Digital Traveler

Blog has Moved

2009-08-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

This blog has moved here. Please be sure and visit!

Check Out My Book

2009-07-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Check out PopPhoto's blog. They write about my book.

Watch the Goat

2009-07-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

This is a short slideshow of some of my images. Enjoy the goat!

PopPhoto Includes My Book in their Blog

2009-07-18T02:17:00.000-07:00

Check out PopPhoto's blog. They write about my book.

Best Places to Watch Street Performers in SF

2009-07-15T02:47:00.000-07:00

San Francisco is filled with street performers. It's always nice to be able to take a break from the crowded streets to watch one.

The best places to catch one are:
1. Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround at Powell Street BART and MUNI station
2. Castro and Market at Castro Street Station
3. Haight and Ashbury
4. Fisherman's Wharf
5. Pier 39

Muslim Women

2009-06-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Most photographers would admit that Muslim women make good photographic subjects. It's kind of an irony that they do because in strict Islamic tradition images of people--men or women--are prohibited.

The flowing headscarves are compelling in a frame, and when you have two or more Muslim women, they are sure to be dressed alike so you get some interesting repetition.

I felt like this post was appropriate today when President Obama is reaching out to the Muslim world. His visit and speech in Cairo evokes peace, but rumbles with discord. The mixed bag of feelings of a U.S. president as a centerpiece of the Muslim world, I think, is a good thing. Once you have an assortment of feelings on the table, you can straighten them out, tossing out the irrational ones.

Big Bear Zoo

2009-06-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

What's a small town like Big Bear, CA doing with a zoo? Well, it's kind of a rescue center for Alpine animals. Animals like owls, beavers, bobcats, bears, lions, raccoons, foxes and eagles reside at the zoo.

The grizzlies at the zoo, for example, went through one-too-many garbage cans at campgrounds and other recreational areas at Yellowstone National Park. After "three strikes" by the bears, the bear police comes to pick them up, and some of them ended up at the Big Bear Zoo.

In the image above, an owl gazes in a dark room, which is one of the zoo's attractions.

Other than the fences through which it's difficult to photograph, the place is a ten!

BTW: The image was taken at 1000 ISO in a near dark room. I used a Canon 5D with a Tamron f/2.8 70-200 mm lens.

Loonapix

2009-05-28T16:06:00.001-07:00

I created this at Loonapix.com. Pretty cool...
It's a free site.

Mama Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

2009-05-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Watch this, it's uplifting and the photographs are timed with the lyrics (I think...)

Everyone Loves a Belly Dancer

2009-05-21T16:30:00.001-07:00

Who doesn't love a belly dancer? This woman just couldn't get enough of my photographing her. It was lovely. Oh, how I love willing subjects!

No one really knows how belly dancing got started, but some have speculated it began with the Greeks. It was believed to have something to do with religious rites.

In Saudi Arabia, the dance isn't to be seen by men at all. If men can't see it why do they bother with it at all?

Just in case if you want to speculate more about the history of belly dancing there is a time line of the art, which details the evolution of the dance.

Belly dancing in California, as you can see from this picture, can be performance art, as it's staged in Santa Monica Place, a bustling shopping area on the coast just outside of Los Angeles.

Why No Posts?

2009-05-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Missing the islands...

It's an economic fever that runs high. Very little traveling for this Digital Traveler. The economy is giving my back account indigestion. I'm hoping to go on some more trips so I can get this blog going again. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to enjoy California! It's not such a bad place.

Collage Created in Picasa

2009-04-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Matt

2009-04-13T19:01:00.001-07:00

2 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Old Ways Left to the Elements

2009-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

Fast forward 50 years--the year: 2049. The place: Pioneertown, CA. Instead of seeing this old typewriter, which sits among other relics in Pioneertown, CA, you'll see the type of laptop I'm working on right now, the MacBook Pro.

I'm wondering what my laptop will look like in 50 years. Will it sit outside for passersby to recall a past era? Will Pioneertown still be there? Will there still be an Apple Computer Company?

L. C. Smith, the company that offered this once-shiny black typewriter has been long gone. This company, run by the Smith brothers, started out making guns. In 1893, they started making typewriters and went on to be very successful.

This typewriter (above) was probably made in a factory in Syracuse, N.Y. around the turn of the last century.

Just over 100 years later, typewriters are no longer made. The only ones left end up either at museums, thrift stores or out in the wild, like this one.

Tell me, please, have you ever typed on a typewriter?

Bag-on-Head

2009-04-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Is this a Caribbean thing, or what? Balancing a bag full of goodies on top of your head is no easy chore, especially when you're carrying other things with both your arms.

I dare anyone on the Internet to try this trick. Go ahead and see how far you can walk with a bag on your head.

I snapped this image quickly when my camera was set at f/5. It has some softness in it as well as some white out, which disappoints me.

I have delusions of grandeur with every photo I take. I close my eyes and see it on the wall of some New York museum or gallery.

This photo won't make it though. I had to move so quickly to catch these women (they were walking at a very brisk pace) that my camera shook because of both the hot, humid weather and my heart pounding running after them.

Musing about Margaret

2009-04-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

It seems that Margaret Cho has taken to the guitar. She's workin' on records and writin' songs. You can hear her singin' here. While I'm not a critic of guitar playin' singers, I do have a bit to say about Margaret's singin'. It's only so-so. She seems a bit out-of-tune.
I was thinkin' that maybe she should stick to comedy.

I can remember seeing Margaret decades ago running around her parent's store on Polk Street in San Francisco. At the time the neighborhood was a spicy mixture of gays and Asians. Too bad today, it's one of the most run down neighborhoods of the city.

As for the pic above, I shot that when I was attending a screening of the television pilot of Sordid Lives at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. I had been shooting around the city for my book, "50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco." You see, I was in line with my big ass camera. A friend of mine had volunteered for the festival and knew everyone who was working there. A photographer was supposed to film Margaret on the red carpet. Well, the photographer didn't show up. My friend had told the head honcho that I was a photographer. I got pulled from the line and immediately started shooting. The fun part is that I got to go backstage and shoot the whole cast of the television series.

Okay, so shooting that wasn't like shooting at the Academy Awards, but it sure was fun.

Flickr

2009-03-31T21:06:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Two-Humped Camel

2009-03-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

Shot this two-humped camel at the San Diego Zoo. I panned the zoo in my zoo review over at my other blog. While gaining access to many animals for photographs is a chore at the zoo, there are some animals that can wonder right in front of your camera. One such animal is the two-humped camel, or the Bactrian camels of Mongolia.

These camels grow to a height of 8 feet and weigh well over 1000 pounds. Unlike Arabian camels (one humpers), the Bactrian wonders wild through the Gobi Desert in Northwestern China. They've been around forever--since 2500 BC.

So what's inside those two flabby humps. Well, you got it--fat, not water like one would think.

I've got a great pic of the other kind of camel--the Dromedaries-- the one you find in the Arab world. This one-humped camel is domesticated and can carry heavy loads long distances across the desert.

You just gotta love camels!

Another Review for 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco

2009-03-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

Matthew Bamberg, "The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco," Course Technology and Cengage Learning, 2009. Can. $34.95/U.S. $29.99

Review by David D. Perlmutter, Ph.D. (School of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Kansas)

I admit it--I have become a "snapista."

Long ago, I gave up treating family vacations and tourist travel as opportunities for innovative and interesting photography. Although I am a documentary visual ethnographer, I found that such vistas as the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, and the Golden Gate Bridge had become so familiar and their environments so darn crowded that I was either too lazy or too unengaged to try to stalk out some angle, moment, or scene that was different from those in the thousands of other tourists' snapshots. My solution was either to take the traditional "National Lampoon Vacation" photos of my family with the iconic locale in the background or to purchase slides at a local souvenir shop.

Matthew Bamberg's new book, "The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco," from Course Technology and Cengage Learning, has made me rethink my sloth and indifference. Simply put, it is a terrific idea for rejuvenating photography from its present-day digital ghetto, where the average tourists simply shoot everything in sight and delete later or maybe asks their teenage daughter to Photoshop the remainders.

But for people who actually want to produce different (and better) photographs from the same scenes, "50 Greatest" is a gift from the gods of "writing with light." The entries are clearly laid out, organized in chapters by type of photo opportunity, such as Architecture (Bay Bridge, Chinatown, AT&T Park), City Life (Fisherman's Wharf, Haight-Ashbury, Embarcadero), Events (the farmer's market, the Gay Pride parade), parks and green spaces (Japanese tea gardens, ocean grove, Lands End) and Secret Places (Balmy Alley, the Presidio graveyard, and the Musee Mechanique).

Each subsection about a particular place or event is interspersed with compact and handy photo tips aimed at the non-pro who nevertheless wants to shoot high-quality and visually interesting pictures. So, for example, there are mini-essays on gear and lighting; other sidebar sections include bits of either local color or photographic wisdom, such as notations on the "rule of thirds," the "ins and outs of exposure compensation," and "photographing San Francisco landscapes."

Even more helpful is the coding for individual settings, with icons suggesting the "optimal photographic conditions based on the weather," such as "overcast" or "foggy." There is also a description of the place or event, a bit of history, a delineation of its boundaries or periods of occurrence, and some brief tips about "the shot."

Bamberg's writing style is clear, without showing off his professional chops to the detriment of amateur comprehension. For example, in describing getting a picture of the Coit Tower, he writes, "The front of the tower at sunset is a good time to photograph Coit Tower because the sun shines on the face and the sky is blue in back. Getting this shot is a bit tricky because there are many trees near the tower. For this reason, zoom in as close as you can to the tower so that it is cropped tightly, without any tree branches in the background. Another alternative is to frame just the top of the tower in a shot."

In this case, as in all instances of when he focuses on a building or structure, Bamberg provides a separate description for interior shooting. Especially helpful for the outsider is a description of "getting there."

In all, this is a book that will be appreciated most by the ambitious amateur, who will absorb tactics and tips more easily from its gentle suggestions and be excited at the prospect of learning through shooting one of the world's most beautiful and visually arresting cities and its environs. Even the pro, visiting San Francisco for the first time, or not well versed in some of its secret places, will get some helpful suggestions, especially on optimum weather conditions.

"The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco" is an easy-to-read, colorful, helpful primer for the urban explorer who seeks to produce pictures beyond the usual frames and subjects.

DAVID D. PERLMUTTER is a professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Kansas. A documentary photographer, he is the author or editor of seven books on political communication and persuasion including most recently, Picturing China in the American Press: The Visual Portrayal of Sino-American Relations in Time Magazine, 1949-1973 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); (ed., with John Hamilton) From Pigeons to News Portals: Foreign Reporting and the Challenge of New Technology (LSU Press, 2007), and Blogwars: The New Political Battleground (Oxford, 2008).

The Best of SF--Get My Book!

2009-03-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

To All Digital Traveler Visitors,

If you've got an inkling to learn about photography and enjoy San Francisco, consider getting my new book,

50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in San Francisco.

It's an exciting way to see San Francisco if you can't get there right away, and if you can follow the photography trips outlined in the book.

Two Kids

2009-03-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here are two kids who, when I walked by them with my Canon 5D, called out at me, insisting that I take their picture.

I agreed wholeheartedly because they were excellent subjects. They immediately positioned themselves into a fabulous pose when I held my camera up to take their picture.

They asked if I was famous and if their picture was going to be published. I told them that maybe it would be. I haven't put this picture into any of my books yet, but am planning to use it in future books.

The picture was taken on a beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A Danish Freetown

2009-03-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Take a look at those shapes. These are a dandy-looking bunch of cut up logs in the Christiana neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. Please take in all the geometry going on in the photo--it's so...so mathematical.

If you ever get to Copenhagen, this is the cool place to go. It's a hippie's dream come true. It's a land of granola and yoga, and, yes, to be sure, a stoned out hippie here and there.

Pusher Street is the area's main street, a free place where you used to be able to buy some good drugs, but all that stopped in 2004 when the government cracked down on drug vending in the area.

If you go, put on a good pair of walking shoes because the place at 85 acres is huge. The benefits of spending at least a couple of hours in Christiana in the summer are finding lots of surprises in many nooks and crannies of the green areas that surround the large lake. You'll find elaborate homemade gardens and small homes made of glass. There are even tree houses.

Musing in Vegas

2009-03-16T11:51:00.001-07:00

Deep in the mall wilds are the Las Vegas girls--performers who dress up in ghostly costumes with faux Roman accents. They're made up to look like some non-human subject matter caked with thick foundation on their faces and hair done up like Medusa. Downright scary. Now, I could go into a diatribe about the objectification of women, but since this is a photography blog, I'll leave that one alone.

Vegas all-things-not-real land of plenty--for those with no money there are 5-minute long shows up and down the Strip and inside the some dozen malls that wind their way around huge money-sucking casinos. For those with a fistful of bumbling dollars, there is a $350 seat inside the Cher rotunda--yes the grand, black-haired lady has a colosseum that she can call her very own.

A few short years ago when my pockets bulged with money from refinancing transactions, I could catch a show or two in a quick weekend jaunt to Naughtyland, but this trip, during the time when the nation is in a downward economic spiral and money is scarce, all I got to see is women with solidly-packed mud masks in their faces and hair.

Shadows Please

2009-03-12T20:39:00.001-07:00

I don't know about you, but I always love a good set of shadows. Many shadows consist of vertical and/or horizontal lines. Others come diagonal lines or curves. Here's how some of these lines/shapes influence your photograph:

THE VERTICAL LINE
It denotes dignity, height, strength and grandeur.
THE HORIZONTAL LINE
Denotes Repose, Calm, tranquility and peacefulness,
THE DIAGONAL LINE
This line gives the sensation of force, energy and motion like in the picture above.
THE CURVE
The curve is a shape of beauty and charm like a shadow of a woman's body.

My New Word Press Blog

2009-03-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

Just decided to start a new blog over at Wordpress. Check it out; they have a little different set up than blogger does.

To get there go here.