TRVL for iPad | Timothy Allen Special

I recently received a welcome email from Timothy Allen, the former BBC and Human Planet photographer, who wrote saying that TRVL was celebrating its 100th issue by featuring 40 of his most compelling photographs along with a long interview on his career as a professional photographer.

TRVL is the first iPad-exclusive magazine, and was started in 2010 by Joachim Wijnands and Michel Elings. Wijnands brought travel writing and photography skills honed at the National Geographic and GEO to the game, while Elings' technical knowledge was used to design the app.

Take it from me...TRVL is gorgeous.

I have enormous respect for Timothy Allen and his work, and I'm glad TRVL chose him and his work to celebrate it's 100th issue. 

Regular readers of this blog know I seldom put golden calves on a pedestal, whether in the photography field or otherwise, but Tim is certainly someone who earned my respect (not only for his fantastic photography) but also for having been quoted in the TRVL interview as saying:

"I am certainly not trying to highlight vanishing cultures or 'change the world' as some people have said. One thing I know for sure is that I love it when the people in my pictures like them too. It's a simple personal pleasure that I get through showing people my photographs."

What a refreshing take from a world-class photographer...and a change from the mealy-mouthed platitudes I hear or read from other photographers and photojournalists! Not many have Tim's candor and stand-up attitude.

Finally, I saw with great pleasure that my multimedia piece Milongas: The Seduction of Tango is featured on TRVL's Buenos Aires section, and is described as a beautiful photographic impression of the milonga.

POV | Whoa! Vimeo Goes "Instagramish"!

Is the whole visual world going Hipstamatic & Instagramish???

Vimeo, which in my view, is the best video-sharing website available at the moment, has just added a new feature called Looks in its video Enhancer which provides its users over 500 professional-looking (and some not so much) filters that can be applied to videos for instant and stylistic visual effects.

Vimeo film makers and users can now preview a filter on a single frame of their uploaded video and compare it with their original footage before choosing whether to apply it or not. The intensity of a filter can also be adjusted using a slider, potentially giving the ability of the user to avoid the over-done look of Instagram and Hipstamatic filters.

Looks is available for free to all Vimeo users over the next 90 days. It’s likely to become a paid feature for both Vimeo Plus and Vimeo PRO subscribers.

I've tested it with one of my favorite video...Cafe Dao, made in Hoi An. I chose the Old Black & White filter, and although I think it might be a little too dark, it adds a welcome visual feel to the story of the elderly couple. I haven't decreased the intensity of the filter, and left at it's maximum level. With filters, one has to remember that less is better.

A word of caution...it does take a while to enhance a 3-4 minute video. I don't know if it was because the feature was just announced thus generating a lot of traffic to Vimeo's site, but it took about an hour to enhance Cafe Dao video you see above. And then a little more to convert it to HD. 

The new Looks feature is being powered by Vivoom, a new cloud-based video enhancer that can be customized and integrated by its partners such as Vimeo.

From the comments I've read on the various websites that carried this news, the reactions are mixed. Retro filters are not universally liked by purists and others...but my feel is that many will reconsider, especially as the intensity of the filters can be adjusted.

POV: The So 'God' Made A Farmer Advert

I have no interest whatsoever in American football, so I didn't watch the 2013 Super Bowl last Sunday...however I noticed how the media and blogosphere subsequently erupted with praise for an advertisement for the Chrysler Ram truck, which I guess appeared at halftime.

I must say that it's praise well received from an aesthetic standpoint, since it used gorgeous still photography to fashion a sort of hybrid audio slideshow.

I found, as did many others, that the photographers (Andy Anderson, William Allard, Jim Arndt, Daniel Beltra, Mark Gooch, Andy Mahr, Kurt Markus, David Spielman, Matt Turley and Olaf Veltman ) did a wonderful job, despite the seemingly tight schedule to produce it. The only name I recognize in this group is William Allard, and I thought I could recognize his thumbprint on some of the stills before realizing who the photographers were.

Did God make only white farmers?

That said, it honestly didn't dawn on me (until Paul Rigas -a photographer and a Facebook friend- commented about it) that the ad barely showed non white farmers. According to this The Atlantic article, the Department of Labor's National Agriculture Worker Survey has found that over the last decade, around 70 percent of farmworkers in America were born in Mexico, and yet very few Hispanic workers are featured in the ad.

I suppose that it's a question of target audience and demographics...and it's possible that hard working Hispanics do not buy Ram trucks. I just don't know...or they don't attend or watch Super Bowls.

I did like the narrator's magnificent voice, and was told that it belonged to the late Paul Harvey, who was a radio broadcaster with CBS.  I didn't have a clue as to who he was...thinking the narrator was a contemporary actor or something similar. My quick search revealed that he was an ardent conservative, and his political views would have certainly annoyed me to no end...but he still has a great voice, and his speech was well crafted...rustic verbal imagery compounding the well chosen visual imagery.

But whether God made anything...well, I leave this to your judgement.

But back to our potatoes...this is an incredibly well done ad from an aesthetic standpoint, and possibly the first one I see that involves such a technique...stills made into a movie/video...rather than just videography .

Bill Newsinger | Memory Twenty Two

This is a little gem. No, make that a large gem.

Not only from an aesthetic standpoint, but because it made me (and I hope you) think out of the box.

It's a stop motion project titled Memory Twenty Two by a musician, photographer and videographer Bill Newsinger (Tumblr and Vimeo) who hails from Leicester in the United Kingdom.

It was created from photographs taken with the Hipstamatic Tintype Pak; in particular and the Tinto 1884 lens, and D-Type film....which is absolutely my favorite. It consists of 4500 photos in all, and the music is his own composition.

Let me repeat this...4500 photographs!

Judging from the number of videos on his Vimeo page, Bill is a prolific photographer/videographer...he spends almost everyday shooting in his hometown, and conjuring up short movies, whether it's with his iPhone, GoPro HD or Canon 7D.

POV: Digital "Wet Plate" On Aluminum

As promised to my readers and followers earlier,  I want to share my initial thoughts on my digital "wet plate" picture fused on a 4x4 inch aluminum sheet by PostalPix. (The picture above is lousy...and doesn't render it justice).

Due to its end of year backlog, the company took 2-3 days longer than I expected to deliver the finished product to me. It was quick in alerting me of the expected delay, and advised me of the delivery date, along with a USPS tracking number.

The aluminum-fused photograph was well packaged, and came with a double-sided mounting tape for wall hanging, and an adhesive magnet for the fridge if required. It cost me nothing since the Company offered my a $15 coupon. Normally, a 4x4 aluminum photograph would cost $10, while the 8x8 costs $25. By the way, everything to start the process was done on my iPhone.

So the question is "does it look like a real wet plate (on aluminum)?" The answer is "Sort of". It's the most honest answer I can think of...however it won't fool anyone in thinking it's the real thing. It looks too "modern". That said, it's glossy, and boasts a scratch-resistant surface, and it does look very good.

However, the reproduction of the Rebari herdsman on the aluminum sheet is a little too dark for my liking. I should've lightened it up in post processing.

Now the question is...what can I do with the "wet plate" concept? After all, I've got quite a few on my The Digital Wet Plates gallery. Perhaps go larger...and try the 8x8?

RODE iXY Microphone For The iPhone

It certainly appears the iPhone is becoming the all-in platform for multimedia photographers with the newly announced RODE iXY microphone by the Australian company. The press release claims that this stereo microphone for the iPhone (and iPad) with  the 30- pin connector allows high quality recording at sampling rates up to 24-bit/96kHz,  and that it's the only microphone on the market to do so.

The iXY is supplied with a foam windshield for outdoor recording as well as a reinforced protective zip case, and is sold for $199 on the RODE Store. The initial launch stock has sold out at the time of writing this post, but the company is expecting further shipments soon.

There are two apps available from Apple's iTunes for the RODE iXY microphone. The free version and the $5.99 pro version. The latter allows audio recording features such as gain, input, boost levels, high/low-pass filter options, equalization effects and much more.

I'm not sure how this device will fare against the stiff competition from the TASCAM PCM iPhone app and much cheaper Tascam iM2 microphone ($30), or against the portable audio recorder TASCAM DR-40 ($135) or the ultra cheap Zoom H1 ($90). Perhaps the fact that users won't have to carry two devices (iPhone and audio recorder) and its high sampling rates will be determining factors.

That said, I view the iXY more as a microphone for DSLR videographers than as a handheld audio recorder.

Note: I have no relationship with TASCAM (nor with RODE for that matter) other than being a consumer.

Chiaroscuro | Vitùc

This is a gem.

I've posted a few times about Hipstamatic's new Tintype SnapPack...which consists of the Tinto 1884 Lens, a D-Type Plate Film and a C-Type Plate Film, and how much I liked it....and what I plan to do with it.

But Chiaroscuro, by the very talented Vitùc (who by the way, describes himsself as a passionate non-professional filmmaker) with his use of an iPhone and Hipstamatic App / Tinto 1848 + D-Type Plate, is taking this to new heights.

Hardly travel or documentary related, this is a time lapse of many frames made with the Tinto 1884 lens and the monochrome-ish D-type film. I read that Vitùc uses his iPhone to make almost 2500-3000 photographs and assembles them in a time-lapse to produce the kind of movie such Chiaroscuro.

2500-3000 Hipstamatic photographs! I've tried to sequentially shoot as many as photographs as possible using the same lens and film, and managed to squeeze about 8 or 9...and I then get a message that the "film" is rewinding....which probably means that the photographs are still being processed, and no more can be snapped until they're moved to the phone's camera roll.

Do watch it...it's less that two minutes, and will open up your lateral vision to what can be done with these apps...and with patience.

Introducing The Digital "Wet Plates" Photo Gallery!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The Digital Wet Plates Gallery

I took advantage of the lull during the past few days to work on a personal (and fun) project I've been wanting to do for a while...and made some progress in it. .

I've been quite public with my recently found affection for the Hipstamatic's new Tintype SnapPack and it's accessory films, and if the weather hadn't been so cruelly cold in New York City, I would've indulged in much more street photography using this combo last week. I've also been very impressed with Alien Skin's Exposure 4, which allowed me to process some of my photographs to look like pseudo-Daguerreotypes or wet plate images. It was especially effective when I produced Hilltribes In The Mist; a multimedia piece featuring my photographs made in Vietnam's Sapa and Bac Ha regions.

So it was a natural progression to start The Digital Wet Plates; a new blog-based website of a collection of travel portraits I made during my numerous photo expeditions. Not all the travel portraits lend themselves well to being processed in that fashion, and it's hit and miss with many of them...so I have to process the photograph and then decide whether it looks authentic or not.

This gallery is far from being complete, and I'll go as far as possible in my inventory of photographs. I will eventually organize these portraits in pages according the regions.

Oh, and another thing...in a previous post I mentioned a company called PostalPix who fuses iPhone photographs on thin aluminum sheets of varying sizes, and I thought that it may duplicate not only the wet plate look, but also its feel. The company responded and sent me a discount coupon to try the service out. I emailed back the photograph of the Rebari Herdsman you see in this post, and we'll see what it looks and feels like when it's returned to me.

Note: I'm not compensated in any way by Alien Skinware, nor by PostalPix (except for the $15 coupon it sent me).

POV | Ersatz Wet Plate?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Ersatz means "substituting for, and typically inferior in quality to", e.g. "chicory is ersatz coffee". (Wikipedia)

I mentioned it here on this blog, but I've experienced a sort of love epiphany (or is it epiphanic love?) with Hipstamatic's new Tintype SnapPack...which consists of a Tinto 1884 Lens, a D-Type Plate Film and a C-Type Plate Film. It's not for everyone or for every subject, but when the ingredients of a scene click together, it works well.

And I recently stumbled on this short video (at the end of this post) of Ian Ruhter modifying a Holga to shoot 19th century style photographs based on the wet plate process. It's a fun project, and it doesn't seem too difficult...although I'm sure there a steep learning curve attached to it, but the more one practices it, the easier it gets.

Having also received an email from a company called PostalPix asking whether I'd be interested in having some of my iPhone photographs fused on thin aluminum sheets of varying sizes, I think I might be able to duplicate the wet plate look by sending a few images I snapped using Hipstamatic Tintype filter, and have them infused on metal sheets.

I know...I can sense the purists' hackles rising at this blasphemous idea, but it sounds like fun, and it's only ersatz 'wet-plate'. As Ian Ruhter himself says; "To live by rules that were created by others we may never find out who we really are."

And to endear myself to whoever is interested in wet-plate photography, here's Wet Plate Collodion Day website, which has galleries by dozens of photographers who work in this medium...as well as a list of resources. Ian Ruhter's Vimeo page also has a list of resources...where to buy, etc.

I will keep my readers posted once I hear from PostalPix.

Lights, Toy Camera, Action from Ian Ruhter : Alchemist on Vimeo.

Out of Eden Walk: 30 Million Footsteps

A few posts ago I suggested there were no more explorers in the mold of Richard Francis Burton.

I was wrong.

An incredible exploration trek is being planned by Paul Salopek, a writer for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, who will be walking the journey taken by early man tens of thousands of years ago.

The walk, Out of Eden, will take 30 million footsteps, over 21, 000 miles over 7 years to complete. It will start in Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and will cross the Red Sea into the Middle East, cross China, into Siberia, cross the Bering Strait into Alaska and then walk all the way down the western coasts of North and South America.

Graphic courtesy The Observer

Salopek will be taking a micro-light laptop, video and audio recording tools, since he intends to record his journey; including landscapes and voices and faces of the people he meets on the walk. He will also be taking a satellite phone through which he will be uploading his journal's recordings to his his website.

He tells The Guardian newspaper that "We will be creating a family portrait of humanity for the next seven years."

That promises to be one damn exciting journey for all of us.

Ian Ruhter: The American Dream Project

If I'm to believe my blog's statistics, posts dealing with photographic alternative processes are hugely popular...as popular as comparisons between the Leica M9 and the Fuji X Pro-1.

So here's one about photographer Ian Ruhter (whose website's front page describes him as an "alchemist"...I think a well deserved self accolade). He processes his large format photographs using the collodion wet plate process, a photographic process used in the 19th century. He also authors the Silver & Light Tumblr blog that has some of his images. By the way, the above video on Vimeo registered some 104,000 plays.

Ian Rihter is traveling across the United States photographing the people and places with a delivery van that he converted into a giant camera. This collodion wet plate process was the fashion during the Civil War era and creates unique images on metal plates. Each plate is hand-coated, exposed and then hand-developed. The plate becomes both the positive and the negative, so each image can only be produced once; creating a singular photograph that can't be replicated.

Photo © Ian Ruhter. All Rights Reserved

The Nifty Mini-Drive

The Nifty Mini-Drive for the Mac Book Air (and the Nifty MiniDrive Pro for the Macbook Pro) is a new hardware project which raised almost $200,000 (at the time of writing) on Kickstarter, much exceeding its original goal of $11,000.

From its introductory videos and write up, it's an easy to use device that will allow a quick and simple add-on to the available memory in MacBook Pros and Airs, and  as well as back-up solution.
All it does is to provide an intelligent 'adapter' that will take a MicroSd Card, which will then be inserted flush in the SD Card slot of the MacBooks, and used as an additional hard drive.


It appears that the price of the Nifty Mini-Drives will be in the vicinity of $30 each, and as the current price of a 64GB microSDXC SanDisk (as an example) is about $60, the total cost to increase one's memory by that amount is about $100 (inclusive of sales taxes or shipping, etc).

As a guidance price, the price of an 11 inch 64GB MacBook Air is $999 versus $1099 for an 11 inch 128GB MacBook Air. However, if one already owns a MacBook Air (or Pro) and wants a quick and simple increase in memory, this might be a smart alternative than to send it for an upgrade. 

Auto De Fe & The Travel Photographer On The iPad

I am very pleased to appear as the first photographer for the In Focus feature in Auto de Fe's magazine for the iPad.

The feature carries an interview with me, along with some of my favorite photographs that I made over the course of my 12 years career. The interview was conducted with Jack Laurenson, the magazine's Executive Editor.

What is Auto de Fe? Well, it's a cross-platform magazine of inquisitive journalism and intelligent photography. It showcases compelling writing, investigative reporting and visual documentary projects from around the world. ADF is a unique magazine for the 21st century and is available as a fully interactive digital app on the iPad. Other devices will follow. It'll also be online and in print. Its digital & print format will allow many mediums of storytelling and bring some truly spectacular reportage.

I've downloaded the Auto de Fe's App from the Apple Store, and it's truly magnificent on the iPad. I don't have the new iteration of the iPad with the Retina display, but I know people who have it, and they say it's eye-popping! So get it!!!

I would be remiss if I don't mention the photojournalists/photographers whose work appear on the inaugural issue of Auto de Fe. These are Sean Power with 40 Commando, Meredith Alexander with London's Olympic Shame, Sean Hawkey's reports from the mines of Guatemala and Nicaragua, Carole Alfarah's Waiting For Change and Lisa Wiltse's The Charcoal Kids.

Finally, I urge emerging photojournalists and visual storytellers to view Auto de Fe's raison d'etre, and consider the opportunity that it offers as per its "What Do We Offer Our Contributors".

POV: Will QR Codes Be Useful?

I've been seeing these QR codes for some time now....some airlines offer them as an alternative to printed boarding passes, banks have them to facilitate mobile banking, and even cars have them painted on their sides. I've used them to download my boarding passes on a couple of occasions.

The QR codes are sort of barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information, and their ease of use makes them practical for businesses. When you scan or read a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser!

Cool! So my quick search revealed there are many free QR Code generators such as Kaywa and others, and naturally I immediately filled in my The Travel Photographer website's URL, and voila!!! The square barcode you see above is the QR Code for it. You scan it with your iPhone/Android and your browser will immediately log on to my website.

This is the QR of for my blog, The Travel Photographer's Blog:

And finally, here's the QR Code for The Leica File:

Is it useful for photographers? I have no idea.  For the time being, I can only think of one use for it (apart from how the airlines and banks do), and that is to have it printed on one's business card. The recipient would scan it into his/her device and would be immediately logged on to your website.

Gumroad: Selling For Photographers?

I saw a post about Gumroad on Pixiq, and its premise piqued my interest, as it may do for my readers.

Gumroad claims that it serves to democratize the ability to sell stuff online, and 'stuff' obviously includes photographs, or songs, albums, videos, and other products. It does so by creating a link to your photograph(s) so that your fans, friends, and followers who want to buy it, can do so, and no store set up is needed.

Gumroad's fee structure is states as 5% + 25¢ of each transaction.  If you sell a photograph for $100, the fee is $5.24 and $94.75 is deposited into your bank account. According the Gumroad's FAQ, it supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and Diners Club cards.

It may be worth one's time to try this service out.

CameraBag2: Photo Editing

Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

I chanced on the Camerabag2's website just yesterday, and thought I'd share it with my readers, especially as it offers a free trial for 30 days.

Camerabag2 describes itself as a photo app for Mac and PC with a new approach to editing. It claims that its Analog Engine pairs a full suite of photographic tools with filters and vintage simulations. It uses a straightforward approach to layering, rearranging, and tweaking all of these effects in realtime. It has 100+ fully-adjustable filters and 25+ professional controls.

Purists will probably not be interested in such as app, but for those who like presets, and appreciate tweaking these to suit their own preferences, Camerabag2 does deliver. It has all sorts of tools, from simple exposure and cropping to advanced vignetting, color correction, and curves. However, I didn't see any sharpening tools...but I may have missed it.

The image I made on Bleecker Street the other day was processed in Camerabag2 as seen above.

Does it compete with Lightroom, Photoshop et al? Of course not. But it offers a quick fix to those who have no time or interest in getting involved with these two heavyweights...and it does so at the price of only $29. Not too bad.

Note: I have no direct or indirect relationship with the makers of Camerabag2 and/or its distributors.

The Travel Photographer Is Wibbitz'ed!!!

This is really cool! Click the arrow, and you'll get The Travel Photographer's "Breaking News"!!

Wibbitz seeks to leverage existing text-based content into video and converting readers into viewers. It's Text-To-Video Platform matches the best visual representation for the text, adds voice-over narration and generate an engaging video out of it. 

Using Wibbitz, almost any article, post or feed on the web can be instantly turned into a short video clip.

What does this have to do with travel and documentary photography? Nothing...but it's really cool. I love stuff like that...don't you?

645 For iPhone And A Boom Mic

I've had the iPhone 4S since late October, and despite my previous reluctance in having such a device, I'm head over heels with it. Well, this might be an exaggeration because some of my friends and peers have really gone "extreme" with its photographic apps, and I'm not.

 That said, I do like to use the various apps such as Instagram, Hipstamatic, Snapseed and the like that I have on mine. The lastest to appear is 646 Pro for iPhone whose claim sounds interesting. It claims that the app has been designed for professional and serious amateur photographers, and is the first and only iPhone camera app to give TIFF image files that have no in-app post-processing applied and no JPEG compression.

Its JPEGs are enhanced by 645 PRO's seven Film Modes, inspired by classic film stock as used by top photographers. It's still being considered for approval by Apple, but from the claims it makes, I'm sure many serious iPhone photographers will lap it up (subject to its meeting these claims and depending on a sensible price, of course).



 

As for multimedia photographers enamored with the iPhone, here's the iPhone Boom Mic, a small microphone that provides iPhone videos "professional" style sound. The microphone attaches to the iPhone's headphone jack. It's very lightweight, has a broad directional and a super-directional setting for more precisely focused recording.

Note: I have no direct or indirect relationship with either of these manufacturers and/or products.

The Travel Photographer Is On Cowbird!

I've just uploaded my first Cowbird story titled The Sufi Itinerant of Qutb Uddin.

While working on the photograph of Miskine, the Sufi in my post of yesterday, I realized I had a recording of him briefly telling me his life story. Coincidentally, I was invited to join Cowbird, which describes itself as "...a small community of storytellers, focused on a deeper, longer-lasting, more personal kind of storytelling than you’re likely to find anywhere else on the Web."

Cowbird seeks to feature incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers, and present them in the most beautiful storytelling environment on the Web. Its community consists of journalists, photographers, writers, artists, filmmakers, designers, explorers, and many others.

"incredible stories by some of the world's finest storytellers"

It allows members of its community to produce multimedia stories, incorporating text, photos, sound, subtitles, roles, relationships, maps, tags, timelines, dedications, and characters, thus mixing elements of traditional storytelling with elements of technology.

I'm excited to have joined Cowbird, and will upload new single image stories as time permits. I've seen that Aaron Huey, a fantastic photographer has also joined Cowbird, and already has a number of stories on it. This one of Zahoor is especially wonderful!

Readers of this blog who feel, as I do, that this is an exciting venue to display their storytelling talents, request an invite from Cowbird...as I did.

The Travel Photographer Has His "The Big Picture"!

I had neglected my Tumblr blog for a while, and recently realized there was a lot more themes available. One of those is HD Exhibit free theme which is, frankly speaking, just gorgeous and displays large sized (1200 pixels by 800) photographs really beautifully.

So I've worked quite diligently during the past two days to rejig my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog which now features some of my own favorite travel photographs. From here onwards, it will be the repository of some of my photographs (more travel than documentary) which I have archived over the past years, as well as those I intend to make on my forthcoming trips and workshops.

So follow my The Travel Photographer's Tumblr blog for your fix of travel photography!!!