R. Chase Tralka Photography » Travel

Bangkok, Thailand

Chase — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:42:22 +0000

This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Bangkok, Thailand with my father. The purpose of our trip was basically to act as couriers for my sister Annie. Annie was coming off of spending a semester in Christchurch, New Zealand (where the earthquake was), and was about to start a month-long aid project in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. However, she had a bunch of stuff that would be inappropriate to bring on a month-long backpacking trip. So off we went, around the world to take two giant duffle bags back to the states.

Bangkok is an unbelievably interesting place. An up-and-coming city that has a tremendous amount of history packing into it, even though it’s only about 200 years old. There’s a really neat mash-up of new and old, I counted over two-dozen different skyscrapers under construction, casting shadows on hundred year-old temples. Pretty cool stuff. My only regret was that we weren’t able to venture outside the city. Since we were only there for what amounted to 4 full days, it didn’t make much sense to travel beyond the city limits. But I definitely hope to go back to Thailand at some point in the future.

Anywho, here are the rest of my keepers. A couple might actually have been taken by my father, I can’t remember.

MIT Open

Chase — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:56:51 +0000

Ballroom has started to become a true passion for me. I’ve been spending more and more time out of class working on my technique and have started helping out with some of the intro classes, which has been a lot of fun. This past weekend the team traveled to Cambridge, MA to compete in the MIT Open. The MIT Open is one of the largest collegiate dance competitions on the East Coast, with several hundred competitors. It was quite intimidating, but also an unbelievable experience. Getting to see the top dancers in the Northeast was awesome, and the showcase couple was unbelievable. Anywho, pics below.

Arnold Dancesport Classic

Chase — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:04:10 +0000

Last weekend marked my first foray into the world of competitive ballroom dancing, from a competitive and photographic standpoint. I took introductory ballroom classes last semester as part of my gym requirement at Penn State, and absolutely fell in love with the activity. I decided to take Advanced Ballroom this semester, hoping to continue to learn the art of ballroom dance. Part of the course requirements is that you attend at least 2 competitions. This past weekend’s competition was held in Columbus, Ohio and was sponsored by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I thought was odd. The whole event was something completely new to me and was a really cool experience. I didn’t go into the competition with high hopes for success, considering I had only been seriously dancing for a few months, but I actually received some callbacks, which was really cool. Photographing ballroom is a lot more difficult that I expected, the lighting is rough and there’s so much movement, but I got a few shots that I was happy with. Hopefully my shooting and my dancing improve over the semester!

Penn State – Indiana in DC

Chase — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:17:15 +0000

Last Saturday marked the start of Thanksgiving break for Penn State. It also coincided with the penultimate football game of the 2010 regular season. Penn State faced off against the Hoosiers of Indiana, in Landover, Maryland. The game was played at FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins. The game was originally supposed to be a home game for Indiana, but they moved the game to DC for a massive payoff (somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million). However, this resulted in the game being significantly closer to most Penn State fans, and the Nittany Lion faithful turned out in force. My view from the field had me conclude that about 3/4 of the crowd were supporting the Blue and White.

The Lions showed up too, putting up almost 500 yards of offense and handing the Hoosiers a 41-24 defeat. This was my first real football game shooting from the sidelines, I shot the Blue-White game last spring, and I had a ton of fun. I ran into a few familiar faces on and off the field. All in all it was a great way to start off the Thanksgiving holiday.

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Worldwide Photowalk: Georgetown Style

Chase — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:47:17 +0000

Yesterday was Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. I was fortunate enough to be able to sign up for a walk in the Georgetown district of Washington, DC. Not only is Georgetown an unbelievably interesting neighborhood, but our walk leader is well known photography author and instructor Jeff Revell. Our walk group had an excellent mix of people participating; a few guys who were pro shooters (including a cool food photographer, Michael Palmer), some people with point and shoots, guys like myself who weren’t pros but serious, and even a few kids. In all we had a good time, I got to chat with a lot of people, talk some photography, and just enjoy the heat (which was brutal). 5 of the 6 shots I’ve got up here today are in 4×5 format, I always like trying things a little bit different, and thinking about framing my shots with a different aspect ratio is an easy way to do so. But enough yammering, here are the others from the day.

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I’ve got a special bonus shot from this weekend too. On Friday night I went into the city to see Dave Matthews Band play at the Nationals Stadium. The concert was excellent, and I was in some excellent company. Unfortunately, all I had in terms of photo gear was my cell phone so this shot isn’t great, but I like it enough.