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.

Low Light Opportunity

Thanks to Barb McCracken's connections in the world of entertainment, students in the Fort St. John area have an opportunity to try some event photography in low light. 

All students are invited to the Lido Theatre on Tuesday February 1 to try their hands at this type of photography.  Doors open at 7:00 PM.  It will be a fine night of free entertainment by local talented artists — AND you can pass it off as homework!

Barb — who is a student in this course — already has some real experience in low-light event photography.  Check out some of her very cool images on her flickr photostream. 

(On a teacherly note, let me remind you that you can substitute any special project work for regular assignments).
 

An easier subject for low-light photography than

stage performers is a boat that sits still in the first 

light of dawn.  As is so often the case, the trick

seems to be balancing ambient and artificial light.

Malaysia

I just wanted to let everyone know I am going to be taking a little photo safari to Malaysia through the second half of February and back at the beginning of April.

I am looking at an iPad to enable me to continue this work while on the road: I'll take one for a test drive in a few weeks and will know better then.

In the meanwhile — I see that at least one student is taking up the challenge of low-light photography.  This is a wonderful and rewarding endeavor — all you really need is a tripod. 

We'll be discussing this in our YDIP12 area, so keep in touch at the flickr site.

I'll give you more information about the Malaysia trip soon:  preparing for the photographic end has been quite interesting, and I'll share a few things that I've found very helpful in a later post.  It'll certainly give others a change to share tips they've found helpful.

Low Light Example:

In the old French colonial streets of Luang Prabang (Laos)

the night life is mellow and friendly.  Carrying a tripod

is a must for low-light photography, but worth it for some.

Are You Satisfied?

With respect to the Rolling Stones, the Ministry of Education wants to know how satisfying an experience education is.  And, actually, so do I; but that is not quite as important to the mandarins.

So if you would be kind enough to go to the Satisfaction Survey, it should only take a few moments to fill out.  The Ministry wishes parents also to fill out a similar survey — which, for our adult students — might be a fun request to make.

Formerly, this was the same survey offered in regular school with items like "Do you feel bullied," but now it has been crafted JUST for Distribtued Learning students — so please have a look at it.  Honest.  It will only take a very few minutes.

MUCH MORE FUN: Some students have taken hold of the various alternative assignments: the HDR, macro, low light ideas. If you have not been playing with these things, jump right in:  it's easy and much more fun than learning about stop-based exposure.  And everyone should be going to flickr regularly:  it's starting to cook.

And for those of you who want to explore the undeveloped part of the course around post-processing: here is an online image processing program that looks very similar to the industry-standard Photoshop™yet is free and online and works equally well on Macs and PCs.