MacBook Air and MacBook Pro - Which is better for photographers and travel?

You may remember that, before the start of the Summer Olympics in Paris, I got my hands on a MacBook Pro M3 Max and a MacBook Air. At this point you might be wondering why I would want both laptops. And the quick answer is this...I was not sure which laptop would be best for the Olympics, my photo tours, and for my photo business at home.

As it turns out, there was no easy answer as to which laptop was best for all situations, and that each had their own best use cases.

The MacBook Pro 16"

Let me start with the MacBook Pro. This laptop is larger and heavier than the MacBook Air but also has a lot more processing power and storage capabilities. When choosing a laptop for the Olympics, this was an easy decision. Since I have crazy tight deadlines for Team USA, I need all the power and speed that I can get. The MacBook Pro gives me the following advantages over the MacBook Air:

* Faster processing speed

* More storage (since the SSD option goes up to 8TB)

* More DRAM which helps decrease editing time

* Faster GPU to speed up the screen redraw

* More ports (for connecting card readers, SSDs, HDMI and more)

* Slightly larger screen (making it easier to view and retouch my images)

Not only is the MacBook Pro great for the Olympics, but I also use this computer for my photo tours in Costa Rica. Why just Costa Rica and not all the others? Because in Costa Rica we are basically in one location the whole time. This way I can take the larger and heavier laptop, knowing that I do not need to lug it all over the country. I can pop it down on my desk at the resort and never have to move it for the entire trip.

The MacBook Air 15"

Even though the MacBook Air is not as fast as it's bigger brother, I still choose it for many of my photo tours and for those times when weight is a factor. Not only do I appreciate the lighter weight and smaller size, I also love that the power supply is tiny. This all makes for a very portable solution, which I love for all those times when I am moving from one hotel room to another. This was the case for my recent photo tour in Indochina. We were constantly on the move, changing hotels almost every night and having to travel on numerous flights, trains and buses. Every bit of weight saving was appreciated. The MacBook Air provides very good speed with the ultimate in portability. With that said, I can tell the difference in speed when working with the Air. When scrolling through images in Photo Mechanic, there are times when the image needs to render before I can see it clearly, and this never happens with the MacBook Pro.  People sometimes ask me if I use the 13" MacBook Air or the 15" model and my answer is always the same. "I find it difficult to work on my images on the smaller screen and always opt for the larger size."

To recap, the MacBook Air has these advantages:

* Light weight

* Thin design

* Very small power adaptor

* Larger screen option (since 13" is not enough)

I have used the Mac laptops for the last 20 years and really prefer them to all the others. I love that Apple controls the hardware and software, making the solution more reliable than any PC (in my opinion). I also love the quality of the screens that they use. Not only are they very color accurate, but they hold calibration better than most laptops.

 I hope that this helps you if you are trying to decide on which laptop you want to purchase.

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• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

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Slowing down the shutter speed in Asia and capturing cool photos!

Yikes - it has been almost 3 weeks since I have shared a blog post with all of you! I was traveling through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia on another photo tour and we were moving fast. There just was no time to write a blog during this time. Then I came home to a ton of work and some jet lag too. But now I am back home (for one week before heading to Costa Rica once again).

I have a ton of images from the last trip and have added them to my "Around the World" web page. If you have not checked that out, you should do so, since I put all my favorite travel images there. 

For this blog post, I thought I would share some of my favorite creative images from the trip that have one thing in common, they were taken with a slow shutter speed. And...just before posting this blog, I learned of this really cool story about the trip which you will find at the end of this post.

And so...here is the new blog post.

Our first stop on this Indochina photo tour was Laos. It was my first time in the country (since we could not get into the country on our last trip, due to the pandemic), and we all loved it. As part of that trip, we visited the Khouang Si waterfalls and they were beautiful. Some waterfalls are amazing but not good for photography, with either too much water or not enough cascading falls. This one had the right elements for great photos. I was using the new Canon R5 MKII camera with the RF 24-105mm lens (with a Tiffen Circular Polarizing filter) and knew that this would be a great combination for photos at this location. I lowered the ISO all the way down to 50 and set the aperture to f/22, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/4 second. I was shooting handheld and appreciated the image stabilization of the camera and lens, making it possible to capture this images without a tripod.

I started taking photos of people in the falls and loved the results. Nobody that I knew but...more on that in a little bit. 

Four of our tour guests were swimming in the water and I asked them if they wanted a really cool photo. I kept the slow shutter speed and asked them to keep very still. This is the resulting image which we all really loved.

Here is another photo from the upper trail of the Khouang Si waterfalls. So pretty!

The next morning we got up early to watch the monks receive their daily offerings from the public who lines the streets of Laos every morning. After getting the "safe shots" I once again slowed the camera shutter (this time to 1/13 sec) and panned with the monks as they walked by.

While in Vietnam, we always make an early morning stop to the flower market. When we were there two years ago, my favorite image was a motion pan taken right as we exited the market. I wanted to try and reproduce that image with even better results. The challenge was on! Did I beat the image from my last trip? Not sure, but I like all of them. (This image was taken at 1/10 second.) 

We saw this guy who was parked on the sidewalk, and he had a ton of flowers on his motorcycle and I knew that it could make a really cool motion pan photo. I really wanted to teach this photography technique to our guests, so we asked him if he would drive around a couple of times for us. This photo was taken at 1/30 sec and captures the guy pretty sharp but did not show enough blur in the background.

On his second pass, I lowered the shutter speed to 1/10th sec as he sped by and got this photo. It is one of my favorite photos of the trip.

On our final day in Asia, we had a really long layover in Bangkok. Since our flight home did not leave until 4am, some of us decided to do a night tour in Bangkok. Go ahead and sing "One Night in Bangkok" of you like, we did. :) 

While walking around, we had a pretty good rain storm for about 10 minutes. It passed quickly but provided some great reflections on the ground. I saw the tuk tuks cruising through the streets and thought that it would make for some fun photos.

For these photos, I kept the shutter speed between 1/15 sec and 1/5 sec.  The lights on the vehicles really made for dramatic and colorful photos.

And now for the last minute story. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, I wrote most of this post earlier and was about to post it when something popped up on my phone. It said that some person had posted on Facebook and tagged me. It was not a name of anyone I recognized. I decided to click on the link to see what was posted and was really surprised and happy to see this.

Many times when I am traveling and take a nice photo of someone, I get their email address and send them the photo. As it turns out, this guy was one of those people who I captured in the waterfall. There was a quick moment where he stopped, looked up, closed his eyes. It was the perfect moment to capture him still with motion all around him. After he got out of the water, I went over to him and showed him the photo. It turned out that he was from Italy. I got his email address and sent him the photo later that day. When I read his Facebook post and saw that I captured this on his birthday, it was extra special. I ended up giving him a birthday gift, without even knowing that I was doing so. That makes me smile!

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

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Our final days in Peru: Exploring the Amazon

After spending more than a week traveling around Peru, our final stop of the photo tour was in the Amazon rain forest. At this point we expected very warm weather back down at sea level, but that was not the case. When we landed at the airport, we were greeted with cool weather and light rain. This is very abnormal for the rain forest.

We got to our resort which was really nice, and everyone settled in for the day. It was great to hang out at the edge of the river and watch the small boats go by.

There was a small cayman which hangs out by the dock and if you go down and whistle, you are likely to get it's attention. Some of us went down and made enough noise to see the little guy.

The next day we had our first boat trip on the river. We cruised around and saw some wildlife including these capybara on the shoreline. I was using a combination of the Canon R5 and Canon R6 MKII with the RF 24-105mm lens and RF 100-500mm lens.

We also saw some cool birds from the boat and our room at the resort.

There was a mealy amazon bird which frequented our resort.

On our second day in the Amazon, we took a short boat ride to these amazing hanging bridges. Everyone had a great time walking across these as we looked down on the canopy of the rain forest.

Since the weather was so cold, we did not see a ton of wildlife, but we did see these amazingly colorful birds!

As we walked around, we came across some leaf cutter ants. Even though I have photographed these many times in Costa Rica, I thought it would be fun to capture some Peruvian ants.

After walking across the hanging bridges, we then went on a nice slow boat ride on the river.

We saw some cool birds in the water. This one had just caught a large fish and we had fun photographing it as it swallowed it's meal.

This is a photo of our second boat, with everyone photographing some monkeys in the nearby trees.

We saw some more interesting birds...

...but the best part of the trip was the tranquil boat ride through the Amazon.

Towards the end of our boat ride, we saw a small pack of monkeys in the trees. This one was hanging out on a fallen tree, watching us as we passed by. Even though I have photographed many monkeys in Costa Rica and Africa, it was fun to see a new species.

And raps up the best of our trip to Peru. I can tell you that everyone had an amazing time and I heard people saying that it was the best trip they had ever taken. Some of the guests had no idea what to expect and were blown away by this photo tour.

You can sign up for the 2025 trip HERE. I still have some openings.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

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Peru Photo Tour: Visiting the markets in Cusco

After being in Peru for a week, we had all adjusted pretty well to the altitude by the time we visited the town of Cusco. The city of Cusco is situated at an altitude of 11,000 feet and is so worth visiting. The city has narrow streets, quaint squares, interesting buildings and some fun markets. 

Our hotel was located right in the heart of Cusco, and on our first day in the city we walked through some of the local markets. I took my Canon R5 camera with the RF 24-105mm lens, figuring that this would be the perfect combination for the day.

Much like our stores here in the United States, the market was segmented by categories. There were  clothing, vegetables, fruits, meat and even toys. We all split up and photographed whatever intrigued us. I saw this woman walking down this row and loved the scene that was presented in front of me.

Most of the people were happy to be photographed. I looked for the vendors that were surrounded by interesting offerings, and had good light on their faces.

This one woman was sorting and bagging kernels of corn. I saw her repeating this process over and over and thought that it would be fun to slow the shutter of the camera to get motion in the corn. I took this photo at 1/60th of a second to blur the corn but keep her face sharp. I showed this to the other tour attendees to inspire them to try this same technique for their own.

I love going to markets which cater to the locals. It is fun to watch the interaction between the people. This man was purchasing Coca leaves which are used for tea in the region. We actually drank a lot of Coca tea since it helps with altitude sickness (which nobody got). It was really tasty, and no, there is no high from the leaves.

I loved the way this this woman was passing the time while being surrounded by all the food.

This older lady was selling fabric and clothing, and just had an interesting face with a lot of character.

The people were going about their daily routines while we all had fun capturing photos.

We were having fun and so were they.

Our time was up at the market, so we walked outside to meet our guide and driver. Before getting in the van, I saw this man sitting in front of his storefront and loved the light on his face and his expression.  

When I go back to this market next year (on my next photo tour to Peru - which still has openings), I want to print some of these images and bring them to give these people.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

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Peru Photo Tour: Visiting Machu Picchu for the first time!

On the fourth day of the Peru Photo Tour, we got up and headed to the train station. Everyone was really excited to make our way towards the most anticipated stop of the trip, Machu Picchu!

When we got on the train, we were thrilled to see that we would have awesome views from all angles, even with windows above us. As we traveled from the mountain region into the cloud forest, we could see the vast changes in the weather and surrounding foliage. The 2 hour train ride did not seem like transportation at all, it seemed like a theme park ride with never ending sites.

As soon as we got to the station, we gave our luggage to hotel workers who met us by the train, and we headed straight for the "Lost City of the Incas".  We took a bus ride up to the highest drop-off point, and then walked the remaining way up the mountain. At the top, we were rewarded with the site we all came to see! We did not have perfect blue skies, but we did have a clear view of the ruins, and interesting clouds in the background. I was using my Canon R5 camera with both the RF 15-35mm lens and the RF 24-105 f/4 lens.

They limit the number of people who can visit Machu Picchu, which made it easier to get nice photos like this without a ton of tourists in the shot.

We all walked around the upper portion of Machu Picchu, taking photos and just taking it all in.

You can tell that I was happy to be there!

It was also nice to have my girlfriend, Laura, there with me to experience this moment. 

We started walking down into the ruins, but before we all dispersed, I got everyone together for a group photo.

As we walked through the ancient city, I gave people ideas of different places to shoot from to get some unique perspectives.

The mixed cloud cover and sunlight created some interesting scenes for us to photograph. It was fun to watch the ever changing light on the mountains around us. 

Machu Picchu is located in the cloud forest of Peru, and we had mostly cloud cover on our visit. Because of that, we did not have blue skies to photograph, but we had nice even light on the ruins.

We even had Llama sitings on the rock walls.

All of the guests had a great time. Here is Denise getting some photos for her collection.

The next morning we made a second trip up to Machu Picchu. This time we walked up to a higher location to see if we could get more photos of the site. This time we had some blue skies in the distance but a lot more low clouds rolling through the ruins. We had no clear views on the second day, but we enjoyed watching the different patterns of the clouds.

This last shot was taken as we descended back down to where the bus would take us down the mountain. I stopped and took this photo because I liked the patterns of the clouds and thought it created a dramatic background to this scene. It was also my farewell shot of this iconic location until my next visit.

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• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa, Costa Rica, Asia and more. 

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