Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Victoria, BC and Seattle,Washington. Wine tastings and a Seahawks Superbowl Victory. Ghosts and the Underground tours in Seattle. It's been a fun start to 2014.

Well it's been a fun start to the new year. Emma's preparing for University and looking for where she wants to go, so trips to Portland and Seattle have been our first places to look at as possibilities.  So far we've been to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, Portland State in downtown Portland, Oregon and The University of Portland in North Portland.  In Washington we've been to Seattle University (Emma liked it here quite a bit) and Seattle Pacific University.

Between trips there I've been to San Francisco to visit with Steve and Laura (and Catherine who is celebrating a birthday with Laura) and to Victoria, BC to visit with my good friend Lewis, who is wrapping up a big environmental dredging project in one of Victorias harbours.  We've been on Ghost Tours and visited the Underbelly of Seattle and have just had fun in general.

We are so lucky to live on the left coast.  Perfectly situated for access to some of the best travel locations anywhere.  And, San Francisco happens to be one of my favorite cities.  I flew in to SFO, took the Air Train to the Bart and the Bart to the Powell Station in downtown San Francisco.

The Bart connection at SFO

In just a short easy to navigate 30 minutes, I was in the heart of San Francisco.  Why Seattle can't get it together to have a light-rail system that operates as efficiently as the Bart is a mystery. But for anyone planning a visit to San Francisco and you don't want to spend $50 for a cab, or $30 for a van that stops everywhere and could take up to a couple of hours, The Bart for $8 is the way to go.  Simple, easy, fast and convenient.  After arriving in San Francisco I walked to the Hotel Monaco http://www.monaco-sf.com/ where I met with Steve, Laura and Catherine.  This hotel, right next to Union Square, is awesome.  Great staff, nice and well appointed rooms, wine bar everyday and convenient to everything.  Catherine and Laura were celebrating a birthday and Steve and I were playing with new cameras and exploring the city.

Something we discovered that made our trip even more fun was a business called https://www.getaround.com/  With the app for this you can rent cars directly from their owners for more than reasonable rates.  We rented a 2004 Porsche for $8.50 an hour one day and a 2011 BMW 3 Series for $10.00 an hour on an other day.  We even saw older Honda Civics for as little as $4.50 an hour.  And it could not be easier to do.  

Steve with the BMW rental

Here's Steve with the BMW.  It's parked in an underground garage with in and out privileges so your free to come and go all day long.

Of course once we had a nice ride under us we had access to anywhere we wanted to go.  One of the first places we went was across the Golden Gate Bridge to photograph the bridge from the Marin County Headlands on the north and west side of the bridge.  Good luck was with us because a beautiful fog bank was rolling in along with some bright sun at our backs.  The views from this side of the bridge looking back at the city and Alcatraz are just stunning.  From there we drove in to Mill Valley for coffee and a late morning snack before driving back to the city.

The camera I brought with me was the Fuji X100s.  It was a rental from Lens Rentals http://www.lensrentals.com/ and I just can't give this company higher praise.  Fast, awesome customer service, large selection and fair prices.  I've rented from them 4 times and have never been disappointed.    The Fuji X100s is one of the best cameras I have ever used and the image quality is magnificent.  This camera feels and operates like a photographers camera.  I'm hoping to have one of my own soon.

The Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands

On a disappointing note Steve and I learned that the famous Sam Wo's restaurant in China Town is no longer open.  I'm glad to have had the opportunity on several occasions to squeeze through the kitchen and up the flight of steps to eat there.  It was a landmark.

In all the trip to San Francisco was way too short but a better time could not have been had even if it was longer.

The following weekend I found my way to Victoria, BC on the Coho's ferry Black Ball out of Port Angeles, Washington.   Sometimes we get lucky here in the Pacific Northwest and have truly beautiful winter days.  This was one of them.

The Black Ball Ferry in Port Angeles, Washington

Another wonderful city to visit that's easy to get to, has really great restaurants and lots of them, nice hotels a very lively night-life and good shopping is Victoria, BC. You'll need a passport or enhanced drivers license and a trip through customs.  The Black Ball is $17.00us one way and the trip is about 90 minutes.  There's food and a duty free shop on board and comfortable seating.

More photos of trips taken to Victoria, BC can be seen here; http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Travel/Victoria-BC/

Some more localized fun was happening right here in Gig Harbor, Wa and Seattle.  Some friends of friends have recently opened a Winery in Belfair, Wa called The Mosquito Fleet Winery. We were invited to a tasting and we were not disappointed.  Great wine, good food and wonderful friends.

L to R; Jaycee the Winery owner; Stacey and Joe Marten

And to bring it all current, last weekend we went to Seattle for a tour we have heard about often but have never done and now are glad we did.  The Seattle Underground tour was fascinating and highly recommended.  Really interesting history about how that city was built.  The other tour was Spooked in Seattle.  Ehhh, not so much fun but if you're in to ghost stories it might be.

Finally, in the midst of it all the fabulous Seattle Seahawks won the Superbowl.  Perfect way to round it all out.

Thanks for reading.

Tom

A Day and Evening In The City (Seattle, WA)

December 28, 2013

The Classic Martini and my sweet Lisa Mae at Olivers in
the Mayflower Park Hotel

A sort of birthday, Christmas, anniversary celebration. Lisa and I went to the city for wine, food and song to celebrate another fabulous year together. We shopped, had lunch at a Japanese place, drinks at Oliver's, appetizers at The Palace Kitchen and saw Pancho Sanchez at Jazz Alley. Fun night!

I wanted to take advantage of the day out in the city and do some street photography and brought my OMD and my new iPhone 5s.

Who could refuse?  
Plus have you ever had the 
Mac n Cheese at the Icon Grill in Seattle?

But I was just too distracted.  Caught up in the moments that we were sharing as a couple, as friends and not seeing the photographic opportunities as they're unfolding around me.

The discovery I made is that seeing and making photographs while shopping and being attentive to others doesn't really work well for me getting the images I might otherwise want to make.  So I went back to the car, put my OMD and the extra lens I had away and decided to shoot using only my new iPhone 5s.

And, while not as good as my Olympus, it didn't really disappoint either.  Dark streets, dark clubs, bright neon and no real way to make adjustments (using the built in camera) it still managed to deliver some web capable images that will keep a moment in time and leave a trail of memories of the night.

So story telling versus high quality image making is the point and I really like telling little stories.

A (not so) new Japanese restaurant in the
Pike Place Market area.  Pretty good food, really slow service and really busy.

Pancho Sanchez, live at Jazz Alley in downtown Seattle.  Great show.

Waiting

Waiting:

Seems like the old saying "no matter where you go, there you are" is especially useful when we find ourselves having to wait.  It can be a stressful time or a time of complete relaxation since much of the time we spend waiting, there really isn't another choice.  So we make the best use of our time that we can.  Friends to chat with, books to read, smart phones and pads to surf the web and check our email and FB status, catch a little shut eye or just stop the presses and do a little day-dreaming.

I want to build this project album of photos of people in everyday life, doing what most of us have to do at some point or another and Wait.  I'm looking forward to watching how this grows which of course means I will likely have to do a little waiting myself.


I'll post the beginning of this project here and link it to my website here http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Projects/Waiting/28580397_TWgfvk

where the album of photos can be viewed as it's being built.

It's funny coming up with projects like this or any other kind for that matter because once you get the idea for a direction and you spend some time thinking about it, the idea itself begins to make itself present in your daily life.  As long as you are one of those devotees who carry a camera, of any kind, with you everywhere you go, you will be ready to start to capture your project in photos.  If you're very thoughtful you'll even be able to "make" your photos rather than just "taking" your photos by being prepared and being in places where the theme for you project is most likely to be present.  And, with that thought in mind, anywhere you go, there you are.

I hadn't realized that this idea of making photos of people 'waiting' was something that I've actually been up to for some time.  The idea to do this I thought just came to me the other day while I was waiting in the hospital for my wife to have a day surgery.

I was sitting and waiting for hours and as usual had a camera with me and as I looked around the waiting room I saw my idea come together.  Seeing the other folks sitting, sleeping, reading, surfing the web on tablets and smart phones, chatting with friends and all waiting.  All doing the exact same thing in different ways.

That's when it occurred to me that this could be a fun photo project.  After all most of the time, most of us are waiting for something.  In line at a check out, for a movie, for a light to change, in a traffic jam and on and on.  We spend lots of time waiting and what we do with that time is interesting to see also.  So, with this in mind I began to look around the waiting room I was in and look for ways to make the pictures I wanted to tell my story of waiting through photographs.

When I returned home and had a little extra time to play with my pictures, I started to look back in my archives and realized that this theme is something I've been shooting for some time but never really thought of as a 'project' or theme.  I've been taking photos of people sitting and waiting for years.

But I like to be current and I like to be out making photos at every opportunity I have so I've decided to not add many of my old photos to this collection and instead try to build it with new ones particularly because now I'm aware of the project and I believe I'll make my shots differently.

The photo on the right of pedestrians waiting for a light to change while standing in front of the Today Show building at 30 Rockefeller Center was made in December 2011.

The photo on the left was made in March of 2011 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.





















Thanks for looking. To see the entire collection as it's being built, check out the gallery at:  http://www.tomcollinsphotography.com/Projects/Waiting/28580397_TWgfvk
All photographs in this post were made with either an Olympus OMD E-M5 or an Olympus E-P3.  Lenses included the Olympus 12mm/f20; Olympus 17mm/f1.8; Olympus 45mm/f1.8 or the Panasonic/Leica DG Summilux 25mm/f1.4.

My Dog, Eli, Ate My Lens!

It's not like I'm not used to it, my dog likes to eat my stuff.  My earbuds, my remote controls, my money clip and any of the money that's in it, almost anything that's laying on my nightstand or within reach on my desk.  So I'm normally pretty good about keeping things out of his reach.

Without thinking last week I left one of my prized Olympus lenses lying on the corner of my desk inside a small pouch (to protect it from the elements or from taking it in and out of my bag or pocket, not from a large canine putting his strong jaws to work on it).  Later the next day when I was packing up my photo gear to go out and shoot I realized that I didn't see my 12mm lens.  I looked in the bag I had out yesterday and not there.  Looked on the table where I keep all my lenses and gear neatly organized and not there either.  I start to panic wondering what I had done with it and began frantically going through my coat pockets and tearing around the house.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black something tucked in-between the cushions of the green living-room sofa.  Oh no.  This is where I found my Klipsh earbuds a few weeks ago.  No, it can't be.  As I got closer I knew that Eli had found my lens and took it to his favorite place to chill and chew on stuff.  I pulled the black bag out of the sofa, unzipped it, (thankfully it was still in one piece, and pulled out the beautiful silver Olympus 12mm/f2.0 lens.  Well, not so beautiful anymore.  Now marred with teeth marks and scratches.  I almost threw up on the spot.  That lens is expensive and I can't afford to replace it.  Of course Eli is laying on the floor in front of the fireplace just chill-axing and taking a little snooze.  Oblivious of the pain he has caused.

I removed the chewed up lens cap and the rear cap and luckily didn't see any teeth marks in these two critical spots.  I ran upstairs to get my camera and mount the lens on to see if it would still function.  Much to my elation it did.  Focus, manual focus rings, locking mechanisms  everything still functioned perfectly.  I took a few quick snaps to be sure and yes, it still works perfectly.  It's just ugly now.

A few minutes later Eli wakes up from his blissful slumber and comes upstairs to my photo-room to say hi.  Walks up to me as he usually does, dropped his head in my lap and looked up at me with the same usual demanding I rub his head and say hello look.  What could I do.  The damage was done.  And he's so sweet.  I rubbed his head, told him hi and promised I would go to the grocery store and get him some bones.  Maybe that will help.

And I promised myself to be sure and keep my things out of reach of Eli since he can't seem to resist a good chew on my stuff.  And even though my lens is ugly now it at least has it's own story.

Shoot In The Rain.

We've been lucky this year, here in the Pacific Northwest.  We just made it to something like 80 days in a row of no rain, well no measurable rain.  That truly is something and it hasn't happend for 92 years.  But as those of us who live here know, it will end.  And as of yesterday it did.  The rains have returned.

With the rain comes, of course, gray, overcast days that don't produce much light, very little contrast and soggy conditions that make you want to stay home.  This year I'm adapting a different approach.  I'm going to go out and stay out in it and make the rain, the wet earth, the gray skies my focus for photography for the winter.  That's easy to say and the challenge has been made.

After all we are the center of the universe for goretex style clothing.  Between Eddie Bauer, Filsons, LL Bean and the rest, we here in the Pacific Northwest must account for a large percentage of their sales.  In other words we have access to all the dry, warm, well made clothing and shoes a person needs to go out in the inclement weather and enjoy the great outdoors, rain or rain and stay warm and dry.

To kick start my challenge of shooting in the rain this year I decided to head out on the very first day of a good downpour and went up to the Mt. Rainier National Park to Mowich Lake.  Mowich Lake is about 2 and a half hours from Gig Harbor, WA, up Highway 165 through Wilkenson and Carbanado.  Fourteen miles of this drive, just after Carbonado, is "washboard" roads that have been severely damaged by logging trucks so the drive is difficult. And along this stretch, not very pretty.  It's been largely clear cut until you get to the park entrance.

But once you get to the Mt. Rainier National Park it all changes quite quickly to magnificently beautiful, even in the rain.  From the park entrance to the lake is a smoother drive through beautiful forest.  Arrival at the lake is breath taking.

The lake was shrouded in clouds, steady rain and 42 degrees F.  Quiet, peaceful and not one other visitor.  I knew I was in the right place and had made the right decision to shoot in the rain. 

However, my first thoughts were to wish for sunshine.  I thought to myself, wow, this is so beautiful I just wish it was nicer out.  But wait, isn't that exactly the reason I was here, to look past the otherwise gloomy, unimpressive weather and find the natural beauty that lies in what was delivered?  My natural instinct was to want it to be different but what I wanted to do was have a change in perspective, to see in a new way, to appreciate the moment.

I spent the next couple of hours hiking around the lake on the well maintained trails and explored the area for photo opportunities.  Of course with the fall colors, the beautiful mist and the quiet peaceful atmosphere it was perfect.

As for my challenge to get out and shoot on these coming wet, gray and soggy days, this couldn't have been a better send off or a more inspiring reason to keep doing it.

So, load up your gear, add some sandwich baggies and rubberbands to cover and protect your gear, make a sandwich, get your best and driest clothes and go shoot in the rain.

Thanks for Reading,
Tom

Shooting Your Own Backyard

Sometimes from lack of inspiration I sit and wonder what to photograph.  I really enjoy my pass-time but finding inspiration and coming up with ideas of what to shoot can be challenging.  Especially when you've been doing it as long as I have.

So I read magazines, surf around on the web reading blogs and looking for ideas.  One thing that always comes up as a suggestion is to "shoot your own backyard".  They say in these articles to shoot your own backyard if your feeling stuck and need inspiration.  Just by shooting in your own backyard you'll be forced to find something new.  Sometimes I don't know whether to take that literally or not.  So I go out my back door and look around and realize that I've shot so many pictures in my own back yard that there's no way I'm going to find inspiration there...although I have from time to time.

So what does it mean to "shoot in your own backyard"?  If you don't take it literally, like I did, and expand on that thought just a little, it means your neighborhood, your town, your city, the countryside around where you live that's just a short distance or drive away.  That seems so simple when I put it that way that I feel silly not having realized it before.  But wait, I have shot all those things before, but maybe not with a fresh eye towards something specific in my neighborhood, my town and so on.

So today I decided to drive around and see what my little town of Gig Harbor, Washington looks like on a foggy, gray and overcast day in the fall.  And, even though I've seen these scenes for the past 30 years, somehow today they looked a little different.  I don't know why exactly but looking for a photograph in my own backyard that represented my town on an otherwise gloomy and uninspired day presented the challenge I needed to get out and shoot.

With fresh eyes and inspired after I came across this shot of one of our marinas I just kept driving and looking and wasn't surprised at all by the beauty this small little town has but was surprised at how many opportunities there are for photographs everywhere and at any time of the year, right here in my own backyard.

Thanks for reading.
Tom

Image Quality versus Vision Quality

I've been pointing a camera at stuff for more years than I can remember.  I've never really known why and until recently (maybe just the past few years), I've never really understood the technical side of photography.  Learning to see light, understanding how that effects aperture, shutter speed and depth of field were all things that didn't come easy to me.  Thanks to digital photography, digital darkrooms and the instant gratification of the LCD, I've learned a lot in the past few years.

Since the coming of age of the digital era I got immediately on-board, and have never looked back.  But I, like so many others, got caught up in the rush for bigger, better and newer.  From 1960 to 1970 I had one camera.  From 1970 to 1999 I had two cameras (still have one of them).  From 2000 to now, I've had more cameras than I can actually remember.  I've bought and sold no less than a dozen.

Over the period of time that I've shot digital, I've made images that number in the high tens of thousands.  And over that same time what I spent my eye, my time and my thought process on was the quality of the images I was taking to insure, sharpness, dynamic range, color, and pixel peeped until I went cross eyed.  Did I get some good images; yes. However the capturing of stories, interesting photos and pictures that had my vision behind them got lost to the quality of the image that the camera could make.  That's what this post is about; keeping in touch with my vision, and the story I want to tell in pictures.  I want to let go of the need to constantly upgrade to the next bigger, better and newer camera.  I would rather take one good picture of something that tells a story and has some interest rather than 10,000 really sharp, well detailed photo's with great dynamic range; and perfect color reproduction but say nothing.

Image quality versus Vision quality is probably a touchy subject for most of us.   I've been struggling with it for years and I have to say without some technical understanding of the photographic equipment your using, it's limitations as well as its capabilities and some understanding of the light you see; you will still not be able to achieve what you want in a photograph.  Having said that, without a clear understanding of your vision and what you are trying to say in your photograph; knowing the technical side of your equipment won't help you get the image you want.  No matter how great your gear is and how well you know it, your camera can't tell the story.

Since the late 1990's when digital imaging came onto the scene, digital photography, specifically digital cameras have changed so much and so fast, that keeping up with the technology has become, for many, the main focus rather than photography as a creative art.

When shopping for a camera you hear terms like "Pro-Level", "Pro-consumer-Level", Consumer-Level" and "Point & Shoot" cameras.  How these cameras are defined changes so fast that you have to wonder if, by definition, they are what they say they are;  when Canon and Nikon first came out with their dSLR's they were considered to be a "Pro-Level" digital camera.  Today some of the smallest, least expensive Point & Shoot cameras have way more technical power than the original Canon and Nikon dSLR's dreamed of having.  I don't remember exactly, but I think Nikon was quite proud of their dSLR being a 2 megapixel camera.  Whoa!  So by that standard does one of today's Point & Shoot cameras become a professional camera.  I don't think so.  But can you make an amazing, interesting and story telling photograph with it.  Yes.

Even cell phones with their built in cameras are capable of making pretty decent images.  Professional level super sharp, lots of dynamic range, no.  But can they tell a good story; capture an interesting moment; yes.  Todays digital media has us looking at cell phone video and images nearly everywhere you cast your gaze.

Many of todays photographers on the myriad of photo sharing web sites are more interested in the type of camera and which lens was used, how it was processed and what software was used; rather than enjoying the photograph for the interest that it holds, or the story that it tells.  Something like having an extraordinary meal and asking the chef for the types of cookware he used to create the dish.

My struggle is and always has been to take a good picture that captures a moment.  The shot that tells a little story, and has some interest for a viewer and most importantly; that means something to me.  Use your technical skill to master your camera but use your camera to master the moments.  When you take a family vacation, don't pack the camera for when you get there; wear the camera while you're packing.  Begin telling the story when the story begins and on a family vacation that's when the packing starts.  Wear your camera everywhere, shopping, dinner out with friends, a walk; you'll be surprised to find stories everywhere you and your camera go.

So the point I've been drilling home to myself is that bigger sensors and more megapixels don't tell meaningful and interesting stories.  They do capture moments, they do have great dynamic range; however without a vision of your own, and an understanding of what that vision is,  it just doest seem necessary to keep chasing a bigger, newer, better camera.  And for me, smaller is better.  I like having my camera with me everywhere and one of the big dSLR's just didn't work for me anymore.

Instead of developing super huge, super sharp images; perhaps develop a vision and tell a story.  Maybe we don't need the biggest and best; just an eye, some time and a desire to tell a story in a captured moment.

Thanks for reading.
Tom