Category Archives: ART

The Last Cruise?

No simple way about it.  My wife and I love to travel.  We worked hard over the years, saved and looked for great deals to explore places we’d only dreamed of.  One of the best solutions was to cruise.  But the coronavirus has changed the industry.  Details are still to come but they’ll need a lot of solutions before they can sail again.  How are cruise lines going to convince 250 – 4,000 guests they will be safe.  And what about the buffets, the big draw… Stay tuned.

Details:  All images are from our cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale.  I used a Nikon mirrorless Z6 camera with both a 16-35 and 28-300 lens.

Where are You?

Everyone has a special place.  I think mine is Ketchikan, Alaska.  I change my mind quite often.  Sometimes it’s Kauai, other times New Orleans but for now it’s Ketchikan.  I was introduced to the area by my great friend Charley Starr.  Charley moved his family and photo business there 10 years ago.  It is a small seaside city, population over 13,000 and is dependent on the cruise ship industry to survive and thrive.   Charley has generously hosted me on four visits and on the fifth I finally brought Patti, my wife.  The geography is unlike anything here in San Diego.  We were able to see waterfalls, bears, eagles and the salmon were running.  I wish I was a better writer so I could describe the area and community.  Wherever we went Charley was greeted and the people were pleasantly friendly to us strangers.  I’ve started to remember names and now know places to go.  It’s truly a small town environment with a Walmart.  I can’t wait to go back.  Where is your special place?

More of my work can be seen at www.zwink.com

The People of Cuba

I’m not a real descriptive writer.  That’s why I’m a photographer, a visual artist.  I let my images tell the story.  Cubans were very friendly, interested and loved to interact.  Tour guides loved to tell the stories of the Revolution and the strength of the culture.  Owners of paladores  wanted to not only share their tasty cuisine but the stories of their families.  Street vendors along with the hustlers were happy to share their smiles.  Others just wanted to enjoy their siesta.

Havana on the Move

 

Havana, Cuba is not New York City yet, but it’s streets are busy during the days.  Predominately carefully maintained l1950s style cars, many with original motors and others that have been converted to Russian diesel motors with the telltale sounding diesel noise.  We rode to a jazz club in a 1956 Chevy Impala with the owner styled and groomed to match his cherry red Chevy.

Delivery trucks, freight trucks, buses and horse drawn carriages are interspersed by the rare modern Mercedes and Toyotas.  Road rage a rarity.  It will come.

Can You play with your Paper airplane anymore?

DJI_0077APersonally, I would not mind if there was a basic certification to regulate the industry. The fact is there has been an increased interest from photographers, hobbyists and business owners to integrate into their offering. With the advent of gps in the “drones” it has become easier to fly. But stuff happens, how many pilots will know how to safely react and land without injuring anyone or damaging property? And if you’re flying without FAA knowledge or permission will your insurance still cover you?
I just wish the FAA would do their job and let us get back to ours.

To Tour or not to Tour…


 That is the question……
This is the good and bad of being stuck on a tour bus.  Patti Zwink and I went to Cuba.  We decided we wanted to see Cuba before it was “Americanized” and for a first trip a tour would be the best way to see the country.  Over the next few day’s I’ll share what we saw, a mere glimpse.  This is from the first day of being in country.
Images shot with an iPhone 6+ and a Nikon D810 with a 24-70 lens.

Revisit and Revive the Old

_DSC9749

Need something to do but want to be productive?  Revisit your old files and take a fresh look at them.  Perhaps you missed an interesting image or, it just wasn’t edited right. Here are three images that I shot in 2012 back in Kansas, where I grew up.  _DSC9612 This one I particularly like.  I missed originally that it was sitting in a pocket of light shining through the trees.  Once I started working on the file I also saw the subtle pink and magenta tone sitting in the low laying clouds.  _DSC9604I was stoked.  I’ve shot thousands of images from Kansas over the years and many views get a repeated look.  Different times of the year, different times of the day.  You never know where that special light will occur, or if it’s already in your images.  Revisit….

 

My website:  www.zwink.com  Techy stuff:  post production in Adobe Lightroom 5.

Is Diversity Good for the Career?

0010600147I just spent the week going thru my Hawaii archives….and I came across a folder from a trip back home a couple years ago. Not sure where it is exactly, sometimes I just drive.  As a documentary photographer I’m drawn to places like this, to get a glimpse into our past.  I think then I’m partially a historian.

But in my day to day life I promote myself as a architectural and corporate photographer.  Can I do both?  Not if I want the big boys to take me serious.  This was a concept I struggled with mighty in the past.  I was trained as a photojournalist.  As such you had to learned to be good in several specialties.  The more diverse, the more value you were to the editorial brand.  I took pride in being able to venture into unknown situations and produce, it’s what we did.

As a “commercial” photographer the more you specialize, the more value you bring to the table, the more you can charge.  The perception is that your image as a specialist will bring more value to their product, brand and reputation.  It isn’t always who is the best image maker, who is perceived as such.

In my financial portfolio, I diversify, as a business owner I’m an Architectural Photographer (and don’t tell anyone, a darn good documentary, travel and corporate one also).

My work:  http://www.zwink.com  My editorial archives:  http://www.bigstudioz.com

Is it Art, Pt.2?

I wrote this post a little over a year ago on a different site.  I have spent a lot of time since then thinking about the topic and then expanding it to what is photography?  I’ll let you savor on the post for a couple days and then I’ll share some thoughts.

 I was in SF last week on an extensive corporate photo shoot for Swinerton.  When I was leaving I decided to take the Treasure Island exit on the way back to the airport.  The last time I was on TI was in 1975 when it was a Navy Base and I was a naive young seaman in Electronic Warfare school.  So many memories……  I first decided to do a quick photo shoot of the skyline which was etched in my memory.  I first shot it with my Nikon D3 and then decided to try my iPhone on Hipstamatic mode.  Ugh…… it looked as flat and hazy as the skyline.  So then I opened my new favorite app. Snapseed.  With a few adjustments and then a frame adjustment the above photo is what I ended up with.  I know, it looks grainy and it does.  But, the end result is that I’m going to print it on watercolor on my Epson inkjet printer.  A few years ago I did a similar series that I printed on the watercolor paper and it looked great.  Now, we’ll find out how IPhone photos hold up.

The techy stuff:  camera:  iPhone 4 (the 5 is on order)

Apps:  Hipstamatic and Snapseed by Nik

My real work is at:  http://www.zwink.com