For those of us in the Graphic Communications Group at Kodak, the quadrennial trade show known as drupa might best be described as our Olympics. If you have not seen it in person I do not know that any words can truly do justice to the sheer size of the event. Close to half a million people from over one hundred countries attend the show in Düsseldorf, Germany to see the latest in printing technology. From giant offset printing presses to prepress and production software packages to Kodak's latest digital inkjet printing technologies, if it's printing related it's probably on display at drupa.

The Kodak booth at drupa

Many other people from Kodak have been writing about drupa over at our new blog, GrowYourBiz, so I encourage you go there and read some of their great stories yourself. What I am hoping to do here is give everyone who may have never heard about drupa or visited GrowYourBiz a little insight into life at a trade show - specifically, my brief time at drupa.

Looking out over the Kodak booth during setup

Outside of Hall 5 - Kodak was inside of this building

So why exactly was I shipped off to Germany? Here at Kodak, I work in R&D on our new Stream Inkjet Technology and was helping with the setup of the Stream Concept Press. It is very exciting to be demonstrating this new technology that produces offset-class quality images to the world, which we did for the first time publicly at drupa. Thanks to being there before the show started I also was able to see the logistics behind such a massive trade show. Two weeks before the show began it was an empty building and when I got there with a week to go the entire booth was still completely under construction. Even the night before the show opened there was dust and boxes and packages all over the place. Yet we walked in the next morning and it looked like the cleanest showroom in the world - and it probably was. Amazing is an understatement to describe the amount of work, thought, planning and execution that goes into making drupa a success for Kodak and any other company out there.

Stream Concept Press during setup

Getting the Stream Concept Press ready for its world debut

Any regular readers of my blogs know how much I love to travel and this was my first trip to Germany. Simply put, I loved my time there. Great country, great people. If you haven't been, go!

Signs for drupa were everywhere!

I just couldn't get over the stack of Smart cars

While much hard work goes into the show, we did have time to get out and see some of the city most nights. One of the best places in Düsseldorf is the Altstadt, or the old town. Aside from a plethora of restaurants, bars, and nightlife it is historic in its own right with many of the oldest buildings in the city. It runs right to the edge of the Rhine, which curves through the city and is a beautiful place to take a stroll or river cruise on a warm summer night. Overall, the entire city had a fun vibe to it and I enjoyed many of the places Düsseldorf has to offer. And yes, the beer was quite delicious.

Düsseldorf and the Rhine

Statue of Prince Jan Wellem in the Altstadt

After my work was done in Düsseldorf I actually took a few days to go on vacation down in Munich, Bavaria, and Austria. It was absolutely beautiful in Southern Germany and the Alps and I cannot wait to get back over there as soon as possible. I only returned home to the U.S. about five days before I am sending this blog in to be posted and, to be completely honest, have barely even begun to sort thru my hundreds of photos. Accordingly, look for a lot more stories and photos about the vacation portion of my trip in my next blog or two. Until then, thanks for reading and safe travels!

I don't think I need to tell you that a cruise ship off the coast of Grand Cayman is a great place to be in February, especially when you live in the Midwest. Luckily that's where my girlfriend and I sailed off to a few months ago. Best of all, and contrary to my usual luck with Mr. Murphy's Law, we even managed to skip out on a giant snowstorm back home - score!

This happened to be my first time on a cruise and I have to recommend the whole cruising thing to those who haven't had the opportunity to vacation on a floating palace. Seriously, it's kind of ridiculous what they put onboard these days. Our ship, the Norwegian Pearl, had a four-lane bowling alley, 14 restaurants, and a two-story tall video wall with a Nintendo Wii hooked up to it. Needless to say, it was a very fun vacation, the food was great, and I ate way too much of it.

The goal is for this to not end up as your souvenir, k?

Nintendo Wii wall on the NCL Pearl

Sunset over the Caribbean

Aside from the laundry list of things to do on the ship, half the reason to go on a cruise is all the places you visit. Our itinerary took us from Miami to Cozumel and the Cayman Islands. Thanks to the tips and reviews from the many people who frequent the Cruise Critic forums, we found great excursions for the day in both ports.

In order to take photos in all the warm tropical waters, my nice (but very hydrophobic) digital camera was not the best option. Leave it to Kodak to save me a lot of hassle here. Instead of having to buy an expensive waterproof case for my camera, we just picked up two Kodak Sport Single Use cameras that are designed for underwater use. They worked out great and took some wonderful photos - the rest of the images in this blog were taken with those Kodak Sport cameras.

Cozumel was our first port and we docked early in the morning, had a quick breakfast, and then headed into town. Following some quick shopping and a short cab ride we arrived at Playa Uvas. They offered a great little package where we were able to go snorkeling, take a guided clear kayak tour, and have lunch and drinks before we left later in the afternoon.

Looking out on the water at Playa Uvas

Some sort of old fence we saw while snorkeling

Mexican Piranhas, a.k.a Bermuda Chubs

In the Caymans, we had an even better time with a group of people we met on the ship. Stingray City is a very shallow sandbar in the waters of Grand Cayman where a ton of stingrays have grown accustomed to humans. We all took a boat excursion together through Native Way and got to swim and snorkel with the stingrays. They've got a very slimy feel to them and it is indeed a little creepy to have a bunch of them swimming around you since they're rather touchy-feely creatures, but it was an awesome experience. After the stingrays we went snorkeling a little ways away, had a delicious Caribbean lunch, and headed back to the ship even tanner.

Stingray City from the boat

These three rays really seemed to love our group

You have to love the warm Caribbean water

Snorkeling in the Caymans

Rum Point Beach

Hopefully these photos have shown you some of the great things you can do with a Kodak underwater camera. I had never used one before and was very pleased with all the great things I was able to capture with the two disposables we took along on the cruise. That said, I thought it would be great tidbit of information to share with the world on here. As always, thanks for reading and safe travels!

Last time I discussed using Macro photography and shutter speed to enhance your photo-taking abilities. If you didn't catch that blog you might enjoy checking it out before you read through part two. Again, I'm no expert here - these are just some things I do and look for when taking my own photos. 



With the sun directly overhead the lighting and Macro bring this ant on
a flower to life while the mountains in the background provide perspective

Perspective and framing is an area I love to play around with, probably just as much as Macro mode. I often try to line up the subject so part of it blurs into the foreground or background when I focus on a specific point. There are a couple ways to do this and your average camera in Auto mode will work just fine on a basic level.

You simply aim it at where you want to focus and, provided part of your subject is relatively close, achieve a focus on parts of the image while blurring out others. The auto-focus is basically picking a distance at which to focus the camera's lens but at some distance away (commonly anywhere from 15 to 35 or 40 feet, I'd say off the top of my head) it reaches a point where everything is in focus. So don't try to do this with subjects that are too far away from you, like mountains in the distance or some other landscape photography.

 
The wing and plane compose most of the picture,
but it is enhanced by the control tower in the background

Another easy trick is to pick an object, say a tree, that is a set distance away from you and press the shutter halfway down. This locks in the focus at that distance. Now you can move the camera (keep that shutter button where it is!) and take a photo of something else while maintaining that old focus. In the airplane photo above, for example, I aimed at part of the wing but then took the picture while looking at the control tower - this keeps the focus on the shiny wing close to me while bringing that secondary subject (the control tower) into the frame.

If you have a camera with manual focus ability you will be able to simply pick whatever focal length you want and won't necessarily have to use any tricks. Nonetheless, it can be helpful, quick, and fun to try your luck at messing around with the autofocus to create different perspectives.

 
Mushrooms on the log that fades into the foreground,
giving a more "dimensional" feeling to the picture

 
Chicago skyline from the sidewalk - taking the photo
low helps enhance the path's movement towards the city

Aside from focusing tricks on the camera, you can work to frame your subjects in all sorts of interesting manners. This is another one of those areas where there is no real "how to" or specific instructions. It really is more a feel for the subject, your location, and whatever mood you happen to be in. Basically I just look for a unique way to capture a moment to better incorporate the surroundings - the next two pictures might help you understand what I mean by this.

 
Dallas skyline reflecting on Reunion Tower, which
allowed me to capture all the major buildings in one shot

 
Framing the Italian beer with the beautiful cliffs
of Sorrento slightly blurred in the background

As you may figure, most techniques can be combined in a multitude of different ways. Maybe you use a long shutter speed with a subject framed from an interesting perspective like a sideways capture of a city skyline at night. Or you can do something like I did below, where I got up close with the shells using Macro mode but allowed the frame to include sticks that fade and blur into the background. Again, mix and match and play around and you'll probably come up with something cool.

 
Perspective + Macro on the beach helps focus your attention
on the colorful shell while blurring the rest out towards the ocean

Of course, sometimes I take a break from any of the aforementioned methods and just find things that are funny to me - like in the picture below. Maybe it's a sign on a building or someone or something in a funny position. Really it can be anything, but don't hesitate to snap a quick photo when you see something that's humorous to you.

So we're already trespassing?

Well, that concludes my two part blog series on how my mind often works when taking photos. I'm sure many of you will agree or disagree, and plenty of you (this is Kodak, after all) will probably have other great ideas and suggestions. On that note, I know I left out countless things to try to keep this simple but hopefully I didn't overlook any glaring details - so please post a comment if you've noticed I did. And more than anything, go out there and have some fun with your camera!

The art of photography is just that - an art. Everyone sees the world through their own eyes and one of the great, beautiful things about photos is the ability to see a scene, a place, a person, the world through those eyes. It's not for naught when we here at Kodak say a picture is worth a thousand words. So it came to me one day a few months ago that it would be fun to share with you how I see things when clicking the shutter. I know many people buy a camera and never take it off Auto mode and I would like to give you some basic ideas of how to take better advantage of its capabilities. These tips and techniques are in no way right or wrong and they're certainly not a professional recommendation. They are simply some of the things I do to capture Kodak Moments with my camera.

 
One of my favorite photos, taken in Jardi Botanic in Barcelona

I can describe something you will see often in my photos with just one word - Macro. For those who don't know, Macro photography in the most basic sense means nothing more than close-up. You may have wondered what that button (commonly represented by a flower symbol) was on your camera before and been afraid to push it. Don't be!



Example of a Macro Mode button on the right

How do I take my Macro photos? Well, I often look for subjects that are unique or seem to stand out from their surroundings. Maybe there's this one flower that just stands out, there's something on the beach that catches my eye, or a tiny insect, bird, or butterfly I want to capture in fine detail. There's no specific rules or "how to" I operate by; instead I just get up close and personal with the subject when I see something special. You'll see what I mean in some of the photos below.

 
Hummingbird Hawk-Moth captured in Burgos, Spain

 
Notice the fine detail you can see in this moss

You can really see the grains of sand and fine feathers

 
Taken low to the sand with the sun ahead of me to highlight the seafoam

 
Macro + Flash help to really make the flower pop out here

Macro is a rather common mode on nearly all digital cameras and something you should try out. Even our EasyShare C513, currently the most affordable Kodak digital camera on the market, has the ability to take Macro shots in "Close Up" mode. So turn on your camera, switch to Macro mode, play around a bit, go through some trial and error, and do whatever you want to do with it! It might be located in a sub-menu instead of having its own button, so look around if you don't see it right away. You'll be surprised at some of the wonderful things you can capture and how vivid they will look on a print or on your computer screen.

Shutter speed might not be a manual control on as many cameras as Macro mode, but when available it can be a fun way to capture movement or objects lit up at night. Definitely be sure to use a tripod or have the camera on a solid, steady surface when using a longer shutter speed. On that same token, it's a great idea to use the camera's self-timer function to be sure you don't bump it when you press the shutter. Get the camera lined up just how you want it, click the shutter, and let the self-timer count down for a few seconds while you step away to help prevent blurry photos.

 
The blue of the sky just past sunset and vivid color of the trees is enhanced by the long exposure

 
The extended shutter captures the motion of this fire truck as it drives past on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago

One last thing I must mention, even if it's not totally related, is geotagging. Andy Blose wrote about it just about a year ago over on 1000 Nerds and you can head on over to his article for some additional details. In essence, geotagging is tagging your photos with location data so they can be pinpointed on a map. This data can be recorded by a GPS receiver or you can take the easy route and just click on a map (like you would while zooming around Google Maps) to "stick" the photo to the map location. Over on my Flickr account, I have tagged all my photos and you can look at my map to see photos taken from around the world. I think it's a great tool to help organize and track your own photo exploits and also to find other photos from all over the world.

I'm certainly no expert but I hope that I gave you some ideas about things to play around with in your photo-taking, if nothing else. Keep your eyes peeled for part two, where I'll go over some other areas like perspective and framing. But for now, go out there and play with your camera. I think you'll love some of the neat things you can do with it!

By now you probably know how much I enjoy being able to travel internationally and experience other cultures. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Israel for the first time in October for work. We have a gorgeous new office near Tel Aviv and in addition to five days of work I was able to explore and experience Israel for a full week.

We don't have as many palm trees in front of the office in Ohio

I was asked about this by countless people, so here goes. Contrary to what is probably a popular belief, I honestly felt extremely safe during my week in Israel. Certainly there is an ever-present heightened awareness in the Israeli lifestyle but nothing that felt fearful. From the military helicopters and boats patrolling the coastline day and night to the incredibly thorough and pleasant airport security I never once felt that anything precarious was, or could be, going on around me.

One of many military helicopters patrolling the coast

Culturally, one of the things I kept coming across while reading travel information before I left was how Israelis tend to be very direct and can appear rude. While I did not interact with too many people and was undeniably in more "touristy" areas of the country much of the time, I did not feel any rudeness. Certainly there was a sense of being rushed sometimes, a desire for brevity, and conversations were often quite direct and to the point but nearly every person I encountered was very pleasant and welcoming. And in agreement with things I read, everyone was exceedingly interested in helping us enjoy our visit to their country.

Sculpture along the road near the office . . .anti-missile statement, maybe?

Over dinner one night, an Israeli coworker told us of an ongoing transformation towards the production of significantly more movies in Israel, a change from the past where movies were primarily subtitled US films. Similarly, it was enlightening to see our entertainment industry from a distanced and different perspective. I was reading movie reviews in the Jerusalem Times and came across a brief paragraph that was fascinating to me. There was a review for the Shawshank Redemption, generally a very highly regarded (#2 All-Time as voted on by over 290,000 people on IMDB.com) movie here, that was highly critical and discussed the "many shortcomings" in the plot and story. I am among those who genuinely enjoy the movie and consider it a great film and it was interesting to see how differently it can be perceived by another culture.

Sunset over the Mediterranean from the hotel

The sight-seeing and traveling around Israel was great. Our hotel was on a beautiful stretch of beach in Herzliya and we had dinner along the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv on a great new boardwalk. However, some of the greatest memories were from a day tour to Masada and the Dead Sea.

Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem - we drove past on the tour bus

Masada is an ancient fortress built on a high rock where the Jews and Romans battled over 2 millennia ago. It reminded me of the ruins in Pompeii, which I visited a little over a year ago. It is hard to believe how well some things are preserved, such as the remains of Roman camps at the base of the cliffs.

On the cable car up to Masada - the cliffs are over 1,300 ft high

The Dead Sea is a place I have always been curious about and have wanted to visit. At an elevation of -1,378 feet (yes, negative) it is the lowest point on the planet. It's also the saltiest body of water in the world, so salty that your body is ridiculously buoyant and will not sink. We had the full Dead Sea experience, covering ourselves completely in the much-praised mud full of minerals, baking in the sun for a little while, and then floating out in the water with the Jordanian Mountains rising up across the sea. It was a ton of fun and I can truthfully say my skin felt very smooth for quite a few days afterwards. I don't think it made me look five years younger as the tour guide advertised, though, seeing as how I was not carded a couple days ago at an airport bar.

On the (very rocky!) beach at the spa on the Dead Sea

It really was a great trip and let me tell you there are some very beautiful places in Israel. I certainly recommend a visit if you are at all interested in going. As always, see below for more pictures and thanks for reading - enjoy!

Bedouin camps on the hills in the Judean Desert

Accadia Beach in Herzliya at night

Sitting on a railing with the sun setting over the Mediterranean 

Ancient warehouses, both restored and unrestored, on Masada

Looking down from Masada - that square on the very left are remains of the walls to an ancient Roman camp

Sunset over the Mediterranean from my hotel room

Truly a once in a lifetime experience, I was able to attend what was most likely the greatest airshow I will ever witness in person. The Gathering of Mustangs and Legends was held at Rickenbacker Field in Columbus, Ohio, at the end of September. My old roommate and friend Rob drove down from Michigan and we spent the entire weekend there, waking up well before dawn and staying until after the show ended both days.

P-51s idling on the taxiway, waiting to head off into the blue sky

Why was it so special? Well to put it simply, it was the largest gathering of P-51 Mustangs and other warbirds in history and is likely never to occur again on the planet. We met people from all over the world who had flown to the middle of Ohio to be a part of the experience - some of the P-51s on display had even flown over from Europe. Over 150,000 people attended in total. There were more than 80 - yes, over eighty! - P-51s in attendance along with P-40s, P-47s, B-17s, B-25s, P-38s, and other warbirds. There also were modern Air Force fighters including F-16, F-15, and F-22 demonstrations and the USAF Thunderbirds but the main focus of the event was the history. To see many of the Tuskegee Airmen in person and other veteran pilots of WWII and other conflicts and to be able to honor them was an opportunity that soon will no longer exist.

Looking over Slender Tender & Tall towards the control tower

Nearly every moment of the Gathering was memorable but there are certain things that stand out above the rest. There's nothing like walking to the gate each morning with the sun rising over the trees while four P-51s flying in close formation pass just overhead. Or breathing in the damp, crisp morning air and smelling aviation fuel and exhaust from those beautiful Merlin V-12 engines. Looking off into the distance and straining to see anything recognizable and suddenly spotting a giant formation of Mustangs spelling out "51" in the sky. Watching the F-22 Raptor demonstration two consecutive days and still being completely in awe of it doing things that airplanes just shouldn't be able to do. The numerous different heritage flights with P-51s and the F-16, F-15, and F-22 flying together. And, quite possibly the best of them all, the applause from the crowd that kept growing and growing as the Tuskegee Airmen were driven by right in front of us.

P-51s flying overhead in the "51" formation

As you can imagine, I took a ridiculous number of pictures and pared them down to some additional favorites that I will share below. I also must mention that Rob is an absolutely excellent photographer, especially when it comes to airshow and aircraft photography, and I highly encourage anyone interested to check out some of his photos. You can find them at http://flickr.com/photos/gunfighter157.

The P-51 and F-15 Heritage Flight

Thunderbird #5 taking off from the right

Hell-er Bust, Excalibur, and Princess Elizabeth lifting off

Looking over Gentleman Jim's wing and gas cap

Over 50 years of USAF history - P-51, F-16, F-15, and F-22 Heritage Flight

Worry Bird's simple but elegant nose art

P-47s: Hun Hunter XVI & Wicked Wabbit

Yankee Lady landing on 23R at Rickenbacker Field

Checkertail Clan's brilliantly polished prop under the blue sky

John Mohr doing aerobatics in his Stearman

Using pictures to capture an event like this one is priceless, especially since this magnificent event may not happen ever again. I hope those of you who did not have the opportunity to be there in person have been able to somewhat appreciate the experience I had.  Enjoy!