Editorial and Travel Photographer Susan Seubert shoots Toronto for National Geographic Traveler

Greetings!  The May 2013 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine features a story about Toronto which I had the privilege of being assigned to photograph. This was my second assignment in Toronto.   During the shoot, it was thrilling to discover such an incredible amount of diversity within the various neighborhoods.  National Geographic Traveler does not have a photo gallery of this story online, so I am posting the story here as it appears in the print edition of the magazine, but I encourage you to seek out the May issue either as an iPad edition, which features more images, as well as the print edition, which is packed full of interesting articles about travel throughout the world.

The best moments from this assignment were dreamy.  Discovering Little India was gorgeous with its saree shops and roasted corn on the street.  Queen West has a plethora of shops selling unique items from around the world along with very modern art galleries.  One lovely evening, I took the ferry to Center Island and witnessed a beautiful sunset and some great views of the classic Toronto skyline.  Canada is a great country and Toronto is one example of a fantastic urban area to explore.  Please enjoy and thank you for visiting.

The opening magazine spread from the Drake Hotel

The next page, featuring photos from Kensington Market and the Center Island Ferry

Coffee, shopping in Chinatown and the marvelous Brickworks

One of my favorites – a room at the artful Gladstone Hotel and the most adorable couple who own Chandon Fashion in Little India

A glorious day outside the Drake Hotel’s cafe and the neighborhood bar, the Communist’s Daughter, where you can catch some amazing jazz

The last spread in the print magazine: Guff, a vintage furniture store in Leslieville and the Royal Ontario Museum

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Travel Photographer Susan Seubert at Khao Sok National Park in Thailand

While on assignment last year in Thailand, one of the places I was sent to photograph was the Elephant Hills Resort located in the Khao Sok National Park.  This resort has two locations: 1) a luxury tented camp located adjacent to the Khao Sok National Park and 2) a line of floating luxury tents that are situated on water in the Cheow Larn reservoir called The Rainforest Camp.  This body of water was created when the Ratchaprapha dam was built in 1982 on the Khlong Saeng River.  Khao Sok National Park boasts the largest area of virgin forest in Southern Thailand.  Elephant Hills on land offers kayaking, jungle trekking and helping to care for the captive Asian elephants.  These elephants were used for logging and after those operations stopped, the elephants became part of a sustainable tourism program in Thailand.  At Elephant Hills you don’t ride the animals, but feed and bathe them while the mahout gives you guidance and education about these amazing animals.  I had the pleasure of covering both properties.  The shoots were fast and furious, a day at each location, with the usual challenges.  However, it was beautiful to kayak on the Sok River, feed the elephants and listen to the sounds of the jungle from my tent at night.

At the Rainforest Camp, I was fortunate enough to not only experience some fine kayaking and long tail boat rides, the guide took me on a jungle trek.  Within ten minutes on the trail, we were lucky enough to encounter three different types of primates: Macaques, Gibbons and Langurs.  They were very agitated and making lots of noise.

Here is an audio recording of what we heard:  khao_sok_monkeys.  I encourage you to have a listen.

Initially, the guides thought that the monkey ruckus was because of a territory dispute given that they were all in a jack-fruit tree.  We soon discovered that the monkeys were upset because there was a clouded leopard sitting in the tree directly above us, likely deciding which type of monkey it might like to have for lunch.  I looked up just in time to see it leap across the branches above my head, crawl down the back of the tree, head first, and silently creep off into the jungle.  (read: missed the shot!)  Everyone in our group was shocked as these wild cats are not expected to occur in this area.  As we continued hiking through dense ficus we ended up at a limestone cave which was filled, much to my dismay, with bat eating snakes.  I wasn’t told that we’d be heading to a cave, much less one filled with hungry snakes, so I hadn’t brought a torch.  When the guide noticed me climbing up one of the slippery rock formations to try to get a better shot of the cavernous space, he yelled up to me, “mind where you put your hands.  There are loads of snakes!” and directed his torch to one curled up on the top of a very tall stalagmite.  I froze in utter fear, then slid down the steep, muddy outcropping to safety.  We poked around the cave and found a few snakes in the wall crevices.  One had a very full belly, an indication of a successful hunt.  We finished off the day with a long tail boat ride back to camp where we immediately hit the mammal identification books to confirm our leopard sighting.  It was a marvelous experience and an assignment I’ll never forget.

Another day at the office! Taking a long-tail boat back to the camp for breakfast after a dawn shoot.

Feeding the elephants at the Elephant Experience at Elephant Hills Resort

The mahout helps the elephant give me a kiss!

You can see more images from Elephant Hills in Thailand on my stock photography site here.

Thank you for visiting!

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Justin Woodward named finalist for James Beard Award Rising Star Chef of the Year

Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Oregon not only happens to be in my hometown, it is also one of the finest restaurants at which I’ve had the pleasure of dining.  One of many things in life I’m grateful for is the fact that my husband loves to cook and has quite a talent for making everything – from dashi to demi-glace, simple pastas or seared duck breast with peppercorn infused, poached pears.  Because of this, it’s very difficult to find a restaurant that can out-do what my amazing partner in life creates in our humble home kitchen.  Castagna is the only restaurant we’ve been to together where when we sit down, we prepare for the question that always arises, “how did he do THAT?”  The food at Castagna is art and is often celebrated, (and criticized), for the same reasons.  However, there is one undeniable fact – you can’t eat like this anywhere else West of the Mississippi and most definitely nowhere else in Portland.  The food at Castagna has amazing attention given to not only the quality of the ingredients, but also the beauty of them.  The service is absolutely world class.  The desserts, like this chocolate dish, are some of the best I’ve ever encountered, thanks to the pastry chef,  Eve Kuttman. Although I love the food scene in Portland, I’ve always felt that Castagna is in a class of its own.  This year, the chef Justin Woodward is receiving the recognition from the James Beard Foundation in the form of a nomination for Rising Star Chef of the Year.  Congratulations Justin!  Thank you for all of your creativity, hard work and the delicious, incredible food.

Executive Chef Justin Woodward of Castagna Restaurant. Nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation

The dining room of Castagna Restaurant in Portland, Oregon

cherries, almond ice cream and birch

Cucumbers, salmon cured in cypress and yogurt

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Bon Appétit Names Pok Pok and Swan’s Oyster Depot in their top 20 Most Important Restaurants in America

One of my favorite photographic subjects to cover is food.  I have found food to be one of the best ways to learn about a culture, explore a city, or use as an avenue to common ground with just about anyone.  Food unites us in so many ways, so I’m always interested in making sure that some aspect of food is included in most of the feature travel stories that I am assigned.  I’ve been extremely fortunate to have photographed two of the 20 Most Important Restaurants in America that appear in this month’s Bon Appetit Magazine.  You can read the story online here.  I like the way they laid out this story on their web site.  Most locations have a lead image, then there are details of the food or interiors in a smaller slideshow – images that give a sense of place – in a gallery under the main photograph.  For our home town pride of Portland, Andy Ricker represents, founder of Pok Pok, the Whiskey Soda Lounge and Ping, and is featured in the article.  When I was working on a story about San Francisco, I was excited to cover Swan’s Oyster Depot – a classic San Francisco eatery where locals dine on some of the freshest seafood available in the city.  Bon Appetit used my image to illustrate the restaurant in the story.

A nice summer’s evening at Pok Pok, Andy Ricker’s famous Thai restaurant in Southeast Portland, OR

Restauranteur, Andy Ricker with freshly pressed sugar cane juice at his Portland, Oregon restaurant, Pok Pok

Swan’s Oyster Depot in San Francisco has been open since 1912. Fresh oysters on the half shell.

The interior of Swan’s Oyster Depot in San Francisco, which often has a line out the door.

All images on this site are copyright © 2013 Susan Seubert and may not be used for any reason without express permission from Susan Seubert

Thank you!!!

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Happy Birthday Grand Central Terminal!

Grand Central Terminal, New York City

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Terminal, that iconic building where many people from all over the world have visited to marvel at the architecture, catch a train, visit the coolest bar in New York City, (the Campbell Apartment), go shopping or simply people watch.  When I was on assignment for National Geographic Traveler Magazine, I was assigned to cover this icon of New York architecture.  I learned many things about the massive complex, which included a tour of the underground tunnels designed for the purpose of evacuating presidents and other dignitaries in the case of an emergency.  The ceiling has been restored, but one small patch was left to show how much environmental pollution from the trains had damaged the original fresco.  There is still the hole in the ceiling from where a rocket was displayed back in the 1950′s when NASA miscalculated the height of the rocket by 6 inches, the zodiac on the ceiling is depicted backwards, (with speculation that this was a mistake by the artist), and the clock faces above the information desk remain the most valuable items in the main hall as they are made from the precious stone, opal.  Christie’s and Sotheby’s estimate the clock to be worth between ten and twenty million dollars. This image has stayed in my portfolio for many years because I find it to be a constant reminder of my love of New York City.

Happy Birthday Grand Central!

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National Geographic’s Greatest Photos of the American West with Susan Seubert

Sometimes a major surprise lands in my email box.  Although this post is a bit late, I wanted to share a new landmark in my photographic life.  I am included in a new book called National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West.  At the time this was announced to me last July, the exhibition and book were still under way.  Now the exhibition is still being shown throughout some 10 museums in the United States and I am, needless to say, thrilled to be included.  The accompanying catalog is now available for purchase from National Geographic online here.  The images for the exhibition and book were culled from some 8,00 to 10,000 pictures in the National Geographic Image Collection, according to Jim McNutt, the president and CEO of of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Although the photographs span from 1873 to the present, only 175 were chosen for the show and the catalog.  From those 175, 63 photographers were represented, including me.   Here is the list of photographers with links that allow viewers to get a more thorough glimpse at the photographers who helped shape the visual landscape of the American West through that iconic yellow rectangle of the National Geographic Society. This is a tremendous honor and I am extremely grateful and humbled to be included along side such photography luminaries as Edward Curtis, David Allen Harvey, Ansel Adams, Vincent Laforet, Frans Lanting, Robb Kendrick, Eugene Richards, Annie Griffiths, and Chris Johns just to name a few.

The press release page for the book, National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West

I hope that if you live in any of the places where the exhibition is showing that you will have a chance to see the installation in person.

Here is a list of participating museums.  Since the exhibit opened in late October of last year, some of the shows have already closed. However, if you see a museum in your area, please click on their site to see if it’s still showing.  Thank you for visiting!

The exhibition will open Oct. 27 at the following museums:

Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Ga.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyo.

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis

Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okla.

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City

National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C.

National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States, Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, N.Y.

C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Mont.

Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas

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The Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions and Travel Photographer Susan Seubert

This year began with a remarkable assignment on board the National Geographic Endeavour in the Galapagos Islands.  The Galapagos are located about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador.  Being a National Geographic Photography Expert for National Geographic Expeditions is one of the highlights of my career as a photographer and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to travel to a variety of destinations with National Geographic and Lindblad.  This was my first trip to the Galapagos and I was fortunate enough to visit all of the islands where people are allowed to go ashore to hike and observe the unique landscape and wildlife that this remarkable archipelago has to offer.  Of course, the animals are the stars of the show, but these islands have a rich history, most famously tied to Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution.  The trickiest part of this journey was trying to absorb the immense amount of information that the naturalists provided both in the field and on board the ship and at the same time, concentrate on making pictures.  I’m just now beginning to edit some 20,000 images that I took during this 20 day adventure and have started to post some on my stock photography site here.  I hope to add more images regularly to my stock photography site, but for now, here are a few of my favorite moments from the expedition.  Thank you for visiting!

The National Geographic Endeavour, a ship that serves the Galapagos

A sandy beach at sunset with Galapagos sea lions on the island of San Cristobal

A newborn sea lion pup on a sandy beach on the island of San Cristobal

A colony of sea lions nap on a sandy beach on the island of Espanola

A solitary Galapagos sea lion on a sandy beach on the island of Espanola

Nazca Boobies nesting on Espanola Island in the Galapagos

A morning hike on Floreana Island, looking for wild flamingos

Marine Iguanas basking on the beach of Espanola Island

Santa Cruz Island, home to wild giant tortoises and the Charles Darwin Research Center

the fish market in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos. Brujo, a sea lion, hangs out and waits for scraps from the fishmonger

El Trapiche, a small, family run farm, sells small batch, organic coffee. Here, they are roasting the coffee beans

While snorkeling at Champion Islet we encountered some very playful sea lions who seemed to enjoy posing for the camera!

Please remember that all images on this site are copyrighted and may not be used in any form without express permission from Susan Seubert Photography.

Thank you!!!

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Susan Seubert in National Geographic Traveler’s Best Photos of 2012

Dan Westergren, the senior photo editor of National Geographic Traveler Magazine, has named his ten favorite images that were published in the magazine in 2012.  I am very proud to be included in this selection of photographs!  Last summer, I was assigned to photograph two of the ten Travelers of the Year for the magazine.  Both of the people happened to be in Honolulu, a quick, direct flight from my home town of Portland.  I shoot regularly in Hawaii because I’m based there for four months out of the year.  It was fun and challenging to try and create images that were not only interesting, but spoke to the identity of both nominees.  I blogged about the shoot in a previous post which you can read here.  Dan chose to select the image I made of Theron Humphrey while on assignment for the magazine for inclusion in the Ten Best Traveler Photos of 2012.  Thank you Dan and National Geographic Traveler for this outstanding honor!  You can see all ten pictures and Dan’s comments by clicking on the image below.

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Editorial Photographer Susan Seubert shoots Travelers of the Year for National Geographic Traveler

Earlier this year, I was sent on assignment by National Geographic Traveler Magazine to the island of Oahu.  Two out of the ten people who had been nominated for “Travelers of the Year” awards were in Hawaii – one as a visitor and another as a resident.  Travelers of the Year is NGT’s inaugural celebration of individuals who explore the world with passion and purpose.  I’m often already based in Hawaii,  but it’s such an easy flight to Honolulu from Portland that it was a natural fit.  The story is out now in the December 2012 issue of the magazine.  You can read about all ten notable travelers here.  My two subjects were very different from one another, but both were passionate about travel.

Linda Yuen is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met.  She’s well into her 80′s and still travels regularly.  She and her husband snorkel weekly at Hanauma Bay Park, a beautiful, protected bay on Oahu that is frequented by tourists and locals alike.  Linda and her husband swim a mile out from the beach once a week, help people who are visiting to identify undersea creatures and walk up and down the big hill to get in and out of the water. I get winded just thinking about it!  It would have been ideal to shoot there, but the park has very strict hours and we would likely have to get a permit, so we had to find a different location for her portrait session.  I thought that the best photo would be of her with her snorkel mask on, in the water.  She was so brave to agree to this!  Most women I know at any age wouldn’t be at all thrilled at the idea of appearing in a major national magazine in a swimsuit, but she was game.  I had location scouted the beach in front of my hotel the night before to see if it would work with light, water depth, swell issues, (I didn’t have a water housing with me), and we agreed that Sans Souci Beach would be the perfect place for a late evening shoot.  She and her husband not only like to swim there, they also like to eat dinner at the restaurant in the hotel there.  A perfect fit!  We had about 30 minutes of glorious light.  Her sweet husband acted as my assistant and held the extra camera gear while I went in the water with Linda.  She has such a beautiful smile and her face is full of life, so it was easy to get a wonderful photo of her.

Linda Yuen, one of National Geographic Traveler Magazine’s 2012 Travelers of the year photographed in the water on the island of Oahu at sunset

Theron Humphrey is a young man who self-assigns projects that take him on adventures with a purpose.  He was nominated for a project where he interviewed people from all 50 states.  At the time we met up he was on his 50th state – Hawaii.  We photographed him in several different scenarios, but my favorite location was one he had found the previous day, in a park on a hillside overlooking downtown Oahu.  First I photographed him on a swing.  This idea worked conceptually because he’s very much a free spirit and swinging into a seemingly infinite space seemed apropos.  The second location was just down the path from the swing, up on a tree platform. Theron gingerly made his way up into the branches of the tree and I followed and stood as far back on the platform as possible, constantly reminding myself that I could easily fall backwards and break my neck!  It was worth the effort even though it’s a more serious portrait. The gaze is straight at the camera and he’s out on a tree limb with no bottom in sight.  When you follow your heart to the extent that he does for his photo-based projects, you will end up out there in the world in new and challenging environments and, quite literally, out on a limb.

Theron Humphrey, one of ten National Geographic Travelers’ “Travelers of the Year”

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Photojournalist Susan Seubert in the New York Times: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii

Earlier in October of this year, I was assigned a story by the New York Times to cover a piece that was both art history and travel.  What an adventure!  My husband and I live in Maui for four months a year, so it’s always great to have an excuse to head out and explore.  I didn’t know that Georgia O’Keeffe had spent time in the islands.  I was familiar with only one landscape painting of a waterfall surrounded by green cliffs by the artist, but I learned through the story that this painting was made by O’Keeffe after a visit to the lush Iao Valley on the island of Maui.  It was so much fun to try and see that area, an area that I’ve been familiar with for quite some time, through the eyes of Ms. O’Keeffe.  Although there was no missive to try and emulate what O’Keeffe painted, to try and see what she saw was a wonderful visual exercise.  When I started puzzling together the time of year she was there, it made sense that she may not have been as taken in if she had been there in the dry, early autumn as we were at the time of the assignment.  The waterfalls on Maui are fed by rainwater and currently the entire county of Maui is in a drought.  However, another more obscure painting of two papaya trees in the Iao Valley was equally daunting to emulate as she had superimposed the unmistakable shape of the tree on backdrop of that lush valley.  However, the majority of her time on the island was spent in the lush area of Hana.  The story is on the New York Times’ web site here, but I can summarize our experience of following in the footsteps of this great painter.  She had been commissioned by the Dole Pineapple Company in 1939 to produce two paintings promoting the pineapple company and was invited to Oahu to visit the plantation.  She was disgusted by the fact that Dole wouldn’t allow her to stay on a working plantation because it was considered, “unseemly for a woman.”  She immediately bailed on the project.  Kudos to Georgia!  Instead, after traveling around the territory of Hawaii, she ended up in Hana on the island of Maui where she created most of her paintings during this period.  These stories are well documented not only through letters to her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, but also by her unlikely Hana guide, a 12 year old named Patricia Jennings, who was the daughter of the plantation manager where O’Keeffe stayed in Hana.  Patricia is still alive and living on the Big Island of Hawaii.  The author, Tony Perrottet, interviewed Patricia and was able to put together a living guide to Georgia’s time in Hana and the places where Ms. O’Keeffee painted.  Those places are still intact and very visible to anyone willing to seek them out.  This type of approach to travel is wonderful – not only does one get to stand and see precisely the same thing that Georgia did, the writer incorporated other destinations including where to stay, what to eat and other useful travel tips.  For me, it was a treasure hunt.  Having visited Hana many times, I’ve never considered it through the eyes of one of the most important American painters.  Ever since my parents took me as a teenager to see an O’Keeffe exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute back in the ’80′s, I’ve long admired her work.  This story was also a first for me in another way: there were far more photos published in the printed newspaper than there were online.  These days, as a contributing photographer for many magazines, most of the visual content ends up not in print but online or in an iPad version, there’s still a thrill in seeing a large photograph running across two pages of the New York Times.  Please read the article here.  I’ve also put together a portfolio of the outtakes online here for your enjoyment.  Aloha and mahalo for visiting!

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii in the New York Times’ Travel Section

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