Cabin Pressure

I’m lucky that my work in digital effects has taken me to several other countries to work. This means quite a bit of air travel. Actually this year has involved a heck of a lot of travel. Two round trips from Vancouver to UK, And two trips to Australia (ok one of those trips was owing to a bereavement)  but still quite a lot of air travel.

My top tip for longhaul travel is to carry good earplugs but that’s another story. Anyway as my work trips are often for months or even years at a time I’m really keen to have all my equipment with me.  But getting kit around the world without paying excess baggage seems to have become my latest obsession in photography.  This task is not made easier as my list of camera equipment has grown significantly over the past few years. 

On every occasion I'm due to fly longhaul I start out with the idea that I shall take a 'core' amount of camera kit. But the pile of essential items grows until I realise I’m going to take everything with me. Everything comprises quite a lot of stuff. The obvious option is to buy a large flight case. That also means paying extra baggage, and on top of that I'd definitely choose to insure it too.  Depending on your carrier checked in luggage can get quite pricey. But do you really need to go to all that expense?

Flying in economy I’ve found that allowances vary quite a bit. I (like many other photographers) find the idea of saving money by taking my kit as cabin luggage quite seductive. Cheaper, safer,  more sensible to me.  And if I save a few pennies I’d be halfway to buying something else. Maybe in the duty free section.  Best not dwell on that train of thought.

So I’ll assume like me you’re particularly protective of some kit more than others. In my kit I have a couple of digital bodies, several lens ….. (ok lots of lens), mostly primes but a 70-200mm zoom too. A doubler, and more recently a film camera too. (I’ll post something about that another day). I also have a couple of tripods. Two specialist tripods heads. (Both surprisingly heavy). A case of filters and sundry other bits and pieces.

I should be clear I don’t carry all this stuff at the same time. My kit is specialised towards creating panoramic images. I have a lightweight point and click kit I scout locations with. The general aim being to return with a full kit.  I'm also generally willing to point my lens to whatever is on hand and so dabbled in other photographic genres. So I have kit for those specialities too. All in all the whole kit is bulky and heavy too, it includes  camera 'widgets' and 'thingumys' that have been used once and live in dark boxes. Items that are never likely to earn their keep but I seem to be hoarding 'just in case'. But how to get it all onto the plane?

There is no way to disguise the size of my camera bag it's, large as it often carries hiking kit too. My recent choice was to empty my usual camera bag, and use another bag as my carry on. My camera backpack maybe within the cabin limits of some airlines but owing to it’s bulk gets inspected quite regularly. Probably because airlines often identify ‘overweight’ cabin luggage by apparent volume rather than checking weight. To go under their radar I chose to put my camera backpack into one of my holdalls. The smaller bag is one I use at home to store extra kit in. It’s quite small but can fit several lens and bodies with no problem. And for the record the bag I used as cabin friendly is a Vanguard Xcenior 30.

My kit is then divided into - must go into cabin with me.  And then the not so fragile which I feel I can take a knock or two. In essence, two bodies, and six lens and a laptop and 2 portable hard disk drives were assigned to be in my hand luggage. Btw I deemed the autofocus lens to be the least robust.  Spare batteries, CF cards etc were easy to find space for.   I also carried the two manual focus lens in the zip pockets of my coat. That was until l was in the cabin. Then I stowed them in the bag too. 

My tripods, a box of filters,  tripod heads battery chargers and all manner of little bits were distributed in the luggage. I have a huge holdall that easily holds my camera backpack with room lots of other things too. Which left me to carry a smaller cabin sized bag. And importantly a personal item, my laptop.

The weight I carried was significantly more than cabin allowance almost every time I flew. If questioned I’d have assembled the camera with the 70-200 and carried that aboard round my neck. Btw my noise reducing headphones were taken out of their case (the case went in the luggage) and were worn around my neck. One way or another I got more personal luggage into the cabin on my economy ticket than I would have thought possible. If I choose to pull this trick again I think a multi pocket coat such as worn by Fagin (in Oliver Twist) would be a very useful accessory.

Happily my kit all arrived with me without mishap and without additional cost. And it's fun to think I saved a few pennies but I was probably lucky rather than clever.  So one day soon I shall be investing in an airline safe case and in future will use a luggage forwarding service to get my gear where it needs to be.

 

Field notes - A few days in Tofino

 Tofino is a coastal town on the edge of the Pacific.  It's Canada's capital of surfing. I'm not a surfer but I headed here after I walked the northern half of the West Coast Trail in Sept 2016. The choice was based on a previous trip to Vancouver Island in 2014. Surfers may love the waves but Tofino also has plenty to offer a landscape photographer. Long stretches of golden sands, peaked mountains, and jagged groups of islands bobbing in the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean.  It's also an enviable location for Pacific sunsets

Tofino with Chesterman Beach in the foreground

Another point in it's favour for me was that Tofino seemed relatively close to the end of the West Coast Trail. At least it looked close on a map. However getting from Bamfield to Tofino could well be worthy of it's own travelogue.  In reality it took an entire day of my holiday, (but it could easily have taken longer). 

I camped on the edge of Long Beach, halfway through the afternoon of my first day the overcast skies of my WCT were replaced by a vault of clear cobalt blue. My kit and clothes dried out and for the next two days I was able to explore with aid of sun screen and 'jandels'. (Japanese sandals, aka flip flops)

Combers Beach, Long beach, Schooner Beach and Chesterman beaches virtually run from one to another along the coast.
I was particularly attracted to Combers Beach which was populated by a jumble of huge bleached tree trunks, stranded along the high tide mark.  Even so I found myself returning to Schooner Beach as it offered more varied terrain.

My  three nights camping were quite easy going as I also rented a car.  Yes, I did stalk the shoreline with a camera, but I also found time for a lot of recaffenation in the local coffee shops and wrote a lot of postcards.  

In fact it was the postcards that gave me the idea of having another go at aerial photography.  Something I've wanted to do for a long time.  I have tried taking aerial photographs before, notably in Vancouver from the float planes. But that didn't prove very productive. Partly because the wings obstructed the view, and partly because the pilot was doing a timed circuit of the harbour. So there was no lingering in good spots.

Anyway I digress, from a map Tofino seemed to offer a tempting prospect for an aerial view to get it all in one shot. So I gave it a whirl and chartered a helicopter. That sounds very grand but helicopters and floatplanes are a common sight in British Columbia and the float planes dock close to the centre of town. Still to charter my own flight was a heck of an expense, even if the flight time was only going to be 6mins. Yes you heard right SIX minutes. Which meant that to get the picture I wanted I needed to be organised.

To start with,  my main decision was when to book the flight for. I could chose almost any time of day, but  I needed to book the flight 24hrs in advance. I couldn't just go up on a whim when the weather / light looked just right. So I pored over weather reports for an hour before booking,drinking more coffee than is healthy and agonising over the decision.  Happily the weather report was fair on the website I most trusted,  but the big wrinkle in the plan was this area is well known  for it's sea fog and mist. Which often obscures the entire coastline. (I'm told the locals sometimes refer to August and September as Fogust / Fogtember).  Fog / mist  can lend an extra dimension to photography but it wan't what I wanted on this occasion, so a late afternoon flight was the safest bet to allow the atmospherics to burn off. 

On the day there was a thick fog in the morning, but as predicted by the ground officer the fog was burned off by 2pm. At the airport I learned about  aircraft safety but also had a couple of mins to brief the pilot  about what I wanted. To be utterly fair Dane (the pilot) does sightseeing trips for a living and whilst there is lots to see thereabouts, he was well versed in getting the best for his passengers.  We discussed the best views and what height to see them from.  Armed with my dlsr and a pair of prime lens (35mm and 18mm) I was strapped into the middle seat (of  three) whilst I leaned over to the open right hand window. The seatbelt was mandatory safety requirement and the window was only a few inches wide. Still I had the camera strap safety around my neck.  

Happily the headsets made communication a doddle and the pilot was able to hover when I asked. Overall I was pleased with the result.  

My top tip for aerial photography is to put your very fastest memory card in the camera. I had a slower card which meant the camera choked whilst writing the data. Missing the opportunity for some other photographs. 

By the way Tofino is  also a famed location for winter storm watching.  Just saying. 

Field Notes - West Coast Trail

In Aug 2016 I took a trip to Vancouver Island.  I tramped the Northern Half of the West Coast Trail. Snappily called the WCT.   Walking from Nitinat Narrows to Pachena Beach over the course of 3 days. It was an unsupported walk meaning I carried camping kit / food and water. As well as my photography equipment.

The WCT follows the coastline of the Pacific Rim National Park. Sometimes in the rainforest and sometimes walking along the beach. The Park is home to Bears, Wolves and Cougars. A large part of the briefing for the walk and a large part of the conversation with other hikers was  about the wildlife.  What had you seen and where?   'Bears were on everyones minds.

Personal supplies for the trail (or anything that may attract a bear needed to be stored in bear boxes, or strung up 2.5 - 3m off the ground and a good distance away from tents.   

 When a place is described as a rainforest there's a pretty good chance of wet weather. A lot of the time I got variations of 'in between' weather, neither foul nor fair.  Generally it was overcast and a lot of the time there was a sea mist seeping in from the beaches and through the forest.  When it did rain, it did so with whole hearted gusto, with big thick raindrops that drenched everything very quickly. If it wasn't actually raining on me, then I was getting damp from secondary contact with the wet.  Brushing past wet leaves, climbing wet ladders, being enveloped in sea mist and sea spray were just some of the additional ways of staying wet. Still I carried several dry bags as protection for all my kit including extra protection for camera stuff. 

Ignoring the strong potential for seeing wildlife I was geared up for landscape photography.  For those who like to know I took a dlsr,  18mm and 35mm prime lens,  two filters ( polarising / 10 stop ND)  and a tripod.  I didn't use the polariser ( blue skies were in short supply for this trip). Wheras the ND filter was quite well used. 

 The notable points of interest on the first day were the 'hole in the wall' (distantly visible on the horizon in the first image). And the Tsusiat Falls (I'll let you work out which one that is).

 

Field Notes - The Chief

The Chief is reputed to be the second largest block of granite in the world (after El Capitan in Yosemite). It's located in Squamish, North of Vancouver. Understandably this is a hugely popular destination for climbers, but there is a fine walk there as well.  

This was the second time I've hiked the Chief.  I made an early start (7am at the trail head)  but I certainly wasn't the first on the hill. In fact  I met one runner on his way down, who had gone up particularly early to check the conditions for climbing.The first 20 mins is steep enough to test your fitness and your resolve. The trail winds it's way up  through the trademark Canadian evergreen forest. and happily the parks people have fashioned stairs for the trickiest sections. Early on you pass  Shannon Falls, (a welcome breather for most people) then a bit further on things start to get easier. Some sections also have ladders, and chains attached to the rock as necessary aids. This is lots of fun.  

The walk to the first peak took me an hour ( or so ). And it's a further 3/4 hour to the second peak, my timings are always a bit sketchy as I take time out for photography, often using a tripod so I can be quite slooooww..  

For me it's a very rewarding walk and  I particularly like the tree filled gully that leads to the second summit.  I hiked the first and the second peaks, but I didn't feel any need to go to the third. The views at the summits were both excellent, but not quite picture perfect.  

View of the second peak from the first peak

View of the first peak, from the  second peak

By the way the summit of the second peak is a quite large area, I happily spent an hour or so wandering around it. There's plenty to see on this trip.  in Aug I spotted climbers on the sheer rock faces, and chipmunks scampering around the tree covered summit. The route back down is the same as the one up, but even so this is one of the very finest day trips I've been lucky to do. It get very popular at weekends, which makes for some interesting bottlenecks of hikers in tight spaces. I also think the best light for photography here is in the mornings. But I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Feature image - 3

 Sometimes the shot you take home is not the one you went out to get.  The day I took the Bushy park  panorama I was actually in the park trying to get a picture of the Red Deer.  Whilst i concentrate on landscape / cityscapes  I  also photograph wildlife as well.  And living close to both parks it would be remiss not to have a go at photographing the deer.

Anyway I chanced to see this composition,  which was taken with a very long lens. Not my usual choice but one that did the job.   Maybe it's just my familiarity with the area but this  is very 'Bushy Park' for me..  

BTW For those who don't know Sept is the start of the deer rutting season, which is a cause  for nature photographers to gather  in London.  I'd suggest that the second most common sight in the park around then  (after the deer) maybe the photographers with cameras aimed at them. 

 

Some very impressive equipment with many people displaying the conscious competence that i associate with 'professionalism'. On one occasion I saw a stag almost entirely surrounded by long lens wielding 'pros'.

  Happily I  was able to get a snap or two of the deer, although maybe not on the same day.. 

feature image - 2

For no good reason I am always craving to get wide open views, a frustrating pursuit in a city without significant hills. However high rise towers represent both subject matter and vantage points for me. When I explore the city with a camera I often imagine what views the skyscrapers have. And up until recently Millbank Tower had merely loomed in the back of a few of my photographs but more recently I was invited to visit Altitude London on the 28th and 29th floors.

The view East from the 28th floor, Millbank Tower

I was a little taken aback to to get the chance as there was a slightly delayed response from my initial enquiry. However I was offered a date to photograph this view and it was in my diary for quite a while.  I was praying for a good day for photography and for me that ideally means some directional light yielding shadows (which I find best for revealing complex detail). But summer didn't co-operate , and on the day the city was covered in a blanket of cloud, which yielded only a diffuse ambient light. Still, at least the view wasn't obscured in mist (which has happened to me in more than once). 

 it would be fair to say that the delicious 'Ultimate Sunday Brunch' is ample reason to visit the restaurant. But it is as a vantage point,  that Millbank truly has my interest.  It simply has the best views of London.  From the 29th floor there are panoramic views across the entire city, and objects of interest in almost every direction. The view East is definitely my favourite, I'm sure you can see why.  My image of the view East is of sufficient resolution to print up to 4ft across, and I fully intend to do that..

Sincere thanks to Altitude London for their hospitality. And in the event you're visiting London I recommend you go here. It's one of my favourite places. 

The restaurant and bar on the 28th floor

In Pursuit of Excellence - 2

Sometimes good photographic opportunities are there for anyone with a camera and the will to use it.  The combination of daylight and a big static object like a building or a statue is meat and bread for any camera in full auto.  Point, focus, click. And invariably a well focused correctly exposed image is in the bag.  Thank you very much. 

Of course it helps if nothing is obscuring or moving in the shot and sometimes I do get lucky,  such as the shot of the statue.  I was there alone and could please myself.

 

 
 

 But that's not how it always happens. In fact if I aim my camera at something, the chances are good that something else is moving in my shot. Commonly clouds, trees, water. people, pets or traffic to name a few. 

The pursuit of a clear unobstructed view can become a mission.  A strong ND filter and a long exposure is ok if you're carrying a tripod. But that said someone always seems to linger in an awkward spot leaving ghostly images. So sometimes  patience is the only effective way to get the shot I want. Yes, it's a glib thing to say.  But that said It's become an essential part of my photography toolkit.   No secret to learning it but waiting is boring and intensely frustrating. Especially when one group of people moves on only to be immediately replaced by another.  

Planning a photograph can really help,  but 'on the day' the best laid plans can go awry. An example of this is the world's only steam powered clock in Vancouver. It's a famous local landmark and for over a year I was walking / cycling past it at least twice a day.  I knew I wanted this shot. Specifically at night, raining against the building lit in red. Simply one of Vancouver's defining images. Night should make this an easier shot to get,  and as Vancouver is in British Columbia rain is never far away. Still anyone who knows Water Street knows that it's a busy spot,  in addition to being a landmark, gastown is a heritage area and a commercial district full of shops bars and restaurants. It's also part of a one way system leading to the main train station, all of which makes this a very busy place indeed.  Getting a clear shot became one of my most frustrating photographic hunts.  If it was not one thing it was another.   People (tourists, drunks, commuters. fashion shoots, film crews) and fast food carts all converge here. Somedays there is a never ending stream of taxis and cars and on others the steam was off and then for several months they entirely removed the clock for refurbishment (which really didn't help). Another issue was that somedays the lights on the red building can be a different colour, I have pictures where the building is either blue or purple,  but I think the view looks best with the building in red.  Getting  this combination of elements together in a quiet time was too frustrating for words.  Simply this shot seemed to elude me every time I went to take it.  However persistence was rewarded and I did get this version late one night after work. An unexpected benefit to overtime.

So far this is my preferred version, but I know next time I'm in Vancouver if it's raining I'll be heading back here again.  Maybe there won't be so many parked cars next time. Or maybe the steam will flow in a more dramatic angle.

 btw .. the steam plays a nice tune but the clock is a cheat,  it's actually got an electrical movement. 

In Pursuit of Excellence - 1

I've often heard the quote, ''the best camera is the one you have with you'. And for me that has often meant a cameraphone. However my own cameraphone has very few controls and if I make a good image I feel it's in spite of the equipment, not because of it.  So unsatisfied with 'auto' only option I made a decision about 3 years ago to carry a camera wherever I go. This seems a simple idea, however carrying my full sensor dslr camera is hugely inconvenient. It's bulky and heavy and needs a lot of accessories to make the best of it. Not a good combination for going running  (or on my daily cycle commute). So I made a compromise and for the past 3 years I've owned a fixed lens rangefinder as well as a dlsr. It's smaller and lighter and has full manual controls,  including control of 'aperture' which I think is imperative to gaining creative control. 

The upshot has been that with daily use I've become more familiar with manual camera controls, as I've become faster I feel I have a better chance to get the image I see. That said speed is not often the primary concern with landscape photography. After all the landscape is not often running away from you!  However the quality of light of a particular moment is important in my better images, and as it's not always possible to nip back and get my camera kit. Consequently  when i 'see' a photo opportunity whilst out and about I now have the 'carry camera' with me. It's led to some of my favourite images and I think is a habit I shall continue with.

The image below is one of those favourite images, and was taken when out jogging along the Vancouver seawall one evening. 

feature image - 1

The featured image was taken in June 2016, but is one I'd intended to take in 2015. I had noted the potential of this view whilst cycling along the Thames Path.  That day happened to be a poor day for a cityscape, so another visit was merited.  As it happened work took me out of the country before I had the chance, so it felt like this photo was a long time coming.  But a good opportunity for the panorama came up, and I went out late one evening with all my usual toys ( full sensor dlsr, tripod etc).

A little surprisingly for a cityscape taken in the centre of the city, the one piece of extra kit I should have had was a pair of Wellington Boots.  It happened to be low tide (the Thames is tidal up to Richmond Lock Bridge)  and determined to get the best shot I could, I ventured down onto the exposed shingle beach.  Predictably the ground wasn't as firm as it looked, so when I stopped to take a picture I slowly sank up to my ankles into Thames mud. Luckily it happened so late the evening that there was no-one else sharing my train carriage home.  Thames mud is quite pungent. 

Setting up a digital home

So I finally have an online presence to call my own. I'm pleased and little relieved to have taken the first step, but this site is not what I initially imagined it would be. To start with I really wanted a super snappy title. But it seems easier to think up a name other people are already using, than something original.   landscapecityscape.photos    It does what it says on the box,  good enough (at least to start with). Creating a logo would have been a nice flourish but it's not one of my skills so I shall wait a while to get some help on that. 

With the name box ticked, and a domain name bought, I planned my site.  My design ideas were brought a little short when I found I didn't want to learn html from scratch, and that I was going to be adapting an 'off the shelf' template. Choosing the template proved to be secondary to finding the resources to fill it.  This amounted to a lot of basic administration. Part of which was seeking out the images that I remembered taking. Another task was finding others misplaced in oddly named directories, or old external hard drives. The upshot was I often had to go back to the source files to regrade, reformat or in some instances remake the panoramas. Very beneficial but a harsh lesson in keeping my files orderly. To be fair I've now quite a big archive of other images to draw on and this process could merrily continue for a lot longer. But I think 40 or so panoramas is a good number to start with. I expect I shall add more of my archive images from time to time.

Getting online has been a learning curve and a huge step forward. I'm pleased to finally have a showcase for some of the images which have resided for a long time at the bottom of my digital filing cabinet, unseen. However I also learned a lot from the process of creating this site, and it's definitely going to influence my future photography.  I shall no longer include swear words or nicknames in my filenames. Even if they fail to stitch or if things shifted in the shot whilst I was taking it.  Additionally I shall make a definite decision on what format I'm taking a photo in. So it will more easily become part of a series of images with a similar theme.