I Love the Desert

I took this shot along the road to the Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley National Park, CA. It's titled "Broken Heart" (thanks, Suzy!). The dirt road was closed because of last week's rain storms, but we walked down to check out the condition of the location before most of our students arrived. Jay noticed these unusual patterns in the mud along the way, so he ran back to the car for our cameras. This one looks like a heart to me... and it makes an unusual valentine. :)

We had a great time in Death Valley. We had eleven students with us, and I really enjoyed this group. Everyone seemed ready to learn, and the whole group meshed really well. We've seen some really neat photos from this trip. We were lucky to get some fantastic skies, too. I'm looking forward to processing some more of my own photos... and seeing more from the group.
We shot at the dunes a couple of times, and after the sun rose, some of us started playing around with our own shadows. We ended up laughing so hard our stomach muscles were cramping up... we looked pretty ridiculous trying to capture our shadows as we posed and jumped around. It's a good thing there aren't very many people out there! Here are the results...
The series is titled Desert Petroglyphs thanks to Tex Schneider. Thanks for the suggestion, Tex! :)

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. ;)

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.

Trillium and a busy week...

Boy, it's been a busy week! I managed to finish a run yesterday - after a few weeks of short runs on a painful knee. Much better at last. It's nice to be able to run outdoors again, too. :) We also did an upper body workout - and we'll be back at the gym tonight... biking and lower body. Boy oh boy! ;)

Last week's presentation at the Akron Camera Club went very well. Thanks very much to those of you who signed up for our seminar afterwards! We're looking forward to seeing you again! We've also been busy preparing for our June seminar in California, and our August seminar in Ohio. We've had many requests for online classes, so we're working on putting that together as well. We expect to be able to offer our first "Webinar" sometime later this year. We'll keep you posted.

I did manage to get my website updated. My latest travel information is now online, along with workshop information, news, and the like.

Light Harmony - Photo of the Month

My Desert Evening shot from our recent trip to Death Valley has been selected as Photo of the Month on Light Harmony. It rained for two days, and these fantastic storm clouds rolled in and out the whole time we were there. I'm sure there were many who cursed the weather that weekend... but I wasn't one of them. I couldn't have been happier! :)

I know I always say this - but if you have some time, please take a look at some of the gorgeous photos on Light Harmony. We are a group of 19 photographers from around the world. The collection of images is stunning. I'm really proud to be a member of the group, and it's an honor to have one of my photos chosen for POTM. LH members nominate their favorites from all the photos that are posted that month, and then we vote... giving our favorite image three points, our second choice gets two points, and our third pick gets one point.

-Varina

iHDR Seminar - California

We have finally managed to get everything ready so that we can offer the iHDR seminar in CA. We have quite few request to run this seminar on West coast after we offered it in OH. You can register for the seminar at:

Registration: http://www.regonline.com/iHDR_ca

There is discount available for signing up before April 27th. We have posted a video showing the overview of iHDR workflow. You can view the video below:

We hope to see some of you there.

-Jay

A Land of Extremes

Our Death Valley article has been published at Nature Photographers Online Magazine. Jay and I wrote the article a few years ago, and I recently rewrote the article and re-edited the images for Nature Photographers. The articles is available on my website as well. I hope you'll enjoy it. Death Valley is an amazing place to visit - I can't wait to get there again. I hope you'll let me know what you think of the article. I'm always looking for constructive criticism and new ideas.

Thanks for all your support.

In Bloom

It seems that everywhere we went this year, the flowers were putting on a show. These beautiful red ones were growing in soft light near Mono Lake in California. We were scouting the area so we'd be ready to shoot at sunset. I love our scouting trips - even though we aren't usually shooting at that time. We try to explore as much of a location as we can when the light is poor, so we'll be ready when the light is right. We drive down dirt roads or climb steep trails - just to see what we can find. Sometimes it's a grand vista - and sometimes it's a couple of pretty flowers. But there's always something. I love my job. :)

Hangin' at CLT

I'm stuck in Charlotte for a while. My flight is delayed by about an hour, but I can't complain. CLT happens to have free wireless access - so I'll be able to spend some time working, rather than just sitting around waiting for the airline to find it's plane. I'm still on California time, too - so I'm not that tired. I won't be home until after 1am, and the kids will be waiting for me... but that's tomorrow. I'll be tired at the end of the day, I think. :)

Ah dang - they're going to change my gate. Just when I'd found myself a comfy seat and an outlet. Oh well.

We spent yesterday driving from the Pacific Coast to Mono Lake. Driving through Yosemite is always a pleasure - what a glorious place. I guess as a landscape photographer, I should say something deep about inspiration and Ansel Adams and all that - but it's a bit late, and I've been sitting on my tail for most of the day. We were up at 4am - driving from Lee Vining to San Francisco took about 5 hours - waited for my flight - flew from San Francisco to Charlotte - and now I'm sitting on my tail once again. And then an hour from CLT to CLE - and another 40 minutes home. Oh boy. What I wouldn't give for a little chunk of wilderness right about now!

Unfortunately, our trip to Mono Lake was fruitless. We were hoping to catch the storm clouds at sunset, but unluckily, the storm cleared up early. We did take some shots, and I'll post when I've processed - but we'll have to return at a better time. Of course, summer is certainly not the best time to photograph Mono Lake... but it was worth a try. :) Even with the extra ten hours of driving.

Nevermind

We're ditching the coast and heading inland towards mono lake. The coast has a heavy layer of fog hanging over it - typical for this time of year. And there are no storms to bring interesting clouds. And when the fog lifts, the sky is hazy and dull. So, nevermind. We checked the weather conditions for the area, and the best we can hope for is the storm hanging over mono lake - East of Yosemite. So, we'll drive out this morning (about 4 hours) and shoot the lake at sunset. We'll stay out there tonight, and leave around 5am to return to San Francisco to catch our flights.

Yesterday, we drove along highway 1 to see what we could shoot at sunset. We stopped to check out McWay falls - but the park is closed because of fires. Too bad - the sun is at the right angle for a beautiful sunset shot at this time of year. At Pfeiffer beach, the sun was at the wrong angle for a good shot of the light coming through the natural doorways in the rocks. I did take a few shots there, but nothing spectacular. We headed Northward again, and stopped to capture a couple of shots along the highway. The light was beautiful at times, but the wind was exreme. It was nearly impossible to hold my tripod steady - and the wind nearly knocked me down, too. Maybe it's time to gain a few more pounds! Yikes! :)

We'd better get out of here. We have a bit of driving ahead of us - and we'd like to have some time to explore before sunset.

What I have to do just to get a little work done!

I'm in California today. That's what it takes. I have to fly across the country just to find a few hours to work. :) I managed to catch a couple of earlier flights, so rather than arriving in CA at midnight, I was here by 8pm. I had a fantastic dinner at Banana Leaf in Milpitas, and then went straight to bed. I'm still on Cleveland time. This morning, I drove back to the airport to get my bag - which was on the plane I was originally scheduled to take, and now I've holed up in my hotel room to try and get some work done.

The plan is to get some web design work out of the way. I'm learning Dreamweaver this morning and I should have some time to see what Adobe Fireworks can do, too.

I can tell you right now - if I were at home, I would not be able to sit down and work. I have far too many responsibilities there. Even when I'm supposed to have a free day, something always comes up. Unless I leave the state. :)

California

I'll be spending some time in California next week. I'm looking forward to adding more coastal shots to my portfolio. We may also spend a couple of days at Lassen Volcanic National Park. That's not enough time to explore the park thoroughly, but maybe we'll get lucky! :)
This is a shot from a trip to Point Lobos last year. The temperature was abnormally cold that day - it actually snowed a bit in the morning. The water was icy cold, and it kept running into my hiking boots as the waves washed over my feet. I couldn't feel my toes. :) Should have had my neoprene water shoes along.