Green and Blue - Banff

Since I've had very little time for processing, I have chosen to process a few quick and easy shots. This first shot is just a simple dandelion seed head. Jay pointed this one out near Bow Lake. I shot with my 180mm macro. Notice I'm shooting in the shade - soft, even lighting works well for this subject. You can see the detail in the seeds, but the contrast isn't too extreme... which means the flower keeps its delicate softness.

This is Herbert Lake. We'd been shooting elsewhere, but high winds forced us away. I took only a few shots under this sky - and I threw all but this one away. Wide angle lens, f/11, and a long shutter speed (3.2 sec). A simple composition, a bit of texture in the clouds, and a bit of drama just for the fun of it.

This is an early morning shot from a pond near Graveyard Flats. We'd had a rough night - nearby campers partied late into the night, and loud thunderstorms kept us awake after that. The moodiness of the heavy morning fog had me smiling, though. :) This was an incredibly easy shot to process... no broad range of light to deal with, very low contrast overall, and it wanted to go blue... so I let it have its way.

What do you think?

We have an iHDR seminar in Ohio this weekend. There are just a few seats left, so if you are interested, don't put off registering any longer.

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. ;)

Busy as heck...

I'm afraid I haven't had much time to update my blog this past week - I'm sorry for that. We want to be sure our material is ready for our San Jose and Cleveland seminars. I've also been teaching private classes quite a bit more than usual. I'd like to get some images from Tennessee processed, but we've decided to wait on those until we feel that our presentations are perfectly tuned. So, hang in there - I will continue to post as often as I can.

Last week, I taught a private class on hyperfocal distance. If you are interested, take a look at the article Jay and I wrote recently. Many of you have seen it before, but for those who haven't, hyperfocal distance is not as complicated as it seems. Good stuff! This photo shows a Michigan lighthouse... and provides an example of what hyperfocal distance can do for your photographs. You can see individual grains of sand in perfect focus in the foreground - and the lighthouse is tack-sharp as well.

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.

Preparations...

We've just booked our tickets for our August trip to Canada. I am looking forward to spending some time in the Canadian Rockies with Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou! Both are excellent photographers - and there's nothing I like more than traveling to beautiful places with other photographers. Can't wait! We have a few trips planned before then, too - thank goodness. Otherwise, I'd start to get a little antsy! (A LOT antsy actually.) :)

We are also preparing for another Nature Photography and iHDR seminar in California. We're just about ready to go live with this one. We've had quite a lot of interest in this class, so make sure you sign up right away if you are interested. We can't promise a seat to anyone who waits too long.

After a few lovely weeks of Spring here in northern Ohio, we spent the day watching heavy snow cover our green grass. No suprise there, folks. That's how things are around here.

-Varina

Seminar

I've spent most of this week handling the details of our August Seminar. Hang in there for a few more days and I should have the information online. I'll open up registration as soon as I can.

Since I haven't had time to process anything, I thought I'd put up this shot of a crab that I took in Florida... with Paul Marcellini's lens. He was kind enough to let me try it out. I loved it, and now I'm completely jealous. :)
And here's the shot Jay took of me taking that shot. :) I love photography... and I'm missing that white sand and warm weather.

I guess I'll just have to keep on living vicariously through you, Paul. (I'm also living vicariously through Nan - who has the 100mm macro I dream about... and Darwin - who is living in the Rockies where I'd like to be shooting...)

;)

Playground

One of the things I love about the dunes is that they change so completely from one day to the next. They shift in the wind and are made new with every storm. It's a fascinating place - and a hard one to leave. I would love to be back on those dunes right now. :) It's snowing hard here in Northern Ohio... looks like about three inches since this morning. It's beautiful, though!

I spent some time updating my website yesterday. There are a few more images up, now - you can take a look at the Newest Photographs gallery to see my latest work.

Jay and I are working on content for our upcoming seminar in August. We'll get information about it online before long.