Costa Rica Wildlife Photography...from a hammock

Costa Rica Wildlife - Images by Travis Rowan

Yeah, that's right. Many of these Costa Rica photos were taken while I relaxed in a hammock.

This is how you balance a relaxing holiday with wildlife photography; go to a place so rich in flora and fauna that you can sit back and let it come to you.

A little extra reach on the lens is helpful too, so I chose a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens to "fill the frame" of the Howler monkeys and colorful birds. I really like the lens for it's size and versatility. However, the AF speed won't keep up for fast action shooting. It won't replace my 300mm 2.8 for photographing sports but the 80-400mm definitely has its place in my camera bag.

The butterfly shots were made with a Nikon 60mm 2.8 Macro lens and Nikon CLS system with an SB800 off-camera.

The masked green tree frog was shot with my Canon G11. The macro mode on the G11 is incredible. I was easily less than an inch from the frog's nose. I also attached a Nikon SB800 (manually controlled) to the G11's hotshoe with an SC-17 cable for some varied off-camera lighting.

An incredible story behind the images of the Time cover shoot in Burma by Platon.

This is a great video (6 minutes) from Time magazine. Photographer Platon speaks of his experience in Myanmar (Burma) capturing a portrait of Aung San Su Kyi. (there is a short advert at the beginning)


What a wild ride. I especially appreciate him sharing his  interaction with her, his approach, words and ultimately the portraits. No technical info here, just another extraordinary experience in photography. TR

source: Time.com

2010 | The Year in Pictures

click full screen option for best viewing of the slideshow


The Year in Pictures: 2010 - Images by Travis Rowan

This past year has been has been one of the most unusual and unexpected journeys that I can remember. (Both photographically and in life) It's been a year of firsts and hopefully some lasts.

A quick review: I've endured a miserably cold winter, lived and worked on a megayacht again, survived a perilous river journey through America's bible belt where I encountered hostile natives (hillbillies) and 'Apocalypse Now' like moments at every mysterious, foggy bend, transited the Panama Canal for the third time in my life, hung out on the west coast and ventured up to the Pacific Northwest for the summer where I observed Seattle hippies, whales and the Oregon coast before abandoning ship, returning to the South, then popping off to Hawaii for a week to see the Pipeline Masters. WTF? That's what it felt like, one big run on sentence. It's a good thing I've got pictures.

No theme, no project, no specializing, I was pretty much all over the place. At the mercy of where ever the yacht was. The point is: I discovered, experienced and captured some amazing things in some unlikely places. Happy New Year!

See the individual images below with anecdotes and technical details for the photo-geeks among us.
Warning: this is a long one, but so is a year.

Updated images in my underwater and animals portfolio

click the full screen option for best view

Underwater/Animals - Images by Travis Rowan

Surf photography on the North Shore part 2

Check it out in full screen mode.

North Shore Surfing Part 2 - Images by Travis Rowan

Day 3 photographing surf on Hawaii's North Shore. Billabong Pipeline Masters had another lay day due to nasty weather and small swell, but there was plenty of free surfing action, and line up images to get out there.

Cool, diffused light set the mood today and the occasional downpour kept me on my toes. In the my first three days here on the North Shore, I believe I've captured some of my finest surf images so far. More to come....TR

Surf photography on the North Shore of Oahu.

North Shore Surfing - Images by Travis Rowan
Here are my latest photos from Oahu's North Shore. I'm here to photograph the Billabong Pipeline Masters surf event. The north shore is the epicenter of surfing. This is the only place where you can find all of the world's best surfers concentrated in one small stretch of coast in arguably the finest waves. The north shore at this time of year is THE surfing mecca and the photography possibilities, surf and otherwise, are endless. These photos are just from my first two days. So far, so good. Choose full screen for the best look at them.

More to come....TR

Sporting History in Puerto Rico. Kelly Slater wins his 10th World Title!

Kelly Slater wins his 10th World Title - Images by Travis Rowan

Sports history has occurred at the Rip Curl Pro Search Somewhere in Puerto Rico. Nine time world champion and surfing legend Kelly Slater has claimed his tenth world title. Slater secured this unprecedented sporting feat during the ninth event of the 2010 ASP World Tour in Puerto Rico. Kelly Slater has once again secured his position in sporting history placing himself among other greats like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. Congratulations to Kelly Slater.

I've been anticipating this moment for the last two years and finally it has come. I was selfishly hoping he would lose his heat today and force the title race on to the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii so I could be there to photograph it. Either way, I'll be there at Pipe in December to shoot the final contest of the year and possibly Kelly's last contest of his amazing career.

Above is a photographic tribute to Kelly Slater from my archive. See you at Pipeline. TR

Tax dollars at work:US Navy LCS (Littoral Combat Ship)

Here's a look at the US Navy's new generation of high speed warships. It was moored along side the Austal facility in Mobile Bay, Alabama.

Whenever there is an opportunity to photograph something cool like this, I jump at it. I happened to be cruising through Mobile in March 2010 and docked across the river from the LCS 2 Independence.No special access required, just lucky to be in close proximity for a night.

The above shot was made with a Nikon D300 and an 80-200mm 2.8 lens. I chose F22 for two reasons: one to get a slow shutter to blur the flowing water (tripod required) and to get the starburst effect from the deck lights.

Inspired in Seattle: Part 1

Finding a place that hasn't been photographed to death isn't always easy. Especially in a city as interesting and photogenic as Seattle. I was searching for a nice skyline viewpoint and with a simple Google search I found Kerry Park in the Queen Anne neighborhood. I figure if a place is that popular it must be good or easy... or both. Anyway, when I'm new to a place these are often good places to start.

Panama Canal: Time-Lapse photography and video

I recently transited the Panama Canal on a large private yacht. This being my third time in the canal, I decided to play around with video and incorporate some time-lapse images too.

This is not HD as I'm not really a video shooter, but I have to admit that I enjoyed trying to tell a story with moving pictures in addition to the stills. So I may find myself investing in something better soon. All the video was shot with a Canon G11 compact digital and the time-lapse images were shot with a Nikon D300.

I used the intervalometer feature on the D300 set to shoot every 15 seconds. I edited the stills in Aperture and put the video together using iMovie. Pretty basic editing tool for video but I think it turned out to be pretty cool. Enjoy TR

Canon G11: new gear

I picked up a new tool (toy) today and can't wait to put it to work.

The Canon G11 is a pretty sweet pro quality compact that I've had my eye on for awhile.

I have a Lumix LX2 already, but haven't really been impressed with the image quality. What really drew me to the Canon is the hot shoe for off-camera flash possibilities and it's ability to focus at 1cm. I intend to use it as a small carry everywhere camera and for doing some cool macro stuff.

The key points for me are:
RAW files
Hot shoe
Manual controls
Compact enough
Low noise at high ISO
Close focusing

Burmese Nightlife: Star Trails Through History

Shooting at night is always a challenge. First off, the low light means long exposures and additional equipment. (tripod, cable release, flashlight etc.) I've always enjoyed shooting in low light, showing motion and in general the technical challenges of creating images in the dark.

In addition to my photography addiction, I also have an "Indiana Jones" complex at times. Those two coupled together led me to Bagan in Myanmar (aka Burma) to photograph the 1100 year-old temples by moonlight. It just sounded like an interesting trip. The complete story of that adventure will come in a future post, but for now I'll share one of the simplest shots from that expedition.

The above shot is a 40 minute exposure of some of the temple ruins just outside the town of Nyaung Oo. Shooting in the dark is always an experiment. In most shooting situations I'm pretty confident in the camera meter's ability to determine a proper exposure. However, in a night scene like this with virtually no light, I'm confident that the camera's meter has no clue. So what do you do? Go manual, guess and take notes.

The Black Cat-Halloween edition

In the spirit of Halloween, here's a shot I put together using the Nikon CLS system. I'm really getting to love the possibilities.

First off, the cat is one of my favorite animals and "Eddie" this black persian is a fine specimen. (He's named for the rock guitar icon Eddie Van Halen)

I first imagined the shot one morning when I saw Eddie sitting illuminated by the streaming light coming through a window. His long black hair was glowing in a halo of fire.

More pics and the lighting setup below.

Walking the docks in Antigua

Yachts are like birds, they go south for the winter too. I shot these two yachts last December in Antigua. Caribbean skies, underwater lighting and $100 million dollars worth of toys. The two yachts pictured are the 60 meter M/Y Amnesia (left) and the 90 meter M/Y Nero (right).

Gear: Nikon D2x / 17-55mm 2.8 / Manfrotto tripod and ballhead.

As always, click any image for the larger version. TR

Mirrored Aviators

This is a fun shot for a lot of reasons. It's a simple recipe, if you can get the ingredients together:
-a beautiful woman.
-a white sand beach in the Caribbean.
-mirrored Aviator sunglasses.
-a little Photoshop masking.
Done.