desert

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!

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.

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!

Ok, so it’s been a while…  but I am committed to keeping up with the blog!

In recent news, we completed a couple more workshops in January, Basics in Scottsdale, and another Adobe Lightroom class in Flagstaff.  Lightroom is a great piece of software…  and I don’t say that very often!

We only have a couple spots left on our Tuscany tour in May and it should be an amazing trip as always (see back posts on the blog if you’re interested in what we’ve done in the past).  We’re working on a fun new location so there is a possibility we may not do it again next year!  We will have more information on this in a few months…  However, if you or someone you know is interested in Tuscany, take advantage of it this year.  We’d love to have you!

This image is from 2010- that’s our village!

We’ve finalized our workshop schedule for Winter and Spring 2011 and we expect to have a lot of fun!

January 22- Digital Photo Basics in Scottsdale

January 28-30- Where are those Photos?  Managing your Digital Life with Lightroom (Flagstaff)

February 12- Digital Photo Basics in Flagstaff

March 19- Digital Photo Basics in Scottsdale

March 25-27- Desert Spring in the Canyons of the East Valley (near Phoenix, AZ)

May 14-21- Villages of Tuscany, Italy

September 17-24- Villages of Provence, France

For more information about any of these workshops, please contact us or click the link above for full descriptions!