Roho Ya Chui
photography travel training africa
Retro and Stunning: The Lomography Belair
31/10/12 11:23 Filed in: Technology & Gadgets
We seem to be in love with retro!
Well, another beautiful new retro camera has entered our lives, producing stunning retro looking images, the Lomography Belair in three great looks.
The Lomography Belair X 6-12 is the world’s first portable medium camera that shoots auto-exposed photographs.
“The Belair can expose in three different aspect ratios: standard 6×9, square 6×6, and panoramic 6×12. It comes with an interchangeable lens system that has two lenses in the lineup: a 90mm normal lens and a 58mm wide-angle.
Features include zone focusing, support for films with ISO from 50 to 1600, a standard hot-shoe mount, a max shutter speed of 1/125s, Bulb mode, and double exposure shooting.” (via PetaPixel)
The design shown on the picture above is already sold out, but find more information on their website and rather pre-order your favorite Belair before they are all sold out.
Happy retro snapping!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
How to Use Photo Apps in an Intuitive Way
30/10/12 11:38 Filed in: Photography & Art
How many photo apps do you have on your iPhone and how do you use them?
Lets look at Instagram, Hipstamatic, 645 Pro and Polamatic. From the technical-practical point of view I must say that the process of finalizing an image in Instagram takes to long for my taste and in Hipstamatic the preparation process of choosing a film, lens and flash is rather complicated. Both technical aspects are somehow disturbing for the intuitional and creative workflow. Yet the filters are a highly intuitive tool, expressing how the photographer experiences the moment.
645 Pro
Hipstamatic
By observing myself in using the different photo apps I realized that the choice of the app depends on the subject and how I see and experience it. Already the choice of the app is intuitive, connected to the feel and look of the photographic subject. Imagine you are walking through a big garden with different sections. One part is forest like with huge trees, another one is with ponds and water features and again another one is a rose garden. For the forest like and open sections I tend to use 645 Pro with the different ratio options. Only occasionally when some objects in the garden asked for attention I changed to Instagram. The rose garden became an entirely Hipsatmatic experience, giving it the old English rose garden feeling. I did not use the Polamatic app, although it is a great tool to create images with descriptions in the old Polaroid style. Probably it’s the right tool when one needs additional words to say something.
Anyway, when using Instagram and Hipstamatic I preferred to choose one setting for all shots, because otherwise I couldn’t just shoot away and let the seeing of subjects flow. At least Hipstamatic lets you shoot away once you choose your settings. Instagram asks processing decision once you took the image and I find this disturbing, which makes it not an easy to shoot away tool.
So, how to use the apps the intuitive way and how to make the right choices? First of all know your apps and what they can do for you. Be familiar with their workflows and know what which setting means for your photographs. Then tune it to the place where you are and understand how you feel about it. Then choose the app that can translate your feeling the best way. And now shoot away.
Happy intuitive app snapping!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Design Duo Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck: The Yacht
29/10/12 16:12 Filed in: Insights & Opinion | Technology & Gadgets
What happens when great creative minds like Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck are collaborating? A product of a different kind comes out and in this case Steve Jobs’s private yacht.
Yesterday on 28th October 2012 the yacht was unveiled at the Dutch shipyard Koninklijke De Vries in Aalsmeer. A masterpiece of minimalistic design and 70 – 80 meters of craftsmanship with the name Venus.
Read the complete article on Mashable and watch the video on the Dutch site OneMoreThing.
It will be interesting to learn what technology was built into the yacht and what new products might come out of it for all of us. The Apple TV?
Enjoy the piece of art!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Travel Memories 2008: On Safari in Africa - Day 9
28/10/12 09:35 Filed in: Travel & Inspiration
This was the morning I wanted to focus only on nature and photography. No signal-search, no phone calls, not even talking about the unsolved issues, just going to the airstrip at the end of the morning game drive to fetch the tents.
It was a lovely morning. We crossed the river and cruised through Buffalo Springs National Reserve, which is connected to Samburu. This area is a bit elevated comparing to Samburu and opens wonderful views on it. The landscape is magical and breathtaking. We saw also plenty of oryx with small ones, Grevi’s zebra and lovely bird sightings. Before we crossed back to the other side of the river we checked at the airstrip for the tents, but they hadn’t arrived yet. We would try again in the afternoon.
Back on the other side we finally found elephant. They were indeed walking along the river, back after the rain from the mountains. We tried to follow and got stuck. Fortunately other vehicles were around and tried to help, but they were mini vans and not strong enough to pull out a Landcruiser. It was digging. Suddenly a vehicles came back shouting at us that there was a lion coming. Ok, back into the vehicle and wait, although we couldn’t see any lion and with all the vehicles around we didn’t really feel in danger. The lion sighting we didn’t see brought also another Landcruiser to the scene and we were out of the dip in fife minutes. About forty meters further around a bush a lioness was lying in the shade. Maybe she was disturbed on her path and waiting that the vehicle was pulled out and gone, so she could continue or she was just enjoying the shade.
We carried on to follow the elephants and were just in time to watch them crossing the river. It was an awesome sighting and a great closure of a good morning.
Back in camp I used the time before we would have lunch to upload and process my photos. I did this in the vehicle, because it was the most comfortable place to do it, but this morning I forgot to close the car-door. Imagine a Landcruiser with two seats in the front and after a bar two seats in the back. I was sitting on a seat in the back with my laptop on the seat next to me. While I was sitting there looking at the screen I felt a presence, turned to the left and saw a baboon sitting next to me on the bar, checking out the front of the car. His back was probably about 30 cm away from me. My hand wanted to waive him away like an insect, but my mind told me it’s a baboon. The next thought was to jump out of the car, but that would have meant to come between the baboon and the door and what if he panics. So this wasn’t an option either. Next thought was to give him space, space to escape and that was what I did. He didn’t even look at me, just relaxed turned around and jumped out. All that happened within about 2 seconds and I’m still amazed how much a person can think and decide in such a short period of time and how long two seconds can be. I was a bit shaken, because he gave me a fright and also happy that I finally did the right thing by giving him space. Alex had watched the whole thing and went after the baboon to give him a fright back, which of course didn’t work. The baboons there knew us and just waited for a chance to check out what’s on the dashboard.
We took off for the afternoon game drive early to go to the airstrip first. The tents weren’t there and there wouldn’t be another flight that day. We decided to phone the office. They told us that they didn’t know where to send the tents and couldn’t reach us all day, so it was our fault that the tents hadn’t arrived. We were speechless. They had sent flysheets earlier to the very same airstrip and now they didn’t know where we were. Senseless to say that this was the limit, but yet I wanted to focus on the game drive and to photograph. I would make a decision later and we continued with the drive.
At dinner I told Paul and Alex that I will pay and stay at Lewa for two nights and want them to go back to Nairobi to fix the vehicle, the tents and all the other things on the list. After that, they could pick me up at Lewa and we would continue our trip. Everything needed to be reset. Now even the cigarette lighter wasn’t working anymore and that meant no power at all.
Meanwhile also the nearby Samburu Lodge didn’t have power anymore. Their generator had exploded the night before and the rangers had to help extinguishing the fire.
Also this evening Alex’s mind was filled with stories. He told us that ones in the Mara at the very same campsite we stayed he was invited by a Masai to watch a football match on tv in the Masai shopping centre Talek. The guy came to walk him over and while they were walking in the dark at one point the Masai told Alex to walk more on the left. He did and after a while the Masai said, there was a lion. Alex started shaking and the first thing he did was buying a torch for the way back. He said, he couldn’t focus on the match. He was only thinking about the way back to the camp and that he had to pass the lion again. On the way back he was shining with his torch wildly and holding on to the Masai guy, afraid that he would run of if there was any danger and Masai can run fast and he would be left behind. He got back to the camp safely and the Masai said, just look in their eyes, they can’t have that. Mmm, I don’t wanna try and on my way to the toilet that night I was shining very carefully on the bushes along the path.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Microsoft is Surface ..ing?
27/10/12 19:05 Filed in: Technology & Gadgets | Opinion
This week Microsoft and Apple launched their new products, just in time for Christmas … , the Surface with Windows 8 and the iPad mini.
Up until June this year I would have denied ever considering buying a Microsoft product, because it’s incredibly innovative and intuitional. But that changed in June when the Surface surfaced on the tablet market with its new operating system Windows 8. Somehow one knows when something is really innovative and game changing and that’s what I felt when I saw the Surface tablet and its user interface. Already the design of the tablet with built in stand and click on keyboard, the colors and the whole feel about it. Then the user interface of Windows 8 with its entirely intuitive approach of the colored tiles, ready to touch to go to the application you want to work with and you can create the user interface that suits you, completely personalized. This is so much what the a creative user wants, fast, intuitive, personal, direct and easy, a real innovation to support creative workflow. That’s how I would have described an Apple laptop two years ago, but not anymore.
The Apple software has become counter-intuitive, slow, disturbing and annoying. The design of features like address book and calendar is hurting the eye and using them has become entirely counter-intuitive and irritating. It was perfect until OSX Snow Leopard, but it is not anymore. The new iPad mini is nice, but it is not innovative and it is expensive. Apple didn’t come with something really new, it followed the competitors to have also a smaller tablet and to cash in this market segment.
Apple the leader in innovation for decades has turned into the follower … for decades? Is Microsoft surfacing from the depth of being the heavy weight giant to become the innovative leader? The first queues for the Surface are already lining up in front of the Microsoft shops.
Innovation will always win.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
The Year of Storytelling … for Photos too?
26/10/12 18:51 Filed in: Photography & Art
Direct Marketing News forecasted this year would be “the year of the story” and big brands like Nike, Google and Kimberly-Clark use storytelling as a means of communication and leadership. (via Fast Company).
How do we fit in? Which role play stories in our lives? We write blogs, we photograph and we make photo books. We all got stories to tell and digital media allows us to share them with the world and anyone who wants to read them. Imagine only a few years ago. Who was writing a blog? Who was making photo books? Digital photography and social media created easy tools and platforms for expression and suddenly stories were told in words and pictures. Storytelling became accessible to anyone. No publisher would decide if a story was good and allowed to be told. The people are now deciding which story they like. It is amazing how many great storytellers are out there, only browse on this platform and you find the most talented people.
What I would wish for an easier storytelling with pictures is an online tool with templates for photo ebooks, you know just like the Apple photo book templates, but then online and postable to all social media platforms and blogs. The photo ebooks would appear then as small flipbooks, just like blog posts and you click on them to leave trough. Or am I just living under a rock and this tool is already there? If yes, please let me know! It would be so much fun to make easily and quickly online photo ebooks, but just as beautiful as the gorgeous Apple photo books.
Or is this just the idea photo storytelling needs?
Keep telling your stories! Happy creating!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Facebook: It's free and always will be. … really?
25/10/12 17:47 Filed in: Opinion
Earlier blog posts shed already a light on the changes in Facebook and how it affects access to your friends and fans. It was going on for a while, but since Facebook became a public company it started jumping into your face, that they have only one goal, as much money for the investors as possible.
It was quite from the beginning an issue to get access to the people who signed up for your events when you had a Facebook page, although you had to run adverts for people to see them. So you paid for the adverts for your events and then you were not allowed to send messages to the people who signed up? Yes, it was like that, warnings popped up that you were sending spam and that your account would be suspended, if you continue. The next step was that you couldn’t send messages to your Facebook page fans. The same warning came and it didn’t take long and you could see only a fraction of your fans. To the others you couldn’t get access at all. And the best of it is that you paid adverts for you Facebook page for people to know you are out there, the liked it, became fans and now you were not allowed to access them, your own fans.
This tendency got worse since about May this year. Facebook now started restricting how many of YOUR fans are seeing your posts on your fan page. Now they want you to pay for your posts to be seen by your fans and they call it “sponsored posts”. The moment you tried it once, they slow you down even more. Now only a fraction of a fraction can see your posts on your own fan page with your fans. They want you to do it again, they want your money. So what is left of the slogan you see whenever you log into Facebook “It’s free and always will be.”?
Read also the blog post from Dangerous Minds on the topic. What will happen when Facebook carries on making their clients more and more unhappy? What happens to the small clients also happens to the big. How long will they take it?
Read: Facebook: I want my friends back. Dangerous Minds
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Magic to Share: Photographs Out of Time & Space
24/10/12 20:30 Filed in: Photography & Art
Joe Berkowitz unearthed for Co.Create amazing photographs that play with time and space.
Have a look and enjoy his article and the incredible photographs by Jay Mark Johnson. (photo above)
Read the article here and get your head spinning.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Another Found: Ansel Adams Prints Found Sitting in a Box
23/10/12 17:17 Filed in: Photography & Art
Only last week we learned about the never seen before Rolling Stones Images found on a flea market and now there are Ansel Adams prints found sitting in a box at UC Berkeley Library.
The San Francisco Chronicle writes that dance professor Catherine Cole made the discovery after following a trail of documents:
“I kept seeing the name Ansel Adams and thought ‘what the heck is he doing all over the UC archives,’ ” says Cole, who followed this lead to the Bancroft Library, where 605 signed fine prints by Adams sat in a box, among the university’s rare collections.
[...] “This is an extraordinary resource that has been buried like a time capsule,” says Cole, 49, who discovered the prints while doing independent research on the California Master Plan for Higher Education. (via PetaPixel)
Did you start diving into your boxes on the attic already? Again, who knows what’s sitting waiting there to be unearthed … and what about all the virtual boxes?
Happy diving!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
The Bleeding Edge of Abstraction - Mondrian
22/10/12 17:19 Filed in: Photography & Art
Piet Mondrian started as a landscape artist and arrived at abstraction. Maybe he actually made a journey into the essence of landscape or the essence of things we see as chairs and trees. When seeing fabrics, blood, skin and cells under the microscope they appear to be patterns of shapes and pretty close to Mondrian’s artwork.
How does this journey go in photography? Maybe a good example is the work of Andreas Gursky, yet also in his work the grass along the Rhein is still recognizable as grass and houses as houses. A camera can produce abstract images, yet we tend to photograph things in their normal being and not as essential abstract patterns of light and matter. Why is this? I don’t know. Maybe Photoshop will be more likely the tool to create “Mondrians” with our photographs, extracting “abstracts” from them, transforming it into artwork. Photoshop is just great for that, our electronic brush.
For those who like Mondrian, there is a nice book “Coppernickel goes Mondrian”. Check it out.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Travel Memories 2008 - On Safari in Africa - Day 8
21/10/12 17:22 Filed in: Travel & Inspiration | Safari Story
It was Monday and day 8 in a leaking tent. I was determined to fix it today.
We went out for the morning game drive. It was lovely sunny weather and Samburu was lying there in its breathtaking beauty. We were looking for elephants. Paul explained that the elephants retreat into the mountains when it rains, but should come down again with this wonderful weather. We cruised around to cover all possible paths they could take down from the mountains to the river. Another guide told us they saw them and we hurried to get to the area they were seen, but nothing. No elephant at all. After three hours search we decided to have breakfast, on a spot with a cell phone signal. The office would be open by now.
The breakfast was delicious as always and Paul phoned the office in Nairobi. He had to tell his story over and over again to different people. Nobody seemed able or willing to understand what was going on with the tents. They would call us back with the solution. We waited half an hour and then carried on with the game drive and our elephant search. That was actually what I was here for.
In the afternoon was excitement all around. Lions had been spotted and we headed to the area, but first we had to find a signal to phone the office again. Actually quite close to the lion sighting we had a signal and I just wanted to get things solved quickly to get to the lions. But that didn’t happen. Next to the tent issue was a change in the itinerary I didn’t agree with. I had booked a stay at Lewa Downs and because Lewa has no campsite we should camp just outside the conservancy. That just outside turned out to be 50 km away from Lewa, which made no sense at all and as an alternative they offered me a stay at a farm with game. It couldn’t get into their heads that that wouldn’t be bush and no alternative to Lewa Downs, a rhino conservancy between Isiolo and Mount Kenya in the Laikipia area. At the end it all came down to money. I could stay at Lewa, but had to pay the full rate, next to the amount I had already paid for those two nights. I was furious. Here I was, 8 days in a leaking tent, a vehicle with a couple of main issues, a mixed up itinerary, an unacceptable alternative for Lewa and no way that the company was taking responsibility. We ended the conversation with the result that the new tents would be flown in tomorrow morning and I would think about Lewa. And when we got to the lions, they were gone into the bushes. What a waste of time in beautiful Samburu.
Back in camp Alex had prepared again a lovely dinner. He is an excellent cook. No matter what the circumstances, he managed to create wonderful food, although Samburu got a bit on his nerves. He was very eager to have a fire all night, which wasn’t the case in the Mara and Nakuru. And this evening he came up with a couple of stories he had heard about cooks working in Samburu. One guy had kept papaya in his tent and got visited by an elephant. They love this fruit and can smell it from a big distance. The elephant smelled the papaya, but didn’t know how to get to it. So he grabbed the tent with his trunk and threw it up while the cook was sleeping in it. The tent landed in a tree and the cook was screaming. The other people just opened the zip a bit to see what’s going on, but didn’t dare to get out. Fortunately the cook was able to throw out the papaya, the elephant ate a couple of pieces and went off. Another guy had taken meat out of the fridge to defrost it during the night in his tent. The smell attracted a hyena and she managed to scratch open the tent to get in. At that moment the cook woke up and screamed, the hyena panicked, both were moving wildly, the tent collapsed and both tried to get out. Somehow the hyena managed to get out and ran off. Both cooks resigned and never went back to the bush again. Also this night we had our fire burning all night.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Photography for Business: One-Day Acceleration Sessions
19/10/12 19:29 Filed in: B2B | Photography & Art
Kimberly-Clark is doing collaborative innovation sessions for specific problems and opportunities. They recruit outside “mentors” that come in for a day to help solving specific problems and to explore opportunities the company is looking at. The outside-in view of the mentors allows a deep dive into the issues with strategic and practical insights as the result, that otherwise would have taken weeks to gather.
Now imagine you add photography as an accelerator to this process and you get One-Day Acceleration Sessions for various business purposes. From innovative leadership sessions to brand innovation, product development and all in between, acceleration sessions with photography are the insular-mind-blowing incubator that saves time, money and resources.
And how is this possible? It is common knowledge that our conscious is only the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the water and our subconscious is the huge rest of the iceberg under water. Our subconscious knows much more than our conscious, we just struggle to get access to its enormous source of information, at least we did. Photography is the key to open this immense resource to us and allows us to benefit from it. By adding photography to for example leadership sessions it allows us access to these resources of knowledge, speeds up the process and lets us gain insights and ideas we otherwise would need months or even years.
All Innovation and knowledge is in us. Photography makes it visible, physical and ready to use. A click on the shutter is the key to innovation, leadership and success. It’s as simple as that.
Photography, the business tool of the future and the future has started now.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
What would You Do in Photography, if money would matter?
18/10/12 17:12 Filed in: Photography & Art
Vincent Van Gogh must have had a real passion for his vision, continuing with his art, although he never sold one painting. And now his work is the most desired and most expensive in the world. People in his time might have felt disturbed by his new way of seeing and painting. They rather wanted it like it was and the new way only would stir something in them they didn’t want to feel, change. Innovation always causes first rejection and repression, because it means change, even in art and the one thing people resist the most is change. Other genius artists like Picasso saw Van Gogh’s strength, learned from him and honored him, yet the big public needed more time and the masses only join when something is already announced great by other famous people. Van Gogh didn’t have the breath to sit that out. Do we?
Maybe not many of us can be a Van Gogh of photography, but there are certainly many great photographers out there who do not dare to make the move, because of the fear of ending up like him. Would you do it, if you wouldn’t have to worry about money? Would you choose photography as your full-time passion? Can one choose a passion or chooses the passion you?
Many great people are doing talks on that matter and always say that you have to follow your heart and you will be excellent in what you are doing and then the money comes as well. And the people saying that are the Steve Jobs. They embarked on that path and excelled, went through the painful times and arrived at great success, admired for who they are and what they do. The great ones did it despite that money mattered, just like Van Gogh and they are the ones that are innovative, the ones that bring change.
It’s a tough and scary call to make. Only your heart knows the answer.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Discovered Treasure: Never Seen Before Images of the Rolling Stones
17/10/12 19:39 Filed in: Photography & Art
When did you last go through old boxes on the attic or through the drawers in your study? We probably all have lots of beautiful things buried under all sorts of “rubbish” and we just don’t see them anymore by looking only at the surface of our homes.
A guy at a flea market in California had an amazing photographic treasure at his stand, not realizing its value and he sold it to a lady who also needed some time to find out what she bought, it were never seen before photographs of the Rolling Stones in their early years in the 60ies.
Here the story told in an interview with Cool Hunting and the lucky finder/buyer Lauren White:
“I feel lucky. I really didn’t expect to find them at a flea market. Basically, a guy who runs one of the stands called me over because I “looked like I would like rock ‘n’ roll”– and he was right. I don’t know what was lost in translation, however. He obviously didn’t know what he had. To tell the truth, I didn’t either. I obviously knew it was the Stones, but it took about a week of looking them over to realize that this was really a very unique circumstance. After extensive research, I came to find that these are unpublished, never-before-seen photos of one of the most legendary bands in rock ‘n’ roll history. Not only that, they are beautifully composed, candid, raw and perfect in every way. They really convey a band innocent to their destiny.”
The images of the Rolling Stones are on show this month at the Dilettante gallery in Los Angeles. You can see the images also on Found: Rolling Stones.
Maybe it’s time to start our own discovery tour through our boxes and drawers. Who knows what comes out of it.
Happy discovering!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
The Megapixel Race: Sony's 50 Megapixel Sensor
16/10/12 10:17 Filed in: Photography & Art
We are all anxious to finally see what Canon is coming up with towards the end of this month and if it’s true that it will be a 46 Megapixel camera as rumors saying. But there is a new rumor and this time from Sony. sonyalpharumors writes that a 50 Megapixel sensor is in the make and will be released sometime between May and June 2013:
“The camera will be more “photographer” oriented. There are currently a couple of different prototypes. One we heard of has a 36 Megapixel sensor (same as Nikon D800) and built-in vertical grip. Priced well above the current Sony A99. A second prototype has a new 50 Megapixel sensor which goal is to go as close as possible to a “medium format” quality.”
So first it was Nikon with the D800 and 36 Megapixel, then probably the Canon with 46 Megapixel and now Sony with 50 Megapixel. Where is this going? What do they think to achieve with this Megapixel race?
All contemplation on this matter might be just as speculating as the megapixel numbers. Lets see what is actually really coming and what it adds to photography.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Felix Baumgartner's Space Jump & It's Connection with Photography
15/10/12 10:33 Filed in: Photography & Art | Travel & Inspiration
After a first canceled jump, Felix Baumgartner successfully did his Red Bull Stratos - Space Jump yesterday, arriving in one piece and well back on earth. He didn’t traveler faster than sound, but he definitely made the highest jump ever, a new record.
How do we know about a new record and thrilling new things people do? We can see them happening, because photography is where the action takes place and somehow it always did. All moments of history are captured in pictures, all records are captured and all attempts and events are captured. The camera is always there, even at places people can’t go by themselves, but the camera can. The camera became us outside us, a third eye we can send anywhere in order to see for us, share for us and proof for us that something was really there or proofs that we were really there.
Way forward in future the images of Felix Baumgartner jumping from space will still be there, but he won’t. Images make immortal and always did, from the cave drawings of the first humans to the high-resolution images of today. We obviously like to see to believe, even our own existence.
Watch the video of the Red Bull Stratos - Space Jump. The camera lets you be there in space at the edge of the capsule and its quite a feeling to look down from space like Baumgartner did when he jumped, not suitable for people with fear of height
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Travel Memories 2008: On Safari in Africa - Day 7
14/10/12 12:19 Filed in: Travel & Inspiration
I woke up, still tired and exhausted, my mattress surrounded by rainwater. I had enough of that. This had to be solved.
We wouldn’t have a game drive this morning. The vehicle had to be fixed and the leaking tents had to be replaced. Paul and I went off to find a signal. He wanted to call the office in Nairobi and finding a signal for the cell phone was quite a mission. I was running out of patience and told him, enough now we are going to use the sat phone. The sat phone can be tricky as well, but we managed to get a signal and I got the operational manager on the phone. I made clear that the situation is unacceptable and that they have to send over new tents. He promised he would do that and the tents would arrive with the first plane. Next thing was the vehicle. The tank needed to be welded and Samburu Lodge workshop could do it. We drove there and I decided to have breakfast at the lodge. It didn’t take long and Paul came to tell me that the generator was switched off, so no welding and we had to come back after lunch. We went back to the camp and I collapsed on my “bed”, still surrounded by water. It was just so annoying that the equipment didn’t meet the basic needs and I was very angry and knowing that that wouldn’t help either.
Paul went to the airstrip to fetch the new tents. He came back with flysheets. I thought I must explode when I saw that. These flysheets were lighter, but to small to cover the tents and new tents were promised. I fetched my sat phone and called the operational manager and the owner. Nobody answered the phone. After all it was Sunday.
We tried to make something out of it and some kind of a weird flysheet construction covered Paul’s and my tent. It had to do till Monday. Phoning the office would be first thing in the morning.
After lunch we went back to the lodge to fix the fuel tank and we could go off for the game drive at least in the afternoon. Samburu is so beautiful and that made the disturbance by poor equipment even more annoying. Samburu’s landscape is breathtaking and the light was awesome because of the rain. Everything looks soft and bluish, which gives completely different shots. Eventually the animals made our day by rewarding us with beautiful sightings like fighting giraffes in front of a blue/gray sky and the green of the acacias. After all a peaceful closure of the day.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
On Team Building: The Cheetah Lesson
13/10/12 11:58 Filed in: Photo Safari | B2B
We were on a team building session on Phinda Private Game Reserve in KZN, South Africa, when two cheetah brothers decided to teach us all about teamwork.
It often happens that guests have their designated animals for their stay at a certain game reserve. They will see the same leopard or pride of lion during their entire stay in different situations, witnessing the most beautiful wildlife interactions and bonding with these amazing animals. It is, as if nature assigned them for the best experience.
The two cheetah brothers seemed to be assigned to us and they spoilt us. During the four game drives we had on Phinda, they showed us how a perfect team works. When one brother was resting, the other one was scanning the area. When they were scanning the area together, each of them had his own section he was responsible for. During all their activities they gave each other reassurance and backup. One could see that each of them felt safe in their relationship and the roles were clear. They understood each other even without a look or a sign; they were just connected.
The highlight of the cheetah teamwork was the hunt and if we had not realized until then, now it was very clear they were our designated animals. We were the only vehicles around and following the brothers. They were mobile and intensively scanning the area for potential food. The grass was very high, but the brothers could still see very well. Suddenly they moved faster, the hunt had begun, each of them in a split of a second doing what he was supposed to do. There was a buck in front of us. One brother approached it from the right and chased it towards the other brother waiting on the left. Then the brother on the left took over, made the final sprint and killed the buck. They took a couple of deep breaths and one brother started feeding while the other brother scanned the area for possible other predators and therefore potential danger to their prey. After a while they changed. Now the other brother was feeding on the kill and his brother was on the watch.
We were sitting there speechless, astonished how the two cheetahs showed us exactly what we wanted to accomplish with the team building session in the bush. Teamwork at it’s best.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Send Yourself a Photo to the Future
12/10/12 11:30 Filed in: Photography & Art | Intuition
There is the iPhone photo app One Momento, an art project that allows you to take only one picture. This picture is uploaded to a gallery with all one-image-photo-app-images, aiming on 250,000 images, in a way a collage of images from 250,000 photographers.
That one image idea is quite interesting and can inspire more art applications. How about taking one image today, saving it in a separate folder on your computer or cloud and making a note in your calendar to open this image on a certain day in the future? What will the image tell you? It is like writing a letter to yourself, posting it and receiving the letter on a certain date in the future and it most likely will give you exactly what you need at that very moment, some encouragement, consolation, joy, congratulations or support.
Wanna try? Take a photo or choose one from your image gallery, seal it in a folder on your computer, pick a date in your calendar and make an appointment/note with notification. Then let go and forget about it. It will make itself know when its time to open it again.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Infinite Light - Inspired by John Lautner's Architecture
11/10/12 13:20 Filed in: Photography & Art
American architect John Lautner was portrayed by the amazing documentary Infinite Space, which could easily has been named Infinite Light, because his architecture allows infinite light in all his houses by connecting them to the natural environment they are located in on the most beautiful places in the world.
What does his infinite space approach mean for photographers? In the first place think infinite, allow your imagination infinite space and in the second place use the infinite light available to all of us. Play with it and explore how light creates infinite spaces within spaces. Interior photographers will be conscious about that, yet it is an excellent tool for all photographers to learn about light. How light makes spaces infinite although they have real walls and how light can create smaller spaces within infinite spaces like nature.
Get a glimpse of infinity from the Infinite Space trailer and for the complete experiences get hold of the documentary dvd.
Explore your spaces.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
MoMA's New Photography 2012 - Emerging Photographers
10/10/12 11:54 Filed in: Photography & Art
The annual photography exhibition New Photography at the New York City Museum of Modern Art MoMA has started on the 3rd of October and runs through to the 4th of February 2013.
The exhibition wants to showcase emerging photographers and sees itself each year confronted with a bigger challenge with all the images taken by millions of photographers on all the social networks. According to the New York Times more than 380 billion photographs were taken in 2011 alone.
So, it must have been a hard job to decide on 5 photographers to be featured on the New Photography 2012 exhibition. The artists are Michele Abeles, Birdhead (Ji Weiyu and Song Tao), Anne Collier, Zoe Crosher and Shirana Shahbazi. Detailed information is available on the exhibition site and in the Time Magazine article by Erica Fahr Campbell.
Isn’t it an incredible inspiration that any of the photographers showcasing their work on social media could be one day the emerging photographer of New Photography?
Keep shooting!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Stanley Kubrick - Candlelight Filming an Inspiration for Photographers
09/10/12 15:24 Filed in: Photography & Art
In 1975 Stanley Kubrick directed the three-hour movie Barry Lyndon with its famous candlelight scenes, filmed only with ambient light and in this case, candlelight. For this amazing movie he used the NASA Zeiss f/0.70 lenses with some of the fastest apertures ever made.
In the Stanley Kubrick documentary A Life in Pictures a section is dedicated to the making of Barry Lyndon and these amazing lenses, originally coming from photography and not cinematography. Kubrick with his still photography background just put them on a film camera and made this incredible movie. See here a fragment of the documentary on the Barry Lyndon movie.
Ok, we usually do not have access to these high-end lenses, but when did you for the last time experiment with lenses and ambient light? One big takeaway from Kubrick’s movie is also that less is more and genuineness is unbeatable. No studio light setting would have given the movie that genuine feeling of a candlelight evening than a real candlelight evening.
Is there any better light than ambient light?
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
121 Autofocus Points from Sony vs. High-MP from Canon
08/10/12 15:30 Filed in: Photography & Art | Technology & Gadgets
The numbers get higher and we tend to thing that the higher the numbers the more we get for our money. And yes, we get more megapixels and more autofocus points, but does that also mean we really need it?
The Canon High-MP rumors persist and new information has just been posted on Canon Rumors that says it would be the Canon EOS-1S with a price of about USD 9,000. A specific number of megapixel was not mentioned.
As said in earlier blog posts on this subject, a decision on purchasing the high megapixel Canon needs some contemplation. What are you doing in photography and how do you use your images? Do you want to crop a fly out of an image of a building or will your images be printed in billboard size? Do you need speed when photographing; are you photographing moving objects? Think about it and definitely when the expected price is right, a wrong decision can be painful.
Sony’s A99 SLT offers 19+102 autofocus points, in total 121 and at first sight that appeals more to me than the probably 46MP. Especially when capturing moving objects the high number of autofocus points is very helpful and every wildlife and sports photographer would love to have them, but unfortunately until now there is a downside to it. According to The Phoblographer you can use the feature so far only with 6 lenses, which hopefully will change soon. Yet it is a great feature and probably with more broad use than an extremely high number of megapixel.
Well, it’s always a personal decision depending on the photographic purpose one is pursuing and sometimes its just too tempting.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Travel Memories 2008: On Safari in Africa - Day 6
Again the night ended at about 4.30 a.m. with hooting matatus and the mullah calling for prayer. We got up to find out there was no water. Fortunately we still got some in our jerry cans. We left the campsite at 7.30 heading north to Samburu National Reserve. The first stop was after an hour and a half at Thomson Falls. A nice place with a small hotel, good facilities and the waterfall. We had breakfast and a walk to the falls. We were awake now for what promised to be a long day.
From Thomson Falls the road goes along Aberdare National Park and then north around Mount Kenya. It’s a clime up to about 3.000 m through a fertile agricultural area. Although the altitude is high the rain and the soil make everything growing in abundance. After two hours and a half we reached Nanyuki. I liked the name and the place. A colorful buzzing African place. Nanyuki is Masai and means “place of red water”. I didn’t see water, but maybe when the Masai first arrived, they found the water colored by the red soil of the area. We stopped and did some shopping to have enough food for our stay in Samburu.
From Nanyuki we drove to Kenron Grill, a restaurant just about one km away from the road to have lunch. When we got there we were the only guests except the local police officers, having their lunch as well. Because our itinerary was mixed up from the first stay in the Mara, the restaurant had expected us yesterday and not today, what meant that there was nothing prepared, what meant the meat was still in the freezer. So we got grilled frozen chicken, but we were hungry, we ate it all.
We left Kenron Grill at a quarter to two and started descending to Isiolo from about 3.000 m to about 1.600 m altitude. It was a beautiful drive, down the slopes of Mount Kenya with a view over the Laikipia area. The vegetation changed. It was dry land, desert like. Isiolo felt different. The market was along the road, it was buzzing, people herding their camels and yet it felt more poor than other places. Maybe because it’s not a fertile agricultural area and people have to fight every day to get food on their plate. We had to register our vehicle before we could continue to Samburu. There had been incidents in the past with bandits on this road and registration is for security. If you get lost they know where you were last and when you departed for Samburu. It was a weird feeling. I had read about this in the Rough Guide and now I was there. Alex told me that there was nothing out there when we left Isiolo, only desert with poachers from Somalia. But he said quickly, that was in the past. It’s much better now. Anyway I was sitting in the vehicle thinking what am I going to do when we get ambushed. Nothing actually. Give them what they want and hope that they are happy with it.
We carried on to Archers Post. There would be the gate to Samburu National Reserve. It was the most horrible road I experienced throughout whole Kenya and the only way to make it bearable was to drive very fast. There were roadwork’s going on to provide a wonderful and comfortable new road, but it was far from being finished. The good thing was, that the roadwork’s had brought many people there working. Small settlements were along the road and it turned out that the drive didn’t feel as unsafe as I had expected. There was something out of Isiolo.
We reached the Archer’s Post Gate at 4 p.m. and lost our fuel tank. Paul had filled up both fuel tanks (the Landcruiser has two) and the rear one had just fallen off. Rangers, Paul and Alex were underneath the vehicle fixing it with ropes that we could continue. It was actually just another thing that didn’t work properly, the fridge (repaired in Nakuru), the leaking tents (still not fixed!!!), my car door (when I closed the window the door fell open) and now the fuel tank. Half an hour later the fuel tank was roped up and we carried on to the campsite. It was 4.30 p.m.. A truck was driving in front of us, it had rained, the truck got stuck and we got in his trail and got stuck too. Everybody out, spates out and digging. We pitched camp at 5.30 p.m. The public campsite in Samburu is next to the river and also next to the rangers headquarter. Alex choose a spot next to the river and close to the facilities. They were challenging.
It started raining again and even with the flysheets (still the heavy ones) my tent was leaking badly. I kept everything packed and in the middle of the tent in case I have to get my stuff out quickly. We all had an early night after an exhausting day. At about 11.30 p.m. I woke up from voices next to my tent and then I heard THE noise. The river. When we arrived the river was low and small, now it was a dangerous stream. This is also called a flash flood. It had rained in the mountains and all the water came suddenly like a wave. My tent was the closest to the river and now just about two meters away from the water. I rushed out, gave Alex and Paul a shout to wake them up, got my stuff in the vehicle, broke down my tent together with Alex and Paul and set it up again on higher ground. That all happened in 10 minutes. It probably sounds quick, but it isn’t. If the flood had got to me, there wouldn’t have been any time to get out. It was about midnight when I was in “bed” again and it was still raining and my tent still leaking. I woke up a couple of times from heavy rain and the noise of the waves coming down the river. This day taught me once again what it means to be in the bush. No matter how tired or exhausted you are you got to take on the challenges.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Take a Dose Steve Jobs and You are Ready to Change the World
Yes, he is not with us anymore, at least not in person, but his spirit is here and ready to give us the push we might need to continue with our photographic journey, changing the world or whatever other creative passion is leading us.
Need a dose “Steve Jobs” today? Here some treatment proposals
Quotes:
Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. (Steve Jobs)
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. (Steve Jobs)
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. (Steve Jobs)
Videos:
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5 Conference
Steve Jobs talks about the Crazy Ones- who think different
Better? Enjoy moving forward.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
While Talking about Photo Books - The Ai Weiwei Photo Book "Becoming"
05/10/12 13:39 Filed in: Photography & Art
The blog post on Monday was about sought after limited edition photo books and today Mutual Art announced the Ai Weiei artwork “Becoming”, a limited edition photo book with images taken by this amazing Chinese artist. The price is in line with the other books, USD 10,500 per copy.
Read more about this doubtless amazing artwork here.
But there also nice new things to do with photography that cost nothing or close to nothing. The iPhone app Mixel allows you to make great collages of your images and to send them as real postcards to your friends and family. The app is for free, only the stamp will make some costs.
Photography really does offer fun for all budgets and that makes it such a great art form to enjoy.
Happy snapping, mixing and sending!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing Translated to Photography
04/10/12 15:21 Filed in: Photography & Art
Neil Garmain’s 8 Rules of Writing were published in The Guardian in the winter of 2010 and they have a lot of analogy potential for photography.
Here some proposals for photography translations:
1 – Write (Gaiman)
Photograph
2 - Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. (Gaiman)
Keep shooting away. Connect with the moment, follow the light and shoot away.
3 - Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it. (Gaiman)
The moment you think this would be a great shot, it will be a great shot, take the shot and don’t think I can shoot it later, it won’t come back.
4 - Put it aside. Read it pretending you've never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is. (Gaiman)
When you feel tension while photographing or in post-production and you start moving restlessly on the spot, put your camera down or leave the computer for a while. Have a coffee and look at something different. Then come back and carry on. Your view will be fresh again.
5 - Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. (Gaiman)
When you show your images to people expect that each of them will see something different and they are right, because each person has its own personality and point of view. Nonetheless their feedback always gives you insights and learning opportunities.
6 - Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving. (Gaiman)
There is nothing like a perfect photo. And there is nothing like a photo everybody likes. Keep learning and growing in photography and your images will show an amazing process of working with light and composition.
7 - Laugh at your own jokes. (Gaiman)
Relax and don’t be to hard on yourself.
8 - The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. (Gaiman)
Be genuine in your photography and photograph the way YOU photograph, however this is. Let your signature in photography evolve and embark on your own process of growth in this fantastic art.
Enjoy photography!
(P.S. feel free to come with your own translation!)
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Steve Jobs on Intuition and what that means for us
03/10/12 12:18 Filed in: Intuition
“Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work." Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs’ Apple products have always been products that allowed intuitional use. Tabs would be there where you naturally-intuitionally would be anyway with the cursor and the interface would show exactly what you need to follow your creative flow and nothing more or anything disturbing. They were all designed for intuitive use and that makes them feel so pleasant for us.
In other words, Steve Jobs’ Apple products are condensed intuition, just as form is condensed emptiness, according to Einstein.
Steve Jobs’ probably greatest strength was his intuition and his consciousness of the importance of intuition for our daily lives. By going the intuitive way, everything seems to fall into place, almost effortless. As soon as something counter-intuitive comes along we some kind of get stopped, distracted or disturbed in our process of creating something, from a business letter to a music project or photo book. Or just think about aperture in photography and its relation of f-stop numbers and aperture sizes. This is definitely counter-intuitive and many of us stumbled over it or still have difficulties with understanding it. Apple products never had such a counter-intuitive moment when using them. Using them was just pleasant.
But Steve Jobs is unfortunately not here anymore to continue the intuitive approach of the Apple products. Is there anybody who can within Apple? Interfaces have changed and counter-intuitive moments of disturbance occur when working with a Mac Book, easy features of daily use disappear and the design of some software hurts the eye.
The iPhone 5 is just out and the iPad mini is about to be announced. Are they steps away from Steve Jobs’ intuitive way of working or will a new intuitive mind carry on with the great work he has done? Let’s hope so. Otherwise an Apple will not be an Apple anymore and we might have to switch to Surface, because at the end we will always follow our intuition.
Let your intuition create your life and lets hope Apple will continue to support us in that.
Happy Apple using.
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com
Review Time: Photokina's New Cameras
02/10/12 16:54 Filed in: Photo Tips | Photography & Art
All big camera brands announced their new models at the Photokina and now the first reviews are available.
The most interesting reviews might be the ones on the full-frame entry level Nikon D600 and Canon D6, just good to have them to compare the two “similar” new camera models of the two big brands. Check out PetaPixel’s Hands on with the Nikon D600 and Hands on with the Canon 6D.
Of a different league is the Leica M. Also here a Hands on with the Leica M by PetaPixel to get to know her better before making a decision to buy one.
Also available so far the PetaPixel hands on review of the Fujifilm X-E1, the Fujifilm XF1 and the Samsung Galaxy Camera.
Surely there will be more reviews coming during the following weeks and if you think about getting one of the new camera models, try to test them at your camera store before buying one. The camera needs to suit you and no review can tell how the camera will feel for you. Only you know, if a camera works for you and what you want to do in photography.
The new camera models are definitely an inspiration and make one wondering how cameras will be in the future. Until future arrives lets enjoy what the present offers.
Happy testing!
Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com