Everglades in Infrared – 2, by Suprada on Flickr.

Big Cypress Natural Preseve, Florida

I got the opportunity to visit Everglades National Park and its neighbor, Big Cypress National Preserve back in October. When I drove up, my first stop was at Clyde Butcher’s “Big Cypress Gallery” on the Tamiami trail. Clyde’s photographs and his story are amazing. You can take a look at some of his photos at his website. I found this very good interview of Clyde Butcher at the Double Exposure website.

So after spending some time looking at Clyde’s huge black and white photographs, I was extremely enthusiastic to go out and do some shooting of my own. It was a beautiful day, though it was just past noon by the time I got done loking at Clyde’s photographs. Also I had left late that morning for my 4 hr drive. What to do? All the beautiful morning light was gone. So out came my tiny (or not so tiny) G9 with the infrared filter. This photograph is one in a series I made that afternoon. I must say, the more I shoot in infrared, the more I seem to like it.

Other posts in this series:
Everglades in Infrared – 1: http://www.suprada.com/photoblog/archives/922

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon G9 with Hoya R72 Infrared filter
Exposure: 2sec at f/2.8
ISO: 100
WB: Daylight
Date: October 10, 2009
Processed in Lightroom 2.5

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Everglades in Infrared – 1, by Suprada on Flickr.

Everglades National Park, Florida

I got the opportunity to visit Everglades National Park and its next door neighbour, Big Cypress National park back in October. It was a day of lovely clouds. – big huge white puffy ships and dragons in the sky. I used my G9 with the Hoya R72 filter for this Infrared photograph, and processed it in Lightroom.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon G9 with Hoya R72 Infrared filter
Exposure: 2sec at f/2.8
ISO: 100
WB: Daylight
Date: October 10, 2009
Processed in Lightroom 2.5
Location: 25.85600000,-81.02316667

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Ocean and Bixby Bridge, by Suprada on Flickr.

Ocean and Bixby Bridge, CA.

This is a photograph of the Bixby Bridge, officially the “Bixby Creek Arch Bridge” on Hwy 1 near Big Sur. This photograph was taken during the night photography workshop with Harold Davis.

For this photograph, we crossed the street to a turnout to get a different perspective.

For more about my workshop experiences, you can read this post.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Exposure: 346sec at f/8.0
Focal Length: 16mm
ISO: 100
WB: Daylight
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Date: September 26, 2009

(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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Car Trail – Bixby Bridge, by Suprada on Flickr.

Car Trail – Bixby Bridge, Monterey Wharf, CA.

This is a photograph of the Bixby Bridge, officially the “Bixby Creek Arch Bridge” on Hwy 1 near Big Sur. This photograph was taken during the night photography workshop with Harold Davis.

A looong exposure setup very close to the bridge to try to get an interesting perspective.

For more about my workshop experiences, you can read this post.

Technical Details:
Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Exposure: 326sec at f/8.0
Focal Length: 10mm
ISO: 100
WB: Daylight
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Date: September 26, 2009

(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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Today’s interview is with Michelle Kawka. Michelle Kawka is a New York based professional photographer. Her personal work has been exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art, City Hall of the 9th Arrondissement Paris France, the Queens Hospital Center, among other places. This multifaceted artist’s short film “Animal Farm” was screened at Sunnyside Shorts Film festival. Her most recent work, portraits for “This is Our Queens” was just named the best project of 2009 by the American Society of Media Photographers.

You can see more of her work at her website – www.michellekawka.com.

On to the interview:

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: Tell me a little about yourself. How did you get into photography?

MK:I got into photography when I studied in Italy in college. I found myself constantly taking pictures. The idea of sitting behind a desk and being an office for 40 years of my working life was not appealing, so I figured I would try and turn this hobby that inherently clicked with me into a career !

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: What are your primary photography interests? And why do these topics interest you?

MK:I love shooting people and places. They interest me because I find it a challenge to draw authentic emotions out of people and capture it through the camera. I love shooting places because I believe travel expands your world view and makes you a more aware person in your own community and how you relate to the world.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: Can you talk about your experience photographing the 200 portraits for the thisisourqueens.com website?

MK:ThisisOurQueens.com is a project that highlighted the diversity of New York City’s borough of Queens. Queens County, New York is a borough of over 2.2 million people.It is the most ethnically diverse county in the world. Forty-six percent of the population is foreign born and over 138 languages are spoken throughout the borough. The website is the brainchild of Dave Kerpen, who created it as part of his campaign for borough president. He hired me to create a series of 200 individual portraits of people who live, work or are from the borough to highlight the borough’s incredible diversity. The most memorable part of the project was exploring the borough’s different neighborhoods and meeting a wide range of people from all over the world. I photographed Sikhs at a temple in Richmond Hill, was blessed by an evangelical Christian woman on the street in Jamaica, found a surfer at Rockaway Beach from Kansas who works in Ozone Park and took a portrait of a professor from CUNY Queens College who’s work involves the study of climate change in Antarctica. At the project’s completion, over 25 countries and 6 continents were represented by the people of Queens County, New York. All 200 portraits may be seen at http:www.thisisourqueens.com.

ThisIsOurQueens.com was named one of the best projects of 2009 by the American Society of Media Photographers and one of the photos was displayed the ASMP booth at Photo Plus Expo in New York this past October. The full interview about the award can be read here: http://asmp.org/articles/best-2009-kawka.html.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: As a woman photographer, can you talk about experiences & unique challenges you face when you are outside shooting?

MK: Photography can be an extremely physically demanding profession, lugging around heavy equipment and being on your feet for hours at a time. One of the challenges is the perception that women are not physically capable of a photography career. However, I also think people are less threatened by a woman photographer and are more able to trust her, and when shooting people, trust is the most important element to get a good picture.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: Do you have any suggestions, opinions and/or words of advice for other women in photography?

MK: Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not a profession for women.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: What is your current project? Can you talk about it?

MK: My current project is getting an exhibition space of all 200 portraits from the ThisIsOurQueens.com project. I am contacting galleries and museums who would like to feature the work.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: Any recommendations? (like Photographers, Photo techniques, Music, Books, quotes, food..anything?)

MK: The more photos you take, the better a photographer you will be. Practice really does make perfect in this profession.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

SU: Can you mention how people interested in your work can contact you?

MK: They can email me at michelle@michellekawka.com.

Photograph by Michelle Kawka, All Rights Reserved,
Photos hosted on Flickr

Thanks Michelle!

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