It’s rare to find someone who doesn’t take an interest in photography while traveling. With today’s compact digital cameras, it doesn’t take much effort (or space in your carry-on) to bring a high quality camera that is capable of giving you wonderful images. A problem arises when you try to shoot in less than ideal conditions, in low light or when you want to capture the effect of a long exposure. Bringing a full-size tripod along often isn’t practical, and it negates the benefit of having a small, pocket-sized camera. Until recently, there weren’t many good options for convenient travel tripods, and the ones that were available were very restrictive. In the last couple of years though, a new product called the Gorillapod has emerged and is rapidly gaining popularity. The Gorillapod is a small compact tripod made up of many-jointed bendable legs that can wrap around just about anything to stabilize your camera. The rubberized ball and socket joints can be manipulated into any shape, to grasp tree trunks, window sills, handrails or even, as the site claims, bowling *****!

Gorillapods come in three sizes:

• Gorillapod Original, for point and shoot cameras

• Gorillapod SLR, for heavier cameras with short lenses

• Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM, for SLR cameras with long, heavy zoom lenses.

Even the largest Gorillapod takes up only a corner of your suitcase, weighing in at less than 9 ounces, and measuring only 9.8 inches in height.

Since their introduction they have gained quite a following, with a Flickr group dedicated to them that brags a membership of almost 900 people.

A Gorillapod in action. (Photo by scalespeeder on Flickr)

Gorillapods don't take up much room when folded small. (photo by stibbons on Flickr)

A long exposure made possible by a Gorillapod. (Photo by booleansplit on Flickr)

Available at most camera stores, Gorillapods are becoming a common site in camera bags of hobbyist and professional photographers everywhere. As a bonus, the company allows you to do your part for the environment while saving you money by offering a discount on Gorillapods purchased without the plastic packaging. So, if you’re traveling anytime soon and want to greatly expand your opportunities to get great pictures, think about trying out a Gorillapod.

Alan Einstein, known as Eye of Einstein on Flickr, is one of the photographers featured in this week’s Maui/[Big Island|http://www.travelmuse.com/destinations/US/HI/001/00-hawaii-county] issue. As a Hawaiian local, Alan has the envious opportunity to photograph the tropical beauty that surrounds him daily. He shares his photographs with the Flickr community, where he has photos in many different pools reserved exclusively for the best of the best in the Flickr-verse. He was kind enough to also share some insight into his life as a Big Island big shooter.

Eye of Einstein with Miss Kitty

TravelMuse: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Eye of Einstein: A little about me is that I am now considered a bona-fide senior citizen and therefore have the benefits of leisure time. I am retired from being a working guy. I spent most of my life in the motorcycle industry, now I’m devoting more time to my photography. I have been fortunate enough to have lived in Hawaii for around the last 40 years, but I spent my early formative years growing up in New York City. Living in Hawaii has offered me many opportunities to honor the practice of photography. I have had some of my works published over the years: some in magazines—experimental fashion, rock concert, motor racing—and others in the newspaper. I have evolved into living in a rural, leisurely style. I live in a very rural area of the Big Island near the active volcano and convenient to all natural and wildlife observance.

TM: What made you decide to share your photography through Creative Commons?

EE: Creative Commons seemed to be an opportunity for much more equitable sharing of my work. There are literally millions of practitioners of photography on earth.

TM: I've noticed that you are very active in the Flickr community. What kind of feedback or response have you gotten to your photographs on Flickr?

EE: Activity on Flickr involves interaction just like any social network and only a percentage of that interaction is about the actual photograph. Initially it is all about the perception of uniqueness and style and the quality of image, and it segues smoothly into making new friends worldwide. It is a very complementary society and a great way to learn about the world and the world of photography. It also can be obsessive and take a great deal of time to post and interact.

TM: What is your favorite thing to shoot?

EE: I have been interested in the practice of photography pretty much my whole life. I can remember having a Kodak Brownie camera, and I recall as a child hearing someone say to me, “What are you taking a picture of ‘nothing’ for?” My absolute favorite is to capture grand vistas of landscapes and panorama in the way that my mind’s eye perceives them. Sometimes I like to capture cityscapes if I am traveling.

TM: What is your approach to HDR photography and other post-processing techniques?

EE: I appreciate HDR and other post-processing techniques. Mostly, I think moderation is the key factor in these applications. I use post-processing extensively in a great deal of my works. I see nothing wrong or weird in using the digital darkroom at my disposal.

As a side note to this, I also have been trained in the zone system of black and white photography. In the present-time, I also use my camera phone for taking photos and have been pleasantly surprised at the results.

TM: What advice do you have for aspiring photographers?

EE: Speaking to digital photographers, I would say to take as many pictures as you can each day and to find a simple editing program to get familiar with the possibilities. Also, develop some style of one's own if possible.

TM: What is your favorite photo that you have taken, and why?

EE: This is a difficult choice, as I have several favorites, and they fit into different genres in which I have found myself immersed session by session from time to time. One is called “il bacio” a photo of two pears; another is called "boris the spider" a macro of a jumping spider; still another is a futuristic skyline shot of Honolulu and another taken at Keehi lagoon of sailing craft. The why is the feeling of personal satisfaction, of technical achievement and of mating the art and the science of digital photography.

“il bacio”                                                                               

“eye on relationships” 

Perhaps you would like to see them on my flickr photo stream at eye of einstein?

If you're a frequent visitor to the TravelMuse site, you may have noticed the unique look of some of our cover images. The covers for Washington, D.C., Beijing and this week's Yellowstone issue are all HDR photographs. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and describes the balanced exposure the pictures display, with detail in the deepest shadows and brightest highlights.

The technique is meant to replicate the range of tones our eyes are capable of seeing, which is much wider than the range our cameras capture (or our monitors display). Often, digital photographs don't resemble what our eye sees. Have you ever taken a picture of a sunset scene to later discover that the sky was way too bright, or the landscape way too dark? With HDR photography, you take multiple pictures of the same scene, at different exposures, and blend them with specialized software to create an image that’s closer to how the scene looked to you in person.

Here are a few tips for creating HDR photographs:

- Use a tripod, because if your images don't line up, the software has a harder time blending them.

- Set your camera to aperture priority or manual, so your aperture doesn't change and cause the depth of field to vary between exposures.

- Take a minimum of three exposures, with a half to full stop difference between them—but the more exposures you take, the better your final image will look.

- Experiment with the difference between your exposures. You want one image that exposes the brightest parts of your images perfectly and another image that exposes the shadows, with at least one image somewhere in between.

- Photo editing software, like Adobe Photoshop, is required to merge the images. If you don't have Photoshop, you can download Photomatix and use the free trial it offers.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of effects you can get with HDR photography:

Lifestyle 3 (in HDR) by kennymati on Flickr

garden HDR by Lampeduza on Flickr

berliner dom by extranoise on Flickr

One of the most striking images I have come across on Flickr in my time as a photo editor at TravelMuse is by Arvind S. Grover. Grover’s shot of a Red-Eyed Tree Frog clinging to a plant and looking straight at the camera was the obvious choice to represent this week’s featured destination: Costa Rica. After talking to Grover about using his image for our cover, and looking at some of his other work, I became interested in what makes this photographer tick. He is one of a new breed of talented hobbyist photographers who generously make their work available and usable for free, asking only that they are given credit. With the help of Flickr and Creative Commons these photographers are changing the face of photography.

Grover on a zip line in the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica.

TravelMuse: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Arvind S. Grover: I live in New York City and am the director of technology at a small, girls K-12 school in the city. I teach computer science courses as well as a digital media class (digital photography, video and audio). I am a photography enthusiast and have switched to the world of digital SLR’s and haven’t looked back. I am always trying to learn more and become a better photographer. My favorite type of photos are portraits, and New York City is a great place for it.

TM: What got you interested in photography?

ASG: My father was always (and still is) very into photography, and always had nice, 35mm film cameras ranging from a Nikon from the early 70’s, to a Canon EOS from the early 80’s, that I still have. I always wanted to use my Dad’s cool, big cameras, and he even got my brother so interested that he installed a darkroom in our basement. I’d have to say that Dad really sparked the interest early on.

TM: What kind of equipment and software do you use?

ASG: For the last two years I’ve been shooting on a Canon Digital Rebel XTi with mostly Canon lenses, but also a Sigma wide-angle lens. I generally use Aperture for some post-production on my photos and store all my photos online with Flickr. Sadly, on my trip to Ecuador this month, I was robbed by two men on a bus. They managed to get my camera with my Sigma lens as well as my 300mm Canon telephoto with image stabilizer. Luckily, I was not hurt. Now I need to get new equipment. Any suggestions? I still have Canon lenses/flashes/accessories, so will stay Canon.

TM: What is the most spectacular place you’ve photographed?

ASG: That is a tough question. I have been fortunate to travel around the world, and India is always an amazing place to shoot. My parents are from India, so it holds a special place in my heart. But generally, I don’t find the most scenic places the most appealing, but am more interested in people in their homelands. So really, any places where there are people is the right place for me.

TM: What is your favorite travel story?

ASG: Wow, I have tons. Taking a cab in the middle of the night to Fez in Morocco with a cab driver who spoke only French and Arabic, of which I speak neither, and having him drop us off on a random dirt road was pretty wild. Trying to argue with him to take us to the hostel proved futile. It wasn’t till we got there did we realize that the medina (old city) has roads that are about 1,000 years old, and only are wide enough for people to walk through. Finding someone to navigate the thousands upon thousands of streets that have no signs and that look exactly the same in every direction was some sort of miracle. Also finding a wonderful side restaurant at midnight that cooked up fresh flatbread and tagines was a great end to a pretty scary evening:

TM: How does photography change the way you travel?

ASG: Photography deeply changes the way I travel. I have been on vacations where I decide not to take my camera out, because I want to just enjoy the place and take in the experience. When I’m shooting, it’s almost like a job. Setting up shots, moving people around, adjusting camera settings, changing lenses, filters, etc. So it can be daunting. But coming home to that one great photo usually seals the memory of the trip, and it’s all worth it.

TM: What kind of feedback or response have you gotten to your photographs on Flickr?

ASG: At first, I didn’t get a lot of feedback because I was just uploading photos and maybe tagging them. Now, I upload, tag photos with many keywords, submit them to different groups, etc. I think a lot more people are thereby exposed to them, and they then come back with some great feedback. As a result, my photos have shown up in all kinds of places like an Austin city guide, your Web site, a wikipedia article and the Gothamist Web site. It’s been really fun and flattering to go through that.

TM: What made you decide to share your photography through Creative Commons?

ASG: I’m not a professional photographer out to make money through my work. I like to think of myself as part of a bigger community of photographers who just want to share what they’ve seen. Creative Commons is an amazing way for me to get credit for my work while still allowing others to use it in ways that helps them. It’s like kindergarten, sharing is caring.

TM: What is your favorite photo that you have taken, and why?

ASG: Jeez, that’s another tough one. I have some portraits of friends and loved ones that really make me feel like I’ve captured who they are as people. Sometimes silly, sometimes serious, something about their photos just makes me happy, like I snapped a millisecond of time where they were just being themselves. I have some of strangers like that as well, where a moment of expression just clearly resounds from the photo.

TM: What is your opinion on post-processing, especially enhancing photos?

ASG: I think it’s a great opportunity to rectify things that didn’t quite go right in the photos. I am not very good at it, nor do I have much patience for it, but I do some of it. As a photographer, you still have to capture the moment, frame the shot, know some basics, but postproduction can take you a whole lot farther with your photos. It’s worth spending some time learning.

TM: What advice do you have for aspiring photographers?

ASG: Shoot lots, and read. I have learned a lot by reading online. All of my photography bookmarks can be found  here. But I particularly like the Digital Photography School blog.

A recent announcement by Flickr has the potential to change the face of the popular photography-sharing site. Flickr has added the ability to upload videos to its site, though it is taking a very different approach than video-only companies like YouTube. The video capabilities are intended to compliment, not compete with, the photo sharing features of the site. Part of Flickr’s strategy for ensuring that is to limit the length of the videos to 90 seconds. The ability to upload videos is also limited to Pro members, with memberships costing $25 a year.

This new feature opens up a world of photographic possibilities for the millions of Flickr members out there. A new genre that is gaining popularity since the announcement is the ‘long photograph,’ a single-scene video that resembles a photograph, but shows the (usually subtle) motion of the subject. There are several examples in the numerous Flickr groups dedicated to the topic, one of the most popular being A Long Photo Group (http://flickr.com/groups/alongphoto/). Many people are finding that long photos unlock their creative potential in ways that photography doesn’t.

Another way that photographers are exploring the new video capabilities is with time-lapse photography. Many digital cameras on the market today have time-lapse features that allow you to set the camera up to shoot at regular intervals over a long period of time. String the images together in a video-editing program, and you have a time-lapse video of a sunset, a flower opening or even a snowstorm.

A few of my favorite Flickr videos are below. Check back for a future piece on easy-to-use video-editing software coming soon!

time lapse by  MattLaws

Clouds and the mountain by SilentObserver

Crossing Hot Metal Bridge by daveynin

Some of the first images that come to mind when I think of summer photography are of Fourth of July fireworks. Dramatic and colorful, fireworks displays are a great summer tradition that many people want to capture. Surprisingly, it is easy to get great fireworks photos when you plan ahead. Here are some tips to help you best capture this fun symbol of summer.

1. Keep the direction of the wind, if there is any, in mind when choosing a location to shoot from, and make sure you’re ready to shoot when the fireworks start. By the end of the show there can be a lot of smoke, making for hazy photos.

2. Consider ahead of time how you want to frame your shots. Do you want a wide-angle view of the whole scene, or close-ups of the fireworks filling the frame? Remember that it can be difficult to take close-ups because you don’t always know exactly where in the sky the fireworks will be.

3. Use a tripod! You will need to use long shutter speeds to get the streaks of light that make fireworks photos so beautiful. If you don’t have a tripod, or won’t be watching the show from a location that allows for one, look for something sturdy, like a ledge or tree trunk to rest your camera on.

4. Turn off your flash! The fireworks are going to be far away, so your flash will have no effect on that part of your image. The most it will do is illuminate the smoke in the air, distracting from the main point of the shot.

5. Consider using a cable release, or self-timer mode to avoid shaking the camera when you hit the shutter button.

6. Use the lowest ISO your camera has. You’re going to want to do long exposures and using a low ISO will allow you to do that without overexposing your shots.

7. Use manual mode if your camera has it. As a starting point for figuring out exposure, set your camera to f/11 and try a shutter speed of 2 seconds. If your images are too dark, open up the aperture (set it to a lower number), and if the images are too light, close it down. If your camera doesn’t have a wide range of aperture settings, you can control the exposure with the shutter speed, but keep in mind that the faster the shutter speed the shorter the streaks of light in your images will be. You can also use BULB mode if your camera offers it. In BULB mode the shutter will stay open as long as you hold down the shutter button, allowing you to sync your exposures with the show.

8. Chances are you’ll be far enough away from the fireworks to get them in sharp focus with your camera set at infinity. If not, you may want to move farther back! Take a test shot and make sure your focus is correct, and then switch your camera into manual focus mode. This will save you the frustration of missing shots because your camera was busy trying to focus.

9. Set your white balance to ‘daylight.’ If you leave it on Auto the white balance is likely to change from shot to shot as it tries to correct for the color of the fireworks.

10. Take a lot of pictures! You’re much more likely to get the perfect shot if you take as many pictures as you can. And with digital, why not?

Union Station Fireworks by kcphotos on Flickr

One of the most important things to understand when shopping for a digital point-and-shoot camera is the difference between optical and digital zoom. Some camera manufacturers label their cameras with the total zoom (digital x optical), but the two should not be combined because they are very different in terms of the kind of image quality they produce.

Optical Zoom – Pros

Optical zoom is achieved by moving the glass elements within the lens to enlarge the image. This is the same as the zoom on a film camera, or a digital SLR (single-lens-reflex camera) with interchangeable lenses. Image quality is not lost with optical zoom, so the higher the optical zoom rating your camera has, the farther away from your subject you can be and still capture a high quality image.

Digital Zoom – Cons

Digital zoom, on the other hand, does negatively affect the quality of your images. In reality, digital zoom isn’t zoom at all, but a simulation. When you use digital zoom your camera is enlarging a portion of your image to achieve an effect similar to optical zoom. It crops the area of the image that you’re not ‘zooming in’ on, and then digitally enlarges what remains to fit your screen.  This results in lower quality image, and is exactly the same as what can be achieved in any photo editing software.

Avoid Digital Zoom Pitfalls

Most digital point and shoot cameras come with some measure of digital zoom, but it’s important to note that not all cameras give you control over it. Look for a camera that lets you disable the digital zoom, or at least lets you know when you are using it. If you are going to crop your images in editing software anyway, digital zoom might be a useful timesaving tool, but keep in mind that unlike full quality images that you crop on your computer, once you shoot an image with digital zoom you are stuck with it. There is no going back to the higher quality version.

The bottom line is that it is safe to ignore digital zoom when considering cameras with various zoom configurations. Optical zoom is what really matters, so investing in a camera with a higher optical zoom rating will give you higher quality images, and more versatility when you shoot.

If you’ve spent much time behind a camera you’ve probably seen what is called lens flare show up on your images. It often appears as polygonal shapes of various sizes and color sprayed across your image. Other times it’s a series of bright streaks or a more generalized spray of light that lowers image contrast and obscures details. Lens flare isn’t always bad, sometimes it can be used artistically to enhance a photo, but it’s definitely something every photographer should understand.

Photo by frischmilch

Almost every camera lens is made up of multiple pieces of glass, called elements. Lens flare is caused by light that reflects off the surfaces of the glass elements rather than passing through them to the sensor or film. It can appear in images that contain a very bright light source, like the sun, some artificial lights or the full moon. Even if the image does not contain the light source, flare can be created if bright lights are just outside the frame and are able to directly hit the front glass element. Camera companies have come up with many different kinds of anti-reflective coatings designed to reduce flare, but none can eliminate it completely.

Here are a few tips to avoid lens flare flare ups:

1. Use a lens hood—an opaque, non-reflective cone that attaches to the end of your lens and extends out to block side light from hitting the front element. Many lenses come with hoods that are designed for the specifications of the lens. But if you are shopping for a hood for a lens that you already own, be sure to try it out at all different focal lengths to ensure that it isn’t visible through your viewfinder, otherwise it will show up in your images.

2. Invest in high quality UV filters. Low quality filters, with inferior coatings, could make the problem worse.

3. Keep lens flare in mind when composing your images. Shoot with your back to bright light sources in the area whenever possible. Otherwise, slight adjustments in composition can make a big difference. Try placing objects within your shot so that they at least partially block the light from hitting your lens. Holding your hand next to the lens to shield it also can work.

Lens flare isn’t something that every photographer tries to avoid. It all depends on what kind of look you are aiming for in your photography. In fact, there is a filter in Photoshop that allows you to add lens flare into your images—just in case you weren’t able to shoot directly into the sun!