Category: Travel Photography

Photography from around the World

MOAB MASTER APPOINTMENT – AUSTRALIA’S FIRST MOAB MASTER AND YOUR CHANCE TO OWN A GOLD APPA PRINT

Posted in Media, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized4 Comments

I am both extremely pleased and proud to announce that Legion Paper and Moab who produce my absolute favourite photographic papers have officially designated and appointed me as one of their Moab Masters. This makes me to date the first and only Australian photographer to be honoured by Moab with Master status and I would like to thank them for their support. From Moabs website:

Moab Master photographers are a select group of artists connected by their unique visions and their love of reproducing their images on Moab fine art paper.  You’ll notice some well-established photographers in the galleries below, as well as photographers on the rise.  Moab is proud to be associated with these artists and thank them for trusting Moab with their images.

To my friends in the USA and abroad this means that some of my photography and prints will now be taken and exhibited by Moab to trade shows around the country. You should be able to see some of my photography in print at PhotoPlus Expo in New York as soon as October this year.

To celebrate the appointment I am going to be offering a strictly limited number of my 2011 Fine Art Landscape GOLD Award winning APPA (Australian Professional Photography Awards) Print ‘Blue Berg’. If you are a photographer or collector of fine art photography and have always wondered what a GOLD award winning APPA print looked like then this is your unique chance to own one. Alternatively, if you are just starting out in collecting photography then this will be a very fine start to your collection. This limited ‘special’ edition print will be made on 13 x 19 Moab Somerset Museum Rag paper; which is my absolute favourite fine art paper and will be signed and accompanied by a matching certificate of authenticity. Each print and certificate will include a serialised and numbered hologram identifying its unique number in this edition and verifying its authenticity. Each certificate will be printed on Moab Japanese Moenkopi Washi paper. This Moenkopi Washi paper is made of all natural mulberry fibres by the finest artisans at the Awagami Factory in Tokushima Japan. It is the perfect accompaniment  to a paper as beautiful and sensual as Somerset Museum Rag. Each ‘pigment on paper’ print will be printed, inspected and signed by me personally and will ship to you flat on archival acid free foam core in a clear archival bag ready for the matt and frame of your choice. This is a strictly limited special edition of 50 prints to celebrate the appointment as a Moab Master and once orders are filled there will be no more. Each print investment is being offered at the special price of $500 plus delivery. Please contact Philip Kulpa at the Source Photographica Gallery in Brighton for any enquiries or to place your order. Philip can be contacted via email at philip@sourcephoto.com.au or via phone on +61 3 9530 6059. Don’t miss your chance to own a special limited edition GOLD Award APPA print!

Limited Edition GOLD APPA Print
Abandoned Blue Berg

THE VERTICAL COMPOSITION – SELFOSS BEFORE STORM

Posted in Iceland, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized2 Comments

When out shooting in the field I usually find that the subject and composition will dictate the orientation of the frame – either horizontal or vertical in the 35mm format. Almost always I will go with my first instinct when making framing, composing and orientation decisions and usually my first instinct results in the best overall frame. Once I have taken that photograph I will then experiment with different compositions and usually a different camera orientation. Often, an alternate orientation produces an equally good photograph and occasionally a superior one. It almost always results in a photograph that ‘reads’ differently and the experience can be quite different for the end viewer.

Speaking extemporaneously it is no skin off my nose to experiment with an alternate camera orientation in the field. It takes little to know time to re-orientate the camera after shooting a horizontal or vertical composition; especially with the Really Right Stuff L bracket that I use on my primary Canon 1DS MKIII. This is something I find myself doing a lot as the alternate orientation gives me a choice of options during the editing process back in my studio – and choice is always a good thing. Even if the different orientation ends up a banal photograph destined to reside in my Lightroom catalogue without ever seeing ‘print’  I do at least have the photograph for comparative purposes.

Every now and again I end up processing both the horizontal and vertical frames as I cant decide which I prefer; or I like both equally as in the case of ‘Selfoss Before Storm’. Both the horizontal and vertical compositions work to my eye for this photograph and both for quite different reasons. Each orientation places the emphasis on different elements in the frame and each; although similar, is visually quite a different experience. The vertical composition more successfully coveys a sense of height to the waterfalls that cascade down this martian like canyon. On the other hand the horizontal orientation conveys a greater sense of grandeur; giving a sense of scale to the width of the falls. In both instances the racing storm clouds are positioned to emphasise the orientation of the frame. I like both – Which do you prefer?

AUGUST PHOTO OF THE MONTH – SELFOSS BEFORE STORM

Posted in Iceland, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized3 Comments

Iceland is a country well known for its waterfalls. One of its most famous is Selfoss; a waterfall I made several repeat visits to during my 2010 trip. What makes Selfoss so unique and other worldly is the way it cascades down both sides of a deep rocky canyon. I have not seen such a geological feature anywhere else in the world and as far as I know it is unique to Selfoss and Iceland. The light was very different on my second visit to Selfoss and on this occasion a storm was building and dark storm clouds were racing across the arctic sky as I set up my tripod to take this photograph. The water has an almost chocolate colour as it is glacial and full of sediment from melting glaciers upstream. Not long after I made this exposure it began to rain heavily and I was forced to abandon any further shooting; but it didn’t matter as I had the photograph I wanted and an image I have titled ‘Selfoss before Storm’. A higher resolution version of this photograph can be seen on my primary portfolio website at www.jholko.com under Iceland. Limited Edition Fine Art Pigment on Paper prints are available of this photograph through Source Photographica in Brighton.

ANTARCTICA – LAPTOPS AND THE FILE BACK UP PLAN

Posted in Antarctica, Equipment, News and Updates, Travel Photography, Uncategorized2 Comments

Last year I schlepped my 17″ Macbook Pro, power pack and accessories all the way from Australia to Iceland (along with 25+ kilograms of camera equipment). I learnt an important lesson from this exercise: I should not have purchased a 17″ laptop for field work (international or otherwise); a 15″ would have been more than sufficient and saved considerable weight and space. I will not make the same mistake again of selecting such a large laptop. I was seduced by the increased real estate of a 17″ screen and the proposition that I could actually do some image processing in the field. The reality however, is that laptop screens are a very poor substitute for my wide gamut 26″ professsional image editing monitor in my studio. Even calibrated with a high end colorimeter the colour on laptop screens just sucks – period.

Given the price of a fully loaded 17″ Macbook Pro with 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 256 Gigabyte Solid State Drive is a dime or two more than chump change I am resigned to living it with until it reaches the end of its useful life and is subsequently replaced with a 15″ (or smaller) model. Unfortunately, (or forutnately for my bank manager) my 17″ MacBook Pro is going to still be well within its useable life cycle when I leave for Antarctica in November this year and I cant justify ditching it early just to save a bit of travel discomfort.

Unlike Iceland, New Zealand or Tasmania (or pretty much any of the other trips I have done) this time I will be based on a ship with only short zodiac excursions and the occasional shore landing.  This means that once housed in my ship quarters I can pretty much set-up the laptop and leave it that way for the duration of the trip – a very appealing proposition instead of carting it from location to location.  Yes, I am going to have to haul it all the way from Melbourne Australia to Ushuaia South America; through quite a few airports with lots of security checks with all the annoyances that comes with the pleasures of airline travel these days. But, at least on boarding of the ship it will become a static operation.

So, armed with my 17″ laptop for the trip I will have several advantages over small back-up devices such as the Hyper Drive. Firstly, a much larger screen for reviewing files and second the power to run Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop on location. Since space is really not an issue on this trip there is little to no advantage to additional and somewhat expensive devices such as Hyper Drives. These kind of devices are really space and weight saving options and are ideal for hikes or trips where its just totally impractical to carry a full size laptop. I can do all of my key-wording in Lightroom on location at the end of each days shooting on my laptop and even some initial image selection (should I find enough time). I won’t be doing any actual processing of my RAW files since as I mentioned above I find the quality of the screen not up to scratch for this purpose.

In terms of back-up I plan to take a couple of Lacie external rugged  firewire drives; which I will use to back up my files on a daily basis. One drive lives permanently in my laptop bag and the second drive will stay with my person for the duration of the trip. In the unfortunate event (touch wood) that I loose one drive I still have the second back up plus my laptop. Its the belt, suspenders and a piece of string mentality.

I will be taking a large number of 8, 16 and 32 gigabyte compact flash and mini SD cards with me – more than enough for a couple of day’s heavy shooting (and I am envisaging major giggage on this trip!); and after backing up the cards at the end of each day will erase and re-use them. I don’t advocate taking enough cards to never have to erase and re-use; since I want to import and key-word my files at the end of the day in Lightroom anyway and back them up to multiple hard drives. Plus I find it too easy to forget which cards have been used and which have not.

This approach and methodology has worked well for me over the last few years. The only real downside is the size and weight of my 17″ Macbook Pro – a situation I will remedy when my laptop next comes up for refresh sometime next year. In the meantime, if anyone wants a pre loved, fully loaded 17″ Macbook Pro at a discount please drop me a line!

NATURE’S BEST PHOTOGRAPHY – SEMI FINALIST 2011

Posted in Iceland, Landscape Photographs, Media, News and Updates, Photographs, Travel Photography, Uncategorized3 Comments

I’ve been away up at Mount Buller for some skiing and snow play with my kids over the last few days and I was very pleased to learn on my return to Melbourne last night that one of my photographs has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Windland Smith Rice International Awards. There were more than 21,000 photographs submitted this year to this award; which is run by Natures Best Photography and I thrilled to have one of my photographs selected to go through in to the semi-finals. At this stage I need to supply additional ‘exif’ information and a higher resolution file for further judging. I cannot as yet disclose which photograph has been selected as the next round of judging has not yet been completed; but will do so as soon as possible.