flowers

For those of you who don’t know, I was a backcountry ranger in Yosemite several years ago and have been trying to get back ever since!  So I used scouting as an excuse; I continue to try to convince Joel that a Sierra workshop would be amazing!  If you’d be interested, let us know…  The Sierra Nevada are as beautiful as I remember- it’s no wonder Ansel Adams spent so much time there.  I spent most of my time in the high country so all of these locations are 10,000 ft (3050 m) or higher.  I hiked about 35 miles in 3 days and my maximum elevation was a mountain pass at just over 12,000 ft (3700 m).

24mm, f4.0, 1/250, ISO 80

24mm, f4.5, 60 seconds, ISO 100

24mm, f4.5, 1/100, ISO 100

24mm, f8.0, 1/250, ISO 100

Photo Tech Notes:
I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 for all of these, a small light weight camera with a lot of control.  I used a polarizing filter on all but the night shot.  I carried the Pedco Ultrapod Mini (tripod) with me in my backpack- small and light weight is a necessity!  I used Lightroom 3 to process my color photos and Joel helped me use Photoshop, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Topaz Adjust and Topaz B&W Effects to process the black and whites. NOTE: For a 15 percent discount on Nik or Topaz products, use the links here and when you check out use the code JWOLFSON.

I snapped the poppies with beautiful background on my way back to our hotel after lunch yesterday…  if only this was my view at home!  The sepia tone below is inside an ancient abbey that just begs to be shot in black and white!

Today we were actually in Siena- I hope to get a shot or two from our participants for my next post!  Siena is one of my favorite days on our trip…  We have a terrific guide to take us to some of the most important sites and tell us all about the history of Siena.

In Siena, the Palio is their most important “festa” all year long and occurs twice, once in July and once in August.  The city becomes a different place during these two events and the rest of the year revolves around the Palio.  We are looking into basing a photography workshop at the Palio for 2012…  Very exciting!

Ciao for now.

Here in Italy, old Fiats are prize possessions…  at least the ones that are still running anyway! We’ve seen red ones, white ones, black ones, even an orange one. It seems every village has at least one old Fiat. Of course there is a back seat, but I can’t imagine who could fit inside it!

Right now there are flowers every where. The roses are blooming and smell wonderful. Italians are all about presentation in every aspect of life, and flowers are often their finishing touch on the beautiful old houses.

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!

Join us November 10th for a special evening where Joel will take you on a tour of Italy.  He’ll show some of his favorite images on the big screen.  During the presentation, Joel will share stories and techniques behind the images providing useful tips on how to take your own stunning travel photos.  Time will be allowed for a Question and Answer period after the presentation.

Location:  Scottsdale, AZ
Date:  November 10th, 2010

$10 per person for reservations made by Nov 1st ($15 per person after that or at the door).
Light refreshments will be served.  Advance reservations are required.
Proceeds from this event benefit the Arizona Art Alliance and the Sonoran Arts League.

Contact us now to secure your place
Payment by check only
For more info, visit the website.

Click here for a sneak preview of some of the Images of Italy

Ciao!  Hope to see you there…

We’re now booking our 2011 Villages of Tuscany workshop!   It will be a unique cultural and visual journey. Visit some previous posts to get an idea of what we do. The dates are 14-21 May, 2011*.  As always, we include 7 nights accommodation, in-country transportation, many wonderful meals, wine tasting, and much more!  We’re really excited for another great trip.  Click here to see a full description.

*We can also arrange a similar tour for private groups to Tuscany or Provence!  Contact us for more information…

We still have room in two upcoming workshops, September 25th- Digital Photo Basics and October 8-10th- Fall Color in Northern Arizona …  time is running out!

Ciao for now.