Notes from the Road

This is not our normal school-related post.

In the hour before dawn, light comes from within the Masjid Kaptian Keling.

But then, I am not in the normal teacherly position! 

Really I am making this entry to re-direct anyone who is interested to my travel blog.  I have been promising to keep it up for friends and family, and since I didn't want to just repeat myself, I thought it would be economical to fire this off to you.

A large part of Georgetown on the island of Penang

has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site.

And since I am being forced to do without my normal post-processing software, it is interesting to see what can be accomplished with nothing more than a camera and a web-based editing tool. 

So don't be shy.  Feel free to follow the other blog.

Selamat Tinggal *

OK.  I’m off to Malaysia.  I’ll send photos, but unfortunately, I cannot send flavors over the internet — we’ll just have to await that technological innovation!

First of all Report Cards!

I just finished writing everyone’s report card for NBCDES.  And I have to say it was a real pleasure looking back at everything folks have created and shared since the end of November. 

Things have picked up a lot due to the efforts of a core of great community members — and those of you who have not benefited yet by your membership in the group are warmly invited to join in.  Yeah.  Just hit the flickr link here and go to YDIP12!

Next:  Malaysia

From a photographic standpoint, sure I’ve formatted my memory cards, cleaned my lenses and sensor, laundered my microfibre lense cloths— but much more interesting has been assembling my themes and prescriptions.

I cannot remember where I got this habit, but it has been a nice one to form: whenever I take a significant trip with my camera — whether overseas or in the mountains — I try to determine some themes and prescriptions to pursue.  It adds an extra element of fun to the photography.

Here are some of the themes I have set for this upcoming trip:

• market oddities
• Islamic beauty: women + mosque interiors & exteriors

Two of the prescriptions I’ve set for myself include capturing

• architectural photos with HDR in mind: esp dramatic backlighting
• environmental portraits of matriarchs and patriarchs

Of course these ideas don’t mean I won’t point my camera at anything that stands still (or moves). I mention all of that in case the approach might resonate with someone else the way it did for me when I heard of it.

Last on this topic, I bought a netbook specifically to keep up with the marking for you folks in the course.  (That’s what I told my wife and I am sticking by that story).  The vagaries of the road, however, will probably mean I will not be able to check daily — I’d guess every three days or so.  But I’ll keep up the dialogue!

* selamat tinggal is the Malay farewell you use when you are leaving and the person you are speaking to is staying.

 Thanks to an idea from Lisa Babcock, I've had great 

fun using flash to capture water droplets. 

Wonderful way to pass a few hours on a dreary winter day.

Water Water Everywhere

Here's some fun.

Rachel’s mom, Wendi, sent me a wonderful link to a British Columbia photographer who has does stunning work in some of the specialty areas we’ve been investigating: macro and HRD in particular. 

Living in Victoria, Evan Leeson walked many days to work after a rain.  For years, he took macro photos of raindrops in morning sun: the results are wonderfully visually exciting and found here. 

Check out his HDR images, too — it might excite in you a real interest in architectural photography.

In case you get lost navigating, Evan Leeson’s photostream is here. 

After looking at Evan’s images this afternoon, I tried my hand at some water droplet photography (above).  This is a first-try effort, but you can just go to youtube yourself, and get some tips on the rather simple setup – the real trick is hitting the shutter release at the right moment to let a fast shutter do its magic.  I am going to keep working on this one!

And it just keeps getting better!  Barb McCracken has invited all Ft. St. John & area students to Strawberry Jam at the Lido Theatre for more opportunities to try your hand at low-light performance photography.  It’s free & it’s fun and it’s every month.  Ask Barb for details. 

SE Asia Beckons

I really really hate to seem to be rubbing this in.  But I am leaving next week for a six-week wander through Malaysia.  This might affect the course, but not too badly.

My son was good enough to send me a tiny netbook so I can keep in touch:  both by monitoring flickr, and by checking your emails.

So PLEASE:  make sure you submit your assignments by uploading them to flickr.  Don’t attach them to me in email:  I will not be able to handle the bandwidth requirements.

AND I am writing report cards this week.  Some students have already wrapped the course, others are getting close — but I would like you to know that even if you wrap the course you are welcome to hang around in flickr as much as you wish.  We can’t have too much creativity.

Here is my traveling blog in case you want to follow it.  I’ll try to post a few images from time to time, and you’ll get to see the totally untouched images out of the camera.  Darn.

Ringbolts were used to haul paddlewheelers past the canyons 

on the Skeena near Terrace.   Modern highways have replaced them.  

HDR will not loosen its grip.