livebooks blog

Photographer Wayne Kaulbach took his family and went on the trip of a lifetime around the world for nine months – capturing some pretty incredible moments along the way. We love his story and images so much that we had to share.

Q: What inspired your trip?

WK: The inspiration for our trip came about when my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May of 2012 (she has thankfully fully recovered). We just sat down as a family and decided life is much too precious and short and that we should embark on a Round The World trip that we dubbed “9 Months of Sundays.” We took our daughter Chloe (who was 14 when we left on December 2nd, 2013) and our son Noah (who turned 12 on December 5th of our trip). Our eldest daughter, Litia, was busy with University studies. Another inspiration for the trip was to try to follow the “mindful living” philosophy and live in the moment.

Q: Which countries did you visit?

WK: We flew from Vancouver, British Columbia on the morning of December 2nd to Seattle, and then on to Tokyo, Japan. We spent five days in Tokyo and then flew to Bangkok, Thailand. In Thailand we volunteered at an Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai for one week and then made our way by train down south to spend Christmas and New Years on Koh Lanta. January 6th, 2014 we flew to Kolkata, India where we spent six weeks mostly in Rajasthan broken up by a flight up to Kathmandu, Nepal. Mid-February we flew to Nairobi, Kenya and started a 30-day trek that took us through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa. On April 1st we flew to Rome and embarked on the European portion of our travel. We visited Barcelona (took in a Barcelona football game and saw Messi), Rome, Sora, Florence, and Venice. The month of May we spent in Ljubljana, Solvenia – amazing city! June found us in Budapest, Prague, Salzburg, Munich, Wroclaw, Poland, Berlin and a flight to London on June 21st to celebrate our daughter’s 15th birthday. End of June, July and all of August we spent in Paris and flew back to Canada the beginning of September 2014.

Q: What was your main focus/inspiration for the pictures you took?

WK: I love to photograph street/editorial images and I just love to photograph people. My wife and I have owned a natural light portrait business – Skylight Images – for the past 20 years so it was nice to have a break from our business but we simply could not put our cameras down as we are both very passionate to create photographs. We shot lots of candid work and also approached people and asked to photograph them. We also left our bulky Canon gear at home and I traveled with Fujifilm’s X-Pro 1 mirror-less system with a 35mm F1.4 R and my wife took the Fujifilm X-E2 with 23mm F1.4 lens. Each of our camera bags were approximately 6 x 8 x 4 inches. It was a liberating experience and I do not feel that we compromised on quality. The only time we really missed the gear we left behind was in the Serengeti – a longer lens would have been useful.

Q: Do you have a favorite image from the series? If so, which one and why?

WK: It’s challenging to pick a favorite image but I’m partial to the image that opens my website (shown below): Dysturb (candid street image taken on the streets of Paris).

Q: It appears you made a conscious choice to have these photos in black and white. Did you know that going into it or was that a decision you made in editing?

WK: The Paris Series that won Best Feature Album at our National Convention in Canada in May of 2015 did (originally) have some color images that looked good on their own but as a series I decided to go with a black and white theme. Perhaps channeling the great French street photographers I admire so much: Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson. I generally default to black and white with my street work but some images just look better in color.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the two awards you won for this series?

WK: I won the Beast Feature Album – 1st in Class, Professional Photographers of Canada in May of 2015.  Everyday I would wander different sections of Paris on foot/bike or transit and photograph.

WK: I also won 2nd place for Life International Magazine, Interconnections for “Dysturb” photographed in Paris, April 2015. I was admiring the backdrop of Dysturb and brought in a foreground element with the sign. I waited about five minutes for my subject to walk through the scene.

Q: Do you have any other projects that you’re working on for the rest of the year?

WK: Upcoming projects include three photography tours I will be conducting. The first is 18 days in India: Rajasthan and Taj Mahal, January, 2016. The second is eight days in Venice in April, 2016. And finally, I will be doing eight days in New York City in June of 2016. Please contact me at wkaulbach@shaw.ca for more information. I have over 10 years part-time experience teaching Street and Travel photography at Langara College and and Focal Point here in Vancouver, Canada.

To read more about Wayne and his family’s trip, check out his wife’s blog about the experience, and see more of Wayne’s photography here: www.wkaulbach.com

How does one transcend the “I was here” imagery that is often associated with travel photography and create fine art images of places near and far?

From the dozens of workshops I’ve taught on the subject and carefully studying the work of and talking with many of the great globetrotting lensmen and women in the field, I have developed a methodology, that when applied, should yield impressive and at times spectacular results. More »

Mike Horn is acknowledged globally as one of the greatest modern day explorers of all time. In short his feats include traveling solo around the equator, ascending two 8,000 meter summits in the Himalayas without additional oxygen, circumnavigating the Arctic Circle, and being the first man to travel (without dogs) to the North Pole in permanent darkness. All of which were done without motor transport.

Canadian Arctic Ocean Expedition to the Magnetic North Pole

After 20 years of solo exploration, covering nearly every inch of the planet, Mike was ready to turn his dream into a reality: The PANGAEA Project (Pan Global Adventure for Environmental Action). The PANGAEA Project is a 4-year circumnavigation of the world through a series of 12-scheduled expeditions, each to different terrain including mountain, desert, ocean and the arctic. For each expedition Mike and his team select students between the ages of 15 and 20 to accompany him.

The African Expedition Team

The goal was to show the younger generation the most beautiful places on the planet, the fragility of the ecosystems and the impact that human activity has on the environment… and do something to improve it!

Working for the Pangaea Project I have had the opportunity to see, first hand, the most beautiful places on the planet and witness lives that have been positively impacted and changed forever.

A Pink dolphin as seen on our Amazon Expedition

When asked about the project, it’s virtually impossible to put in words all of the incredible experiences I’ve had. The great thing about the younger generation is that they have their own eyes, ears, feelings, personalities, and unique way of learning. What I take out of an experience may be completely different than the next person. Sometimes the only way to really express these things is through the photos we take.

Icebergs from the Clyde River on the Nunavut Expedition

A few months back we chatted with Chase Jarvis and team about how awesome it would be to put a book together with photos taken by our young explorers and team throughout the entire expedition. Then we would be able to see the 4-year expedition though the eyes of those who were involved.

I was thinking what a great idea, but impossible to get photos from hundreds of people and choose the best ones to properly tell the story. It would take months if not longer. Chase’s team told us about liveBooks and their affiliation with Pinhole Pro. Pinhole Pro allows the average photographer (like myself) to make beautiful photo books and have them delivered in as little as two weeks.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical, especially when Mike said it needed to be finished before the expedition finale in Monaco (which was 3 weeks away). With nothing to lose I decided to simply attack the project. I sent out 100’s of emails, shuffled though thousands of photos, (that could seriously make the front cover of any Nat Geo Magazine) and dove into Pinhole Pro.

Mike Horn and Luke Johnson looking at their Pinhole Pro photo book reliving some of the best memories from the last 4 years

After the photos were selected I started the creation process. First I downloaded Pinhole Pro’s Studio’s software then I uploaded the images. Next I chose the book size, number of pages, type of paper (recycled paper is an option) and the front cover. It wasn’t long before the book was finished!

I would highly recommend using Pinhole Pro to anybody wishing to document a special memory or occasion to treasure it forever.

Photographer and writer Jay Goodrich’s work focuses on architecture, nature and adventure. In addition to writing and creating imagery he leads workshops and photo tours. Those who attend the workshop come away with a better understanding of photography and mastery of images, and they have a greater appreciation for the locations and peoples they have visited. His upcoming workshop takes place in Hilo, Hawaii November 5-12. Jay tells us about his workshops and his experience teaching them as well as attending them.

Melissa Dubasik: I’d love to get a little background on why you host workshops and what you hope others will get out of them?

Jay Goodrich: Teaching workshops just grew out of my love for photography. I wanted to share my experiences, my passion for this creative medium with others. In addition to that I think what is most important about my workshops is the communal experience. Everyone who is there is completely into photography and learning about photography, so it becomes not only a learning experience for the participants, but for myself as well.

I truly hope that all the people who attend walk away with a better knowledge about how to create a stronger image. I am somewhat of a gear head, but I really want people to understand that you only need your iPhone to be a creative photographer. Idea, concept, and composition first, how you record it to show the rest of the world is secondary. I do teach a lot of equipment and software based techniques as well because the era of the digital capture has opened up the boundaries…actually removed them completely.

MD: Is this workshop geared more towards being creative or improving one’s technical skills? Or both?

JG: I would say more emphasis on creating, but there is a lot of technology that gets talked about. I even teach software specific workshops on programs like Lightroom.

MD: What are some of the unexpected benefits one might get from attending one of your workshops?

JG: Traveling to amazing destinations and at times getting access to special places and locations. In our up-coming Hawaii trip, I have a friend who owns property there and he suggested that we stop by to photograph the stars over the lake of lava in his back yard one evening. I also try to focus on including luxury accommodations when possible. One of our previous trips to the Altiplano of Chile had us staying at an all inclusive five star spa. I try to give my clients a little something extra whenever I can. Even if it’s just a ride to the airport or a private critique of what they created after the workshop. I want to build relationships with my clients and I get really excited to watch them progress as photographers during the course of a workshop.

MD: What are the most important things for the attendees to realize when they participate in a workshop, to help them get the most of of the experience?

JG: I think they really need to understand, that it isn’t amazing everyday. There are days when sunrises don’t materialize. Weather changes. Miscommunications happen. Cars break down. People have gear troubles. We do our best to help everyone and fix all of the issues, but sometimes, it will just rain for a week straight. We will make the best out of it though. This leads to: they should also come with an open mind. Be open to a new experience and new people because everyone has a different perspective to offer.

MD: What differentiates this workshop from others?

JG: With this Hawaii workshop we are taking a little bit of a different approach. We are showing participants how we look for everything and anything while traveling. How our eyes are focused on multiple disciplines, multiple subjects, and ever changing light. This allows us to create a large portfolio of images, which in turn gives us a stronger market base, better coverage for a location, and makes us better photographers overall. If I just focused on photographing birds, I think I would have given up on photography a long time ago. It is the experience of what resides around the bend that keeps me going day in and day out. Focus on a great composition and it doesn’t matter what your subject is, you will walk away with a great image.

MD: Was attending workshops instrumental to help you become the photographer that you are now? If so, how did they do that?

JG: I have only attended two workshops in my life. One was taught by John Shaw about selling your work and the other was taught by my really close friend Art Wolfe. One sent me off in the professional direction and the other sent me off in the creative direction. Although, as I have grown my business over the years, I have been lucky to work with some of the top level pros in the industry and this has helped me realize what works and what doesn’t along the lines of instructing. I also have a wife who is a teacher, so she beats the knowledge of two masters degrees in education into me on a regular basis.

This has made me focus on smaller group sizes and on more client one-on-one time in the field. Typically, I never teach more than six individuals by myself and never more than ten when there are two of us. I also want to spend less time lecturing to participants and more time in the field showing them what works and what doesn’t work.