Photo Assignment: Dolphin Watch 2009

September 11, 2009

Rudee Inlet, Virginia Beach, VA

Elusive Dolphin If you were wondering where all the photos are on this photo/tech/music blog are, wonder no more. Last Friday, I went on a dolphin watching cruise with my company. It was actually the second time we have done this but it was still a unique experience for a few reasons. First is that we had our families there, second is that I got to shoot digital this time, third, the dolphins finally cooperated. 

The weather in the week leading up to the cruise was awful; full of non stop rain. There were fears that it would rained out or the seas would be too rough. However, the weather turned out to be gorgeous and were pretty good conditions for photography. Since becoming more aware of my photography, I took this opportunity to take a few types of photographs. Portraits, candids, and landscapes. Lets see how well I did. 

Portraits

I realized that quick portraits of some of my coworkers and their kids were going to be my strongest images. I enjoy taking pictures of people because connecting the viewer with a living subject is just miles easier. I know my brain process a human face and figure much more quickly than still life or landscape. There is also the fact that people will connect with someone they know and love.

   

Candids

I also wanted to try some more street style photography, albeit without any streets. As hard as I looked I couldn't find many of these unscripted and human moments. I was able to find this one however. This guy was all about holding this dolphin skull. I like this photo because it tells a story. Is it the strongest piece of street photography that illustrates the human condition? Not really, but its a fun picture. I like how the tops of their heads line up to create a new horizon. I like his expression. Because she is so close in perspective, you feel like you are right there with them. This moment is now frozen in time and I feel I have enough visual information to walk around them in my mind like a hologram.  

Landscapes

I just don't have an eye for landscapes and nature in general. I am fairly impatient, people tend to move quickly and often fall into my frame. Landscapes are for those with a very critical eye. Most elements in landscapes are sitting still, giving you the time to frame it the way you like. It helped that I took these from a moving boat, so in a way the subject was moving like people do. They shifted their perspective relative to mine and I had no control over the path of the boat.  So I let the scene drift into my viewfinder and hoped for the best. 

Overall it was great day for photos, fun and sun. Rest of the set is here

All for One and One for all

Last week two things happened that got me thinking; Apple refreshed their iPod line and I ordered a new cell phone.

Brett wanted a camera phone for his birthday

The Apple event was disappointing to most in the tech community because it wasn't the bleeding edge tech we drool over. We wanted to see a camera added to the iPod Touch but instead we got a standard definition video camera placed in an awkward position on the Nano. Other let downs were the rumors of the Apple tablet that remained unfounded and Jobs saying the Touch is a gaming platform. I think that Apple still doesn't really know how to market the Touch. An apple device normally targets a specific market segment, but the Touch is still floundering around to me. It can't hold as much music as an iPod Classic and, while some games really shine on the Touch, it might have a hard time competing with the PSP or DS. The Nano on the other hand is a great example of how Apple normally operates, even though its old tech. It is clearly aimed at the popularity of solid state camcorders like the Flip, which was acquired by RIM a couple months ago. I think the Nano will sell very well this Christmas because they are cheap, allow millions of 13 year olds to clog up YouTube, and still play music.

 How does all this upset the futurist in me? These announcements tell me that real device convergence is not ready for mass market consumption. Device convergence means I pick up one thing in the morning. It may be modular and plug into other terminals throughout the day, but the essentials are self contained. The iPhone comes close and is headed in the right direction, but it has too many restrictions due to the Apple walled garden. The technology is here, but I'm afraid its not economical. Such a device is probably still too expensive to make and the networks aren't willing to foot the bandwidth bill. Maybe it's not just cost. Maybe they have to sell multiple devices with different functions. Why would a company give up a time tested business tactic of diversification. A large corporation needs multiple market segments to weather the business cycle and face volatility. If this is the case, I may never see such a thing in my lifetime. 

That leads to my new phone purchase, a HTC Touch Pro 2 from Verizon. It arrives on Wednesday and I can't wait. It is a windows mobile powered phone, which means it' not as sexy as the iPhone but is more flexible and open to customization. Its not perfect but I can make it access my home server through a clunky and frustrating UI. With some tweaking and hacking and work I will hopefully get closer to my dream, but until then I can always glue a Zune HD to the back of it.

Proof is in the Pudding

I've been thinking about how digital photography has impacted me. On Saturday, Clay and I went to Newport News to film a specific trick that he wanted to nail. We were there for an hour to get it. Clay didn't give up and I was there at each attempt to get the sequence on film. I must have taken 500 pictures in that hour and I thought to myself, how awesome it was to have digital at that moment.Gnarly.

Digital has become more practical for those new to photography. The instant feedback and EXIF data really shortens the learning curve. However I really miss making black and white prints. There was just something magical about watching your photo come alive in the developer. There was always more work getting your image printed that taking it. 

The problem I have that gets overlooked in the digital era is that while it is easier to learn the fundamentals on digital, it has now become harder to make my image stand out against everyone else's. Without the constraints of a fixed amount of film, its only a matter of time until you get a good image. The challenge for me is to be perfect every time. I would say that competing in the digital era forces me to be a better artist. Ansel Adams always talked about the importance of previsualization. This concept weighs heavier on my mind now because my success is dependent upon the strength of my vision. 

Taking a Leak

I see a lot of album leaks on the internet. Some I think are leaked on purpose, but a couple of weeks ago I saw this story http://www.singersroom.com/news/4312/Authorities-Investigate-Leona-Lewis-Timberlake-Leak . It must be a terrible time for the record labels when they want to stop people from listening to music. Artists probably don't want a pre-production track released before it's done, but to spend extra effort to find and prosecute a leak is a useless game of cat and mouse. A label can still have promotions and ad campaigns despite the leak. The only scenario where a leak can take the sail out someone winds is if an artists completely changes genres and didn't want to tell anyone. 

The new era of unofficial releases should be seen as a good thing for music promoters. It helps create hype because the only people who care are your true fans. The everyday person isn't going to stalk the web looking for rumored and unreleased tracks. The people who are downloading and listening to your music are influencers. They are the ones who tell all their friends about it and make sure they bring a crowd to your show to buy your merch.

The untold story here is who the album leak really hurts; the music critics and magazine reviewers. The leaks are allowing us to make our own judgments. I don't have to subscribe to Rolling Stone to know what the newest track is like.   

Enjoy the show

I love watching live concerts and I really love photography. So what could be better than photographing a live concert? Translating the sounds and emotions on stage into a photograph is pretty amazing, but a photo is only one moment in time. It says nothing about what happened before or after that moment. How much of an artist can you capture in a few frames when their performance encompasses a whole hour?

Some moments are able to define a musician's stage presence. Just think about the photo of Jimi Hendrix bent on his knees over a flaming guitar. So it becomes a challenge for me to get that kind of photo. But then I run into a problem. If I want to focus on my photography, the technicals start running through my mind. I contemplate the erratic lighting, the diffusion from the fog machine, and the overall composition of the frame. I pull myself out of the concert experience and no longer let the music move me. At a recent Gay Blades show, I barely took any pictures because I was just too excited by the music to concentrate on my camera. I didn't want to watch the show through a viewfinder.

I guess the answer would be to see a band two nights in a row. One night I'll take my pictures, and the next night I'll just watch the show.