journal
Photography is not linear. No matter if you've been a photographer for a month or for a lifetime, we all are just one click away from our best image.
Think about that the next time you pick your camera.
One click away.
Today could be the day.
Again, I got sunny and clear skies in the Pyrenees, so I thought it'd be nice to use a vintage lens that I'd been wanting to try for landscape photography.
The lens is a Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 mounted on a Minolta MD/MC to Sony E adaptor.
I shot it wide open and stepping it down. The results were soft when wide open but I love that look. It's a sharp lens when stepped down.
Still, the focal lenght when mounted on a crop sensor camera like the Sony a6000 makes it a less than ideal lens for landscape photography. And I mean, as the only lens. 90mm can be a very nice focal lenght for landscapes when you combine it with something else.
Below, you can see some of the images I got and that I show in the video.
Deep in the Pyrenees, the Cirque of Gavarnie is one of the most stunning place I've ever been to.
The first day we hiked to there, we found torrential rain. Soaked, I gave up on making images that day and decided to go back later that week. Then, I found sunny and clear skies.
This video is the results of those two visits.
I want to start talking a bit more about the gear I use, both for making images and recording videos. The GoPro Hero 7 is a recent acquisition, but I've already taken it with me on a few outings. This is my review: the good and the bad, and how it fits in my workflow.
The Vall del Madriu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, seemed to be the perfect place for me to spend my last day in Andorra. The landscape didn't dissappoint, it was a beautiful -but hard- hike through the forest.
Photography wise, though, it was a fail. I wasn't able to come up with compelling compositions. I still had a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy the video.
I have a new camera, and I put it to the test during a full day of driving and hiking in the beautiful country of Andorra.
I recorded the whole episode on the GoPro Hero 7 Black, using just the built-in microphone for the audio. The footage has been color graded, though.
There's a full review of this little guy coming soon.
Of course, I'm not affiliated with GoPro in any way. I wish. You can still help me buying it (or anything else, it doesn't have to be the GoPro) through this affiliate Amazon link: https://amzn.to/2J4pVma
I had a few rolls sitting around for a while, with a few shots left in them, so I decided to go out and finish them. This is what it came out of that morning out... and of those rolls.
One the biggest challenges when you are on the road and have a YouTube channel to update is how to upload the videos.
Sometimes, you get lucky: the place we stayed at in Andorra last week had a pretty decent connection so uploading movies and backing stuff up to the cloud wasn't a problem at all.
We didn't get as lucky with this week's AirBnB, though: uploading a new video using this connection would take forever, and there are no cafes around that I know of.
I wish apps like AirBnB or Booking could tell you how fast the WiFi will be on your next stay.
The obvious solution for this problem is to use my phone. I've published videos using the YouTube app before, and while it works just fine, it doesn't let you upload 4k videos. Instead, it will convert them to 1080 and then proceed with the upload.
The best option I've found is to use my computer, tethering from my phone. If I have 4G coverage, of course.
This isn't perfect, though: I "only" have 25GB a month and my average video weighs in at about 3GB. This means I'd be able to upload 7-8 videos a month using my phone exclusively. I usually publish 2-3 a week, or 8-12 a month, making me effectively dependent on things I can't control.
Maintaining a YouTube channel while on the road is not an easy task, but it can be done. You just need a little bit of luck when it comes to your hotel / Airbnb's WiFi, and a phone with a lot of data as a backup.
Last video of my road trip to Asturias. It was a long drive home, but I tried to make the best out of it.
Another video from my trip to the Picos de Europa. After getting a "pressure loss" warning in the car, I decided to play it safe and do a classic hike in this region: Ruta del Cares.
Because of the tire I didn't have time to do the whole hike, but after tasting the beginning of it, I'm definitely going back there sooner than later to finish it.
After spending the night in a shelter at the base of Pico Urriellu, it's finally time to head back to the comfort of the hotel. I made some images on my way down.
It's been a long summer here in NW Spain. It feels like we've had nothing but sunny and clear skies for the last two months. I'm more than ready for some fall weather but hey, if life gives you sun and blue skies, you play with star trails.
This is what I wanted to show you in this video. If you've never shot the night sky, then this can be good to get you started. I talk about the gear you will need, and the software.
Hope you enjoy it!
The Image of the Month for October is now available: Moonrise over Mt Hood.
Watch the video where I made this image: "Moonrise".
What a beautiful evening at the Mt Hood National Forest this was! I had only recently started shooting with my Bronica SQ-Ai when I found out about the full Moon rising behind the always stunning Mt Hood.
I spent almost three hours there, sitting in silence, first enjoying the sunset and then waiting until it was dark and the Moon high in the sky.
This image is the result of those three hours there, trying to capture what I saw. The interaction between the mountain and the Moon, the calmness of the moment, the beauty of it, the fragility of nature and the insignificance of humans.
A new image will be released every month and offered at a reduced price during that time. After 30 days, it will be sold at full price. They will never be on sale at any time in the future, the rate during the first month will be the lowest, ever.
You can find more information about how I create my images and all the details about pricing on The Art and Craft behind my prints.
These past weeks have been pretty exciting. There are plenty of new cameras coming out soon, and even if you have no plans to get any of them (like me), I'm sure we can still agree that new camera gear is always interesting.
Most camera companies are giving their new cameras incremental updates. Yes, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic just announced their first full-frame mirrorless cameras, but they are -at best- just small improvements over what we already have now.
Even Fujifilm and its new medium format cameras are about polishing and making stuff that was already here, a bit better.
I wanted to mention one company who has gone a slightly different way, though: Zeiss and its first full-frame camera, the ZX1.
What's different about this camera has little to do with the hardware and everything to do with the software. The ZX1 looks like someone took an Android phone and attached a full-frame sensor to it. This makes me wonder about the booting up times.
Built-in Lightroom, smartphone-like features like the gallery and sharing capabilities, built-in battery (ouch) and ZERO SD card slots (it comes with a whopping 512GB of internal storage). The experience of using this camera will be very different from using other cameras we are more used to.
Most of the software features in this camera look a little gimmicky: who's going to edit images in the camera? Keep in mind: that will use battery, that you can't change since it's built-in.
This is why the title of this post has a "sort of" at the end.
I look at the ZX1 as a hint of what the future might bring, though. Computational photography is going to play a big role in the near future as modern phones have been showing us for years, but we are yet to see it making its way into "real" cameras.
If the iPhone XS can do what it can do with that tiny sensor and lens, just imagine what a full frame camera could do in the future.
Seeing Lightroom in a camera also reminds me of the attempt made by Sony to bring apps to their cameras. Now abandoned, it was a brilliant idea that got a poor implementation. I'd love to see apps making a come back into cameras - that'd open a whole new world of innovation.
Anyway, just my two cents on the Zeiss ZX1 and the future of photography.
The adventure has begun, and I'm realizing now how hard it is to keep creating daily content while on the road. I'm still here, though!
While I try to find a balance (probably sitting down one or two days a week to create enough content to schedule for several days in advance), let me give you an update from the beautiful mountains of Picos de Europa National Park, in Asturias, Spain.
I am back in my hotel room now, after spending a night in a shelter at the base of Urriellu Peak (also known as Naranjo de Bulnes), one of the most beautiful peaks in Spain. Someone referred to it as the "Spanish Dolomites" yesterday, and I think it's very appropriate.
I'm taking it easy today because I'm afraid one of the tires in the car has a leak. I got the "pressure loss" warning yesterday while driving down on a dirt road, and while the pressure hasn't gone down more than a couple PSI (could even have been me after checking the pressure a few times), it reminds me of a similar situation I experienced with the Jeep in California a couple years ago. That time ended with a flat tire in the middle of a snowstorm on Christmas Eve. Not fun. Hopefully this time is different and I can still get to explore more of this stunning place.
These are some snapshots I took on my way up and down Urriellu, and during my time at 2,000m (6,500 feet).
"Long Exposure Photography: How to make stunning images that defy time" is my upcoming new eBook. It will be released this Sunday, September 30th.
It will be a free eBook but only the current newsletter subscribers will get a copy, at least initially -it will be publicly available a few weeks later.
A good chance to join the newsletter club! Stay up to date with my work and receive free educational material like this one, for free.
And remember, you also get a free copy of "Examples of the PNW" when you sign up.
Join now and get your free copy on Sunday, September 30th!
Last day trip of the American Road Trip Journal! There's just one episode left in this adventure.
This time, I visit the Antelope Canyon, in Page, Arizona (and Horseshoe Bend).
I don't know where I got this quote from. I even had to Google the name to confirm he was The Rock.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
I believe in this.
Don't sit and wait.
Study, improve, work, put yourself out there.
Little by little, every day, get closer to where you want to be.
Don't stop.
Nothing is guaranteed in this life, but consistency is our best shot at getting what we want.
Edward Steichen was one of the most regarded photographers of his time. He made some of the first modern fashion photographs.
A lesser-known project of his is a series of images he worked on for a couple nights.
These photographs (Three Views of Balzac) from 1908 were some of the first made with moonlight as the only light source.
More than a hundred years have passed, and they are still powerful, captivating images.
Keep in mind that there was no way to meter a scene like this by then -he had to play with different exposure times. He had an idea in mind, though, and he executed it to create art that hadn't been seen before.
Simply beautiful and inspiring.
Another video from my trip to Portugal, this time of my visit to three historic villages: Sortelha, Idanha-a-Velha and Monsanto.
