Tag Archives: Travel

Just for fun

The Scene you Didn’t See in the Cars Movie

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While sitting at home with my kids this afternoon, I thought it would be cool to take an impromptu trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats to take a photo of me wearing my new Carltonaut Photography T-shirt for my About Carltonaut page. So we grabbed a few snacks, some props and my camera gear and headed out the door. I guess I didn’t realize it was roughly two hours of drive time, but a little KungFu Panda 2 helped to pass the time.

When we pulled over on the side of the road, we hopped out with all our stuff and started with my son snapping some photos of me in the new short, then we turned the lens to our props. The kids set up many of the shots, and this is the one that I thought was the funniest (courtesy of my daughter).

Cars Dinosaur Salt Flats

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/250 | f/18 | ISO 100 | RAW

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun, Macro, Travel

Lego Photography: Lost in an amazing book

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I can only claim credit for taking the photo. My son was the creative director. He came up with the idea, built the Lego tree and book, selected the character and packed them up for our weekend trip to St. George, Utah. Upon arrival at Snow Canyon State Park, he reassembled the tree (the trip had not been friendly to the fragile display) and set the photo up in the sand dunes. He even titled this blog post – Lost in an amazing book.

The sun was high in the sky and casting very harsh shadows on the world below. Since I didn’t have one of the portable light reflectors (or blockers), my creative director ran to the van to grab his brother’s pillow and held it strategically over the area so I could get the shot. I think we were both pleased with the final outcome, though a little shadow from the tree would have helped the photo (I think).

Lego photography: Lost in a good book

Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/320 | f/6.3 | ISO 800 | RAW

I don’t recall why I had the camera set to ISO 800. It definitely was bright enough. I think it was because I was using the flash on occasion to help light things up and reduce shadows, but when I found the shade (i.e., my son’s pillow), I forgot to bring the ISO back to 100. In Photoshop I made a few adjustments to exposure, blacks, saturation and levels, in an effort to bring the guy under the tree out more.

Anyway, I am very proud of my son for serving as my creative director, and I hope you’ll look forward to a few more of the Lego shots he arranged during our trip and asked me to photograph.

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro

Capturing a photo at 70 mph – the safe way

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It would not be safe for me to be driving 70 miles per hour down a crowded freeway, and then stick my hand out the window with my expensive DSLR and try to snap some photos. That would be an accident waiting to happen. Lucky for me, I have a GoPro HD Hero2 and a suction cup mount.

Capturing a low angle on the freeway

The Capturing True Emotion Salt Lake City Facebook group had a photo challenge this week – Low-angle. I originally thought about sticking my GoPro in the toilet and getting a low-angle shot looking out past the bowl – but I opted to go a different route. I recalled a photo I captured while driving up to Haleakala in Hawaii in a rental car.

Before heading off to work this morning, I mounted the suction cup, with the GoPro attached, to the door of my car, as low as I could to the ground. But would it hold while traveling up to 70 mph on the freeway? To give myself peace of mind, I attached not one, but two strings from the camera and tied them to a solid part of the car. That way, if the suction cup failed, it wouldn’t tumble to the asphalt and get run over by a bazillion cars before I could rescue it.

041213-Low-angle-on-road-SETUP

I programmed the camera to take one photo every five seconds. I figured that would give me enough photos to choose from, without giving me a bazillion photos to have to look through. Although I might have been better off to have it take one every one second – but maybe another time.

Here’s how it looked as I headed off to work. —->

Anyone else tried something risky like this with their GoPro? Share a link below.

~signed, Carltonaut

People, Travel, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond (the lollipop)

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I learned about this week’s The Daily Post at WordPress.com’s Weekly Photo Challenge before I packed my kids and I up for a trip to Houston, Texas. So as we spent the weekend with my wife checking out parts of Houston, I was looking for a fun capture for BEYOND.

The moment came when my daughter was enthralled with the size of her lollipop. I think it’s every kids dream to get a lollipop this big – and it makes it difficult to look BEYOND the lollipop to see what else is going on around you.

Big eyes and a big lollipop

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/640 | f/16 | ISO 2000

(NOTE: I am not sure why my camera was set at ISO 2000. I guess that explains some of the graininess I’m seeing in the photo.)

After some fun checking out the Downtown Aquarium in Houston (including two rides on the Shark Voyage Train), we took a breather to grab a snack. This was her snack. I wish I would have been that excited about the large pretzel my wife and I got to share.

~signed, Carltonaut

WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

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I had thought about doing a photo like this a week ago as my now 10-year-old son was putting together the 3D puzzle he received from Santa last month. But it was the Daily Post at WordPress.com’s weekly photo challenge topic – Illumination – that drove me that final step of making it happen.

Illuminated Globe Puzzle

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/6 | f/4.5 | ISO 200 | RAW

I was nervous taking my son’s puzzle apart just enough to fit in my LED Flashmate with it set to full power. I wasn’t really sure how much the light would make it through the seams of the puzzle, but I was pleasantly surprised. My kids even thought it was pretty cool to look it and made for some great photos.

And just like my tag line says, “Photos of – and out of – this world!”

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun, Macro

Capturing my first photo of 2013

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Last night, as the ball was making its way to the bottom in Times Square, I threw out a photo challenge to a photography group I belong to on Facebook – Share the very first photo you capture in 2013. This meant sharing the very first photo, (i.e., you have to get all your settings right the first time).

I settled on using my Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens so I could hone in on one small part of the globe and get good depth of field to highlight the curvature of the earth. I was surprised at the amount of time I actually spent adjusting all the settings on my Canon 60D to capture a photo of our new National Geographic globe. I tried shooting it in Program mode, but decided I would feel more confident shooting in Manual mode (weird, I know).

I initially tried to capture it hand-held, but the shutter speed was too slow and I didn’t want my first capture to be blurry. I whipped out my new Manfrotto tripod (which I am totally loving) and positioned the camera to capture western Europe. I wanted to assure the lighting was good, so I turned off all the tungsten lights and attached my LED Flashmate to “light the world.”

I double-checked every setting and the on-camera light meter before releasing the shutter. Oh wait! I didn’t want to bump the tripod, so I attached my shutter release cable, too. Probably a lot more time spent on this photo than needed, but I only have one first photo of 2013.

Western Europe on the Globe

Canon 60D | 100mm f/2.8 macro lens | 1/5 | f/10 | ISO 400 | LED Flashmate | RAW

Here’s to a happy and healthy new year to all my readers. I’m looking forward to sharing more of my photos, trying new things with my camera and seeing the amazing captures of everyone else in the blogosphere.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why Europe: I loved the nearly two years I spent living in southern France; I love studying the history of my grandpa Carlton and his time spent in Europe during WWII as a pilot and later prisoner of war; I am fascinated with European history, specifically WWII.

~signed, Carltonaut

Black & White, People, Travel

Decisions: Black and white OR color

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My last blog post shared a photo of my daughter running along the beach with the low-setting sun. Another photo I shot at that same San Franciscan beach was of my son collecting a few of the bazillion sand dollars that littered the beach. I love the innocence of this photo, too, along with the reflection of my son in the water retreating from the beach.

I am thinking of printing the photo on canvas and hanging it in our home. But I am torn between the black and white version of the photo, or the color version. I really like his blue jacket, but I’m not a fan of the orange color of his face. The black and white kills both of those elements, but still makes it a great photo.

If you were printing this for your home, would you go black and white OR color?

Gabe-Beach-5x7
Gabe-Beach-5x7BW

~signed, Carltonaut

People, Travel, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

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Earlier today, my family and I returned home following one of the best family vacations we have had in a long time. Tomorrow morning I get to go back to work and play catch up on the six business days I missed while playing in San Francisco, Disneyland, Cars Land, California Adventure, LegoLand, San Diego and St. George.

As expected, I carried my camera with me everywhere I went. Okay. I’ll be honest. I carried as many as three cameras with me – my Canon 60D, my GoPro HD Hero 2, and my iPhone. What made this vacation so different from all the others we’ve taken, is that when we got home, my kids and gorgeous wife were in 90% of the photos I shot. Usually I have a bazillion “artistic” shots on my SD cards, but not this time. And you know what? I was okay with this.

Wifi at the hotels was pretty hit and miss. I didn’t want to have to pay for it. This prevented me from sharing many of my hi-res photos during the trip, but allowed me to focus on having a great time with my family. With my iPhone, I was able to check my email and saw the Daily Post at WordPress.com’s weekly photo challenge topic – Silhouette. A trip to a San Franciscan beach gave me the perfect opportunity to meet this challenge, and I am very excited with the final outcome.

E-Beach-Silhouette-5x7

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/1000 | f/11 | ISO 200

I am strongly considering printing this as a 16×20 canvas printing and hanging it in my daughter’s bedroom. I think this simple photo highlights the innocence and freeness of childhood, with the beauty and splendor of the beach. My daughter loves the beach and collecting shells. This beach yielded a few dozen sand dollars – perfect and unbroken. I have another photo to share in a subsequent blog post, but for now, I share this for silhouette.

~signed, Carltonaut

Black & White, Travel

Remembering September 11, 2001

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There are many photos of American flags circulating around the Internet today in honor of all those who have been affected by the tragic events of September 11, 2001. I remember the day well. It was eerily somber across town. People were huddled around any TV they could find, eyes glued to the repeating images of planes hitting buildings and the chaos that ensued.

It wasn’t until 2004 that I made my first trip to New York City, and I made sure to visit Ground Zero. While there, I was looking for something I could photograph that would capture the somber emotions felt while gazing upon the large hole in the ground. When I spotted the cross of the building’s beams, pulled from the rubble and displayed to mark the spot where so many people lost their lives, I felt it would be the photo I would use to mark my first visit to Ground Zero.

Cross at the WTC in NYC

So I’m sharing this photo as my way of honoring all those impacted by those tragic events, hoping the love and compassion expressed in the wake of such a hateful event can continue in our lives today, with neighbor helping neighbor.

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

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I must confess that the idea for this photo came from my wife. When I read the challenge on Friday, I wasn’t sure what I could do and thought I would end up spending a lot of time thinking, or even over-thinking, the challenge. But when I mentioned it to my lovely wife, she pointed out that we were going kayaking the next day, which could be a great representation of the Free Spirit photo challenge.

090112 Free Spirit Kayaking

Although I would have loved to take my Canon 60D out on the kayak with me, my nightmare of losing the camera into the water got the better of me. But, I had my GoPro, dive housing and a 16 GB SD card, so I headed out on the lake.

After getting out into the water, I took a few shots from under the water – but worried that the green, murky water didn’t bode well for a great photo, so I took some shots from the surface, capturing the kayak on the water, with the stark contrast of the white clouds and blue sky above. I wish I had a floating contraption that would have allowed me to not stretch out my arm and have it be that awkward part of the photo, but I made do with what I had.

Once I got home and surveyed the photos, I found the one above and brought it into Photoshop. I made some minor adjustments to the levels, and thought I would also make some adjustments to the saturation – just to give it a slightly different look. I thought a lens flare would look good on the photo, but then my purist thoughts got the better of me. I didn’t want to doctor the photo and add elements I hadn’t captured in the shot.

As for the free spirit part of the photo… I love kayaking. I love paddling my way out onto a lake, setting the paddle across the cockpit and floating there on the water. It is a great way to escape from the hussle and bussle of life and simply enjoy nature. Regardless of how rough the lake water is, I enjoy getting away from shore.

With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer, I am not sure how many more kayaing trips my family and I will be able to get in before things start to get a little chilly and eventually ice over, but for a Labor Day weekend, it was a great end to the summer vacations!

~signed, Carltonaut