Here is my favorite image so far from the project:

One of the biggest challenges any travel photographer faces when traveling is packing for a trip. You have to figure out what gear is necessary and what can be left behind and in my experience, no matter how carefully you pack there is always some piece of equipment that you leave behind that you regret once you arrive at the destination.

In addition to packing the gear you also have to decide what bag to pack it all in and that is where an iPad has become indispensable for me. It used to be that I basically had to bring along an extra carry on for my computer, travel hard drive, card reader, etc…. But now as long as I am going somewhere with reliable Wifi, I don’t have to worry about all of that. All I need is my iPad, camera connector kit, and charger which fits into the back pocket of my Think Tank retro 20 bag, which is my main city camera bag. So I can choose to bring along a few extra camera bits or just go that much lighter. Plus going through airport screening checks is much easier since I don’t have to deal with pulling my iPad out of the bag since it can be read by the xray machines.

The on-screen keyboard is ok for typing short messages and for surfing the web, but if you are like me and have to keep up with emails or want to update your blog while you are away, then a wireless keyboard is a must have. I picked up a Brookstone leather keyboard case, it looks classy, the keys have a good action (better than the rubber keys found on other iPad keyboards), it is a bit small in comparison to a standard keyboard so anyone who is used to touch typing will take a while to get used to it.

Some of the iPad applications that are a must have for anyone looking to leave their laptop’s at home are:

Pages- to write documents that can be emailed as Word, PDF or Pages format.
Keynote- to create slideshows for presentations. An advantage of using an iPad for presentations is the ability to not have a screen between the audience and yourself. The program also has a feature where you can put your finger down on the screen and it will look like you are using a laser pointer without having to carry one with you. (You will need the AVI-iPad connector)
Filterstorm Pro- is probably the most powerful photo editing app available. It allows you almost as much control as lightroom or photoshop with the ability to edit images with multiple layers, masking, and various other controls like contrast, brightness, curves. The app also has quite in-depth tutorials to guide you through how to use it. It also allows you to uploaded edited photos to Dropbox (a cloud app that allows you to store files remotely and then access them from any of your devices)

Then there are the social networking apps like facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc… that will allow you to keep up to date with your friends, family, collegues, and clients with your movements.

After the last six months of traveling without my laptop, I have found that though my iPad does not do everything that my laptop could do, it does cover most of the bases already. I am sure that in the future once more apps are developed, the laptop will actually become obsolete and most people wanting a portable computer will be using some sort of tablet instead.

To go to an Ironman event is to be truly inspired, sure the pros go fast and make it seem do able (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike and finally a 42 km run) not exactly easy but they do seem to cruise through it. What is truly inspirational are the age group athletes who make it seem like the superhuman effort it really is. I will be posting another gallery later with more images of the age group athletes and the struggles they went through, but here are some images that I quickly grabbed from the day…..

For anyone who is interested, Cameron Brown (Bib #1) won the men’s pro event in 8:31:07 and Sam Warriner won the women’s pro event in 09:28:24.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Cheers
Mead

One of the reasons the site has taken a bit longer than expected to get back up and running has been the fact that I have been busy getting married and traveling on our honeymoon. So keep an eye out on the travel section for some new images from the Whitsunday islands and Great Barrier Reef. Also I have been working a bit on some new panoramic images so those should be up soon too.

I have a few new projects on the go as well and it is surf season here in NZ, so I will be shooting some new surf shots as well in the next few weeks.

It is all systems go here so please check back soon to see some of my newest work.

Mead

Here are the best images from the night:

If you are interested in any of these images or having me do some shooting for you, please contact me.

So I took the initiative and suggested to James that we go out and do a shoot sometime with him in his five fingers. We went down to the waterfront at sunset and did a few shots of him as seen below:

James running along sea wall

James on the bridge

James running in the last light of the day

I was just using a strobe with an orbis ring flash and the Elinchrom skyport radio slaves to light him and balanced that with the setting sun and just let the ambient get darker and darker as the light disappeared and the moon came out.

James gave the guys from Five Fingers copies of the images we took during the shoot. They really liked the shots and asked if I could do the same kind of shoot with James in the woods also. They said that they did not actually have any good shots of a guy in the Bilka shoe (The model James is wearing in the shots) and wanted some new shots to advertise the model.

Since it was going to be on a trail and I was not sure how much light the trees would let in, I brought along my Elinchrome Quadra Ranger lights as well as my strobe. We started out on a corner of the trail and I set up one of the quadra lights just out of the frame and had James just run past me a couple of times in both directions.

James running off road

Also to really capture the uniqueness of these shoes I then put a zoom lens on and focused in on his feet. This was by far the harder shot to get since I needed to capture his feet in just the right moment. But in the end I did get what I wanted.

close-up of Five Fingers

After we got these shots I mentioned to James that it would be great to also try and get a few shots that made it look more rugged than the trail we were on and with a bit of searching we found a stream that fit the bill. What I did to light this was to put both my Quadra lights on stands to camera left and then I also have my strobe on a Gorilla pod to camera right just behind the tree in the shot to help light the background.

James running through stream

And again I did a close up shot of the shoes and instead of having James run away from me, I had him run towards me so that I could get the water splashing up over his feet.

James runing into the stream

After the guys at Five Fingers saw the images, they ended up using one of the close up shots in an ad in Runner’s World Magazine:

And now I am currently discussing with the rep about shooting their whole campaign next year, all because I suggested a shoot to my friend…

So here is the normal image without the filter:

No filter

And here is the same image with my infrared filter (Tiffen 87):

Infrared Landscape

The reason the second image is a little blurry is that the exposure was a minute long and on the day I was shooting, though it was a bright sunny day, there was a lot of wind causing the clouds and trees to move during the exposure. But all in all a really cool effect and if you do get your camera modified, the exposure times decrease dramatically.