In Death Valley!
Out in Death Valley National Park for my last workshop of the year! So far so good- I haven’t incapacitated anyone and no one has taken a shot at me. Here are a couple of shots I took out in the park the day before the workshop started. We are heading out there tomorrow morning (4:30 wake-up!!) with clear skies and I hope enough overnight winds to clean the dunes of old footprints. I’ll keep you posted.
Dining with Walt!
We should all go out dining with Walt Don’t hesitate, linger or halt ‘Cause with camera hand His vision is grand He sees the simple gestalt!
Vermont Workshop Review
Vermont had both a beautiful and difficult fall color season this year. On Saturday, October 4 the color was magnificent- great reds, golds and strong oranges were everywhere. This was the peak day this year in mid-Vermont, about 7-10 days earlier than the traditional peak color. For the 14 years I have been living in Vermont the peak color has varied from October 3rd to October 23rd. How a visitor can plan a trip here to capture peak color is beyond me. Its had enough capturing it living here! On October 5th and 6th a strong weather front came through and most of the color was blown away. Scrambling around checking out my standard locations I found that most were now not very pretty. I ended up taking my students to only two of the 10 spots I usually go to. Instead, I brought the class to my 400 acres and the Bromley Farm’s 600 acres- the only places I found that had any decent color! Thanks to my very understanding and flexible participants. We changed plans regularly to take best advantage of the changing weather and they kept up very well. I did my best to lose them a couple of times but they stuck to me like sweet on sugar. Here are some of the images that I saw during the critiques. Hope you can join us next year!
Maine Workshop Review
I have just returned from another wonderful workshop on the Maine coast and Acadia National Park. The weather was pretty good other than one early morning of rain that we turned into a tasty breakfast for the class at Jordan’s in Bar Harbor. The biggest potential problem was the idiotic government shut down that the children of our congress finally ended. If the national park had remained closed the workshop would’ve been a wee bit more challenging with longer trips to locations but as it happened we only altered our routine for half a day, waiting for the park to fully open. As a result of the shut down Brenda and I were forced to find some new locations to take our participants and we found two really nice places- a beautiful marsh and a very nice wooded trail leading down to an old beaver pond ringed in bright red maples. These two locations will now be part of our standard locations. We could easily do a week long workshop on the coast now with all the many and varied locations we have. Here are a selection of images that were taken by the participants- I don’t have their names on the images so credit goes to all in the workshop. Enjoy!
Jersey, My Way
Will you look at this! Cows that are neither black or white or black and white! They are brown!!!!! Who knew that cows came in colors? Why didn’t someone tell me? Okay, some photography for you purists out there- 70-200mm lens shot on the longer side, high overcast for nice soft light (essential!), nice background because of the narrow view of the long lens, matrix metering, aperture priority set at f8 (not a lot of depth of field), hand held, shutter speed 1/500th, high ISO (1600) to allow for high shutter speed, auto-focus set on center cow and rubber shoes to account for absent-minded steps. Then all you have to do is wait for as many cows to look up at the same time as is possible and shoot a short burst of 5 or 6 images. Each one will be slightly different so look carefully for just the perfect gestures and expressions. Don’t save everyone of these images- just the best one. Photographing cows is fun, huh!
Photographing Phall!
It’s that time of the year again- time for my Tips to Photographing Phall! You should know that these tips are the same tips that I wrote 20 years ago for an article in Outdoor Photographer, 10 years ago for New England AAA and 3 years ago for this blog. It’s not that I can’t think of anything else to write, it’s that fall doesn’t change and neither does photography, really, so what was a good idea 20 years ago is still a good idea. I’ll keep these tips simple- they are all very self evident. These are my favorite and most effective tips, all my other tips you already know Photograph on cloudy, misty days for the richest colors but be sure to use a polarizing filter to cut the glare from the wet leaves. If it’s lightly raining go inside the forest for some protection. If it’s raining hard go out right after it stops. On sunny daysI like shooting back lit scenes. Backlit leaves will glow in the sunlight and backlit cows don’t look as dim-witted. If the sky is solid blue try shooting up the trunk of a colorful tree or shoot some reflections. Shooting up doesn’t work when there are clouds in the sky- all you will get are big blown out highlights and I will question your sanity during a critique. Don’t forget the details. With the entire landscape a screaming acid trip it’s hard to notice anything else but there are lots of wonderful details at your feet and knees that are worth shooting. Don’t do this in the bright sun. Wait for a cloud to come by or use a diffuser to soften the light. And finally, use every lens you have in your bag- these colors only happen once a year for at most a couple of weeks. Go nuts!!!
My New Friends!!!
So I am out wandering around the four farms that I am photographing here in Danby with every intent to follow what is on my shooting list- landscapes- and to work deliberately and efficiently when my eye catches on a small herd of angus cattle tucked into the shade of an old barn. Perfect, I think- I need pictures of these animals and they are in the shade and they are up against a nice background. Landscapes quickly exit my little brain and I suddenly find myself in the barnyard of this small cattle farm with 8 moms and half a dozen calves staring at me. Now you should know that I don’t jump into small enclosed areas with large, very dim witted animals on any whim. Especially with moms and their babies! I had asked farmer Steve about how calm and friendly these cows were a couple of days ago and he assured me that they wouldn’t be a problem. He was nowhere to be seen but what the heck, what is the worst thing that could happen? Farmer Steve was absolutely correct- the cows were very calm and even the moms with very young calves didn’t act aggressively towards me. It helped that I have years of experience working very closely with cows over at the Bromley farm but they are still very large animals with astonishingly small brains so you still have to pay attention and be aware if they might be getting spooked. I found that when I was standing up the cows didn’t think much of me but when I got down on my knees they were very attentive. Curiously, this is exactly the same response I got from women in college! Huh. Where was I? I got down on my knees because I wanted to photograph at the cow’s eye level. As I have always said- the most compelling pictures of wildlife are those in which you enter the animals world and you enter the animals world by photographing at their eye level. For cows you do this by getting down on your knees. For cows in a barnyard you do this by very carefully getting down on your knees! So why was I excited about this photography? First, I am very easily pleased. Low expectations are the surest way to a happy life. Secondly, the photography was ideal- the cows were in the shade so the contrast inherent in photographing black animals on sunny days was eliminated. And the cows were up against a nice neutral background so the problems of bright objects in the farm background was eliminated. I suppose I couldn’t been a slave to my shooting list (that would be a first!) but I think not. You take your chances when they are presented. If you don’t, those opportunities will not soon, if ever, come around again. You know I used to get excited about traveling to exotic lands and photographing big ferocious animals- polar bears, brown bears, lions, linebackers. Now I get excited about jumping in my car and photographing cows. A simple life for a simple brain. Is this a good or bad evolution? You tell me!
Back on the Farm!
Well, I’m back on the farm, annoying people who are trying to do their work by poking a camera in their face and asking endless questions. Ahhhh, it feels great. I’m am sure the farmers would disagree but they don’t have any choice but to cooperate- I don’t go away easily! Smokey House Center is a 5,000 acre conservation and ag. education foundation right here in Danby that abuts the Bromley farm (the farm where I have been helping out and taking pictures for 8 years). There are four farms, four farmers and lots of farm helpers not to mention unlimited views and pastures and streams and forest. another slice of heaven just fell in my lap! I have been doing the initial exploring on these first beautiful days of fall color here in Vermont. Lots of details, a few working portraits and pieces of the landscape. I put 12 of my favorites in the smokey House part of my Projects section on my Home page. I’ll keep posting as I keep getting images. Projects are wonderful, wonderful friends- they force you to get out and photograph when you would rather just stay home and be a vegetable and they force you to try to improve each day’s efforts by reminding you that you can do better. Plus, a project brings life back into a vocation or avocation that inevitably becomes stale with time. There is joy in photography, that is why we all do it. A project helps you reconnect with this joy. Go grab your camera, run outside and take a picture, any picture in 5 seconds. Then laugh at yourself for taking such a terrible shot. But it was fun wasn’t it? That is the joy in photography. My joy is wrapped in tattered jeans, cowshit, old barns and dirty hands. What could be better?
Death Valley Workshop!
There are just a couple of places left on my Death Valley workshop I am doing with Brenda Berry November 13 – 17. It is a nice small group (all returnees!) so Brenda and I will have lots of time to spend helping people out when we are photographing and class sessions won’t be as jammed packed with things to do. But most importantly you should come to Death Valley National Park because the photography is unlike anything you have ever done before. It borders on otherworldly! My favorite location are the dunes right in the center of the park. We don’t go to the standard place in the dunes- too many footsteps and people in the way- we go to a section where we will have the place to ourselves. there will be endless ripples and wonderful rolling dunes, add the magic of first light and the photography is spectacular. I am going to be out there the day or two ahead of class just so I can get some of my own shots. I love wondering the dunes!! Of course there are lots of other bizarre places- Zebriski Point, Badwater, a no-name little canyon of abstract-like walls, the Lookout- each one so different and enchanting at the same time. So get off your butt and contact Brenda (www.bberryphotography.com) and come join us in Death Valley. What else could you possibly be doing in November that is better than spending a few days on a workshop with us in Death Valley?
Switzerland
Here is something new for me- I am enthusiastically recommending a travel destination to you, a country actually…Switzerland! I have travelled a lot over the last 30 years, probably not as much as many of you but certainly more than most people. Much of this travel has been to exotic and magical places and almost all of it has been nature-based travel- to me, cities are something you fly into and then leave as soon as you can. All the places I have gone to I have liked and some I have really liked but each destination has come with both good points and bad as you would expect. Some have great locations but getting there is difficult or uncomfortable. Some aren’t particularly safe. Some countries don’t like Americans. Some countries are full of hassles and some are great in some places and not so great in others. This, of course, could all be said of the U.S. as well. I’ve got nothing to say but positive things about Switzerland. Understand I was there for only a week but from what my long-time travel eye saw I was very impressed. Here is what I liked about it: It is very clean- no trash blowing about, no obvious grime, even the public transportation is spotless. Speaking of which, the public transportation is phenomenal. As far as I could tell, you can take public trains, busses, trams, cog railways, cable cars and bikes to anywhere you want to go. Get off your international flight, clear customs, walk to the train station in the airport and go anywhere in the country. Mass transit in Switzerland is how mass transit should be everywhere (this statement is probably true for all of Europe but I haven’t traveled enough to say for sure). The people are friendly and they are used to annoying, prying tourists. I wouldn’t call them Bhutan happy but they are approachable and they don’t mind cameras, at least where I was. And finally, the country is simply stunning. The rolling green valleys topped by towering glacier-capped Alps are too much to believe sometimes. I was repeatedly surprised to look up into the clouds and see a mountain top peak out. What is a mountain doing up there? And in Switzerland, chances are, you can get up there and see the mountains first hand. I went to the Berner Oberland, about one hour south or Bern and two hours west of Zurich. The area is huge and criss-crossed by lifts, trams, trains, bike trails and hundred of miles of hiking trails. You can take a cog railway up to 13,00′ and cable car up to 11,000′ and ski lifts and other cog railways for tens of miles to tiny villages or up scale ski towns or to the top of any number of passes and walk or while your hours away. Most of the Berner Oberland is at or above tree line so views are unimpeded and endless. All of this area is topped and bounded by three magnificent mountains- the Eiger, the Monch and the Jungfrau (the ogre, the monk, in the middle, and the young girl- the monk is protecting the girl from the ogre) (try to keep up!). Spend a hour on any trail and you will have the place to yourself, well, yourself and a herd of bell-wearing Swiss cows. And many of the trails have little restaurants and sleeping huts along them for a mid-hike rest or snack. Do I sound enchanted? I am! No car necessary, magic where ever you look and photos galore! Get ye to Zurich, jump on any train, get off shortly, wander anywhere and then send me a postcard of where you end up. The only catch is that you may never come back.