…to an eBook reader near you. 12 Photographer’s Guides to Maya ruins:
So far, the eBooks for Becán, Chicanná, Chichén Itzá, Cobá, Dzibanché / Lamay / Kinichná, Ek’ Balam, and Tulúm are available; the rest will be out by the end of January. Head on over to the series’ page for more information.
Building 6 at the Maya ruins of Dzibanché, near Chetumal in Quintana Roo, México:
Dzibanché is a bit of an odd duck — great things to see, but it’s sufficiently off the “usual” track for tourists that it doesn’t get many visitors. It doesn’t help, either, that basically all the tour guide books describe the road to the site as being a rutted dirt track (it’s narrow and crooked, but has been paved for at least 10 years).
Of course, the good news for those that *do* drive out to Dzibanché is that you’ll most likely have the place to yourself. Oh, and you can climb most of the pyramids here (unlike many of the more-visited ruins).
Building 6, by the way, is the first pyramid you see on your walk into the site. It’s also known as the “Palace of the Lintels” after some carved wood beams that were discovered here (sadly, they’ve been removed and replaced by more modern wood).
12 November update — by the way, if you happen to be planning a trip to the Yucatan, I’m in the process of releasing a set of 12 guides to Maya ruins. Oriented toward photography in the ruins, they only cost a couple of dollars each via Amazon’s Kindle store — the one for Dzibanché and its neighbors is described here. I’ve released two guides so far, the rest of the dozen should be out before the end of the year — so stay tuned!
A Quick Engine Change (QEC) unit for a historic P-38 fighter undergoes a rebuild at WestPac Restorations — on the campus of the (not quite open to the public yet) National Museum of WWII Aviation in Colorado Springs, Colorado:
QECs were developed to speed aircraft maintenance — containing an engine and all its support equipment, a QEC allowed an engine swap to be performed with a relatively short grounding of an aircraft.
I made this image on a recent tour of WestPac Restorations and the National Museum of WWII Aviation. The Museum has been designed and is in the process of collecting funding to start construction (anybody have $12M they can spare?). Meanwhile, they have monthly tours during summer months — my daughter and I went on a special tour this past weekend as part of an AIAA-sponsored group.
Cool stuff!
You may not realize it, but this is a particularly odd structure in the Mayan world:
It’s a pyramid called Xaibe at the ancient ruins of Cobá in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The name comes from a Maya term for a crossroads, since it’s at the junction of four Maya roads — and it’s nearly unique in being a Maya pyramid with an elliptical (vs. rectangular) footprint. It *may* have been used as a lookout tower, but I’ve never seen anything resembling an authoritative statement on that.
As seen from neighboring structure II:
The ruins on the top of the pyramid were once an elite residential area in the heart of the ancient Maya ruins of Becán — at the time, the ultimate gated community.
Grizzly bears are some really amazing creatures — smart enough to act a bit like humans, unpredictable enough to be hazardous. When we were in South Dakota earlier this Fall, one of the residents of “Bear Country, U.S.A.” was having a grand old time playing with a chunk of wood in his pond.
It was almost like watching a kid play with their bath toy. A big, furry, lethal kid, that is. Should you like a closer look, I’ve included the two images making up the diptych below.
I was really happy with how these turned out, I don’t get much practice with splash photography — much less out in the real world (vs. in a more controlled setting).
You may recall that two months back, I reviewed a book called Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash. Well, as you may have guessed, it was just the first of two books by Piet Van Den Eynde.
Today, the Craft and Vision folks released the second volume in the series, called (logically enough) Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash. $5 gets you 77 double-width pages of useful material in handy PDF form (read it on your computer, or iPad, or whatever…).
Let’s go through this eBook section by section so you can see if it’d be of use to you:
Introduction
A warm welcome to this book, with a quick reminder of topics in the first volume.
1 More Advanced Techniques
1.1 Going Beyond Sync Speed
An explanation of High Speed Sync, with some examples of how it’s useful in non-traditional situations (i.e., not just for high-speed action, but for daylight fill too). A brief mention of PocketWizard “HyperSync” technology, and its usefulness on Canon and Nikon cameras (as with the first book, unfortunately Piet doesn’t venture beyond the “big two” camera manufacturers in this title).
1.2 Working with Multiple Flashes
In this section, Piet briefly discusses using multiple flashes for more control, essentially a quick follow-on to the first book’s lighting set-up discussion. He also discusses using multiple flashes for more power, hinting at the material on strobes that’s to follow. This section is also easily applicable to all camera brands that provide for off-camera remote-controlled flash (not just Nikon and Canon).
2 Gear
2.1 Advanced Triggering Systems
More information on the latest PocketWizard goodies and a brief mention of some upcoming competitors (this section will age quickly), with another reminder of the utility and financial practicality of optical slaves.
2.2 More Modifiers
This section is a bit of a hodgepodge, but does bring up some useful gear (with links to the manufacturer pages). Softboxes, baffles for them, grids, snoots, flags, beauty dishes, portable backgrounds — they all get their turn here, if only briefly.
2.3 Thinking Outside the Softbox
A quick discussion of non-intuitive ways to use a softbox, modifiers you can make for one, etc.
2.4 More Useful Stuff
Another grab-bag gear section — quick treatments of gels, brackets, clamps, loupes, luggage.
2.5 Outgrowing Your Small Flashes
High-power strobes, and when you want to use them. A quick mention, and probably appropriately so — this technology changes quickly as vendors come up with new goodies for photographers.
3 Ten Case Studies
Just for fun, Piet actually has eleven case studies in this section (“…it goes to eleven!”) that makes up nearly a third of the book. For each case study, Piet shows you the final image, then follows up with extensive behind-the-scenes “making of” essays and additional images showing setups. In the process, he has examples for the use of pretty much all the gear he mentioned earlier in the book. Meanwhile, it’s pretty much camera-brand-agnostic.
4 Four Interviews
Almost an extension of the case studies, this section takes up just shy of the last third of the book, and consists of four interviews with fellow Belgian photographers. Along with the actual interviews, this section includes even case study style examples, tips on the business of photography, links to sites that the photographers recommend, and of course, links to the photographers’ blogs and social media accounts.
Conclusion
A quick 1-page wrap-up, with thanks and acknowledgements.
So, all-in-all a solid offering — particularly valuable for the case studies and interviews that make up the majority of the eBook’s material.
Another quick reminder to be open to images even when / where you weren’t expecting them:
I caught this image when my daughter and I were walking around looking at the balloons at this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. One of the trinkets on sale at the fiesta’s concession booths was a battery-powered bubble blower. Here, a kid had just run past blowing bubbles — thanks to an overnight rain, the grass was still wet, so the bubbles didn’t pop on contact with the ground.
The technicolor reflections make for a fun (semi-abstract) shadow self-portrait…
I’m writing up another eBook review, so have limited time to blog today — but in the meantime, here’s a shot from this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta:
Labná is a neat little Maya ruin that doesn’t get nearly as much visitor traffic as it deserves. On the east end of the “Puuc Route” in the Yucatan, Labná isn’t particularly close to any major modern cities — but it and its neighboring sites are an easy day trip from Mérida.
Should you ever make it to Labná, its arch is its claim to (touristic) fame:
The unusual (and somewhat funny) thing about this arch is where it’s found. Most arches at Maya sites served as ceremonial entrances to the cities — a way to both announce your arrival at the city, and demarcate the boundaries of the city core.
But this arch is different — it separates the royal from the mercantile parts of Labná. This side of the arch (the fancier of the two) is what you’d see as you were walking into the royal part of town (those two ground-level doors may have been where guards were stationed). The other face of the arch, far plainer, announced your arrival into the home of the merely affluent.
I guess some things never change…