Aperture Nature Workshop (Jackson Hole) Day Two

Photo and Article by Lisa Bettany

R-L: Richard Rothstein, Rob Trueman, Catherine Chung, & Bryan Mayler.

The contest winners were up bright-eyed and bushy tailed this morning at 5am, hoping to catch a beautiful dawn in Grand Teton National Park. The actual workshop *learning Aperture* was to begin later, but at first light, the students split up into two groups to take some pictures.

The first group went 30 minutes down the road to Schwabacher Landing and the Mormon Row Barns, and the others heading out a little further to the iconic Oxbow Bend. I trucked it to Oxbow Bend with Richard and Bryan. Everyone came prepared for the cold, except Steve, who was a bit whiny and runny nosed from the early morning and frosty temperature.:)

Scotty was determined to get a great shot, so we headed down this step muddy hill to the bank of Snake River. And then we set up our tripods half on the muddy bank, half in the water, and pointed our lenses towards the iconic view and waited. And waited. No interesting light seemed to be happening on Mt. Moran, but suddenly a slight mist of fog started floating just above the water line behind us. As the fog began to roll, Scott jumped and “yahooed” and turned his camera in the other direction and started shooting the silhouetted trees against the wispy, pink sky.

Everyone was carefully switching lenses near the water, and Scotty reminded us to always keep one hand on your tripod near water. He has tragically lost two cameras in the water, so let him be the lesson for all of us.

Catherine and Rob went to Schwabacher Landing, but immediately left when no clouds were present, creating little opportunity for dynamic shots. They headed up the road past the landing at Teton Overlook and grabbed some amazing panoramic shots of the Southern Tetons. Rob disappeared from the group for a while and ran into a one horned elk. And all that happened before 9:30 am.

After breakfast, the workshop got in full gear at the beautiful Jackson Arts center where an Apple Aperture Guru blew our minds with the dynamic power of Aperture software. We imported our images, learned how to compare and select our favorites, and generally found out that Aperture can do most of the things we used to do in Photoshop.

We are learning more advanced techniques tomorrow. I can’t wait. I’ll do a dedicated post on Aperture in the next few days. Right now I just need my mind to rest and catch a few hours sleep before tomorrow’s exciting activities.