photography by wasim.

Tag: ditchthedslr

A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway – Part 1: Morro Bay

It began as a work trip. Well, sort of. I’m finding more and more and more these days I’ll fish for any excuse to leave Los Angeles…just the thought alone gets me excited. So when Stephen Chiang, a photographer friend that I occasionally assist mentioned he needed an assistant for a gig in San Francisco, I jumped at it. When he mentioned it would begin with a night of camping in Morro Bay State Park, and end with 4 nights of camping in Big Sur, that wasn’t just the icing on the cake, that WAS the cake.

We hit the road on the Sunday before Labor Day, caravanning with his family (his wife, who happens to be my cousin, their kids, and my aunt), got to Morro Bay, took a walk along the shore for the first sunset of the trip, and then headed down to the village for a seafood dinner at The Galley. Afterwards, we headed back to camp, lit the campfire, shared some scotch and stories, and crashed.

The next day was an adventurous and activity filled one. It also ended up being the first time I’ve ever entered and operated a kayak. My cousin and one of her kids hopped on a paddle board, her husband and the other kid hopped on another paddle board, and my aunt and I jumped into the kayak – both rookies mind you, and it was immediately apparent. It took a few twists, turns, and devising a system to coordinate our left from our right, but eventually, we got the hang of the bugger…for now.

We made it across the bay to peninsula on the western side of the bay that ran along the Pacific coast towards the icon of the town, Morro Rock. The sandbar was about a half mile wide and covered with sand dunes that we traverse to get to the beach side. We spent a couple hours in the sun, had a packed lunch, and then made our way back over the sand dunes to our ‘transportation.’

The return trip was not NEARLY as easy as we had anticipated. No matter what we did, all we could manage was to spin around in circles while the undercurrent pulled us further and further away from the direction we were trying to go in. Apparently the tide has dropped and we were trying to kayak through 12” deep water. Well, needless to say…that didn’t work out too well. We ended up spinning around in place while the current was pulling us in the wrong direction almost snapping the paddles as we dug them into the sand to try to stay put. No bueno. I’m partly embarrassed to admit we ended up holding onto the back of my cousin’s paddle-board as she towed us in…

And since I feel compelled to find a way to make you forget about that last sentence and focus on something else, here are a few images from that first day in Morro Bay, all of which were taken with a Samsung NX3000 mirrorless camera…

If you’re ready for Part 2: Big Sur, click here.

Finally, for more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Ello: www.Ello.co/WasimOfNazareth

September 2, 2014
I’ve Finally Assembled My Perfect Hiking And Backpacking Camera Kit

If you’ve ever gone on an extended hike or backpacking trip, you know that every single ounce of weight counts. An extra strip of beef jerky may not seem like a lot sitting in your pocket at home, but you WILL notice and feel every single gram of it as the sun-scorched miles move beneath your boots. So when you’re packing for such a trip, weight and consideration and bare essentials are a constantly compromised necessity, and, obviously, for photographers, food and clean socks come in a distant second to camera gear. Lucky for us photographers, the new breed of mirrorless systems has changed EVERYTHING. Gone are the days of having to trudge 10-15 pounds of DSLR gear and lenses to get solid professional high-quality images. Now you can make top-shelf images AND pack an entire bag of beef jerky.
As I prepared to pack for a 5-day, 45-mile backpacking excursion into the Sierras, I was absolutely thrilled at how much lighter my pack already was since last year’s adventures through 3 National Parks, and especially the year before that, when I lugged around that same full Nikon D7000 kit through 22, 104-degree Grand Canyon miles on the way into Havasupai, Arizona. Ouch. Ouch. OUCH! While, unfortunately, this month’s Sierra backpacking trip got cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances in the group, I still thought it’d be valuable to share what I had already packed and was prepared to take.

First, here’s the bulk of the Nikon D7000 kit that I had with me both for the Havasupai trip and for the National Park trip. Basically, the kit I’ve been used to traveling with:

Nikon D7000 Body (APSC CMOS Sensor): 1 lb, 8 oz.

Nikkor 18-200 Lens: 1 lb, 4 oz.

Nikkor 35mm Lens: 7 oz.

Tokina 11-16mm Lens: 1.2 lbs

Manfrotto 190xb Tripod with Manfrotto 486RC2 Ballhead: 5 pounds

Filters, Filter Holders, Extra batteries, USB charging brick: 1 pound

TOTAL: 10.5 LBS.

Now, for comparison’s sakes, here’s what I had packed this time:

Samsung NX30 Body (APSC CMOS Sensor): .8 pound

Samsung NX3000 Body (APSC CMOS Sensor): .5 pound

Samsung 18-200mm lens: 1.27 pounds

Samsung 12-24mm lens: 7.3 oz

Dolica TX570B150SL Travel Tripod: 2.5 pounds

Filters, filter holders, extra batteries, USB charging brick: 10 oz.

TOTAL: 6.1 LBS.

And here they are side by side, with the respective lenses mirroring each other. Look at the size differences alone in the Samsung kit on the bottom row versus the Nikon kit on the top row, especially in the lenses and the bodies:

So as you can see, that is not only literally a savings of almost half the weight, but it also includes AN EXTRA CAMERA BODY. Heck, both camera bodies together weighed less than the single DSLR. Granted, the tripod alone also saved me 2.5 pounds on it’s own. So yeah, needless to say, between this revelation, and my recent mirrorless-only trip to the Pacific Northwest, my DSLR traveling days are well behind me. Add the benefit of bright OLED displays and Wifi capabilities on the Samsung NX30 and Samsung NX300, allowing me to use my phone as a trigger or high res monitor as well, and there’s really no reason left to go back.

Adapt or die…or, at the very best, adapt or suffer through a bad back…orrrrr better yet…suffer through that bad back by packing an extra 4 pounds of jerky!

Mmmm…jerky…

For more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
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August 19, 2014
A Monday Motivational Kick In The Yahoo – August 18, 2014

Wasim-Muklashy-Photography_NX30_Venice_CA_Skateboarding_Monday Motivational

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford
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From me to you, There’s This Week’s Monday Kick In The Yahoo!
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Move Mountains!

August 18, 2014
A Surprise Journey Through The Range Of Light – The Eastern Sierra Nevadas – Part 3: Mono Lake

Day 3 of this unplanned impromptu journey into the Eastern Sierras thing was a tough choice. While I was happy with what I got in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows yesterday, now that I knew the lay of the land a bit better, it couldn’t hurt to head back again, which I would have been absolutely HAPPY to do. However, I was also dangerously close to Mono Lake, California, another one on the bucket list, so I had to decide whether to turn this into 2 days of Tuolumne or 1 day of each, Tuolumne and Mono Lake, both of which, in my opinion, would have been WIN! I know, I know, tough decisions… But ultimately, the side of me that loves new things chose Mono Lake, figuring that, since the job got botched, I’d most likely be back up here again soon, so I’ll get another shot (major pun intended).

Once again, I left the motel in Mammoth Lakes around 4. Seeing as how Mono Lake was only about 30 minutes from Mammoth, I figured I’d have a solid 2 hours to get the lay of the land, find my shot, set up, and hang out. I drove through Lee Vining, stopped at the visitor center to find out how to get to the Tufas, the landmark landscape of the lake, made a mini-detour to the ‘Upside Down House,’ (don’t ask…here’s the photo and the sign, which I haven’t even read…kinda don’t want to ruin the desert rat mystique of this one…), and drove the 10 or so miles to the section of the lakeside I was going to call home for the next several hours.

I parked in the lot, and started walking down the path towards the shore, and the closer I got, the weirder everything started to get. There was a moment there where the wooden footpath ended, and the sand began, and it literally seemed like that one step took you from Earth, to Mars. These geological formations were the weirdest fricking things I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. I thought the hoodoos in last years trip to Bryce Canyon were from another planet, but these things just took things to a whole ‘nother galaxy.

Apparently what they are are dried up hot springs. The calcium-rich springs come out of the ground, pushing through the limestone, mixes with calcium carbonate, creating what are essentially, underwater hot spring volcanoes that eventually calcify and leave these…things…behind. While they’re naturally created over millennia, and happen underwater, the water level at Mono Lake has dropped so much since water diversions began in 1941, that it has exposed the wonders of the tufas for the world to see.

And those, my friends are what grace the top of this post and the gallery below. All of those images were also shot on a Samsung NX30 using a Samsung 18-200mm lens.

I hope you enjoyed my posts from this random trip at least a fraction of how much I enjoyed making them.

If you missed the first two parts, here they are:

Part 1: Mammoth Lakes
Part 2: Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

And for more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

August 12, 2014
A Surprise Journey Through The Range Of Light – Part 2 – Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park

This is just one of those places. You hear about it, you see pictures of it, you read about it, and if you’re a nature-lover or photographer, or better yet, both, you’d be hot damned if you that’s the one you didn’t get to cross off your bucket-list.

Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

The mystique around this place runs high. It’s been called a ‘photographers paradise,’ as well as one of ‘the most difficult places to photograph.’ The thing about it is, it’s closed off most of the year. The picture-perfect gentle alpine meadow bordered on all directions by soft granite domes and spires, and blanketed in pines and wildflowers and berries and natural grass, lies in the highest of high countries in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, so Tioga Road, the only one that passes through, is snowed in on average of 7 months a year, and on top of that, the meadows are ‘meadowed’ for only about 3 months of the year (as a local park guide so eloquently put it). Furthermore, those 3 months just so happen to be the absolute busiest months of Yosemite National Park’s schedule, but, as stated in Part 1 – Mammoth Lakes, there was no way I was not going to seize this unexpected and completely spontaneous opportunity to make my way to this alleged garden of Eden.

I pulled onto Tioga Road at about 4pm, with about 4 hours before sunset, which I figured was enough time to at least explore a bit and find a place I was going to call camp for sunset. As I wind my way up and through the Tioga pass from Lee Vining on the Eastern Sierra side, I slowly rolled through the sort of landscape that dreams and fantasies are made of, the kind of place you thought only existed in cartoons and psilocybin – crystal clear sky blue cascading streams and rivers snaking their way through saturated green grasses and tress of various sizes and varieties, flanked by sun soaked rolling hills comprised of rolling granite domes and lodgepole pines.

As I drove through at about 10 miles per hour, I literally found a tear in my eye – I was in absolute awe of some of the most striking, insanely unreal scenes that would trump a psychedelia-soaked dream. I won’t lie. I was overwhelmed. How the hell was I going to only spend 5 hours here?

I figured since I only had this afternoon, I’d stop by the visitor center and ask for a few tips. The nice lady was hesitant at first to give out one of her favorite spots and secrets, but after she found out I was a State Park volunteer, she figured she was in safe territory and loudly ‘whispered’ a tip. I thanked her kindly, and went to follow her tip as I made my way around a particular dome. I hiked in for about 35 minutes before realizing I had no flashlight to get back out, and this was bear country, and I was finding myself in a maze that wouldn’t be ‘fun’ to try to scramble out of after dark. While the landscape was absolutely breathtaking as I followed the river through a forested part of the meadow, I had a scene in my mind and this was taking me away from it. I wasn’t going to be able to get the sunset colors with the snaking stream through the meadow I had envisioned. After a quick glance at the clock, I had to make a decision quick as I was less than an hour from sunset. I hastily decided to hike back out, and head down the road to a more open part of the meadow and just hope I can find something I’d be happy with.

I truly felt so overwhelmed, that I was absolutely certain that I wasn’t going to get a shot because I made the fatal mistake of running around looking for the best one, but made peace with it when I just figured I’d come back the next day now that I have a bit of the lay of the land. And I certainly wasn’t going to cry about that. Plus, I may not get the shot I had envisioned, but, I’m in Tuolumne Meadows at sunset, I’m sure as heck not walking out with nothing!

So I slowed my roll, took a breathe, and decided I was just going to enjoy this one. I hiked into the riverbank, sat on a rock to soak in this paradise, and right at that very moment, is when I found and saw my shots. All within striking distance of where I started walking around like a crazed half-bearded madman. The most surprising was a shot that ended up being one of my favorites, it was well after the sun had set, and I had already packed my gear and was using my phone’s flashlight to find my way back out to the road. That’s when I ran across the purple twilight light reflecting in a small pond and playing with the shadows of the landscape just off the path. I had to do it – I pulled out my gear, set up, and spent about another 30 minutes after dark playing right there in that area.

So here’s a bit of a gallery of my favorite images from that afternoon, all of which were shot on a Samsung NX30 using a Samsung 18-200mm lens.

For Part 3, Mono Lake, click here .

And in case you missed A Surprise Journey Through The Range Of Light – Part 1 – Mammoth Lakes, click here .

And for more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

August 6, 2014
A Surprise Journey Through The Range Of Light – Part 1 – Mammoth Lakes

So this is what was supposed to happen. My landlord’s friend has a condo up in Mammoth. He wanted new pictures of it in order to prepare rental listings for the coming winter season. It hasn’t been rented in several months, so I figured this would be a good week to go. I got the green light from him, from the landlord, and off I went, driving along the Eastern Sierras of California…the ‘Range of Light.’ A relatively painless drive to spend a few days in a part of California I’ve never been to, take some pictures, get some writing and some work done in the solitude of the Sierra Nevadas for a few days, and then head back home.
Well, let’s just say, that got derailed in a big way, spontaneously turning this into much more of an adventure than I expected.

I showed up to the condo, and was immediately taken aback by how beautiful it was. How this wasn’t being rented, I’ll never know. Three immaculate bedrooms, a gorgeous living area, and it was big. I walked out the back patio door and it lie RIGHT on a river looking up at the sunset. I grabbed my tripod, slammed the camera on there, scarfed down my now cold meatball sandwich from John’s Pizza Works, and started snapping away. As the sun dipped behind the Sierras, I noticed that the light was going to make for a spectacular twilight shot of the condo. It was essentially isolated, with a river running by it’s side, and the golden pink skies were beginning to turn that lust-worthy shade of deep blue. I set up my tripod for the shot, ran in the house to turn on all the lights, and…(insert record scratch sound here…) a woman was standing inside.

Apparently she had the place booked with her family, and for some reason, the owner didn’t know, and the property management company failed to notify him of that. Who knows what kind of tomfoolery is going on but, well, that’s neither here nor there. What’s here is that I was just thrown out into the streets of Mammoth with nowhere to go. As I was cursing my luck and wondering if I’d killed someone in a past life, I sat in a parking lot, debating whether or not to make the 5-hour drive back to Los Angeles. I was finally able to get a hold of my landlord, the one who helped set it all up, who was just as surprised as I was. They agreed to get me a room at the Mammoth Mountain Inn for the night so we can get things sorted in the morning.

As I checked into the hotel, I noticed a flyer for Yosemite’s Tuolomne Meadows on the front desk, so I grabbed it. I’ve been trying to make it there for years as the roads are only open a few months out of the year (they’re snowed in most of the year as it’s the high country). When I asked the desk agent how far it was from where I was standing, he said no more than an hour.

Done.

Was NOT planning on this, but I’ll be hot damned if I’m 60 minutes from a place I’ve been trying to make my way to for almost a decade and NOT turn this into an impromptu trip to Yosemite National Park’s Tuolomne Meadows.

In any case, here I sit, room 114 at the Mammoth Mountain Inn, getting more and more excited for whatever the next few days have in store for me. I forgot how nice it is to just let go and see what happens. This should be interesting. And above? The only shot I was able to snap before being sent to the streets.

For Part 2: A Surprise Journey Through The “Range of Light” Part 2 – Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, click here .

And to find out how to get sunset and star-burst shots like the one above, click here .

All images in this series were taken with a Samsung NX30 and a Samsung 18-200mm lens.

And for more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 30, 2014
How Instagram’s Cheesy Photo Filters Have Made Us More Creative

I know.
I was one of those people.
But after rediscovering Instagram the past few months since deleting my original account two years ago as a futile act of defiance after the billion dollar Facebook acquisition, I’ve come to realize, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s far from cheating and it’s actually quite the contrary, it’s incredibly liberating…which just so happens to be a prerequisite for the most creative of all art!
Basically, here’s my take: just because I don’t know how to make something look like an old western scratched sepia photo print in Photoshop, or I don’t have an old western camera with old western film and old western chemicals and an old western darkroom to process in, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be allowed to express a vision that happens to be in the style of an old western scratched sepia photo print. If I had to learn how to do it, or save up to buy all them old western stuffs, I’d end up spending hours, if not days, or perhaps even months, detracting from continuing to engage the original spark of that imagination by developing the story or idea. When I see something and want to see it in an old western scratched sepia photo print sorta way, I can do it with the tap of a button, allowing me more energy to concentrate on refining the overall vision. This, consequently, allows me to be more creative without the fear of technical gibberish slowing me down.
Essentially, with the quick one step filters we actually have tools to help us express a creative vision that runs quicker and closer to the speed that our mind conjures it up. In many cases, it even gives us ideas that we wouldn’t have had before, conjuring up certain emotions and feelings based on how that image looks based on how we decided to treat it. Our imagination becomes something that stays ‘on’ at all times, allowing us to visualize and create and refine and build upon the wily creative spark when the elusive bugger decides to actually show up. Moreover, in my case, it’s allowed me to retool and re-envision many images I already have, and present them to an entirely new audience who may never have seen them otherwise.
And I think we’re all starting to catch up with these sorts of thoughts. Yes, when these ‘toys’ were first brought to market, it was easy to dismiss them as meaningless and short-lived and a ‘fad’ and all that gobbledegook. But heck, we didn’t know any better because we’ve never quite seen anything like that on a mass consumed scale. But since then, even institutions that have prided for over a century about the quality of their images and media output, like National Geographic and Smithsonian and Getty Images, have adopted Instagram and Twitter accounts, and in National Geographic’s case, even has a section in their digital publication format surrounded by that iconic yellow border, dedicated to the Instagram feeds of their photographers in the field. And some of my favorite professional photographers have embraced the mediums as well. In a short 4 years, Instagram has become an institution in itself – creating celebrity Instagrammers that have led to extremely profitable small businesses based on their feeds, while simultaneously building a rabid fan base large and influential enough to command a billion dollar pricetage by Facebook. And, well, if Facebook bought a toy, well, it was a damn expensive one!
Additionally, the fact that most ‘professional’ and ‘prosumer’ cameras these days are equipped with built-in wifi, like the Samsung NX30 and Samsung NXMini I’ve been using lately as part of the Imagelogger program, allows you to immediately take a high quality photo and transfer it to your mobile device for processing and sharing…an idea that seemed preposterously foreign just 5 years ago.
Anyhow, I suppose what I’m getting at here is that I’m finally beginning to let go of the idea that things need to stay the way they are or the way they’ve ‘been.’ After all, in reality, nothing at all has ever stayed the way it’s ‘been.’ Ever. And heck, who would really want it to!? So if I, as a creative, don’t adapt and embrace the tools (and toys) that are available to us in these insanely exciting days, then, well, I’m just gonna end up left by the wayside, while everyone else has all the fun.
Screw that. I wanna have some fun too!
For more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 24, 2014
The Proof Sheet – Photography News In Review For The Week of July 7

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Proof Sheet, where each week I’ll post some of the more notable photography news in sweet, chewy, bite-sized, easily-digestible morsels. Click the Read More for this week’s stories.

EyeFi, the makers of those wonderful wifi enabled SD cards for you DSLR, along with influencer marketing agency Evolve!, apparently did some research together, the results of which were released this week – an infographic that displays what they consider to be “The Top 30 Most Socially Influential Photographers.” Jeremy Cowart, Joe McNally, and Peter Klesken top the list, followed closely by Chase Jarvis, Adam Bouska, and Jimmy Chin. As expected Scott Kelby, Trey Ratcliff, and Thomas Hawk made the list. Click here to check out the entire infographic.

Building on the success of their #DitchDay event in NYC last month in which Samsung gave away thousands of their NX30 mirrorless cameras, they’ve now partnered up with Amazon for their own version of that DitchTheDSLR event, this one called SamsungNXLive. On Monday, July 14 at 10am Pacific, head over to this link, where, accompanied by a live photography training session, you’ll be able to trade in any of your DSLRs for $250 dollars off of a Samsung NX30 or NX300.

Indonesian photographer Herman Damar captures some of the most idyllic, charming, joyfully warm images of everyday children in everyday village life in Indonesia. What you see are moments that seem like they’re plucked straight out of a fantasy or fairytale, making them even that much more difficult to believe that they’re real. But they are. And if you don’t check ‘em out, you’re certainly missing out. Click here to view them all over on PetaPixel.

Japanese website Nikkei leaked an image this week of what is supposedly the first image taken with Sony’s new curved sensor, one that apparently closer mimics the way the human eye works. The technology behind it aims to eliminate vignetting and soft pixels in the corners that is typical of images from the camera sensors we’ve grown to know and use. Click here for the leaker and the image.

Perhaps in an effort to combat the inane Idiocracy-esque state of our mainstream media, the BBC College of Journalism decided to blow the door open on their journalism training resources for the next year, letting the public in on all their courses and sessions and documents that they use to train their own journalists (yes, I know it’s surprising, but in some parts of the world, journalism actually requires more than a miniskirt and a microphone). Some of the topics include smartphone journalism, ethical journalism, secret filming, and documentary making. Click here to get edumacated.

PopPhoto.com reported this week that Vision Research releases “the fastest camera on the market,” The Phantom v2511. Apparently this beast is capable of moving through 25,600 frames per second. Um…yeah! Madness. Click here to read more about it at PopPhoto.

July 11, 2014
5 Fun (And Pretty Stupid) Photography Tips For Your 4th Of July Barbecue

Independence Day is upon us!! A day when we can celebrate the hard-fought achievements of our forefathers by, well, doing what we do best…git your gluttony on (as respectful as possible of course…). Here are 5 quick photography tips for your 4th of July barbecue:

1. Nothing says 4th Of July better than dripping, oozing, shiny, glistening barbecue sauce…both on the grill and splattering all over people’s faces and clothes as they try to inhale the various sugar sauce doused proteins, starches, veggies, and fibers. Try to use a wide aperture and get in close on the drips, the shine, savor the details of those barbecue-sauce mustaches, especially on the wives and girlfriends. I recommend using Aperture Priority if you’re using a camera with manual controls. That way all you’ll have to focus on is the focus, and the camera will do the rest.

2. Nothing else says 4th of July barbeque better than dripping, oozing, meat on a grill. The same idea as #1, but come in at an angle, add some energy to the shot. Straight from above, or perfectly perpendicular might be good for Instagram, but if you want to get a solid, professional looking image, use a wide aperture for minimal depth of field, perhaps around the f3.5 – 5.6 range, which is a good balance so the background doesn’t get so blurry you can’t tell what it is. Move in as close as you can without fear of melting your lens (if you have the luxury of a good zoom, a solid 12-18 inches away from the heat source would be best and zoom that sucker in. However, beware, on most zooms, the more you zoom, the smaller your widest aperture will be, which means that the f-stop number will rise and you’ll get more in focus unless you’re lucky or wealthy enough to have a fixed aperture zoom). Focus on a small part of the burger, perhaps right where it meets the grill and the fat is dripping off into the charcoal filled ether, or the corner of the cheese melting off the side of the meat onto the charcoal coated grill, allowing the rest of the scene to melt out of focus behind it. Even after eating 3 of the suckers, that picture will convince even you to inhale a fourth.

3. The Group Shot! While everyone is holding their burgers and their food, get a group shot. This is when everyone gets silly and their over-the-top enthusiasm kicks in, especially after a few drinks. For the best results, hold the camera like you’re going to take a picture, but hit the video button instead. Don’t tell them that. Wait until they realize it on their own. Then you’ll have over 30 frames per second to choose the most awkward one from to post (and of course tag) on social media. Immediately. Better yet, post the video! It’s not a new idea, but it is a brilliant one. I mean, come on:

4. The Chef! Never forget them! Keep an eye on the cook(s). Often times, especially as the afternoon gets longer and a few libations have increased the enthusiasm over the grill, lazy eyes and slurred speech and dropped steaks followed by a ‘god made dirt and dirt don’t hurt’ grumble begin to dominate the festivities and make for the most memorable of images, especially since, well, your job is to make sure they remember their most embarrassing moments.

5. By all means, get brewed up, it is a celebration after all, but by NO means forget your camera anywhere near the barbecue. That celebration will turn into the breeding grounds for a whole new American revolution.

Ok then…go get your gluttony on! And remember to come back and share the best of the best and worst of the worst with a link in the comments. Needless to say, I’d absolutey LOVE to see them.

And once you’re good and ready to shoot them fireworks (that’s if you don’t imbibe enough to miss ’em), click here for a few tips for photographing the fireworks courtesy Photofocus.com:

Happy 4th!!

For more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 4, 2014
DSLR? What DSLR? Oh How Quickly We Forget – A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip – The Epilogue

So this is just a quick wrap-up post to the Pacific Northwest Photo Trip series. As you all know by now, I have been fortunate enough to be chosen as one of 50 Samsung Imageloggers, essentially, a brand ambassador for Samsung’s line of mirrorless camera systems. And as you know by now, this is the first trip in which I battled with myself beforehand on whether or not to bring the DSLR I’m so used to and that has been the crux of my work for several years. And, well, I was pushed by my peers to challenge myself…so I did.

Well, as the previous 7 parts to series have illustrated, I had absolutely NO problem adjusting to the Samsung NX30, and there was not a single moment on the entire trip that I had wished I brought my trusty Nikon DSLR system. As a matter of fact, a bit of the unexpected happened. The guy I was with, who had flown me out to help him on the video project, had an entire Canon 5D Mark III kit with a variety of L-Series lenses on hand, but as soon as he got a hold of the NX30, ended up spending the rest of the time envious of the lack of weight I was carrying and the results I was getting out of this thing. While he might start searching for other mirrorless options in the full-frame sensor range for his purposes, the point is, he is now considering a mirrorless system.

Anyhow what you see above, as you’ve probably noticed this time, is a video. It’s nothing special, there’s no narrative, no story. It’s just simply a series of clips from some of the various locations we were in that you saw the pictures in the last 6 installments of this series from. A small sample of the sights…the sounds…the colors – all taken on the Samsung NX30 mirrorless camera. Being an ex-video guy myself, I was curious to see the quality of the video feature set as well as the still image quality. I was not disappointed. (Make sure to click the little gear wheel and choose to watch in HD quality!)

As far as the pictures, I’ve dropped them all into the madness of one random scrolling gallery below. Enjoy. And thanks for following along with the series. In case you missed them and would like to read the words behind the pictures, here are the links from the beginning:

Part 1 – To DSLR Or Not To DSLR? That Is The Question

Part 2 – Going Green. And Greener. And Greenest

Part 3 – Guided By The Youth (And All The Purty Colors)

Part 4 – Cheez Whizzed In Stumptown

Part 5 – Flanked By Firs And Braving The Bridge

Part 6 – From The Majesty Of Mother Nature To The Glory Of The Human Soul

For more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

May 28, 2014