In this age of super saturated images, it's sometimes easy to forget the simple beginnings of photography when everything was rendered in black and white, sepia or, for a real change, selenium.  When you strip away the colour from an image you are left with only tonal values from white to black, as well as the shapes and texture of the scene. 

To create an effective black and white image you need to look at a scene in front of you differently.  You need to pay attention to the highlights and the shadows, where they fall in the image and how they relate to one another. You need to ask yourself if there are sufficient differences between the lights and the darks of an image to give a pleasing range of greys in a final picture.  If all the colours have the same tone, the final image will appear flat and muddy.

Looking for  shapes and their textures in a scene help to determine where the interest will be and where the shapes should be placed in the final image.  This is a great place to rediscover the rule of thirds.

The image at the left was photographed at the Living Desert in Palm Desert, California.  The adobe walls in the original image were great but the texture was lost amongst the colour.  Stripping away most of the colour and toning the image slightly brought out the texture in the wall and cacti and the complimentary shapes of all of the picture elements.    The colour image had too much information in it and the composition appeared to be quite flat. 

Sometimes a picture has so few colours in it that it is, by definition, already monochrome.  The image to the left of Paris rooftops had shades of grey and beige and not much else - a flat and optically boring image.  By converting it to a high contrast black and white image, all the boring colour was stripped away leaving only the shape and texture of the roofs to contemplate.  The image has the added advantage of looking like a black and white etching or antique postcard and I think the image now reflects the age of the buildings themselves.

It takes a while to train your brain to think in black and white but once you start noticing shape and texture, you will be on your way to making some very compelling images.  You can start by taking some colour images you already have and converting them to black and white in your favourite image editor.  You will soon begin to see which ones lend themselves to being rendered in black and white.  Once you can see the difference, you will be ready to go out and experiment in monotone images.

“But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.”
― Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe

I think Bill has it right - really travelling means losing yourself and even your understanding of the world sometimes.  Whether that means losing yourself on a beach for a week with a series of books or trying to navigate places so foreign that nothing is easily understood, there are many ways to escape the ordinary.  This is probably what draws many of us to travel - the chance to forget about deadlines at work, bills that need paying and household chores that need doing.  If you do it right, you can even forget the date, day of the week or, in extreme cases, the time of day.  The longer your journey is and the further from home you venture, the easier it is to exist outside of the day-to-day; to really lose yourself in another time and place.

Our trip several years ago to Nuuk, Greenland was a prime example of this.  Cruise ships stop here on occasion in September when the ice supposedly has melted enough to allow a close approach to shore. Once ashore we had the run of the town, which had suddenly grown in population by a factor of two with the arrival of our cruise ship.  The folks were friendly and welcoming and as long as you remembered to look both ways before crossing the street (traffic signs are suggestions here), you really can't get into any trouble.  And speaking of signs, many are written in Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), the language spoken by the Inuit of Western Greenland.  Helpfully, most were also written in Danish, which meant that I could stand there and understand that I was completely illiterate in TWO languages while also appreciating just how exotic and exciting that was :-)

Jan and I easily navigated through the town and learned there was a baby boom underway (nine months after the coldest, darkest month of the year), that raspberries where $12 for a small container, and the we could shop at the same JYSK store we had back in Saskatoon.  Although we were here only a day, it felt like we were far away from our usual lives and selves.  To be able to share, even for a few hours, the way other people lived in such a remarkable place was a real gift.  

Recently I have gotten to know a fellow traveller who I would like to introduce to you.  Adam Shepard has just spent a year travelling the world and taking the time to really learn about other countries,  people and himself in the process.  His new e-book, "One Year Lived'" takes the reader with Adam through seventeen countries as he lived, worked and learned along the way.  His book begins with his first bungee jumping experience and proceeds on from there in easy to read and engaging prose.  Adam is a traveller, not a tourist, and as he year progressed, he met incredibly interesting people and experienced each country in a new and unique way.

To mark the release of Adam's book on April 18, we gave away a pdf version of his book "One Year Lived" next Wednesday, April 25 at 6:00pm CT time.  And the envelope please....... congratulations to Jeff-yes-that-Jeff for the win! 

Further information about Adam and "One Year Lived" is available here. or read the press released via the link below.

For many people the quick answer to this is "yes".  With smartphones now equipped with cameras that resolve north of 8MP, the picture quality is getting pretty good.  Yes, the size of the sensor is tiny and the grain in the image if low light images can be distracting, but since most of us will not be making large prints, the results can be quite good. 

The advantage to these cameras is that they are always with us so the chances of "capturing the moment" are very good.  Without an optical zoom, you are not going to use these for hunting land animals or birds, but for people pictures and landscapes they preform quite well. 

It is now possible to download a number of very good apps which will improve the photos you can capture.  Some even help you with the presentation of your final images.  I have been playing recently with:


Simply B & W: an easy to use program that lets you convert your camera or photo library images to very credible black and images.

Layout: an great way to, ah - layout your images with good looking frames around them.  Display individually or in groups as seen above.

Pano Camera: a very simple to use app that will create panoramas up to 360 degrees wide.  Simply take your first image and then line up the automatically generated targets for the next shots.  The final image is pretty good considering it takes next to no time to do and doesn't require a tripod.

Whether you use your camera in "plain vanilla" mode or tarted up with an app or two, smartphones today provide a great alternative to a compact digital camera.  If you don't need a telephoto, if you aren't using it in exceedingly dim conditions and if you don't make large prints, this may be all the camera you need.  If you haven't tried some of the photo apps out there, treat yourself, they cost very little and can add a great deal of versatility to your photography.

What camera to take on an Alaskan cruise is a question that we are often asked.  Another good question is how is a cruise different from other holidays?  To answer the second question first, a cruise is about the only place your ten story hotel glides past the landscape and associated wildlife at a majestic 10 miles an hour.  As a result, you are towering above the flora and fauna and need both a wide angle lens for the scenery and a good telephoto lens for the wildlife.  Over and over again I have noticed that if there is anything that is going to disappoint a photographer, it is how far away the critters in Alaska usually are.

Selecting any camera or lens is always an exercise in compromise among factors such as lens performance, speed, weight, zoom range and price.  These are very personal choices and there are going to be folks out there who don't like my choices but here we go anyway.

If you are a casual shooter who doesn't want to carry around a big black Digital SLR, you are still going to want to capture the scenery and do the passing wildlife justice.  Your best bet is a class of cameras called "travel zooms" which are relatively compact but still sport a large enough zoom lens to magnify those distant critters. 

You may want to consider something like the Panasonic Lumix ZS20, which is a 14.1 MP camera with a 20X optical zoom (with built-in image stabilization) giving a magnification factor that will be useful in Alaska.  In addition, the camera has a histogram so you can accurately judge exposure and a GPS that will mark not only the coordinates of the photo location but also tag it with the city, region and country - always handy when you look back at your images and wonder where they were taken!

If you are a photographer who wants to carry a DSLR with you, the trick is to carry enough equipment to get the job done and not an ounce more.  I carry a Canon 5D MkII, a 24-105 IS zoom, a 70-200 f/2.8 IS zoom, a 50mm f/1.4, a 1.4 extender for the long telephoto, and a macro extension tube for any close up work with the 50mm.  I also carry a Speedlite 270ex as my camera has no built in flash.

If I had to tell the truth, I rarely use the extension tube, the 50mm or the flash, but they aren't that big or heavy to carry so along they come.  I do use the 70-200 quite a bit as well as the 1.4 extender.  When I am out whale watching on smaller boats I have this combination on the entire time as whales just don't often approach the tour boats and the captains are required to stand off quite a ways from marine wildlife.

If you are using a crop camera like a Canon D60 or Rebel T4i, consider a 15-85 and a 70-300 or similar lenses.  The advantage with these lenses is they are still competent performers but a lot lighter and less bulky than what I carry.  Having said this, Jan has developed a real liking for our 300 f/4 IS as her telephoto lens of choice.

We are sometimes asked about super zoom lenses that go from wide angle to extreme telephoto (18mm - 270mm as an example).  While these lenses do sacrifice some quality performance to achieve this kind of zoom range, if you are not a critical user who needs to make 16 X 20 enlargements, this might be a single lens solution for you. 

My issue with these kind of lenses is how slow they can be.  They are almost always variable aperture of something in the range of f/3.5 - 6.3,  which means they gather a fair bit of light at the wide angle end - in this example f/3.5, but drop off to a very slow f/6.3 at the telephoto end of things. This is bad for two reasons:  first, the light in Alaska can be quite dim on a heavily overcast day, making it a struggle to get enough light into the camera.  Second, having to select a slower shutter speed because your lens can't gather enough light means you run the very real possibility of winding up with a blurry photo because the lens moved during exposure.  If you can, try to find a lens (or camera) with image stabilization to help out with longer telephotos on overcast days.

Regardless of the camera or lens you buy, look for something that gives you at least a moderate wide angle to a long telephoto (28mm to 200mm in a 35mm equivalent) either in a single lens or as a combination. 

Finally, we are sometimes asked about rain and ocean spray and its effect on cameras. From experience I can say don't be too concerned about this as we have taken any number of non-weatherproof cameras to Alaska with no ill effects. If you are really concerned, your local camera store can probably sell you a disposable rain sleeve for a few dollars to put your camera in during very wet weather.  Again, I have carried these to Alaska but have not used them.

Interested in improving your photo techniques while exploring some of the most beautiful scenery in North America?  Consider joining us on our September 16, 2013 Alaskan Cruise and Photo Seminar.  We are sailing on Island Princess for 7 days out of Vancouver where you will have many opportunities to photograph the stunning Alaska scenery and wildlife.  Check here for additional information as we plan to have a great time learning from one another and making some wonderful images.

Our first real stop this summer was Aberdeen, Scotland, a city of 217,000 located about half-way up the eastern coast of the country.  As the staging point to the North Sea oil industry it's a prosperous and busy city that is quietly beautiful and appealing.  Often called the Granite City because of the use of local stone to build everything, it projects a sense of stability and honesty.  Jan and I loved the city from the start.  The downtown core is easy to walk around with the Mither Kirk, the fine Aberdeen Art Gallery, the Union Terrace Gardens and the Old Town Market easily reached from the central train station.  A little further afield are the Duthie Gardens, and the University of Aberdeen in what is known as "Old Aberdeen", an area that used to stand apart from Aberdeen itself.

The city is located in Aberdeenshire, an area of picturesque, rolling farmlands that reminds me a great deal of Saskatchewan.  Many folks come here to travel the Whisky Trail which includes the Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Strathisla distilleries. There is also the Castle Trail which takes visitors to see many beautiful castles - some ruined, some restored and some still lived in.  Dunnottar Castle, pictured above, is one such castle ruin located to the south of Aberdeen.

We were immensely lucky to spend a day with David Langan, a local fine art photographer.  David picked us up at our hotel and took us first to Old Aberdeen to walk the quiet streets and gather some morning images of this beautiful district.  The University of Aberdeen is located here and everywhere you turn old and modern architecture and sculptures share the landscape. 

Next we headed to Stonehaven to visit Dunnottar Castle, a ruin set on a spectacular seaside rock outcrop with impressive vertical cliffs protecting its position.  William Wallace is said to have defeated the English near the castle at the end of the thirteenth century.

From here we travelled south to the small village of Inverbervie to grab lunch from the Bervie Chipper, a fish and chips shop that has won national awards in Scotland and the UK.  We took our lunch to the Gourdon harbour and sat on the jetty of this small and picturesque fishing harbour to take in the views and eat some remarkable, fresh fish.  We explored the harbour for a while before driving to Fyvie Castle, a huge, beautiful pink fortification.  Not only is the colour remarkable, but it is said that it is one of the most haunted castles in the UK.  The only white apparition we saw while there was the bride's dress in a bridal party using the ground for photos.

Our final stop of the day was a private castle that has been lovingly restored by Marc and Karen Ellington.  What a pleasure to walk through the beautiful gardens in front of the castle and then to have an opportunity to see it from the inside.  Marc and Karen were wonderful hosts and the residence was simply stunning.

David was a brilliant guide, driver and tutor.  He has a tremendous sense of light and made certain that each stop took full advantage of the sun's position on the unusually beautiful and warm summer day.  Without David we wouldn't have seen so much of this beautiful country, learned so much about Scotland past and present or had so many doors open for us to explore behind.