MooseNewsBlog

The business of photography is not one for the weak of heart, but rather one bursting with passion. It’s not for one who is in it for the short term or glory, but rather for the love of photography itself. It’s not for one who sells their soul for a penny, but rather commands and earns the dollar. These individuals who stay this course are very rare in this business, I know. Even more rare are those who go the extra step and share what the school of hard knocks has taught them to others. I am incredibly fortunate to call such a shooter, friend, good friend and today, good fortune shines on you as well.

Joe’s new book The Moment IT Clicks just arrived today. Galley proofs have been in my reach the last couple of months, but I wanted to wait until I had the book in my hands, sitting in my reading chair and could give it the attention it so richly deserves. It’s hard to read at times I think, seeing through your tears of laughter and deep thought, soaking up all the words of wisdom. The message here will take a couple of reads to soak in. I’m very fortunate though to have Joe’s voice in my head (and those inner ones too at times) as I read. You’re even more fortunate to have his talent shared with you as you shoot. We’re all very fortunate that Joe put it in writing for us all to enjoy, learn from and treasure in the years to come.

Thanks Joe for the great journey!

We’ve received tons of love notes in regards to our latest BT Journal and it’s new layout. The layout credit goes to the incredibly sweet and talented Margie Rosenstein at NAPP (I owe her a BIG hug!) and our packager/publisher Joanne Bolton. The new cover especially has folks asking questions including my current mentee. I thought a question I just answered for him in regards to the cover might be of help to you all. Here’s it is.

“Yes, the cover image has to be cropped to support the paper size, not happy about that but have no option. If you look on pg28, you’ll see the whole photo uncropped.

Composition or how I subconsciously think of it, the arranging of elements, has many, many facets to it. You’re on the right track thinking of white/snow and how that grabs the mind’s eye and a need to minimize it at times. But when the buck hit the ridge, that wasn’t part of my formula or concern for the arranging of elements because I knew the background/snow would be out of focus, the buck tack sharp. I knew they would be out of focus because I was shooting with a 200f2VR lens at f/2. With the buck tack sharp, the eye is forced to go to it first and keep coming back to it.

As for the placement of the buck itself in the frame, yes, common wisdom would say place it left to have it looking into the frame. I’ve never been known to have common wisdom, probably the first problem. But more to the point, the body posture is what dictated the placement of the buck on the right for me. I didn’t want the question answered visually what had his attention, why was he on high alert. I want the viewer’s imagination to take them in whatever direction it may. It could be another buck, a doe, a pesky photographer (which is wasn’t) or even a mountain lion. Only the imagination can fill in the blank. And to me, that’s what brings power to the image, the imagination merged with the reality.”

What I need to add to this answer to Tom is, I just put the camera to my eye and without thinking about any of what I just wrote, I just shoot. At this stage of my photography, something that is still constantly growing (thank god), composition has become a non-issue. My own challenge is to excite the imagination and heart strings in the viewers of my images. One of the few benefits of time.

Photo captured by D3, 200f2VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

We’ve had snow 71/2 of the last 8 days with two of those days with 30+mph winds. Needless to say, the wood pile and wine supply has been dented. You’ve probably seen a few of my snow photographs from Yellowstone and while Mammoth is beautiful in snow, let’s just say I can’t find the same character in the snow here. With all the winds, we’ve not had any birds for the last couple of days either. So to avoid getting cabin fever (couldn’t get out of Dodge either, road closed) I thought I would look at other avenues of photographic expression.

One of the vacation homes in the neighborhood has someone in it (who must be scared of snow, has every light on). The glow out the windows and the pattern of light on the tree and snow hill caught my attention. Cranking up the ISO to 6400, I went out in the falling snow and made two exposures, one for the window light and one for everything else. I than cameback to Photoshop and combined the two. I used Dfine to smooth everything out and baam, alternative to white is done.

Photo captured by D3, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Nikon announced a new body and three new lenses. You’ve got the D60, the 16-85DX, the 60f2.8AFS micro and the very exciting 24f3.5PC-E. I’m very excited to receive the 24PC-E and create some ultra wide panos with the D3. In case it wasn’t on your radar screen, PMA is this weekend.

(photos courtesy of Nikon)

Here’s some more info on the 24PC-E, 60Micro, 16-85DX, and D60. At the Nikon booth at PMA, you will also be able to see the new 45PC-E Micro and the 85PC-E Micro.

Update: Since I haven’t seen these lenses, I wanted to double check facts before posting more info. The E in PC-E stands for Electromagnetic Diaphragm. Since most photographers don’t use a PC lens, this doesn’t mean much. On the D3 & D300 (only at this time) you can use a PC-E lens in any exposure mode, A, S or P just like you would with any lens. Why is that special? PC lenses “break” in half to achieve their PC and when you do that, you loose any mechanical links to the aperture so previously, all PC lenses were preset lenses. No more, that’s darn cool! The 45 & 85 had the soft release because they aren’t ready for prime time yet. You should see the three lenses as early as March.

We’ve been hammered of late with questions in regards to the 600VR lens. I just got word mine is in route so once I have it and have shot with it, I’ll post some thoughts here.

With the shipping of the Wacom 12WX and my first blog, I’ve had a number of emails of just how to make the most of this cool tool. I’m pretty sure there are many who want to know how to make this work as a 2nd monitor. I don’t know the recipe for Macs and needed the help of my dear friend Joe Sliger to get this right, but here you go.

The recipe for the Photoshop with the 12WX is:

I start by making the 12WX the Primary display in Display Properties (Windows defaults back to normal when the 12WX is not plugged in). Open Photoshop and configure it to your likings and workspace ON the 12WX. Open the image you want to work on; Hit the “F” key until the image appears in a window, not using any of the 3 full screen modes. Than Window Menu > Arrange > New Window for “image name” a duplicate of the original image will show up on top of the original. Drag the duplicate image to the notebook monitor (you can do this by hitting the top express key on the side of the 12WX, which will map the pen across both displays until you click it again). Hit the “F” key until your preferred background shows up (use can use Fullscreen mode now). Hit “CTRL+ALT+0″ to go to fill the monitor with the largest possible preview. Hit the top express key again, which should bring the pointer back under the pen. Select the image that is on the 12WX by clicking anywhere in its window. And hit the F key again with the image on the 12WX selected to select your preferred view. At this point any retouching you do on the 12WX will show up on the larger second display in full view. This enables you to see what Micro retouch is doing to the overall image and Color corrections for small areas and the effect it is having on the whole image.

I hope this helps you make the most of this killer tool!

Was it cold in Yellowstone we’ve been asked? Heck no, a walk in the park. Look at that face mask, it barely has any ice on it!

Here’s another example of fashionable photographer faceware. Note, there are no icicles coming from the nose so it ain’t that cold. Of course, he was standing in the middle of Norris Geyser Basin. The temp rose to -3 when you were out in the middle of it.

No rouge needed here, no Photoshop either. That glow is from a brisk -7 afternoon at Upper Geyser Basin. What this photo doesn’t tell you is that Joe’s lips were stuck like this for the next hour until we went in for lunch.

We have a tradition at DLWS, the group hug. It took on a whole new need in Yellowstone! It’s the warmth from all of the participants that made even the coldest times pass without even a shiver. Many thanks!

I have received LOTS of emails (& print orders, thx) from the images I blogged last week from Yellowstone. It was an incredible experience from the grandeur that is Yellowstone to the great folks who were DLWS. Those folks, you know we had them going at 06:30 and were with them until midnight everyday (there was no time off) and all they did was smile and make some incredible images! One helluva a week!

A common question about the images tends to be “Were the images worked in Photoshop?” Darn good question and the answer for all the landscape photos is, darn tootin! None of the wildlife see Photoshop, but my landscape images sure do. To be specific, they see Capture NX. I find that especially true with the D3, NX does it all for me. Here’s an example.

The top photo is right out of the D3. The biggest problems are two fold. First is the horrible color cast caused by the steam coming from Castle Geyser next door. Second is the lack of light in the pool itself. Now McNally & I thought about throwing an SB-800 into that sucker to light it up for the one shot, but there’s a big sign saying “No Flash Fill Permitted in the Pools” so we went to plan B. Knowing these two facts that I would have a color cast and no light getting down into the pool, I composed accordingly knowing the tools I have back in the computer. After finishing the image (which is totally different from fixing), it looks like this…

See a difference? The finishing took only seconds with NX doing the lion share of removing the color cast and than pulling the color out of the pool. In Photoshop, all I did was to use Tonal Contrast in Nix’s Color Efex 3.0 for the finishing touch. This isn’t some Moose voodoo, all of you can obtain the same results. If you don’t know how, come journey with us on DLWS, we’re more than happy to help you find your vision!

Photo captured by D3, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

That’s right, I’m coming out of safari retirement for this one very special event. Jan 16-21, 2009, we’re taking five wildlife photographers into Yellowstone for one helluva an amazing photographic adventure. We’ll be based out of West Yellowstone and covering all of the park during our safari (except Lamar Valley). We’re going after wolves, bobcats, bison, swans, elks, deer, owls and if we really have to, the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful and a couple of geysers thrown in here and there for good measure. We start on Friday night and go all the way through until Wed night. We have our own deluxe snow coach (not a bombadire) getting us to all the magical locales. The price is $3250 and includes instruction, transportation once you arrive in West Yellowstone and lunch. There are three spots available. Call the office 760.924.8632 if you’d like to join us on a grand adventure!

Note: 01.19.08 Safari is full

It might have been -31 degrees at the Canyon of the Yellowstone this AM, but that didn’t stop the DLWS crew from an amazing morning of photography. We still can’t get over the fact that we had three days of gorgeous light in one of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet. This is the canyon side of the Yellowstone as the sun slowly paints down the side.

The “hoodoos” that line the canyon side are just fascinating with no snow, they are just stunning when whipped up in snow. The play of light on this formation kept us quite entertained for a good long time.

These leftover summer grasses have managed to hang on and on this very cold day (it had warmed up to -3 when I took this photo). The hoar frost gathered on their stems and made for a very cool, graphic B&W photo.

But nothing, nothing we witnessed all week compared to our time at Norris Basin! It has always been a favorite of mine but now it’s a passionate love. The steam has frozen over winter onto the trees in the foreground creating an amazing snow sculpture. The play of light in the steam (which is what fills the sky here) as the breeze whips it this way and that filled up cards and cards and cards. The light, oh man, just look at the light! WOW!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR / 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Note: Just to test the D3, I left it out the entire day, it never say the inside of a camera bag or jacket. It was one cold sucker, so cold I was afraid that the ice formed on my mustache would permanently connect me to the D3. Despite the extreme cold, the D3 performed without a hitch. When it comes to exposure, the D3 nailed it all. I dialed in minus compensation only when I wanted to influence the message of the photo.

You can’t tell from this photograph, but when we left the lodge at 0′dark thirty it was in a driving, cold, nasty snow storm. All the drive out to Old Faithful the snow storm continued. We exited the coaches and it was still snowing. We headed inside for a killer Joe McNally lighting class and when he was all done, well you can see for yourself above. We had another glorious day of light so we spent nearly all of it in the Upper Geyser Basin. Here’s just one of the many geysers and an overview of the upper basin. During our two mile walk, we came across this ole boy.

I was able to use Sharon’s xmas present, a 70-300VR for the first time and man, what a marvelous lens. This old bull is plowing the snow to find grass to munch.

We than headed over to Midway Geyser Basin for a spectacular light display.

I’m not sure who likes us so much to provide unbelievable weather in winter here in Yellowstone, but I sure hope they continue to do so tomorrow.

I invite you to see some other great images from the DLWS staff to be inspired by the beauty found in Yellowstone. Be sure to check out Laurie’s, Kevin’s, Josh’s and Jake’s blogs!

Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS / 70-300VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

There are those days when no matter what you know, you can’t scare up an image to save your life. Today was anything but one of those. The entire DLWS gang had a monstrous day of shooting in Yellowstone with the photogods presenting to us all that is Yellowstone. We had the hoar frost light up just at the right moment when we stopped to photograph the rising steam of Paint Pots. We had blue sky come out behind and the wind stop when we photographed Old Faithful which performed the highest display in months. And we ended the day with incredible light and subjects, so many you had to make a choice sacrificing ten other great subjects. I choose to finish the day with this Bison Bull which had just one side a frozen puzzle from sleeping on a thermal area. 64GB of images later, all I can say about the day is it was simply, magical!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR/24-70AFS/200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

The DLWS staff headed into Yellowstone prior to sunrise and not until 4PM did we see any sun. That didn’t stop us from having great fun like kids in fresh snow shooting the wonders all around us. One of our first stops was Firehole Falls which in winter is a beautiful place. This photo was finished using Nik Color Efex 3.0 Bleach which, since there was no real color worked great.

We than headed to Biscuit Basin and walked the snow covered boardwalk. Here, the richness of color set again the white snow was quite dramatic.

All it took was a slow pace and lots of looking below one’s feet to find the small gems of color amongst the white.

Photos captured by D3, 24-70AFS/14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film