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With the 4th of July quickly approaching, Americans are preparing their grills, beer, flags, and fireworks for the celebration. I would also recommend charging the batteries for the digital camera as capturing fireworks can be very rewarding.
For non-SLR shooters, taking such a shot will require you to be able to manually control settings on your camera — something that is available in most digital cameras. The two most important elements in my experience are exposure and stability. To properly capture fireworks, you want the exposure (the length of time the shutter is open and the camera is taking the photo) to last as long as it takes the fireworks to burst. Therefore, try different exposure settings, probable between 1-3 seconds (your average photo is taken at fractions of a second).
With a long exposure, stability becomes a must. Any little movement such as the slight shaking of your hand when you press the shoot/shutter button will cause blurriness. To resolve this use a tripod or place the camera on a solid surface. This will ensure that as the shutter opens up for those few magical seconds, the camera remains stable while the action around it, namely the fireworks, paints a moving picture. To avoid shaking the camera when taking the photo, you should consider a remote control or remote release mechanism. I picked up my remote control a while ago and it has been very helpful in taking not only long exposure shots, but also allowing me to place myself in shots.
A good source for this and other photography tips is The Digital Photography School.
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The New York Times has a good article about Paul Cézanne and his days in Provence. The article highlights the city of Aix-en-Provence where Cézanne grew up and eventually returned to. Much of his work is inspired by the rustic brown and green terrain of the city and the region.
Having traveled to Aix a few years ago, I have fond memories of this beautiful city. Founded by the Romans in 122 BC on the site of thermal springs, the city grew through the centuries as a university town. The center of the city is made of 18th century honey colored stone and includes several open squares, narrow alleys, and of course the tree-lined Cours Mirabeau. Considered one of the most beautiful boulevards in France, the Cours Mirabeau was built during the 17th century and was lined with mansions on its south side and cafés on is north side. Four fountains line the Cours including the Fontaine d’Eau Chaude which spouts hot water (which is made even more beautiful by the steam during a cold night).
The most famous café on the Cours is Les Deux Garçons which opened in 1792. Once a hangout for Cézanne and his friends, the café is still a trendy spot for aging locals, young students, and tourists. Other local attractions include Cathedrale St. Sauveur, Hôtel, and a weekly market which snakes through the streets and squares of the old city.
Do not leave Aix without stopping for Calissons at Bechard. Calissons are sweet mixture of almonds and fruit sandwiched between two wafers and covered with icing.
Article: New York Times: Cézanne’s Provence
Link: Les Deux Garçons
The World Cup just kicked off and we hope to use it as a lead to discuss sports travel. We never made it to Germany (despite our many attempts) but we will report to you about our previous and future travels to sporting events.
Coming up in the next few weeks we will have a detailed article and photos about our experience at the pit with a leading Indy Car racing team.
And of course, we will talk about the World Cup.
Germany vs. Costa Rica just started, so we’ve gotta run…
Photo: Flickr member doublebug
Before reserving a seat on a flight I always check the seating arrangement on SeatGuru. By choosing airline and equipment, the site will provide you with a seat chart with color indicators for good and bad seats.
As airlines continue to reduce the pitch (distance between seats) it helps to determine which seats may be better (read: more comfortable) than others. For example, we all know exit rows have more leg room, but on some planes, the exit rows may not recline. JetBlue, for example, offers 3 more inches of leg room on the back half of the plane. And of course, we all want to know how far away we can get from the lavatory and the obligatory line of people which seems to form after takeoff.
Link: SeatGuru
Lets show some love to our sponsors:
- Save 70% on Hotels at LastMinuteTravel.com
- Book a summer getaway with Radisson Hotels & Resorts.
- Movielink(R)?Downloadable movies are here
We experienced some down time today — moving servers. We are back up and running.
We did use this opportunity to launch the TRAVELERism Flickr Pool
Photo: Flickr member ohad*