South West Florida Birds and More Workshop - Finalized
The 2012 South West Florida Workshop details have been finalized. The dates are March 4 to March 10, 2012. Get to some warm weather and capture some of the excitement of bird photography. The 2011 workshop was a huge success and this one will be too.Florida is famous for bird photography, and the South West has some of the best bird photography opportunities in the state. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Little Estero Lagoon and the Venice Rookery are some the finest locations and provide us plenty of great opportunities to capture great wildlife images.
Registration FormEnrollment InformationRelease Form
Other workshops and photo tours for 2012 and 2013 are on the Workshop tab of the site.
Snowy Owl "irruption"
Snowy owls are not uncommon in Massachusetts as a few are reported each winter. In some years the population grows substantially, these are "irruption years" and this year is one of them.The Snowy owl is a northern bird that lives and breeds in the open arctic tundra and is highly adapted to extreme cold conditions. Those years where their food supplies are diminished they will fly further south in search of food. In the early spring they will head back north though some have been seen even in the early summer. The male is nearly all white while the female will have dark barred makings.The owls are a very strong muscular breed and are formidable predators. They will not hesitate to go after and kill hares and are partial to ducks. Ducks have a high fat content that the snowy owls need for insulation.
Maybe Adobe has a heart.............
All concerned about having to buy the full version of CS6 just because you did not upgrade to CS5 - do not despair Adobe has just announced an upgrade plan for CS3 and CS4 users. Here is what they say:
Upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers
More at: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq/upgrade-policy.html
My review of Lightroom 4 Public Beta
I spent all day looking at and using the Lightroom 4 Beta. I like a number of the new features that it has and am also disappointed that some of the modules have not had the enhancements I was hoping for. I have the review available as a PDF document that you can get by clicking on the following:
Lightroom 4 Public Beta Review.Your feedback and comments would be most appreciated.
Lightroom 4 - Public Beta released
Adobe today released a public beta of Lightroom 4. It is available immediately for free download from Adobe Labs. The beta version has a books creation module (to compete with what Aperture has had for a while), increased support for video files (high time), soft proofing capability (now you can see what it is going to look like when printed) and a Google Maps-powered geo-tagging module (this one will be fun).You can download the beta from the Adobe Labs site by clicking here.
Pelican Cases - for your iPad, e-book readers and laptops.
Pelican has been known to make the finest rugged cases for all types of equipment. Photographers have used Pelican cased for years as one of the best ways to transport expensive gear all over the world. Now they have released a new line to satisfy the need of iPad, e-reader and laptop users. Would love to get my hands on on one to do a full review.Click here for the press releaseClick here for the Pelican site.
Canon's new P&S G1 X with a sensor nearly as large as the 60D
Finally a Canon P&S with a large sensor that is nearly as big as the sensor on the 60D. It is 1.5-inch (18.7 x 14mm) and is 14.3-megapixels. Now one can get shallow DOF from a P&S. It also boast ISO up to 12800 and a new lens with an aperture of 2.8, 4X Optical Zoom with a zoom range 15.1 (W) - 60.4mm (T) (35mm film equivalent: 28 (W) - 112mm (T)Additionally the G1 X has a 14-bit, RAW+JPEG shooting and is compatibility hot shoe Speedlites and the Macro Twin Lite or the Macro Ring Light flashes. HDR shooting capability is inbuilt and of course it will do full HD 1080p video. The camera is scheduled for availability in February.More on the this at CanonHunts Photo & Video is taking pre-orders for this camera. If you pre-order, shipping will be free. Call or email Gary Farber at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com or call me at 781-462-2332.
CIPNE Presents "Tim Tadder On Assignments"
A fascinating look inside the production of award-winning advertising campaigns for major consumer brands.
Monday January 9th 2012, 7:30–9:30pm
More details are on the CIPNE website at www.cipne.orgLOCATIONLensProToGo152 Commonwealth Ave.,Unit M-1, C,Concord, MA 01742
Looking Back at 2011
2011 was an interesting year in a lot of respects. Most important and foremost I would like to thank all of you who participated in my photo tours, educational workshops and one-on-one lessons. I would also like to thank all my photography clients both individuals and corporations and my sponsors, you have all been fantastic and I look forward to your continued support in the coming years.I truly enjoyed meeting and making new friends and the process of learning from each other. The incredible experiences in Florida, Alaska, Colorado, Cape Cod, Maine, and New Hampshire and all the one day trips in and around Massachusetts will never be forgotten.After many months of planning the 2012 schedule is about ready to be published. Most significant are the photo tours and workshops to India in February, Florida for another great bird photograpy workshop in March, Smokeys in the Spring - this starts the year. Keep an eye out for details and more information as we post it in the workshop pages on this blog.Also planned are a number of one and two day sessions for macro, lighting, composition, Lightroom and Photoshop training. As always, customized one-on-one programs are also available.None of this would have been possible without the incredible amount of planning and organizing by my photograpy partner and loving wife - thank you M.
Wishing each and everyone a Very Happy New Year
Here are two links that I truly enjoyed:The Year in Pictures: 2011.The Best Viral Photos of 2011.
NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 - Demo - December 16th
On December 16, 2011 I will be demonstrating NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 at Hunt's in Hanover during their CANON DAY. Silver Efex Pro 2 will be available for purchase at an unbelievable price of $119.99 for the full version and as a free upgrade if you already own version 1 – this is a $100 discount. You must come to the store to avail of these prices.
Hunt’s will be featuring the new PRO-1 CANON INKJET PRINTER. There will be 2 Canon representatives on hand to answer questions you might have about any inkjet printers from Canon.If you have an interest in black and white prints, the Canon PRO-1 will give you tremendous results. Bring in a couple of files, preferably "black and white", to print out on the new PRO-1 or bring in a RAW file that you would like worked on and I will show you how to make a great monochromatic image suitable for printing.If you do not have a good B&W conversion software application go to www.niksoftware.com and download the trial version of SILVER EFEX PRO. Use this to prep your images that you bring to be printed.Hunts is located at 1207 Washington St, Hanover, MA 02339
Phone: 781-312-1169
My Halloween Pennant wins a Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro
I submitted my Halloween Pennant image to a macro image competition conducted by Mike Moats a professional photographer who also presented at the PSA conference this year and sponsored by Tamron. The image won and Tamron will be shipping me the lens soon I hope. Feeling good..........Here is the image:
Africa Photo Safari - Nov 2013
We have just finalized the plans and itinerary for the Africa Photo Safari to Namibia and Botswana. The safari is limited to a minimum of 9 participants and a maximum of 11. Due mainly to the high season in this region reservations and an initial deposit is required by the end of November.
Africa 2013 PDF BrochureAll the details are in the documents as follows:Africa 2013Registration Form SVP AfricaEnrollment SVP AfricaRelease Form SVP
CD Image Shoot for Damon
- Damon is an excellent pianist from Massachusetts and I had the pleasure of photographing him for his second CD. Here are a few images from the shoot. I can't wait to see what the designer and production artists do with the images.
- The next few are variations - just having a lot of fun with the images.
India Photo Workshop and Tour Registration Extended
The India "Wildlife and More" photography tour workshop registration deadline has been extended to November 30, 2011. There are still a few spots available for this incredible and not to be missed opportunity. Click here to see details.
Another Acadia Image
Here is another one of my images from the Acadia Workshop. I could not help but post this image once I had applied a little texture and seen the result. Yes the stroke and border treatment are very intentional. Comments would be appreciated.
Glorious Acadia Workshop Report
- It sure has been a crazy week - returned from a fabulous 3 day workshop in Acadia. Despite all the issues with the hotel closing we got rooms at a decent motel one mile from the park entrance. Some rain the first afternoon resulted in staying indoors but the next two days were perfect. The winds on Saturday were a force to be reckoned with. It was impossible to keep the camera steady with constant gusts.Here are a two more images.
This was shot with a 2 second exposure to tame the ocean a bit.
One bit of creativity:
Canon's Top of the Line
6 months before the camera will be on the market. Question - worth waiting for/saving for. All the specs indicate that this is one awesome beast. - http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/about_canon?pageKeyCode=pressreldetail&docId=0901e024803b812e