Join Me on a Landscape Workshop

June 16, 2015 in June 2015

On July 17 and 18 I will be leading a Landscape Photography workshop. The workshop is sponsored by WestPhoto in Minneapolis, Tamron and Manfrotto.

We'll pack the afternoon of Friday the 17th with lessons on exposure, composition, essential gear and visualizing landscapes and spend Saturday morning applying what you learned in the field. We will meet bright and early in the historic town of Stillwater, MN to photograph the St. Croix River and look for interesting light in town or further north. If you're in Minneapolis at the time, or would simply like to get motivated about making images, contact Sean at WestPhoto to reserve your spot [(612) 379-2321]... oh, and one more thing... if you are a bargain hunter, you'll love this. The price of the two day workshop and image reviews the following Saturday is a whopping $50.

Click Here for all the Contact Information

Canon 6D + Canon 17-40mm L shot at f/16 with the rig firmly mounted to my Induro CT313 tripod.

Behind the Lens (Number 4)

October 01, 2014 in October 2014

While sitting on a thicket of damp vegetation in the understory of a mid-successional forest, I tweeted... "I live for days like these," and attached an iPhone rendition of the linked photograph. The tweet was a color picture of the same forest, and the color emphasized the saturated greens of this foggy day. The setting was near perfect, but while the tweet was in color, the morning was all about tones and layers in an early autumnal forest.

I decided to the let photo ruminate in my files for a week before processing the shot as a black and white. To make this image I used a high contrast digital filter that lightened the greens and enhanced foliage details. With the tripod legs spread as far as they could go, I composed the photograph so that the tree to the left and those to right appeared to anchor a barrier between the ferns and the forest. By using a super wide-angle zoom, I could play with various compositions before settling on the one that seemed to convey my peaceful mood on this foggy morning.

Late Summer SumacCanon 6D + Canon 17-40mm L — Late Summer Sumac
Canon 6D + Canon 17-40mm L

Behind the Lens (Number 2)

September 23, 2014 in September 2014

About one month ago I decided to park at the back entrance of a well-traveled Minnesota state park. Having hurried past the tiny lot in the past, I never had the time to check it out. After a short hike up a dirt trail, I found myself in an upland prairie surrounded by a sea of sumac trees. This early successional species is among the first to change pigments in fall, so I became excited with the prospect of documenting our seasonal shift from this locale. Since my first visit in early August, I've photographed this sumac forest weekly and will use these images to chronicle the transition from Summer to Fall.

Late Summer Sumac in ColorCanon 6D + Canon 17-40mm L — Late Summer Sumac in Color
Canon 6D + Canon 17-40mm L

About the Images: The top photograph is a black and white conversion of the colored image pictured directly above. While I love the intense greens and reds of the color image, the black and white picture illustrates the turbulent weather that is typical of a Minnesota summer. While the clouds are visible in the color picture, the tonal range from the foreground to background made it nearly impossible to reveal the depth and complexity of the stormy sky. By converting the raw file to black and white, I was able to selectively adjust the contrast in the sky while holding back any trace of digital noise. While I am not sure I could choose a favorite between the pair, I do like the way the differentiated processing produced distinctly different images that suggest a uniquely different mood.

A Superior Monochrome - North Shore of Lake Superior, MNCanon 5D Mark iii + Canon 17-40L w/ Variable ND Filter — *A Superior Monochrome - North Shore of Lake Superior, MN*
*Canon 5D Mark iii + Canon 17-40L w/ Variable ND Filter*

Five from Fall - (ii)

November 11, 2013 in November 2013

Taken on October 17th, this long exposure of Lake Superior was shot in a panicked attempt to make the most of a fading opportunity. In the car by 4:00 a.m., it was race between us and the sun. We live nearly 140 miles south of the North Shore, so I knew that my timetable was tight. Driving through Duluth, I could see hints of the morning glow on the horizon. Atmospherics, typical of Fall on the lake, offered the extra time I needed to get on site and prep the composition. The amazing light never broke through the fog, so I composed for tones, shapes and shadow and knew that the final product would be a monochrome. Fall doesn't have to be about the color, sometimes it just about being there.

Costa Rica 2013 - Black and White Portraits

September 01, 2013 in September 2013

Some faces just look better in black and white!

Portrait of a Jaguar (Panthera once) - Rio Quatro Rehabilitation Farm, Costa RicaCanon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS — *Portrait of a Jaguar (Panthera once) - Rio Quatro Rehabilitation Farm, Costa Rica*
*Canon 5D mark iii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS*

Impressionism II

April 06, 2013 in April 2013

Wildebeest B&W (Connochaetes gnou)

Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

This wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) is a tight portrait I made while on safari in Tanzania. We were immersed in a sea of ungulates when I realized that I was too close to make the images I wanted. With dust everywhere and the feeling that the moment was I about to end, I chose to continue working with my 300mm lens rather than waste time switching out cameras. Below is the original pic that has sat in the reject bin until now. I decided to rework the photograph for this post by applying a "creative" black and white digital filter. Here the emphasis has been placed on the tonality in the fur rather than the actual animal. All processing began with Aperture 3.4.3 and was finished in Photoshop CS5. The lead image was further manipulated with Topaz B&W Effects II to produce the painterly-lik output that is pictured above.

Powered by Squarespace