I have realized for a while that there is a small list of small but critical Image-capture-gear which is constantly moving from one bag to the next. these items include CF packs, bubble, filters, grey cards, flashlight, etc..

Then when you get to location, you pull them out of your bag d’jur and start loading these items into your shirt and pants pockets. This situation has bugged me, items now get lost, misplaced, mishandled. and over the coarse of time, you have to replace filters, lens caps, bubbles and lens coats …Like I said it has been a pain all away around.

The Best camera gear shoulder pack is really an extremely functional, highly ergonomically engineered, urban commuter shoulder bag, manufactured by arguably the best extreme weather gear manufacture on earth.

This shoulder bag can quickly be open by bending open the sides, aka the innovative ‘Roll top operating system’. You can get into the lime green interior of the raven black bag without having to unclick, unvelco, unhinge any covers, very neat. Inside, the pockets seem costumed designed with the photographer in mind, it’ll hold my Lee ND grads, anothr side pocket for Nikon battery, another pocket for CF cars, bubble, caps.

The outside of the bag is streamlined, it glides underarm, when your camera rises up to take your Images. It has small hidden outer pocket to hold an iphone, small long side pocket for flashlight, and a reciprocal pocket on the opposite side for headlamp.. then finally a larger zippered pocket to hold my 77, 72, 62mm filters stacks.

What really works for me, is that you can go into this bag without any effort, now more hunting around, and you have a place to stow that lense cap or hoodie, and you can use the larger inner section ot bring in an 85mm. All totaled, there are seven pockets.

Finally, yes a bit more, if you find your swinging the bag due to walking or a lot of up/down bending, there is a lower waist strap to cinched it to your body. And let’s not overlook the 1/2 straps which can adjust to lockdown on each side the large Roll top opening.

So here is a camera gear shoulder pack for those small items that you can efficiently store and quickly retrieve items. The pack consists of robust material, engineered for ergonomics, and after you wrap it over your head to hang off your shoulder, you can hike around the day in comfort, and the man-bag/photo-bag cliches just whimper away. This bag will improve your game, it is keeping 10-15 small critical items in control, so you can capture your eyes and focus your mind and DLSR on your (next) Image.

Mistral 8

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My thoughts driving into Vermont were to find landscape outdoor digital Image opportunities. But before any hiking was to be done, a trip with Mr. Knowledge over to the Brondville fair (Vermont’s Oldest continouse fair) was in order.

As always, I’m packing a DLSR, and have it set up with the new 16-35 f4g V2. I have been shooting a lot with the lens and like it quite a bit, it puts out some quality images, makes you move to get your shot, and even at 1/50 sec, the VR can buy you a few more stops, and then the D3s can crank up the ISO so this body/lens combination is very productive in both rural/urban environment.

But this was a tractor pull, well actually a Vermont Tractor Pulling Association sponsored event in the street legal pickup class, with the winner earning bragging rights for the next year.

Well getting out of my comfort zone is one thing, so I just began to retool the D3s to Shutter priority at 1/60, pumped my ISO to 12,800, set focus mode to continuous….and started my panning as the trucks roared up the track…

I soon found out that the smoke spewing trucks created the motion and drama and power that produced a compelling Image. In post, I liked the roughness of the moment accented by the grainy ISO pixels, so I went for my ‘old school’ film plug-ins, to pull it all together… It was a fun evening and fresh candy apples were had by all…

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One can only imagine what happens beneath the range of light that falls on the earth from the moon. The idea for waking at 3:30 to travel back to Grafton Peace Pagoda came to me from when I was here the day before, but that idea had its beginning thread from my August 31st post, Moonrise.

It all seemed interconnected, as I witnessed the white moonlight streaming down over the white dome creating this wonderful reflecting glow back into the night. The world beneath this moon had seen its fair share of hustle and bustle, but here in this tranquil setting, the moonlight was at peace.

There is quite a bit of information on the web about the Peace Pagoda, which are located throughout the world. I’ve read articles by it’s Japanese founder and later day disciples and all the activity that has been going on to establish more Pagodas. Interestingly, the only two in the US are located in Massachusetts, but there is a third in construction in my favorite woodlands, the smokey mountains of Tennessee, near ORNL where I once worked…..

One last comment, with 9/11, just a few days away, a peace march starts here and moves thru some of the larger cities in the area and then winds it’s way down to NYC. ‘Why do you have a peace walk?’, was a questioned posed to the venerable Nipponzan Myōhōji nun who efforts helped built this Pagoda, ‘because I have a leg’. This honorable woman Jun Yasuda has walked the entire US, three times, amazing……..

Wikipedia.com

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Happy Shooting …..

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My eyes have never seen such a sight as this. First I have never seen a pagoda and second here it was, a brilliant white dome, backdropped across the blue sky, out here in the middle of nowhere.  I was amazed, who would build such a building   why?, where did the money and time and material come from ? What was its purpose ?  I figured there were plenty of answers to those basic questions, which I’d research later…

For what was before me, after coming out of the woodland trail , was an Image of wonderment that I wanted to capture, in all of its glory in this wonderful, peaceful, tranquil environment. I walked around the building, looking for different angles, but kept coming back to this location.  Fortunately for me, a group of people arrived, so now the Pagoda image has some life in it, and not just this wonderful white domed building.

AKZBZPZ7BRU8

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1. Peace Pagoda Entrance
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After I came upon the area, my thoughts were how to put my vison of all these elements together and hopefully have some cooperation with natures lighting.  The devotion rockpile was precariously  stacked and the colors and shades of the rock held a lot of harmony against the father tree and background saplings.  So I went low and up  and framed the devotion rocks under one of the arms of the father tree.

Then it was time to wait for the sun to hide behind some very shallow clouds to diffuse the light. The waiting game begain as I waited for an hour for the proper light.  I have dozens of impatient shots of this image of the sunlight breaking thru all the tree leaves and casting a mottled layer of bright light and shade spots which distract for the content of this image.

My wait was but a moment in time. Can you imagine, how long it has taken for that piece of rectangular granite now sandwiched between the crux of the tree to inch skyward in these woodlands.  And now this odd hurtful looking tree commands a final image to the entrance of one of only two Peace Pagodas in the US…….

to be continued……

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It really was an interesting walk thru this short forest trail which led to the Grafton Peace Pagoda. The trail was extremly well marked with black arrows on small squares on a white backgeound, nailed into trees every ten feet.  The trail itself was worn well thru the upper ground level of any tree which butted against the edges of the trail.

However, there were unique devotion rockstacks every where along the trail.  Each was different and seperate from its neighbors, and they were everywhere.  This small forest trail was entirely new to me as well as this paths ending. I could not help wonder who would spend so much time practiving their faith in such a far away place on such a simple trail.  You see, after doig some research the following day, there are only 2 Peace Pagodas in the US, and this simple trail, with the simple devotion rockstack were the lead into  something quite special and I think spectacular…..

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No disrespect with the title of this post. Vincent’s recent book, taps into the OZ title and theme.  For those who are not familiar with this photographer, here is a brief bio:

Vincent Versace is a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts & Entertainment and the Shellenberg fine art award, is a six-time nominee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame and is the best selling author of Welcome to Oz a Cinematic Approach Digital Still Photography with Photoshop and. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American

I have been following him for a few years. I particularly remember during a cold dark winter night Vincent was one of my first virtual mentors on NX2. His references and quotes were a departure from the styles of other authors/teachers.  He would say stuff like, “Welcome to the 21st century,…….quoting others, “..Printing is the Soul of your Image….”, and it resonated with me as much as the technique that he was showing.

Recently I saw his work presented at Photoshop World, Orlando.  He was the last NAPP photographer to present on the panel of seven.  In my opinion his images were better crafted, richer, fuller, inspiring and stood out against the Industries finest…. I thought about that later, each photographer has a unique niche, which consumes their time, energy, focus and effort, no one photographer can do it all, because their time is so precious.

Moose’s Images were killer stunning & visual in B&W..but after seeing what Vincent did with B&W and color, I saw a master at work,  Versace has developed a repertoire of current fine art tools which should influence and inspire others to another level..(Note: Sometime in the past Moose did work with Vincent, not sure of the story or timeline)

At PSW, they did a mini break-out session of a few hours, and I attended Vincent’s.  The information locked up in his head was amazing. He is a historian on B&W and all the various digital convertors available to transform color to B&W.  He spent thirty minutes walking thru all the aspects of the technologies and you knew right then, that this is why his work contains something special..that understanding and re-inventivness to get true Digital B&W, midtones, shadows, shades and color.

His primary focus is on photography as an art form. His approach and craft is how the eye follows light and color and how to make the viewer enter and follow thru the Images, by maximizing light, shadow and gesture.

…So… I just saw posted a few new workshops opening up at Maine Media Workshops with Vincent as the instructor and decided another adventure to the Sierra’s (as much as I love and want to return ) was going to have to be deferred.

The OZ man is in Maine !

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One part of Newton’s theory of motion is that a body in motion tends to stay in motion, so after an early-bird morning of shooting fake farm cows and fall fauna, I spent some time spelunking up a mountain drive. I drove past nothing more than a 8X11 small white sigh that said ‘Grafton Peace Pogoda’, my interst piqued,

I headed up a dirt road with fall overgrowth of grapeleaves and blackberry bushes, that soon revealed on the left hand side of the road this royal looking sign. Not knowing what this little trip was going to bring, I loaded up my domke-bag with my digital D3s a few ulta wides, fish, 105mm and head up the trail and Gitzo….my quest for travel and outdoor adventure was very curious for what I’d see next…..

to be continued…

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It is the best Ice Cream for miles. It is the most flavorful with twenty exotic flavors of vanilla. Something called a BLUE MOON, (recipe closely garderd) is a best seller. Ever had black licorice ice cream ?  You will find flavors here not invented anywhere else, and they all taste great…

The place is called Moxie’s.  I added this location to Image taking list early in the summer.  So when is the best time for a neat colorful Image to match the internal flavors of Moxie’s, yep late at night, around 9pm.  If you are in the Troy, NY area …take a short trip over here, you’ll enjoy the simple moment……

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