Massive Nikon Z Trade-in Event
PSW ’19 Precon & More!
Red Rock Cyn
captured by Z6 / Z24-70f2.8
The sun had just come across the horizon barely lighting the tip tops when I went click. Wait much longer and the exposure range would have been way too great to make the foreground that was all in shadow appear. So why can you see the foreground? Knowing how ACR works prior to shooting, I knew that when in B&W, I can go to the HSL/Gray Scale which changes in B&W mode to Color sliders, I was able to “light” the foreground by simply moving the Yellow and Green Slider. If I used the Shadow sliders, you would lose the shapes of those shrubs. The Yellow and Green sliders keep the shrub shape intact making the visual depth jump to life. That pretty much sums up the great Precon we had the first day of Photoshop World. It’s a simple click made with the Z6 / Z24-70f2.8, hand-held of course :-)
Then there was the bad biker dude … so cool! Only at Photoshop World can you walk down a hall then bam … see a bad biker dude sitting on a cool bike all lit ready to shoot. He held so bloody still, that was great all on its own. I had to make a quick click of the whole thing because it was just so cool. Done simple with the Z6 / Z14-30 in Monochrome, I wanted to include the entire scene as that’s what really made the story. When I said thanks and gave the bad biker dude a thumbs up, he made me jump when he “came to life” to say thanks back. Too much fun to be legal!!!
Snapbridge does Nefs!!!
Nikon’s Snapbridge just keeps getting better and better. The lastest drop brings Nef transfer to the game and that’s huge. The best part … it’s FREE! Check it out
PSW ’19 Vegas Precon – Sunrise
Desert Sunrise
captured by Z6 / Z24-70f2.8
And what do you see when you’re out in the Vegas desert at 05:20? You don’t see the sun yet but you do see it light up the dust in the air. Setting the WB on the Z6 / ZZ24-70f2.8 to 9000k, it was a relative simple click to make. The only challenge? Wait for all the vehicle traffic coming up the road. You thought it was a B&W class, well it was but B&W doesn’t do justice to that color. mtc
PSW ’19 Vegas Precon – Yeah Baby!!!!
It was simply, a wonderful day in the neighborhood! I had all of my PSW ’19 Precon attendees up in the classroom at, wait for it, 04:00 and then on the bus to see the sun come up in the desert. And of course, they had their cameras in tow. You might be wondering if we were out shooting at sunrise, why I’m posting to photographs of this sweet, gorgeous ladies who accompanied us and not pictures of rocks. Well … it was a class on B&W photography which truly requires thinking about light. Nothing makes you think more about light then backlit ladies with 09:00 light in the desert. Here’s how the images were made in those conditions. It is so simple, I feel silly posting this.
Photo starts with establishing a rapport with the models. Then with the Z6 / 105f1.4, the SB-5000 inside a Impact Hexi 24 Softbox on a pole overhead and just out of frame, I used the Z6 flash magic. Polarizer on the 105f1.4 bringing my shutter down to 1/3200 ISO100 (the Z6 on High Speed Sync), f/1.4, flash ratio at 1/12, the Z6 and WR-R10 took care the rest. Then it was just letting the gals personalities come through. Simple!
We had the most marvelous group of souls this morning! I’m very grateful the 40 of them had enough faith in me to join first at 04:00, then shoot until 10:00 and then … comeback and spend time in the Digital Darkroom learning how to finish B&W. I’ve not finished all the landscape images from this morning. Finishin with four hours of sleep never turns out well. These photos are right out of the camera so quick to post. I have more to come from this morning. Until then, thanks to all for joining us, it was a blast!!!
3 Minute Griz Encounter- a Vid
Last week I had the great fortune to be on a lonely beach with my dear friend, human, and critter. Coastal Grizzly Bears are such a fascinating critter with a very complex yet simple life. When you happen to spend any time with a Griz, it will change not only how you perceive this magnificent creature, but your own world. But when you can spend time with a Mom & cubs, you’re in for education AND entertainment. It’s that world I want to introduce you too in this simple, brief video.
The video was shot by Sharon using the Z7 / Z14-30 with the last “happy dance” captured by Javier on his iPhone. Video of the bear behavior was shot by me with the Z6 / 180-400VR as well as the stills.