Come Explore America’s Most Beautiful Photo Locations And Learn Aperture

Rick Sammon shares some focusing tips for landscape photographers.

Rick gives away the idea here that you can shoot an HDR panoramic – and he briefly tells you how.

Here’s another teaching video from the Aperture Nature Photography Workshops #4

We’re going to post a few video tips we made at the Mt. Rainier ANPW here on the blog and over at Photofocus.com. Enjoy. The first tips is on making sunsets with people in the shot.

Aperture Nature Photography Workshop #4 – Mount Rainier

Images and Post by Nicole Young – Follow Nicole on Twitter

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop near Mount Rainier as the documentarian, and couldn’t have asked for a better group of photographers to spend time with during the trip. It was an honor to watch staff members Scott Bourne, Rick Sammon, Juan Pons and Gary Hamburgh “in-action”, making beautiful images and sharing their knowledge and experience with the workshop attendees.

The four-day workshop started out with the staff and attendees arriving at the lodge in Packwood, Washington. We had a meet-and-greet and watched slideshow presentations of each of the pro’s photography. It was jaw-dropping inspiration to see the kind of work that the staff members had under their belts; I knew then-and-there that this was going to be an amazing experience (not that I had any doubts to begin with!). Scott then led a teaching session on using Aperture.

The next morning we were all up and ready to go at 5:45 am for a sunrise shoot on the mountain. We split up into two groups: the first group went with Scott and and Gary and traveled up to Tipsoo Lake, while the other group went with me, Rick and Juan to Reflection Lake. The name of that place says it all … a crystal-clear mirrored lake reflecting Mount Rainier with beautiful flowers and trees surrounding the whole thing. It was beautiful, majestic, and breath-taking … definitely worth waking up for. As the sun crept up behind us a beautiful pink glow capped the top outline of the mountain and the clouds were set in the sky perfectly. Even as the sun slowly rose higher and higher, the light was incredibly good for photographing this area. We spent most of our morning at the lake, then drove up to a waterfall to get a few more shots before heading back to the hotel.

After a couple of hours rest we all gathered in the conference room where Rick Sammon gave a presentation on HDR (high-dynamic-range) photography. Then as one big group we headed up to Tipsoo Lake for a sunset shoot.

The next morning we had another early start and drove to Northwest Trek in Eatonville, Washington. Half-way there we passed by a field with dozens of tree stumps by a lake, and the entire thing covered in a blanket of fog. So, like any good photographer would do, we all stopped our cars and ran out with cameras in hand. After a few minutes of shooting we jumped back into our cars and continued on our way to our destination.

We arrived at Northwest Trek a few hours before it was open to the public. Scott arranged for our group to board a private tram for our own special photo tour of the Trek’s free-roaming area. This place is amazing. It’s basically a “reverse zoo” – the animals were free to roam about the lands and we were confined to the vehicle we were traveling in. During the trip we saw several bison, moose, and elk. We witnessed bull elk sparring, herding their cows, wallowing in mud … overall it was an amazing and unique experience.

Later that afternoon when we returned to the hotel Scott gave a presentation on “pre-visualization”, where he told the story behind his famous photo “Cranes in the Fire Mist”. I seriously got teary-eyed … it was very inspiring. Then as a group we went out one last time to Reflection Lake to take some photos before the sun set.

I came home from this experience feeling very refreshed. I’m motivated, feel extremely creative, and really gained a new respect for nature and wildlife photographers. At times I felt very “out of my element”, photographically speaking, during the trip since I don’t do very much nature photography, but it definitely didn’t stop me from enjoying myself! It was so much fun to be out there with other creatives and like-minded photographers … in fact, I had such a great time that I have to admit that it was the best group photography experience I have ever had.

Thanks so much to everyone who was a part of the workshop: Staff members Scott Bourne, Rick Sammon, Juan Pons, and Gary Hamburgh; and workshop attendees Jarek Szymanski, Julie Stainbrook, Bill Jeffries and Rhonda Holcomb.

Click here to view more behind-the-scene images from the ANPW trip to Mount Rainier.

A little more than a year ago I had an idea. Why not run a free workshop? But as I worked on it I realized it wouldn’t be practical. Then I had a second idea. Run a workshop but the only people who get to attend are the workshop leaders and photographer/attendees who win the right by entering and winning a contest. It was a very odd approach. Usually, people pay ME to come on my workshops. But in this case, I paid them. And instead of our usual 12 persons to two instructors ratio, we went smaller. Four winners and four pros – a one-to-one ratio. This made for a more intimate and personal experience for all.

After I figured out what I wanted to do, the next step was to find sponsors. If I was going to bring four professional photographer/instructors and four amateur photographers to locations all over the western USA, I needed sponsors.

Thanks to Apple, Nik Software, Lensbaby, Drobo, Peachpit Press and ThinkTank Photo, we got the Aperture Nature Photography Workshops off the ground.

We ran four contests, one each quarter – the winners got free seats to the workshop, money for transportation, prizes, and more. They were all talented folks. Here they are, in no particular order…

Rhonda Holcomb, Bill Jeffries, Julie Stainbrook, Jarek Szymanski, Olga Yiparaki, Elyse Weadock, Ara Roselani, Bryan Holliday, Kimberly Haugen, David Orias, Nikki Frantz, John Harrison, Bryan Mahler, Cathy Chung, Richard Rothstein and Rob Trueman.

We went to some of the most beautiful locations in the USA. Mt. Rainier, Yosemite, the Tetons and Yellowstone.

Along the way we made lots of great images thanks in part to the great team of instructor/pros who helped me lead the workshops. Thanks to Rick Sammon, Gary Hamburgh, Steve Simon, Juan Pons, Frederick Van Johnson, Jennifer Wu, Scott Stulberg and Martin Gisborne.

I also want to thank our trip documentarians, Nicole Young, Cathy Chung, Liana Lehua and Lisa Bettany.

This concludes the ANPW series. We’ll keep this blog going for a while so we can continue to link to pictures, etc. We’ll have other wrap up posts and some pics and video from ANPW#4 soon.

Thanks to all who participated.

We all arrived in Packwood, WA for the fourth and final Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. All four winners joined documentarian Nicole Young and trip leaders Juan Pons, Rick Sammon, Gary Hamburgh and me, for a fun trip in Western Washington’s Cascade Mountain Range.

On the first night we ate the best pizza from Packwood Pizza and watched slide shows from the pros. Rick did a very entertaining short presentation and I did a quick introduction to Aperture.

This morning we split up into two groups. Rick and Juan went to Paradise while Gary and I went to Tipsoo Lake. This afternoon we downloaded cards, ate lunch, rested and got ready for an HDR teaching session led by Rick.

As has been the case with the previous workshops in this series, everyone is just great to be with and all are having a grand time. Tonight it’s back to Tipsoo Lake for what will hopefully be a great sunset followed by an all day trip to Northwest Trek tomorrow.

More soon.

All of the winners of the Aperture Nature Photography Contest are getting prizes – including a bunch of great photo books from Peachpit Press.

The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters, Joe Macnally (ISBN 0-321-54408-0) 54.99

Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2, Rich Harrington (ISBN 0-321-53993-1) 54.99

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision, David DuChemin, 0321605020, $39.99

Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of Digital Printing (ISBN 0-321-31630-4) 50

Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop, Vincent Versace (ISBN 0-7357-1400-2) 44.99

Canon 50D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, 0321613112, $24.99, Jeff Revell

Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature, Matt Kloskowski (ISBN 0-321-53416-6) 39.99

The Real and the True: The Digital Photography of Pedro Meyer , 0321269136, $44.99

Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting (ISBN 0-321-51587-0) $49.99

The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes (ISBN 0-321-58014-1)

by Juan A. Pons
http://wildnaturetours.com
http://twitter.com/jpons

EDITOR’S NOTE: Juan has also created a video about the Lensbaby you might want to check out.

I am a realist, at least I used to be.

By realist, I mean that I like to portray my subjects as they are in real life, with as little embellishment and alteration as possible. I think this changed when Scott sent me a Lensbaby for testing.

I have to be honest and say that at first I was a little skeptical. Yes I have seen examples of images taken with Lensbabies in the past and I always thought that they were interesting, but not really my thing.

As soon as I received the Lensbaby composer this past friday, I put it on my Canon 5D MarkII and decided to use it exclusively for the entire weekend. No matter how entrenched my thought processes are and how safe I may feel inside my photographic comfort zone, I am always interested in trying new things, experimenting and challenging myself to see things differently. I figured that the best way for me to really get to know this new tool was to immerse myself in it.

I first started shooting some mundane items around the house, like some of my sons stuffed animals, while I got the hang of manipulating the tilt-shift like movements of this lens. I created some interesting images, but nothing that really struck my fancy. In an attempt at creating some more interesting images. I proceeded to chase my son around and make some images of him, and while he is used to having a camera pointed at him, he just did not feel like it this time.

So far my experience had been very unrewarding, so I decided to go and shoot what I shoot best, the outdoors, nature, wildlife. I decided to pack light, very light and just took my camera with the Lensbaby Composer, a small tripod, a remote shutter release and a microphone, and headed down to one of my favorite locations just steps from my house; the Haw River.

With it’s seldom travelled foot paths, plenty of rock formations and scores of wildlife, I knew the Haw River would provide plenty of opportunities to put the Composer thru its paces within my specialty.

For someone like me, who enjoys nature in an unadulterated and undistorted fashion, it took a bit to start “envisioning” the world thru the lens of a Lensbaby; pun intended. Undaunted, I kept at it and experimented as much as I could, I tried all the different aperture rings, which essentially, control the size of the “sweet spot.” I also played with shifting the center of this “sweet spot” by “swinging” the lens, which isolates and brings attention and focus to a specific area of the image. The more I experimented the more I started to get it as I slowly began to “see” like the Lensbaby.

Very soon I started to get excited and try all sorts of different subjects, from the very primitive path I was walking on, to some of the rock and water features on the river. I quickly then turned my thoughts to video. As the new Canon 5D MarkII takes spectacular HD video alongside stills, it proved to be an excellent way to test the look the Lensbaby offered on some video footage. I have to admit that I really liked the selective focus effect the Lensbaby offers on the video. Not something to be used every day, but very effective when trying to convey a moody or dreamy effect.

A few more technical observations: I am not sure why, but found my camera meter to read a little too hot when shooting stills, so I had to dial down the exposure compensation a bit. This Lensbaby Composer features a 37mm thread, which can be used with the myriad of accessories available or with any other standard filters in this size. I myself may need to try their Super Wide Angle Conversion Lens as well as a few neutral density filters for better exposure control on sunny days.

I have to confess that I am really enjoying this Lensbaby and consider myself a convert, and as difficult as it may be to find the room, it will find a permanent space in my camera bag.