Blogodocious ramblings of a landscape photographer living in Maine.
Headin out on the F/V Never Enough with a little bit of a chop on.
A few shots from yesterday predawn that I grabbed with the iPhone 5s while heading out from Bass Harbor on The Never Enough. Fall fishing is so far proving to be very exciting. Technical notes: the footage is pretty noisy because it was really dark out at 45 minutes before sunrise- you can see the moon reflecting off the water in some places. I pushed the footage with luma curves quite a bit in Premiere Pro as Ma and Dad were coming over for a lobster feast last night and I just wanted to show them some clips, but I'm sure with a little more care I can tweak that video to play cleaner in that low light. Also I was really timid yesterday morning getting those shots in the wet because there's a big staving hole in the glass on the back of my new iPhone 5s and until I get it replaced I'm trying to keep most of the ocean out of there for the meantime. And the tune is "1901" from Phoenix. More crazy fall weather to come, until then, have a good one!
Acadia National Park may be closed but that doesn't mean-
The Maple at Eagle Lake.
I've gotten a slew of Facespace messages today regarding whether or not you all will be able to get around the park to make your pretty fall leaves pictures and such. And the answer is... appropriate rolling of drums here.... yes and no! So here's the good news- you'll be able to lay down in the middle of the park loop road and have a naked brunch if you like
but what is even better is that there won't be the incessant tourists and buses and cars upon cars etc.
and you'll feel what it's like to live here in the off season and photograph out in the park when you have the place to yourself!
So- where there's a will there is a way. There are a number of backdoors or roads that get you close enough, for the intents and purposes of this particular quick post I'm just gonna tell you and you can do the map looking and Googling.
1. The Otter Creek Road. Drive out on Rte 3 and head past the Jackson Labs and go by the Tarn to your right. About a mile past the Jackson Labs complex is a road to the left called Otter Creek Rd. which heads in to the beach at Otter Cliffs. Just Drive to the end and park on the shoulder and never block the gates and the walk to the beach is less than a quarter mile to that epic seashore. Straight ahead is boulder beach and a short hike up the hill and around the bend will take you to the top of the cliffs for great textures and a sweet view back along Schooner Head Road and Thunder Hole.
2. Schooner Head Rd overlook. The point of land that juts out just past Sand Beach that you're looking at from the top of Otter Cliffs. Great Cliffs and nice maples and birches and some old ruins at the top of the 100 foot sheer drop.
3. The back way into Sand Beach- head into Great Head but instead of going out to the head there's a path that cuts down to Sand Beach, you'll have to ford a little stream but what the hey! You're in it to win it aren't ya!?
4. Sieur Du Monts and the Tarn. Park next to the tarn and hike in toward the Wild Gardens of Acadia, and then take a nice foliage stroll through Great Meadow and along the boardwalk.
5. Alternate Great Meadow entrance at lower Ledgelawn Avenue. Drive past the Bar Harbor dump and further along the road when you come to the gate park along the shoulder and Do Not Block The Gate. Hike to the end of the road which is only about a 1/4 mile and you have the valley of Door and Champlain mountains in front of you. Don't make me tell you where to put your tripods.
6. Hunter Beach. Look it up. You'll thank me later.
7. Eagle Lake. Beautiful. Open. Foliage. Sunrise. Sunset. Variety.
8 Duck Brook.
9. The waterfalls. Here's where I'm starting to feel a little bit more protective.
10. #Hire A Local. If you're on a tight schedule and you just want to be assured of getting some sweet shots, don't get on one of those buses on the pier that troll for tourists who want a disney experience, go to the source! Call me!
That's just scratching the surface, the island is a big place- if you want to make it happen: you'll find a way. Certainly this is a ridiculous place for the government to have put us, and in foliage season nonetheless! So hopefully this inconvenience won't last us long.
Tripods: my take= middle of the road=better.
NYC, Lower East Side Shutter Mural of an anthropomorphic 'Tripod'?
Here we go. This summer where I've actually been making a fairly respectable income vs. the last several years, I upgraded my camera's legs. Here's the dealio: I've been shooting off an old Manfrotto tripod that my colleague from Atlantic Art Glass http://www.atlanticartglass.com lent to me about 8 years ago- thanks Ken! And here's an aside- is that a case of lending or just me keeping it for what turned out to be a little bit of forever? Anyway, the only weakness of that rugged old model #055 is it's steel hardware on the twisting leg locks- they rust out in the saltwater that I want to plunge my feet into almost always when I make an 'important' photo, and there is no amount of local metal working trickery that I know of which can replace the rusted factory embedded toggles that bind to the bolts.
I did everything I could to replace the hardware. I called B+H trying to get the parts and got the Manfrotto service number last fall- called the number to speak with a tech who quoted me the part numbers of replacement leg locks that wouldn't be the originals as they didn't make those anymore, but a suitable newer version which would do the trick. 14.95 cents or whatever for the lower locks and 15.65 cents for the uppers- x3 and x3 more= something like $90.00= sweet! But I didn't have it then- so I rolled through the rest of last fall with electrical tape to bind the failing leg locks out in the field until my old timer neighbor across the street offered to loan me his gigantic Manfrotto Studio tripod similar to this one:
-except just in regular old brushed aluminium. And even though it weighs something like 17 pounds-!! Repeat: 17.53 pounds, and I almost died while carrying it through the Pacific Northwest on the way to Shi Shi Beach, I absolutely loved the granite-like rock solidness of that kit. I Actually photographed in a hurricane at the end of October on the cliffs of Acadia with this tripod and was able to make sharp long exposures in 60 mile an hour winds. Awesome! So when Curtis, who is pretty well along in his old-timer-ness, decided to get back into medium format film photography and wanted his tripod back I was pretty crushed. No amount of bribing him in the area of money or else could talk him out of it- he wanted it back, and started calling me and leaving messages, and I was torn, but I had to give it back- that or kill him, and I've never done that before!
Therefore it was time to call Manfrotto Service and order up those replacement leg locks. Here's where it get's ridiculous: Monday, called about 3pm and there was no answer so I left a message. Tuesday, called earlier in the day thinking maybe they have bankers hours- left a message. Wednesday, called again, again no answer so this time I started mashing buttons especially the 0 and got an operator. Explained to her that I've been calling and leaving messages to no avail so she said sorry sorry and would connect me right through at the next open line- about 10 minutes later a fellow answered with a "hello Manfrotto" and I said I just need to order a couple of replacement parts and rattled off the first part number and the line went dead-! Really. I mean like, what are you kidding me! So in throwing up my hands I figured I'd just try to find a different Manfrotto parts retailer on the old interwebs and did find a listing for a place, and they answered their phone when I called- but explained to me that in fact they could order the replacement parts, but would have to get them through the Manfrotto service center that I had been calling, and at 2x the price! Which is to say $185.00 for the 6 leg locks instead of the $90.00 that Manfro guys quoted me. No. So I bit the bullet as it were and called back the # again. Got the operator again, was put through to a service guy who didn't hang up on me this time, made the order and he took my CC#. Told me that there was no way they could verify shipment, I would just have to wait- but eventually about 9 days later the parts showed up. And that whole time I was without legs- and that made me just ache to make photography! Long story short now: the parts didn't fit! Aaaaarg! So, worse than that, I still didn't have a working tripod- I had to again contact the impossible to contact Manfrotto service center to try to find out how to return these useless parts. Like pulling teeth I tell ya! Bottom line= I did all that I could do, and that would have been a perfectly good tripod, the #055- for years and years to come, but unlike Col. Steve Austin (million dollar man), we could not rebuild him.
So- it was time to go on the interwebs and do some shopping! My first thought was to just find that old Manfrotto that Curtis had been lending me over on the Ebay or whatever, but then I remembered a moment when I was teaching at the Canon in the Parks Acadia session last September and a fellow showed up with a beautiful set of Gitzo sticks- the 3532LS if I remember correctly http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/846210-REG/Gitzo_GT3532LS_GT3532LS_6x_3_SECTION_SYSTEMATIC.html
But that turned out to be $929.99, which is a bit too mighty expensive in my book! Did some more internet browsing and remembered a pretty good review of a number of tripod systems over at the Ron Martinson blog here: http://www.ronmartblog.com/2011/05/tripod-recommendations2011-part.html and the Gitzo Explorer series caught my fancy. And I've kind of always coveted the carbon fiber tripods. A particularly interesting feature of that tripod system is the articulating center column that would allow you to swivel the camera right down to the ground- I have the sweet Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro IS USM that I picked up a few years ago as my portrait lens but rarely if ever use it for actual macro work, the reason being is that it's almost always impossible to lock off a shot using the standard sticks that I used to carry around. So this feature seemed particularly interesting- I actually haven't used it for any macro yet, but just to know that I can is nice! This is it:
Gitzo GT 2531EX.
And here's what it can look like:
legs out to 90 degrees and center column swiveled horizontical.
here's a close up of the center column:
I did briefly consider the Really Right Stuff line of tripods, but they are the Mercedes of legs and just seem more like Really Right overpriced Stuff. Heheh. Thought on it for a few days and called B+H that Sunday and tacked on a 2 day delivery and the Gitzo sticks were here by Tuesday. Funny this though: whenever I make a 'big' purchase- the "kid in a candy store" feeling starts to take effect- however when the Gitzo arrived I did appreciate the workmanship and cool looking weave of the carbon fiber, but it's about as tool as tool can get. Like a nice new hammer is nice, but not really the kind of thing you would want to bring to bed? And that's where the whole thing kind of breaks down for me. I've been shooting off these legs now for about a month. They are sweet in that they are light and easy to hike with over a day, but what I really want in a tripod is the ability to bang it around and scratch it up and get it all sandy and salty and forget about it and just worry about the compositions. But these Gitzo legs I fear may not be as rugged and abusable as the old Manfrotto aluminum ones, I'm theoretically supposed to take it apart and wash it and regrease the threads after a thorough submergence in the ocean, and that's not really my style! Not to say that I don't want to take care of my stuff- but I neglect my camera enough after a salty day not to mention a deep cleaning of my tripod! Olivier Du' Tre threatened me that I was making an unwise decision, now I have to prove him wrong just to save face, which is a bummer. I still love my Gitzo Explorer, I just hope that it loves me back as much, and for a long time!
So that's the bottom line- your camera is a tool, but it's a sweet machine. Your tripod is a tool, but about as tool as tool can get. Therefore go with something affordable but solid- and forget about those Velbons that the box stores sell- those are about as schwag as can be: don't forget that you're mounting expensive camera gear on the thing to support! Also- no matter how awesome your tripod may be, always stand by the ready in case something bizarre decides to happen- you ever hear the one about Philip Bloom's Panasonic taking a dive connected to his tripod into Sydney Harbor: crazy!
One last kick in the pants- through the whole elaborate returning parts process to Manfrotto I ended up speaking with this fellow named John (may be spelled differently) at (201)-818-9500 ext. 245 and he had the gall to tell me that if I had just ordered the Explorer from him (both Gitzo and Manfrotto are owned by the same company called Vitec) he said he could have saved me 35 percent off the retail cost! What?! Come on now! So, I hope that helps anyone who may be in the market to save something on a new tripod system. Just call John!
That's all for now- keep on keeping on and have a good day pals. -Nate!
P.s. what kind of tripods are you guys using? Hmmm?
When Angry Farmers Attack- and Yes It Was Worth It.
Maine Barn.
Right then- so here's this, I was debating telling you all about this, but what the hay! It was Thursday and I was rolling through some of the most beautiful farm land through the interior on my way to the south coast of Maine when I passed this really attractive barn and field combo. You know the drill- you're cruising along not expecting to see anything photographic and then a great subject pops up and you do the "oh look at that- that's real nice looking" and keep on driving for 20 seconds until you slap yourself on the forehead and say "what am I doing! Am I a photographer or just a camera carrier!?" and double back to do the deed. Which I did do all of the above. Let me set up the scene for you- it's about 08:30, morning fog burning off still and the sun heating up another beautiful fall day. I pulled into a little pull-off where there was a property for-sale sign right across the street from the barn which was set back off the road in the field about 200 feet or so. Where I was shooting with a 24 f/3.5 Ts-e I needed to be more like 80-100 feet from the barn, so I noticed that there was a nice little footpath over the berm leading from the road into the field. It was as quiet as a Maine morning could be standing in a lush green field off a "blue highway" and I was about two photographs into my usual five or ten minutes of reconnoitering a new scene, feeling out the photo- when some guy on a hilltop about 200 yards away and leaning around the corner of an old shed yells out to me "Hey! Can't you read the signs?!"
One of my favorite things about pursuing photography is that making pictures gets you out into the world and gives you an excuse and a reason to go places and meet people that you otherwise wouldn't have. I've had some really interesting conversations with all kinds of different people that I never would have had if it weren't for my camera, and often I think that my tripod and kit bag are something of a passport to interesting places that people can understand. Walking through some private property to reach a location with camera gear is a lot better and more understandable than doing the same with a duffle bag full of crow bars and bolt cutters. Another thing is that I kind of rely on people reading me as a harmless and good person with no ill intentions, to sum it up= I've never had much of a problem at all going around making photography- until that day.
So I holler back as amicably as possible "I just need to make one picture", and gesture with my arms toward his barn and fields and wave a big hello toward him. The third shot through a shift-panorama just completed and suddenly the guy was right next to me, (I remember feeling kind of disappointed in my self for that as usually my situational awareness is a little more functional). "Whatdja think that was a #$@%ing invitation?" he yells- and I mean he was yelling! This guy who was about 50 or so and with probably 100 pounds on me was standing about 6 to 8 feet from me and absolutely shouting/yelling at me stuff like "I pay the #@%$ taxes on this $#%! place and you come right on in here or whatever- and "can't you see all the #@$% signs, you know what they $%&@ say?- " and the thing is, I really never saw a No Trespassing sign. There are always No Trespassing signs, landowners put them there for at least they won't be held liable if someone does trespass and get hurt, you can't sue a landowner for trespassing on the property and then falling in his old open well. And he's keeping on yelling! I mean he's totally leaning into every word- absolutely screaming at the top of his lungs- it was ridiculous! Suddenly realized I should take stock of the scene as in like how close is he to my gear, I was standing between him and my tripod so at least he wasn't about to get near that without first coming through me. I was trying to appeal to him that I just wanted to make one picture, I'm from here not from away, that I actually didn't see any signs, that I was going to come introduce myself after I was done etc- I even said something like "come on man, can't we be a little more neighborly like here?" or something. And he never wavered off his attack. He gave a final "get out of here" and I realized that it was time to go like 5 minutes ago and went and skid addled my stuff together and one final little moment of interest occurred to me then. In breaking down my new Gitzo tripod I took a moment to appreciate how smooth and quick those twisting leg locks are on that tripod compared to the old Manfrotto's that I used to have to fumble with and use much more effort on- that is a smooth smooth piece of kit! Long story short- it was a big embarrassment. A totally uncalled for situation, I mean don't get me wrong, the guy was totally in the right, but who does that? You never know what kind of day someone is having and not everyone will honor the code of politeness, and I was trespassing- but I was doing nothing more than admiring his beautiful world. I wasn't trampling any crops or hurting anything or parking in a disrespectful way or anything- I figure this guy was taking fun in trying to scare me or something, or maybe the thing is that so many photographers go and camp out there in front of this very same barn that the guy is just totally sick of it. We'll never know what his motivation was. However, while driving away I gave a little toot of the horn and a wave and I checked myself. I wasn't scared, I wasn't steamed- if anything I was in disbelief at what just happened. What a nut job!
Maine Barn Black and White
And after a day full of photography this barn and field image has become one of my three favorite photographs of that day. So it was worth it. Lessons learned: 1. Keep going to get that picture, those signs are there as a "suggestion"! 2. Farmers can be real Nut Jobs. 3. A little too much tilt applied at the capture- better to keep the tilt amount at less than 5 degrees on a tilt shift lens.
So, that's that for that. Anyone have a story you'd like to share in the comments about any interesting interactions you've had with irate landowners while pursuing a photograph? I'd be psyched to hear it!
Have a good one everyone, and next time you end up in a situation like I just told you about- just say "Nate sent me!"
40 Hours in New York City.
Brazil Day street band on Avenue of the America's.
Just got back from another quick trip to NYC, this time to retrieve the frames and prints that were in the SoHo show of June and July. And it was another chance to satisfy my urge to do some street photography and get to a few of the places that I missed last time down there. Made essentially three kinds of images- tripod mounted long exposure photography of some architecture which I felt only mildly successful at, street/people photography and casual portraiture, and some touristy kind of snap shots. Also of course grabbed two dozen bagels at Terrace Bagels in Prospect Park, Brooklyn- which are the Best bagels ever!
I used to think that New York City was a lot further away than it really is- probably somewhat due to the insulated and sheltered feeling you can get from living on an island way up in Downeast Maine. But it's really only 500 miles to my buddies apartment in Brooklyn and leaving early to beat the traffic and driving "determinedly" gets me there in only 7.5 hours. And what a culture shock it can be! A little disclaimer is that I used to live in NYC briefly 20 years ago (staying with friends), and I also lived in Boston for ten years in the 90's while going to college- so I'm not totally a country boy out of my element when I go there. And even if I was- it's a much safer city now than it was when I was there last in 1993.
A few memorable highlights of this trip are: going to the freak show/burlesque "Muppet Show" at Coney Island on Saturday night, the humidity, riding the elevator with a see-through roof up to the "Top of the Rock" and the phenomenal view up there, the humidity, the promenade in Central Park, again the humidity!, Brazil day street festival on Avenue of the Americas in midtown, the awesome burrito from the street vendor at A and 2nd in Alphabet City, the Coney Island boardwalk and especially Brighton Beach with it's incredibly interesting looking old Russians. And The Cyclone! Also, my last favorite moment was when I was picking up the bagels first thing of the morning yesterday and there were these three plain clothes New York's Finest having coffee and giving each other the routine- and one em says something like "ya and how bout you buy me a lobster and a steak too", and the other take-no-$#!% detective looking guy say's "ya I'll just go catch the lobster for you too!" so I say: "I'll catch the lobster". And they look at me and take a half breath and chuckle just a little bit, and I say "no really, I will. I work on a lobster boat in Maine, I'm going there right now." And the oldest of the three, the one who was getting the most deferring out of respect by the other two say's to me, almost in a check to see if I'm full of it kind of way, "Oh yeah, well what's the name of the boat?" so I tell him the F/v Never Enough and he looks satisfied. At that point the bagel cashier clerk tells me that it's cash only, which is too typical of many places down there, so the copper trio tells me where there's an ATM etc. And this is the best part- not much of a thing, but sometimes it's the little things- as I'm leaving Terrace Bagels with my coffee and two huge steaming bags of fresh deliciousness, one of them gives me a real nice and real genuine look in the eye and say's "have a good day buddy".
Fire Eater.
So, that was the last thing I'll remember about the good people of New York. Where I'm a native Bostonian there's always been a kind of competition between Boston and New York and my Dad used to travel to NYC for work often and speak badly about it and the people- and it was a completely different place back then, also both my Dad and my Mom are from there so would talk of it and the "mean and dangerous" fast hustlers who live there. And if you go there with that kind of distrustful and fearful attitude you'll probably be received that way. But one thing about street photography that is great is in order to get close enough to get a good shot you often have to talk to the people and have an interaction, even if it's just a couple of quick sentences. For the most part 90 percent of the people who I asked to make their picture were completely happy to let me do so, and I would tell them it's because they look great or look cool that I wanted to photograph them, and that makes people happy to hear that. I was staying with my buddy Larson Harley, who's a fantastic street and subway photographer: http://www.larsonharley.com and we photographed together Sunday in Midtown Manhattan, Central Park, and then over at Coney Island. His approach to photographing people is either asking them nicely if he can make their picture and smiling and laughing with them, or surreptitiously sneaking a shot with his iPhone or camera from the hip. But more often then not with every other picture he's having a small conversation with the people. I can't lie and say that he hasn't affected my own approach somewhat- either way I think the last thing that we want to do is make someone angry or suspicious because we made their photograph. Sometimes I'll just made a gesture like a head nod and a thumbs up or show them my palm with a nice wave and a smile, and as Larson mentioned at one point usually you'll have a pretty good sense of who not to approach= serial killer looking nut jobs etc.
Body Snatcher on Avenue A. (this one I saw through the window at a bar having a beer in the late afternoon on Saturday. I had some cash out about to get another when I saw him walking up the street- stuffed the money back in my pocket and ran out the front door and across the street cause I wasn't about to let this shot get away!)
Right then. So I figure I'll update this post throughout the week or next couple weeks with more images as I finish working on them, so check back occasionally or you'll just see the links on the Facebooks. I sure don't shoot as many photographs as some but there are still 593 images to wade through to find the picks and pans. And it was a great trip however it sure is nice to be back home in Maine!
Typical inhabitants of the Lower East Side. (missed the focus a bit but I like their demeanor).
Me at the famous hotdog establishment that I was named for. Iso 6400.
Brooklyn Bridge from within old warehouse walls. (From sunrise down at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. I wanted to make a long exposure of the skyline of Manhattan from Brooklyn while the sun was rising (still working on developing that one) in retrospect, from my experience of driving out of the city at dawn twice now this summer, the ultimate time for the skyline shot would be more in the blue hour when the lights from the buildings will add to the scene. And there are a million great shots of the Brooklyn Bridge from the bridge but it's a lot more challenging to frame the bridge from down on the river. There are all kinds of anachronisms going on that are distractions and take away from the bridge- I was looking for something classic feeling- therefore these walls of an old warehouse that must have seen some real action in it's time helped to pare down the scene.)
Under the Manhattan Bridge. They call the neighborhood 'Dumbo' (Down under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpass). I wanted to photograph the bridges- I had a couple hours, I made the requisite directly-under-the-bridge-long-exposure take and the thing is: I thought I was pretty symmetrically in the middle- a lot was going through my head at the time, as well as the train was going over my head every 45 seconds or so, which was kind of weird- in hindsight: I was way off! The whole time I was under there and my shutter was open and I had time to look around I was looking for old washed up guns with the serial numbers filed off or dead bodies, but alas I didn't find any. More with the Disneyfication of NY.
Dumbo on the corner of Washington and Water st. I copied this composition somewhat from an old classic image from the 70's that I love- here's that one:
Photographed by Danny Lyon, June 1974. The differences are massive first of all this is shot with probably a 50mm lens versus my 24. Then the old gigantic cars are totally awesome! Then it's a lot more seedy and dangerous feeling than it is now- now it's like a yuppy loft fest. And there is a generous amount of litter, grime and rain water on the street to add that little bit extra. Also the blacks and shadows are really crushed in Danny's shot- that make me envy it all the more. I just may look into that myself...
And that's it for now! Have a good one- Nate!