Photo of the Day

July 7 - July 11 Dubai, United Arabic Emirates (UAE)

The second leg of a long summer trip. The day after I returned from Alaska I left for a Dubai business trip. I was very excited to see Dubai as it promotes itself as a high-end glamour destination. The world's tallest building, the world's largest airport, the world's largest shopping mall, the world's only seven star hotel and the man-made world islands can all be found in Dubai.

I left Seattle at 12:55pm on Monday and checked in to the Grand Hyatt Dubai hotel at 11:00pm Tuesday evening. I had spent the entire time on the various airplanes and airline lounges working in Photoshop editing the over 3000 images from Alaska. I had stayed awake the entire trip so that I would be tired enough to sleep through the first night in Dubai. It worked. I woke up the next morning pretty refreshed and ready to explore the city.

I was traveling with a business associate, Jason. We made plans at the consigner's desk to spend the day traveling through the city on a double decker city tour bus ride and on a desert safari that evening. Upon exiting the hotel to walk to the bus pickup stop we were immediately hit with a wall of heat. At 9:00 that morning the temperature was already 96 degrees. Once aboard the bus we had our choice of seating, a section of the bus had air-conditioning, but you had to photograph through windows or you could sit upstairs towards the back without air-conditioning and have unobstructed views. I chose upstairs without the windows.

We listened through our head phones about the history of the city, why there were more construction sites and cranes than there are Starbucks, how Dubai earned it's reputation of a glamour destination and who occupied many of the large office buildings. Included in the tour was a boat cruise up Dubai Creek. The Creek, a natural sea-water inlet which cuts through the center of the city, is the historic focal point of life in Dubai. We were captivated by the color and bustle of the loading and unloading of dhows which still ply ancient trade routes to places as distant as India and East Africa. It looked as though there was no method to the madness. Piles and piles of boxes were stacked on one another with no apparent way to distinguish what went where and when. It was a unique trip and I'd recommend it.


That evening we were picked up by an Adventure companies driver to be taken out to the desert to start our safari. The safari included being driven in new Chevy Tahoe's across and over the endless supply of sand dunes. Our destination was a camp where camel rides were available and dinner would be served. We enjoyed the local food, the unlimited supply of red wine and beer, the belly dancer and the Hubblee Bubblee (shisha). Again, I would recommend this trip.


Unfortunately, the next day was work and we were tied up in meetings. However, we did have some time late that afternoon to relax next to one of the many luxurious pools and enjoy a couple of $9 dollar beers.

All in all, Dubai was an interesting place, the people were extremely friendly, I didn't have any problems communicating as most people spoke English and I'd like to go back if I ever have the chance.

Brooks Camp, Alaska - Katmai National Park, July 2 - 6, 2008

Once again I ventured up to Alaska to photograph the large Brown Bears in Katmai National Park. Each year the bears go to the Brooks Camp area to gorge themselves on the migrating salmon in Brooks River, a mile long river that connects Naknek Lake and Brooks Lake. This was my third time at Brooks Camp photographing the bears. My first time there, back in 2000 I was shooting film in a Nikon N70, my second time was back in 2003 with the Nikon D100 and now I had the Nikon D2X and the D300. I was especially excited about this trip because I had cameras capable of shooting 8 frames per second.

Brooks Camp offers photographers, fly-fishermen, and tourists a unique opportunity to view Brown Bears and other wildlife up close. Within walking distance of the camp there are three viewing platforms; the upper falls platform where you can watch bears stand in the middle of the river, atop of Brooks Falls and catch salmon mid flight as they attempt to jump the falls to continue their migration. The platform has two levels and safely holds about 40 people. It is here that you try to capture the "shot" as the flying fish is about to enter the bear's mouth. This is where I knew having 8 frames per second would be extremely beneficial.

Another viewing platform is located just below the upper falls platform and in fact they are connected via an elevated sky bridge. This acts as both a safety barrier for the people and it serves to keep people out of the bear's environment. From this vantage point you can see more of the river in both directions.

The third viewing area is the lower platform across the river from Brooks Camp. It's situated so that you can see bears as they roam around the mouth of Brooks River, in the pools of water below the platform and out in the open grassland area. This platform offers you the greatest viewing range to see the bears.

Ninety nine percent of all the people who visit Brooks Camp use the platforms to view the bears. The other one percent put on a pair of fly-fishing chest waders and walk up and down the banks of Brooks River looking for bears. Wearing chest waders enables you to walk through trails covered in mud and water, tall wet grass without getting wet and it allows you to enter and cross the Brooks River when needed. Getting off the viewing platforms and venturing out into bear country opens up a much bigger landscape to view and photograph the bears. You're view is not limited from what you can see from the platforms. If you don't like the background you can simply walk to another location. Another bonus from walking around is that you're shooting at bear level; you're not shooting down on the bears. Of course, now that you're out in the wild walking around in bear country you must constantly be watching over your shoulder looking for bears approaching.

The general rule of thumb around the area is to keep your distance from the bears to at least 100 yards. The bears have one thing on their mind and that is salmon. They need to catch and eat as many protein rich salmon as possible between July and September. If left alone and not bothered, the bears mind their own business and just walk by their human intruders. This same philosophy runs true out on the river. In fact, in the 50 odd years the camp has been operating not a single person has ever been attacked or injured by a bear.

This trip proved a little different from my previous two visits. The salmon runs typically starts sometime in late June early July, but this year the salmon were late. There were salmon in the river and a few big schools of salmon had gone through the system, but the thousands and thousands of salmon typical at this time of year were missing. Consequently, there were fewer bears along the river banks than normal and the bears looked lost at the falls. In the four days I was there, I didn't see a single salmon jump. The bears would stand on top of the falls and stare at the pool of water below them waiting for flying salmon. They stood patiently for 20 minutes or longer waiting, but eventually gave up and moved on.

The lack of salmon and bear proved disappointing. Shooting at 8 frames per second from the upper viewing platform while salmon met up with hungry bears mid air would have to wait for another year. The bears we did see were mostly down by the lower falls, walking along the shores of Naknek Lake and a few could be found walking along the banks of Brooks River. In years past, the big male bears tend to dominate the upper part of the river with the biggest of the males intimidating the younger ones for the best spot atop of Brooks Falls. Along the lower river you’d find the sows and their cubs. The sows are very protective of their young cubs. They get nervous if any male, big or small, gets near.

Although the salmon weren’t jumping, I was happy with the images I did capture. I think any time you can get close to Brown Bears, become part of their environment and record a moment of their time is special.

If you plan to visit the Brooks Camp area, here are my recommendations:

To get there:

Seattle – Anchorage – King Salmon (commercial flights)
King Salmon – Brooks Camp (operated by Katmailand)

Where to stay:
Cabins: operated by Katmailand ( usually book out a year in advance or more)
Campground – Operated by the National Park Service (you can book a reservation only up to six month before your visit)

Electrical Needs for Digital Cameras and Laptops:
The mess hall at Brooks Camp runs on a generator and has electrical outlets. You’ll find many of the outlets recharging batteries. I took a power strip so I could recharge my digital camera batteries and laptop at the same time. This way I only needed one outlet to satisfy all my electrical needs.

Nikon D300 Shooting at 8 Frames per Second

The Nikon D300 advertises that it can shoot up to 8 frames per second when the MB-D10 is attached. What's not advertised and I later found while searching the Internet is that for the camera to shoot up to 8 frames per second you need the EN-EL4a battery inside the MB-D10 instead of the EN-EL3e. The EN- EL4e is a bigger battery, costs more than the EN-EL3e and requires its own battery charger. You’ll also need the new battery chamber cover, BL-3. Fortunately for me, I had an extra EN-EL4e in my possession as I used it as a backup battery for my Nikon D2X. You can also get 8 frames per second by using the AA battery (8 batteries) adaptor that comes with the MB-D10. I've read reports that some photographers are getting up to 1000 shots with the AA batteries and it's much less expensive that buying the additional EN-EL4e and EN-EL4e battery charger.

First Use and Review of the Nikon D300

As a longtime user of Nikon digital cameras I just purchased and used the D300 for the first time. I was very excited about using the camera as I had read great reviews about the camera and its enhanced capabilities. I've owned and used the D100, D200 and the D2X.

I was in southern California on business and had some time to photograph surfers off Huntington Beach just before sunset. I positioned myself on the beach so I could either shoot surfers with the golden light covering them or I could shoot into the sun with the surfers and waves backlit. I was using the Nikon 200-400 f4.0 lens mounted on a tripod.

I was eager to use the new Dynamic-area focusing feature with the options of 9, 21 or 51 focusing points. I also wanted to try the Dynamic-area focusing with the 3D-tracking feature and see how it followed the surfers. And, I wanted to experiment with the much improved higher ISO settings.

Right off the bat, I was impressed how fast the camera focused and stayed on the surfers using the Dynamic-area selection with 51 points. When I tried to use the 3D-tracking, the focusing sensors were constantly changing from the surfer to the moving waves. I’m not sure if this type of subject is goof for the 3D-tracking. Looking through the 3 inch LCD screen and zooming in, I could see my photos were in focus and sharp. Equally impressive was how well the camera captured the exposure. With the water reflecting the light, sometimes camera sensors are tricked into thinking the light is brighter than it really is. I'd have to say the exposures looked good on the histogram. I started out using an ISO of 400 and kept moving it up as the sun continued to set. I was trying to keep my shutter speed over 1/1000 and I wanted to see how much noise or how little noise would be in the photos at higher ISO’s.

I was very excited with my first shoot with the Nikon D300. I felt the auto focusing system worked great, the images were properly exposed and I felt the noise was minimal up to 1600. I’ll continue to play with different settings before my next big photo shoot, the big Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in July 2008.


D300, 200-400mm, 1/1250 at f4.0, ISO 400



D300, 200-400mm, 1/800 at f4.0, ISO 400

D300, 200-400, 1/2000 at f4.0, ISO 400

D300, 200-400mm, 1/640 at F5.6, ISO 800

Virtual Swimsuit Photographer

Taco Bell gives you the opportunity to shoot swimsuit photos for SI. Go ahead and see for yourself why it’s so difficult (here).

Free Version of Photoshop

Adobe launches a free web based photo editor Photoshop Express (here).