Nature Photography Workshops Tours
I thought I would share a few images from this year’s Glacier National Park Workshop in Montana now that I’m back getting some images edited from my spring and summer trips. As per usual Glacier did not disappoint and as per usual I was reluctant leave:(
Fortunately I will be returning soon to conduct my fall workshop and in the meantime here are a few images of our wanderings this go around.
Well I’m finally back home after a busy spring in the Pacific Northwest. I had some fantastic travelers and amazing destinations this year. April I was out in Oregon working the Columbia River Gorge, exploring some new locations and it really seems like the waterfalls here are just endless. The more I explore further into both Oregon and Washington the more I am amazed I what I keep stumbling upon. Beyond the green and waterfalls, wildflowers were early this year and I was fortunate enough to catch them at the beginning of the month, but towards the end of April things were definitely winding down, still some great stuff though.
The month of May had me tromping around one of my absolute favorite locations in the western U.S., Olympic National Park. I can never get enough of Olympic Peninsula’s rainforests and the endless compositions you can find as you wander through the old growth sitka spruces and big leaf maple trees. We also had great beach stuff as well, visiting the iconic Ruby beach and Rialto and lucking out with some pretty sweet sunsets while photographing the seascapes.
June I was in Washington’s Palouse region and had a fantastic trip photographing the soft rolling hills of eastern Washington and visiting the many classic barns throughout the area. We also had a fun night photographing Palouse Falls under the milky way while a group of fun and wild photographers lent their light painting skills and helped light up the falls. All in all a great trip and one of my favorite areas to shoot close to home.
It’s nice to be back in the mountains of Montana though and to see all the new life that’s happening here in the Bitterroot Valley. We’re beginning to see arrival of new fawns in our backyard, nesting birds, and young goslings growing up. Summer is officially here. In a couple weeks I will be heading back out to Washington’s Olympic peninsula, this time on official family vacation with the promise of putting down the cameras and soaking it up at Lake Crescent for the week:)
In July I will be gearing up for more Glacier National Park workshops and should have some more stuff to share soon. Thanks to all the great travelers on my workshops this year, you all have truly made it such a pleasure and a whole heck of a lot of fun being out there doing what we do!
Last month I was hiking up Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park when I decided to stop and set up a landscape shot featuring the Olympic Mountains and some wildflowers dotting the hillside.
I had everything set up, my tripod adjusted, and was taking a few shots, when out of the corner of my eye a blacktail doe wandered into my frame. I had literally two seconds to adjust my camera settings in order to freeze the deer’s movement in-frame and include her in my shot.
Not an easy thing to do and most of the time when things like this happen we end up missing the shot while fumbling frantically to switch our settings. However luck and preparation were on my side this morning as I was using my Custom Shooting Mode, C1, on my Canon 5D mkIII for my landscape settings.
For those who aren’t familiar with using the Custom Shooting Modes on your camera, they allow us to preset or program custom settings into a designated mode that can be quickly accessed on the camera. Canon’s 5D mkIII has three custom shooting modes located for easy access, C1,C2,C3. Each mode is programmable and located on the mode dial. You can program any settings you like into each mode, so when you switch to that mode, your settings are ready to go and you’re not left navigating endlessly while you miss that once in a lifetime shot.
On my camera for example I have C1 set up for shooting landscapes. I have programmed all the usual settings we start out with when shooting static scenes.
C1: Aperture Priority, ISO 100, f11, mirror lockup, 2 second timer.
This makes it quick and simple when I want to shoot a landscape and especially when I need to switch back and forth between shooting situations.
So for my blacktail deer on Hurricane Ridge, I was shooting my landscape in C1 and when the deer entered the frame, I quickly switched my mode dial to AV mode which was already set for action at ISO 800 f5.6 with no mirror lockup or 2 second timer. I was able to fire off two frames and get one with the deer right in the middle.
Now by itself my landscape shot was not a very interesting one nor one that I really cared for. But with the deer in the foreground it made the shot more interesting and added a little something extra. This was the absolute perfect example of the convenience of the Custom Shooting Modes and also an example of how they can help us capture shots that we ordinarily may have missed.
