A few spots still remain for a one-day photographic workshop called Panoramic Point Reyes, which I’ll be teaching in conjunction with the Point Reyes Field Institute, a non-profit educational and experiential partner of the NPS & Point Reyes National Seashore.

–> Click here to register. < --

Saturday, May 11 • 1:30PM – 8:30PM • $95 ($90 Members)

Come explore Point Reyes with a very specific photographic perspective. We’ll spend the day learning about the techniques for finding and creating compelling panoramic images with a distinctive Point Reyes flavor. Emphasis will be split between in-field compositional choices using a variety of subjects, both natural and man-made, and classroom discussion of workflow and post-production techniques. The day will start with a classroom presentation, followed by spending the remainder of the in the field concentrating on finding great panoramic subjects to photograph. We’ll continue to shoot through sunset into the early evening light. If extreme weather is an issue, we’ll spend additional time discussing digital and creative processing for nature photography. All skill levels welcome.

Picture: Trees at sunset, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California

I hope to see you there!

–> Click here to register. < --

If you don’t like High Capacity Electrical Transmission Towers and Wires running through your scenic photos, or even just your view for that matter, I’d like to ask you to check out (and possibly help fund) a project started by friend and environmental photographer, Jerry Monkman. He’s launched a film project on Kickstarter called The Power of Place. The film:

“…explores the negative impacts of Northern Pass, a 180-mile long electricity transmission line project that has been proposed by Northeast Utilities in partnership with Hydro-Quebec. (He) will combine classically beautiful landscape cinematography with interviews of those intimately connected to the land to show how the wild and undisturbed character of the land has the power to fuel inspiration, imagination, and an interconnectedness with nature. The main question the film will ask is “Do we want to trade this power for electricity that most likely won’t even be needed in New Hampshire?”

Many years ago, my wife and I took a two week vacation to Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) and the nearby “Sunshine Coast” toward the resort town of Whistler. (The fact that it was gray and raining the entire trip, and the fact that I renamed the area “Sunshine Coast My A**!” will remain a subject for a future post.) This was very early in my photography days, and the one thing I remember most clearly as we drove the Sea-to-Sky Highway between Squamish and Pemberton was how ugly and scarred this beautiful landscape was by the electrical transmission towers and wires which snaked the entire length of the area.

Still to this day, I also remember taking an image that I thought would have been a great print image, except for the powerlines.

Picture: Fog at sunrise over hills below Fremont Peak, San Benito County, California

Scenic Landscapes & Power Lines should be left apart. If you want to photograph powerlines, I’m sure that many will agree, there are far better places to do that than running through the heart of one of America’s most-scenic National Forests.

Picture: High Capacity Electrical Transmission Towers running through the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Sonoma County, California

I’m sure Jerry will really appreciate your support.

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Click here for Information & Pricing on paper, canvas, or metallic prints, incl. matted & framed prints. For complete purchase options, please contact me directly.

I’d really love it if you’d leave a comment with your thoughts, personal preferences, or any feedback in general on the following:

I’ve been struggling with my own Border War. I’m not talking between countries, and it’s not the TV Show on the NGS Channel. Rather, my dilemma involves the re-occurring debate about the use of Photo Borders and watermarks. There are many people who hate large intrusive watermarks on images, many of whom would prefer no watermark at all. Other folks dislike Image Borders, claiming they take away from the photo. The one thing I do know, as a professional photographer, I refuse to send my images out into the world without a shred of identifying information. This was recently strongly reinforced when I finally started to explore the web site, Pinterest. The one thing I quickly discovered was how many great photos appeared scattered like buckshot across the site, yet you rare;y see a clear indication of who the photographer was.

Up to this point, I’ve been including a light opaque watermark with my logo, name, and URL. However, to keep that watermark from being to visually disruptive within the image, it’s been getting more and more opaque. (Read: less & less visible.) The reason is it’s been more of a way for me to use it to ID an image as mine, but less of a way people could easily read, and therefore find me. From a professional standpoint, one thing you’d like is for someone to have seen one of your images, and to say “Wow, I’d love to have a copy of that for….” Unfortunately it does zero good if that person doesn’t know your the photographer or can’t find you.

So, I’ve been wrestling with including a more prominent photo border. On one hand, I’ve seen some nice uses of this method, while on another, the humble, Buddhist side of me has tended to shy away from self-aggrandizing presentations. But as I change some other areas of my business focus, I decided it was time to revisit this debate, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. (Note: These are designed for Social Web-based presentation only, i.e. posting on FB, Pinterest, forums, etc., and would not be used on my web site or sold with that type of border on my prints.)

Click photo to see a larger version.

Black Border w/ caption: (As seen above)

White Border w/ caption:

Watermarked – no border / caption:

Again, I’d love to hear any of your thoughts, personal preferences, or any feedback in general.

Thanks in advance,
- Gary.

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Image ID#: 130421b_BA2-0124

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Click here for Information & Pricing on larger paper, canvas, or metallic prints, incl. matted & framed prints. For complete purchase options, please contact me directly.

Several weeks ago I had to ship my (nearly) brand new Nikon D800 camera off to the Nikon Repair facility in Los Angeles. During those couple weeks I had a couple shoots scheduled, and BorrowLenses.com became my go-to rescue resource. Not only were they able to immediately provide a replacement D800 body, but I was also to use their great inventory to test out a prime piece of Nikon glass, namely the robust 200-400mm f/4 VR AF-S lens. Now please understand, I’m not a sports or wildlife shooter, but I love using a good telephoto for quite a number of my landscape and travel photos, and for me, this is a pretty big lens. Weighing in at over seven pounds, and when combined with the D800 and battery grip, this was a beast of a combination. Shooting handheld for any period of time was a real test of upper arm strength, and with an injured shoulder, my hand-holding times-until-exhaustion were fairly brief.

I must say, for a first time experience with BorrowLenses.com, I was totally delighted with the prompt and courteous service, and the clear and easy use of their web site. The equipment was delivered exactly as promised, and the loan period was just right to cover my needs while my own camera body was repaired. I loved testing the D800 & 200-400mm combination, and was delighted by the swift and accurate AF. In the long run however, and after a few dedicated shoots, I decide that was just too much lens for my own particular needs over 85% of what I typically shoot. If I do come up with a job where this lens is the go-to piece of equipment I’ll need, I’m delighted I now have a go-to place to get those specialized bits of equipment that just aren’t practical for me to own outright.

Below are a few other images shot at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge using the Nikon D800 and 200-400mm f/4 lens.

100% detail, hand-held, Shot at 400 mm, Manual exposure, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200

Based on my experience, I’m happy to recommend BorrowLenses.com to anyone looking to rent or test out some great camera gear. I was happy as a clam in mud that they were able to take such good care of me on short notice. (And no, I’m not sponsored, and these are not affiliated links; I’m just a very satisfied user.)

Click the logo to visit the BorrowLenses.com web site.

Perhaps you’ve occasionally seen a 360-degree panoramic image on the Internet where you can virtually spin around in all directions. They’ve become hugely popular with hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. What you may not know is that these images can often be stitched together using as few as 4-6 images.

I just recently returned from a week’s travels to the Pacific Northwest. Before plunging into a week of non-stop (typical) gray skies and rain, we were treated to two spectacular days in Seattle, with crystal clear blue skies and their warmest temperatures of the year-to-date. (A fact that was incessantly repeated on the local news, so it must’a been a big deal for them.) I used this great weather window to my advantage by planning a specific shot from atop the landmark Seattle Space Needle, namely a 360 degree view as if you walked around the entire observation deck.

To create this image required shooting 61 vertical frames, shot over a period of nearly 20 minutes in order to make a full circle around the building, and of course weaving in and out of all the other tourists and visitors. In this case, like several other of my Panoramic Photos, I’ll sometimes create a full-sized draft version to isolate any mistakes. In this case, I forgot to check the “remove vignetting” option, so you can see some light banding issues in the sky. Once I’ve had a chance to work out other issues like blending areas of the water, I’ll make a second, and hopefully final render that I will prepare as a master file.

The image was shot using my Nikon D7000, and the original file is 18″ x 174″ @ 300 dpi. Between layers and making some transform actions, the file again pushed my machine to the functional max of 65.1 Gb before getting flattened and saved. I chose not to use my D800, as I can only imagine those large files would have broken my poor machine, creating the electronic version of a brain embolism.

Click here to see a large 400×3700 pixel version.

Click here to see a sample of my first try at making a 360-VR image, so I downloaded a software trial. That’s why you’ll see trial watermarks as you spin around in a full circle. Also, there’s a special process to make a seamless blend in the 360 view, but since this is a first time experiment for me, and I just got back in town, I haven’t had the time to do that part yet.

Below is a sample shot of the city taken from the full res pano, and a 100% detail shot.

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Image ID#: Space Needle Pano

Click here for Information & Pricing on larger paper, canvas, or metallic prints, incl. matted & framed prints. For complete purchase options, please contact me directly.