antarcticatakeaway1

Take these two portable exhibits home and share them with others at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Uncategorized
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antarcticacloud1

Experience a different way of viewing/interacting images in this image cloud on johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images
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antarcticascroll1

Scroll through a dozen new images in this new online gallery at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images
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Antarctica_2009-CVIII

A new online gallery at johnpaulcaponigro-antarctica.com features my comments on a recent image.

“I was on the Ocean Nova with four other teachers and about 75 students. We were coming up through the Neumayer Channel, a little more than halfway through our trip south of the Antarctic Circle. A whale moved past us …”

See them both here.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Statements
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I know, “The map is not the territory.” Still, I love maps. I love them even more now. Google Maps and Google Earth has changed the nature of maps. You can explore my Antarctica Google Map and follow my course and destinations, enhanced with images and comments. To believe it, you have to experience it! It’s still in process. Watch it evolve!

Category: antarctica, Antarctica 2009
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Three voyages to Antarctica yielded over 250,000 exposures. Would you like to see them all? I’m kidding! I wouldn’t do that to you! Selecting only the best images has been a real challenge. Does it have graphic impact? Does it tell an important aspect of the story? Is it repeatable with variation? Is it repetitive? All good questions. For my book Antarctica I settled on 100 images. More seemed to tire viewers. Even though I’ve released more images, in the book I published fewer to make it a more effective experience. More is less. Less is more.

Here are a few images that didn’t make it into the book.

Preview or purchase the book here.

Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com to reserve your space in my 2011 Antarctica workshop.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Books, Images
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Antarctica 2009

August 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment

“There is a profound sense of privilege that comes from being in the presence of such rare beauty. It touches you deeply. Witness to the extraordinary, you leave changed – for the better. It’s a blessing born of grace and giving birth to more grace. It’s as if you’ve been given a gift and you feel compelled to keep giving it.”

Read about the highlights from three voyages to Antarctica.
Each voyage was very different from the other, even though we returned to some of the same locations.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Statements, Travel
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I’m uneasy about this one. I underexposed the image by several stops. A bright sunlit scene became nocturnal in appearance. When discussing this image, many journalists have said the practice of underexposure is accepted. In this case, it distorts the sensation of time. It doesn’t represent the way I saw it, but instead the way I want to see it. I feel like I should censor myself and not include the image. But I included it to stimulate more discussion. Including it required disclosures like this. And more discussion. Do you think this kind of practice is acceptable in editorial contexts?

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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While I’ve limited my practices in my work from Antarctica to those adopted by editorial photographers, I’m interested in pushing the envelope to stimulate useful dialog on contemporary practices. Here’s one. These panoramas were stitched together from multiple shots. I think that practice is fine in the context of journalism, as long as it represents what was before the lens. Yet the second panorama here is different. The exposures for this particular panorama were made over the course of several minutes. There was a lot of parallax so the icebergs had different relative positions in the exposures that were merged. Because of this, you can actually see more icebergs that otherwise would have been hidden. This type of composite actually presents the viewer with more information than a single exposure could. Is this appropriate practice? I think it is, if the author and media outlet disclose their practices. I think the news media ought to disclose much more information than they do: who the author is; how the documents were produced; how they were edited and delivered; who delivered them; what context they were placed in and how that shifts our perception of them; what time and financial constraints influenced the production; who the media derives income from; who the media outlet is owned by. We know the media’s not perfect or unbiased. We need to know who the media is. Way too many assumptions are made. We’ve lost our faith. Reclaim our trust. Give us more disclosure. That’s what I’m doing here.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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Several images changed for inclusion in my book Antarctica. Why? The original versions contained small, but significant,  elements that were composited from other sources. So I removed them for this project. Even though it’s often highly interpretive, editorial work is about representing the scene as it was witnessed. It wasn’t clear to me until after the initial voyage what kind of project I was developing. As it became clearer and clearer I realized I needed to put certain restrictions on my standard practices – otherwise it would become a different kind of project. There’s nothing wrong with those practices. They’re just not appropriate for this kind of project.

It’s usually only astronomers who realize that the moon in the first version is impossibly lit; it should have light on the same side as the iceberg and mountains. I like to leave clues like this for the viewer that alerts them to the fact that images have been altered. With my other type of work, I usually don’t tell them. Instead, I let them figure it out. This keeps viewers asking a lot of questions, which is really beneficial for everyone. In the case of my Antarctica work, I’m now doing the reverse. It’s appropriate and relevant to do so. In this case, full disclosure raises more questions. Questions and dialog are useful.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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Several images didn’t make it into the second edition of my book Antarctica. Why? This body of work is editorial in nature. I’ve only included images created with the similar limitations. These two images are composites that replace the original background with a Russian research vessel with a more aesthetically pleasing seascape. Even if the author expresses an opinion in it, editorial work is primarily about informing and secondarily about aestheticizing, not the other way around. So these are completely different kinds of images. They need to be placed other contexts.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Disclosure
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Antarctica is a place of stunning grandeur. Furthest south. Most isolated. Coldest. Windiest. Highest. Driest. Lowest biotic diversity. No indigenous cultures – ever. Largest ice mass. Triples in area seasonally. Produces 90% of the earth’s iceberg mass. Contains 68% of the world’s fresh water. Global climate regulator. Global climate indicator. Global territory for scientific research. It’s simply fascinating!

Read more about it here.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel
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During my January trip to Antarctica I emailed text for blog posts back to my studio. The satellite phones made data transfer of images for those posts prohibitively expensive, so we used images from 2005 and 2007. Now all of the 2009 posts have been updated with finished images from each location.

See the images here.

Find out about my exhibit here.

Stay tuned daily for more resources.

Get priority status in my Antarctica 2011 workshop.
Email info@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Category: Antarctica 2009
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The latest issue of Fraction, an online photographic magazine features a preview of my new work from Antarctica.
See it here.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Magazine
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Here’s a preview of four images from my recent trip to Antarctica. There were many surprises on this trip. There’s a quality to the trip and the images made during it that defies easy description. It’s going to take finishing the editing and processing and writing about the work to better understand it. Work teaches you. And every stage of the process teaches you something new. There’s no substitute for doing it. Stay tuned for images and text in the coming months. You’ll see them here first.

Check my previous posts to learn more about the trip.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.

Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Images, Travel, Workshops
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Drake Passage

January 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

More Drake. It’s gone from calm to rough. I’m sure it will change again. It’s a long stretch home filled with seminars and reviews.

Today I talked about the importance of defining a project that makes the work we do tangible and shareable. My project will be to update my Antarctica Blurb book with new images and updated text. I then handed the session off to Olaf Willoughby who talked about his Antarctica book (PDF for World Wildlife Federation and on demand print through Lulu), which he did after our first 2005 voyage, and it’s effectiveness for environmental advocacy. It’s inspiring to hear what one man can do.

See my previous post on Olaf from early this month.
See my Defining a Project PDF here.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.

Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel, Workshops
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Drake Passage

January 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Out into the Drake Passage once again. High seas. I’ll be looking out for weather, wind, and light on water. We present seminars between meals. Try dodging and burning in the Drake one handed with a track pad!

One of the most interesting sessions involved each of the instructors processing one of our files. The comparisons of workflow and perspective were really insightful. Seth processed one of his images in less than 2 minutes, all in Lightroom. Michael spent a little more time in Lightroom. Jeff and I started in Lightroom and moved to Photoshop. Stephen still works almost exclusively in Bridge and Photoshop. A lot of participants took away an important concept. There isn’t one right way. A workflow evolves out of the objectives of each individual. It’s my opinion that many people need more than one workflow – one high productivity and one high touch. On weekends when I photograph my family my workflow should be closer to Seth’s – so my family actually gets the images I make. On weekdays, when I’m mastering images that will last me the rest of my career, I should be taking more care and spending more time.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.
Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel, Workshops
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Deception Island

January 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment

High winds and horizontal snow kept most from making the first landing and cancelled the second at Deception Island, an active volcano you can sail into that was once used for processing in the whaling industry and is now only used for tourism and science, like much of the Antarctic. The weather is very different inside the volcano than it is outside it. Today there were incredible winds, but once we went outside they died down quickly

We’re all very tired. It’s been a grueling pace. The exotic locations have kept us running on adrenaline. Now with heavy weather on our last day, we’re all beginning to wind down and admit how tired we are. Many of us are nodding off while we’re reviewing our images. We all have a lot of processing to do. I’ve shot over 7,000 images. Jeff Schewe’s shot more than 10,000. Perhaps, more importantly we all have a different kind of processing to do, reflecting on our experiences, how they’ve affected us, and what they’ve meant. And it’s these answers that will lead us to finding ways to make images that are less conventional and more uniquely our own.

On every voyage, I’ve stayed on board, skipping one of a precious few adventures and taken the time to collect my thoughts and refocus, getting perspective on the images made so far, what was working, what wasn’t, and what needed to be done. This trip, rather than one big session midway, I reviewed quickly after downloading and so kept a running tally along the way. The great locations were so good and so compressed together that this review process had to come in small chunks rather than one larger review. It’s given me a different window into the images I’ve been making. In one day, I made a suite of images of glaciers that I continually try to advance by finding one more image that will bring a significant variation to the set. Along the way, a set of isolated high peaks in dramatic weather has been slowly building, something started on my first trip and continuing today. Clarifying the themes I’ve been developing helps me know what to look for when I’m in the field and how not to repeat myself. It also helps me identify other ways of looking that haven’t been developed; themes like this I’ve been developing have been ice collected on the shore, looking down at the blue mass of ice below the waterline, symmetrical patterns created by reflection in calm water, and the distortion created by waves including the wake of the boat. Having a plan doesn’t eliminate spontaneity and discovery. In some cases, it can even fuel it, while at the same time keeping you focused. And, of course, all plans are subject to revision. As new insights are accumulated, every plan needs refinement.

Many of the images I’ve made on this trip have had a unexpectedly soft lyrical quality to them. I’m not sure exactly what or why this is. It’s a discovery I’ll have to spend some time with to understand more. I don’t expect to fully understand it. There’s always more to learn from the work you do. But I do know I’ll come to understand it more, if I give it time – not just let time pass, but spend time with it.

Jeff Schewe was asked last night, “How do you adjust an image?” His answer was, “The image will tell me what it needs.” It’s a good answer. Listen to your work. It will get better. You’ll grow.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.

Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel, Workshops
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5 am and Michael Reichmann comes on the PA, “There’s gorgeous light -again.” We’ve all had 2 hours sleep. 4 the night before. Who knows how many the two nights before that. We’re running on adrenaline – so we do it. Seth Resnick shows up on deck and asks to trade lenses, “I can’t believe I’m asking you for your 28 mm. I’m a 300 mm man.” We’ve been influence each other every trip. I love photographing with this guy. It’s not just his contagious enthusiasm. It’s not just that he likes to push the envelope and I like to come along for the ride. It’s that he sees so differently. The other day, he got an awesome shot, accomplishing one of the things I’ve been trying to do better, by putting his 14 mm lens and inch from the water, getting the long stretch of blue iceberg running down deep into the water reflection free, with a little iceberg on top. That move may have cost me a new lens. We both find each other versatile and innovative. Note to self. Photograph more with stimulating photographers.

Later, at our pre-breakfast hike, many of us decide to catch up on a little sleep, including me – until I saw ice stranded on the shoreline. It was a tiny detail others overlooked. Everyone else went to the top of the mountain for that one great shot. Not me, I’m went to a place where there might be dozens or more. Our expedition leader likes to take us to high vista points where we can survey the fabulous landscape. We keep asking for more zodiac cruises. He doesn’t realize it’s more than an obsession with ice; it’s a photographic issue. You know those pull outs in National Parks – “scenic view”? Ever notice there’s only one image you can make there? Everyone makes it. The only way you can really work it and come up with something different
is with a telephoto, extracting small details. Instead of looking down, you can put yourself in situations where you can move through the landscape and interact with it more. Then it’s much easier to come away with something different. Edward Weston swore off landscapes, for a while, feeling they didn’t allow the artist enough artistic freedom and turned to still life instead. Later her returned to landscape, but with a fresh eye from his leave of absence.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.

Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel, Workshops
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Zodiac’s in big swell first thing in the morning. Seth Resnick and I are bouncing all over the place. We’re shooting fast and praying, laughing all the way. I keep coming back around one set of icebergs. After three times, others want to move on. I get back and look at the images and realize, the third time was the charm. I basically worked the first shot I tried over and over again until I finally got it. That’s an approach many pros use. I remember one of my assistants also assisted Jay Maisel on a commercial shoot. He came back amazed that Jay shot the same shot again and again and again. Jay got the shot. He always does. It’s one of the reasons he also gets the big bucks.

Neko Harbor was different the third time. The first time (2005) was filled with high winds. The second time (2007) was crystal clear turning to cloudy sunset. The third time (2009) brought snow. We hiked to the top of an overlook that surveyed the glacier. Later we went zodiac cruising in the ice choked harbor. We had one big castleated tabular iceberg which was truly impressive, then I found myself unenthused by the rest of the ride – but I kept working. At the end of a long day, when I looked over the images after midnight I unexpectedly found a couple of keepers. I kept trying despite lack of sleep and lack of enthusiasm and scored. Woody Allen said, “90% of success is just showing up.” Try it and you might surprise yourself.

Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.

Learn more about my workshops here.

Early registrants get discounts at home.

Members get discounts abroad.

Category: Antarctica 2009, Travel, Workshops
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