Drake Passage

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.

Drake Passage

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.

Deception Island

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.

Useful Island & Neko Harbor

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.

Crossing the Circumpolar Current

More Drake. Smoother and smoother sailing. This is the easiest crossing I’ve had so far. And it’s the hardest to make images during; not much is happening visually (no white caps and spray, no glittery surface, no storm fronts or crepuscular rays). Last night we crossed over the Circumpolar Current at the Antarctic Convergence (roughly 60 degrees latitude) signaling our passage into the Antarctic. The Antarctic can be defined biologically (species), geographically (shifting currents of less salty colder water), or politically (there are many claims, all on hold until 2040). Our final destination is another important dividing line, the Antarctic Circle; below it in summer the sun doesn’t set, in winter it doesn’t rise.

Find more Antarctica facts in my Statement Antarctica facts.
Steve Johnson presented on digital exposure today. Key ideas. Expose for histogram; process for appearance. Monitor your histograms to avoid clipping. Since the histogram is generated by a processed JPEG, using a low
contrast setting for JPEG generation in your camera will give you a better (but not perfect) preview of the data contained in your Raw file, which will always have more data than a JPEG. Finally, weight histograms high without clipping, the most data is contained in the lightest stop while the least data (hard to separate from sensor noise).
Jeff Schewe gave a blow by blow run down of Adobe Camera Raw. Thomas Knoll (the original author of Photoshop and Camera Raw) answered questions along the way. It’s going to be a really interesting trip!
Find out more in my Technique Downloads
Enjoy my Antarctica galleries, book, and statements.
Learn more about my workshops here.
Early registrants get discounts at home.
Members get discounts abroad.