Peter Carroll’s photography blog

When we photograph subjects we know well, we can bring insight that aids how we capture and present an image. For the landscape photographer, knowledge of the land and how light plays across it throughout the year facilitates being at the right place at the right time. For the travel photographer, knowledge of a culture yields a deeper appreciation of customs and rituals. For the sports photographer, knowledge of the dynamics of the game fine tunes preparedness for the highlight moments.

Experience, for sure, can be an asset. The other side of the coin, however, has its advantages too. Inexperience can infuse photography with wide eyed fascination. When subjects are fresh to our eyes we tend to approach them with energy. We aren’t jaded attempting to frame the same old once again. If we haven’t already been influenced by other photographers and their takes on a subject we can bring new perspective. I don’t think wide eyed fascination is a disadvantage. It’s a short lived phase full of potential and experiment. 

Photography, like life, is not all black and white. It’s the range of shades in between that makes it interesting. We create our best work, I believe, when we are able to capture lightning in a bottle and photograph subjects we know well with wide eyed fascination.

I thought the image below, from a trip I took to Oregon back in 2008, showed nicely how Nature likes to mix it up. We photographers should do the same.

© Peter Carroll

At the recent Kelby Photowalk at Bar-U-Ranch in southern Alberta, I gave myself the challenge of photographing a slice of cowboy life. I didn’t want the whole pie… just a slice. The Photowalk was a springboard to a photo jaunt lasting a few days through southern Alberta and I knew there would be plenty of opportunities for capturing grand landscapes. At the ranch, I challenged myself to create more intimate photographs that told the story of cowboy life. It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut and return again and again to certain themes, techniques or styles in our photography. It’s good every now and then to upset the apple cart. Here are few ideas on how to do just that…

-Do you have a favourite lens? We all do. Challenge yourself on a shoot and leave it at home. Go an entire day with the lens you shoot the least.

- Try photographing a specific colour.

- Are you a landscape shooter who puts away the camera when the sun has been up for an hour? If so, then challenge yourself with a shoot entirely outside the golden hours. This exercise will definitely challenge your composition skills.

- Do you find photographing people an uncomfortable experience? Well then, that’s your challenge. Are you a portrait or wedding photographer who never tried getting up at the crack of dawn to capture a grand landscape? Well then, give it a go.

- How comfortable are you with flash? Is shooting indoors a bit hit and miss? Do you use flash as fill outdoors? Grab that flash and experiment.

- Never had to deal with time limits like an assignment or wedding photographer? Well give yourself one and see what that does to your focus.

- Restrict your area of interest. Limit yourself to photographing your backyard, the inside of your car, your desk at work etc. There are great pictures everywhere… we just have to see them.

Challenges are all about finding joy in the journey. Don’t worry about the destination.

© Peter Carroll

“A bar of iron costs $5, made into horseshoes its worth is $12, made into needles its worth is $3500, made into balance springs for watches, its worth is $300, 000. Your own value is determined also by what you are able to make of yourself.”
-Author unknown

I shot the image below at the 2010 Kelby Photowalk at Bar U Ranch, Alberta

© Peter Carroll

On my recent Southern Alberta photo jaunt, I visited Dinosaur Provincial Park for the first time.

Wow!

Here are a few links with loads of info on what you can see and do in Dinosaur Provincial Park, which is a World Heritage Site:

- Bus tour
- Badlands hike
- Camping
- Ever thought being a palaeontologist would be cool? Well, you can go on a real palaeontological excavation!
- See many of the fossil finds from Dinosaur Provincial Park at the world famous Royal Tyrrell Museum located in Drumheller (roughly 1.5 hrs to the NW)

A little background story on the image I shot below of the Badlands Trail in Dinosaur Provincial Park…

The area is of course known for fantastic fossil finds and a complex ecosystem. I believe that added to that soon may be scientific analysis of mosquitos immune to DEET! I crawled out of my tent just before 6am to photograph the formations along the Badlands Trail and I was absolutely eaten alive by the little buggers. It might have been the West Nile virus talking but I swear I could hear the little blood suckers laughing and saying,”DEET don’t stop us little man with a camera! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

© Peter Carroll

I just got back from a great photo trip through southern Alberta. It all started out with the Scott Kelby Photowalk organised by Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou at the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site. We had great weather and the venue was an inspired choice because the cowboy theme allowed for so many photo possibilities.  I’m still catching up on emails, cleaning camping equipment and doing laundry so I haven’t got around to working on any of my images from the photowalk but here are a few links to what other participants created:

Darwin Wiggett’s blog
Samantha Chrysanthou’s blog
2010 Photowalk Bar U Ranch Flickr pool

When I do get around to post processing the images from the Photowalk and my trip through Pincher Creek, Waterton National  and Dinosaur Provincial Parks, I’m going to try something suggested on facebook by a fellow photographer. When I’m post processing the images from my trip I’m going to play the same music I was listening to on the trip. The idea is music can put you back in the moment. The soundtrack to a photography trip can transport you back in time and bridge the time gap between shooting the scene and working on the image in post. The photographer who suggested this idea actually listens to his iPod when shooting. I don’t do that but music is a big part of all my photo trips and I’m curious to see if it’s a benefit in any way to my post processing workflow. Here’s a list of some of the stuff that was playing on my iPod this trip:

Jim Dale’s audio book of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Guns and Roses’ Use Your Illusion I & II
Loreena McKennitt’s Live in Paris and Toronto
U2′s No Line on the Horizon
Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Soundtrack
Hothouse Flowers’ People
Ozzy Osbourne’s The Ozzman Cometh
The Waterboys’ This Is the Sea

Yeah… I know… I have a varied musical taste.

So I’ll throw on another load of laundry, clean the tent and maybe I’ll be able to crank up the tunes and start working on some of the images from what was a great photo trip through southern Alberta.  I’m looking forward to sharing what caught my eye in the days and weeks to come…

Photomatix, by HDRsoft, is a great tool to have in your photography toolbox. Like any tool, it’s not right for every job and it takes a bit of experience to use it skillfully. I’m still finding my way with it but yesterday I had fun processing five versions of the scene below with Photomatix’s exposure fusion software. I came across the scene on my trip through Oregon back in the summer of ’08. The files sat on my drive waiting for the day I had the tools, the interest and the ability to do them justice. I’m happy with the way the final image turned out. I’ll be thinking about how I can use Photomatix to communicate what I want to say about more of the scenes I come across in the future.

© Peter Carroll

Back in 2006 my wife surprised me with a trip to France. It was a fantastic anniversary present. We explored the great villages of Provence and we got to see a few stages of one of our favourite sporting events – the Tour de France. 

Tomorrow, the 2010 Tour goes over one of the mountains we know well from that trip - the Col d’Aspin. 

Many fans will ride the mountain early in the day before the race comes through and in the process redefine for themselves the words pain and suffering…

© Peter Carroll

Many will camp out on the mountain like we did in order to be in position before the police close off the road (Happy anniversary hon! Ahh the stories we have together)…

© Peter Carroll

Besides the category 1 climb of the Aspin, the riders will haul themselves over two HC (hors categorie or outside category – aka absolutely nuts). Look for fireworks on the Tourmalet and the Aubisque.

I hope Andy shows Alberto how it’s done. If Contador ends up with yellow in Paris, his third Tour win will always have a cloud hanging over it. In my opinion you win the Tour mano-a-mano… not by taking advantage of a mechanical failure. Funny how that phrase is Spanish. There’s still lots of riding to come but I don’t like how Contador has achieved the position he now finds himself in. Andy says he has anger in his belly. Well revenge is a dish maybe best served on the Col de Tourmalet. I’m looking forward to tomorrow!

Ahh… the Open. The oldest of the four championships in professional golf is celebrating its 150th year this year and it’s going on right now at the Home of Golf – the St. Andrews Royal and Ancient Golf Club.

© Peter Carroll

I visited St. Andrews for the first time back in April this year. It was fascinating to see the Old Course in person. The place is steeped in history and the best part is that it’s unlike many North American courses where the clubhouse is a mile in from a main gate and access is gained only by those willing to shell out big bucks for a round. Visit St. Andrews and you can walk right up to the starter’s hut at the 1st tee on the Old Course.

© Peter Carroll

I’m not a big golfer but I love the game and enjoy when I am able to ruin a perfectly nice walk by hitting a small white ball into a distant hole in the ground. I love the challenge of the game. You can play against others but golf in the end is a game against yourself. Golf is a game but it mirrors life in general in many ways. It challenges patience. Somedays it all goes right and others not so much. Hell over 18 holes the chance of everything going one was is slim. There will be highs. There will be lows. The final score not only reflects skill level but how you deal with the challenges. Golf is as much a game of the mind as it is a game of swing,power,finesse and equipment.

Watching the 2nd round of the Open today, I was struck by some of the opinions of the commentators. More than once I heard a commentator express disgust with the conditions and go on about how “this is not how it should be” at the Open. I was very happy when the “Voice of Golf”, Peter Alliss, stepped into the commentary booth and set everyone straight. He said basically that golf has got too pristine. These days the weather has to be perfect. The course has to be perfect. The equipment has to be perfect. The crowds have to be perfectly quiet. He basically said get on with it and hit the ball. Whoever deals with all the challenges after four rounds with the least number of strokes is the winner. Plain and simple. That’s why everyone loves the Open. Unlike the championships in the US, the chances of poor weather are high. Combine wind, rain and chill with links style golf courses and you’ve got an event. Maybe that’s what makes winning the Claret Jug just a bit sweeter.

While in Florida recently, my family and I enjoyed return visits to the Walt Disney theme parks and a first visit to Universal and the newly opened Harry Potter World. A few of my readers who knew I was going to HPW asked me to post a blog article and images of our experience so…

(I’m so glad I left the DSLR at home this trip and only shot with the family Panasonic ZS5. The heat and humidity were intense so it was great shooting with a pocket camera rather than lugging around a photo backpack.)

Harry Potter World is well done. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The details the designers have incorporated into the experience are impressive. It shows that the design team for the movies had a hand in bringing the wizard world to life. I think it should go without saying that if you like the books and the movies you’ll enjoy HPW. If you don’t get what all the fuss is about, then obviously don’t go. It’s an experience for fans. Word of advice – go early. My wife and I love to travel and we have a term for what happens at touristy spots around mid-morning. We call it the “Piazza San Marco effect”. When we were in Venice, we loved seeing the City of Canals wake up to a new day. We were always out and about early exploring the back streets and having great morning coffee in quiet squares while watching the locals walk to work. One particular morning, we made our way over to Piazza San Marco and we literally had the entire square to ourselves. I’m not kidding. Of course later on in the morning around 10am or so when we walked back through the piazza it was a totally different story. All the tour groups and the hoards of tourists had shown up. When I am visiting a place I find the road less traveled is by far the more interesting. You’ll never catch me or my family hopping on and off a bus following a guide with a red umbrella. I make the effort to get places early before the crowds and as a result I enjoy the experience so much more. HPW was no different. We got there early and hardly waited in line (except to get into Ollivander’s). As the morning went on the crowds grew and grew but it didn’t tarnish our experience because we had already been through all the attractions.

The image below of the Hogwarts castle unfortunately doesn’t give you a sense of scale. The castle is big. Inside the castle is the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction. You can’t walk through the whole castle as you see it in the photograph. The Forbidden Journey ride is only a portion of the castle  and the rest is just for show on the outside but what you can walk through is mighty impressive. Universal has taken a page from Disney book on how to design a ride and incorporated fantastic distractions for you when you are waiting in line. A few of the highlights are the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore’s office, the sorting hat, and talking portraits. The talking portraits are quite amazing actually because they are not simply movies playing on monitors. The monitors actually have what appear to be brush strokes across the screens so images in frames which you swear were just oil paintings suddenly come to life. The effect is wonderful. The Forbidden Journey ride itself is very good.  I won’t ruin the experience for anyone visiting by going into the details except to say it’s Soarin’ (Epcot) meets Spider-Man (Universal) with some Harry Potter magic to make it unique.

A major attraction along mainstreet Hogsmeade is Ollivander’s wand shop. Groups are let in 20 or so at a time and one child is chosen to come forward and participate in the process where the wand chooses the wizard (see image below). The performance by the shop keeper was excellent.

After the wand choosing experience, a door opens and everyone leaves through the gift shop (another page pulled from the Disney book on how to design an attraction). I have to say that while HPW is wonderful on so many levels, the designers got the space devoted to gift shops all wrong. They honestly need to be three times the size they are.

At one end of Hogsmeade is the Hogwarts Express (see image below). This is a classic “Kodak Picture Spot”.

After taking in Hogsmeade we escaped the crowds and headed for lunch at the Three Broomsticks (see image of entrance below). I loved it. Not a burger to be seen anywhere on the menu! Here’s what is on the menu: cornish pasties, shepherd’s pie, turkey legs, ribs, fish and chips, soups and rotisserie chicken. Entrees come with salad! The food is very good and the prices are not outlandish. For drinks you have the choice of butterbear (I suggest the frozen option), pumpkin juice or Scottish ale. The decor is fantastic. Attached to the Three Broomsticks is the Hog’ s Head Tavern. All in all a great atmosphere and a fine place for a muggle to grab a bite and rest for a bit.�

If roller coasters are your thing then you’ll love the Duelling Dragons ride (see image below). I used to fly jets and I think of all the coasters I have ever been on, Duelling Dragons gives the closest feel of what it’s like to fly jet aerobatics outside of an actual jet. There’s something about the smoothness of the transitions and it helps that the coaster is a hanging seat rather than the typical train of cars variety. It’s a great ride. 

Looking for a sneakoscope? Head on over to Zonko’s Joke Shop…

If you have a sweet tooth head on over to Honeydukes…

Below is an image of mainstreet Hogsmeade. As you can see, I took the shot around noon and the place is crowded. By this time we had seen everything and were happy to write a few postcards, get them stamped with the official Hogsmeade postmark  and call it a day.

So if you have little ones who have read the books and wish they could go to Hogwarts or are counting down the days to the opening of the next movie, head over to Harry Potter World if you are in the Orlando area. Get there early to avoid the crowds. Soak it all in. The experience is spellbinding.

I bet you’re saying to yourself after reading the title of this blog entry – “What the hell is Pete on about today?”. Well, I have Zack Arias to thank for getting me going on this thought journey. Zack posted a blog entry about meeting and photographing hip hop artist 8 Ball. If you saw Zack’s workshop on creativeLive a couple of weekends ago, you know Zack doesn’t just show up and press the shutter. Zack’s portraits connect because he gets to know the person he’s photographing. So while getting ready for 8 Ball’s shoot, Zack asked the question I’m sure many of you have asked or have wanted to ask another artist – “When did you know your career was to the point that this was now your job? Like, you made it.” I won’t steal Zack’s thunder and post 8 Ball’s answer here but please head on over to zarias.com and check out the great story. While you’re there, subscribe to Zack’s blog. If you are not already a subscriber becoming one may be the best move you make as an artist all week.

How do you know when you’ve made it? Great question. I believe the answer has everything to do with the gauge you use. Do yourself a favour and don’t use other people’s rulers. The ruler you should be using to measure your success as an artist shouldn’t be the same as mine, or 8 Ball’s, or Zack’s. It should be your own. Define success your way and you’ll be happier for it. Have you ever heard Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)? There’s a line in there I like – “Don’t waste your time on jealousy – sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

When you measure success with your own ruler, “making it” has a lot to do with where you started and how far you’ve traveled. Maybe you worked your ass off to put together enough money to afford your first camera and now your insurance premiums for all your equipment are more than that camera cost. Maybe when you’re grade 1 teacher got you to write that “What I Want To Be When I Grow Up” essay you wrote about being a photographer and now at dinner parties when people ask you – “So what do you do?” – you’re proud to say – “I’m a photographer”. Maybe you changed careers late in life and now use your skills with a camera doing what you love to put bread on the table. Maybe photo directors at major magazines have your number on speed dial or maybe you have a booth selling prints at a local market. “Making it” will be different for each of us. Making it for 8 Ball was being able to buy new mouse traps instead of having to reuse the old ones. What’s “making it” for you? And how are you going to get there?