You will probably see a lot of posts about the “best travel tripod” if you were like me and you were struggling to make a decision as to which to choose. Some articles were more informative than others. What I gleaned from what I read was that what was the “best travel tripod” for one photographer, was not the “best” for another. Here is my choice for the best travel tripod, the Gitzo GT0532 Mountaineer Tripod . It met my needs for support and stability, while at the same time remaining light enough to pack for all our adventures. 1. Carbon Fiber I knew I wanted a carbon fiber…
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Coming back to The CuisinArt was like coming home again. We stayed here on our very first trip to Anguilla in 2007. I still remember the doorman calling to us as we ventured out for our first bit of driving on the island, “Left is right, right is wrong!” It’s a family-friendly resort that’s not too stuffy and not at all chaotic. It just fits. The resort is just as beautiful and the staff just as welcoming as I remembered. The grounds are well-maintained, filled with lush plantings. The lobby looks out to the beautiful series of tiered pools that lead you out to the beach. And the beach is…
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We took the film on the road and the results are back. We took the film cameras to Anguilla, the Canon 1V and the Mamiya Pro TL. We took a variety of film stocks, Fuji 400H, Kodak Portra 400, Porta 160, and Ektar 100. We experimented and burned a lot of film. Many lessons were learned. Here are my impressions of our efforts and the results. 1. Digital has ruined me for film – shooting the same scene again and again. I am so accustomed to shooting RAW and shooting multiple images to try to nail the shot that I wasted a lot of film. For example, I had the…
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The crystal clear water in the Caribbean begs you to explore below the surface. Whether you are a diver, a snorkeler, or just like to get your feet wet, there is a desire to capture the beauty of what we see below the surface. I took diving certification class, and although I was a wiz at the classroom work, due to some ear problems, I was unable to descend below 12 feet, but that didn’t mean I was giving up the desire to explore below the surface. On our trip to the BVI, I had a GoPro Hero2 which was a lot of fun to play with and capture video.…
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This edition of “What’s in My Bag?” is our post-trip report on the camera gear we used for our trip to Eleuthera and Harbour Island in the Bahamas. I’m changing up the gear I use the more trips we take. Let’s take a look to see what was worth the effort, and what just ended up being dead weight. I still love my Think Tank Airport AirStream roller bag, and I can’t think of a better bag for the job. Once again, we encountered a small plane (this time from Miami to North Eleuthera), and all roller bags had to be checked. As is my practice, I put my primary camera body…
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Traveling light is becoming a priority for me with my camera gear, particularly once you realize how much difference good equipment makes to an image. With the Westcott Rapid Box Softbox, I was able to get the best of both worlds: a soft fill light for portraits which is lightweight and easy to carry. First, a bit about the need for a softbox for travel. People love shots of beautiful sunsets and gorgeous beaches, and love photos of themselves, friends or family experiencing them. However, they oftentimes find that they are in darkness as they find it difficult to expose both the backgrounds and the subjects properly. To properly expose…
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If you read our posts on Eleuthera, you can tell that we loved the pink sand. I had seen many photos of French Leave Beach and Harbour Island before our visit and some looked a bit unreal – – almost a cotton candy hue. I suspected that many of these images are the result of a heavy hand on the saturation slider in the photographer’s post-processing. Often we take a photo, and are frustrated in that it did not capture the color that well. We snap a shot, and the beach looks white or beige, not what we saw at the time. Is that sand really pink? To see…
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It’s time to start reviewing what photography gear I need to pack for this year’s trip. For travel, it’s important to keep things light, but you do want to make sure you have the gear to get the images you want. I have started keeping track of what I pack and what I use, and you can see my packing list and results from our past trips to Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, and Ireland by clicking those links. This year, we travel to Eleuthera! In anticipation of some great scenery, including the Glass Window Bridge and Lighthouse Beach, I’m beefing up my camera support. I’ve added a Gitzo monopod with…
