A lovely story from Annie Griffiths Belt on her amazing career as a Nat Geo photographer and traveling with her kids.  I have just ordered her book.

Photographer's Peripatetic Life Is a Family Affair

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Annie Griffiths Belt was one of the first female photographers to be hired at National Geographic. Courtesy of Annie Griffiths Belt

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Annie Griffiths Belt

Belt's husband, Don, poses with their children, Lily (left) and Charlie, in Jordan. ©2008 National Geographic

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Annie Griffiths Belt

An opera star applies makeup in Hong Kong. ©2008 National Geographic

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Annie Griffiths Belt

A model poses on South Beach in Miami. ©2008 National Geographic

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Annie Griffiths Belt

A man wades into a swimming hole at the top of Victoria Falls in Zambia. ©2008 National Geographic

Weekend Edition Sunday, April 27, 2008 · For National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths Belt, the perfect packing material for cameras is — diapers.

The award-winning photojournalist and mother of two says even after her children were toilet-trained, she still made use of diapers because they fit around her camera lenses like a glove. And she has carried them to places around the globe during her 30-year career at the magazine.

One of the first female photographers hired at National Geographic, Belt documents her peripatetic life as a photographer and mother in a new book, A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel: My Journey in Photographs.

Belt, who was hired in 1978, and her husband, Don, a writer at the magazine, decided that their children should accompany Belt on most of her photo assignments. With the help of dedicated nannies and a hefty sense of adventure, Belt took Lily and Charlie around the world in their younger years. She found that even in the most remote parts of the planet, her role as a mother opened doors.

"People wonder if I would have access in the Middle East, and whenever I've been in a culture that's divided by gender, to me it's a huge advantage." Belt says during a conversation with Liane Hansen. "There are so many male photographers out there covering the guys, but let me tell you, the girls are having a good time."

From Jordan to the Galapagos Islands and beyond, Belt's children joined in her adventures, sometimes missing school for weeks at a time. The family experienced joyful moments — and dangerous ones — along the way. There were bear encounters at Yellowstone National Park and brushes with sharks in the Galapagos, and Belt says she and her husband routinely weighed the risks of exposing their children to exotic locales.

Eventually, academic demands made it impossible for her children to go globetrotting, and Belt eventually found her career taking off in new directions. Today, in addition to her work as a National Geographic photographer, she is an author and speaker. And Lily and Charlie are now 18 and 15, respectively.

Belt says A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel is testament to the fact that mothers, especially, can fulfill their dreams.

Photographer's Peripatetic Life Is a Family Affair : NPR

A simply lovely write and slide show in the NYT on the master photographer and printer.  Worth a read for sure.  Click on the link at the bottom for the details.  

Journeys | Yosemite National Park

What Adams Saw Through His Lens

Courtesy of the Cedric Wright Family

Ansel Adams, photographing in Yosemite National Park from atop his car in about 1942. Many come to the park to try to take the same photos he did.

• By LOUISE STORY

Journeys | Yosemite National Park - What Adams Saw Through His Lens - Travel - New York Times

So you have

• been feed because it must have been at least a couple hours since you last feed
• been brushed which feels really good because you are loosing your winter coat
• played with your furry toy that's your favorite
• even drank the remaining milk from your Dad's cereal bowl

What else is there left to do but lay on your back as the sun streams through the window and sleep the rest of the morning away.  Not a bad life.  Enough said, back to work.

Having given up coffee quite a few years ago and switching to tea I'm always interested in reading and viewing about my new favorite hot drink.  Reuters recently posted a lovely photography spread of a number of shots of tea that is quite wonderful.  I would have never ever thought I would have anything in common with both the Queen of England and Paris Hilton - go figure.   Click on the picture or link for the full slide show. 

A tea vendor holds an umbrella at a roadside in Mumbai July 5, 2007.  

REUTERS/Sima Dubey

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1603&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=13

I was catching up on my photo blog reading and came across this fascinating collection of photographs by Rachel Papo of the young women of Israel who are placed into military service at the tender age of 18.   Taken many years after her own service its a very insightful view of the life that these women lead for 2 years.  The collection is superb as it highlights their young yet their seriousness of their world.  Worth a few moments of your time to check it out.    Linked below. 

 

RACHEL PAPO : Serial No. 3817131

This week in Seattle has been very cold for us, but simply beautiful with bright sunny days.  This week has also been a full moon week and this time, rather than try and shoot the exclusive moon at night I thought I would try first thing in the morning. 

What is obviously different is that not only do you get the full moon, but you also get the sunrise and that lovely orange glow that last for a few minutes.  For us that means that as the sun rises over the city it lights up the snow on the Olympic Mountains in the West and a perfect spot with the moon as it sets for the day.  And then some kind captain also moored their large grain ship in a perfect place on the Puget Sound to add some depth to the photograph.

A lovely morning for sure and a great way to start the day.

For those photographers that use Microsoft Outlook there is a very nice little tool that has just been released that allows you to select which camera gear that you need for a shoot and enter it into your calendar item.   I've been playing around with it and it looks like its going to be really helpful for preparing for a trip as you can simply enter the items that you will need by selecting them and then view them on screen or print them out while you pack.  Much more details here and then the download here. 

Microsoft Pro Photo: Never Forget a Lens Again          

This last week in Seattle we had some lovely weather days, especially the evenings.  I will add, that the lovely weather left us this weekend as we had snow and rain which had people running for their snow chains!   Anyway, back to last week as I'm still catching up on things - as usual.   I wish I knew the reason why, but for whatever reason the sunsets last week were incredibly bright with lots of yellow and orange evenings as the sun left for the day.  Way more than usual, sorta reminds me of those Africa sunsets.   Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to be able to get out and explore, but I did grab this shot of Jester as he was taking in the sun at the top of the stairs.  

Was it me, or did winter arrive really quick?  I guess seeing as its now Thanksgiving here in the US and in much of the country snow is already falling the obvious answer is yes, but boy was that quick!  I only got around to looking at this shot of a Japanese Maple taken a few weeks ago in its full fall color.  Long live winter I guess!

I was catching up reading various blogs this morning and came across this story of Photojournalist Richard Hernandez, from the the San Jose Mercury News.  He has created a really cool photostory that uses an interactive photo's and audio clips to create an interactive story.  This time he has created a panorama of Willow Glen, a small community in the vast San Jose city that is very unique for the area.  

The photo story can be found here http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/blog/2007/11/16/where-we-live-5/ scroll left to right and then click on the little bubbles to see the cool photo or story pop-ups. 

If you want to see how it was created see the video below from the ScoblesShow.  A very pleasant break on this ThanksGiving holiday here in the US.  

San Jose Mercury News photojournalist uses VuVox to tell photostory | ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers

Jones, well Miss Georgia Jones if you want her full name and Jester have an interesting relationship to say the least.  In the morning he is all feisty and his favorite game is to attack Jones.  She often puts up a good fight, but at other times he gets her and fur goes everywhere.  This is especially problematic when he attacks her when she is going potty.  I mean, now of all the times when we want a bit of privacy it has to be bathroom time!  It got the stage where today I had to go to the store to buy a separate litter setup to see if they can have one each.  Time will tell! 

And then at other times they will appear to be content to hang out together and almost like each other.  The other day Amy and I were walking into the studio to find them both sleeping, all be it one up and one down, on one of their perches together.    We were watching them for a while and then Jones saw us looking and its if she felt all embarrassed and had to leave and come see us.  Relationships ~~~ ahh! 

I was out and about earlier and caught site of this amusing Halloween face that was 'painted' on one of the large buildings downtown this evening.  I had to double take at first and then laughed at the how the WAMU tower had arranged the lights to look like a happy Halloween face.  A quick capture here

My friend KMak has a new photo blog.  Its just starting out, but worth checking out and adding to your RSS list.   

My Life Fotos

I find myself feeling incredibly fortunate right now that I live so close to Pike Place markets in Seattle.   I just got back from a trip there to grab some supplies to make lunch.  Walking to get your supplies does change your shopping habits, or maybe should I say return them to when we didn't rely on cars so much.  Rather than shop for a week or maybe two you end up shopping for two or maybe three days due to the simple fact that is all you can carry!  But the obvious advantage is that everything is super fresh and I find the markets so much more friendly than a typical food store.   

And what a super simple lunch I made: fresh Olive Bread, a generous layer of strong Dijon Mustard, ham, aged english cheddar and to wrap it off some yummy branston pickle.   Incredibly simple and basic, but so good and to wash it down, a pint of pale ale! 

My friend Mark Eskenazi would probably laugh at this photograph.  You see he's a pro that specializes in food photography here in Seattle having worked with Opal, Crush and with many more local chief's and restaurants.   We were having this discussion the other day about the need to have a good depth of field with lots of detail, with the whole plate visible, something that he focus's a lot on when he is working.  I guess I'm not going to get any gigs soon around food photography, but then again I was just hungry!   

Back to work I go, no naps for me today.  

The big guy clearly has had a big day as there he was zonked out on the stairs, with an occasional twitch as he was in dream mode.  I bet he was dreaming about those pesky birds he keeps failing to catch!  He looked so peaceful that I had to grab this shot.  I like the detail of the flowers in his tail and also the crack in the wall running down the stairs. 

I debated about color or black & white.  Still not sure!  Taken with my fast 50mm. 

OK, off to the farmers markets to buy supplies. 

Today saw solid rain for much of the day in downtown Seattle.  It was almost as if the weather decided to wake us up to the fact that winter was closer than many would like. 

However this evening the rain had stopped and much of the city had cleared somewhat, with even some occasional blue sky's.  I say 'much' because for a while it felt that the city was surrounded - towards the south you had those pesky storm clouds high in the sky - towards the north and west there was either very low cloud or fog that was covering both the sky and water so that you couldn't see the islands or mountains in the distance.  Then all of a sudden the sun broke through, blasting rays down on the water, creating an incredible reflection and haze that you needed sun glasses to look at it.  It really was a very strange light, yet beautiful as well.  Then as if I had planned it along came a ferry that almost zig-zag'ed across the sound and headed into the dark clouds/fog.  I especially liked the reflections from the wake as the ferry steamed through the water, glistening and sparkling in the sun. 

I thought this moody shot was worth a post.    

This morning I got up and went out for a shoot.  It was a lovely sunny morning yet a large fog bank had moved up the Puget Sound into Seattle and I was hoping to get some good moody photographs of the fog.  More on that another time. 

While I was working I noticed a seagull hanging out on a fence with something hanging out of its beak and I thought I would get closer to see what he/she had found.  I'm not an expert on these but it looked like the gull had found some sea urchin and was proudly protecting its catch, yet at the same time struggling to figure out a way to eat it.  After a while it jumped down from its perch and walked across the dock while throwing the catch up in the air trying to find a way to consume the breakfast.  I'm not actually sure if it was edible or not, but I guess the gull would know!

A funny little moment for me and then I walked off to try and focus on my original task!

This evening I grabbed a quick bite to eat with a good friend.  We both had a couple of long days and were both starving by the time that 8pm came around when we bumped into each other.  We just went out to one of the neighborhood restaurant and after some good food and a couple of glasses of wine with some engaging conversation life seems a whole lot better! 

On the way home we both noticed the moon over the sound and at the time the clouds were covering it.   After saying goodbye I grabbed the camera but alias the clouds were gone and the night clear.  Decided to grab a shot anyway as I liked the darkness grabbing the part of the moon that we couldn't see.

Anyone that has any spent anytime with photography will have learnt many things that infrequently seem to be written down in any text books.  Maybe its the little things that no author or instructor deems to be relevant, but as someone that has spent much time behind the camera these are the little things that make me smile when I look back at my history.  I was thinking about camera bags a couple days ago as I was sorting out some gear and looking at my vast collection.  These are the three simple things that I keep coming up against;

1. It will always get in the frame.   You are out and you find a spot that looks interesting to make some photographs.  You place your bag on the floor, in what seems like an out of the way place and walk around looking at the scene.  After a while you grab your camera and a lens and start to work.  If you are doing your job correctly you will be moving around a bunch to find new and different ways to capture the scene.  And then it happens, the original spot where you put your camera back will appear in your view finder!   And if you are like me it will happen another once or twice before you are done there. 
2. You can never have enough.  You first start out in photography and you get a general camera bag, something that holds the body you first purchased.  Then you add another lens or two over a period of time and you find your bag isn't big enough and off to the store you go.  Then you are getting ready for a trip and think rather than take a camera bag and a computer bag why not buy one that holds both.  You quickly realize that not only is the number of bags growing, but so too is their size, so you decide you need something small and light, just the camera body and maybe one or two spare lens to take on a hike.   And the quest continues to find the ideal bag, which there will never be because each trip is different and hence what gear you take will also be different.
3. Whatever you choose, it will be wrong.  You get ready for a trip and you select the camera body(s) and the lens that you think will be appropriate.  Once you get that figured out you select a bag to match the gear and also the carrying method and you think you are all set.   And then during the trip you really wish you had that extra lens, or that additional battery or film, or the main camera that you have breaks and wish you brought you second camera body.  And then what's often worse is the time that it feels like you have taken everything apart from the kitchen sink and you find that you only use one lens! 

The last point, that you will never choose correctly comes to mind when I was looking at these photographs.  What would at first seem interesting wildlife shots when I was out on some trip wondering around some wilderness were in fact taken in the middle of a huge city.   The trip in question was my last trip to Hong Kong.  Although my schedule had me having a couple of days to explore the city, I wasn't expecting to see any wildlife and hence didn't take any long lens.  I thought I had planned well, I did take quite a few lens with me, yet I wasn't ready for this as the longest I had with me was my 70-200mm and I really would have needed a 300mm or 400mm to grab the detail that I like.   Tis the 3 rules!

All in all the trip was filled with surprises.  I went to Hong Kong via Europe which at the time seemed logical.  What wasn't so great was that I managed to get sick just as I was boarding the plane leaving Madrid.  It had to be one of the worst flights in my memory and even had me in bed a couple of days once I had arrived in Hong Kong.   Mind you, I did get some shots of the city even while being hauled up in my hotel room. 

On the final day I was feeling better and I got to go explore and I headed out from the central terminal and took the Star Ferry to an area known as Kowloon.  After leaving the initial port area with its hundred's of tourist shops I found some interesting back streets and had a lovely time wondering around different vendor stalls and watching people interact as they went on with their life's.   Around one corner I came across a large well appointed park with loads of pretty flowers and trees so I headed in.  After some thirty minutes I ran into this pond and it was here that I was surprised to find a large number of these tortoise hanging out on various fallen tree's.  Not quite what I was expecting at all.  I got to wondering if the tree's were blown down in a storm or were placed there to make a perfect habitat for the sun basking tortoise. 

Oh well!  It was a lovely day anyway. 

One of favorite walks that I have been lucky to have done many times starts out in a small seaside town called Coogee in Sydney Australia.   When I first arrived in Australia I actually lived in Coogee for a year or so and in many ways the town is typical of what you will find in Sydney's eastern suburb's with life very much centered around the beautiful beach. 

If you ever find yourself in Coogee with a couple of hours to kill and are tired of sitting on the beach take yourself off for a beautiful walk.  From the beach turn North (left assuming you are looking towards the Tasman Sea) and when the beach ends you will see a small path that heads up over the headland towards the right.  Once you pick-up the path you will find that it runs right along the coastline and it will take you past Clovelly, Bronte Beach, Tamarama, Hunter Park and eventually you will reach the world famous Bondi Beach.  No matter how often I do the walk, and even when I was fitter and I would run much of it,  I never get tired of it and its typically on my agenda when I'm in Sydney. 

In many ways the highlight of the walk is actually the cemetery that is in-between Clovelly Beach and Bronte Beach.  If you want to see it on the map click here, and click on the hybrid button on the left hand side and zoom in to see detail.   I have always loved cemetery's and often seek them out when I'm traveling.  This one is hundreds of years old and I'm afraid in some cases needs some much needed care with a number of the pathways and tombs showing their age.  Even so its still a wonderful place and I will typically stop and spend quite a while walking around looking at the hundreds of grave's.  When I lived in Sydney one of my favorite times of the year to go there was in the winter, especially when a storm was blowing in and you can sit on the cliff edge as the wind and waves come crashing in, often spraying you with seawater as the waves break on the rocks below. 

This grave caught my eye because of the number of Bridge family members that were grouped together from as early as 1866 to 1933.   Or maybe it was the kookaburra bird that was sat at the top enjoying the view that pulled me in.  Or maybe just the moody clouds in the background contrasting with the grave.   

Like the title of this post says, 'a fine place to rest' be it for a few hours on your walk or for ever.