Grape Harvest in the Penedès wine region of Spain. August 2009.

The end of August marks the beginning of grape harvest season in the Penedès wine region of Spain. Tractors overloaded with grapes crowd the roads and create traffic jams on the normally empty roads. Even the locals who know the back-road shortcuts aren’t immune to being stuck behind a grape harvesting machine or truck hauling grapes back to a winery. Small villages in the area run communal grape presses and the smell of wine production fills the air as you pass by them.

The harvesting process is pretty straightforward, but takes two distinct forms. Younger vines in flat areas are aligned in perfectly straight, evenly spaced rows with the growth direction controlled by wires and stakes. This allows for a mechanized harvesting machine to easily pass down the row and harvest the grapes leaving the vines intact. Older vines, such as those in the photos are allowed more freedom to grow and require hand picking as they are far more delicate. Hand picking allows the wine maker to be more selective about the grape quality, leaving grapes that might be past their prime on the vine.

These Macabeo grapes will likely end up in the production of Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine.

Grapes need to be harvested at different times depending upon any number of factors: the type of wine being created, sugar content of the grapes, altitude of the growing reason, variety of the grapes harvested, etc., but ultimately the winemaker is at the mercy of the weather. The combination of rainfall and temperature can decide the quality of the wine produced each growing season long before the harvesters step into the field.

Hand harvesting allows for the selection of better grapes.

Grapes are transported directly to the winery to be crushed shortly after harvest to make sure they don't get to warm.

From the field the grapes are brought directly to the winery for timely processing. It’s up the winemaker to decide how to process them to create each specific type of wine. Temperature, type of juice extraction, length of time the grapes are allowed to remain with the skins and other factors shape the wine from the very start so every step in the process is important in achieving a high quality wine. Exactly how much wine that can be produced from a field is dependent on the growing conditions, age of the vines, and the processes of the winemaker.

Photographers Notes

I had a chance to attend the grape harvest of a local winery while I was in Spain during August. It was a great chance to see the starting process in wine making, and gave me more respect for how complex the winemaking process really is. Between endless grape varieties, harvest times, extraction processes, and then fermentation and bottling, there are so many factors that go into producing a quality wine, that sometimes it seems like it takes a lot of luck to come up with a good formula.

The lens hood on my 70-200 was a magnet to the fine dirt that the grape vines grow in.

The field was pretty dusty, as it was in fact a field. I tried to find some interesting angles which had me laying in the dirt or climbing on the trailers covered in grape juice. I came away with a dusty camera, but no harm done. I used my Canon 30D with my 70-200 F2.8 IS, 17-40 F4 and 50 F1.8 lenses. On second look at the photos, I could have brought my speed light as some of the shots were shot in the early morning and could have used some fill.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you made it all the way through, please leave a comment with your thoughts. I’m going to be doing regular photo essays and would love any feedback on how to improve.

Panoramic of the Penedès Wine Region of Spain, 2009.

Click to view a larger version of the photo. When the image loads in the lightbox, click and drag to view the entire panoramic.

Photo Notes

Shot on my Canon 30D and 17-40mm F4.

I am currently doing a WorkAway in the Penedès Wine region of Spain a few hours outside of Barcelona. My host runs a wine tourism business which partly specializes in giving tours of the wine region on bike. This Sunday we set out for a 30km ride to see some of the sights around the area. Click “continue reading” to check out the rest of the photos.

Bike issues right away caused some delay.

Leaving the place where we are staying is a 3km uphill climb. As soon as we got to the top I shifted and the chain came off, got tangled in the back wheel and bent the rear derailleur. Fortunately we were not too far from home and we were able to grab a different bike.

Grapes from one of the highest vineyards in the region, used mainly in the production of Cava.

1,000 year old tree.

House used as vacation home for Belgian royal family.

One of the regions many natural springs. Very cool, clean and refreshing water.

Blackberry season. They provided a much needed energy boost.

Human tower building during the La Llacuna village festival.

The village of La Llacuna, Spain was the last stop on our bike ride before heading home. We initially stopped in to grab a beer and sandwich, but the village was having a festival so we stayed to watch some of the performances.

Dancing during the La Llacuna village festival.

A performance during the La Llacuna village festival.

Photo Notes

All photos were shot with my Canon 30D and 17-40mm F4. I started using a circular polarizing filter on the lens and it makes the sky and colors stand out dramatically. The filter is an no-name brand that I bought at the Shanghai photo market. Normally I would shy away from using cheap filters (I don’t use a UV filter on any lens), but for the price it really enhances the photos. I’ve heard of some people having problems with cheap CPL’s adding a green color cast, but in my experience when shooting RAW this has not been an issue.

I had the opportunity to shoot This Will Destroy You at Lido in Berlin, Germany last Sunday. This Will Destroy You is an instrumental rock back from Texas that I discovered earlier in the year thanks to one of my favorite web comics, Questionable Content. Since then it’s been on non-stop playback. Check out the rest of the post for some more photos and some photo notes.

Photo Notes

Concert photography continuously pushes the limits of my 30D and lenses. Thankfully the lighting was better than I was expecting which allowed me to get some decent shots. Even with decent lighting and my 50mm F1.8 and 70-200mm F2.8 IS, I still had to shoot at ISO 1600 the entire show. I decided to go with black and white processing as I feel that fits the mood of the music better. If you have not checked out This Will Destroy You, you can visit their MySpace page here.

The template simplifies the creation of two 45x35mm photos required for many passport and visa applications and outputs to a standard print size of 15x10cm that can be printed at most photo labs. I took great care to make sure that it meets the sizing requirements set by the UK Home Office Identity and Passport Service, so it should work for most countries that require 45x35mm photos.

Here’s the best part: It is available for free for non-commercial use.

Head over to the template page to grab the download, and be sure to let me know what you think.

Let’s get into this quickly. I love my Vibram Five Fingers, but they are not with out problems. I’ve had the shoes for almost six months now, and they have seen pretty heavy usage. This review will give some of my thoughts on the construction, care and usage of the Vibram Five Fingers. Hopefully you will find it helpful if you are thinking about picking up a pair.

Background

I can’t walk down the street and not catch someone giving me a weird look. People tend to look at shoes much more than you would think. It doesn’t stop at just the looks; I’ve had everything from giving impromptu product demonstrations in stores, to crowds of people surrounding me in a restaurant asking me about the shoes. For a traveler this is great, as anything that can help break the ice right away and make it easier for people to open up to you can be a benefit.

I’ve been traveling now since May 20th and have seen parts of Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands. I brought two pairs of shoes with me on my travels: a pair of leather dress shoes for going out and formal occasions and my Vibram Five Fingers Sprint for everything else. I would estimate that I wear the Five Fingers around 95% of the time that I’m out and about (around the apartment I go barefoot,) so they see their share of abuse.

Build Quality

After a month or so of really heavy usage the Five Fingers have taken a beating. The soles are holding up well, with almost no visible wear. The cloth used on the top of the sprint model is a different story. The rubber on left big toe got caught on a crack in the sidewalk, which lead to the toe dragging agaisnt the concrete forming a hole (see photo). I also have developed a hole between the big toe and fourth toe (or between the little piggy that went to market and the one that stayed home if you will), that most likely formed through friction (see photo). I was able to find some thread that matched the shoes and sewed a temporary patch, but hoped they would hold up to a bit more abuse.

I was extremely sad when this happened.

Even more so when I found this.

Care

You absolutely must keep up on the cleaning or the shoes become uncomfortable to wear. If the thought of cleaning your shoes weekly (or more) under heavy usage is too much for you, you best look elsewhere. Sweat from your feet mixes with dust that gets into the shoes and forms a black paste that adheres to the microfiber bottom. After a day or two of walking around (about 4-5 hours on your feet walking around a city each day), you have to clean them or the sweat/dust paste starts to get slippery and your foot slides around. It’s a terrible feeling, trust me.

Washing them with water and a bit of soap cleans them right up, and only takes about five minutes. I would recommend hand washing them, as I found the washing machine too harsh on the fabric. The fabric around the toes on my sprints is starting to get frayed after the first washing using a machine (see photo). The fraying is mostly a cosmetic issue, and shouldn’t have any noticeable physical effect on the shoes. While it may not be the best option, to keep them looking better I started shaving the frayed fabric off with a standard razor. The concept of shaving your shoes might seem kind of weird, but it seems to work pretty well and keeps the shoes looking better (see photo). Drying them works best in the sun, which can take only a few hours. If you dry them inside away from the sun, plan on letting them sit overnight.

Fuzziness from the washing machine.

Yep. Shaving my shoes.

Uses

Vibram Five Fingers are the Swiss Army Knives of shoes. Going rock climbing then sailing? no problem. Need to walk over broken glass all day? Done that. Here are a few of my experiences with them.

Walking: Walking is one area the my Sprints excel at. You can feel every texture beneath your feet. Walking around Europe has been a dream with cobblestone roads and other textures on the street everywhere. It may not be for everyone, but noticing the various textures has added to my travel experience. On some days I’ve put 5-6 hours of walking in while traveling and while wearing the Five Fingers my feet are in far less pain at the end of the day than they would be if I was wearing other shoes.

The day after I arrived in Germany in May, the football (soccer) team from the town I am staying in won the German championship. A huge city wide party took place and there was broken glass everywhere. There was no way to avoid walking on the glass but the Five Fingers (and my feet) came through unscathed. I wouldn’t recommend walking on broken glass all the time, but if your worried about the durability of the soles it’s a pretty good example of their strength.

The whole downtown of Wolfsburg, Germany was like this. Deutsche Meister!

Slacklining: Slacklining with the Five Fingers is almost as good as being barefoot, almost. You can feel the line pretty well and they don’t get in the way. When wearing them for slacklining I worry about getting my toes caught in thinner lines due to the rubber between the toes. It may not be that much of an issue, but it’s something that I will figure out when I get more experience with them. The only solution to this problem is not falling off the line.

Water/Beach: Sand gets into the Sprints which makes its way into the toes creating a sandpaper type effect. I took them off on the beach as I found the grinding of sand against my toes uncomfortable, and no matter how hard you try your going to get sand/rocks inside them. They don’t seem to dry too quickly once they get wet, so if you are planning on wearing them in the water and then out again, plan on having a slightly squishy feeling until they fully dry. I think some of the other models like the KSO’s would be much better for water activities.

Running: Running in the Sprints is also a pretty good experience, but is something you have to work yourself into. If you try running right away you will most likely be in pain. Gradually work your way into it over a few weeks and let your feet muscles get built up. Though even after the break in period, I find running on grass far more enjoyable than concrete as it puts far less stress on your feet.

Bouldering/Rock Climbing: I tried using them for bouldering on my home wall, but had some problems getting a grip on some of the smaller holds. I have not put them though a full climbing test, but in comparison to my bouldering shoes they appear to have less grip in the heal area, which could cause problems on some holds. If you are thinking of buying them as dedicated climbing shoes, you might want to see them in person before buying them, but for people who want a casual climbing shoe they should work great. This is another area that I will require more experience in before I can give a good recommendation for this usage.

Conclusion

I have flat feet and I’ve been known to drag my feet and wear out the back of my shoes. I also have problems with my posture and my back being sore. While they are not a miracle fix for the issues, since I have been wearing the shoes my posture and back have noticeably improved. I also don’t have the problem of dragging my feet anymore. The fact that your feet are getting stronger while wearing them is a huge perk for me. I’ve never felt like my feet have been in better condition.

The Five Fingers have some issues, but for me the positive aspects far outweigh the negative. There is a break in period, but once you get past it they are great. When my pair wears out, I will be most definitely purchasing a new pair. I just hope by then they have some better color choices.

I suck at sewing but the patch works well.

* Update *

Fast forward six or so months from when this review was written. In all my Five Fingers saw 11 countries in 2009 with almost straight use every day during seven months that I was traveling around the world. I wasn’t exactly easy on then, so the above review should be an accurate deception of what you can expect from them under heavy usage. From my understanding Vibram has addressed some of the durability issues with the newer updates to the Five Fingers and some of the problems I experienced should be taken care of. Though when you put any product under heavy usage for a period of time things fail (as will be showcased in an upcoming article regarding my travel gear).

While in Bangkok in November my Five Fingers finally gave out. The right shoe now has a hole in the bottom about an inch in diameter, and the tops of them have multiple rips from catching my foot on cement. I was sad to retire them, as it meant I had to wear normal shoes for the rest of my adventures. I really miss wearing them and can’t wait to get a new pair.

RIP Five Fingers

Killings show up every day in the news. Politicians on both sides of the border cast blame. Despite all drug related violence, the citizens of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico have to go on living their lives and have problems of their own to face. The current economic crisis is making it difficult to find jobs and as the city expands outwards neighborhoods are popping up without basic utilities. In early January 2009 I traveled to Juarez, Mexico with some friends to build a house for a family in need. This photo essay is about my time spent there.

This photo tour can be viewed as a slideshow. Simply click on an image to begin play or Click Here.

The neighborhood that we built in was one of the newer areas that lacks many utilities. Many houses get electricity from pirate electrical lines run across the ground that the neighborhood kids play soccer on, and without waste management garbage either goes into the neighboring field or is burned.

The recently cut wood scraps quickly turned into toys for the kids.

This of course happened after the concrete was almost finished.

The young family that we built for has three kids ages 1, 3, and 4 and was living in a small cinder block house. The father had been out of work for a while and was unable to find stable employment. Many people in his condition end up looking for small day labor jobs to put food on the table.

Once the neighborhood kids found out that we had a bag of candy it didn’t last long.

Toothache. I’m sure the candy didn’t help either.

This dog appeared and started chasing the families chicken.

The dog from the previous photos chased this chicken into a fence constructed from bed springs, where it got stuck. It was unable to get out by itself, and was rescued only to find it’s self toted around by this boy.

Handing over the house.

Photographers Notes

I shot over 1,800 images over the trip on my Canon 30D. I switched between my Canon 17-40 4L and Canon 70-200 2.8L IS. Since I was building while shooting my 30D took a beating, mostly from scratching against my tool belt. Some of the paint was scratched off underneath the LCD, but other than that no real damage was done.

In an attempt to bring about order the Mexican troops had been dispatched to Juarez. The only time we saw them was at a checkpoint the first day. We stopped at the checkpoint, and only after leaving did we realize that there were soldiers in makeshift bunkers aiming rifles at our vehicles. I wanted to get a photo on the day we left, but the checkpoint was not operational.

Introducing the unofficial Where I’ve Been plugin for WordPress.

I decided to create the WordPress plugin after searching for an easy way to embed Where I’ve Been maps on WordPress blogs and not finding one. I’m not a developer and don’t really know PHP, but was able to hack this together creating my first WordPress Plugin. I’m open to code improvements, suggestions, and any help. I would love to see some examples of the plugin used, so if it’s running on your blog please leave me a comment and I’ll feature your site in the examples.

Current Version: 0.6.0
Requires at least: WordPress 2.7
Tested up to: WordPress 2.7.1
Download: Currently not available until it can be fixed. See note above for more info.

Live Demo

Installation

1. Download and extract the “where-ive-been” folder.
2. Upload the “where-ive-been” folder to your WordPress plugin directory, usually “wp-content/plugins”.
3. Activate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel.
4. *Optional* If you wish, you may hard code your user id’s into the where-ive-been.php file. I only recommend doing this if you know what you’re doing.
5. Place the shortcode with the required values filled in wherever you wish for your map to be displayed. See usage for more info on how to configure the plugin.

To update the plugin simply use WordPress’s built in one-click updater. If you wish to upgrade manually simply repeat the installation steps.

Usage

Before you can embed the map on your blog, you will need to retrieve two user id’s found in the source code of your whereivebeen.com profile.

1. Go to http://www.whereivebeen.com and log in to your account.
2. Click on the “Profile” or “My Profile” buttons to pull up your map.
3. Right click in your browser and select “View Page Source”(Firefox), “View Source” (Internet Explorer & Safari).
4. Search the code (CTRL-f Windows, Command-f Mac) first for “uID” and then for “iID” and record each of the corresponding values that are single quotation marks.
Example: Person = { **uID: ’0000000′**, sID: ‘Not Needed’, **iID: ’00000000000000000000000000000000′** )
You are looking for the values that are represented as 0′s in the example. The uID will be around 8 digits long and the iID around 32 digits.

The plugin makes use of WordPress Shortcodes and has two required options and two optional ones.
Embed maps into your post or page using shortcode: [whereivebeen uid="Required" iid="Required" roundcorners="Optional" width="Optional"]

1. uid = *Required* Your unique 8 digit uID found on your whereivebeen.com profile (see above).
2. iid = *Required* Your unique 8 digit iID found on your whereivebeen.com profile (see above).
3. roundcorners = Optional. This option can be set to either ‘true’ or ‘false’, the default is ‘true’. This option will change the corners on the map window to either round(true) or square(false).
4. width = *Optional* Set the width if the default (570×360) is too wide for your blog. The height is automatically calculated.

Screenshots

Click the screenshots to load them in the lightbox.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use multiple maps on my site?
You may use multiple maps by using multiple shortcodes with different user id’s.

Does this plugin work on pre-2.7 WordPress installations?
I have personally only tested the plugin on WordPress 2.7+ installations. The plugin makes use of the Shortcode API that was released in WordPress 2.5, so it will possibly work on all versions after 2.5. If your feeling brave, test it out and let me know.

Milestones and Goals

Here is what I have planned for future versions.

• Implement WordPress Admin Panel control.
• Automatic fetching of uID and iID from profile page, similar to http://idgettr.com/

History

0.5 [2009.03.20]
* Added: Option to change the width of the map
* Minor code fixes and readme readability updates

0.5.1 [2009.03.19]
* Fixed: Removed unintended use of “smart quotes”

0.5 [2009.03.18]
* Initial Public Release
* Added: Shortcode support for changing rounded corners

0.4 [2009.03.18]
* Added: Shortcode support for uID and iID

0.1-0.3 [2009bc.03.01]
* Initial development phase. AKA “Pre-history”

Support = Community Based

I’m not a programmer (but I can try to fake it). If anyone wants to help add new features, clean up code, or help support the plugin leave a comment below. I may not be able to answer your question or solve the problem, but collectively we can.

Geese. Lake Byron, South Dakota

I have had the chance recently to get outdoors a bit and try my hand a nature photography. Below are some shots from some recent trips into the area surrounding Lake Byron, South Dakota followed by some commentary.

Bald Eagles

Young Bald Eagle

Compilation of five photos of a young Bald Eagle taking off.

Three Bald Eagles.
I have had a difficult time getting close to the older ones.

Young Bald Eagle

Photo Notes

Nature photography, or more specifically bird photography, as featured here is something that is pretty new to me. It requires long lenses, tests the limits of your equipment and requires serious patience. For most of these photos, the temperature was near 15°F, nearing -1°F with wind. Whenever I was not shooting I had to take the battery out of the camera and put it near a source of heat to keep the battery from dying. Even with that, my 30D which can normally handle 11+ frame burst in RAW, was dropping to about three before having to pause to write for about 20 seconds.

Birds are small and tend not to fly near you, especially in SD during hunting season. My newly acquired Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS coupled with my 30D gives me an equivalent of 320mm, but even that fell short most of the time. I’m sure if I coupled the lens with a 2X Extender I would have adequate reach. One thing is for sure, bird photography requires some serious equipment to pull off correctly.

With all the trouble I had, there were some pretty amazing moments. The large flocks of Geese leaving the lake was straight out of Planet Earth. Also, at one point as I was driving, the young Bald Eagle that was in the last shot followed me beside the road for about 10 minutes. Thankfully I was the only one on the road and was able to stop multiple times for photo’s.

MMMmmm.. The taste of economic destruction in the morning….

Photo Notes

The photoshoot for the images used real shredded US currency that I happened to have laying around. To light it I used an Alien Bee B800 studio strobe with a medium size softbox as well a Canon 550EX Speedlight with an homemade cardboard snoot. The lens/camera setup consisted of a Canon 50mm f/1.8 on my 30D.

This image and others are available for sale via my stock photography site. Please check out the gallery below to view others in the series. Please do not link directly to the image itself, or modify it an any form. Please contact me directly for licensing of the “Credit Crunch” image. Thanks.