|
|
|
|
December 2009
Gerlach's Nature Photography Newsletter!!!
What's In This Newsletter
-
Greetings
-
New Workshop Dates Added for 2010
-
Flash
-
Ecuador Hummingbirds
-
January Kenya 2010 Tour Update
-
New Book and DVD
-
Renewing Old Ties with PSA
-
Yogi's Fan Club
-
2010 Photo Workshops and Tours
-
2010 One-day All Digital Nature Photo Seminars
-
2011 Photo Workshops and Tours
-
New Article Posted on our Web Site!
|
|
|
December 2009
Greetings Everyone!
As promised, here's our spring, no, summer, well, ah, autumn newsletter! We wish you all good tidings and happy holidays! May the new year be even more fun and productive for you. Hopefully, you have all been good girls and boys (we are sure that is the case), so Santa remembers to bring you a nice new lens or camera. We'll be enjoying Christmas at home near Yellowstone.
What a wonderful, fulfilling, and busy year. We have done so much and learned so much - thanks to all of our smart clients! We conducted 25 instructional nature photography programs, shot thousands of new digital images, pushed the new camera technology to the limits (our speciality), and thoroughly enjoyed our year with you and on our own personal field trips to capture new images.
As those of you who have attended our field workshops know this year, our photo strategies have changed tremendously in the past twelve months. We do a lot with HDR, fill-flash, main flash, balanced flash, back-button focusing, mirror lockup, live view, live histograms, panoramas, RGB histograms, and precise metering tactics that are superbly accurate and fast.
Metering Update
We no longer use spotmetering! Hard to believe, isn't it? Instead, both of us highly prefer manual metering with the multi-segmented metering pattern. Nikon calls it "color matrix" and Canon uses the term, "Evaluative". We use the RGB histogram, instead of the averaging one, because it is more precise with scenes where one color predominates such as an all red maple tree or a scene with a lot of blue water and sky. We look at the histogram for each individual color channel, note the one that has data farthest to the right, and adjust the exposure with either the shutter speed, ISO, or f/stop until the rightmost data of that color channel is just touching the right edge of the histogram. This works perfectly for us. Every image in our new book, Digital Landscape Photography, is exposed precisely this way. Give it a try. Our reasons for doing it this way are fully explained in the new book.
|
|
|
|
|
New Workshop Dates Added in 2010
Yellowstone in Winter by Snowmobile
January 24-30, 2010
We just added our fifth photo tour of Yellowstone National Park by snowmobile! The new dates are January 24-30, 2010. Please come and join our merry group of photographers in Yellowstone this winter. As I write this, we still have a few spots available in this tour. Call Tracie at (800) 221-1151 or Email Tracie@yellowstone-travel.com for complete information or to sign up. You can go to our web site for information, too, at http://gerlachnaturephoto.com/Yellowstone/Winter.html . As you probably know, we are experts at leading winter photo tours of Yellowstone, having led more than 50 week-long winter tours in the park since 1994. We promise you a winter trip you'll never forget that's full of great photography, yummy food, terrific lodging at the Holiday Inn, and a super experience in Yellowstone National Park.
Hummingbirds of British Columbia
June 6-12, 2010
We just added our fourth hummingbird photo workshop, so you can get in this tremendously popular photo workshop if you call Michele right away at 208-652-4444. We conducted a hummingbird photo workshop during this same time period in 2009 and it was terrific! It is the last of the four workshops we'll teach at the Bull River Guest Ranch in 2010, so all of the hummingbirds are perfectly trained to work our photo setups! We didn't schedule this time period for 2010 because it is such a nice time to be home in Idaho. But, we hate to disappoint, so we have added this session. Now a few more can enjoy the fabulous hummingbird photography at the Bull River Guest Ranch. Go to our web site for the complete details. http://gerlachnaturephoto.com/Workshops/HummingbirdPage.html
|
|
|
Flash
We know flash scares most of you, so now we spend plenty of time teaching you how to master it. Flash is easy! Don't be afraid of it. It is so simple to mix manual natural light exposure with automatic flash metering. We teach this in all of our programs now to help you capture superb images.
Flash does generate some funny situations, though. We laughed when we saw three students trying to use fill flash on some mushrooms with a Canon 580 II flash. Each of them had one flash and there own Canon ST-E2 flash controller. Pretty soon we heard an excited conversation about all of the flashes going off, even when they didn't fire their camera. As we looked over, I saw one student peering into the flash tube just as it fired unexpectedly again. We hadn't yet mentioned that the wireless infrared flash controls of the ST-E2 fire all Canon flashes that can "see" the signal if the flashes are on the same channel. Since all three clients were so close together, any one of them firing their flash fired all of the flashes. To prevent this, we showed them how to set each flash to a different channel.
|
|
|
Ecuador Hummingbirds
We took a long photo trip to Ecuador to photograph hummingbirds! A previous client and friend hired us to help him photograph the hummingbirds at the Tandayapa Lodge in the rainforest of Ecuador during June. We were keen to go, even though June is a wonderful month to be home in Idaho. The trip was superb! Imagine having a dozen species of hummingbirds coming to our multiple-flash setups one after another. Some were tiny while others were as big as barn swallows. We will publish an article about our experiences later in 2010. We are considering offering an in-depth hummingbird photo tour of Ecuador, but our schedule is already so full next year that it is not possible right away. We will let everyone know by E-mail if, and when, that happens.
|
|
|
|
|
January 2010 Kenya Update
We have room for a gentleman that would like to share a room.
We begin our first 2010 trip on January 3 when we fly to Kenya to lead a two week photo tour to the best game parks. January tends to have more baby animals, more wildlife diversity because many European birds winter there, better weather, and less tourists than our regular trips in September. You don't have the migration in January, but you do have the animals and the cats are more active because they have to hunt more for food. As I write this, we do have one more spot available for a man who is willing to share a room. Please call Kim at International Expeditions to get that spot. Call 1-800-633-4734.
|
|
|
|
|
New Book and DVD!!!
Our second book, Digital Landscape Photography, was published in September by Focal Press. We are so proud of this book because it is full of leading edge techniques that make it easy for anyone to capture outstanding landscape images shot after shot. Our favorite tactics are carefully explained and illustrated. Plus, two of our finest students who are skilled writers helped us organize and edit the manuscript. Many thanks and a round of applause go to Al Hart and Dan Pater. With the hours they put into this book, it reads better than I could have ever imagined. Thank you so much guys!
This book covers the "shooting workflow" we use to photograph landscapes. Key tactics we cover include back-button focusing, RGB histogram metering, the enormous advantages of manual metering, fill-flash, balanced flash, mirror lockup, techniques for sharp images, the power of live view, the awesome capability of HDR, panoramas, using lenses well, controlling your camera with custom functions, perspective choices, tilt and shift lenses, and so much more. Our book, like our teaching programs, is overflowing with state-of-the-art information. If you wish to capture stunning images of the landscape easily, efficiently, and precisely, this is the book for you!
I (John) did make one technical mistake that was kindly pointed out by one of our loyal clients. It is such a simple thing, I can't believe I ever had a misconception about it. You are probably wondering what it is. Okay, I'll quiz you. Ready! Are you sure? Give yourself 5 second to come up with the right answer. Okay, here's the question. How many separate pieces of glass do polarizers have? The answer is either one or two. Have you picked an answer? Okay, here it is. Polarizers have two rings, but only one piece of glass. I use polarizers all of the time, and for thirty years, thought for some reason there were two pieces of glass. Am I the only one who got this wrong?
Polarizers have two rings, so the single piece of glass can be rotated. This special glass can be thought of as a window with very thin long vertical bars. Light normally vibrates in all planes, so it passes through these narrow slits in the glass. However, often light strikes objects such as molecules in the sky or wet surfaces and the light is modified, so it vibrates in only one plane. If you turn the polarizer just right, so the polarized light is vibrating in a plane that doesn't coincide with the narrow slits in the polarizer, the light is excluded from the image. That's why the sky darkens because the polarized light is largely eliminated from the image when the polarizer is turned just right. However, polarizers can't eliminate all glare. Some surfaces such as most metals cause glare, but the light isn't polarized, so the polarizer can't eliminate it from the image.
I don't mind if someone points out places where I am wrong. Frankly, I am real happy to finally understand the truth of the matter. Nobody knows it all, but thanks to all of our brilliant clients, we know more that we would without you folks!
We want to stress that we learn a tremendous amount from our students. Due to your probing questions, we often figure out new tricks while we are teaching. We are big fans of live view because a group of talented students a couple summers ago pushed us to find worthwhile uses for it. Thanks to a student observation, we came up with another gem for Canon shooters that is incredibly helpful. The "shooting workflow" we teach for capturing images in the field is a combination of our knowledge and student questions or observations that pushed us to find answers.
If you are a Canon shooter, you must be wondering just what is that Canon trick we came up with this past summer. As you know, we love using custom functions to make the camera work more efficiently and precisely. Perhaps I am a bit odd, but I study all of the Canon custom functions carefully to see how I can benefit from them. I see no benefit in some, so I don't use them. Others are enormously useful. While teaching our workshop clients how to use the live histogram in the live view mode, one student mentioned it is too bad the camera is set up, so moving the histogram data to the right means you have to turn the main control dial to the left if you are behind the camera. "It would be much easier to remember which way to turn the dial if you could turn it the same direction you want the histogram data to move," he pondered. Upon hearing that, and realizing how much nicer that would be, the answer immediately came to me.
I realized that one custom function I previously found no use for was suddenly the answer. With my Canon 5D Mark II, it is custom function #4 in Group #4. With my Canon 1D Mark III, custom function #6 in Group #4 does the trick. What does this custom function do? It reverses the dial directions in TV, AV, and manual exposure. Set this custom function to choice #1, instead of the default choice of #0. Now turning the main control dial in the manual exposure mode to the right (as viewed from the rear of the camera) adds exposure by slowing the shutter down (in the default mode), so the histogram moves to the right. With the live histogram display and the dials set to do this, it takes us about one minute to teach beginning students how to handle virtually any exposure easily and quickly. Achieving an excellent exposure (for most situations) is just a matter of turning the dial until the rightmost data is barely touching the right edge of the histogram.
|
|
|
|
Photographing California's Eastern Sierra (DVD)
Our second DVD is out and we are thrilled with it. DVDs are so much fun to produce because we have to spend lots of time in terrific places shooting photographs. The eastern Sierra's has long been important to my nature photography career because I spent years photographing in the area when I first started. Having little to no money, I spent years sleeping under the stars in remote meadows. I couldn't afford a campground, so I had no choice. I was always up and gone well before dawn to catch the early light. It was so much fun to take Barbara to many of my old haunts to show her what I used to do and where I photographed.
The eastern Sierra is truly a photographer's paradise, so you owe it to yourself to make your own photographic journey. Our DVD will make sure you succeed!
|
|
|
Thanks Again!!!
Due to the overwhelming and highly favorable responses we received for both the How to Photograph Yellowstone DVD and our first book, Digital Nature Photography - The Art and the Science, both companies are eager to work with us on more projects. As already mentioned, our second DVD, Photographing California's Eastern Sierra and our second book, Digital Landscape Photography are now available. We are planning to shoot a third DVD in 2010 and begin writing our third book, too.
Both DVDs and books are really fun projects, but they do involve a lot of work and time to produce. Sadly, I did have to turn down one book project. Focal Press wanted me to write books on each of the new Canon cameras. For example, one book would be on just the Canon 5D Mark II. However, due to our commitment to teach you in the field, our time is incredibly limited. We never have any spare time. Getting a book out on a specific camera is a timing thing. It must come out right after the camera is introduced. I could easily write such a book in a single month, but I never have that much time available. Often we teach workshops for three to five consecutive weeks in a row. Those of you who have attending our field workshops know how hard we work to make sure you succeed. There simply isn't any time to write while we are teaching. These books on single cameras tend to be much better than the manual, so we do recommend them. Recently, I searched the web and discovered several books just on the Canon 5D Mark II. These books explain how to use the camera better than the manual, but all of the ones I have read do have one serious weakness. All too often, they fail to explain why you might use a feature or how a custom function or a combination of them will help you shoot superb images. The reasons why you want to customize your camera are precisely where we are strongest, and that is what we teach you in our books and teaching programs!
|
|
|
Renewing Old Ties with PSA
When I first began photography in the mid-seventies, I joined the Photo Guild camera club in Detroit and the Photographic Society of America (PSA). I found both of these groups were most helpful in the beginning with learning how to compose fine images. However, when I began my professional photo career, I moved away from clubs to devote all of my energies and financial resources to my emerging career as a professional nature photographer. We were elated when PSA asked Barbara and I to be their keynote speakers for one of the nights at their annual convention in West Yellowstone. We enjoyed presenting our all new "How to Photograph Yellowstone" digital program to the huge audience, meet all of the fine folks at PSA, and enjoyed other presenters like George Lepp and Art Wolfe, too.
PSA is a superb organization that covers all aspects of photography which includes nature, photojournalism, portrait, photo travel, stereo, electronic imaging, printing, and much more. They offer many educational opportunities. If you like to compete in photo competitions, PSA offers contests all over the world. Do yourself a favor and contact them to see if this active group of excellent photographers is for you. We are members again and will continue to be for a long time to come. Contact:
PSA Headquarters
3000 United Founder's Blvd.
Suite 103
Oklahoma City, OK 73112-3940
If you do join, tell them we sent you and thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
Yogi's Fan Club
A mystery package arrived in November from Yogi's Fan Club. We didn't know he had a fan club, but he sure does enjoy the doggy treats and the fuzzy toy that squeaks when he bites it. The one down side for us is Yogi brings us the toy and drops it in our lap every night. He thinks we should throw it a couple dozen times, so he can retrieve it. We have learned to throw it as far as possible in the house to tire him out sooner. Yogi thinks we should enlarge his fan club by announcing it, so here is the official announcement. If you care to contribute, here's the address:
Yogi's Fan Club
PO Box 258
Mack's Inn, ID 83433.
Now remember, don't overdo it. Yogi is a small 8 pound pomeranian and we would like to keep him that size. If he had his way, we would look like a 50 pound pumpkin with a little black nose sticking out.
|
|
|
2010 Photo Workshops and Tours
The Best Game Parks of Kenya Photo Safari
We have one spot available for a man who is willing to share a room.
Yellowstone Winter Tour by Snowmobile
-
Just Added -- Jan 24-30
-
Jan 31-Feb 6
- Feb 7-13
- Feb 14-20
- Feb 21-27
As I write this, these workshops are sold out. We sometimes have last minute cancellations, so it may be possible to join us. Tracie at Yellowstone Tour and Travel is in charge of enrollments. Please call her directly at (800) 221-1151 to find out about the current availability.
How to Shoot Beautiful Nature Photographs
(our new all digital seminar)
We will be on the west coast in 2010. Here are the dates and locations.
- March 13-Phoenix
- March 14-Tucson
- March 20-San Diego
- March 21-Pasadena
- March 27-Sacramento
- March 28-San Jose
- April 10-Portland
April 17-Seattle
Hummingbirds of British Columbia
- May 16-22
- May 23-29
-
May 30-June 5
-
Just Added -- June 6-12
Our enormously popular hummingbird photo workshops will wear your camera out. The photo opportunities are superb. Many of our clients win major photo contests around the world with images taken at this workshop. Please call Michele at 208-652-4444 to get enrolled. We are also taking enrollments for our 2011 sessions. Each workshop is limited to 10 participants. The deluxe Bull River Guest Ranch hosts our workshops. Non-participating spouses and friends are welcome to join us at the guest ranch.
Yellowstone Backcountry Photo Tour by Horseback
- July 18-23 - These are tenative dates
This is our annual photo tour of Yellowstone's "Cascade Corner" in the Bechler river backcountry. Wildflowers, hot springs, and numerous spectacular waterfalls await your camera. We ride horses to our photo spots and mules bring in all of the camping gear and food for five nights in the backcountry. Limited to 8 participants. Please contact Terry or Angela Search for complete details. Call (406) 646-7230.
Lee Metcalf Wilderness Photo Tour by Horseback
This horseback photo tour takes us to 9,000 foot Lake Ha Hand in the Lee Metcalf wilderness just northwest of West Yellowstone. The wildflowers and the scenery is truly spectacular! Contact our outfitter, Terry or Angela Search, for details at (406) 646-7230. If you love horses, camping, and gorgeous wilderness places, this is your trip!
Michigan Summer Field Workshops
- August 8-14, 2010
- August 15-21, 2010
Now in our 22nd year, these popular field workshops in our beloved northern Michigan are our best teaching workshops. No matter what your skill level, if you are willing to give up bad habits and follow our advice, we can teach you how to easily shoot professional quality images shot after shot. We teach a "shooting workflow" that is simple to master and consistently delivers superb images. Contact Michele at 208-652-4444 to enroll or go to our web site.
Kenya-The Migration and the Best Games Parks of Kenya
- August 27-September 10, 2010
Having led nearly three dozen previous Kenya photo safaris, we know how to make it totally successful for you. This is the time of the migration when the great herds of plains game move north from the Serengeti! We still have openings, so please call Kim at International Expeditions. Tell her you wish to join the Gerlach Kenya photo safari. Call 1-800-633-4734.
Michigan Autumn Color Photo Workshops
- October 3-9
- October 10-16
You will love our highly instructional autumn color workshops. Like the summer workshops, these programs are heavy on instruction. Our mission is for you to have a terrific time, capture superb images, and become a professional quality photographer. These workshops fill rapidly, so please contact Michele right away to enroll in a session. Call 208-652-4444 or go to our web site at http://gerlachnaturephoto.com/FallColorWorksh.html
2011 Photo Workshops and Tours
The Best Game Parks of Kenya Photo Safari
Yellowstone Photo Tour by Snowmobile
- Jan 30-Feb 5
- Feb 6-11
- Feb 13-18
Hummingbirds of British Columbia
- May 15-21
- May 22-28
- May 29-June 4
Yellowstone Backcountry Photo Tour by Horse
Lee Metcalf Wilderness Photo Tour by Horse
Michigan Nature Photo Workshops
The Best Game Parks of Kenya Photo Safari
Michigan Autumn Color Photo Workshops
Pass this Newsletter On!
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your photography friends. We wish to share good information to as many other photographers as possible, so everyone will learn to capture magnificent images easily and quickly. Much more information is available on our web site at www.gerlachnaturephoto.com.
|
|
|
New Article Posted on our Web Site!
Twelve Reasons to Use Live View!
If you have purchased a DSLR is the past couple of years, you probably have live view. It is a wonderful tool that will help your photography enormously, especially for landscape and macro photography. We have just finished writing an article called, "Twelve Reasons to Use Live View." If you have live view, you'll benefit greatly by reading this article. If you don't have live view, read the article anyway and make sure your next DSLR offers this wonderful feature. We have just posted this new article on our web site. Please use the following link to get to it. http://gerlachnaturephoto.com/Articles/Live%20%20View%20Article%20Dec%2009.html
|
|
|
|
