Today in Brief

Showers for grownups, breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, pool, showers for kids, dinner, bed. A bit of sunburn despite enormous amounts of sunscreen. Five miles of hiking between parking lots and beaches. Six very happy and very tired children. We're having a fantastic time - but for some reason, I don't feel like I'm on vacation. :)

We did get some fun pictures - which I'll process when we get home.

Thanks for your very kind words...

We've been getting some really fantastic comments about our recent seminar, and I want to thank all of you who attended the workshop and emailed or blogged about it. Positive comments from participants are more important to us than all the advertisements in the world.

Suprada Urval and Aaron Burdick wrote some really kind blog posts about the seminar, and some of our other students responded to our requests for comments:

Frank Damon - "I think the 2 day class on iHDR by Jay and Varina Patel is absolutely superb. I loved every minute of it as I was learning new techniques based on some information I had already dabbled with in the past, but had no knowledge how to utilize it to make such beautiful images. This class has inspired me to go out and learn more and really apply what I have learned to my everyday photography to make them more beautiful and unique without over-doing them, as some are prone to do. Jay and Varina are extremely knowledgeable and committed to make sure that each and every students learns about iHDR before leaving class. Their patience, intelligence and commitment to help students is their mantra, and it really paid off."

Jorge Rapadas -

"Worth every penny because:
1. Husband and wife team are both photographers and Photoshop experts.
2. Practically hands-on since we were only around 14 [students].
3. They are nature photographers and all their examples are right down our alley.
4. I consider them the Ansel Adams of color photography and both highly qualified to teach.

Their basic approach is teach basics of HDR photography and use the raw file as a negative."

Several other students left positive comments for us as well, and we are working to get them up on the references section of our websites. It was an absolute pleasure to teach this group of students in California. Everyone was very focused and I was pleased with how quickly our students picked up on the concepts. Thanks to ALL of you! We are looking forward to our next class in August!

And special thanks to Jorge for comparing us to Ansel Adams - we don't deserve it by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still awfully nice to hear. ;)

PhotoBards.com

It was a real pleasure to answer questions for an interview with Michal Vitásek at www.photobards.com the other day. The interview is already online. I'm honored to be included alongside some of the best landscape photographers in the world today. Check out the other interviews, too - I'm sure many of you have seen the work of some of these masters. You can leave a comment if you'd like.

We are heading for Michigan tomorrow, so if I don't have a chance to write again - Happy Independence day to all our American friends this weekend!

National Parks Magazine

I got a nice little package in the mail today. It contained three copies of this month's National Parks Magazine. And on page 25 - my Into the Unknown image from Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's always fun to see one of my own images in print. :) Interestingly, this image sat on my computer for almost a year before I finally decided to process it.

Nichole, from NP Mag, contacted us a few months ago asking for a list of the National Parks we have represented in our portfolios. Although we had been to Great Smokey Mountain National Park, we weren't thrilled with the collection of images we came away with - and none of mine ever made it to the processing stage. She was disappointed to see that GSMNP wasn't on our list. So, we dug up a few of our shots and sent them over to her just in case. And sure enough, she asked for this one. Imagine my surprise! I'm glad I kept the shot, and believe it or not... today, I sold a 20x30 inch print of the same image. Someone saw it in... you guessed it... National Park Magazine, and wanted it hanging in their home. Go figure. :)

Travel Plans...

We have some exciting travel plans this year. We'll be in the Canadian Rockies at the beginning of August. I was born in Canada, and have made small trips into Canada a few times in the last several years... but never to shoot. We're both looking forward to that trip. In September, we'll head out to Montana to visit Glacier National Park again. And we've just booked flights to Hawaii in December. We weren't expecting to make it to Hawaii this year, so we're pleased to have been able to schedule this trip. With any luck, we'll get to stop in to see my Grandmother on Maui for a day or two during our stay.

Of course, in between travel, we'll be teaching another seminar in August and preparing for upcoming webinars. We have a workshop in November, too - in Utah... Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. So if we aren't busy enough with our six kids, we should be able to find plenty to do. ;)

And last but not least - I've updated my website once again. You'll find a new Details gallery... textures, macros, and small details. I've also added images to several other galleries. Check out the Newest Photographs gallery to see all the new photos in one place.

Finished

We had a great time teaching this weekend. Our seminar went very well. We had a great group of students -all of whom are passionate about photography. We will leave from San Francisco at 11pm, and we should arrive home around 6 am. I hope I will get some sleep on the plane, because I won't be getting a break tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone.

-Varina

Sunny California

We flew into San Fransisco late last night. This morning, I checked in with the hotel where we'll be teaching our Intelligent HDR seminar and everything is ready to go. The weather is beautiful here - and I'm appreciating it, especially since I know that heavy storms are sweeping through the Cleveland area today. Jay and I spent a few hours working on the plane (before we both fell asleep.) We're working on a new endeavor that we're not quite ready to announce. ;)

We're looking forward to tomorrow's seminar. It will be great to meeting those of you who are attending.