May 2009

We’re proud to announce the dates for our fourth and final (in this series) Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. On September 9-12, four lucky winners will join four pros for the ANPW Mt. Rainier.

Our submission site for this contest is on Flickr, use this address. http://www.flickr.com/groups/anpw/

Each winner will win a cash travel allowance, hotel, food, ground transfers, as well as prizes from our sponsors. It’s free to enter. You get to keep all Copyrights to your images. There’s no catch. Please read the complete contest rules for more information

We’re also proud to announce that one of the pros joining our teaching faculty this year will be Rick Sammon. Rick is a prolific photographer, author and teacher. His latest book, Rick Sammon’s Digital Photography Secrets is brilliant and he’ll be a real asset to our team of pros.

Also joining Scott Bourne on the pro team will be The Palouse Guy – Gary Hamburgh, an inspiring scenic nature photographer who specializes in selling gallery prints of his amazing nature photos.

Our pro team will be rounded out by Juan Pons, a professional nature photographer and guide from North Carolina. His work is widely published and he has experience guiding nature photo trips

This post sponsored by Photofocus.

The power of photography never ceases to amaze me. Last week I had the privilege of hosting the APNW at Yellowstone with the help of my co-leaders, Gary Hamburgh, Steve Simon, and Frederick Van Johnson. They are some of the best people I know. And that’s an example of the power of our profession. We’re a diverse group from California, New York and Washington. I’m a bird photographer, Frederick is a portrait photographer, Steve is a photo journalist and Gary is a nature photographer.

We all practice and teach photography from different perspectives, yet our common bond is our pure passion for telling stories with our cameras.

I was also impressed by the diversity in our four students. Two from Arizona, one from Oregon and another from New York. The group had a variety of photographic interests and abilities.

Again – all these students took a different approach to the workshop, but all exhibited incredible passion and interest in the information that the teachers offered.

We had pretty good weather for the entire workshop. We had tremendous wildlife opportunities that includes pronghorn, dall sheep, big horn, elk, deer, bison, grizzly bear, fox, coyote and a variety of birds.

We worked on scenics, wildlife, HDR, panoramas and of course Aperture. We even did some portrait and flash demonstrations.

At the end of the workshop, I asked all the students what their favorite thing about the workshop was. Universally, they agreed it was the relationships they built during the event, the inspiration they took from spending time with each other and the instructors and the joy they felt being a part of something special.

Post by Cathy Chung
Photo by Bryan Holliday

There are moments in life that we remember forever. There are dreams in life that we pursue for one year, five years, 20 years or more. When those dreams come true, we are on cloud nine. It is like nothing else in the world.

For Aperture Nature Photography Workshop winner Bryan Holliday, a dream that he had been pursuing for 10 years came true on the first day. Bryan is an avid bird photographer. There was one bird species that he had been trying to photograph for 10 years and had not been able to do so. That species is the American Kestrel. It is a very skittish bird that flies away anytime people come near. But Bryan never gave up hope. He persevered and it paid off.

During the evening shoot of the second day of the workshop, heading to another location Bryan spotted an American Kestrel. He got his camera with his 600 mm lens ready. And this time it happened. The bird just sat on the post and looked right at Bryan. It was as if the bird knew Bryan had waited ten years for this moment. The light was perfect to make the colors of the American Kestrel pop. Bryan took a few shots and was amazed that the Kestrel stayed. He inched closer, the bird stayed. Bryan was able to take over 100 images of the Kestrel. Talk about a dream come true.

Photo by Olga Yiparaki
Post by Cathy Chung

Day two here in Gardiner, MT, it is a crisp 30º and snowing on and off. The group broke out into pairs to photograph this morning. Each group went to a different location.

Scott and winner Bryan Holliday went to the Old Yellowstone Road and spotted hundreds of Kestrel, and hundreds of Mountain Blue Birds. They also saw Pronghorn, Western Meadowlark, Clarks’ Nutcracker, Junco, Prairie Falcon, Mule Deer and a herd of Bison being driven from one area to another by the park rangers.

Frederick van Johnson and winner Ara Roselani followed along the Yellowstone River. They concentrated on the river features.

Gary Hamburgh and winner Olga Yiparaki headed east to the valley. Along the way
they spotted Bison, a Bison calf, Elk, Mute Swan, and plenty of beautiful scenery. Olga brought along her Lens Baby and here is the image she made today you see above.

Steve Simon and winner Elyse Weadock headed towards the hot springs. They came along a herd of Bison that was quite close and were able to get some amazing images. They were so close at one point that we were able to smell the Bison.

After a quick lunch it was into the classroom to learn Aperture. The winners asked great questions.

Here are some of the questions:

How do you (the Pros) rate photos?

Steve saves the “5″ as the best of the best. He uses it for the images that would easily represent his career and could easily make a portfolio out of them.

Frederick rates anything that he likes and would go back and edit a “5″.

How do you zoom?

Press the Z key

Stay tuned for more from this evenings shoot!