MooseNewsBlog

Well, arrived in Orlando at 01:30 this AM, checked in 1 hotel and then changed to another by 11:00 (long story). I went to class today to learn some new stuff and when it was all done, I totally forgot what room I was in. As in, I wondered the halls looking until running into my good friend RC (of NAPP fame) & Joe. After a little consoling, I found my room but Sharon was missing. I called her to find out she was watching the ducks walk the red carpet. “What did you say?”  That’s right, ducks walk the red carpet here at The Peabody. So naturally being a wildlife photographer, I grabbed my camera and headed down. All I can say…what a Duckie way to start Photoshop World.

Photo captured by D3, 24-70AFS (ISO 1600) on Lexar UDMA digital film

I’m a very firm believer that we need to know where we came from to have an idea where we’re heading. This is very true for photography! Now, since we don’t all have access to Joe McNally to ask him personally how it was way back when, Natl G has been good enough to put up this very cool timeline you can find here. Did you know the first wildlife photographer to use flash was a Natl G shooter back in the 1890s named George. The same guy helped get this little bill in congress passed called the Migratory Bird Act. It’s just dang amazing what photography and wildlife photography has brought to this world! Check it out, it might just help your photography.

Our last shoot of the Moab 2008 DLWS event found us back at Cisco. It is truly a treasure chest made up of old junk just crying to be photographed. The “Thelma & Louis” car was quite a popular prop for folks. Few found this cool, old, rusty coke machine and lastly is my favorite, Sharon looking out through that killer homemade screen door at sunset.

Photos captured y D3, 14-24AFS & 200VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

We ventured out to Dead Horse Point…wow! First, with the 200VR I went after locale color and design (finished with Nik ColorEfex 3.0). Then, Kevin thought of and executed this killer flash shot of the Juniper (seen early this week on the blog). Kevin wanted to shoot before the sun came up so he gelled a flash, dialed in some comp and made magic. Now, thirty minutes later he showed me the image so I had to go and give it a shot. Hopefully Kevin will blog his, it’s MUCH better then mine. Much!

Now, after Joe & I messed with the tree with flash, sunrise occurred and nature took over. Wrapping up the morning was one of our students taking in the grandeur.

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

After a great Highnoon session with our own Josh presenting Vivesa as a highlight, we headed out to the Colorado River gorge. After the sun had set, it’s last rays bounced off a couple of clouds and gave us one heck of a color for just a heartbeat. Using the 200-400VR at 400mm, a few sections with killer color could be immortalized.

We have a great group of photographers here at DLWS and they are making this one fun week!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

Up early and WOW! Mesa Arch just glows!

It’s very rewarding to receive emails from folks who not only enjoy the images here, but back engineer how it was taken and use that info for their own photography. Yes, this is the combination of two images, one for the highlight detail and one for the shadow detail. They are merged in Photoshop and then finished with Tonal Contrast Nik Colerefex 3.0 filter.

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

Ok…now that I’m back with it (posting at midnight doesn’t always work well), these are images from Cisco landing where we ventured to again. It just wasn’t my night, so I highly recommend you heading to Josh’s blog who had a great evening, Kevin’s blog and Laurie’s. And if you’re bored, there’s always Joe’s blog. Actually, I’m still in shock that Joe came back late last night, processed an image from the shoot, got it up along with text in his blog. Did you feel the earth stop, I sure did!

Photos captured by D3, 200VR & 14-24AFS

Our start of our Moab DLWS was great even though, as you can see, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Our own Joe McNally sacrificed his body to be our living silhouette model in North Window. Then, once the sun had become too hard for anything else, I went up into the window itself to capture just one portion of the arch. It was a great start showing how even when the light isn’t happening, photography still can.

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

We went scouting today and did we strike pay dirt! The old town of Cisco Landing landed us a treasure trove of great images. Starting with moonset. This is a composite of two images, one with the buildings in focus, the other of just the moon in focus. Even Nikon can’t pull off that kind of DOF with the 200-400VR!

Next, I walked down the “street” to this old gas station and with the 14-24AFS, did a artsy fartsy self portrait.

Then, I got out of my own way to photograph the front of the gas station. What appears to be the shadow of my legs on the right is actually a paint stain. Using the 200f2VR, I could shoot through the rear window and have it totally out of focus. This image was finished using Nik ColorEfex 3.0, Monday Morning filter. Whenever I’m doing this type of shooting, I already have in my mind applied, like in this case, the Monday Morning filter which makes composition possible.

Laurie on her explorations found this cool green door which I shot with the 14-24AFS really wide. This was finished with ColorEfex 3.0 Tonal Contrast.

Then, finding this cool door with a hand made screen, I got Laurie to pose to finish off a great morning of shooting!

Since I’m spending the rest of the day in my room putting the finishing touches on my Photoshop World presentations (I’m doing a record number for me this time), I posted extra images. Hopefully you can get a sense of how my mind was working this morning by the progression of images. It was a good, solid morning of making images!

Photos captured by: heck, everything in my camera bag!

We headed out to Dead Horse Point tonight (you turn left where it smells bad) to find cloudless vistas. Well, I decided to work the same subject a couple of different ways: two different angles and two different formats. I then finished them the same in NX, Efex 3.0 and now I’m just staring at them trying to decide which I like best. I’ll probably have to print them out to make the final call.

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

It was a cloudless, quiet morning at Arches. Still gorgeous, just not picture perfect. Hard to see in this small image but there is a shooter in the lower right corner just barely being kissed by the sunrise. It’s the only image I could scare up for the morning. But there was breakfast, see below

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

Badger, dood, I asked but they just don’t ship these killer, yummy pancakes. I thought of you with every bite tickling my tongue, the ginger lighting up the pallet.

Joe, I thought of you too man, sorry you’re not here yet. I’m not sure Brad has the same sentiment though.