Tag Archives: travel photography

Photo(s) of the Day – Riding the Rails

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Northern Pacific – © Tracey Capone Photography 2012

I needed a break from the show prep madness and to step away from the wood photo blocks for a few. I decided to do what I love most and go back through raw photos from the last several months. It’s been quite a while since I went on my train excursion but apparently the time away from the proofs from that photo walk proved fruitful. I was delighted to find several photos that, on the first go round, didn’t really work for me but, after stepping away and viewing them with a fresh perspective turned out to be some of my new favorites.

The Red Caboose – © Tracey Capone Photography 2012

Anyone who has followed my blog for a while knows I have a train obsession. I don’t know what it is about them but, whether it’s a train from Rome to Florence or just the Chicago L train, they are my favorite subjects to photograph.

X18 – © Tracey Capone Photography 2012

While plane travel is quick (ok, minus any flight delays, time spent sitting in the airport and waiting for luggage) I don’t find it the least bit interesting. With train travel, especially when you’re on a particularly scenic route, you can get where you need to go all while taking in the world around you. In a single ride, you can be transported through so many different worlds as you travel through the various towns along the route. I find it almost magical.

The Line – © Tracey Capone Photography 2012

I get a lot of requests for train photography, especially for little boys rooms. I love what the photographs can spark in a child’s imagination. Where has the train been? Where is it going? Who traveled the rails and what made them choose the train? I’m so happy to be able to add to my train collection with these five photographs and I hope to see them go to good homes with little boys (or girls!) who imagine being the conductor or the train enthusiast who knows more about each train than I can even hope to.

These photographs, and many more new ones, can be found here in my Etsy shop.

Silver Ridge – © Tracey Capone Photography 2012

Time to get back to the blocks. The countdown is on until the show and I swear the days are going faster and faster by the minute!

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Photo of the Day – Grant’s Cafe

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Grant’s Cafe – Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

Every once in a while, when I have a few spare minutes, or, admittedly, am doing what I am doing right now and procrastinating about something (today it’s reorganizing my studio) I like to go back through photographs from past trips and see if any of them stand out to me. Today’s Photo of the Day, “Grant’s Cafe,” was the lucky winner. Taken along Route 66 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I loved how the colors of the sign were somehow both subtle, yet bold, at the same time. I don’t actually recall seeing this sign my first trip through Santa Fe but I’m happy I came across it during my Route 66 Road trip.

I suppose I have to get back to organizing. Ultimately, it will make me happy but I really wish I had the ability to just snap my fingers and have everything just so!

I wish everyone a wonderful weekend!

Enjoy

*tracey*

Photo of the Day: The Right Place at the Wrong Time

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The Windmill – Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

Before every trip, I sit down at the computer, Lonely Planet book open on the Kindle, and, through the magic of Google, Flickr and other wonderful online references, come up with a list of “must see” places that I want to shoot. For the most part, it usually works out extremely well and I end up with shots I was dying to take, such as the one from Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland, or of Chez Marie Cafe in Montmartre, Paris. I was even super excited to find the perfect spot to hop out of the car, drop to the ground and get this shot of the Route 66 marker along a deserted highway during my Route 66 road trip from Santa Monica to Tulsa.

Sadly, sometimes a list is just a list. Mother Nature, with her heavy rains and wind, might delay our trip, and we pass through a number of photogenic towns… in the dark. Or, perhaps, someone demolished the very retro, very cool Route 66 motel and sign that I wanted to see before I got there (you know who you are). Or, in the case of this wonderful windmill in Brennerville, along the trip to the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, someone decides it’s the perfect time to restore it and wraps it up in scaffolding.

The point is, sometimes you don’t get the perfect shot. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it because it’s still a memory. Sure, I could spend painstaking hours in Photoshop, whittling away at the scaffolding until it’s nothing but a few unnoticeable, insignificant bars here and there. Maybe, some rainy day, I will spend the day “tearing down” the scaffolding, however, for now, I would much rather focus my energy on the other 700+ shots from the trip. For now, I would much rather look at the photograph, with all it’s imperfections, and look forward to the day when I can go back and revisit this beautiful scene. (preferably scaffold free!)

Enjoy! Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

*tracey*

Photo of the Day: Fairytale

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“Fairytale” – Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

In between the madness of fulfilling orders, editing portrait work, and getting ready for the Bucktown Arts Fest and Lakeview East Festival of the Arts (two weeks apart… aaack!) I have been trying to take some time for myself and go through more of my photographs from Scotland and Ireland. Today’s Photo of the Day, “Fairytale,” is the latest from those little “editing breaks” I have been taking.

The photograph is of the beautiful Dunrobin Castle, in Sutherland in the Highlands area of Scotland. The castle is the seat of the Countess Sutherland and the clan Sutherland. Featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 movie, “Barry Lydon” it is said to be haunted and, today, is used for falconry demonstrations in the amazing gardens surrounding the castle.

Oh how I miss Scotland; the castles, the scenic vistas, the people. I can’t wait until my next trip back to capture more photographs like this one and explore even more.

Enjoy!
*tracey*

Photo of the Day – The History

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The History, Part One – Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

I am a firm believer that the only way you’re truly going to learn the inner workings of your camera, your lenses, and exposure as a whole is to make the important decisions and make a lot of mistakes. As a self-taught photographer, I have learned more from my own mistakes than I have in any online tutorials, books or other sources of information. Don’t get me wrong, I have done my fair share of lynda.com courses, and read plenty of books, but I am one of those people who learn more by doing than listening or reading. That said, I am a huge fan of the photography tip, “Throw it in to Manual and leave it there.” I have been shooting with an SLR for close to nine years and none of my cameras have come off manual for about eight of those. The result? I have taken a whole lot of somewhat okay ok, well, crappy photographs but learned a whole lot about how to improve for the next time and ended up with a few gems.

For me, that tip not only applies to exposure settings but also, at times, taking my lens off auto and getting a little creative with manual focus.

I decided to do just that when I was shooting at the Slea Head Famine Cottages on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland this past May. The cottages, which were homes to the poor, Irish farmers during the Potato Famine, date back to the 1840s and hold such a rich history. Similar to my experience walking around Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich, Germany, walking through the cottages, set up with furniture and housewares to give you a feeling of how they lived, the history was almost palpable to me. You could just picture what a typical evening would be like for a family living in one of these cottages. Now, that said, if you go there, I will warn you, while the antique furniture is awesome, there are some seriously creepy mannequins set up throughout, including a hideous little child that looked more like a Chuckie doll, or, well, maybe the comedian Carrot Top, than a little girl… but I digress…

When I walked through the partially open door of one of the cottages, I was immediately taken with a table with some framed vintage photographs in the background. I knew that I needed to take the lens off auto and rely on my own intuition to get the slightly hazy, partially blurry shot I had in mind. Today’s Photo of the Day, “The History,” was the result.  In the end, I wanted a slightly haunted feel to the photograph, and, hopefully I accomplished that. (oh, and you can see the silhouette of aforementioned creepy “Chuckie doll” girl perched up at the top just in front of the window… imagine running in to that on a dark, rainy night)

Maybe this photo of the day should have been saved for a Friday the 13th post??

Enjoy!

*tracey*

 

Photo of the Day – Eilean Donan No 3

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Eilean Donan No 3 – Tracey Capone Photography ©2012

One of my favorite aspects of using an SLR camera is the ability to get creative with depth of field. The majority of my trip around Scotland and Ireland was using my Nikon 24-70 2.8 and I have to say, that has quickly become my go to lens. Whether I’m doing portraits or landscape, the lens never fails to deliver the quality shots. (ok, I’m not letting the lens take all the credit… it does help to understand how to use it, and your camera, of course!)

I had previously introduced you to the Eilean Donan castle in Scotland with my shot at dusk. It was one of those, “in the right place at the right time” shots because the light was so perfect the resulting photograph, with it’s beautiful blues, is my favorite from the trip. Today’s photo of the day, “Eilean Donan No. 3″ was shot earlier in the day, in full sun which is, admittedly, not my favorite time to photograph so I decided to go the route of creative depth of field. With the lens set at f2.8, I focused about two feet in front of me on the stone wall and took the shot.

It’s important to remember, whether you’re playing with depth of field (DOF) in camera or later in post, you don’t want the subject in the background so blurred that you don’t know what it is. It should be blurred to the point where it isn’t the main focus of the photograph but is still an integral part of it.

While I love getting creative in Photoshop (I am currently obsessed with the three new blur filters in CS6), I love when a shot comes straight out of the camera with the DOF I was hoping for! I may not have loved the light while we were there but I came away with some memorable shots.

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Photo of the Day – Last Drop

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Last Drop – Tracey Capone Photography ©2012

I thought it fitting that the last photo of the day of the week is “Last Drop.” I took this photo, in Edinburgh, on one of our first few days in Scotland. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much chance to look around Edinburgh so I will definitely be heading back for more. Because of our very short time, I was very happy to come across a stretch of very colorful bars and pubs just as we were leaving the city.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I will be busy getting my new website up and running. It’s going to be a lot of work but I am so excited to share it with everyone next week!

Enjoy!
*tracey*

Photo(s) of the Day: O’Connor and Jordan

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“O’Connor” – Tracey Capone Photograph ©2012

One of the things I love the most about traveling around Europe, especially through Scotland and Ireland is the use of color in some of it’s structures. OK so, Eilean Donan Castle wasn’t a good example of this (although the sky around it made up for that) but today’s photos of the day, “O’Connor” and “Jordan” sure do.

We came across these two gems just past the Cliffs of Moher in the Burren Region. It was a sleepy little town, whose name I couldn’t even begin to tell you. It was a rainy, blustery day and I loved that the pops of color, the emerald and teal of the one and the pinks and magentas of the other stood out against the gray sky.

I have many more of these that I will be sharing. (and a little break in the action to be able to do a little more sorting through my photos, phew!) Be on the lookout for many more pops of fantastic color from my latest trip.

Enjoy!
*tracey*

“Jordan’s” – Tracey Capone Photography ©2012

Photo(s) of the Day – Purposely Lost in the Highlands of Scotland

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Aside from my latest post on the Cliffs of Moher, my focus has been primarily on Scotland because, admittedly, I was completely awestruck the entire time we were driving through the country. From Edinburgh all the way up in to the farthest reaches of the Highlands, I was amazed at the scenery, the people and, of course, the photographic opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I have several hundred photographs to sort through from Ireland, which is also an amazingly beautiful country in it’s own right but my focus in the last several days has been taking a trip down memory lane and sorting and editing those from Scotland.

One of the things I loved the most about Scotland was driving through remote areas where a small cottage or thatch roof fishing hut would suddenly pop up. There was nothing or no one else around for miles but there was this little structure smack in the middle of the very rustic landscape.

Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

Not all structures were remote. We came across one very beautiful home when we got a bit lost in Dumfries, in the northern most Highlands. To me, this was quintessential Scotland. Beautiful rolling hills, of course complete with sheep, surrounding a farmhouse, in this case the beautiful blue sky complementing the butter yellow of the house’s facade.

Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

There was no shortage of amazing scenery in Scotland, that’s for sure. Even a run down little shack made for a good subject…

Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

I look forward to going back to Scotland to explore more of this amazing country. In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for reminding myself of my wonderful trip with my photographs.

Enjoy!
*tracey*

Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

Photo of the Day – Watch

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Watch – Tracey Capone Photography © 2012

Remember my “obsession” with all things dogwood a few weeks back? Well, during my trip to Scotland and Ireland my obsession switched to photographing sheep. It’s not difficult… drive through Scotland, especially, and you’ll come across a flock of sheep every two minutes. (and in places you would never expect, like a very rocky ledge along a single track road in the Northern Highlands)

Today’s Photo of the Day, “Watch” is one of the first I took on the trip. It was a rather misty day and this particular field had the most beautiful lemon yellow and sage hue to it. The sheep were having a lazy day (did you know some of them bend their front legs and rest on them while they eat? I didn’t) grazing in the field so I took advantage of the perfect scene. I loved that this particular ram stopped what he was doing to watch me. (it may have been because my aunt was “speaking” to them… I’m not sure :) )

Still working my way through all my photos and I have a lot of new ones to dish up as Photos of the Day so stay tuned!

Enjoy!

*tracey*