Surprise!

For the last few months, my mother and I have been conniving a bit of a bombshell for my father’s 70^th birthday. For us, it was a big risk, as we’re talking about a guy who absolutely, positively, is not into surprises. However we figured this plan might be well received, as my wife and I would be flying back to California, and we were to be the surprise.

We arrived at the front door of my parent’s home, loaded with cone-shaped party hats, “silly string,” four-foot tall balloons, festooned with happy birthday greetings, and massive “7” and “0” silver helium-filled blimps, just to make sure he forgot this numeric milestone. I rang the bell, and a familiar frame opened the door.

“SURPRISE,” we yelled, red silly string flying through the air like it was the millennium New Year. Party hats were snapped onto his head, and balloons placed in hand…

He stood in the doorway in utter shock.

After a moment of silence, he exclaimed, “What the heck are you doing here?!”

“Happy birthday, Dad,” I said. “There’s no way we’d miss this one!”

For the next 20-plus minutes, all he could say is, “I can’t believe you’re here!” Our plan had hatched perfectly: We surprised the man who could not be befuddled, and he was thrilled.

Although we live some 3,000 miles apart, and communicate with our family on a regular basis over the phone, there’s nothing like being with family. It had been a long time since I had seen my parents, my sister and her husband, plus my two nieces and a nephew. We had catching up to do, and as always, it’s great to learn about what was happening in their lives. Being back home also provided an opportunity to stroll down memory lane, and a bit of a photographic adventure.

As I write this, Southern California is seeing incredible clear weather, with nary a cloud in the sky. This usually translates into brisk days, and even brisker nights. But when you’re in the San Bernardino Mountains, and a mile up from the basin, the temperature can really drop, and sometimes significantly. In our case, highs in the low 30s and lows dropping into the single digits, which not only keeps the perfect-powder snow around, but ices up the walkways in are.as that see the sun during the day.

Living on Maui for the past eight years, and used to wearing shorts, slippahs and a t-shirt on a daily basis, I was only familiar with the “cold” of Haleakala, and that’s only for a few hours at a shot. This was a whole new experience – a body and mind-numbing iciness that threatened to congeal the blood in my veins. I settled into the sofa in the living room, pulled the infrared space heater in close and huddled with a blanket.

“You cold?” My mother said with a smile.

“You bet I am,” I shivered. “I’ve never been here when it’s been so cold!”

The smile still on her face, my mom turned and walked towards the corner cabinet. She opened its oak doors, and pulled out an old photo album. She flipped through the pages, then handed me the book.

“Right now, it’s about 32-degrees,” she noted. When I took this picture of you, it was about 22-degrees.”

I looked at the photo, and the memories came flooding back: There I was, shoveling snow off the boat dock, and I’m wearing a Lake Arrowhead Water Ski Club t-shirt, a pair of OP shorts and… wait for it… Moon boots.

“I guess my blood has thinned a bit, hasn’t it?” I said.

“I’d say so,” she noted. “Thirty years ago, you’d be sweating in this house. I’m surprised you’re not outside with your camera.”

My camera.

Here I was, sitting in a warm home in the middle of the San Bernardino mountains, and my camera was untouched in the bag. I got up off my flattening back side, and started to layer-up.

Since I moved to Maui over eight years ago, I had primarily visited my home state in the spring and summer, taking advantage of the usual warm boating weather. This was my first time back in the winter months, in, well… I can’t remember. Donning my jacket and boots (hiking, not moon), I stepped out of the mud room.

As the cold, crisp air filled my lungs, I surveyed my surroundings: Fresh powdery snow blanketed the ground and covered the pine, oak and dogwood trees. It may have been the snow coveted by skiers, but I was wishing for lilikoi, guava and mango syrups so I could make a big bowl of shave ice. I started down the path to the lake, and walking past the old tack house, I pulled out my trusty Canon G10 to grab a few images of shadows in the snow.

A few yards down the path, I came to our old apple tree, still laden with frozen fruit. Most of the mountain apples had been partially consumed by the squirrels and blue jays. Years ago, there wouldn’t be an apple on the tree this time of year, as my mother would have picked them for her apple pies. Looking at the remaining fruit, my mind found composition after composition, and I eagerly snapped away.

Before long, I was standing on our family’s dock, admiring the calm waters, the silence only broken by a couple of ducks swimming out of Shelter Cove. I was taken in by winter’s beauty and calm, pointing my lens this way and that, image upon image, capturing scenes I took for granted growing up, but never recording on film or a memory card until now.

After a couple of hours of bliss, I headed back to the house with a full memory card and a drained battery. I stomped the snow from the treads of my boots, opened the front door and felt the warm, dry air from the gravity furnace envelop my face.

“Hey, did you get any good shots?” My mom called out from the kitchen.

I walked in, gave her a hug and said, “You bet. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here in winter.”

She jerked away when my ear touched her cheek. “Your face is frozen! I bet you’re dying to get warm.”

I winked at her, saying, “I really didn’t notice. Besides, I was having too much fun.”

“How you go from freezing indoors to warm and having fun outside, I’ll never know. “You’re just full of surprises.”

I chuckled, “Ah… That’s today. Just wait and see what tomorrow brings after I charge my camera!”

How to Deal With the Know-it-All

Of all the things I do as a photographer, I really enjoy meeting people from throughout the world who either appreciate, or take part in our passion of capturing light. Once in a while, I’ll find myself in a conversation with someone that has read more photo blogs than they’ve captured images, and it can be amusing as the Photo Jedi extol their knowledge of the photography side of The Force. In some cases, amusing can turn to frustrating, especially if the conversation turns to your “process,” which they seemingly know more about than you.

For some people, dealing with proverbial photo know-it-alls, can be challenging. It’s easy to become defensive, as after all, it’s your work and your baby. The key is to learn how to take what they say, turn it around, and make your point in such a way that they’re gently corrected, and take no offence.

To wit: at one of my venues this past week, I was visited by a Photo Jedi. He perused my collection of images and said, “These are nice laser prints you have.”

I greeted him warmly and noted, “These aren’t laser prints. They’re actually wet-process metallic prints.”

“Don’t tell me these are wet-process. I know a laser print when I see one,” he snapped.

Not wanting to argue with him, I pulled out a piece of unprocessed Endura Metallic paper, and sat it beside the prints on the table, saying, “Yes, sometimes you can confuse laser prints with metallic, especially since some laser printers leave a bit of sheen from the diffuser, but these are true metallic prints.”

He picked up the sample, examined it, and placed it back on the table. “Cool stuff,” he noted, and I nodded in agreement. Point made.

A good portion of this comes down to our photographic knowledge base: Between all the photography magazines, and plethora of blogs on the Net, there’s an overwhelming amount of information, and disinformation as well. And with the advent of digital photography, this knowledge base is growing exponentially on a daily basis, taking the idiom, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” to a whole new level – more like a bazillion ways with multiple colonies.

Back when I was practically living in a black and white darkroom, the big variants were the chemistry and what type of Kodak, Ilford or Agfa paper you were printing with, plus what contrast filter was used. Today, our options are seemingly endless, with an overabundance of substrate and printer and printing options. So when viewing other people’s prints, it’s easy to confuse a Fuji Crystal Archive Pearl print with a Kodak Endura Metallic in the right light.

Which brings us back to one of the beautiful things about photography: There are no hard and fast rules to making an image. Photography is a creative process, and we all have our unique styles, or workflows. The photo police won’t come knocking on your door is you shoot an image at high noon. And as photographers, we’re always learning new techniques, and expanding our horizons. And yes, at first blush it might look like a laser print, then again, maybe not.

So the next time someone remarks that Sam’s Club does a great job on my canvases, I’ll smile, and show them the picture of my Canon iPF8400 spitting out a 36X54 image and say with a wink, “I didn’t know my name was Sam…”

To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade, That is the Question

I’m currently facing a dilemma that affects millions of photographers every day: Whether or not to upgrade their gear. Camera, printer and software manufacturers are upgrading or introducing new products at a lightning-fast pace, so much so that it seems as though you’ve just purchased a new item for your gear bag, and its replacement is on store shelves less than a month later. Of course, the product cycle is usually around 14-plus months, but it feels like it’s only been 30-days.

I have a few questions/rules that I follow before making the move to upgrade a piece of equipment. Nothing crazy or scientific, but it keeps me from making spur-of-the-moment, uninformed or just plain bad purchases. And yes, I’ve made my share of purchases that rank as “what the heck was I thinking?!”

Do you want or really need it: I like to start out with the most difficult question first. Am I looking to upgrade because it’s a shiny new toy, or is it something that will help advance my images, the way I make pictures or my business in general? If the upgrade doesn’t net me a 25% plus improvement, then it’s a certain no-go. That’s not to say that I don’t get it at some point and time. I usually add the item to my wish list, and when I can afford to “treat” myself, I’ll get it (with my other half’s approval, of course).

Do your Homework: Usually, I’m looking to upgrade because the item I currently have doesn’t do something I wish it did, it doesn’t meet my current expectations, or it replacement does something that makes what I do easier. I view my gear as my tools of the trade – I take the handyman’s approach: Yeah, I have a hammer. It’s not broken, but if there’s a new hammer that weighs less, delivers more striking force, but doesn’t transfer shock through the handle, you bet I’m gonna upgrade! The same rings true with cameras, printers and related gear. There has to be a significant amount of change to warrant the upgrade.

Be patient, grasshopper: When a new camera is announced, it’s darn tempting to drive down to the camera shop and throw a couple hundred down on a camera that’s only in beta testing. But you have to keep in mind that the specifications aren’t finalized until production starts, and there’s a good chance that there’s a bug or two to be worked out. If you’re the type of person who has to see that new movie the day it comes out, or you’re willing to deal with a few inconveniences that might rear their head, then slap your money down on the counter. I like to wait a couple of months for the initial kinks to be worked out. Now and then, I will break this rule. A good example is when we swapped out our Canon Image PROGRAF iPF8300 for the new iPF8400. The old printer had died, and no new 8300s were to be had. Basically, its same printer, but the way it lays down the inks is totally different, so all of our old profiles were now useless, unless you wanted images that looked like a cross between a Warhol and an Monet. Funky, but not what I want. The printer was so green to the industry that the only available profiles were for Canon papers. Fortunately, we have the equipment to make our own profiles, so we were up and running in about a day.

Learn from others: You gotta love those early adopters – they get a hold of the first units, use them for a few days, then usually post their impressions and experiences on blogs or write reviews on photographic sites. It’s here where you’ll learn the good, bad and ugly about the item you’re thinking of purchasing. Is the information relevant to you? The key is to learn how to read the reviews. For instance, most reviews carry labels denoting the experience of the reviewer. I tend to give more weight to a review written by someone with a skill set similar to mine, and I particularly hone in on reviews by nature shooters. I also pay attention to when a review was written, giving more emphasis to whose composed within the previous 30-days. Why? Because products and their firmware are usually upgraded fairly soon after launch, so an item you buy a few months after it’s been introduced, will more than likely come with the latest and greatest firmware and with the least issues.

I’ve been spending the last few days researching point and shoot cameras. I’ve had my Canon Powershot G10 for many moons now, and I really need a camera that “lives” in my truck, just for those times there’s an incredible shot to be taken, and my big bag o' gear’s sitting on the rack in the studio. That’s why I bought the Fuji HS20EXR several months back for (Bridging the Gap). While it’s a good camera, it doesn’t really suit my needs, plus it won’t fit into any of the cubbies in my truck (which is weird, seeing that I can fit my small Gitzo pod.

So now I’m running through the plusses and minuses of Canon’s G1 X, G15 and the SX50 HS, and their related price tags. I’m early in the process, so there’s lots of homework to do. So far, there’s no smoking gun. They each offer great image quality and shoot in RAW mode. It all depends on the nuances I deem most important that’ll hone my decision, and whether I decide to move the potential purchase from the want to need column. Now only if Hawaii had a lotto to play…