Drove 17 hours for 2.38 minutes
So when an eclipse happens you don't simply stay home, you go and meet it where it's at it's best. I drove way too long to see something way too short and it was very worth it. Did I mention the waffle house?
It was worth it.
Worcester, Massachusetts to Madisonville, Tennessee takes roughly seventeen hours of travel time give or take. Was it worth the hype or at least the many stops to Waffle House that I had envisioned?
A few years ago a friend said that we should go see the eclipse and that it was crossing the United States. I said sure, why not; it was so far in the future where any decision should always be a unwavering yes. Time went by, I forgot about the eclipse and then I started seeing all the news stories about the eclipse, hmmm.. maybe this is something I should check out.
My friend Pat called me up and asked if I still wanted to go down south. I checked my calendar to which I am married to one way or another and for whatever reason the stars had aligned to allow this venture. I called another friend Chris and invited him, perhaps against protocol but this is an eclipse and protocol is more so a grey area.
We took two cars loaded to to the brim with gear, well mostly loaded; we had to make room for gas station treats like gatorades and many other processed affections. Driving down eighty one south was fast, slow, hectic and mundane. Most cars went with the flow while others would cross perilously through cracks in the traffic pattern to what they assume is saving them around an hour of time. The best part of these fast and furious drivers was finding them only five cars away as we hopped off a highway.
Quick mention of our juvenile behavior. While we were traveling south we noticed many race car enthusiast around. We up north don't particularly focus on those types of sports and most often drive the flow of traffic as close to the speed limit as possible... give or take. We ran into a very entertaining way to pass the time during these long stretches of driveway. I'll mention a particular encounter which gave us great joy. A blue Toyota Prius had rocket fuel in it's tank and was pushing through traffic very aggressively, Chris and myself happened to be talking on the phone, albeit coordinating as most might do while caravanning. We simply created large gaps that looked enticing for those who might want to overtake our cars as well as the ability to stay together by slowing down or speeding up on marks to push our car back into a spot we needed to be. But for some reason every time our friend the blue Prius throttled up to those gaps we had created they would mysteriously disappear, when I say gap I really mean two or three car lengths or less. It was as simple as myself letting off the gas and Chris pulling up to meet me. We continued this for many many many many exits. When we finally freed the Prius from our speed limit fearing ways I allowed the driver to see me aloof drinking a little bit of my leftover Starbucks as I pretended not to look. I've also found that letting my arm hang out the side of my vehicle with my hand surfing the air alongside makes many who tailgate very happy.
Honorable mention to the Riverview Inn hotel where we stayed the night before the eclipse. It was a first floor room which was nice. The cigarette burns in the comforter was a nice tough as well as hair on the shower walls. Pulled back the bedsheets to find the same long hair that was adorned on the shower walls in the bed. When we headed out for dinner we found that the backdoor did not lock, there was a latch at the top which would allow the door to be opened several inches. We barricaded the door for a little piece of mind, the desk chair and an ironing board kept the room slightly more secure. Some of the ceiling tiles had been painted in the room along with the trim but only half finished and the room smelled like smoke. Postive note, the AC worked and the blowup mattress that we brought along worked wonderfully.
Arriving early in the AM hours to Kefauver park we found parking easily after being directed to the back of a field which didn't seem quite reflective of the moment we were about to experience. We made our way to a smaller parking lot adjacent to the main street and a few dozen steps away from the bathrooms. The park had a lake which primarily housed algae and it has been suggested.. fish. Some of the parks and rec had managed to get vendors in for this event to sell t-shirts, viewing glasses, drinks and bbq.
I put up the drone a few times to get the full view of the park as we waited around six hours for the eclipse to begin. We got to know our neighbors a bit better as we sat underneath a pop-up canopy we had purchased the day before. Early afternoon the eclipse finally began, everyone remarking, cheering and discerning stares upwards didn't push us any quicker to shoot a sliver taken out of the sun.
The eclipse happened slowly, very slowly, three hours slowly. It was hot out too, didn't mention that yet; low nineties. We had set up all of our gear now, drone was out, tripod and cameras positioned. The sun was positioned high in the sky, we laid on our backs and arched our necks while tilting our gaze through the viewfinder to focus each time on each subtle movement.
The week leading up to this event was laden with how-to youtube videos, articles and other periodicals on how to view the eclipse which I will sum up here. Don't look at the sun, just look at it through the glasses, don't bother taking photos, use a solar filter if you do take pictures, don't look at the sun, ND filters won't work and what equipment will and won't work. Here's what we did with that info... pretty much nothing. We knew about solar filters, we brought some big lenses, big tripods and plenty of snack food. When you're photographing a T-Rex or a trans-dimensional being doing a backflip then it doesn't matter much which camera or lens your using. The same goes for the eclipse, you have a big enough lens and something to put in-between there to darken it then chances are you're going to get a pretty damn good photo.
So I had never really taken photos of the sun before, never attempted or enough had the thought cross my mind. The most interesting thing I found was being able to see the sunspots across the sun. You knew you had the right exposure when you had a yellow center and orange rind protecting that. We took photos of this smaller and smaller crescent as we neared the main attraction, full totality.
The eclipse started to near totality, the shadows grew sharper, the light stranger; almost desaturating and dulling everything. These details couldn't really be captured with a simple Iphone because of the ISO compensation that is employed through Iphone magic. The light dimmed further and my car's headlights and taillights turned on, we got our signal to focus more. I started shooting by just pressing the buttons as quick as possible, sliding my thumb across the back wheel of my camera adjusting the aperture and snapping photos as I did so. Alternating with shutter speed the same way as I fired off photos. We only had two minutes and thirty eight seconds in our location to get these once in a lifetime photos. The best photos would be taken at the beginning and end of totality showing the beads and the diamond ring of the eclipse. The totality ended and each minute or two we had to slightly adjust our settings to recalibrate the exposure. Once I was back to getting the golden orange of the sun once again I relaxed on my duty of photos.
We slowly packed up, picked up, parted ways and shipped out. The rest of the story is packed highways, slow meanders down backroads and a much better hotel room. Thanks for reading my story.
The flying photographer
I certainly don't mix my lenses with my socks when I travel. Here's how I travel as a wedding photographer. I'm also endorsing ThinkTANK because they really rock when it comes to photography gear.
ThinkTank Airport Security. retractable stroller handle so you don't get stuck carrying through the airport.
ThinkTank Airport Security. plenty of space to fit my 200mm 1.8, two bodies, 4 other lenses, two flashes and tons of batteries and accessories and laptop.
usually one body and 3 or 4 lenses and a flash. Also has room for a 15inch macbook
smaller things like cables and usb devices in here
This keeps my macbooks cables organized in my bag and easy to get to.
No this is not a blog about drones even though I may have link-bated you. This could either be about drones or a magical flying photographer or X-Men based sort of mutant who can take photos while flying. I just wanted to write a little bit about my experience traveling as a photographer.
So traveling as a photographer can be a bit difficult. I'm not traveling with a few thousand dollars worth of gear, usually it's tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear; hope you liked that humble brag. This means that i'm not checking my gear, we've all seen those videos of luggage handlers tossing and pitching suitcases into and out of planes. This is my exact nightmare, having someone toss a case or bag filled with two bodies and several lenses with accessories into a mishmash of storage space that is being optimized for space which means fitting and squishing into place when applicable.
When you travel somewhere as a photographer you really don't want to leave that one tool home that you realize later you needed. So this means we will often bring everything and the kitchen sink. I regularly will travel with around eight lenses, a few flashes and two bodies as well as batteries and everything else.
The next nightmare is for a TSA employee somewhere along the lines to inspect my gear and pull out the smallest maybe unnoticeable item somewhere along the lines. Even when I don't have anything important in my checked bags I regularly get luggage back with either one or two locks missing or telltale signs of rummaging. How easy would it be for any of them to simply place an object into their pocketbook or vest pocket. I may arrive at my location and notice I don't have an adapter or lens and now I'm questioning if I even packed it or maybe it fell out when I was retrieving my car charger for my phone at the airport. It may be a week or two before I can verify a stolen item and the amount of baggage handlers could very well mean than I cannot narrow down a point where it was taken.
So how I treat my equipment is having it with me on a carry on bag. This is the stuff that cannot be stolen, it's with me; the guard. On most flights you are allowed a carry on, a backpack and a small item. The carry on size is different between international and continental USA. I do have both sizes of carry on for my camera equipment. I have bags from ThinkTANK and highly suggest them. I have the ThinkTANK commuter, airport security v2, airport international v3 and the retrospective 30 and 10 shoulder bags. One of the neat things as well is the similar bag shapes which mean they look awesome when they are all put away. They are boxy, padded and have all the right features that you need. Order on Amazon and check one out or take a trip to B&H in NYC and get hands on with it. I've had a bag collection for many years and this past year i've actually started to thin out my stash because I fell in love.
Screenshot from TSA website. In the past three years I have had four locks DISAPPEAR and have never received an inspection notice.
So when traveling with your gear, keep it with you. If you get the ThinkTANK bags they mostly all include a cable that is attached to the bag that you simply have to loop to any pole, seat or other stationary objects to secure as well as zippers than can be locked into a stationary lock.
ThinkTank Airport commuter. solid bag that fits enough gear for a wedding
Thinktank Airport commuter. great for a carry on and durable enough for hiking.
Somewhat disposable TSA locks (They like to throw them away)
Keep alot of my chargers in here when i travel
I accidentally went on vacation.
I went to Hawaii for work and I accidentally went on vacation. It's a slippery slope to relaxing when you're out here. Wanted to write a little bit about my journey even though I still have a tad bit of jet lag. Feel free to leave comments.
Black Sand beach via my magical flying powers
Okay, this isn't my best writing. I just got home yesterday but wanted to take this time to get back to work and that's meetings and writing and working on my website as well as blogs. This is all fresh in my mind and I wanted to get it out. I'm a little bit jet lagged and tired and malnourished (my version of malnourished is not enough salt, chocolate and fatty foods). Anyways here's a little bit about my latest exploits.
So I recently went to Hawaii for work. It wasn't a wedding, it wasn't a model and macadamia farms didn't hire me. I was actually working for the government, the Army in fact. I was there with Shawn Pacheco shooting a military ball with nearly a thousand people in attendance. So all I knew going into this was I was going to be shooting couples, the formal photos portion as Shawn made his rounds taking video of the event and ceremonies. The event was huge, I hoped I had brought enough equipment when I arrived there. I brought some Yongnuo flash guns and some compact Manfrotto nano stands in addition to some umbrella mounts and some Neweer modifiers for the lights. I had no idea if my luggage would get lost so in preparation for a few thousand lost in gear I opted for the cheaper gear. I purchased a nice grey and white backdrop from B&H which arrived just in time. To get everything out there cost a bit as well. I actually did a little research after talking for a friend and was able to create a media pass for my gear which dropped the price of the luggage to fifty dollars instead of a hundred dollars. Anyways the logistics of planning and implementing all this equipment to land alongside me in Hawaii was a little daunting.
So i'll jump ahead a few days into my trip when I'm actually doing work which is the real reason I was out there in Honolulu. We arrived at the Warrior's brigade ball at the Honolulu Convention Center and had the pick of where we would set up. Luckily the sun wasn't out and there was plenty of overcast which allowed me to get an amazing spot. I set up my backdrop stand and lights while couples approached me with the inquiry to be first for photos. I didn't have time to even do test shots on my friend Shawn to get everything tuned in. I immediately started doing photos as soon as everything was up, a line forming to my left. Each time I looked back I would see more and more couples until I realized I couldn't see the end of the line. I was sweating and not because of the pressure of performing at these high stakes, it happened to be eighty or so out which was giving me that sweat. Each couple got their own treatment and time with me. As long as the line was I was able to say hello to the couples and pose them a little bit, a little different each time. I shot for around two hours straight before the ceremonies began which offered me some down time. Each time I would turn someone away because the ceremonies would start I would reconsider, mostly because each person that came through looked like they outranked the last. I was later explained most of the ranks by Captain David Fowler.
Towards the end of the event I was beat and we packed up and headed out. Driving back to our host's home at Ewa (Pronounced Eva if I remember correctly) I already was receiving e-mails asking about the photos. The best part of doing these photos was giving some of the couples the chance to sneak in an engagement session or maternity photos or just to show off how good they looked that night. I did have to do some minimal corrections, a few of them had obviously worked hard a few days prior and had scratches on their faces. I got to meet a lot of nice men and women at this ball. Here's a few sample photos from the event, i've also provided a link below to check out all of the photos.
The video above is Shawn Pacheo's cinematography from the ball.
So here's where the story begins now that I prefaced it with work. Work work work, that's what i'm always doing, I don't mind it. In fact it's my natural state most of the time and it's pretty normal to me. I actually feel anxious or weird if i'm not working. Part of working for yourself means that if you're not working then you're not making money which is essential to surviving. So I was pulled apart from my documents, my computer most of the time and also put in places which I was not always taking photos so I actually was removed from most of the components that usually curtail me into productivity. So here's what I did instead of work, I relaxed. I hiked, swam, snorkeled, ate, flew my drone, ran, explored, saw lava.
It was lovely not working, our hosts David & Beth provided us with daily rituals of Mai Tais and healthy food. Shawn who brought me on this "vacation" was also into the healthy food and exercise, which I swayed him from by the end of the week. We spent a lot of time visiting waterfalls, exotic locations and checking out some pretty awesome spots for food. I highly suggest Monkey Pod, awesome food and desserts as well as a very modern atmosphere. We had our own room at their housing which happened to be a two minute walk from the beach. Our beach was actually on the backside of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. One of the awesome benefits to our hosts and our housing was the inclusion of having a big dog named Girl. Girl was a pit bull that won me over. She loved treats, being lazy and was very attentive in exchange for some petting.
hiking to Manoa waterfalls
One day of our days we took a plane over to the Big Island where we visited where Captain Cook was murdered (turns out the locals who thought he was a god weren't convinced he was a god after giving the local ladies STDs). Our journey down to this location involved a two and a half mile hike down a mountain side to a small lagoon. We snorkeled there for awhile and fed many mongoose (I want to say mongeese). The waters where we swam contained lots of sea urchin within the coral and rocks which meant flippers were a necessity. The hike up the mountain was pretty tough, dry, arid weather in addition to loose gravelly trails. So David and Beth are both in the Army. Beth in the reserves and David full-time. Shawn is into MMA and has owned his own school and still trains people weekly. Myself, I like visiting places to get donuts, sandwiches or various meat dishes. The hike was tough for me but I couldn't really tap out so I had to take my time. Later that day we visited black sands beach, I can't recall the exact name of this beach. There are actually a few black sand beaches in Hawaii. These beaches have this soft black sand derived from the lava rocks being pulverized in the Hawaiian surf. The views at this beach were amazing and even more so from my drone. So currently we are at about five miles give or take for the day plus some swimming and snorkeling. We are heading south towards active lava fields. We start a five mile hike down a paved road and then a gravel road and finally onwards through a cooled lava field. Okay, the five miles actually ended before we hit the lava fields but because of a recent collapse of the cliffside and lava fields we had to trek around the active lava which was about a mile and a half. Oh yea, it's dark out too; in case I didn't mention that. We didn't know how long our walk across the lava fields would be, for all we knew it was a half hour. Each person we passed told us various distances and estimates as we conversed this sharp, treacherous path alongside a thick singular rope which stretched into the darkness. When we arrived at the final location it was raining and crowds dispersing. Our view wasn't as spectacular as previously observed by our hosts. Despite our current view we had an additional option of seeing a better view of the flow. On our trip back we stopped and set up the drone and managed to fly it within shouting distance of the red and orange stuff. We all had our iPhones out lighting our way back and I did take a nasty spill on the rocks but we made it back to the gravel road. We took this endless trip back to the car, each of us carrying out own burden of tiredness. We made it back to our hotel a few hours later and slept, only to wake up before any actual rest had occurred to fly back to Oahu. We did around eighteen miles that day and I will never ever forget it, because I'm out of shape and it's bragging rights for me ;).
This is David and Beth
So the rest of the trip we visited beaches, snorkeled, had close calls in the water between waves, water and snorkeling mishaps. My friend Shawn at one point swallowed a good deal of water a few hundred feet out and was towed in by the lifeguard. I was held down at one point around sixteen seconds in the surf of a big wave, go ahead and hold your breath for sixteen seconds now add getting rolled around while that's happening. We had an awesome time doing it all regardless of the danger. After a few days of this "vacation" I actually realized I was vacationing. I wasn't taking calls non stop and answering e-mails in a timely manner. I did however manage to book five meetings for when I returned home. Future Mike will appreciate past Mike's initiative.
We had many other days that are worth mentioning but sometimes it's nice to not share every little bit of my day. If I didn't do wedding photography or photography and didn't rely on attention then I would absolutely love being a bit more private. But honestly it's nice to share my travels with everyone too. I had an awesome vacation and it was nice to have the opportunity to shut down and enjoy the moments. I accidentally went on vacation and I liked it.
I do want to take a second to write about my experience with United airlines. I booked with them before their recent choices to overbook and literally drag a paying passenger over their plane. I was hoping that they would be over the top trying to win everyone over with service and maybe a little bit extra. It was a plain experience on this plane, cramped seats, no complimentary meal on our six hour flight from Honolulu to Denver. I only found out about paying for food as they went through the plane at that exact moment they were taking orders. There was also no display units on the back of the seats which meant all I had was my phone to watch movies after connecting to their wifi. I had enough battery to last me a movie and then I had to reserve my battery so I could call my ride when I reached my destination. I typically fly Delta because of their upgraded economy class and meals included. I won't be flying United again because of their treatment of this passenger and also it's nothing that stands out as far as service goes. I did however get a lot of suggestions of social media to try out JetBlue, so that's in the mix soon.
P.S the naked guy in the waterfall is me. Check that off my bucket list.
