cartoon, is the current favourite.

April 8, 2014September 23, 2014

Snails: action has been slow today

Snails are some of my daughter’s most favorite animals these days. Coming home from work/daycare today, we found these two guys in front of our front door. The rock on which they were sitting was too low to comfortably photograph them from a tripod, so I shot them hand-held, setting the ISO to “Auto” and letting it go into stratosphere. Thankfully, the noise is easily managed in post-processing.

April 7, 2014October 5, 2014

Feeding seals: timing the shot

Yesterday, we spent a warm and sunny Sunday morning playing at the Willows Beach and feeding seals at the Oak Bay marina. Our daughter has just recovered from a nasty virus that struck half of the children in her daycare group, and my wife and I were just coming down with the same virus – the vicious pattern familiar to many parents of young kids. The weather was beautiful, though, and we really enjoyed the unrushed time together.

At the marina, there are always 3-5 harbor seals waiting for tourists to feed them frozen fish, which can be bought at the souvenir shop for $2.50 per small plastic bag. According to the source that cannot be revealed (Snowden, eat your heart out!), this is, by far, the most popular item at the gift shop. The seals are wild, but they are well-trained in various ways of extorting the treats from people. For example, they appear to know the schedule of the tour buses, they can splash their fins on the surface to attract the crowd’s attention, and they always gather around the dock when a small child appears (as it was in our case).

While the little one was having fun throwing fish to the seals (the closest one got most of it) and my wife was keeping her from joining them in the water, I tried to bait the seals to grab the fish from the side of the dock, while pre-focusing my camera on the fish. I used a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens on a Canon EOS-1D X camera body. High framing rate allowed me to get several shots each time a seal would come out to snatch the fish. The depth of field at f1.4 was so shallow that only the seal’s nose came out sharp. The image in this post is at f4.0. In the end, everyone was quite pleased, including the seals (I think).

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