Me and Kiki huddling in the shade in the middle of the Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park desert - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/100th self-timer camera on groundSeeking a desert, Kiki and I returned to Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park which has long trails made up of sandy fire roads with little tree cover.  Why seek a desert?  Because yesterday I heard America's "Horse With No Name" and it became the theme for today's outdoors adventure.  There were other reasons for seeking a desert too, but those are more omnipresent and need not be singled out.  Our first visit to this park was back in November of 2009, and based on the lead image of that post and the one below, you can see how my HDR technique has improved in the past three years (no more ghosting!).  

Most of the 3-mile Loop Trail of Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park is desolate - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR handheldWandering for 5-miles (including the beginning 1.9 mile loop) in mostly desert trails with the strong Florida sun beating down on you may not sound that appealing, but it is exceptionally good for producing clarity of mind, if not clarity of photographs.  I cannot speak for Kiki, but the desolate trails provided exactly the environment I wished to be in.  We saw not a single human our entire time out there.  If you do not count the countless ants and flying insects, and the two birds' shadows I saw fly by (I did not use the energy to lift my head toward the sun to see them), then the only creature we encountered was a friendly gopher tortoise, who kindly yielded the right-of-way to us.  I am fascinated by the mechanical movement of tortoises and how they can withdraw from the world anywhere they want to.  I did not stop to photograph him, because in the desert you risk forgetting even your own name.  Indeed we took refuge for awhile at the max point out in the desert under a very well placed roofed picnic table (top image).  Kiki dug a hole to cool off in as I took a few photos.  Once she had sufficiently ceased panting, we continued on, though I know shade break or not, we were good for more miles.

I did not touch this tree - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR handheldOnce back in the corral area, I chomped on a few crackers and Kiki a dog biscuit, and we both took water.  Just as we arrived back I noticed off to the side a very peculiar tree.  I saw none in such condition anywhere else in the park, not even in the middle of the desert trail where one would think such a tree would be found.  This scary tree was right next to the campground (see blue tent).  I would not want to get the campsite within eyeshot of it.

It was a good visit to Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park and if you do go make sure it is as early as possible to avoid the hot Florida sun, bring lots of water as there is none on site for humans and prepare to cross a desert.

J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park:

• 10500 Wilderness Park Boulevard
  New Port Richey, FL 34655
  
• hours sunrise to sunset
• dogs ok!
• camping - car, primitive & backcountry

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Have you taken more temporary or permanent detours with your photography?Your photography path should take detours.  Some of them will be temporary, while others will be permanent.  A temporary detour can come when you get a new lens and are able to make a photograph you could not before.  You may take a few month detour into only producing HDR images, which often happens when a photographer discovers this Pandora's Box of photography techniques.  

Permanent detours can arise with increased photography knowledge.  These can be detours in personal shooting style, subject matter and shooting techniques.  The horrible vignettes you used to put on every portrait you made early in your photography career?  The detour away from those cannot come soon enough!  Blurry night images because you did not have a tripod?  Gone once you invest in a proper one.

I have made several significant, permanent detours in my (relatively) brief professional photography career.  I started out thinking I would work with others, but that really turned into more of a temporary detour.  I was focused on weddings and portraits, but a free business meeting consultation lead to my biggest detour to date switching my focus to commercial, event and teaching photography.

That was last year's big detour.  I expect another one will come sometime this year.  

My photography tip then is to expect photography detours and recognize which ones will be temporary, and which ones will be permanent.

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Bill learning my Aperture 3 workflow right from my desk also getting emotional support from Kiki!Last week Bill came over to my apartment for a digital photography workflow lesson based on Aperture 3.  This was my sixth time meeting up with Bill, but the first to focus on the part of digital photography that happens after you return from shooting, which is just as important as learning how to shoot out in the field.  Once you start taking 200, 300, 400+ photos on any given outing with your DSLR then workflow and photo management becomes critical in making sure you showcase your best images and can find them one year down the road.  

After Kiki gave Bill an enthusiastic greeting, we opened up our MacBook Pros at my desk and I went step-by-step with Bill first getting my preferred Aperture 3 settings into his version, and then showing him what you do once you insert a memory card into the SD slot on the side.  Upon photo import in Aperture 3 you can imprint a lot of very useful metadata, as well as rename the files (so all your shots are not _DCC457) and put them into a new project to start off your workflow with good orginization.

Bill had photos from his daughter's prom night pre-dance getogether at his own home for us to use.  I showed him my culling process for picking the best shot out of 3-4 similar shots.  This involves a star-rating system and then a side-by-side full-screen comparison of shots.  We finished the lesson with using some of the handy sliders and brushes in Aperture 3 to make the first round of edits on a given digital photograph.  

These are actually post office steps! The neon in the background is real, though modified - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame left

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I cannot say I explicitily intended for my model portfolio shoot with Alexandra to turn into a film noir style, but through editing of the images it certainly turned out that way.  We were shooting in the late evening from about 7:45pm to 8:25pm mostly around the Arcade in downtown St. Petersburg.  The Arcade is a great location offering a variety of shot opportunities, especially at that late time of day with all its shadow opportunities.  The above shot was actually the very last shot of the shoot.  The background features the neon sign of a cafe across the street with the contrast selectively turned up so that only what is illuminated by my speedlights and the neon remain visible.

Using long shadows created by a speedlight outside the gates - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame leftI chose the Arcade as a shooting location because of the great, very tall, ornate, iron gates.  I knew they would make for a fantastic background and/or prop.  For the above shot I placed a speedlight outside the gates to frame left in the alley to help cast long shadows in the foreground.  I composed so to accentuate them.  Alexandra came up with a great pose taking my one small suggestion to create space between each arm and her body, something I always make sure is set otherwise the model will appear to have a lumpy body or strange attached arm.  Alexandra in fact did a great job overall allowing me to focus on creating mood and atmosphere with my lighting and composition.

The 43" brolly creates soft shadows, I love it - - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame left & Nikon SB-600 Speedlight @ 1/2 power with diffuser cap to frame leftThis shot features the same gates and lighting setup.  Without the speedlight outside the gates providing backlight, the gate on frame right would appear dull and lack the reflective light on it.  Additionally, the same speedlight provides rim light around the model, especially her hair, right arm and right side.  A photographer can do a lot with just two speedlights positioned in key spots.  I could carry all my strobist and photography gear that I used for this shoot myself, following the "lighten up and shoot" philosophy.

A single strobe setup with intentional background shadow - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4.5 ISO 400 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/8 power in 43" brolly to frame rightThis shot is different than all the others in that it features only one speedlight positioned to create Rembrandt lighting (nose & cheek shadows touch leaving a little light under the eye) on the model.  I wanted to include one soft feeling image in the shoot as most of the others were really strong from a posing and overall feel perspective.  

Thank you again to Alexandra.  You can follow her work on Model Mahem and Facebook.

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Lance Armstrong crossing the finish line of Ironman Florida 70.3 Haines City 2012 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/9 ISO 200 1/250th shutter priorityI woke up at 4:45am Sunday morning to get ready to make the drive out to Haines City, a small, inland town I had never heard of before to photograph the Ironman 70.3 Florida.  I drove east on I-4 into a totally dark sky that as the miles past began to reveal dawn light.  It made me realize what a great time of day this is to be out on the open road.  As I got off the highway it was still before sunrise and I was treated to views of horses grazing in misty fields.

My road location for photographing Lance Armstrong on the bike route - photo made with an iPhone 4Then finally as I turned onto the road that would be my shooting location for the next three and a half hours I saw the sun peak over the horizon for the first time.  It was a beautiful and peaceful scene that I really appreciated.  Soon though I would get very busy photographing the nearly 2,000 participants of the triathlon on the bike portion of the event.  There was a bit of glamour to this triathlon as Lance Armstrong was competing in it and the favorite to win.  Neither I nor my shooting partner could recognize Lance in the initial group of riders coming down the road.  Then once the main wave of competitors starting rolling by there was not much time to even think, just photograph as many of the passing riders as possible.  Not so glamorous.

Ironman 70.3 Florida finish line just crowded with people waiting for Lance to finish.My assignment was to wait at that location until the very last rider came by.  That poor final rider was probably at least 10 minutes behind the second to last rider and did not look like he would close that ground over the remaining 45 miles!  So off I was to my next assignment near the finish line.  Totally unexpectedly to me I arrived before the winner did and since I was between assignments, I was able to take a few of my own photographs of Lance.  I had an all-access media pass on that allowed me to waltz right up to the first row of other media (TV & newspaper) waiting for Lance to cross the finish line.  The glamour of it all was back!  

The crowd was very amped up as Lance rounded the corner and he high-fived many outstretched hands.  I filled my D300's buffer just holding down the shutter trying to get the best possible shot of Lance in a very crowded area of cameras.

Lance Armstrong after winning the Ironman 70.3 Florida 2012 in Haines CityLance walked right past me!  But then he was swarmed by a crowd of people hoping for an interview.  All I could do was hold my camera up over my head and hope to get lucky.  Well, I got an infocus shot, but only of the back and side of his head.  Then Lance was gone and so was the finish line crowd as well as any and all glamour.

My next assignment was to shoot the "front of finish" shot which was in direct late morning and afternoon sunlight.  In those 3.5 hours the top of my kneecaps got sunburned as I sat in my small folding chair.  Not glamorous at all!  As my own finish time of 2pm approached, I was definitely fading.  Taking the same shot, over and over times about 1500x in direct Florida sunlight is a real challenge.  That is what photographing a triathlon in Florida is mostly about, surviving and trying to be consistent with your shots.  I believe this will be the last triathlon I ever photograph as the cost-benefit ratio is just not in the photographer's favor.  The money is actually not good at all considering the large wear and tear one puts on their shutter (anywhere from 3,000 to 4,500 actuations depending on the event) and the physical toll it takes on everything in general.  Photographing Lance is a good way to end my triathlon photography career.

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