Automator

single PDF document.  I am going down to Mexico for two weeks to climb two of their highest peaks and needed to get the old release of liability form out of the way.  And then email it to the guide service.  It’s a brainless process to take the iPhone, make photos of each page, then email the pictures.

But the company I am going with needs/wants the form back in a single PDF, so there’s not so much to manage.  At first I looked around for an application to do that, then I realized I’m on a Mac and I bet there’s the ability to create an Automator workflow to take care of that.

Sure enough, after a little looking around, I found a way to create an application.  It took two minutes to make it.  I can’t believe how easy it is to do this, whereas on my old PC I would have had to download an application, get a virus or two in the process, suffer through whatever bad programming was built in, then finally get my PDF.  I wouldn’t even bother to have tried to write software to do it myself, on either the Mac or PC.

Now, on my Mac, it’s taken longer to write this blog entry than it did to create the single

Automator images to PDF

PDF from four different images.  In fact, I was looking through the actions in Automator and found there’s an action to create an ePub file from text.  This text can then be read on a Kindle or in the Mac/iPhone’s Kindle app.  How cool is that.  I digress.

In any case, here is a link to the Automator action to create a PDF from one or multiple images.  To create a PDF from multiple images, hold the Command button when clicking those image files.  The Choose a Finder Item: dialog might open behind some other open windows, so make sure it’s not hiding.

If you don’t want to download the above Automator action, you can just take the image to the right, duplicate it in Automator by dragging the two actions in and save it as an application.  Then you will have created an Automator application.  Something that would have taken me hours or days now takes literally minutes with Automator.

Enjoy!

http://news.msn.com/us/teen-polar-explorer-will-attempt-to-break-south-pole-record#!

Note – the article is a bit misleading – Christian Eide’s feat of going solo from Hercules Inlet to the SP was 700 miles in 25 days.  No one has come even close to touching his record since 2011.  Parker’s trip, though a long 400 miles, will not compare to Christian’s trip, as a speed record.  The website has a correct assessment of the expedition:

http://www.willisresilience.com/the-expedition/world-record/

I’m looking forward to reading when a solo Parker starts from the Hercules Inlet and best’s Christian’s record – now that will be astonishing!  It looks like Parker has a good many years to do some very impressive things and I look forward to reading about them.

Good luck Parker!

So, I went out the day before the Jackson Hole Quickdraw during the 2013 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival and began shooting setup shots.  That way I could make some fun transitions to the actual drawing competition.

It was very crazy to be shooting with three different cameras during the competition to make this shoot happen.  As much as I wanted to be shooting with a PMW-200, the budget did not accommodate that camera.  Instead, I shot with:

• Nikon D300s
• Canon M-500
• GoPro 3 Black

Using these three cameras, plus Final Cut Pro X to edit the material, made it possible to create the video above.  I’ve done work as a Director, Director of Photography, cinematographer, editor, grip, and gaffer.  All have been fun, though I prefer working as a DP or cinematographer, as it’s one of my passions.

Getting the right shot, making it look great, and matching or improving the director’s vision is a constant and challenging job.  The rewards are worth it.

Beautiful light for beautiful products

been able to do is use some classic portraiture lighting techniques, like the butterfly lighting in the photo on the right.

Many times, photographers will use light tents for their shoots, giving their products a certain look.  And that look is just like everyone else’s look.  Although light tents are very handy, there is only so much you can do with them.

You can place lights all around them, chose to use just one light, and add variations on variations.  That seems great, but the surrounding darkness looks the same.  And with very reflective objects, you can see the box frame.  It requires lots of post-production work in photo editing software to fix that.  I very much prefer to get the image right in camera, as I don’t like wasting mine or my clients’ time correcting errors out later.

I don’t want my client’s products to look like everyone elses.  They hire me because I

Crystals at By Nature Gallery

give them a unique look with very high quality.

When photographing crystals with light tents, the highlights become very mushy in the translucent stone.  Soft light removes the texture of the crystal surface.

Instead, I use hard lights to make the image pop.  It takes more work but the results are better.  The are reflections and hot spots to deal with – that’s the challenge and where practiced skill comes in.  Strip boxes, light tents and umbrellas take away those hot spots but they also soften the texture.  Texture is very important in these images, as it really gives feeling to the crystals.  Without those hard edges, the above piece would look like plastic.  People don’t go into By Nature Gallery to purchase fake plastic rocks – they want the real thing.

I do my best to deliver the real thing.

Milky pearls

Bison being aggressive toward me were nothing compared to these tiny little round spheres.

My first photos were too milky and bead like, as you can see in the photograph at the right.

Although I created the nearly perfect light tent with no particularly hard edges, this ended up being a total failure for pearls.  Many objects are very nice with uniform smooth lighting but not these.

According to what I saw on PearlParadise.com, I was making these nice pearls look like they were of low quality.  That is because the edge of the reflection is not sharp.  ”You should be able to see your reflection in the pearls.”  For many things, I work hard to put a nice, smooth gradient on.  Pearls are just the opposite.  The harder the edge of the reflection, making the pearl look more mirror-like, the better.

Fail on the first attempt.  Oops.

So, after studying pearl images from Mikimoto, I figured out their image magic of

Same pearls with luster

how they make the pearl look round and lustrous.  It’s a combination of their pearl quality and using one of the types of classic portrait photography.  In many of their images, they use what is termed butterfly lighting.  Not all of their pearl images are like that but most are are a variation of it.

Of course, making this style of image requires a softbox and reflector.  As my awesome parents are shipping me my softbox, I’m going to have to figure out how to get by with what I have for now.  Using very non-photography items like paper, cardboard, posterboard, and the like, I’ll be able to create a make-shift softbox.  As you can see with the second image, the same strand of pearls as above looks much more lustrous.

Like all photography (and really, everything else), you have to keep working it and studying what was done.  Then you can match and maybe even go beyond what anyone else has done.  This takes lots of effort and keeps you up late at night.  But if you keep at it, chances are you will succeed.

Just don’t give up.

Kelly’s diamond necklace by Christian Tse on black.

diamond necklace by Christian Tse today.  I made the first image on black to make the piece stand out.  It was actually pretty easy to get the background to go within 3 points of complete black.  This will be part of my intermediate photography and strobe photography class in spring 2014 put on by the Jackson Hole Art Association.

The second image was done on white, similar to what most jewelry companies do.  Although almost all products are done on what, PSOW, I prefer the black for this sort of piece with white gold and diamonds.  Even though the image on the metal is the same in both

Kelly’s necklace by Christian Tse on white

images, the effect of a black versus a white background is pretty dramatic.  It’s really a personal preference.  Most clients prefer things on white because they can cut the background out in Photoshop and then do whatever they need with it.  I prefer to get everything right in the camera and not have to do hardly anything in PS.  The less time I spend in post, the happier I am.

The photographs I’ve done for By Nature Gallery have required a pure, 0,0,0 background, meaning I have a LOT of work to do in photoshop.  Even though I can control the light really well, getting a true zero black background is essentially impossible.  So, their work always requires a lot of post.

You’ll have to decide for yourself which one you like better.

Necklace setup shot

I’ve also included a setup shot so you can see what goes into making one of these images.  I really wish I had one more Nikon Speedlight to give me an extra edge and ability to sculpt the image.  It’d only be another $500.  Haha!

Questionable weather

With the storms and snow blowing through in late September, hiking up and around the Teton Crest Trail had looked pretty dubious from continuous poor weather.  But there was a break.  It was supposed to be clear for two days and then a storm was to move through the area.  I had a very short window to make this happen.

I had wanted to hike the Teton Crest Trail straight through from the Granite Canyon trailhead to Jenny Lake via Paintbrush canyon for some time, as I am training to climb two 18,000′ volcanoes in Mexico.  It required me to do a death hike, that is, a hike that is done straight through without camping or sleeping.  I’ve done two in my life.

Notice the tiny trail on the right side cliff face. That goes up the north rim.

The first was hiking the Grand Canyon rim-rim-rim in 2006 from the south rim to the north rim (8,000′) and back to the south rim (6,000′) in 24 hours.  This is a classic must-do for distance runners.  Using the Bright Angel trail both down and up, I completed the 49 mile round trip in exactly 24 hours, starting at midnight and finishing at midnight.  I had to stop and tape up my ankle on the way back down from the north rim, as I had twisted my ankle on a rock.  That was by far the longest distance I had ever hiked in 24 hours.

My second death hike was off Highway 395 in California, just south of Independence and Lone Pine in 2010.  After chaining my bike up at the Onion Valley campground, I drove back around to Symmes Creek.  Starting at 7am, I hiked from the Symmes Creek trailhead, over Shepherd Pass (12,050′) , to Tyndall Creek

Forester Pass at midnight

(10,870′), to Forester Pass (13,160′), past Kearsarge Lakes, over Kearsarge Pass (11,823′) and arrived in Onion Valley at 9am, a full 26 hours straight hiking.  I then picked up my bike, rode it down the massive hill and back to Symmes Creek.  Even though this trip was only 26 miles, it had far more vertical relief and higher altitude than Grand Canyon.

Now, I wanted to do the Teton Crest Trail as a straight through hike in 2013 (I had backpacked it in 2007). Realizing my time was very short, I went over to Smith’s in Jackson Hole and bought a small mountain of food to fuel me.  I had lots of calories in a relatively compact form.  I did not take any butter with me this time, though.  Lara Bars, Pringles, Smokehouse Blue Diamond almonds, Chex Mix, and a few more food bars made up the $33 of 3,200 calories I took with me.  All I had to do was fill up my Platypus water bladder, a generic 0.5L bottle and I was ready to go.  That was, except for sleep.

This week is the series of talks at Photography at the Summit.  I did not want to miss the

Teton Village streaking clouds

speakers that evening, meaning I wouldn’t get home until at least 10pm.  Heck, I had traversed the Grand Canyon on 4 hours of poor sleep.  I figured I might do it again.  And, I wanted to do it in the same style as I had done the Crest Trail before, leaving from the trailhead rather than cheating and starting off on the Jackson Hole Resort Tram.  As I was leaving early, the tram was not an option anyway.

Granite Canyon morning

Leaving Jackson, my girlfriend Kelly dropped me off at the Granite Canyon trailhead at 6:15am and I was off like a shot.  I had a lot of miles to cover and the sun had just begun to barely brighten the sky.  Wandering through the brush with a headlamp and a bottle of bear spray was fun but disconcerting.  Even though I had the bear spray in my hand, ready to fire off at a moment’s notice, the early morning sounds of the forest spooked me.  There have been a few grizzly attacks lately and my biggest fear was running into one in my haste.  So, every minute or two, I yelled out, “No Bears!”  The best part was the bold warning sign about being bear country right at the trailhead warning not to hike alone.  Yet, here I was.  I couldn’t scare anyone else up for a death hike, so this was a solo activity.

The hike up Granite Canyon is pleasant compared to Death and Paintbrush canyons.  The

Thin clouds coming in

grade is evenly spaced, so as to not feel like going up a massive set of stairs.  I spent the first 45 minutes in the dark, listening to the elk bugle.  It’s an ethereal sound normally, but by yourself going into the dark woods, it’s downright spooky.  It did not take too long to make it into the canyon and begin ascending the long grade.  The weather was pleasant for the first few hours.  But soon, a thin layer of clouds came in from Idaho.

On the way up, I ran into an entire herd of moose with one bull.  They were quite close to

Bull moose stealthing around

the trail and I did not even realize I was in their midst until one of them spooked.  The sudden motion spooked me, too.  With bears on my mind, I was vigilant.  But moose are not to be trifled with, either.  Telling the large beasts, “Nice moose, I just have to slowly pass by you, moose,” I tried to charm them and let them know I was no danger to them or the two calves wandering around.  It was good none of them flicked their ears or stomped, as there were not too many trees to hide behind.

As I reached Marion Lake at 1030am, thicker clouds had begun to move in, cooling the

There are bears out there

temperature down considerably.  It felt like when I was in Antarctica.  The moment the sun’s warmth is taken away, the perceived temperature drops rapidly.  I was doing pretty well on 4 hours sleep thus far.  I found dog tracks (coyote, wolf?) of some sort following deer and also a single bear track.  That was rather disconcerting.  Though the paw mark looked more like a black rather than grizzly bear.

I forged on toward Fox Creek Pass.  Hiking up Snow King with a 35 pound pack 3-4 times a week was really paying off, as I was able to push and hoof it without having my legs burn out.  Very soon, I started to get into a little bit of snow.  With only trail gaiters on, I knew that if it got too deep, there was no way I was going to make it very far.  But I had hopes.  Then, one of the trail drops had a cornice of snow and I went in up to my bare knees.  That was not very pleasant.  And, by this time, even thicker clouds had rolled in, the type that portend snow.

Fox Creek Pass

At Fox Creek Pass, I had to make a decision.  With satellite phone in hand, I was able to connect with Kelly and get an up-to-the-minute forecast.  Not good.  There was an increasing chance of rain in the valley with highs in the 40′s.  That meant there was going to be freezing rain or snow up at this elevation.  Even though I had all the right gear with me, I was still pretty cold due to the lack of sleep.  I wasn’t sure of the intensity of the storm coming in and didn’t want to get buried.

Even though I had been over Paintbrush Divide in a storm, I was not sure how deep the

4 backpackers on Paintbrush Divide in a storm, 2007

snow was going to be on Hurricane Pass.  If Hurricane was impassable, I would have to backtrack 4 miles to reach this junction again.  Looking north, I saw snow and knew that it was pretty risky.  The trail going up Hurricane was tight, so with snow on it, there was real danger, as I had never been on it with ice before.

The lateness of the season conspired against me.  It had snowed a week before and had melted off pretty well.  But the farther north I looked, the worse things looked.  I just didn’t want to get trapped with no way out.  As I was lightly geared without a shelter, I would be in trouble if I got stuck.  So, I decided it was time to cut this one short and head down Death Canyon.  As I had wanted to take this route at one time or another, it was a bonus.  Plus, I had recently read a geology report of the area and learned of several caves on Death Shelf, so had the chance to scout those out.

For the sinister name, Death Canyon is beautiful

After slipping on one steep, snowy slope, I felt better about my decision.  Getting smashed up prior to a big trip was no way to go.   I knew I had been over the north side of Paintbrush in snow with a backpack, but the forecast freezing rain was another matter.  I had no backpack to keep me warm, even if it slowed me down.  I’d rather have it snowing and 20 degrees than raining and 40 degrees.  It’s much easier to deal with blowing snow than rain.

On the way down Death Canyon, I ran into a small group of deer.  And I saw one pika, though I heard several higher up.

Late season flowers

They’re just so fast I only hear and rarely see them.  By the time I exited Death Canyon neared Phelps Lake, the rain had started coming down, making me quite cold.  I decided to head toward the park’s south entrance to be picked up around 730pm, as Kelly was unable to come much earlier anyway.  Moving fast kept me warm, though barely.  It was ironic that carrying a pack made me slower but kept me warmer.  For a death hike, I need to move fast but can’t generate as much body heat.

The rain went from a drizzle to a steady gentle stream.  With the wind, it was getting a bit

We see you…

unpleasant.  When I stopped to prepare for night travel by pulling out my headlamp, I was able to get a cel phone message to Kelly.  She would be able to meet me at just the right time when I would be coming out of the park.  Since my shorts were fairly wet by this point (yes, shorts….it seems crazy but it’s not that bad), I had to put away my camera to prevent damage.  I mentioned in the last video recording that once I put the camera away, something interesting would happen.

Sure enough, I ran into a bugling bull elk with six cow elk.  Classic.  It was so dark I would

Phelps Lake color

have had a grainy, cruddy picture, so I just enjoyed the sight.  I wondered how they dealt with sleeping in freezing rain.

Reaching the Granite Canyon trailhead again, I began walking toward the south entrance in hopes that Kelly would find me.  Sure enough, her FJ’s headlights shone through the rain and I was out.  The thermometer showed 38 degrees F.

It was only a trip of 26 miles over 13 hours.  It wasn’t nearly the 35+ miles I had hoped to do.  But with sketchy conditions and a very long walk back

The pika’s view

through the park, I thought it was the prudent thing to do.  I’ll just have to wait for a better weather window next time.  Much to my surprise, I only ate two Lara bars, a Ziplock full of Chex Mix and half a Ziplock full of Pringles.  When I’m going downhill, I hardly stop to eat.  Knowing this, I’ll carry far less food next time.  As a bonus, the next morning I saw I had shed a full pound just from this hike alone.  This is a way better way to lose weight instead of dieting.

Death hikes rule.

Casio G-Shock ProTrek PRW5100 that went to the South Pole

watch It’s Jackson Time, one of my expedition sponsors, provided me with.  Ted, the owner, was very good and made sure I had an excellent expedition time piece to trek across Antarctica with.

Although the Casio ProTrek PRW5100-1 is no Rolex, it has certain features I loved.  Having analog for checking time at a glance was wonderful.  It had been forever since I had an analog watch and I never realized how much more quickly I could watch my time during skiing.  Also, the analog face does not develop lag like an LCD nor does it turn black when looking at it with polarized glasses.  And, I could leave the watch out and still read it.  LCD-based watches would turn to unreadable mush at -40 deg. F.

One of the purposes for photographing this watch was to fine-tune my product shooting skills for a few classes I’m teaching at the Art Association of Jackson Hole.  I will be teaching four different classes.  Stay tuned for their description, purpose and audience.  I will be targeting intermediate shooters with one course and have a class on strobe (flash) photography.  Hence the above photograph.

The class dates and exact description will be forthcoming.

ProTrek PRW5100 unretouched, what it looked like after the south pole

Note: The above watch went with me to the South Pole.  It’s a little more beat up than the above shows.  It took a sick amount of Photoshop work to take out most of the dings, scratches, fuzzies, and specs.

Here’s the original image before editing:

Rough draft manuscript

completed the first rough draft.  There’s the surrounding material still to fill in (foreword, epilogue, appendices, et. al) but the main guts of the book are there, in the computer.

Woo hoo!  There are still endless hours to put in but I’ve at least quarried the marble so that I might make my angel.  At least that’s what my editor tells me.  Without that full rough draft, you are just never going to be able to even begin chiseling out a piece of art.

However, I am no Michelangelo.  I did not give up on my expedition even after so many things went wrong and I will not give up on this.