Arizona

Take a workshop with a friend and share 40 percent off! This summer, for our two local shooting workshops, Light Painting in Northern Arizona (June 17-19) and Creative Black & White Part I (August 12-14), we’re offering 40% off the fee for the second person.  For example, you and your friend sign up for the black and white workshop and we charge $495 for one of you and $297 for the other.  You split the savings with your buddy and you can each save about 100 dollars!

It’s a great deal so sign up soon!

We leave for Italy in 1 week- we arrive several days early to scout our favorite locations and find some new ones…  as well as get a little extra food and wine before the group arrives!

Ciao!

Abstracts can be fun because some of the general rules of photography may not apply. When we’re not focused on an obvious subject or story to the photograph, we concentrate more on color, form and texture. Almost anything can be the subject of an abstract- here I chose reflections in water. My original goal was to shoot the scene and it’s mirror image reflection at sunrise, but a slight breeze did not cooperate with that idea. So I decided to focus solely on the rippling reflections and came up with this interesting abstract.

Remember, there may still be a photograph, even when what you had in mind doesn’t work!

Ciao!

Living at a high elevation like Flagstaff (7,000 ft/2,100 m) can sometimes mean strange weather…  like the 8 inches of fresh snow we woke up to this morning!  I took this image out the back door of our house.

Instead of complaining, we should thank Mother Nature for being so generous- we definitely need the moisture.  It’s been a relatively dry winter and this is beautiful!  Besides, with temperatures near 60 on Monday, the snow will not last long.

We’re about a month away from leaving for Tuscany. Today has been a good day to gather the necessary books and maps we need for the trip.  Now it’s time to pull out the check lists…

Ciao!

We spent the past weekend shooting some great images with our Desert Spring in the Canyons of the East Valley workshop.  We light painted, we shot sunrises and sunset, and all of our participants got some amazing images! Although a little tired by the end, I think we all had a lot of fun.

Here are some images from the weekend.  The one at night was at the end of our light painting excursion- I “light painted” our participants over a long exposure.

Joel and I recently went to a Major League Baseball Spring Training game in Phoenix, part of the Cactus League.  What a great opportunity for photos!  I used my little “point and shoot” and put it on the sports setting (which sets a fast shutter speed).

Because we both love baseball, we figured it didn’t matter what teams we saw play.  So we chose a game based primarily on the size of the stadium.  In a small stadium, not only are the tickets typically cheaper, but it’s a more intimate feel.  You can get close to the players (as you can see) and really feel like you’re part of the game!

We went with some friends and their two young boys. One of the boys had a player throw him a fouled ground ball.  After the game, they were able to get autographs…  that’s just how great Spring Training is!

We have scheduled our summer workshops and they will be a lot of fun!  Some of these workshops were requested by previous attendees, so we hope to hear from you!

Light Painting in Northern Arizona-
based at our Studio in Flagstaff, AZ
June 17-19, 2011
Learn how to paint with light using different subjects and techniques.  $395

Summer at the Grand Canyon- based in Tusayan, AZ
July 29-31, 2011
Join us for a fun 3-day workshop shooting one of the most beautiful national parks in the country!  We have a limited number of hotel rooms reserved so sign up soon!
$495

Creative Black & White, Part I- based at our Studio in Flagstaff, AZ
August 12-14, 2011
Be part of this unique all black & white workshop. Explore the zone system, pre-visualization, and more!  $495
*And stay tuned for Part II coming in September where we’ll learn traditional black & white printing  in conjunction with Hidden Light, LLC.

Ciao!

Here are two more desert images I took on our scouting trip last week.  The first is a close up of a hedgehog cactus and the second is a blackfoot daisy… thinking of spring!

We still have one spot left in our upcoming workshop in the East Valley…

Ciao!

We spent a few days camping in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix scouting our favorite locations for our upcoming workshop and even found some new ones! The weather was beautiful, around 80 most days and upper 40s at night…  perfect!  After getting up for sunrise several days in a row, it was nice to sleep in today. Though I admit, the sunrise was always beautiful!

Here are a couple desert images, the Superstition Mountains at sunrise and a backlit cholla cactus.  We also visited a small “western-style” ghost town for tourists that had a lot of fun-to-shoot old mining equipment and cars.  This image is part of an old rusted car.

Hope to see you in a workshop in the future!  We also have room in our Digital Photo Basics March 19th!  Contact us with questions…

Ciao…

We always scout an area carefully and choose the best locations for photos before we conduct workshops.  Although we have scouted the east valley several times in the past, we are scouting again this week to confirm our favorite spots before our March 25-27 Desert Spring in the Canyons of the East Valley- by the way, we still have 1 spot left!  Here’s a snapshot of Joel amidst the cactus from last year.  I will post some of the area when we return!

Ciao!

Because we recently got some snow in Flagstaff, here’s a quick tip for shooting snow!  Your camera tries to read your mind, and it’s not always good at it!  For reasons I won’t go into here, your camera sets the exposure for middle ground, which will turn your snow gray.  As we all know, fresh snow is bright white!  Find the “exposure compensation” on your camera and move it to +1 or +2 and see what happens.  If +2 is too bright, try somewhere in between.  Does the snow look more like it does to your eye?

Here’s an example…  The first one is what the camera “wanted” to do.  But for the second one, I set the exposure compensation to +1.5.

*Of course I must acknowledge Joel’s Digital Photo Basics class for this great tip!