Tag Archives: Travel Photography
Huayhuash Trek, Peru
It just kept coming into my head. “You can’t always get what you want…” Mick Jagger was along for the ride. For us, this was Peru’s Huayhuash Trek.
We knew we were starting out on the trekking shoulder season, but when our guide and donkey driver, Epi, showed up in knee high rubber boots for the eleven day trek, we feared the worse. The rainy season was far from over. By 2 pm the first day, it was a monsoon. By 8pm our campsite was flooding. To make matters worse, Peruvians eat chicken breakfast, lunch and dinner. I loathe chicken. On the second day I woke in the middle of the night, shaking uncontrollably, and headed out into the rainy darkness. I would spend the night in the mud outside the tent, emptying my stomach, feverish and unable to drink anything for 20 hours. This, at 4000 meters, makes for some unpleasant headaches. Things weren’t going well.
Janine, day 1
Sick and anything but cozy
Day three I spent in the tent, trying to sleep it off. Janine waited me out with little to do in the pouring rain. Above, and all around, the guide assured her were the best views in all of the Huayhuash. Gee, thanks.
For the remainder of the trip we had a simple schedule, our day went as follows. Up at 6, breakfast, packing up, hiking by 7:30. Arrive to next camp by 2pm before the rain starts, sit in tent, eat (avoid chicken), asleep by 8. Repeat. All this without going below 4000 meters for 11 days made for long nights with much time to think…
Around the 6th day I realized that the situation was so grim that it had become perfect. Ever since Nepal, I had been wondering what it would be like to go on a trip like this without a camera. As a photographer, we are continually looking for, thinking about, and making images. It is all consuming. Part of me longs to travel without this way of thinking, and so in Huayhuash I thought to give it a try, to just give in and be a traveler, not a photographer with responsibilty. It worked well until the skies parted and we could see something, then I was right back to work.
With each day so similar, the journey is a blur. The trail was so saturated with rainfall that for long stretches it had become a bog. We literally slopped our way through in places, careful to not get our feet stuck in the deep mud. The big views were rare so we scanned for interesting trailside items which often came in the form of small families living in this inhospitable environment. Their means of survival fascinated us as they have no power, thatched grass roofs, the closest supplies are several days walk away, and the weather anything but friendly. As we’d walk near their homesites with our cameras out, the adults would scatter like prairie dogs to holes when a hawk flies above. Our guide informed us of what we had already figured out in town, Peruvians loathe having their photo made. Thankfully there were children, and they were savvy to the fact that we carried sweets.
Day 11 was different. Our last day required that we get a 4am start to make a bus in our exit village. In the darkness, the night was crystal clear, something we had not yet seen. With headlamps on we marched through another bog. As Janine and Epi charged along, I stopped to have a look behind at the pre-dawn glow on the peaks and glaciers above. Standing there alone, I took in what was our first clear view of the Andes. Suddenly a dark figure loomed in front of me, a gaucho on horseback very much in Clint Eastwood style. In the twilight I could see him tip his hat to me and just barely make out some eye contact, then he was gone, the sound of the horse hooves disappearing into the morning. All this without making a photo, just the experience that is as vivid now as if I had made one, but even better.
Turns out I just had to let Mick finish, “But if you try sometimes well you just might find, you get what you need….. oh yeah”.
Climbing one of many passes
Waking up to a dry morning after a night of rain & sleet
A Peruvian cowboy trots by camp as we pack up one morning
Janine walking through the only village we would pass through in 11 days
Peruvian women at market. Huaraz, Peru
Street life. Huaraz, Peru
Traditionally dressed Peruvian women
Typically, we are not huge fans of HDR photography, but in the case of this trip a touch of HDR seemed appropriate. The scenes intensify, become darker, moodier, and for the Peruvian women, colors pop and are in your face. To our eye, this is how it all looked and felt. It was a trip full of contrasts and intensity, the images need to reflect that feeling.
What do you think?
Huge thanks to Deuter Packs, Lowepro Camera Gear and Patagonia clothing : As always, perfect gear! Patagonia’s new footwear line is superb, and we can personally confirm that their Gore-Tex boots work quite well.
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Travel Photography Gear List
The necessary technology for us to shoot new images and manage a stock business for three weeks.
“What gear do you use?”
In all likelihood, we are the world’s worst photographer to ask about gear, it’s just not our thing. Nevertheless, the question always pops up. Our experience is that Canon’s high end camera bodies work very well, so we buy them as needed. Ditto for lenses. We never use filters, rarely a tripod, and went years without even owning a flash. We do love Lightroom, Apple products, and sharing images, and the experiences making them, via social media. It is our belief that keeping your thinking and systems at their most basic in terms of what is necessary to get your work done is fundamental to doing your best work, and enjoying the process. We put technology to work so we are free to do what is most important – to be out making new images, and living life.
All that said, we have made an investment in time looking at what technology and products work best and feel really good about what we use. Today, we’re getting ready to travel to Peru for three weeks shooting trekking in the Andes. While there, we need to make both new images and manage our Stock Photo Site with daily orders. So, what might be a better question of us is, “What gear do you take on these trips?”. As you can see from my camera and office pack, it’s not much, and that is the beauty.
Canon 1d Mark IV & spare battery
Canon L Series Lenses : 17-40 f4 | 70-200 f4 | 15mm f2.8
96GB of film cards
Canon S95 camera
iPad & iPhone
Sealine waterproof cases for both devices
Additional backup battery for iPhone & iPad, iPad USB camera connector, Petzl eLight headlamp
Charging devices
2x 160GB Hyperdrive Image Tanks for film card backup
All but the charging devices are in my Lowepro… Whoa, wait just a second, this is a top secret new Lowepro pack we’re testing (and loving). More later on this.
Remember, we’re two photographers, Janine carries an identical set up but with a Canon 5d and only one lens, a Canon 24-105 f4, and we split the Hyperdrive Image Tanks. Depending on the destination and work involved, the only additions would be Tilt Shift lenses or a 100mm Macro. For commercial shoots we add in a 300mm f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8. But for traveling and making the bulk of our images, the ones we enjoy most – it all stays simple and lightweight.
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“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs , 1998.
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iPhone Photo Gallery
As professional photographers who shoot a lot of stock, there isn’t a whole lot we can do with an iPhone photo. We’ll feel like we blew it if we get a great image on the iPhone but not the real camera. But, the phone is always along for the ride (literally in my case with so much time on a bike) and we love making photos with them, using the apps to play with effects and sharing via social media. Who doesn’t these days?
During our last trip to Nepal, we purposely cruised around with just a phone and some ideas. It was great fun and super liberating. More and more, whether we like it or not, how one makes images with their phone says a lot about their life, how they see it and their creativity. Before we head off on our next trip, we decided to post a gallery of our twelve favorite images from the phone and processed with iPhone Apps. We hope you’ll have a look and enjoy.
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Posted in iPhone Blog, Photography
Also tagged Creative, Digital Photography, Photography, Social Media
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Making Respectful Travel Portraits
Shooting the Thaipussam Festival, India
After our last post, Nepal Photography, we had a number of people comment and message us asking how we feel about getting so close to people to make travel photos.
The photo that caused this post
In that post, the lead image is a Buddhist child, he is filthy, his arms are tucked away inside his robe and he is sitting asking for alms. Clearly, the photo was made at close range and is proven in an image of me making the exact photo (right).
Typically when you look at other’s travel photos, all the images of people are in groups, clearly made from a distance or simply made in passing. But when you see images by a professional travel documentary shooter things change. Suddenly there is a closeness, an emotional connection, and even a relationship with the photographer. Great, iconic images typically have one thing in common – emotion. Additionally, they are often tragic, ironic, revealing a cultural difference or something sublime.
How to get these images is as much about human skills as it is about being a photographer who knows how to frame an image.
Kindness offered for a gentle approach
For me, this is what I truly love and am most passionate about. Seeking these situations, finding the people, connecting with them and getting the image is the single greatest thing about being a photographer. Our mountain sport work is often conceptualized, set up, recreated, produced and a thousand frames made. But these found moments with very real subjects are vastly more rewarding, and… you might get a frame off, or you might not.
While recently walking the village streets of Lukla, Nepal, I turned a corner and ran right into a little girl, maybe 6. She was rushing out from her home carrying a large bowl of water with a massive, proud smile on her face. In the bowl of sudsy water was a soaking wet dog, its sad eyes peering up. The little dog was actually so sudsed up that it took me a second to figure out that it was a stuffed animal. The little girl was giving her pride and joy a bath. My camera was around my neck, it would be so easy. But first I needed that connection, I needed for her to see what I wanted to do. I smiled, gestured to my camera and made it clear I was asking to photograph her.
In this case, it was immediately apparent that it was not okay. She put the bowl down next to the water fountain and ran back across to the safety of her doorway from which she shyly peered out, monitoring my next move. “Can I take a picture of you and your dog?” Shake shake. “Please… I’ll show you the picture.” Shake shake.
I accepted my fate, no dice. Smiling, I waved and turned away. As I walked off I still had the vision in my head, it would have made a great photo. Not having that image does not make me a lesser photographer, it makes me a better human being.
Surrounded in a massive crowd of praying, walking Buddhists, I stood completely still with my eye to the viewfinder for about 20 minutes to get just the right people framing the sleeping dog
A few nights later we were back in Kathmandu where I witnessed the all too common opposite tactic for image making. There, at the Boudhanath Stupa, Janine and I went looking for photos, which sometimes involves seeing the potential for an image, then waiting. While doing this, and having my scenario begin to play out, I had numerous encounters with the uglier photographers. You know the ones, the bulging camera vest, draped in lenses, filters, and monopod. As I stood watching and waiting, they moved in for the kill. Seemingly on 13 cups of coffee, their spastic behavior and clumsy movements shattered any peaceful connections with what they were trying to photograph. One after the other, they ruined my experiences. I say experience because I am after something more than the image.
Always check in with the locals before shooting a crucifixion. Luckily these two were all too proud to show off their friend.
When I came upon the young Buddhist boy asking for Alms I stood nearby for some time before asking to make an image. I smiled, nodded and got a feel for his acceptance of me. He knew what I was up to. I asked with my body language if I could make a photo, the answer was yes. With pre-adjusted focus and exposure, I made the image very quickly, I didn’t want to leave a bad impression, and yes, I dropped some money in his lap.
There is more to making this type of image than using your camera. The ugly photographers, jostling for position, elbowing others out of the way and rudely shoving a lens in someones face have it all wrong, as much for themselves as anyone. Seeing an image but missing it is okay. I’d love to have that shot of the little girl, and hundreds others like it, but they weren’t to be. The memory is even more valuable, so much so that sometimes I put the camera away just to witness something.
Walking away from shooting a monastery. Opting to go for a walk, hand in hand, with our four year old Tibetan Guide. I'll never forget that day.
One of my photography heroes is the great journalist, James Nachtwey. In the movie about him, War Photographer, he says some things I have made my mantra:
If you aren’t happy with your image, move closer. Move slowly. Move with respect to the surroundings. Make a connection with people.
And I have my own rule; If I feel guilty about making an image, I’m probably doing something wrong.
These are basic human skills. You’re making images of people, not landscapes. Show some respect and be willing to walk away with a memory, not a photo.
Janine exemplifying what it's all about while traveling
A word on gear: If your camera isn't accessible, it's likely you won't get any shot off. Have it ready. While on the go, we use LowePro's frontloaders for quick access to the camera and film cards.
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Nepal Photography
While traveling and shooting in intense locations, a pre-dawn wake up alarm typically brings about a combined feeling of dread and excitement. Dread to dive into the crazy mix but anxious enthusiasm for what might be found. While neighboring India is almost overwhelmingly intense, Nepal is India-Lite, yet India like as well. The culture is visually rich for image making and the people some of the kindest, gentlest we have met anywhere. Where India assaults your senses, Nepal simply welcomes you.
Dan making the very photo, above
At the beginning of the winter, Janine and I realized we had little interest in ski touring 100+ days as we normally do. We decided to skip winter and tick off some life list destinations. On the top of our list for the last twelve years was Nepal. But, for so many reasons we had never gone. Seemingly the ideal destination, it combines what we love to shoot for work, mountain sports and lifestyle, with what we are most passionate to shoot for ourselves, a foreign culture.
Nepal proved true for all the things we hoped for. While tromping around the Himalaya we were able to put our mountain sport images alongside the culture we so love. And within Buddhism and Hinduism, we could disappear into another world to explore and study everything in the hopes of finding that magical image. For us, nothing is so stimulating as wandering countless hours only to come across what we are so visually intrigued by, then successfully getting it into our camera. We were each lucky to have several amazing finds in Nepal, we’re pretty thrilled with the results. Below is a sampling of our favorite images, a mix just as we experienced it, our life walking through the mountains and a few interesting things we saw along the way.
Swayambhu Stupa prayer wheel
Janine hiking along a mani stone wall
Man praying, dog sleeping. Boudhanath Stupa
Lung burning acclimatization run, Namche Bazar
A Hindu family watches a family member’s cremation at Pashupati Nath
Gokyo Valley
Best to let the Yak put the track in
Wandering Namche Bazar
Buddhism
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We hope you enjoyed these images and would love to hear your comments.
Next up, we head to Peru for a similar trip. We’ll post fun stories and random photos while we’re on the go.
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The Dream Job Schedule
The Tuscan village of Pienza
Outdoor Industry Photographer Life
In addition to being professional photographers, I think it’s safe to say we could be considered professional travelers. In February, after plugging many clients needs into the calendar, we saw that to make everything work we would have to be on the go for seven straight weeks. In the last twelve years we’ve done a lot of back to back trips, but this was ridiculous; Tuscany (post), Norway, Chamonix, Sicily, Switzerland, Italy – in two cases we went straight from airports home to swap bags, then dashed to the next location. Planes, airports, and cars served as editing stations, the iPhone the entire communication platform.
In Montura's new Gore ProShell, Kurt Astner climbing his route White Chocolate. Norway
Our trip to Norway was for W.L. Gore (Gore-Tex) and the Italian clothing company Montura. The goal was to photograph professional climber Kurt Astner climbing some new ice routes in bad weather. The trip also included our own fun, both wandering around the Lyngen Alps and lots of backcountry ski days.
Evening walk along the Norwegian Fjords and scoping ski lines on the other side
A day to ourselves with four laps of fun in the Lyngen Alps
From Norway we flew to Munich, drove three hours home, did laundry, slept a few hours and were in the car headed for Chamonix. The Swiss women’s clothing company Wild Roses had hired us to photograph two of their athletes for three days. The job was to document each of their lives as mother’s and very busy mountain athletes. Esther Larios is a Swiss UIAGM Mountain Guide based in Chamonix and a mother of two. American Nina Silitch, also a great friend and mother of two, is one of the world’s top women ski randonee racers, competing & training fulltime on the World Cup circuit while living in Chamonix. With each of them we spent a full day photographing their day to day routine. Then, the third day we headed into the mountains for a fun day of alpine climbing and skiing work.
Esther Larios and Nina Silitch on Chamonix's Midi Plan Traverse
Nina Silitch
Esther Larios and Nina Silitch in Chamonix
During the Chamonix shoot it became apparent it was crunch time. After the third day shooting skiing and climbing, we were back in the car for the 6 hour drive home. Once there, Groundhog Day; laundry, a bit of sleep, an attempt to edit, then our bell was ringing. Great friends Christof and Evi were outside, the car was packed, we were headed to Sicily for a week of sport climbing. Unlike the other trips, Sicily was our own shoot, both for stock and our DolomiteSport story. AAhhh…. relax a bit, get caught up, deliver some jobs, hang with friends and get a bunch of climbing in.
Christof Ursch at the Castle of Aragon, 7b. San Vito lo Capo, Sicily
With Sicily a wrap, we were back home and awaiting the arrival of our friend Ben Grasseschi from the US. Ben was on his way over to spend two weeks with us, ski touring and shooting more work for Gore. We had news for Ben… while he is from Lake Tahoe, where even now, well into April, they are still skiing winter powder, we in Europe had a mostly ski free winter. As photographers, we need blower powder, untracked lines and interesting weather. For Ben, and for much of the winter, we had very little snow and lots of splitter blue sky. We had the ingredients for some fun, but not to get a very specific photoshoot accomplished. Together with Ben and Italian friend Andrea Gabrielli we headed for Switzerland’s Piz Bernina Group for a multi-day ski tour. Then the very day we skied out of the Bernina, we drove to the Ortler Group and skied straight into another hut to give it a go for a few days. More hardpack snow, blue sky and carved up lines, but amongst it all – some turns, some laughs and loads of great food.
Andrea Gabrielli skiing amongst crevasses in the Piz Bernina Group
Looking back to now it was, as has been our entire career, a phenomenal experience. Great memories, lessons learned, new friends and of course lots of photos. The dream job is indeed dreamy.
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Posted in Photo Business, Photography, Travel
Also tagged Adventure Sports, Europe, Photography, Photoshoots, Travel
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Top 10 Favorite Photos of the Decade
Well we’ve done it – a top 10 List. Thanks to increasing peer pressure we have compiled our favorite 10 photos from the decade, which was our first full one in business.
Our succumbing to a Top 10 List is the fault of Twitter – where these are going around. My first thought was to not give a “Best of” much attention, but then I started to check some out and enjoyed seeing what, and more curiously why, the selects were made.
So Janine and I sat down for the edit. Of the 30,000+ images in our stock database we pulled 37, and from this we culled the lot down to 10 along with two honorable mentions that are purely for fun. The criteria; images that really speak to us, not because they are portfolio worthy or what we want people to see, but because they have great memories or are the type of images we enjoy most. It is interesting to note that the bulk of the images were from our earliest days, when we were really learning and everything we were shooting was so new, and of course being with our closest friends, which to this day remains the single best part of our job.
In no particular order, here they are.
Vote for your favorite, and why, via Comments
We spent the winter of 2000 in Moab, Utah, living in our VW Westfalia. Each day we ran trails, climbed and shot our first real work photos. This particular morning we were with two friends hiking up to climb Sister Superior. The approach was through dense fog, but as we arrived to the tower the fog settled below me allowing for a Brocken Spectre to form around my shadow, luckily in just the right spot.
We shoot much of Smartwool’s advertising photography. The Creative from this brilliant company is simple, go on cool trips with your friends and have some goofy fun in their product. With Andreas Irsara and Susie Sutphin we headed to Austria for the Silvretta Tour. Andreas was fresh back from an AC/DC concert, which got us thinking… I still can’t believe they did this. Hells Bells was playing on the iPhone, we were howling, and numerous Austrians were looking on in horror.
No photo better exemplifies the Italian Dolomites. Janine and I planned to be in this spot for sunset, I had my own ideas for a shot, Janine insisted on this one. She won, big time.
Twice we have traveled to India to get away to shoot what we love most, travel photography from the hip. In 2008 we went to Rajasthan and there made this photo, one of those scenes not so uncommon in India, but this one is just made special because of so many things.
Janine and I… always out. The Aiguille d’Entreves out of Chamonix
Kurt Astner on Zion’s Moonlight Buttress. The right place at the right time. The single most beautiful climbing line I have ever seen.
We all missed the alarm going off. It was meant to wake us around 4 but the sound was dampened by an arm under the pillow. We thought for sure we would be too low for getting a sunrise shot off en route to climb the Zinalrothorn above Zermatt, Switzerland. Some things work out for the best and we had sublime views of the first light hitting the Matterhorn and surrounding peaks. Janine and Alberto De Giuli.
Gonzalo – he wasn’t so sure about me taking his photo, but we like it. Lots going on.
Makes us smile and miss the Eastern Sierra
In the summer of 2001 we climbed all of California’s 14,000 foot peaks. On Mt. Russell’s Mithral Dihedral, what started off as a standard, sunny, Sierra Nevada day, quickly turned nightmarish. As we climbed above our friends so as to shoot down, all hell broke loose in the form of lightening and snowfall. There we were, several pitches up with lightening striking all around us. “Might as well keep shooting”, we thought. Janine got this photo of one of our best friends, Mark Leffler, as he raced into the belay so we could all start rappeling. In a business of what can be some posed scenes, this is certainly the real deal.
and the Honorable Mentions……
My favorite photo of Janine and our incredibly fun life. The very reason we go to places like India to make personal photos.
And finally, Janine laughs at this one. After she shot the last image in our Favorites, above, she turned her attention to me.
Vietnam Travel Photography
Travel Photography
On the first day of my photography school, I had to stand up in class, introduce myself, and explain what kind of a photographer I dreamt of being. To this, I proudly stated, “I want to shoot for the The National Geographic”. Later, I would learn that three years prior to my own announcement, a Swiss girl named Janine had done the same thing. Now, 14 years since that time, neither one of us are Geographic shooters. But, we did meet while applying for a NGS internship and we did shoot numerous assignments for the now defunct National Geographic Adventure. Maybe it is all for the best.
As professional Mountain Sport photographers, we know that having to shoot what you love instead of always just wanting to shoot what you love, sometimes turns it into, well, work. So, each fall we like to take a break from the mountains and go do what we enjoy most about photography, diving into another culture, wandering around, and photographing all the details and scenarios that we stumble upon. Not for work, but for fun.
Vietnam and Cambodia were this year’s destination. There we found a Southeast Asia in a frantic state of development where first world desires are colliding with third world traditions. As so often happens, it is the third world which provides all the color and character.
While shooting in this style we study life, both external and internal, in the hopes of finding beauty within chaos. I tend to focus on segments of the overall while Janine likes to pull back and show the larger picture.
To wake in the pre-dawn darkness and hop onto our rented motorbike, then to buzz along the coastline towards a chaotic fish market, this is our personal little National Geographic assignment.
This bucket is in the photo at the top of the post and was Dan's honing in on details while Janine preferred the overall scene, above.
The fish market, I knew this was going to produce a cool photo while walking towards the scene
Going a little tighter, suddenly it is an interesting image
Janine Patitucci photographing in Vietnam
Dan Patitucci making a discovery
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