multimedia photographer Susan Seubert in Maui

Yesterday I had the great privilege of attending the monthly rain gauge hike in the Pu’u Kukui watershed in the West Maui Mountains.  I produced this short multimedia piece to illustrate a tiny snippet of the experience, which I shall never forget.  The majestic beauty of this place will hopefully inspire people to conserve this extremely fragile area of the Earth. A great big mahalo to Sam Ohu Gon who chanted for our forest entrance, to our guides, Daniel and Lono and to the Pu’u Kukui Watershed preserve for granting us this incredible experience.  Look for photos from the day which I will soon post on my Photoshelter site.

puu_kukui

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The stills were shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, the audio recorded with an Edirol R-09HR

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Multimedia Photographer Susan Seubert films birds in Australia

A few years ago, my husband and I went to Noosa Heads in Queensland for a holiday.  It was our first trip to the island continent and we had a marvelous time.  After spending just a few days in Sydney, which I later photographed for a feature story for National Geographic Traveler, we boarded a plane bound for Maroochydore where we then rented a car and drove north to Noosa Heads where we had rented a condominium.  Our first evening we heard what appeared to be quite human-like laughter.  It was only after consulting my bird book that I realized that we were surrounded by Kookaburras.  It didn’t take long to discover that they are quite tame and enjoy being photographed.

From Wikipedia: Kookaburras (genus Dacelo) are large to very large (total length 28–42 cm/11–17 in) terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea, the name a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, which is onomatopoeic of its call.  Kookaburras are best known for their unmistakable call, which is uncannily like loud, echoing human laughter — good-natured, but rather hysterical, merriment in the case of the well-known Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae).

We also had wild bush turkeys, currawongs, friarbirds and flocks of lorikeets.  It was wonderful and I made this little film gathered from bird activity around our deck. (apologies for the compression – makes the lorikeet practically invisible) Enjoy!

laugh_kookaburra

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Susan Seubert Photographer shoots Maui for National Geographic Traveler

It is with great pleasure to announce that an online photography gallery of images about Hawaii was recently posted to the National Geographic Traveler web site.  The story is about “Undiscovered Maui” and will be running in the March issue of the magazine.  Macduff Everton and I both contributed images to the story and I am pleased to share a byline with him.  In this web gallery, his image is taken from the inside of an outrigger canoe, and the rest of the photographs were made by me.   Click here to see the gallery of images and here to see the story by Andrew McCarthy.  What made this assignment so incredible was having the opportunity to meet the good people of Kahakuloa.  Each and every person in this small town nestled in the cliffs of the northern tip of Maui demonstrated true aloha spirit in the most genuine way.  The premise of this story is absolutely true and it’s best experienced by taking time to talk story with the locals.  They have a long history to share with us and we have much to learn from them and their culture.  One of the most memorable moments of the shoot was meeting Richard Ho’opi’i.  Not only did he give us an enormous amount of his time as we sat in his back yard and listened to his history of growing up and learning na leo ki’eki’e, (falsetto), he generously gave us a private concert in the little green church that is nestled in this picturesque village of only a few hundred people.  His wife runs the pink ice cream stand in the village.  If you travel there, stay a while, enjoy the stories and experience the aloha that these warm people so generously offer.

Click here to be taken to the web gallery of images on National Geographic Traveler's Web Site

I shot my images with a Canon 5D, a Canon 5D Mark II, and a Hasselblad.  I processed the digital files using Adobe’s Lightroom.

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Susan Seubert still shoots film, sometimes…

It appears that digital technology has its firm grip on photography.  I have certainly embraced the technology and enjoy its immediacy.  My primary camera is a Canon 5D Mark II which is lovely. (now that I have one that actually works). That said, I love my good old film cameras. Working with film forces me to slow down, look carefully and make decisions prior to releasing the shutter.  Currently I shoot about 25% of my work using an old, beat up Hasse with a set of prime lenses.  Occasionally I use my Rolliflex.  Sometimes I’ll take out the Linhof Technikardan.  What I LOVE is that the film doesn’t become obsolete in 3 years, I can put the film in a filing cabinet (as opposed to RAID storage for my digital files), and put the caption information on the sleeve (which can’t be stripped by software programs). Plus my cat can have a nap on the 8×10.

Steiglitz (sic) protecting the 8x10 camera

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