]]> http://danielhoughton.com/breckenridge-colorado/feed/ 1 http://danielhoughton.com/3-days-in-rome/ http://danielhoughton.com/3-days-in-rome/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:32:03 +0000 admin http://danielhoughton.com/?p=1914 After three days in Rome, it’s good to be home to some wireless internet, working electrical outlets, and Coke that doesn’t cost $4.50.

Our first day we arrived at 7:53am and had a whole day ahead of us (despite being up for 16 hours already). We headed first to our hotel located on Via Nazionale and then went straight to Vatican City. With the help of one of the coolest iPhone/iPod Touch apps I’ve ever seen we took our audio guide app and headed into the Vatican Museum, ultimately arriving at the Sistine Chapel.

Thursday we visited the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Later that night we went back to the Colosseum where I made a time exposure of the traffic there (see last photo in this post). I didn’t take a tripod but set my camera in the middle of the street on top of a road cone and fired away 30 seconds at a time.

Friday was our last day and we rounded out our trip by seeing the Pantheon and a few other sights around town. We found some wifi that day and I posted a few iPhone images right from the iPhone Wordpress application that you can see here.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I made over the past few days.

A cross placed by Pope Benedict the 14th marks the middle of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy.

The dome of the famous St. Peter’s Basilica inside Vatican City.

A closer look at the dome of the famous St. Peter’s Basilica.

A statue rests in the Pio-Clemention Museum in the Galleries of the Statues in Vatican City on Wednesday, January 13, 2010.

The exit staircase of the Vatican Museum.

Unique Pine trees surround the gardens of Palatine next to the Forum in Rome, Italy.

The chains that once held St. Peter inside the St. Peter in Chains church in Rome, Italy.

A view of Basilica of Saints Ambrose & Charles on the Via del Carso as seen from the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy. The next picture is the inside of the church.

The Basilica of Saints Ambrose & Charles located on the Via del Corso in Rome, Italy.

The ceiling over the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Italy.

A stone courtyard outside the Castel St. Angelo.

The Pantheon in Rome, Italy.

An Italian police officer walks down platform 2 of the Roma Aeroporta train station at Fiumicino International Airport in Rome, Italy on Wednesday, January 13, 2010.

Unique Pine trees surround the gardens of Palatine Hill next to the Forum in Rome, Italy.

The temple of Saturn (left) in the Forum in Rome, Italy.

A view of Via Condotti as seen from the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy.

A view of Via Condotti as seen from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy.

Windows on Via del Pantheon in Rome, Italy.

People walk across the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, Italy.

The world famous Roman Colosseum is surrounded by traffic on Via dei Fori Imperiali on Thursday, January 14, 2010 in Rome, Italy.

]]> http://danielhoughton.com/3-days-in-rome/feed/ 8 http://danielhoughton.com/off-days/ http://danielhoughton.com/off-days/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:53:30 +0000 admin http://danielhoughton.com/?p=1463 You may have noticed things have been quiet for a few weeks here on the site. I’ve had some visitors and taken a few trips to the mountains. Luke Sharrett came and visited me the last week in July and my sister Kate came all the way from France to visit before heading back to college. Thanks to Luke and Kate for keeping me company and getting me out to Rainier for a few day’s.

I took Luke to Rainier a few weeks ago and we hiked up a glacier. It was an amazing way to spend the afternoon and once we got to the top, we sat on the rocks for several hours just looking at the scenery. Kate was here last week and I took her to Rainier for a very different experience. Total cloud cover and visibility around 30 feet made for a different perspective of things in the mountains. It was constantly misting as we walked through the clouds.

Above: The glacier that Luke and I hiked up at Mount Rainier.

Above: The Paradise Inn, photographed during my trip with Luke turned out to be where Kate and I stayed the next week.

Above: The historic inn, which was built in the 20’s has no cell signal, internet connection or television. It was really nice to be away from everything for a few days. The inn has been kept just like it was the day it opened, small rustic rooms, beautiful architecture and bathrooms down the hall.

Kate and I latched on to this family to find the way home after getting a little unsure of the fog.

Above: The beautiful park road cuts through the mountainside leading the way out of the park.

Above: Wildflowers in Rainier are in full bloom.

Above: The Seattle ferry terminal, where Luke and I took an evening ride to shoot the skyline and get out on the water.

Above: A boat makes it’s way through the moonlight on the sound.

One of the less pleasant surprises of the summer was getting my car window smashed late one night while I was parked downtown. Only my GPS and iPhone changer were taken from my glove box. As you can see, they left everything else (including my photo gear which was covered in the trunk) once the alarm made them wet their pants. I must say I was disappointed with the Seattle police dept. as it took them two hours to come make a report, Starbucks must have been on sale that night or something (trust me nothing was happening, I have a police scanner).

Welcome to the Hood Canal…

Don’t dangerous things always make good photographs?

Mini vacation to the Hood Canal with my relatives from New England and some I’m not sure I’m even related to.

Boat ride on Lake Union.

Our Pacific Northwest family portrait thanks to a tree I set my camera on. (Sorry Kate, you can’t complain your in Europe)

I really like shooting pictures of my Dad. I know they will only mean more to me as time goes on.

My dad likes looking at boats through his binoculars.

I’m thinking I need a seaplane…

A beautiful day of boating.

The view from up there must be incredible…

Hanging out with my dad in the middle of Washington state.

Walking towards the Pike Place Market.

Awesome light down by the Ocean where the dogs go swimming.

This awesome view is less than a mile from my front door.

It’s funny because this whole thing starts with a photograph. Last August 27th I got a postcard, like I often do from my mom on one of her trips. She is a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines and usually sends a postcard to the dorm from wherever she is most weeks.

The postcard was from Seattle, and the picture on the front was of the puget sound and the famous Public Market, where Starbucks got it’s start. I have been to Seattle a few times and really loved it. In fact, the first time I ever went to Seattle was less than 12 hours after returning home from South Africa. Talk about flying across the earth.

At first I just set the postcard on my desk and didn’t really think much about it. Eventually I put it up on my wall next to my desk just to look at. A few weeks later I was beginning to think about applying for summer internships. I didn’t have an internship after my sophomore year, I shot weddings and went to Peru for a month. I knew that I didn’t want to be at a newspaper that I wasn’t really excited about so I decided to shoot for the stars. The picture of Seattle got me thinking and it wasn’t long before I was on top of my bed where my world map is circling cities in the U.S. that I might want to work.

I started by circling Seattle, followed by New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Atlanta and I went on. I decided to send out applications to only those cities that I wanted to work in. The only problem was that most of the big newspapers didn’t have much information about an internship program. I did a lot of research on the internet and made some phone calls before I found out who I needed to be addressing my cover letters to. I was initially discouraged after constantly hearing the same answer: “We cancelled our program for this summer, we didn’t have the money.” Of course even if you have been hiding under a rock for the past year you would know that newspapers are in trouble. Some newspapers didn’t want to hear a thing I had to say. I quickly found out which newspapers I did not want to work for. One of the largest newspapers in the United States said they only wanted a girl intern. I though, OK, don’t want to work for them since I don’t qualify.

All jokes aside, I sat down and started editing my portfolio. I took a different approach than what I was used to in the past. I have always felt that 6-9 pictures to represent the work you do is not enough. I put together 15 singles, around 12 portraits, an event section that had three events that were essentially 6 picture packages, a photo story, and two multimedia pieces. It seemed like a lot but I was very careful not to have two of the same type of anything.

Countless phone calls and e-mails later, I was sure I had addressed everything correctly. I kept having nightmares of when my best friend handed me his cover letter to proofread before he sent it. His cover letter read: Dear sir Mr.

I kissed the large packages goodbye, complete with DVD case, caption book, portfolio, resume and cover letter to seven major newspapers across the U.S. The semester went on when one day a ray of hope arrived with a phone call from the Boston Globe. A 30 minute phone conversation later, I was convinced I was in the running. I probably was, but that was the last I heard from Boston. I was a little discouraged, as Boston was my number one choice. My dad is from Boston and I haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time there.

The semester came to an end and throughout the winter break I started getting rejection letters. You know how they go:

Dear Daniel,

Thank you for applying to The Boston Globe’s summer intern program; I
oversee the intern program. We are honored that you would consider the
Globe as a newspaper where you would want to work.

You were not selected for The Boston Globe’s summer internship
program in 2009. The accomplishments of the photo intern applicants made
the selection process an extremely difficult one. I encourage you to apply
again.

Best of luck in the coming year and beyond.

Sincerely,
AME Photo

Those are never fun to get. The New York Times even sent me a nice piece of hand stamped stationary only to tell me better luck next year. As more and more letters came to the dorm, it started to look like a summer of unemployment. It’s tough to do all that work and not get any bites.

When the phone call from Seattle came asking me if I would accept the offer I was in disbelief. My mom was excited of course but it was my dad who made me laugh. “Dad, I got the internship at the Seattle Times!” his response was simply “Oh, ok.” It took me a few minutes to realize that he couldn’t believe it and that his response was just shock.

Regardless if your a photojournalism student or just someone who ran across this page on your own I have a little advice that I’ll share with you.

It doesn’t matter if you send 5 or 50 applications to internships. If you got one this summer or if the phone never rang, keep doing what you love and you will go far. Hard work goes a long way. If you don’t think your portfolio is good enough it doesn’t matter, we are our own worst critics anyway. Remember that your opinion is the most important when editing your portfolio and that in the end you have to pick the pictures that feel right to you.

If your still reading, kudos to you and thanks for sticking with me for the most words you will probably ever seen on this photo site. I think this can best be summed up with a famous quote by one of my favorite photographers: “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” -Ansel Adams

Be sure to bookmark the Where am Ipage for keeping up with my location over the next few day’s.

6/19/09
View from the ferry to Kingston to acompany my morning coffee.

6/3/09
Just an update today. All moved into my studio in the Magnolia district of Seattle. A cool pano presented itself today down by the sound

6/2/09

11:58PST Safe in Seattle. Moving in to the Apartment and headed to bed.

3:09pm PST 100 miles outside Seattle. iPhone battery is dead.

11:22am PST Just crossed into
Washingon state.

10:21am PST Mullan, Idaho

8:38am PST leaving mizzoula Montana headed towards Spokane.

8:06am MGT just passed through Butte, Montana. Hoping to make Seattle tonight.

6/1/09

7:47pm MGT Bozeman, Montana for the night. No cell service during the day made posting impossible. Headed out for dinner now. Another great day full of landscapes and big rain clouds. Pictures to come later.

10:20pm CST Watching an awesome lightning storm over Sioux Falls, South Dakaota.

7:28pm CST Sioux Falls, South Dakaota for the night. 881 miles in one day.

3:31pm CST 80 miles south of Omaha Nebraska

11:42am CST middle of nowhere
Missouri. Around 100 miles outside Kansas city. SUV is getting 29mpg. Not bad at all

8:37am CST 59 miles outside St. Louis

7:03am CST Crossing into Indiana

5:27am CST leaving Bowling Green for a long drive to Seattle. 5/31/09

Headed back to bowling green through the Nashville airport. 8:18am EST 5/20/09

Home safe in ATL after a successful day trip to Chicago. Photo is the view from a lunch deck in the Chicago tribune building. 8:46pm EST 5/19/09 Today’s iPhone photo of the day is also updates with a nice sunset landing picture here

In the air headed to Chicago. 8:15am 5/19/09

Home for the first time in a while. Packing for Chicago in the morning. 8:10pm EST 5/18/09

On the road again, didn’t get very far yet, flight is delayed in Nashville… 5/18/09 3:51pm EST

Clearing customs in Miami. 4/27/09 5:01pm EST

Leaving Kingston. Will post photos from Miami. Pano photo of Norman Manley International airport. 4/27/09 1:43pm

Going to sleep as the MacBooks work rendering into the night. Long day today and a big day tomorrow. Starting at 5am with an ocean sunrise.

4/27/09 12:01am CST

Ready to take off for Jamaica. This may be the last post for a while depending on wifi.

4/24/09 12:57PM EST

Landed in Miami.

4/24/09 9:08am EST

Waiting at the gate in Nashville. Photo at very bottom of post. Caption: Photojournalism professor James Kenney along with hydrogeologist Dr. Chris Groves head towards their gate at the Nashville airport.

4/24/09 5:17am CST

Off to Jamaica! Check back here throughout the weekend for an update as I have cell reception.

2:40am CST 4/24/09

Stuck in JFK. Hoping to make it back to Nashville tonight.
4:13pm EST 3/22/09

Attempting to get home via JFK or ATL
5:44am GMT 3/22/09

English homework from Starbucks in downtown Seattle, WA.

-1:31pm GMT 3/20/09

Saying goodbye to this awesome view.

-10:24am 3/13/09

Hanging out in the middle of the ocean.

-7:15pm EST 3/12/09

Watching the last sunset from the islands until I’m back in April.

-5:51pm EST 3/12/09

Heading home from St. John after a gorgeous day and only slight sunburn. Bottom most photo is tonight’s sunset.

-6:50pm EST 3/11/09

In one of the worlds most beautiful places according to me.

-1:20pm EST 3/11/09

Heading to St. John for the day. No new post last night but one coming tonight for sure. What a time to get sick (I have been for three days)

-9:40am EST 3/11/09

Hanging out with my dad by the ocean while the girls shop

Headed to one of national geographics top ten rated beach views I’m the world. Meagans bay, St. Thomas.

-12:29pm EST 3/9/09

At the beach.

-3:45pm EST

St. Thomas the beautiful.

-1:58pm. EST 3/8/09

Sitting in 6 C and D with Kate. First class to St. Thomas. It’s a little overcast in Atlanta (see below photo) but reports are showing clear sits and 80 degrees for the Caribbean.

-9:43am. EST 3/8/09

Off to the airport for a day of flying.
-8:15am EST 3/8/09

Home for the first time since Christmas break.

-1:42pm. EST

Taking off from Nashville. See below photo.

-10:37am CST 3/6/09

At the airport with Rick Loomis. Just saw him as I was leaving security checkpoint. I’m on my way to Atlanta out of Nashville, TN. It’s always good to get some last minute advice on underwater shooting by someone who won a Pulitzer shooting underwater.

-9:44 am CST 3/6/09

The Jamaican government recognizes the need for photojournalism and multimedia to help educate the local people on the water pollution situation and was excited to have Mr. Kenney and I along to document. Although the trip was very very short it was only a introductory trip for our group of six, the Jamaican’s hope to have us back for longer trip in the future.

Due to the nature of our trip, we were driven around much of the island only stopping for a few minutes at a time to visit the sites of the pollution. This lead to some initial frustration because of the tight schedule and little or no time to explore beyond our itinerary. I began shooting out the window every chance I got trying to capture some people in their everyday tasks. As it turns out, a lot of people are on the side of the road on the island. Locals seem to hang out there not really doing anything. Although we were driving almost 50mph I managed to time things right as we passed interesting people. The cool part of these roadside pictures is that the people were totally unaware that I was ever there.

Most of the trip I spent shooting video and audio while Mr. Kenney took stills. I was happy to shoot anything I could get my camera in front of and it was a great experience. There will of course be a multimedia piece coming in the following weeks. We came across some amazing things during our trip and it’s really hard for me to believe. We got up at 4:30am one morning hoping for pictures of an ocean sunrise. What we initially got was pouring monsoon like rain. We spend at least two hours huddled under a small pavilion to protect our equipment. We began to leave, disappointed as the rain settled before one of the coolest things I have ever experienced walked out of nowhere. An entire church congregation walked up to the beach as the priest lead members one by one into the ocean for baptism. In the pouring rain, church members sang from the beach while the baptisms occured. At one point I filmed the priest and a member about to be baptized walk right into a wave that knocked them over and they disappeared underwater. I hope you enjoy this short look at our trip, I will be posting more throughout the week as I get work done. Also, the iPhone photo of the day page has been updated. Check out an aerial shot of Cuba here.

Check back in the upcoming weeks for multimedia as I accompany Dr. Groves and his team hydrogeologists to Jamaica to document their research on clean water in the area. You can keep up with updates via RSS here