Photos and the Reasons Why

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Taken on April 12, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Location and Musings
Like Yesterday’s post, this one features an elephant getting washed in the river. It was taken within a few seconds of the previous photo. The elephants in question had finished their washing and were entertaining themselves by getting their mahout’s wet.

I was sitting on a bench a fair distance away taking this photo, rapidly switching from subject to subject. I was desperately trying to capture each of several different elephants and mahouts as they splashed water on one another.

Technical Thoughts.
This is a fairly poor photo. I chose it to contrast with yesterday’s. The dark skin of the elephant provides little contrast. She stands out from the river, but the spray from the water is very distracting. It doesn’t for a clean arc, but scatters all over the place and looks a lot like a really dusty scan of an old photo. This feeling is slightly enhanced by the washed out colors in the background. I suppose I could have edited it a bit to look more like an old fashioned photo.

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Taken on April 12, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Musings and thoughts:
Mahout is a hindi word for elephant rider/trainer. The thai is ดวาญชาง or kwan chang. In doing research to write this blurb, I learned about the depressing processed used to break elephants to their lives as tourist attractions. It involves small cages, starvation, chains, nail-boards, and all sorts of other unsavory things. The process sounds rather miserable, but I suppose the elephants lead somewhatgood lives once they are done being broken. I’m not sure, I’m probably just trying to justify something terrible and my complicit guilt in the matter here.

Still, this is probably my favorite elephant shot. The mahout and the elephant appear to be sharing a rather touching moment as the mahout gives the elephant his bath. I like the way the elephant’s trunk rests mostly in the water, but just peaks above the surface so he can breathe. She looks pretty relaxed, sitting in the river with the mahout’s hand on his head.

Technical thoughts:
It is very difficult to take pictures of wet elephants in a river. Their skin turns from light grey to dark grey. The river, already dark green, provides no contrast. If I had lighting options other than the sun, I might be able to do something about this. As it is, I just have to hope the elephants are standing in a sunny patch or, as in this case, there is a nice lightly colored reflection.

Really, I couldn’t ask for a better position for the elephant. Her light colored trunk is nicely echoed with the lightly colored background above her back. The light-yellow reflection nicely transitions to dark green as it moves towards her head. The mahout’s light blue shirt is a nice contrasting color from the elephants yellow-orange trunk yet complementary color to the green water. The mahout’s legs echo the trunk color and contrast with the shirt color. The only thing I don’t like is the shadow on his legs from the hook strapped to his back. That’s distracting and undesirable.

There are also some very nice vectors here. The line from the elephant’s back runs straight up to the brim of the mahout’s hat, which then runs nicely over his head and down his other shoulder. Clean and uninterrupted. I could do without the little bit of water dripping from the basket. That is kind of confusing as it’s not quite clear what it is. It’s also a vector that runs down and away from the subject, down and away from the photo.

The vector running along the bottom of the elephant is also nice, with the mahout’s legs entering the river at about the same point as the elephant, the little bit of height difference is echoed by the curve in the trunk, so it’s forgivable.

I’m also a little concerned about where I cropped it on the left. There was a very undesirable log in the river in the upper left that I cropped out, so I could not have gone any further to the left. You can get away with cutting off an obvious edge like the hind side of an elephant, but you have to be very careful not to give people an uncanny valley “I should be seeing something I’m not” experience. I may be too close here.

All in all, a photo that I’m very happy with. I’ll put this one up there with Superb Starling Startlingly Stares at Me as “photos I particularly enjoy.”

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Taken on April 12, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Musings and thoughts:
The painting on the left was created by the elephant on the right. The gentleman in the center handed paintbrushes of various colors to the elephants who then applied the paint as they saw fit. It’s pretty clear that the whole exercise represents learned behavior, but it’s still fun to see the elephants create works of “art.” The colors of the branches were created by dabbing repeatedly semi-randomly at the board, an act that the elephant appeared to particularly enjoy. Perhaps that is because the trunk is not a particularly accurate tool to be using for painting and the elephant didn’t have to be very accurate when dabbing semi-randomly.

Technical thoughts:
The photo is not quite sharp, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps there was some dust on the lens or in the air that gives a slightly blurred effect. At 1/640 of a second and with plenty of light and time for focusing, there is no technical reason why the shot should be anything other than perfectly sharp.

I could do without the elephant legs in the background, though I think they’re sufficiently abstract to provide a pleasing thematic pattern. If they were any stronger they’d be way too distracting. The person behind the elephant is far worse in terms of how distracting he is for the photo.

I like the color palette of reds and browns with a few greens in the painting. The elephant taking a bow tells the story immediately and the trainer looking at him provides as nice a vector as I could ask for. Naturally if I could have controlled the situation I would have set things up differently. As it is, it turns out to be a quite passable shot.

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Taken on April 16, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Musings
Well, after a week of downtime, I’ve got a lot of pictures. I’m sure I’ll be able to make it to the next vacation without having to drop into the archives at non-prescribed points. Since I missed a week and am no longer properly participating in a 365 project, I will no longer be putting the 45/365: prefix on posts. I will still be posting a new picture every day.

This photo is a pretty good representation of my past week. I booked my flights to Chiang Mai hoping that I’d have the opportunity to see something new and not be too entirely bored. I figured I’d have a lot of time to sit around and relax, post here about what was going on, and maybe even do some non-internet writing in my free time.

I was totally wrong. Turns out Christie was also going to Chiang Mai. I had some scheduling issues with my airline, so we ended up flying together. This involved a wonderful night at the top of a skyscraper in Bangkok. A few days later, I rearranged my flights again and it turned out we were flying to Koh Phi Phi, also together. Though this time we were not just together, but “together.”

This shot is representative of one of the most thrilling weeks of my life.

Technical Thoughts.
It’s very difficult to take one-hand-extended self portraits with a big DSLR. The camera just isn’t made to be held that way. It didn’t help that I was holding a couple grand worth of equipment with one hand at arms length over 8 inches of ocean water. A drop would have been a fatal mistake.

I looped the strap around my hand and held on tight. The sunrise was just to perfect to go without the classic sunrise kiss shot.

It still came out a little blurry, both from camera wobble and poor autofocus. The style of the shot means I can totally get away with it. I’m super happy about the lighting and I like the near-silhouette. There is nothing in any of that which needs razor sharp lines and crisp clean focus.

I knew I was going to make this shot into my Facebook profile while I was editing it, so I blew the colors way out to make a catchy thumbnail. As a result, the sunrise looks a bit ridiculous.

I brought my computer and camera, but I forgot a power cord for my computer. Unless I decide to buy one, there won’t be any updates until next week. Sorry.

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Taken on September 8, 2007
Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/25
Focal Length: 26 mm
ISO Speed: 200

This photo is from the single most intense moment of the roadtrip. I’m just going to repost what I wrote then.

I started snapping pictures downriver towards the nice tourist boat and the bridge. Click, click, click. Different angle. Click. Readjust Boxer, Click.

Some guy jumped over the railing right in my shot. Annoyed, I turned and started snapping pictures in the other direction. It’s still a nice view, I thought.
Click. Click. Adjust Boxer. Click. Click. Splash.

“Huh?”
“Help!”
“Oh shit.”
The guy fell in. Or he jumped in. Whatever it was, he was in. He was in the Detroit river.
The river does not move slowly.
He could not swim.
I could, I can.
I swam competitively for 14 years.
I used to be a lifeguard.
I jumped over the railing. Eloisa grabbed my camera and Boxer. I handed her my phone, keys, and wallet. I kicked off my shoes. People were running everywhere. I pulled off my shirt.
Wait.
Stop.
Think a minute.
Should I jump?
The internal monologue was fast, powerful, frantic.
No: “This guy is panicked. He could pull me under. They warned about that in life guarding class. I don’t know the river. I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know why he is in the river. Did he fall or jump? Is he drugged out?”
Yes: “He is barely keeping his head above water and he is starting to get near that boat, further from a ladder. I don’t have much time.”
No: “I’m still wearing jeans, I know how hard it is swim in jeans. I don’t have anything inflatable to help keep him above water, no life guard tube.”
Yes: “I know how to save his life. No one else here does. It doesn’t matter if anyone else here does. I know how to save his life.”
“I can save this man’s life. If I don’t, he may die. He will die.”
No: “I can die.”
Do you risk your life to save another? A stranger? A stranger who may have just tried to kill himself?
When the situation is in front of you? Now. You’ve got seconds. People running and screaming, yelling for someone to help.
Yes. Yes you do. A good person does.
A good person does not stand by and watch another person drown.
Yes: “I’m going to do it. Alright, behind him. Get behind him so he can’t get a hold of you. Jump in upriver… There.”
I stepped forward to jump and heard something. Wait.
“Grab a hold of this.”
The boat. There were life buoys on the boat. I didn’t think of that. Someone ran and grabbed a life buoy. Those round things. Lifesavers. I didn’t have to jump in.
One toss.
The drowning guy didn’t see it.
A second toss.
He saw it. A flail. A thrash. He got it. He’s going to be ok.
I’m going to be ok.
My heart is beating again just writing about it.
Was I going to do it?
Could I have really jumped in?
I told myself to. I decided it was the time, it was the place. It was now or never. It was the right thing to do.
Doesn’t mean I was actually going to do it.
I don’t even know if I should have done it.
It will be a long time before I stop asking myself that question.
Do you risk your life to save another?

Two years later, I still don’t know.

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Taken on January 4, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 56 mm
ISO Speed: 200

I took this photo while on a layover in the Tokyo Narita Airport, 13 hours from America, 7 hours from Thailand. I’ve become quite familiar with the airport, stopping in it every time I fly to or from Bangkok. I’ve been to Japan at least a dozen times now, but I’ve never actually entered the country. One of these days I’m going to go climb that mountain.

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Taken on November 29, 2009
Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 800

I’ve been thinking that this is probably the nicest view I will ever have from my home. It’s pretty intensely beautiful on a regular basis.

I left work late last night and was driving home just as the sun was setting on the horizon. I watched some kids play in the beach while the restaurants set up their beach front tables. A group of Thais on vacation were lounging about sipping beers on the sidewalk as I turned off the beach road into my driveway.

Sure the road is broken and loaded with potholes and uneven speed bumps. Sure it’s too narrow to handle two directions of traffic along with the tour busses and other parked cars. Sure elephants occasionally make it difficult to drive faster than, well, an elephant walks. It is still a hell of a way to finish a long commute.

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Taken on September 7, 2008
Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/14
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400

This is a quite old photo which I still think of as one of my favorites. I took it at some random beach on the Oregon Coast one day while driving around. I thought the ball in the basket would look great as super saturated yellow amongst desaturated blues. It rare that a photo looks the same from in my head, to shooting, to post processing. Usually the final product and what I was originally planning on getting are quite different.

Usually you have to approach each stage as “ok, I have these tools, what can I make from this?” Sometimes “what can I make from this” is always the same.

It’s always a nice surprise when you’re able to achieve a close representation of your original goals. Perhaps that’s why I like this photo more than it’s fair share’s worth. I find that the emotion presented by the ball, neglected in the basket, the muted tones, and the two guys sitting on the beach is a nice, flat, attractive melancholy.

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Taken on April 3, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Location and Musings:
It’s now moving into the hot season and it sure is hot. I had planned to spend all Saturday traipsing about the Pluakdaeng region, taking landscape photos and enjoying a peaceful day. I had an invitation to go out drinking on Friday night, which was an amazing time, but it left me a little hung over on Saturday morning.

It was just a little headache, so I drank some water and figured I’d be fine. Turns out that you can’t sweat off a hangover. Almost immediately after I parked my truck and started walking around, looking for a shot, my headache got worse. I was sweating out the fluids I had managed to put back into my body. I quickly finished off the remaining water then drove to a 7-11 and got some aspirin and gator-drink. I had only managed to shoot a couple of pictures, but I was starting to feel ill, and I just wanted to go back to sleep. So I jumped back in the truck and headed back home. This was the only shot I was happy with.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Technical Thoughts:
I wish I had framed it a little more towards the right. When I took the picture, I thought it would be nice to get a bit more of the road to have a nice “path” element for the eye to follow. It wasn’t a very good plan as the path was ugly and didn’t lead anywhere except for outside the frame.

Perhaps I should have been a few steps back towards the middle of the road, as well. That way the temple would have been more apparent up on the hill. Another possibility would have been using a longer zoom lens and standing way back from the pineapple. With the right framing, the temple would have been much larger in the frame with the pineapple still in focus.

I’m also a little worried about the clouds. I think my post processing, where I pumped the blues in the sky, make them come out a little too blue, a little too cotton-candy.

I do, however, like the far away mountain cradled in the distance. There is some nice depth there.