DLWS 2011 – What’s Up?

Folks have noticed that our 2010 schedule is just about full, we have a couple of openings for Bozeman (and 2 for Santa Fe from recent cancellation) and that’s it for this year. And, there is nothing up for 2011. At least not on the website. So, what gives with DLWS, the hottest workshop series on the planet?

DLWS 2011 is most definitely happening and in a bigger and better way, but not bigger like you might think. We’ve cut the maximum group size down to 20max and the number of events to only five. At the same time we’ve increased the learning, fun, locations and expense (NAPP folks still receive the 5% discount of course!). All new Sunday line up, Landscape live demos, and our own lovely Ms. Stephanie teaching PS (you’ve probably seen her on PSUserTV). And we’re signing up folks by special invitation only which is why you’ve not seen anything on the website. Our first event in Yosemite next winter is just about full and we’re about to send out invitations for our HI event. How do you get a special invite?

You’ll have to drop Stephanie an email (and an email just saying “please add me to the list” isn’t going to get you added to the list). Then, once she’s satisfied that you’re crazy and big hearted enough to join us, you’ll get the invite and be on the list for future events. We’ve taken all the great stuff about DLWS and raised the bar a couple of notches to create what we think will be just a killer event. Hope you can join us in 2011!

DLWS 2011 – What's Up?

Folks have noticed that our 2010 schedule is just about full, we have a couple of openings for Bozeman (and 2 for Santa Fe from recent cancellation) and that’s it for this year. And, there is nothing up for 2011. At least not on the website. So, what gives with DLWS, the hottest workshop series on the planet?

DLWS 2011 is most definitely happening and in a bigger and better way, but not bigger like you might think. We’ve cut the maximum group size down to 20max and the number of events to only five. At the same time we’ve increased the learning, fun, locations and expense (NAPP folks still receive the 5% discount of course!). All new Sunday line up, Landscape live demos, and our own lovely Ms. Stephanie teaching PS (you’ve probably seen her on PSUserTV). And we’re signing up folks by special invitation only which is why you’ve not seen anything on the website. Our first event in Yosemite next winter is just about full and we’re about to send out invitations for our HI event. How do you get a special invite?

You’ll have to drop Stephanie an email (and an email just saying “please add me to the list” isn’t going to get you added to the list). Then, once she’s satisfied that you’re crazy and big hearted enough to join us, you’ll get the invite and be on the list for future events. We’ve taken all the great stuff about DLWS and raised the bar a couple of notches to create what we think will be just a killer event. Hope you can join us in 2011!

San Francisco DLWS Day 3-PM

Our last evening shoot was from the only view of the Golden Gate we hadn’t taken this week, from the Marin Headlands. It’s such a gorgeous vantage point as the sun sinks and the bridge light rise in the darkness. The famous fog didn’t perform as we desired but the traffic we count on was no disappoint. I put the camera’s ISO down to LO1 and aperture to f/22 to get the slowest possible shutter speed to blur the headlights. I shot in Cloudy to pump up the reds, underexposed by 2 stops to do even more so. Didn’t like the results.

So I turned to a simple HDR and that did the job with a simple 3 image set. I then applied a little Glamor Glow and called it a night. I have more images to finish from the week and a little video. I hope to get it up. Gotta a great photo contest to announce tomorrow so stay tuned!

Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

San Francisco DLWS Day 3-AM

There is a small slice of heaven just north of San Fransisco, Muir Woods. This grove of coastal redwoods has long been a favorite of our families and today, we were fortunate to be be able to share it with our DLWS family. Nestled in the hills behind Mill Valley, the early morning fog lifts and the sun rises creating a magical world. You follow the creek up the walk as you explore the massive trees along the route. I’ve never reached the end of the trail, i spend so much time not really too far from the parking lot.

Photographing redwoods is something I’ve very comfortable with now. The main thing I look for are small amphitheaters in the forests, miniature groves within the grove. I’m looking for a means of showing the trees in the forest, a visual depth. And at the same time, communicate the majesty of the trees. I also use the PC-E lenses now, I really like not having leaning trees. I really, really like this particular photo that I created today. It started off with plumbing the body to use the PC-E lens. Next was to take a 5 image HDR set that was finished using Photomatix Pro and Silver Efex Pro. The 45PC-E is so wicked sharp, this final image is gorgeous! Simple a grand morning!

Photo captured by D3x, 45PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

San Francisco DLWS Day 2-PM

Has San Francisco welcomed us or what. Actually, SF Fire Department, Huse #34. My good bud Tim Pain arranged for us to photograph the heroes at the house who’s unique duties cover surf and cliff rescues. It was the greatest fun, the fire fighters tripping over themselves to first welcome us to the house and then to step in as models. This is probably one of the few places you’ll have a fire fighter in a wet suit for a model. Trish was great, standing there perfectly while at least 3000 shutter clicks were made. This is nowhere near the final shot Joe was setting up, but does give you a hint of the magic going on.

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On behalf of the entire DLWS staff and gang, I want to thank Captain Mike for opening up the house to use, bringing in the ladder truck, setting up ropes and swimmers and studly fireman with axes and so much more. It was undoubtedly one of the best shoots we’ve ever done!

Photos by D3s, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

San Francisco DLWS Day 2-AM

What a great day! I mean, I loved it all! We started off in grand DLWS tradition, nice and early and headed across the bridges. We ended up at Treasure Island to photograph San Francisco city lights. The storm went through, cleaned the air and lights and then laid down some serious atmosphere for us. Just gorgeous! The photography was the easy part I think. Both photos are straight from the camera. This one, the white balance was set to Cloudy. I wanted that warmth above the Bay Bridge in the clouds. It goes nicely with the light colors of the bridge itself.

This is a sillier photo I think. Have you seen that American Express commercial where they find all these smiles in very clever everyday places? Well, I’ve been looking for those myself ever since to see just how easy it is to discovery them. This is a real stretch, but the thought of it makes me smile. This was shot with the WB set to Tungsten which cooled off the color and the pending sunrise just starting to come through the clouds.

I did shoot what I feel is a killer pano of the entire city which I’ve not finished yet. It was a very simple scene but it yielded a whole bunch of cool images. It was just a great start to a great day!

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

San Francisco DLWS Day 1-PM

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Just as the sun didn’t want to play at the beginning of the day, neither did it want to play at the end of the day. Well, there are a number of ways to skin the light cat and artificial works darn well at times. The Golden Gate when there is weather just glows when the sun goes down. That “glow” is what I was photographing so I framed and finished it with that in mind. The point of capture was no more than the D3s with its ISO set to 1600 (out on slippery rocks teaching, not the time or place for a tripod) and 50f1.4AFS at 1.4. It was a real simple click to make.

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The finishing is just as easy. The top image I used Nik’s Tonal Contrast because of the break in the overcast. I wanted to boost that. The bottom photograph taken 10min later had no overcast hole but had a glow bouncing of it. It was finished with Nik’s Glamor Glow. Great shooting with new friends make it a great day!

San Francisco DLWS Day 1-AM

It was one of those mornings when the promise rose in the east and sank in the east before it could even get started. That happens with sunrises and sunsets but that doesn’t mean there aren’t images to be made. For me personally when there is no reds or blues to focus in on, I go to black and whites. This was a great morning for it, especially with the clouds coming in from the west. First, I had to remember I was shooting with the 24 PC-E. What does that mean? I had put the lens on just minutes before knowing I wanted to photograph the towers of the Golden Gate corrected. But I no sooner started to shoot and I had forgotten that thought. We have a great group of folks with us and I was just too busy enjoying meeting new friends. Then I remembered the PC-E and I made the click. Finishing was real simple. White Point / Black Point and a trip to Silver Efex. Dang good morning!

Photo captured by D3x, 24 PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

Ft Point Light

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been going to Ft Point. My first trip as far as I know might have been in a stroller, but whatever the case, I just keep going back. This could be because it’s historic and I love history, it could be its location, the base of Golden Gate’s south tower, or it could because it’s a great place to shoot. Shooting there again this weekend proved to be another great visit.

I visited the Fort this time deciding to attack it with two basic thoughts, use 1 lens and chase the light. In the beginning, the light was winning, I couldn’t make it snap in the viewfinder no matter how I looked. Then I looked down a hallway of one wing, you could see through a half dozen doorways without obstruction. With that one shot under my belt, the rest started to fall into place.

The majority of the images were taken with the razor sharp 50f1.4AFS at f/1.4. I had a lot of fun with that for quite awhile until I went up on the second level. I got to one of the canon ports and it just screamed 16Fish. The problem, NO light! We’re talking dark as sin, just small droplets of light here and there and that’s what made it all work. Handholding at 1/10 of a second, I cranked off some fun shots. These two are the current favorites; that could always change. These are both single capture HDRs. A three image HDR is in the show, see if you can figure out which one it is in the gallery below.

Click Here to launch the Ft. Point Gallery.

The one thing that is very deceiving is these two images were taken in locations that were really pitch black. The exposure comp dialed in was -2.5 stops to deal with the darkness. That exposure comp along with the little light really popped the color in the brick and made the blacks really black. All good stuff! When it comes to finishing, other than the B&Ws (still not sure what I like better, I started with B&W but now like the color) was real simple, it’s right out of the camera.

I’ll be going back again in a couple of days. I wonder what will strike me this time, can’t wait!

Photos captured by D3s, 50f1.4AFS / 16Fish on Lexar UDMA film

Wow…what a view!

On Tuesday night, Joe took the DLWS gang to an amazing locale with this amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. It was a crystal clear night so after shooting a whole bunch of 600mm views of the skyline, I made a quick three image pano. Not normally what I do, I’m so glad I did because for me, it best captured the gorgeous view. It’s just a simple handheld pano assembled in CS4 using Photomerge. Click here to see a larger view of it.

One aspect that I really like about it is you can see the gradation across the sky from the sunset on the right to the darkening night on the left. And I really like the city light themselves. Mr. McNally really knows his NY! Thanks Joe for sharing it with all of us!

Photo captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

THE subject of the Morning?

One of the aspects of photography that gets me up early is the unknown. Yeah, you plan to get up early to go to this place or photograph that subject but not until you are actually in place do you know if your plans are going to work or fate is going to take over. Well, such was the happenings of our Monday morning in Central Park with DLWS.

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World, say HI to Harry! The sun no sooner broke over the park then the gang found Harry and his owner playing on the lawn. He’s a great dog and his owner  a really nice person so Harry had his first modeling session.

Harry was a natural! He would fetch the ball, come back, put it down and then pose without a que. I watched for quite a while in the background as the group just had a ball photographing this very photogenic dog. He seemingly could strike any pose and you see here. This was the “act like you’re leaning on a chair” pose. What a star!

Seriously, for the rest of the day, the word went out that the dog paparazzi were cursing the park! Even McNally pulled out the EZYbox to photograph another bull dog. It was great fun. I grabbed just a couple of shots on the fringe, I kinda felt left out of the fun.

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

DLWS NY Day 3 – PM Shoot

After working our way through Washington Square, killer breakfast in SoHo, we walked up to Adorama for the regroup. From there we bussed over to the Plaza where we walked south to Time Square. Joe planned it perfectly so we would experience his NY and one of his favorite photographic subjects, the folks of NY.

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I did a little better this time, seeing those unique moments of daily life and combining them with the world in which they happen. It’s hard for me to be carrying on a basic conversation while trying to find these images. While they are happening all the time all around you, getting all the elements to line up though takes concentration, for me at least.

I actually got more images I like this walk then I’ve gotten in the past. I posted the two that I feel are closer to the goal. I’ve got a whole bunch more to edit through and think if what I saw translates.

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

DLWS NY Day 3 – AM Shoot

We started our day where we left off the night before, with an amazing view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Traveling down in to Jersey, we arrived and got in place just prior to the first glow of the day. One the light started to come up, oh my!

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McNally said bring long glass and that was the perfect call! I bogged down the path to the right to get the torch in front of the dark predawn clouds to make it pop. It’s rare I get to use a wildlife technique with landscapes but always happy when it works.

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What seems to be a recurring theme the past week as I’ve been shooting in NYC, but that’s the Empire State Building. I just love it’s classic shape and it’s placement on the NY landscape so it just sucks in the lens. I intensified the color with under exposure, this one was taken at -2.

We finished up with this amazing single God beam coming through the clouds. There was a major shift to the left in order to incorporate it and then dialing an addition -.5 to bring it out. What a start to the day!

Photos captured by D3x / D3s, 600VR / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

DLWS NY Day 2 – PM Shoot

Oh man, does McNally know this town or what! On a bluff overlooking the Hudson, the entire DLWS group looked across at the amazing NYC skyline as the sun set. The color slowly came up, glowed for a heartbeat, faded out and then the lights of the city came up.

As the light started to wein the textures and colors of the buildings just sucked me in looking for patterns in all the lines. I might be the only one who likes this, but I really like it.

Then the glow of the fading sun passed and the glow of the city came to life. I might be a simple mtn boy but I just loved the light. Oh yeah, I’m a photographer, we love light!

Then there was the last gasp of available light with the glow going at full blast. Simply gorgeous! The key to making these images was first letting the camera sort out the various light sources with Auto White Balance. Next is under exposure for color, black and mood. I shot all of these at -1.5. Then just follow McNally’s lead making the evening just a blast!

Photos captured by D3s, 600f4VR / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

DLWS NY Day 1 – Firehouse Shoot

We billed this particular DLWS event as the “Joe Tour” for a very specific reason, Joe has taken us to those places that are special to him in NY. Anyone who knows Joe or his photography knows his affinity for the FDNY. So a visit to one of his favorite houses was only natural.

The entire house came out for the gang and a number of the fire fighters took on the role of a model. I wish I had time and the guys and gals to myself but that wasn’t the case so I made those clicks I could, giving folks ideas and then getting out of the way so they could shoot. This is shot with the 28f1.4 at f1.4 demonstrating the power of shallow DOF.

I wanted to incorporate the hose sign on the backwall but it just didn’t work. So I moved and took it out. The jury is still out in my mind which is better.

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Then there was Keith. What a guy! The challenge was not only shooting over the heads of folks from the back row, he never stopped talking! No matter, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting these true heroes of 911 and friends of Joe!

Photos captured by D3s, 28f1.4 / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

DLWS New York Day1 – PM

After that great start, the DLWS Staff walked downtown to have a killer breakfast at Norma’s. We then proceeded down to Adorama which was kind enough not only to open its door to their Ed Center to us, but gave all the participants a store coupon which was quickly put to us. So with batteries charged and new goodies in hand, we boarded the bus and headed to Canal Street.

It was a challenging shoot for me, just wasn’t feelin the love so I just walked and looked for patterns. Seeing the shadow of a water tower caught my eye so I made a click.

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After a stop at Ladder 6 House (mk on that) we got back in the bus and headed to the Brooklyn Bay Bridge. This was a totally different walk across from the other day with a killer sunset lining up for us. Joe surprised the whole group by having a ballerina waiting for them on the bridge. Some marvelous images were made of her. We didn’t get there in time though, along with some of the participants, we were involved with photographing the Wall St skyline in the fading light.

Then there was the sunset it self. Let’s just say it didn’t suck. The city was a silouhette and since tripods just don’t work on the bridge, I pulled the lights out using NX2. It’s not the best option but it works here. What a day, what a group and we still have more to come!

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 / 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film.

DLWS NY Day1 – AM

The weather of last week has melded away to absolutely gorgeous stuff which was the perfect start for our DWLS NY – the Joe Tour. With all of us hopping into a bus, our first stop was Central Park. What a gorgeous morning with that killer fall nip in the air. After a short briefing, our great group headed off into the park and the perfect start!

Ida didn’t blow away all the fall color and in fact, she probably arranged it perfectly for us along with cleaning everything up and making the tree trunks black. It was the perfect combination along with the sprinkling of earlier risers taking advantage of the day. Shooting was pretty easy, find the pattern and shoot!

I’ve been shooting a bit of fall color this fall, pretty darn lucky in my timing. So rather than go for the overall ground, tree, color landscape type photo, I made the mental effort to look for patterns in the color itself. This is one of the more successful images from the morning in those regards.

I happened to see McNally spool up and gitty up in a particular direction. I saw what he was after so decided to follow along. I don’t know if Joe took this photo as I stopped to help a student for a moment. I was glad when I was done this cool shot was still there. I had worked a lot of narrow DOF this morning and this is a pretty neat example of how I was approaching it. What a great start with a really nice group of shooters!

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200AFS VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Maine DLWS 2010 Event Announced

You might think that with all the blog posts in the last month from ME, I just might be tired of it. Quite the opposite is true. We keep finding more and more great stuff here, amazing places, sights and folks that we just wanna comeback for more. And we’re inviting you to join in on the adventure! For more details, head here. We look forward to sharing all that we’ve learned and more with you in 2010!

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