Yellowstone

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 ANPW #3 winner Bryan Holliday

Hello from Gardiner, Montana and Yellowstone. We are ending day one of the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. The winners and pros flew from all over the country and arrived eager to photograph and ready to learn Aperture. The group made their way from Bozeman to Gardiner on I-89. Along the way we spotted: Dall Sheep, Big Horn Sheep, Osprey, Kestrels, Magpies and Canada Geese to name a few.

After all the winners and pros arrived in Gardiner, we met for an orientation. Most important were the safety rules for the workshop and what to do if you come in contact with bears, bison or wolves. Scott assured everyone that nothing has ever happened to anyone and that he was only telling us all of this as a precaution.

The group was given their subscription to lynda.com, a copy of Aperture 2 and the Nik Software Complete Collection of plug-ins for Aperture at the orientation. They were also surprised with a copy of Scott Bourne’s books “88 Secrets to Wildlife Photography” and “88 Secrets to Selling & Publishing Your Photography.” They already received their Drobo’s, Think Tank Rotation 360 bags and their Peachpit Press books prior to arriving at the workshop. (The Lensbabys are coming later.)

The group went around the room and talked about what they want to learn and how long they have been taking photographs.

Olga has been shooting for 1 1/2 years and wants to learn about light from the pros. She normally does wide angle work but wants to expand on that this trip, so she rented a long lens.

Elyse has been shooting for … years and wants to observe the pros in action. She would like to have her work critiqued.

Ara has been shooting for 2 1/2 years. At which time she started out with a point and shoot. It was when she learned about the cameras manual mode that her interest really piqued! She is interested in some real feedback about her photos and would also like to learn how to sell her photos.

Bryan has been shooting for 10 years and has aspirations to be a pro photographer. He would like to learn more about landscape photography, as well as the business side of photography. He would also like to learn how to market himself as a photographer.

This was the winners chance to learn more about the pros on the trip and see an example of the work they do.

Scott Bourne showed two collections; his recent bird trip to Southwest Florida and his Wolfscapes.

Gary Hamburgh, who has been shooting for six years, showed his collection on the Palouse. He spoke about how he was able to start selling his work to galleries.

Steve Simon showed the first photograph he made. He also showed two of his collections;America At the Edge and his work in Africa about AIDS. He spoke about really documenting a subject in depth.

We will be getting up early tomorrow morning to shoot various locations depending on the weather. The group is very excited to get out and shoot. The workshop gets into full speed mode after lunch where we’ll delve deeper into the power of Aperture for editing and organizing photos.

Stay tuned, more to come…

ANPW Workshop #3 begins tomorrow. Some of us have already begun arriving to scout. There are tons of elk, deer and bison up on the Jardine Road. That’s one of the places we’ll be photographing as a group. We’ll run the workshop out of Gardiner, MT where we have a nice conference room set up with a projector and screen. Apple T3-Certified Aperture instructor Steve Simon will join me in teaching the workshop participants how to get the most out of Aperture. It’s going to be fun.

I’ve established a Flickr set with some of my personal photos from the trip. Keep checking it this week as it gets updated.

Win one of four seats to Yellowstone workshop in April, 2009! We’ll be escorting four lucky winners to the Yellowstone area April 29 – May 2.

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.