Photographing with Kathy Adams Clark

Single Pan or Double Pan on the Arca Swiss Ball Head

2012-01-30T09:34:00.004-06:00

Debbie asked me my opinion on the Arca-Swiss Z1dp versus Z1sp.

I've used an Arca-Swiss B1 ball head for years and love it. (That's it on the left. Thanks to Patti & Randy Edens for the photo.)

The Z1 is the latest incarnation of the old trusty B1. Yet, there are two models. Which is best?

This is the explanation Debbie got from Rod Klukas at Arca-Swiss:

"Sp-Single pan on Bottom. Dp-Double pan, top and bottom

The DP allows level panning where having only bottom pan requires the tripod be absolutely level. With double pan the upper pan is level after leveling the camera. Therefore there will be little or no error in the horizon when panning or creating rotational stitch image.

So for me the Dp makes more sense as it is easier to level the camera with the ball and I don't have to be perfect with the legs."

Thanks, Rod, for that clear answer. Makes sense. I'd suggest the DP for all purpose general shooting. My B1 is a single pan so I never knew what I was missing.

NANPA Showcase 2012

2012-01-22T17:44:00.001-06:00

Very nice images in the North American Nature Photography Association's 2012 Showcase.

Florida Everglades Event

2012-01-08T09:54:00.000-06:00

The North American Nature Photography Association will have a Regional Event next month in the Florida Everglades.

Here's a link to details:

NANPA Regional Event

Prairie Falcon

2012-01-07T00:01:00.001-06:00

See that little bird fly away!? That's how it goes with prairie falcons. You see them as they fly away from you like a rocket.

We encountered several prairie falcons on our winter trip to Amarillo, Texas. The birds are more common up there in the winter than they are where I live on the other side of the state.

We flushed this prairie falcon from his roost on the wire next to a power pole. His body was nearly against the power pole so we almost drove past him the first time. He flushed but flew to a power pole down the road.

We regrouped and drove past the power pole where he landed. He stayed until we all piled out of the truck. Then he flew but luckily right in front of us in a straight line. That allowed the Canon Mark IV to hold focus easier. I had the camera set to high-speed burst and nailed him for about 20 shots.

Here's what a prairie falcon looks like up close. I've cropped the original image about 50%.

Rough-legged hawk

2012-01-06T00:01:00.001-06:00

All my friend Karen Copeland had to say was "rough-legged hawk" and she knew I'd be on the road to Amarillo. It didn't happen that way but it almost did.

Rough-legged hawks come to the Texas Panhandle in winter. We don't get them where I live 600 miles across the state on the coast. So a chance to photograph rough-legged hawks is a treat.

Two years ago, Karen and I drove the back roads in the winter around Amarillo photographing hawks. We had a blast and talked about repeating the adventure. My husband, Gary, had time off this winter and I knew he was eager to head outside. When Karen started emailing that the hawks were in for the winter, we started planning our trip.

We were not disappointed once we got to Amarillo. There was a nice coat of snow covering the landscape and the sun was shinning. The winds were mild and I attribute that to the photography gods.

The three of us drove hundreds of miles along small county roads for three days. We put on the brakes for every hawk, falcon, or eagle. Some let us photograph them, like the rough-legged hawk above, and some flew from their perch the moment we thought about stopping. We celebrated with every good encounter. Karen had a little war cry "whaa who-o-o!" that she let out with each successful stop. Sure was fun!

Ferruginous Hawk

2012-01-05T10:23:00.004-06:00

We went hawk chasing in the Texas Panhandle last week. Hawks come down to north Texas in the winter to feed on prairie dogs, rabbits, and other small rodents. It's a photographer's paradise.

Photo technique? Drive the dirt or gravel roads looking for hawks on fence posts or power poles. Set the camera on AV and f/5.6 or 6.3. (That gives you the fastest shutter speed for the lighting conditions.) Raise the ISO to 400 or so if needed to get more shutter speed. Set the Drive to high speed. Set the Auto Focus to AI-Serve or Continuous in Nikon.

When you spot a hawk, get ready, roll down the window, and drive up to it. Most will flush off the pole but some will stay or fly once you stop the car and get out. It's something you have to repeat over and over again to get a successful shot. We did this for four days and had a blast.

Shooting in the Dark -- Program

2011-12-13T12:18:00.005-06:00

I'll give a program on Shooting in the Dark on Dec 21, 2011 at the Houston Audubon Nature Photography Association. The programs begins at 7:00 pm and is open to the public. $5 donation at the door.

Address: 440 Wilchester Boulevard Houston, TX 77079.

Photography at night isn't hard if you know a couple of basic pieces of the puzzle. Join us!

Squirrelly Squirrels

2011-12-12T10:41:00.003-06:00

Squirrelly Squirrels

Here's a cute book that will make a great holiday gift.

The author, Monica Barrrois, was in some of my photography classes. The book is great and will make kids very happy. It has a nice family message, too.

Snapdragonfly Publishing

Photographing Holiday Lights

2011-12-08T10:52:00.003-06:00

Lots of fun earlier this week when 11 people in my Leisure Learning Photography at Night class braved the cold and walked The Woodlands Waterway and Market Street.

We found lots of colorful lights around the fountain. This is lit at night all year round but is pretty special during the holiday season with the Christmas tree in the background.

Notice the difference between the two photos. The top photo is basic processing with the white balance set by the camera. I shoot with my camera on Auto White Balance or AWB and then make any adjustments later in Photoshop CS5.

In the photo at right, I used the white balance eye dropper tool in Raw Processor to set the white balance. Clicking on the concrete area in the lower right foreground gave me the best color correction.

This photo of the lighted bridge was straightened a bit with the lens correction tool in CS5 Raw Processor. I used a 16-35mm lens on my Canon Mark IV to take the photo. Shooting from ground level gave some distortion in the image. The building on the right curved a bit over the bridge.

I used Distortion to bend the building back. Then I straighten the bridge a bit. Then used the Scale slider to resize the image.

The image of the Christmas tree with the lighted holiday packages in the foreground, required a low angle. I lowered my tripod nearly to the ground and then composed the shot. The white package is really bright compared to the background. After a test shot and a check of the historgram, I underexposed by one stop.

(Thanks to Glenn for finding this angle. That's part of the fun of shooting with a group of people.)

Holiday lights are all over the place this time of year. Put your camera on a tripod, bundle up, and get out there. I suggest that you set your camera on Aperture Priority, sent the f/stop of 16 or 8, and go for it. If the f/stop blinks or the scale shows under exposed, then move the f/stop to 3.5 or 4.0. That will give you more light.

Raise the ISO above 100 or 200 only when your camera shows that you need more light. That would be when the f/stop is blinking or your light meter scale is showing with an underexposure. Then increase the ISO and go back to a f/16 or f/8.

Those with high-end cameras have a lot of leeway with the ISO. We had enough light throughout the night that it wasn't necessary to increase the ISO much above 400.

Camera Equipment Specials

2011-12-08T09:03:00.002-06:00

Here are some specials from our friends at Hunt's Photo & Video.

Galveston FeatherFest Photo Weekend

2011-12-06T12:27:00.003-06:00

Registration is now open for Galveston FeatherFest & Nature Photo Festival. The event will be April 12-15, 2012 in Galveston, Texas.

Nature photography workshops led by Kathy Adams Clark, Sean Fitzgerald, Larry Ditto, Debbie Ferrell, Tim Timmis, and Scott Buckel. I'll teach indoor classes and conduct outdoor shooting events. There is something at this event for everyone who loves birds and nature photography.

Register early as the best events always fill fast! See you there!

Photo 365

2011-12-03T00:01:00.001-06:00

My compliments to Lisa on her Photo 365 project. She's almost to the end and has done an amazing job.

Photo 365? What's that? It's a self-imposed project where you take one photo a day and post it. Notice how Lisa learned new techniques, experimented, and photographed daily life.

Great job!!

My old computer won't open my photos!!

2011-12-03T00:01:00.000-06:00

Someone emailed that their computer was very slow when working on photos. Here's my answer:

Your computer not opening files above 4mb is a huge problem. Your D300 is a great camera. It takes wonderful photos and you need a computer that can handle it. Consider getting a new computer. They are reasonably priced right now.

Here's why I think you need a new computer — I bought a Canon 7D the week it came on the market several years ago. Camera arrived and I shot some test images. They looked really bad. Thought it was me. I took the camera to Costa Rica and shot with it. Threw all the photos away because they were so bad. I sent the camera back to Canon. They cleaned it and sent it back to me. I took more test photos. They looked really bad. I sent the camera back to Canon. They sent it back and said there was nothing wrong with it. I called technical support to make sure all my settings were right. The rep sort of mentioned new software and a computer but he never really pushed it. A couple of weeks later I bought a new Mac and upgraded to Photoshop CS5. The photos looked great. Problem solved!!

Newer cameras need newer software and computers. The photos are very large and rich. They need good technology to process them.

Should I Bracket?

2011-12-02T00:01:00.000-06:00

Someone emailed and asked if I bracket to get the right exposure.

I don't bracket per se. In the film days, we used to shoot one photo with the meter balanced. Then we would shoot another photo with the meter under exposed. Then we would shoot another with the meter over exposed. That is bracketing in the traditional sense. We did this to somewhat guarantee we'd get a good exposure since there was no way to see the image on film until the film was developed.

In the digital photography era we don't have to randomly bracket. We consult the histogram on the back of the camera. The histogram will show you if you need to bracket to get the right exposure.

A good histogram stretches all the way across the graph from the left to the right. A histogram with a spike up the right side needs an underexposure. (See that spike on the right?) A histogram that doesn't hit the right corner of the graph needs an over exposure. It's simple if you watch the histogram.

Extension Tubes

2011-12-01T09:00:00.004-06:00

Questions about extension tubes come into my inbox from photographers all the time.

Will they work with any lens? Extension tubes will work with any lens with some exceptions. I can't put an older extension tube on my 16-35mm or my 24-105mm. The newer extension tubes by Canon will work, though.

What lens will I use an extension tube on? You're usually going to put an extension tube on a 75-300mm lens or a fixed lens like a 105mm or a 300mm. An extension tube is used when you want to get closer to a subject. (The photo at left of the gray hairstreak was taken with a 12mm extension tube on a 300mm f/4 lens. The butterfly is very small so the extension tube allows me to get closer so the butterfly is larger in the frame. Eliminates the need to crop later on.)

The Canon 70-300mm lens focuses to 3.9 feet. Put a Canon extension tube EF 12 II on that lens and you reduce the focusing distance. The EF 25 II is recommended for lens 50mm and up but you can use it with an 18-55mm lens in parts of the zoom. The Nikon PK-12 and PK-13 are recommended for lenses 50mm or higher.

The photo of the speckled tanager at left was taken with a EF 12 extension tube and a 500mm lens. We were too close to the birds to focus the 500mm lens. (What a treat!!) The extension tube allowed me to stay close and hence the bird was larger in the frame.

I recommend you buy a tube and play with it. The investment is not huge but you're going to benefit from the gadget once you learn how to use it.

Texas Hill Country Winter Workshop

2011-11-16T12:09:00.003-06:00

Texas Hill Country Birds & Ranch Feb 3-5, 2012

Lesser goldfinch, chipping sparrow, white-throated sparrow, black-crested titmouse, and winter migrants. Chance to photograph hawks and owls up close. Individual and two-person photo blinds. Downloading and photo discussion. Lodging on the ranch. $1,000 includes meals, lodging, and photo instruction.

My husband, Gary Clark, will be conducting a bird identification workshop at the same time. You are welcome to combine bird photography with me and bird identification with Gary. Ideal for photographers who want to know more about birds or birders who want to improve their photo skills.

Block Creek Ranch or Call Kathy Adams Clark at 281.367.2042 or

Information at send me a brochure

Photo Tours for 2012

2011-11-11T14:30:00.005-06:00

Panama--Birds and Photography Along the Isthmian Route March 9-16, 2012
Journey with Gary Clark and Kathy Adams Clark to Panama. We'll stand atop a canopy tower to see birds and wildlife that live high in the tree tops. Walk the Achiote Road and Pipeline Road to search for birds. Visit the Cerro Azul Foothills and San Lorenzo Park for feeding stations and a chance to study and photograph bird at close range. Limited to 12 participants.

Close-up views of wildlife including three-toed sloth, white-necked jacobin, speckled tanager, blue cotinga, and slaty-tailed trogon make this an must journey for photographers, birdwatchers, and nature lovers. Native guide with us throughout the trip.

$3195 includes lodges, ground transportation, and some meals. Air to Panama is extra. Request a brochure or Strabo Tours for details.

Tanzania, Africa May 19-June 3, 2012

Intensive game viewing wiht only 5 people per vehicle. Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire, and Lake Manyara National Park.

Ideal for photographers, birdwatchers, and nature loving traveling companions.

$7895 lodges, ground transportation covered plus most meals. Airfare extra.
Request a brochure

Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands July 16-26, 2012

10-day land and cruise program with Gary and Kathy to the Galapagos Islands, including one day in the lowlands of Ecuador. Price includes Quito/Galapagos Islands airfare, Galapagos National Park fees, and tourist card. 7-nights aboard the 16-passenger motor yacht Daphne. Limited to 14 participants.

Close-up views of wildlife including red-footed booby, great frigatebird, waved albatross, and Galapagos tortoise make this an amazing journey for photographers, birdwatchers, and naturalists. Native guide with us throughout the trip.

Optional day with Gary Clark to hunt for the Andean Condor and highland birds in Antisana

$4995 includes lodges, boat, ground transportation, airfare from Quito to Galapagos, tourist card, park fees and some meals. Air to Ecuador is extra. Request a brochure or Strabo Tours for details.

Peru: Machu Picchu and Amazon Wildlife October 4-14, 2012
Explore two diverse parts of Peru with Kathy Adams Clark and your camera. Visit the Manu area of the Amazonian lowlands for scarlet macaw, parrots, monkeys, 110-foot canopy tower, tapir look-out blind, and canoeing for marsh birds.

Then fly to Cusco for the Sacred Valley, markets, and Machu Picchu. We'll get two days in Machu Picchu so we can photograph this amazing site in different light and weather. Limited to 12 participants.

Photographers of all skill levels are welcome. Great trip for non-photographing spouse, friends or companions. Native guide with us throughout the trip.

$5195 includes lodges, transportation to Manu, and some meals. Air to Peru is extra. Request a brochure or Strabo Tours for details.

Morocco Photography & Culture November 4-18, 2012 with an optional extension to Essaouira Nov 2-4

Travel with Kathy Adams Clark and explore kasbahs, the Sahara, Marrakech, souks, and the amazing blue-washed buildings of chefchaouen. History, culture, timeless beauty, and so much more.

Easy pace gives plenty to time to capture beautiful images, eat, and shop. Limited to 12 participants.

Photographers of all skill levels are welcome. Great trip for non-photographing spouse, friends or companions. Expert Moroccan guide with us throughout the trip.

$3895 includes lodges, luxury transportation in a motorcoach, and some meals. Extension to Essaouira is $735. Air to Morocco is extra. Request a brochure or Strabo Tours for details.

Used Camera for Sale

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-06:00

A friend is selling the following. Let me know if you're interested and I'll put you in contact.

Canon 40D For Sale.
In original box which includes
Camera body
Strap
Cables
Battery charger
Battery
I Gig card
Manuals
CDs
In addition a Canon EFS 18-55mm Image Stabilizer Lens.
Price $500.00

Future of Cameras

2011-11-08T09:01:00.001-06:00

Way neat video that may show us the future of photography:

Lytro Camera

Italy Photo Tour -- Venice Sailing Ship

2011-11-04T20:01:00.001-05:00

The Royal Clipper tall sailing ship was amazing. It was jaw dropping!

We had a beautiful setting sun and then twilight period in Venice. Everything was perfect. We had tripods and things were winding down.

We were supposed to meet our guide Laura at 8:00 for dinner so I walked down the avenue to find her. I kept looking back because the sunset was just getting better and better. There were these odd lights way in the distance that we'd noticed earlier.

Once when I turned about to look at the sunset, the odd lights were in the open — they were moving through the channel! A guy from Finland saw me looking and it told me in very poor English that it was a "tall tree ship" like they have in Finland. "Tall tree ship" translated really fast in my brain to tall masted sailing ship. I was awestruck because it was huge.

I turned around to get my camera and tripod set when Laura walked up and told me the ship was leaving harbor to go out into the Adriatic Sea. Something instinctual took over and I pushed the ISO button and rolled the dial all the way up. That gave me an ISO 3200. (see note below.) I needed to stop the action so I had to get a high ISO to allow a faster shutter speed.

My camera was set on Aperture Priority. I dialed the f/stop to 4.0 so I could get the widest aperture opening. That would give me the fastest shutter speed possible for the light.

I had a 10th of a second shutter speed set on my camera in a split second and just started firing. I begged the ship to slow down because it was going too fast for 1/10. Each movement of the ship got better and better. Finally it came around the bend and slowed down to make the turn!!

I got a view of the lights on the sails, and San Giorggio was on the left. Magic for two shots. One was blurred but one worked. The other 10 shots were pretty good but the one I'm posting is my favorite.

Photography can be very frustrating but sometimes it works!

Note: Why not take the ISO all the way up to the maximum of 12,800?

I pushed the ISO button and rolled the dial but didn't check to see if it went all the way. I just rolled it. I went back to look at the metadata for the blog post and realized I only went to 3200. I thought I was at 6400 but wanted to check. Dang! I could have gone higher!

I didn't because I just pushed the button and rolled the dial. There was no time to fiddle with the details.

Hunt's Photo & Video Big Sale

2011-11-04T13:22:00.003-05:00

There a big sale going on on Hunt's Photo & Video. Check out the specials.

Book Review: War in the Val D'Orcia

2011-11-04T10:42:00.003-05:00

War in Val D'Orcia: An Italian War Diary is a fabulous book. I traveled through the Val D'Orcia during the recent trip to Tuscany. There were a lot of questions in my mind about what went on in the valley during WWII. Iris Origo's book answered all my questions and encourages me to look deeper into the subject.

I thought this book would concentrate more on "woman's issues" like how they got food, clothes, and supplies during the war. It surprised me by concentrating more on the politics and war efforts. She writes what she and others know based on the radio, newspapers, and gossip. It's a fascinating account of what goes on with real people in a real war. I loved it!

The book is timely in 2011. Italy was divided into polar opposite political camps. Very much like the US and other countries today. This historical account is a good warning of what can happen when politicians can't compromise and get along.

Images from the Val D'Orcia tomorrow.

Learning Photography

2011-11-03T11:02:00.000-05:00

You spent a great deal of time (in Basic Photography class) explaining settings in the M (manual) mode. My question is, if I am out walking in nature with my camera in hand and no tripod; should I be in the manual mode or is there a particular setting I should be in? e.g. AV. I don't want to be constantly changing settings. Suggetions, please.

Good question. Stay in Manual mode so you can really learn how to adjust the f/stop and shutter speed. If you're walking around with no tripod, the shutter speed is going to be the most important thing. You're moving so you need a shutter speed fast enough to stop your movements.

Remember when I said "shutter speed has to equal the millimeters of your lens to stop your own body vibrations?" That's important. If your lens is set to 50mm on the zoom then you have to have AT LEAST a 1/50th of a second shutter speed to stop your own body vibration. If your lens is set to 18mm on the zoom, then you have to have at least a 1/18th of a second shutter speed. Have a VR or IS lens? Then you can go a bit lower that than number.

Here's my suggestion for now. You're walking about the garden with the lens set at 18mm. Set your shutter speed to 1/18th or 1/20th. (I don't think your camera has a 1/18th so round up or down.) When you see something, point your camera at the subject and adjust the f/stop so the light meter scale goes right in the middle. Take the shot. Adjust the f/stop or shutter speed to get the artistic look you want (blurred background or all clear background) if the subject stays put.

Make sense?

Once you master Manual mode, then you can use Aperture Priority mode or Shutter Priority mode.

Halloween Photography

2011-10-30T13:08:00.004-05:00

Halloween is a great time to take photos of all the spooky children. Basic photographs like the one at the left are easy to take. Put the camera on shutter priority and turn on the flash. Set the shutter to 1/60th of a second. Why 1/60th? Because living creatures, including gobblins, that are standing still will be nice and crisp at 1/60th. The flash is doing all the work to get the exposure with this method. The shutter is stopping the action.

It's fun to get a bit more creative, though. In the second photos, I got a meter reading off the scene with the camera in the Manual mode. (Not manual focus. Manual mode.) With the camera in the manual mode, I pointed the lens at the lighted decoration down on the grass. I dialed the f/stop dial until the aperture was set to f/3.5. That' the widest opening in the aperture that the lens allows and hence the most amount of light is coming through the lens. Then I dialed the shutter speed dial to put the light meter scale right in the middle. (That's the little scale on the right when you look through the view finder. Some cameras, like the Sony, use a + or - in the light meter. +2 is over exposed by two stops.) My shutter speed was about one second.

Then I turned my top mounted flash to TTL or eTTL. The pop-up flash is already TTL so there's no need to adjust anything if using the pop-up flash. Then I composed the scene with halloween decorations and granddaughter in the scene.

I gave Shannon some instructions. I told here that I'd click the shutter, the flash would go flash, then there would be darkness and she was to slowly walk two steps and stand still until I told her to move. It took us a couple of tries but she eventually got it right.

I held the camera steady by using a tripod. That's why the house and decorations are nice and steady. The flash hit Shannon and made her a solid ghost. When she walked, there's a blur because the light from the decorations and porch light are hitting her. When she stopped and stood still, she became a bit more solid because the same lights were hitting her but she was standing still.

Create your own Halloween photos and send me a link so I can see them. Have fun!

Italy Photo Tour -- Tuscany Random Images

2011-10-28T01:27:00.000-05:00

Images are everywhere in Tuscany. The place has such a style that there seems to be a photograph at each turn. A person has to stay ready all the time.

We walked into the church at Sant' Antimo as the Benedictine brothers were finishing their morning prayers. Incense smoke still filled the interior with sunlight streaming through the windows. One brother was still in prayer as I walked in.

The CLICK of the shutter echoed off the stone walls. Two shots and I backed out of the church. It was time to leave the man to his meditation. ISO was increased to allow a fast enough shutter speed to capture the image.

Outside the church we found this fantastic two-headed beast on the top of a stone column. The nice thing about using a 24-105mm lens is that I can capture a wide angle shot like the photograph of the monk and then capture an architectural detail high over my head with the same lens.

In San Gimigniano I found this bundle of wheat on a wall. The yellow and blue ribbon caught my eye. I've since learned that a bundle of wheat like this is a sign of thanksgiving for a good harvest and a good luck charm. It usually hangs from harvest to Christmas.

Pienze's main square had a lovely wall bathed in intense sunshine. The shadow cast by a metal window railing caught my eye. I liked the simplicity of the image. Later in Photoshop CS5 raw processor, I enhanced the color on the wall through Vibrance. Then I added a lot of contrast to make the shadow darker but not too dark.

In Volpaia, the sunlight was almost too intense. I moved over to the shadows and found my images there. This metal railing is the main focus of the image but the vines at the bottom and blooms in the background pull everything together. The soft light allows the viewer to see all the details in the image.

The f/stop is 5.6 so there's a shallow depth-of-field. Focus point is on the metal rail.

Italy Photo Tour -- Tuscany

2011-10-27T12:54:00.007-05:00

After four wonderful days in Florence, our photo tour moved to Tuscany on Sept 13. Folks in Florence call Tuscany “the country.” It’s country but really a whole other country. Tuscany is beautiful.

We stayed at the lovely Villa Rosa in Boscorotondo. This is a great small boutique hotel nestled at the base of a large vineyard.

Sunrise to breakfast we relaxed or photographed in the vineyard. Then we gathered for coffee and food on the patio. Around 9:30 we loaded in the coach for our destinations. Lunch at a wonderful restaurant in one of the hill towns. More photography and then back to Villa Rosa by late afternoon. Sunset photography in the vineyard or a little rest on the patio. The days ended with dinner together on the patio to swap stories about the day, photos achieved or missed, and general fun. Most evenings we were in our rooms and ready for bed by 9:30 pm. Well, I was anyway.

The weather was fantastic during our days in Tuscany. The sky was usually blue and the temperatures moderate.

The blue sky gave us a chance to use a polarizing filter for our landscapes. I know it’s a pain to put the filter on and take it off. But the reality is the filter makes a big difference. Check out these two images.

(above) The more colorful is with a polarizer. (below) The plain image is taken without a polarizer.

There’s a big difference before processing and a really big difference after processing. The glare on leaves and grass prevents the beautiful shades of green from showing. The sky is much more blue with the filter. It’s a no brainer.

(I used a Singh-Ray circular polarizer.)

One day, the group was getting out of the bus and walking down the street to photograph a colorful butcher’s shop. Cathy, Debbie, and Jeannie are athletic-types and they'd been photographing bikers along the road earlier in the day. We hadn't had good opportunities but they were getting the hang of motion blurs. A biker came along the road around the corner from the butcher’s shop. Several of us saw him and took a quick shot. There was another biker so we stopped and clicked. Then another, then another, then we changed angles, then another biker, then another, refined the angle, etc.

I was coaching the group to drop their shutter speed to 1/15^th of a second or somewhere around there. John Jones was great because he piped up and said 1/45^th works every time with no guessing. Fantastic pointer! Four of us never made it to the butcher shop. I took maybe 100 shots and narrowed it down to about 20 good ones. It was my best session with motion blur to date.

The hill towns to Greve, Radda, Montefioralle, Panzano, Pienze, and others gave us a chance to capture images of the Italian countryside.

This image of a broom against a doorway was a lucky break.

Yes, the broom was there. We moved it a bit but it really was leaning against that old wall. The light on the scene is sunlight reflecting off a yellow wall across the alleyway.

Our wine tasting at Vignamaggio Winery gave us a chance to photograph quiet moments in the winery and gardens.

The indoor shot is a blend of one image for the outside light and one for the interior light.

The statue is one of my favorites. The terracotta lady is so elegant.

Italy Photo Tour -- HDR

2011-10-22T14:39:00.011-05:00

HDR stands for High-Dynamic Range. Photos in HDR allows us to capture the dynamic range of light that we see with our eyes versus the 7 stops of light that the camera usually sees.

The photo at the right, is the interior of San Frediano de Cestillo. This is a beautiful church off the traditional tourist track in Florence, Italy. I took five photos in jpg format with the camera set on aperture priority. The photos were +2 stops over exposed, +1 stop over exposed, perfectly exposed, -1 stop under exposed, and +2 stops under exposed. The camera is set to auto bracket and high speed burst. When I push the shutter button down and hold it down, the camera takes five shots is rapid succession. The image is then processed using Photomatix 4.0 and I've selected the Grunge preset.

The photo at the right is more realistic looking. I've taken the same five photos that I used to make the image above and reprocessed them in Photomatix. This time I used the preset called Enhancer to get something that looks more like what I saw in real life.

Take a look at the three photos below. Same church, another five exposures, and processing in Photomatix 4.0. Notice how I can control how realistic or artsy the finished photo looks when processing in Photomatix.

In Photomatix or Nik HDR Efex Pro we can look at images pre-processed by the software. Then we choose which look we want or which look we want to use to start our processing. I love it. (left--Grunge center--Painterly right--Enhancer)

The photo at the right is the interior of Santa Maria del Fiore. No tripods are allowed and we only get a small view of the interior and dome as we leave the church after climbing to the top. Put the camera on auto bracket, move it to high speed burst, set it to jpg, and then hold it steady while firing five shots. Processed with Photomatix and the Enhancer preset. Notice the small lighted alcoves in the bottom of the frame and the sunlight in the top of the frame. No way could we capture those different lights without HDR or 57 layers and lots of computer time in Photoshop.

Enhancer in Photomatix is more realistic. An HDR composite of the paintings on the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore allows the viewer to see the stone work around the dome as well as the paintings. Unfortunately, I didn't take enough images to also get the true view through the lantern at the top.

Here's view through one of the tiny opening as we climbed to the top of the dome at Santa Maria del Fiore. This image is processing in Photomatix using the Grunge preset. It's a bit wild and crazy but that's the fun of HDR.

And, finally, two different ways of processing the images of the archway near the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Notice how the one on the left is more realistic but with an artistic touch. The image below right is the same group of photos but processed with the Grunge present.

HDR allows you to be in the driver's seat and have fun. It takes one or two minutes to process an image from start to finish. What could be more fun. Enjoy!

Italy Photo Tour -- Getting High

2011-10-22T13:52:00.006-05:00

No, not that kind of getting high silly. I mean getting some elevation to make photo look better. In photography we get high above the ground or low to the ground to change our angle of view. That gives photos a different look and makes them stand out.

The image on the left is taken from Piazzale Michelangelo on the southern edge of Florence. This is a favorite location to view the sunset with locals and tourists. For me, it's one of the best sunset locations. That means the group has to get there early, find a place for their tripods, and then stay put. Lens is a 24-105mm on a Canon Mark IV body.

The nice thing about a lens like the 24-105mm is its ability to zoom. Here's a shot of the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio when I zoomed out to 105mm. Nice way to isolate details in the city.

The Canon 24-105mm is an L-series lens. I used it on a camera with a 1.3 sensor. Want roughly the same field-of-view on a camera with a 1.6 sensor like the 7D or Rebel? Use the Canon 15-85mm.

With a little effort, there are other lofty perches in Florence. The top of the Campanile, or bell tower, at Santa Maria del Fiore is a great place to take photos. There are a little over 400 steps but the view is so good.

On the way up, you can take photos of the cathedral through openings in the tower . . . and catch your breath at the same time.

(Left) I exposed for the dome using my camera's spot meter. The raw photo was perfectly exposed for the outside and very dark for the interior. The fill light slider in Photoshop CS5 pulled out the details in the dark areas.

From the top of the bell tower is this magnificient view of the Florence skyline and the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. Five of us climbed the stairs at 5:00 p.m. so that we'd be on the top for sunset light. We weren't disappointed. The longer was stayed on top, the better the light got.

At closing time, the Italian guard reminded us that he wanted to get home to his family and dinner so we needed to get our behinds down those stairs. He was serious, too.

We couldn't get enough to the views so the next afternoon we climbed to the top of the Duomo. There are 400+ stairs that lead to the top of the dome atop Santa Maria del Fiore. It's a tough climb but only takes about a half hour once you get going.

There are plenty of resting places along the way but the best is the walkway around the drum of the dome. From here you can see and photograph all the great artwork on the top of the dome. Man's suffering on Earth is depicted at the bottom and heaven at the top. No tripods, so it's increase the ISO to get a shutter speed fast enough to stop jitters from your pounding heart and deep breathing. (Really, it's not that bad. Just a good bit of exercise for the healthy.)

What a view from the top! Fantastic views of Florence and a great place to photograph the bell tower and surrounding city.

All the climbs were worth it. Great photos as well as a nice excuse to grab one more cup of gelato. One of the best things about visiting Italy!

Photographing Florence Italy -- The Challenges

2011-10-19T13:29:00.005-05:00

Florence is so beautiful. There is a picture around every corner. When the light changes, the picture changes. Sometimes the images are easy to capture and then other times they are more challenging.

The photo at right shows one panel of the bronze doors on the Florence Baptistery. Michelangelo called the doors by Ghiberti, the "Gates of Paradise." The panels on the doors are a challenge to photograph because they are shiny bronze and behind a fence. The fence is usually lined with tourists two or three deep. Add to that, the plaza is filled with tourists during most of the day. Solution: Photograph the panels early in the morning when the doors are in the shadow cast of the massive Duomo across the plaza.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is another major tourist attraction in Florence. During my photo tour last year, the line to get inside wrapped around the building. This time the line was short so a couple of us paid the entrance fee and ducked inside.

The main aisle looking toward the entrance is amazing. No tripods are allowed, though, so all photography has to be at a high ISO. We switched our ISO to 2000 or 3200 to get a shutter speed somewhere near 1/60th or 1/30th. I was using a 24-105mm lens so I needed a shutter speed around 1/30th. (General rule of thumb: Shutter speed equals the millimeters of the lens to minimize camera shake.)

Statues line the interior of Santa Croce. They decorate the tombs of the most famous citizens of Florence. Galileo, Michelangelo, and others have details on their tombs that deserve to be photographed.

In the image of the lady bowing her head, I used a high ISO to capture the shot. In post processing with Photoshop CS5, I used noise reduction to eliminate the graininess associated with images taken at a high ISO. Then I increased the contrast on the image to bring out the shadows around the statue.

There are many chapels in Santa Croce and each is filled with paintings and artwork that call out to be photographed. The ceilings shouldn't be overlooked. To photograph overhead, plant your feet firmly on the ground, put the viewfinder to your eye, and allow your forehead to touch the camera. Your forehead gives a bit of stability that really helps.

The image at the right shows how beautiful some of the ceiling artwork can be. The ray surrounding the icon is gold leaf. There were windows in the room so sunlight was making the gold shine. That's great for the eye but not for the camera.

I took my first shot of the ceiling and then checked the histogram on the back of my camera. Sure enough, there was a spike on the right side showing that I'd over exposed the gold. A check of the highlight indicator showed that the area around the icon was blown out. That meant there would be no detail on the finished photo. So I took another shot, with the camera set to -1 stop. A check of the histogram showed I was right on the money.

Once we came out of the church and entered the gardens, it was important to put the ISO back to 100 or 200 to produce images with nice, smooth grain. The Italian sunshine gave us plenty of light so there was no need to raise the ISO. (Put that tool back in the tool box for another time.)

The capitals at the right caught my eye in the garden. I positioned myself so that the sky was blocked by the columns and trees. That way my camera would expose for the shadows on the columns and not the bright sky. There was sun shining on the wall facing the columns so light was reflecting on the shady side. A natural reflector gave me a hit of light on an otherwise dark area.

Photographing Florence Italy

2011-10-18T19:44:00.009-05:00

I had the pleasure of leading a Strabo Photo Tour to Italy in September, 2011. This was my second visit to the country and a fantastic chance to revisit, reshoot, and reveal another layer of this wonder city.

I arrived on September 8th after a wonderful and relaxing flight from Houston to Frankfurt and then Florence. Well, it was a flight and I arrived on time at my destination. The rest was typical air travel in the 21st century.

My group was staying at the Torre Guelfo, a wonderful historic hotel in the heart of old Florence. I stayed at the Hotel Magenta, a new hotel, but still in the heart of Florence. The plan was for me to walk to the Torre Guelfo, meet my folks, do the tour each day, then walk back to the Hotel Magenta. Overall, an excellent idea because I got to explore a new neighborhood and got a little extra exercise.

In the new neighborhood, I found the Seminario Maggiore di Firenze. This is a domed church off the Ponte alla Carraia (ponte means bridge.) Turns out the dome is silhouetted against the setting sun and the bridge is lined with locals enjoying the sunset. I noticed this on the 8th while I was out on an exploratory walk and hunting for some pizza for dinner. We went back as a group the following night and got these shots.

Silhouette is easy. Camera on Aperture Priority then underexpose by one stop.

Same here. Camera on tripod gives a crisper shot.

Florence at night is different from Florence during the day. At night, there are lights and shadows.

The best night photos are taken at twilight or dusk. In this photo, the city lights reflect off the wet streets giving more color. Note that the sky is a beautiful deep blue because it's taken at dusk.

This photo shows the Ponte Vecchio from the Ponte Santa Trinita. The Ponte Santa Trinita was destroyed by the Germans when they left Florence in 1944. Many of the stones on the bridge were recovered from the Arno River or are from the original quarry. The Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge in Florence and the only one not destroyed by the Germans in WWII.

Canon Mark IV on a tripod with a 24-105mm lens. F/22 or f/16 to get a small aperture opening. That gives a slow shutter speed that allows the water to blur. The shutter is not too slow, though, since there's a moon in the sky. We don't want the moon to blur and look like an egg.

Daytime Florence -- next post.

Used Camera for a Teenager

2011-10-18T09:36:00.002-05:00

A friend asked me for camera suggestions for a friend's teenage daughter who was interested in sports photography. They wanted to stay with Canon so this is a Canon specific answer. (I'd give the same answer for someone wanting a Nikon but with the Nikon model numbers.)

I'd suggest a used Canon 30D or 40D and a 75-300mm IS lens. The body would be about $400 used. An option would be to get her a Rebel T3i if they wanted to get new. That's newer technology but a bit more expensive.

There's a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens that is only $299. The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS is $650.

For around $1,000, the parents could buy a used body and new lens OR a new body and cheaper lens. For around $700, they could be used camera and cheaper lens.

I'd suggest that they order from Kathryn Dow at Hunt's Photo & Video if they are going to order online. Her email is Kdow@wbhunt.com or her number is 1-800-221-1830.

El Triunfo Cloud Forest Preserve

2011-10-11T13:52:00.003-05:00

Our friends in Mexico need all the help they can get to preserve bird-rich habitat. Consider donating:

El Triunfo Cloud Forest Preserve

The treasure traveled with us to the Galapagos in May 2011. She's a great person and trying to build support for her home state in Mexico.

New Quick Release for Your Wimberly Head

2011-09-29T11:39:00.001-05:00

This is a great gadget for those using the full Wimberly head.

Quick Release

I'll be the featured speaker at the Houston NANPA Road Show

2011-09-06T11:49:00.004-05:00

NANPA is pleased to announce the 2011 Houston Road Show Seminar to be held in Houston, Texas on September 24, 2011 in a classroom at the Houston Zoo. Road Shows are indoor seminars hosted by well-known leaders - your hosts for this event will be Kathy Adams Clark and Ted Washington. Cost will be only $99.00 for NANPA members...
Online Registration is now open!

Just the Facts...

Date: September 24, 2011
Time: 9 am to 4 pm
Cost: $99 for NANPA Members / $129 for non-members
$110 for camera club members in groups of 4 or more...
Camera clubs please contact the NANPA office for details on this offer. Location: Houston Zoo Classroom (lunch break details)

Program Overview...

Library feature in Lightroom 3
Show us your images and hear our critique
Camera Raw Processor in Photoshop CS5 or Develop in Lightroom 3
Pushing the envelop in travel and nature photography with HDR, light blending, painting with light, night photography. Processing, gadgets, and more.

Presentation Details...

Library in Lightroom 3 -- Ted made his mark as the photographer for The Woodlands Corporation. He is also a master at the Library feature in Lightroom 3. Many people complain that Library is the most confusing section of Lightroom. Ted will demonstrate how he uses Library and why he thinks all photographers should embrace it.

Image critique -- Kathy and Ted will critique 5 images from each attendee. Without knowing the owner of the images, Kathy and Ted will give their honest opinion of each image. After all the images have been critiqued, the images will be discussed during a question and answer session. What fun to see what other nature photographers in the area are shooting but also hear what professionals think about them.

Camera Raw Processing -- Camera Raw in Photoshop CS5 and Develop in Lightroom 3 do many of the same functions. A good image can become an outstanding image in Camera Raw or Develop. Watch and learn as Kathy does general processing to a group of images and then reveals some interesting tools to give the images a bit of magic.

Pushing the Envelope -- Kathy will present the final session of the day. She'll talk about her recent work where she is shooting in a different way. Travel and nature photography will be the focus including motion pans, night photography, star photography, using multiple flash, and incorporating a trip beam. Processing techniques include HDR and Light Blending.

Location Details...

We'll be meeting at the Houston Zoo in an air-conditioned classroom. The Houston Zoo provides a fun, unique, and inspirational experience fostering appreciation, knowledge, and care for the natural world. Each participant will receive a wristband at the Zoo so you can enjoy your lunch at any one of the Zoo restaurants, carts or kiosks. Follow this link to learn more about what you can "Eat at the Zoo".

About Your Hosts...

Kathy Adams Clark is the owner of KAC Productions. She started the company in 1995 after a career in human resources. Her photos have appeared in many places including Birder's World, Ranger Rick, The New York Times and National Geographic Books. Kathy also leads photo tours for Strabo Tours. She speaks frequently at association meetings and nature festivals. In addition, she is Past-president of the North American Nature Photography Association.

Ted Washington is a freelance photographer living in The Woodlands, Texas. His list of clients include The Woodlands Development Company and The Woodlands Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Details on NANPA . . .

NANPA, the North American Nature Photography Association, is the first and premiere association in North America committed solely to serving the field of nature photography.

Our Mission:

NANPA promotes the art and science of nature photography as a medium of communication, nature appreciation, and environmental protection.

NANPA provides information, education, inspiration and opportunity for all persons interested in nature photography.

NANPA fosters excellence and ethical conduct in all aspects of our endeavors and especially encourages responsible photography in the wild.

www.nanpa.org

How to Use Flash -- Basic Set-up

2011-09-02T21:10:00.003-05:00

Modern flashes are so easy to use. It's amazing how complicated people want to make them. It's really easy.

Okay, here's how you do it. Flash has to be on eTTL. That could be TTL depending on your flash.
There can't be an M in front of the word Zoom on the back of the flash.

Once those two items are set, you should notice that as you zoom the lens, the flash also zooms. The flash is now reading your zoom and auto focus to figure out how far out to send light. Flash follows focus.

Put your camera in Manual, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority. Balance the light meter for the ambient light. (Don't know how to do that? Check this blog. There's a past post.) The flash should now go out and hit the subject and turn off.

Too much light? Then dial the flash down. That's the little plus/minus button with a lightning bolt. I keep my flash dialed down by 2/3 of a stop.

Nikons can follow these instructions except the Aperture Priority. Most Nikon cameras have a set shutter speed when the flash is turned on in AP. Also, most Nikon flashes need to be dialed down by 1 to 1 1/3 stops. They are powerful.

ITunes Has My eBook

2011-09-01T10:36:00.002-05:00

Itunes is now offering my ebook on Basic Photography. You can download to your iPad, iPod, or iPhone.

Basic Photography by Kathy Adams Clark

Landscape Photography

2011-08-26T10:24:00.004-05:00

The key to a good landscape photo is grandeur. That means you want to show how big the scene is so people feel like they can walk right in and look around.

A nice wide angle lens is key. I like something at least 24mm but 20mm is better, 18mm is better, 16mm is much better, 14mm is fantastic. The millimeters depends on sensor size, of course. A 24mm on a full-frame sensor is great for landscapes. A 16mm is fabulous. An 18mm is necessary on a 1.6 sensor camera because the sensor is smaller. That's why 14mm looks so neat on a 1.6 sensor camera. I use a 24mm and 16mm on my 1.3 sensor Mark IV for landscape.

Lens is first. Then tripod. Tripod holds the camera steady. The rule of thumb is your millimeters of the lens has to equal the shutter speed to stop camera shake. Do the math. You can handhold a 16th of a second shutter speed with a 16mm lens. You can handhold a 24th of a second shutter speed with a 24mm lens. Any shutter speed above that is great. Any shutter speed below that needs a tripod. Serious landscape work needs a tripod no matter what the shutter speed.

Then aperture. An f/22 or f/32 gives you maximum depth-of-field. That's a tiny aperture opening so the shutter speed is going to be slower. I use aperture priority for landscape work. I set the f/stop and the camera sets the shutter speed. An f/32 gives maximum depth-of-field but maximum sharpness might be f/16 or even f/11. I've started using f/16 on my lenses.

Last is composition. Remember the rule of thirds and golden thirds. Thirds is 1/3 sky, 1/3 land, 1/3 water. Or, 1/3 sky, 1/3 distance, 1/3 close foreground. Tilt the camera a bit downward to exaggerate the foreground and make it bigger.

Divide the frame into nine rectangles. That would be three across and three down. Image where the intersecting lines are. Then put the most interesting subject on the intersecting lines. Tilt the camera downward to exaggerate the foreground.

An entry point, like a path, docks, walkway, trail, stream, rotting log, etc, is a good way to get the viewer into the picture. Put that entry point in the lower right or left corner. Have the entry point leading into the frame toward the most interesting subject in the photo. That way viewers will follow the entry point to the most interesting element in the frame.

Here are some of my favorite landscape photographers:

Kevin Adams

Chris Murray

John Fielder

10 Minutes to Learn

2011-08-24T10:23:00.000-05:00

I once read that it take 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. That's about 5 years of 8 hour days plus time off for holidays and weekends.

The time it takes to become an expert at photography and processing photos is about the same. I've been at this business for 16 years but even today I try to read something about photography or photo processing every day. That sparks my creativity and keeps me up-to-date with current trends and technology.

One of the ways I continue to learn is by watching short videos on the web. Adobe Photoshop Hidden Gems is a great way to learn something useful really fast. Check it out.

Different way to bring out the sky

2011-08-23T09:20:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite tools in Photoshop CS5 or Lightroom 3 is the Graduated Filter. I've written about it before so check the archives. The filter allows you to darken the sky without darkening the rest of the image. Darken one area of the frame, for that matter, without darkening the entire image.

The graduated filter works like a window shade. It only fits in straight areas not an odd-shaped area like the one in the photo on the right.

I pulled this image that I shot back in 2006 for a project. The sky was washed out so I pulled down the graduated filter in Camera Raw to see if the sky would pull out. Lo and behold, it did!!

That told me there was detail in the sky. The sky was blue in real life but to get the rocks exposed well I had to over expose the sky. (This was back in 2006. Today I would take seven images and process in HDR!)

So after playing and playing I was going to go work in layers. I hate layers so I thought I'd create some images and make an HDR. I opened the Raw file in Camera Raw. Moved the exposure slider to make the first image for the HDR with the sky perfectly exposed. Saved that as a jpg. Then I made the second image for the HDR with the rocks perfectly exposed. Saved that as a jpg.

Then my mind clicked -- Move the exposure slide so the sky is perfectly exposed. Then move the Fill Light slider to open up the rock. Magic!! Looks just like the Graduated Filter but without the dark areas around the rocks. No layers!!!

Camera Raw in Photoshop CS5 is loaded with new features. (It's the same as Develop in Lightroom 3.) Fill Light in previous versions of the software was horrible. Today, it is much improved.

Photoshop and Lightroom are powerful tools. Adobe is constantly improving and updating the software. There are usually many ways to do something. This is one example of one of three different ways to process an image. I could have used layers, HDR, or a combination of sliders in Camera Raw.

How to Buy a Memory Card

2011-08-22T11:41:00.004-05:00

The key to buying a memory card is capacity and record speed. Capacity is easy. That's 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc. Look to see how many megabytes each file is from your camera. Not megapixels but megabytes. A raw file out of my camera is 26MB. That's roughly 26 floppy disc for each photo — and I know some of you remember floppy discs.

1 MB is equal to .000097GB but that's too complicated to remember. 26MB equals .02GB so a 1GB card can hold 50 pictures shot in raw from my camera. That means a 16GB card would hold 800 photos. I put a 16GB card in my camera to check that number and the camera shows I can shoot 707 raw files on that card. (Put the card in your camera. Turn the camera on. You'll see the number in the frame counter. Shooting RAW will give you one number and shooting in JPG will give another number.)

The record speed is really important, though. Cards should show a record speed or write speed. That would be 4MB per second, 10MB per second, 15MB per second on the cheap cards. More expensive cards have 80MB per second or 80MB/s. Cheap cards usually don't show the record speed because there's nothing to brag about. A card that is willing to promote it's record speed is a good thing.

Your camera has a fps speed. A Canon 60D can shoot 5.3 frames per second. That means if you're in AI Servo and the drive is set to high-speed, you can shoot 5.3 frames per second. Do the math. That's 100-120MB/s. A slow card is going to lock up on you and the camera is going to say "Busy."

I suggest you buy something in the 16GB or 32GB range with the fastest record speed you can afford. I have 16GB that record at 80MB. That would cost more in a 32GB. I rarely fill up a 16GB card in a day. Since I download at night or at lunch when I'm shooting, I don't feel a need to have a 32GB right now. I'd rather have speed than capacity.

Flying With Camera Gear

2011-08-03T12:06:00.002-05:00

People always want to know how I travel with my camera gear. This is really easy but you have to work through it the first time.

I put my camera case and laptop case on Luggage Wheels that I bought at Target.

Camera bag is up to you. I have a Gura Gear bag. This holds my 500mm on one side and then camera body, three lenses, accessories on the other side. All my unnecessary camera gear goes in my checked luggage. Tripod is in checked luggage.

I used to carry a LowePro Photo Trekker Classic. It will hold up to a 600mm lens.

The key is packing the camera bag so that it is compact and as light as possible. Too much weight and you'll never get the bag into the overhead. Too bulky and you'll look like a silly tourist. The camera bag should be inconspicuous and not draw any attention.

Hand-held HDR

2011-07-28T20:14:00.003-05:00

In the past, we've had to use a tripod when taking the four or five images needed for an HDR photo. Not so anymore.

The software has gotten so good at aligning images we don't need a tripod anymore. Just a good steady hand and a fast shutter finger.

To take this image, I set the camera on seven exposure bracketing. That's one exposure with the camera's meter balanced, then one at +3, +2, +1, -1, -2, and -3.

I set the camera for jpg images since I wouldn't need to process any of the shots. Then I set the camera to high speed burst and got into a steady position. I pushed the shutter button and held it for seven shots.

The blended image gives me all the dynamic range that I saw with my eye. In fact, it's better than I saw with my eye since the light was bright and contrasty.

Collaboration in Big Bend

2011-07-23T19:16:00.003-05:00

My friend, Patti Edens, and I headed out to Big Bend National Park last week for some serious photography. We both have an interest in night photography and high dynamic range photography. We both love the geeky technical aspects of photography and do well bouncing ideas of each other. In addition, we both love Big Bend.

The photography gods must have approved of the trip. We had clear summer skies filled with stars, dry days, and lots of energy.

Our first objective was capturing the Milky Way. That proved to be easy thanks to some great tips we’d picked up from Kevin Adams over the years.

Crisp photos of the Milky Way come from using a shutter speed that will yield stars as pin pricks versus streaks. Patti and I both use Canon Mark IV camera bodies and we each have a lens in the 16mm range. The formula for shutter speed that will yield pin pricks of light is millimeters of the lens divided by 500. That’s 16/500 or leave the shutter open for 31 seconds. Round that to 30 seconds and we have one number for our exposure.

Weeks before our trip, we consulted a program called SkyGazer to find the compass direction and time the Milky Way would be visible in Big Bend. On the predetermined date and time, we set-up our tripods with camera and lens attached. We pointed our camera at the Milky Way, composed the scene, dialed in a 30 second shutter speed, then balanced the light meter with the right combination of f/stop and ISO. The image was shot at 30 sec, f/2.8, at ISO 500.

Then it came time for a photo of a tent camper against the night sky. Patti brought the little tent and we scouted for the location during the day. We erected the tent shortly after sunset and waited for the night sky over Casa Grande to turn the right shade of bluish/purple. We placed a flashlight in the tent and got Patti into position. Then after a lot of trial and error we go the photo.

During the day we worked on high dynamic range photos. The shot of the Sierra del Carmens through the tunnel is a combination of five photos. We started with a balanced exposure, then two stops over exposed, one stop over exposed, one stop under exposed, and two stops under exposed. The images were blended in Photomatix later that day to get the final shot.

We asked each other many, many times over the course of our trip why something didn’t work, why things did work, what would happen if we altered this or that. The collaboration led to some great images and a great trip.

Night Photography in Downtown Houston

2011-07-16T14:10:00.002-05:00

Lots of creative juices were flowing on Thursday night when 20 of us gathered for the Photography at Night class through Leisure Learning.

This in an HDR shot of downtown from the Preston overpass. Buffalo Bayou Park is in the foreground with the Wortham Theater on the left. The light was a bit hazy due to storms in the area. HDR brought out light from the setting sun.

We got under Interstate 45 and noticed how the shadows of the overpasses and the sunset light were so interesting. The only way to capture all the tones was with an HDR. This is processed in Photomatix Pro with a bit of the "painterly" touch.

Nice light as we came across the pedestrian bridge over Buffalo Bayou. The skyline of Houston was magnificent. How nice of the city to give us a little bridge right where it needed to be for photographers.

Last shots from the top of the Hobby Center parking garage. Wonderful night with a great group of people. Look for my next photography at night class in the fall when it's cooler. We were sweating!!!

White Balance Tool

2011-07-12T14:10:00.004-05:00

In Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3, there is a white balance tool. In CS5 camera raw processer, it looks like a little eye dropper. Looks the same in Lightroom under the Develop tab.

That little eye dropper is pretty powerful. Look at the image of my scowling cat at the left. See how the walls of my old house look yellow? The walls are really white or something close to white on the Sherwin-Williams paint pallet.

The camera renders the wall yellow because there were tungsten lights on the room when I took the photo. I could play with the white balance slider in Photoshop but it's easier to use the eye dropper tool.

All I do is open the photo in Camera Raw, click on the eye dropper tool at the top right, then click on something white -- but not too white -- in the photo.

Click on the cat's white paw and the photo is too blue. Click on the white walls in the background and the photo is just right. Well, it would have helped if the cat gave me a smile but that's being way too picky.

Online stoage to RAW images

2011-07-07T11:12:00.003-05:00

Question from Bob: I remember you mentioning Smug Mug in one of your classes and I'm considering signing up. I'm looking for an online tool where I can download my RAW images into an online "Work to be Processed" folder so that the storage on my computer doesn't get clogged. From that folder, I would process images and move them to another appropriate folder. Does Smug Mug allow that? Is that what you do?

My answer: You wouldn't use SmugMug for this purpose. First, it would take forever to upload your RAW files. We're talking days not hours to upload.

My solution would be an external hard drive. I have one that I travel with that holds 1TB. I download photos to my computer's hard drive then do an edit. If I need space or a back-up, I move the unprocessed photos to the external hard drive. Then I process off the external hard drive.

The downside to working on photos from the external hard drive is it's a bit slower. My old computer couldn't handle working off an extenal hard drive at all. My new one is much better. Technology is changing so this is a good alternative.

Another idea is to move photos from the "Work to be Processed" folder on the external hard drive to your computer when you're ready to work on them. Then work directly from your computer's hard drive. When finished, move the photos to another external hard drive for long-term storage.

I agree with you that we don't want our main computer to be clogged with photos. I like having one hard drive for photos to be processed and another for photos that have already been processed.

Galapagos Tortoise

2011-06-21T09:09:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to Gary Clark's article in the Houston Chronicle on our visit the Galapagos Islands and our experiences with the giant tortoises.

Nature Column in Houston Chronicle

All of these images were taken with a Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens. The tortoises are huge and completely unafraid of humans. I knew we could get close to them but also knew I'd need a very wide field of view to fit them in a photo. The 16-35mm did a great job.

This guy was feeding in grass on a farm on Santa Cruz island. The farmer knows he has a gold mine in these animals. Bus loads of tourists arrive all day to walk out in the pastures and find the tortoises.

I positioned myself in the path of the tortoise and let him walk up to me. The 16-35mm lens did a marvelous job showing the animal in its habitat.

Galapagos Equipment

2011-06-06T16:51:00.005-05:00

The island of Espanola was our destination on day 3 of the Galapagos photo tour. Passage to the island during the night took six hours and it was very rough. Most of us woke up blurry-eyed and woozy. Even Charly, our fabulous guide, was a bit unsteady when he came down for breakfast. What the heck! Good things are always in hard to reach places.

Espanola is the southermost island in the Galapagos Archipelago. It's one of the oldest islands in the chain. It's also the only place we could reliably see the waved albatross.

We loaded into the pangas after breakfast for our landing. Luckily, it was a dry landing with a nice hike and plenty of wildlife. I carried two camera bodies. The Mark IV had my 300mm f/4 lens and 1.4x extender attached. My 7D had a 16-35mm f/2.8. The 16-35mm had a polarizer attached.

This was my standard camera set-up for the entire trip. The 300mm f/4 lens was perfect for flying birds like the waved albatross above and the courting albatross at right. I never found myself wanting more magnification. The 300mm with or without the extender was just the right amount of magnification since the birds and creatures were always so close.

The 16-35mm lens was perfect for photographing creatures in their habitat. The photo below shows a waved albatross roosting along the cliffs of Espanola Island. The landscape is so grade it screamed for a really wide lens. The 16-35mm did the job.

The albatross in this photo is only about a foot in front of the camera. Park rules say we have to stay a meter away from critters but this bird was roosting right at the side of the trail. As I walked past the bird, I knelt down and snapped a series of photos.

Notice how the polarizing filter got rid of all the glare off the ocean, rocks, and feathers? Glare would have been distracting in this shot. I'm so glad I had it on the lens and thought to rotate it to reduce the glare.

The 16-35mm lens is not one of my favorites but it sure got a good workout in the Galapagos.

Galapagos Photo Tour -- The beginning

2011-06-02T22:16:00.005-05:00

The group had been together for two days in Quito so we were functioning as a team when we headed out to the airport for the flight to Baltra, Galapagos. There was anxiety because Tame Airlines only allows 44 pounds of luggage and 22 pounds for carry-ons. Every photographer had at least 22 pounds of camera equipment so there was a lot of fretting about getting all the equipment aboard. Turns out there was no need to worry. Our guides from Inca Travel got all the luggage checked to Balta and got all the carry-ons through security.

Our two-hour flight to Baltra was quiet and comfortable. Those with a window seat got their first view of the islands as we landed. Our guide, Chary met use at the airport. We gathered all our luggage then loaded onto a bus that took us across the island and to the harbor. Our home for the next eight days, the yacht Daphne, was anchored off shore. Magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, brown noddy, and Galapagos shearwaters flew right over our heads as we watched men unload our luggage and transport it to the boat. Several of us couldn’t stand missing shots of the birds, so we started putting camera equipment together and snapping our first photos on the islands.

Two pangas, or inflatable motorized boats, launched from the Daphne and headed to the dock. We got instructions on how to get into the pangas and the adventure began. Loading into the pangas and getting off at the Daphne was uneventful. We all made it without getting wet.

Aboard the Daphne, we learned about footwear on a boat. Clean shoes or sandals were the only footwear allowed past the loading area on the back of the boat. Water shoes and shoes worn onshore were left in cubbies on the back of the boat. Clean shoes were put on and then we could take a flight to stairs to the main deck of the boat. No sand allowed in the main part of the boat. My type of ship!!

We had a snack, juice and then selected our cabins. Our photography group was joined by a family from England and a single lady from Mexico. This is typical on the boats around the Galapagos. Tour groups fill the majority of the boat but then families and singles fill the remaining slots. We were apprehensive about the newcomers but found they were perfect companions. We were so lucky.

After a short time to unpack and explore the boat, we had a meeting to discuss our next adventure. We’d motor (navigated in boat language) to Bachas Beach on the west shore of Santa Cruz Island and have our first landing. The landing would be wet meaning we’d get out of the pangas in the surf and walk to shore. We had a safety drill, learned about life jackets, and then learned how to get in and out of the pangas. Then it was off to our cabins to unpack and gather our photography equipment, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, water shoes, and other gear for the landing.

Bachas Beach was lovely from the pangas. We were nervous but excited. Our first landing on the Galapagos Islands but with camera gear in hand. There was a lot of apprehension. First off the boat was John and he fell flat into the water. His Canon 50D and 300mm lens never recovered. (collective groan everyone.) But, he had backup equipment and so did I. Luckily, John wasn’t hurt and his was the only camera to hit the water on the entire trip.

We had a great adventure on Bachas. Marine iguana and sally lightfoot crabs sat on black lava rocks along the shoreline. They gave us the quintessential photos of the Galapagos. A great blue heron strolled up to the group and walked by without giving us a care. A flock of greater flamingos fed in a shallow pool of water while we talked about exposure, composition, and histograms. Magnificent frigatebirds flew overhead and gave us a chance to work on flying birds and focusing.

After sunset we were back on the Daphne and downloading photos. Dinner gave us a chance to come together and share our experiences ashore and start talking photography. We checked off the birds we’d seen that day and started keeping track of critters we’d seen. By 8:30 we were all headed to our cabins.

The boat started moving at 5:00 am and gave us our first experience of sleeping on an anchored ship and then sleeping on moving boat. Some slept very well in their rocking cradle at sea. Others, like me, had a rough night adjusting to life at sea.

Storage Device or Laptop??

2011-06-02T10:24:00.003-05:00

Question: I'm take a photo trip this summer. Do I buy a small laptop or a storage device like the Epson P7000?

Answer: No way would I go on a trip without a laptop. I see people with the Epson P7000 or equivalent and they are missing so much. All they can do is look at their photos.

The laptop allows you to download, back-up, view, enlarge, process, rename, add metadata, etc. Netbooks with a 10" screen work well but they don't display a lot of the software pages full screen -- or mine didn't two years ago. A small 13" or 15" laptop is easy to get for $500. It doesn't need anything fancy expect your email and photo processing software.

It's important to rename and add metadata when you get home. But getting the name right can be hard once you get home. The internet does not always give you the right name. Put metadata in while you are there and you get it right for future work at home. That's another advantage of having a laptop with you when traveling.

Equipment Specials from Hunts Photo & Video

2011-06-02T10:08:00.001-05:00

Here are some nice specials from Hunts Photo & Video

Specials of the Month

Now, if I only had some money . . .

Nik Efex Pro HDR

2011-05-10T15:14:00.005-05:00

I have to teach a class tonight on HDR at Leisure Learning in Houston so I was playing with some files. I've used Photomatix for years but have recently switched to HDR Efex Pro by Nik.

The image was processed from the Scala de Port in Essaouira, Morocco is a blend of five images. The boats in the foreground were in shadows and the background was lit by the sunrise. Much too contrasty for a normal photograph but perfect for high-dynamic range.

I took four images -- one perfectly exposed, one over by a stop, one two stops over, and one under by a stop. Look like what I saw with my eye.

The next image, though, is pure play. I used a preset in the software called "Granny's Attic." I did nothing else to the image because I really like it straight out of the software.

If you order the software, enter promo code "KCLARK" and you get 15% off. Enjoy!

Calibrating Your Monitor

2011-05-09T14:32:00.002-05:00

Question: I want to make gallery wrap prints and worry that the prints won't look like the image on my monitor. Should I calibrate my monitor? Do you use Mac or PC?

My Answer: I use a Mac to do all my photos. Colormunki is the hottest calibrator. If you're not using a Mac, then I’d really recommend that you calibrate your monitor.

There’s always going to be a bit of difference between your photo and a final print. I don’t worry about it that much. I ask for professional prints and ask the printer to color correct the final output. You can request a proof if you’re really picky. I never have. I trust the people at Fine Print who make my prints for me.

Basic, basic, basic Night Photography

2011-04-20T11:33:00.004-05:00

A student wrote that he and his wife were headed to Rome for a vacation but he hadn't had the time to take my Photography at Night class at Leisure Learning. He asked for a basic primer to get him through the trip. Here's what I sent him:

Put your camera on a sturdy tripod. It's doesn't have to be a heavy tripod but it does need to hold the camera still. A cable release helps but you can also use the timer to fire 2 or 10 seconds after you click the shutter button. Then set the white balance to AWB. (This is where I leave my camera all the time.) Move to Aperture Priority and set the f/stop to 22 or 16. The camera will balance the light meter for you with the shutter speed. Leave the ISO at it's lowest point. That would be 100 for Canon and 200 for Nikon. As it gets darker outside, you might need to raise the ISO a bit to keep the shutter speed at 30 seconds or higher.

The best shooting is 30-45 minutes after the sun goes down and the sky turns violet to purple. A hour or two after sundown will give you a black sky or orangish sky due to light pollution.

F/22 will give you star bursts on street lights. That's a nice effect in the photos. Long shutter speed will give you streaks on car lights. Don't worry about cars coming toward you. Those lights will be white. Tail lights are red.

Different light sources yield different colors of light. Neon does one thing, florescent does another, tungsten another. Look for different kinds of lights and see what happens.

Zoom during a long exposure for an interesting photo. Move the camera for another. Put someone in the photo and use your flash to illuminate them. Tell them to stay still until the exposure is finished. (Change your f/stop to get a shorter shutter speed so they won't have to stand still too long.)

Have fun! That's the key to good night photography.

Upgrading From Canon Kit Lenses

2011-04-14T09:19:00.003-05:00

Lenses!? This is a hard question to answer. Everyone has their own way of shooting or will eventually develop their own ways. Each of us has our own vision or will one day.

(Texan Crescent at left photographed with 300mm f/4 lens.)

My favorite general lens is the Canon 24-105mm L. That's my favorite on my Mark IV with a 1.3 sensor. The lens isn't as jazzy on my Canon 7D because it has a 1.6 sensor and thus a narrower field of view. Canon makes a 15-85mm for the 7D that gives the same field of view as the 24-105mm on the Mark IV. To me, this field of view is the best range for a general landscape, walking around, family lens.

Then there are the telephoto lenses. If you're going to shoot birds, you need 300mm or more. The 70-200mm L IS 2.8 or 4.0 is great. You can put a tele-extender on either and you get more magnification. The 70-200mm 2.8 becomes a 140-400mm f/5.6 with a 2.x extender.

The 300mm f/4 is my favorite mid-range telephoto. It's not a zoom but I've never missed having a zoom. I shoot what I get in the view finder and don't worry about it. I like this lens, too, because it has a macro feature. It's great for birds, wildlife, sports, air shows, etc.

The 500mm is always better but my 300mm f/4 is my second choice.

Another option is the new 70-300mm L. That's a nice lens but it doesn't take a tele-extender. To me, it's not enough reach for general bird shooting but is good for sports, action, air shows, etc.

Hunt's Photo & Video Specials

2011-04-13T10:24:00.001-05:00

There are some good photo deals this week at Hunt's Photo & Video.

Hunt's Photo Specials

Five Tips for Photoshop CS5

2011-04-04T09:27:00.002-05:00

Patti sent me a note and said that I should watch a Gavin Hoey video. Gavin shows how to use his five favorite features in Photoshop CS5. Then he adds a bonus feature that is so cool.

Thanks, Patti!! That was 20 minutes well spent.

Take a look for yourself. Gavin Howey

Note using Photoshop CS5? Using Lightroom or another version of PS? Go ahead and watch. You'll learn a lot.

HDR Efex Pro from Nik Software

2011-04-03T20:47:00.014-05:00

I am in love with my new HDR software. Nik HDR Efex Pro is amazing. For years, I've been using Photomatix to process my HDR photographs. I've been happy for the most part. The images have been amazing.

Then, the other day I ordered HDR Efex Pro by Nik. One or two photos was all it took to convince me that there was a new love in my life. Look at the difference.

Here are two images. The image on the top is processed with HDR Efex Pro and the one on the bottom is processed with Photomatix. Both are minimally processed with only a few adjustments.

Check out these images. The top is HDR Efex Pro and the one on the bottom is Photomatix. Both are a combination of five images taken shortly after sunset. I am amazed and very impressed.

I'll add HDR Efex Pro by Nik to the HDR classes that I teach at Leisure Learning. Next class is May 10th at 6:30 p.m. See you there!!

Order HDR Efex Pro from Hunt's Photo & Video Compatible with Mac or PC. Easy to install. Tutorial included.

More images and comments after I've processed some more images.

Fill Flash for a Backlit Subject

2011-03-31T14:58:00.004-05:00

Question: I have a Canon 550 EX and I'd like to photograph back lighted subjects. What are the correct settings?

Answer: We encounter this a lot in bird photography when the bird's up in a tree with the bright sky as a background. I'll use the scarlet macaw at the left as an example. Below I'll give you another example.

I see that the subject is backlit so I move my light meter to spot in Nikon or partial in Canon. The light meter is now reading only 10% of the center of the frame. If I have one focus point activated (that's the way I shoot most of the time) then spot meter follows focus point in most modern digital SLR cameras.

The flash should be set to eTTL or TTL. Make sure that the zoom is NOT set to Manual. We want zoom on the flash to follow zoom on the lens. That way your flash boosts power to fire at a distant subject. (Zoom set to Manual?? Hold the zoom button down until the "M" goes away. Make sure the plastic diffuser in front of the flash is stored away. Be sure the flash is pointing straight ahead. Canon flashes have a tiny click downward that puts the flash back into Manual mode.)

Put camera in the Manual, AV or TV mode. Nikon would be the Manual or S mode. Focus on the bird and fire a couple of shot.

Make sure the flash recharges before taking another shot. You'll see the little green lightening bolt show up in the viewfinder when the flash is fully charged.

Check your histogram to see if it stretches all the way from the right corner to the left corner. Ignore any little blinkies in the background. That's the price we pay for shooting a backlit subject. If you need a bit more light based on the histogram, then over expose on the camera. (Move the light meter toward the + sign.)

Alternative method. Take a meter reading on the background with the camera in the Manual mode. Don't include the subject at this time but take the meter reading near the subject. Dial in the f/stop and shutter speed you want to balance the light meter. Put the subject in the scene. Set the flash as directed above. (Make sure the flash is pointed at the subject if the subject is off-center.) Focus on the subject. Take the photo.

The flash will properly illuminate the subject because you focused on the subject. Flash follows focus point. Flash follows the zoom of your lens.

(My husband has dropped 80 pounds since this photo was taken!!)

Light Up the Eyes

2011-03-29T09:30:00.004-05:00

There's a cool tool in Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom Camera Raw called adjustment brush. This is a great tool for lightening the eye of a bird. See the before and after at right.

Adjustment Brush is at the top of the tool bar when you open an image in Camera Raw.

Click on the adjustment brush and you get a new set of sliders below the histogram on the right.

Go down to "Size" and move the slider until the circle is the same side as the eye of your bird. (Your cursor becomes a circle when you put it over the photo.)

Move your cursor to the photo of the bird. I work with the photo magnified 100% so I can see what I'm doing.

Click to put the circle over the eye. Go back to "Size" if you need to increase or decrease the area of the circle.

With the circle over the eye of the bird, lighten with the "Exposure" and "Brightness" slider to bring out the iris color in the eye. "Saturate" will enhance the color. (Whoa there, partner!! Not too much.) "Clarify" will enhance the differences between dark and light.

When finished, click on the magnifying glass at the top left of the Camera Raw screen to get back to the basic pallet.

Neat way to use Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw Processor.

Texas Wildflowers

2011-03-03T12:01:00.004-06:00

Spring wildflowers are a favorite photography subject in Texas. We love to photograph them. There are so many opportunities to photograph wildflowers that it might be smart to sit back and do some planning.

I shot this photo of Presidio la Bahia near Goliad last spring in late March. The field in front of the presidio was covered in Indian paintbursh, wine cups, and coreopsis. There were a few bluebonnets but not many.

Texas bluebonnets begin to bloom on the upper Texas coast about March 15th. They don't start blooming in the Hill Country until about April 15th. Indian paintbrush usually start blooming earlier. The roads inland from Corpus Christi and south of San Antonio can be covered in Indian paintbrush beginning in mid-March.

There is no set blooming time for Texas because the ecosystems are so varied. Different species bloom at different times. Different ecosystems, different regions, different flower. That means we're photographing a moving target but we also have lots of things to shoot.

Focus your wildflower photography. Plan your trips based on the blooming season and species.

Need help? Texas Department of Transportation hosts a discussion board where people can post their latest sightings.

Do Single People Go On Your Trips?

2011-02-25T11:06:00.004-06:00

Question: I lost my wife last year. I'd like to go on one of your trips but don't want to be the fifth wheel among a bunch of married people. It would be nice to meet other people who enjoy my passion for photography. Do singles travel with you?

Answer: Someone asked me the same question the other day. She decided to join me on one of my trips this year.

My trips usually have one or two married couples. That's usually one married couple, really. The rest of the people are single. Those singles could be really single or they could be in marriage or partnership but the other half didn't join us. Everyone seems to be professional or from a professional household. Ages range from early 40s to 80s.

This grouping makes things nice. We have a common bond of photography. Combine that with our mutual love of travel, good food, and adventure and the groups are fun.

I've had one marriage result from a chance meeting on a trip. Lots of good friendships have evolved, though. Most of us seem to end up becoming friends and staying that way for years.

I haven't yet taken up the title "matchmaker." The trips are a good way to meet people, socialize, and enjoy life.

AAA Magazine Cover

2011-02-23T08:28:00.003-06:00

That's my photo on the cover of the March/April 2011 issue of AAA Texas Journey magazine.

Taken at the Houston Zoo's African Safari Exhibit.

Equipment Specials from Hunts Photo & Video

2011-02-22T11:25:00.000-06:00

There are some nice items on special this week at Hunt's Photo & Video.

Check them out:

Hunt's Photo

Spring Nature Festivals

2011-02-21T09:09:00.003-06:00

There are a lot of nature festivals coming up this spring in Texas. Take a look and register.

NatureFest at Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center, March 5, 2011 from 9:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 20634 Kenswick Dr., Humble, TX. www.hcp4.net/jones/programs/naturefest.htm 281-446-8588. Free family event, educational booths, touch tanks, fishing clinics. Register for nature walks, pontoon boat rides, and other activities. I lead a program on photography composition and visualizing. Gary Clark leads a bird walk for beginners.

Texas Wildlife and Woodland Expo. March 26, 2011 from 9:00 to 4:00 pm at Lone Star College – Montgomery in The Woodlands. http://expo.tamu.edu 936-273-2261 Free family events and activities. Register for programs on urban wildlife, wildscape design, organic gardening, and more. I lead an outdoor program for advanced photographers. Outdoor programs including a birdwalk with Gary Clark.

Galveston FeatherFest, April 7-10, 2011. www.glavestonfeatherfest.com 888-425-4753. Free family events. Register for birding, butterfly, dragonfly, and general nature field trips. Local and nationally known trip leaders. Special PhotoFest activities for bird and nature photographers. Several trips led by Larry Ditto, Sean Fitzgerald, Debbie Ferrell, and me. Register early!!

Migration Celebration, April 15-17, http://migrationcelebration.org, phone 866-403-5829,
San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, near Lake Jackson. Family event with birding tours, exhibits, and workshops. Live raptor programs. Free.

Wings Over the Hills Nature Festival, April 29-May 1, 2011 at the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, Fredericksburg, Texas. www.wingsoverthehills.org Register for birding, butterfly, and dragonfly fields trips. Indoor educational sessions. Trade show and children’s programs. Mike Murphy, former photo editor of Texas Highways, is conducting a workshop.

Camera Raw 6.2 Features

2011-02-17T21:24:00.009-06:00

There are some amazing tools in the latest Camera Raw 6.2. If you use Photoshop CS5 or Lightroom 3, then you need to download the latest Camera Raw. There are some nice features and I'd like to highlight two of them in this post.

The first tool is called "white balance tool." Now, I shoot photos with my camera set on Auto White Balance (AWB.) That does a great job of getting the color balanced based on the light in the scene. Rarely do I need to make a change in the white balance once I take the photos into Camera Raw. Yet, when I'm shooting outside at night, the colors aren't exactly what I want.

The photo at left shows the Hotel Tichka Salam in Marrakech, Morocco. This is the lovely hotel where we stay on the photo tours to Morocco. The photo hasn't been processed so you're seeing the image straight out of the camera.

Notice the golden tone that comes from tungsten lights near the ceiling. Notice the dark shadowed area in the lower right of the photo. Fill light in Camera Raw will take care of that area.

The next photo shows what happens when I use the White Balance tool. That tool looks like a little eye dropper. It's at the top of the Camera Raw screen. Take the eye dropper and click it on a part of the image where the subject should be white. The overall color of the photo automatically changes.

I used the color temperature slider to make the white a bit more white.

In the third photo, I used the Lens Correction tool in Camera Raw. That's located on the right side of the Camera Raw screen at the little icon that looks like glass in a lens. Click "Enable Lens Profile Correction" and any distortion caused by the lens you used to take the photo is eliminated or reduced. Notice the pillar in the photo at the left becomes a bit straighter. I could fiddle a bit more with the sliders under Lens Correction to get the pillar perfectly straight if I wanted to.

Each one of the photos below was processed in the same way.

Notice how the lights around the swimming pool change from golden to normal simply with a click of the White Balance tool. Fill Light opens up some of the shadows. Lens Correction is small but it's there.

Here's another set of images using the same tools.

Notice the subtle shift in color on the photo below of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech. The sky was dull with no drama. After an adjustment in the sliders under White Balance makes the sky dramatic.

Pretty neat tools to make our photo look even better. Try these tools for yourself and see what you think.

Is a 2.8 Lens the Best?

2011-02-16T09:55:00.000-06:00

The salesman at the camera store tells me I should always go for a 2.8 lens. Is that true?

Answer: Lens with a minimum aperture of 2.8 are usually more expensive and are heavier. Their front objective lens is huge so there's more glass.

My 24-105mm lens is a f/4. My 16-35mm lens is a 2.8. You're rarely going to use 2.8 on the 16-35mm because the depth-of-field is too shallow. Only a tiny bit would be in focus. That lens cost me $1200 but the 17-40mm f/4 would have only cost me $700. I could have saved a lot of money by not going with the 2.8. I kick myself all the time.

Save the 2.8 for your telephoto lenses. Then you can put a 2x extender and get twice as much magnification. The 300mm f/2.8 becomes a 600mm f/5.6 lens. That's where you want to buy the 2.8 lenses.

The photo above is shot with a 300mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x extender. That means I'm shooting with an effective magnification of 420mm but put that on a Mark IV with a 1.3 sensor and you get a magnification of 546mm with an f/stop of 5.6. That's not bad.

The 300mm f/4 is lighter than the 300mm 2.8 and les expensive.

Full frame or cropped sensor camera

2011-02-15T09:48:00.005-06:00

Do I buy a full frame camera or a camera with a cropped sensor? I shoot mostly wildlife, some landscapes, and some people.

Answer: If you're going to shoot wildlife then you probably don't want a full-frame sensor. Full frame simply means that the sensor is the same size as a 35mm piece of film. When you put a "made for film" lens on the camera then you get the field of view you would have had on film. Landscape photographers what this so they can get a really wide field of view.

I shoot with a 1.3 sensor or a sensor that is a bit smaller than a 35mm piece of film. When I put a "made for film" lens on the camera, I get a slightly cropped image. Some of the light overshoots the sensor. That's good because I get a cropped image. My 300mm lens gives me the same magnification as a 420mm lens. I get more magnification with my big lenses.

On the opposite side, I get a crop on my wide angle lenses. My 16mm "made for film" lens is cropped by 1.3 so I'm seeing what a 20mm lens would see on a film camera. That's good because 16mm is almost too wide to use in most situations. That 20mm becomes useful and plenty wide enough for me.

I have a 1.3 sensor on my Mark IV and a 1.6 sensor on my 7D. If I want a lot of magnification then I shoot with the 7D. I use a 24-105mm as my "go to" lens for my Mark IV. Most of my shooting in Italy and Morocco was with the 24-105mm so it's a great people, travel, landscape lens.

The photo above was shot with my 24-105mm lens on a Mark III camera.

Get Ready for Cedar Waxwings

2011-02-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

The freezing temperatures and snow on the upper Texas coast mean the yaupon berries are ready for eating. Not by humans!! After all the Latin name for yaupon is Ilex vomitoria. Understand why we don't eat the berries?

Cedar waxwings, American robins, and northern mockingbirds, though, love the little red berries. Birds have to wait to eat the berries. The berries ripen after a hard freeze and after the temperatures rise.

The freeze is going to occur today and tomorrow. Then the sun comes out and the temperatures go up. The frozen berries thaw and get mushy.

That's when flocks of cedar waxwings and American robins fly from yaupon bush to yaupon bush devouring every berry they can find. My husband Gary calls cedar waxwings "poop birds" because the berries go in one end and seeds flow out the other end when they are in a feeding frenzy.

Carry your camera with you everywhere when you're outside over the next few days. Listen. You can hear a flock of birds in a feeding frenzy. They are loud. Watch for flocks in flight and follow them.

Watch for birds around pyracantha bushes. The same thing happens with those berries.

Are you ready for the snow?

2011-02-03T10:16:00.005-06:00

Are you ready for the snow? No, I'm not talking about wrapping your pipes and protecting your plants. I'm talking about photography.

Birds like this American Goldfinch will be hungry, hungry, hungry once the snow and ice hits. They will flock to your backyard feeder.

Fix an artificial perch somewhere near your feeder NOW. Let them get used to the perch as the day goes bt. They will continue to perch in the same place once the snow and ice arrive.

The photo above shows an American goldfinch perched on a loblolly pine cone. The cone is part of a natural branch that I found in my yard. I hooked the branch to a Plamp made by Wimberley Product.

This gadget has a heavy duty clip on each end of a flexible tube. Clip one end to something sturdy like a feeder pole. Clip the other end to the branch. Fiddle with it until the branch doesn't move.

Then go to the place where you're going to sit when you take the photos. That would be inside your house or inside your blind. Put your camera on the tripod, focus on the branch, and look at the background. Is it nice and clean? That's good. Is there distracting clutter? Move that stuff, clip the branches, move the perch. Get it right.

Then, sit back relax and wait for the snow. You're ready!

Specials from Hunts Photo

2011-02-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

Here are some specials from Hunt's Photo. I hope that you find something that you like, need, and can afford.

Basic Photography eBook

2011-01-29T00:05:00.000-06:00

Check out my new Basic Photography ebook. $8.99 download

Photographing With Kathy Adams Clark

Italy 2011 Photo Tour is Set

2011-01-28T11:49:00.003-06:00

The photo tour to Italy has been set for Sept 8-18, 2011. We'll visit Florence and Tuscany with an extension to Venice. This is an amazing trip. Register or get a brochure at Strabo Tours

The trip bases out of two hotels. One is a palazzo built in the 1500's by the Guelfa family. It's been restored by the current owners and is a charming place two streets from the Arno River. It has a tower where we can photograph the skyline of Florence.

Then we move to the family's villa in Tuscany. It's more country but equally as warm and friendly. If you want the entire tour, then we move to Venice.

Our days start with an optional morning shoot on the streets or in the vineyards with me. These are optional because some mornings you might just want to chill or sleep. Then breakfast at the hotel or villa. Gather our stuff and head out for shooting. In Florence we're on foot. In Tuscany we have a tour bus with a driver. We shoot until lunch with our guide, Ursula. Then lunch at a place Ursula has selected for us. A bit of shooting after lunch and then back to the hotel or villa. Nap, shopping, or downloading. Sunset shoot with me that is optional.

In Tuscany we eat and drink wine at the villa on the patio. In Florence, people find different places to eat. Two or three might eat street food. Two or three might go have a nice sit down meal. Some grab a piece of pizza and shop/photograph/sightsee/walk. Venice is the same.

There's lots of time for photography but also enough time for shopping and sightseeing. The nice thing about both locations, as well as Venice, is we're right in the middle of things. By the second day you feel like a local and have a basic idea how to get around. It's fun. By the third day, you really feel like a local. It's a good way to see these three places.

This is a great trip for non-photographer traveling companions. Plenty of things to see without having to make any decisions.

I hope you can join us. Let me know if there are any questions. You can see photos from the last Italy trip at my SmugMug site.

Canon Digital Learning Center

2011-01-25T08:33:00.004-06:00

Do you have questions about your Canon digital camera? Curious about certain features? We cover a lot of things in my classes at Leisure Learning and in my workshops but sometimes more is needed.

Check out the Canon Digital Learning Center. Short little tutorials aimed at specific cameras. Watch them on your lunch break or while waiting for dinner to cook. Perfect way to learn a little something about your camera.

Photo credit: Randy Edens

Keyword Lists in Photoshop CS5

2011-01-21T21:49:00.002-06:00

Question: I reinstalled Photoshop CS5 on my new computer and my keyword list is gone! Where did it go and how can I retrieve it?

Answer: I hope you still have your old computer. If you do, this will be easy. On the old computer, click on the Keyword panel in Bridge. Click the tiny triangle at the right of the panel. Export your keyword list. The list saves as a .txt file. Then copy that to a flash drive. Put the flash drive in your new computer. Go to the Keyword panel in Bridge on the new computer. Click the tiny triangle to the right of the panel. Import your keyword list.

Keyword lists can be imported and exported. I have a keyword list with all my Italy and Morocco keywords. I won’t need those until next year when I go back to those countries. I can export the list for now and hold it as a .txt file. This is tricky. You don’t want to erase your main keyword list that you use all the time. Think carefully about the process before you do it.

You There! Stand still!

2011-01-20T23:46:00.003-06:00

This couple was up on the Franklin Mountain overlook enjoying the moon rise and city lights. They were so cute and perfect for a photo.

I asked them to stay in place. Then while the shutter was open I told them the 'stay still, stay still.' Luckily, they followed directions well.

Sure wish I knew who they were so I could send them a photo. Student at University of Texas El Paso but not even sure of that. They were great sports about letting me interrupt their evening.

Holy Moly!! It's the Moon!

2011-01-20T23:07:00.002-06:00

I'm out in the El Paso. Yesterday I was at one of the overlooks on Scenic Drive up on the Franklin Mountains all ready to photograph the sunset and city lights. I'd been traveling all day and was consumed with a late flight, getting the rental care, directions, blah, blah, blah. It was a relief to get to the overlook and settle down for some good photography.

I shot the sunset then waited for the light in the sky to dim to lavender and dark blue as the lights of the city came on. I stared out at Juarez across the Rio Grande and spaced out looking at the scene to the west.

Then I drifted back to reality and turned around to the east to see if the sky was darkening. Holy moly!! The moon was beginning to peak over a small hill in the distance. The beautiful nearly full moon was going to come up in the perfect place!

There must have been twenty people up there on the mountain with me. There was a collective gasp when the moon started to come over the hill. Everyone was amazed and enjoyed the spectacle. I, though, captured the spectacle with my camera. The photography gods do shine down every once and a while.

Costa Rica Photo Tour March 13-22, 2011

2011-01-17T11:17:00.004-06:00

Your invited to join me on a fantastic photo tour to the northern part of Costa Rica. Four hotels, lots of diversity, and tons of photo ops.

We'll stay in a rustic lodge overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya. The views are fantastic with photo ops from sunrise to sunset. Boat trips out on the gulf to explore and photograph the mangrove swamps.

We'll travel to the famous Monteverde for a stay in a luxury mountain hotel. Lots of opportunities to photograph hummingbirds, tropical cloud forest, and beautiful gardens.

Then off to another luxury resort in Guanacaste. There we'll find waterfall, landscapes, monkeys, and tropical birds like the white-throated magpie-jay. (He steals your breakfast. Photos are a cinch.)

Along the way we'll take a river cruise and stop for close encounters with parrots and toucans. Lots of fantastic photography.

Non-photographer traveling companions welcome. Easy traveling. Only a couple of days of heat but those are worth it and there's a swimming pool nearby for cooling off.

Strabo Tours for complete details. Post a comment here if you'd like more details.

Cleaning Sensor on Digital SLR

2011-01-17T05:36:00.000-06:00

There comes a time when your sensor has to be cleaned. I do it myself but many people prefer to send their camera to a professional.

Here's how I clean my sensor:

Step 1: Read the instructions in the camera manual.
Step 2: Open the chamber with the sensor cleaning feature.
Step 3: Blow all the dust out of the chamber with a Giotto Rocket blower.
Step 4: Shut down the sensor cleaning feature. Take a test shot of the sky or something a solid color. Blow that photo up to 100% and scan for any dust or debris on the sensor. You'll see little specks or squiggles if there is still debris on the sensor.
Step 5: Use a VisibleDust sensor cleaning brush to get rid of the debris left behind by the blower.
Step 6: Rarely is this step necessary. Use a pre-moistened Sensor Cleaning Swab with Eclipse to get rid of the stubborn debris on the sensor.

Modern self-cleaning sensors are wonderful. Occasionally, though, we do have to do a little cleaning on our own.

Rainy Day Cleaning

2011-01-16T17:29:00.001-06:00

Are you stuck inside on a dreary winter day? Sitting in front of the television watching a dull football game? Why not use your time wisely and clean your camera gear!

Now don't regress back to when you were 8 years old and your mother asked you to clean your room. I'm not trying to make your life miserable. Clean cameras work better so some time cleaning now could make your images better the next time you get out and shoot.

Steps to clean your lenses:

Use a blower to get the loose dust and grime off the glass and lens barrel.
Use a camel hair brush or other clean brush to get the rest of the dust and grime. (I use a make-up brush that rolls down into what looks like a lipstick tube.)
If there is something stuck to the lens glass, use Eclipse lens cleaning solution. Eclipse works well on finger prints and water drop residue. Put the solution on a Pec Pad or other lens tissue and then wipe the lens. I also like Zeiss pre-moistened lens cleaning tissues from Eagle Optics.
Remember to clean the back of the lens as well. Autofocus will be slow if the contacts are dirty. I use isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol to clean this area. No pencil eraser.

Clean lens barrels and camera bodies with a lightly damp cloth. Not wet!!! Lightly damp. I also hold a paper towel or wash cloth at arms length and stray some Glass Plus at it. Not too much!!! Then wipe the camera body and lens barrel.

My viewing screens have protectors on them that I bought at Radio Shack. You can find these anywhere today since everyone has a flat screen on their cell phone. Cut to fit. I clean the viewing screen and other LCD panels with a lightly damp cloth.

While you're at it, take a vacuum to your camera bag. Get all that dust and grit out of the corners. Pack everything away and enjoy the satisfaction of having clean equipment next time you head out to take pictures.

Winter Gulls

2011-01-08T11:52:00.003-06:00

Nice article this Saturday in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News by husband Gary Clark on winter gulls.

Nature Column Jan 8, 2011

Ball Heads in the New Year

2011-01-02T12:08:00.002-06:00

There are a lot of ball heads that you can put on top of your tripod. It's confusing.

Kirk Enterprises offers great ball heads. Their plates are wonderful and very sturdy. Take a look and see what you think.

A good tripod and ball head are going to make your photography a lot easier.

Split neutral-density filter

2010-12-27T10:20:00.004-06:00

Question from reader: I looked at the Singh-Ray split neutral-density filter that you recommended and it's a bit pricey. Why should I get it over the Cokin filter? Will the polarizer work just as well?

Answer: Oh, yes, the Singh-Ray filters are pricey but they are good. You can't see them in the photo. You can see the Cokin split-neutral density in the photo. Save your money and get the Singh-Ray filter.

The filters have two different uses. Use the polarizer to get rid of glare and shine on water, buildings, cars, boats, etc. Use the split-neutral density filter to block the sky when the sky is brighter than the foreground.

At least use the polarizer to get rid of glare. That's a no brainer. Then expose for the foreground and take the photo. Check your histogram to make sure you didn't blow anything in the sky. No highlight indicators blinking anywhere in the sky.

Then in Photoshop CS5 or Lightroom 3 use the graduated filter in Raw Processor to bring out the detail in the sky.

In this photo from Italy, there is detail in the sky but there could be more.
Here I used the graduated filter in Photoshop CS5 on the top of the photo. That filter and the controls associated with the filter allow me to bring out detail in the sky. I can sharpen the clouds and enhance details.

I'm using the graduated filter in processing more than I'm using the real filter in the field. But I'm still carrying the filter just in case.

How to Photograph the Eclipse of the Moon

2010-12-20T09:21:00.004-06:00

We get to see an eclipse of the moon in the United States tonight into early tomorrow morning. That's December 20 to 21, 2010.

Photographing the eclipse is a challenge but fun.

The moon will fill the frame if you're using lots of millimeters. This shot was taken with a 500mm lens and a 1.4x extender. No cropping so you can see how big it is in the frame. A 300mm lens will do an adequate job but you might have to do a bit of cropping.

Set your camera's light meter to spot or partial. Why? You want to meter off the moon so the exposure will be correct. Evaluative or Matrix metering will try to exposure the dark sky as well as the moon. That will yield a blown out moon with no detail.

Shutter speed needs to be 1/60 of a second or higher. Why? The earth is moving so you have to stop the movement of the earth. The moon is lit by sunlight so it's not too hard to be a good shutter speed.

I'd recommend that you set your camera to shutter priority at 1/60. This won't be a problem in the beginning of the eclipse when the moon is bright. It will be harder as the eclipse progresses and the moon goes into shadow. Set your ISO to Auto with a 1/60 default. The ISO will increase so the shutter speed won't drop below 1/60th.

Tripod is a must. Lock the camera down tight on the tripod.

Use a cable release or the timer on the camera to trip the shutter.

You'll adjust the camera on the tripod often to keep the moon in the frame. Work it!

No big lens? Put the moon in a scene with lights in the foreground. Silhouette something in front of the moon. Be sure to watch your shutter speed because a slow shutter speed lets the moon blur in the frame. A blurred moon has no detail.

Watch your highlight indicator. If the moon is blinking, you've lost detail. Under expose a bit and try again.

Shoot, shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. This is a great subject to test your skills. You have hours to get it right.

White-tailed Hawk and Dear Uncle Herbert

2010-12-18T08:47:00.003-06:00

My husband, Gary Clark, was able to pay tribute to a recently departed uncle through a white-tailed hawk. Check out his weekly column in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News.

Nature Column by Gary Clark

Costa Rica Photo Tour is Filling

2010-12-17T10:36:00.004-06:00

The photo tour to Costa Rica is filling fast. We only have 5 openings left. We've booked our flights and pre-trip information is going out.

March 13-22, 2011. That's spring break week in many locations. Ideal for photographer and traveling companions. Lots of birds, landscapes, and culture. Experienced to novice photographers.

See photos of some of the birds you'll see on the trip. My Smugmug

Send me a brochure

Specials from Hunt's Photo & Video

2010-12-14T10:43:00.002-06:00

Hunts Photo & Video has some good holiday specials online. All the Nikon and Canon SLR cameras that I recommend are on sale. Check out the specials by clicking the link below.

Hunts Photo & Video

Our sales rep is Kathryn Navarro Cox if you need special attention.

Tele-extender

2010-12-13T10:27:00.003-06:00

Melody wrote: Lately I have been testing after-market tele-extenders because I destroyed my Canon 1.4 in an accident and am waiting for the latest version before I buy a replacement. Some shots using a Tamron 2X on a Canon 500 begin at KarenMelody . Comments?

My reply: The images using the Tamron 2x are wonderful. They look nice and sharp to me.

My traditional answer is that we should use Canon equipment for Canon cameras, Nikon for Nikon, Sony for Sony, etc. That's because the electronics in the cameras are very sophisticated and when we toss in a odd piece of equipment things go wrong. I've seen this at least once on every photo tour or workshop where off-brands are used. The off-brand piece works good but sooner or later things go bad.

An extender is used when we want to magnify the millimeters of the lens. A 500mm lens becomes a 1000mm lens with a 2x extender. A 500mm lens becomes a 700mm lens with a 1.4x extender.

Extenders are intended to be used on fixed focal length lenses. Those lenses have a f/stop that doesn't change like a 500mm f/4 or a 300mm f/4.

We can use them on zoom lenses as long as the f/stop doesn't vary with the zoom. For example, we can use an extender on a 70-200mm f/2.8 but not on a 70-210mm 4-5.6 lens. The extender might attach but the glass in the extender is going to distort the image. The image is degraded by the extra glass in the extender.

So if the Tamron 2.x works good, keep using it. I used one on my Canon lens in the film days. It worked for years. Personally, I'd use a Canon, though.

Suet Subject of Dec 11 Nature Column

2010-12-10T20:47:00.002-06:00

Read Gary Clark's weekly nature column from the Houston Chronicle.

This week's topic is suet.

Decorated with my photo, of course.

Star Trails in the Sahara

2010-11-28T14:35:00.005-06:00

Photography is a collaborative effort. It can't be done in a vacuum by yourself. We have to mix and exchange ideas for creativity to flourish. This same is true in almost any art.

Collaboration has really helped me in night photography. I photographed star trails for years with my old film cameras. I'd put the camera on a tripod, point it at the north star, set it to bulb and f/4.5, and lock the shutter open with the cable release for four hours. Sometimes things worked and sometimes they didn't. It was always hit and miss.

Star trails were out with digital photography because we couldn't leave the shutter open for hours for fear of burning out the sensor.

Then, out of the darkness, came collaboration. Photographers started figuring out how we'd do star trails in the 21st century with digital cameras. My buddy, Kevin Adams, is a fabulous night photographer and a gadget guy. He kept his ear turned to the subject and gathered all the latest information. He passed it along to me but I never found myself in areas with dark skies. My friend, Patti Edens, knew I was heading to the Sahara and would try star trails there. She made sure I had simple, easy to read instructions before I left on the Photoshop blending.

Viola! Collaboration and I have star trails.

The shot above was taken over two hours in the Sahara Desert of eastern Morocco. My photo tour group stayed in Berber tents out in the desert. The sky was cloudy when we went to bed around 8:30 and the moon was nearly full. Drats!

I slept in my contact lenses, though, and woke up throughout the night to check the sky. (Not hard since I was freezing.) At 11:30 I noticed star through a hole in the tent. I set-up my camera in near freezing temperatures and went outside in my 'jammies.

The sky was unbelievable. It was covered in stars. I remember the sky that way in the desert southwest where I grew up as a child. There was no light pollution for miles.

The camera was set to take 4 minute exposures at f/3.5 until I turned it off. I used a Canon
intervalometer cable release to do this. Then I went back to sleep thanks to a big stack of blankets that I'd overlooked earlier. I went out and turned the camera off a couple hours later before all the morning activity began.

Morocco Photo Tour Sahara Desert

2010-11-19T02:59:00.004-06:00

We went crazy over our first camel sightings. This guy was part of a nomad's herd of animals. Camels were mixed with sheep, goats, and donkeys. The nomad family was nice enough to let us walk through their herd and photograph the animals.

For some reason, this camel really liked my lens. Luckily, I could walk backwards and shoot at the same time.

We enjoyed our night in the Berber tents in the Sahara Desert. It was cold but amazing. Here's a shot of the photographers on their camels at sunrise. It was amazing.

Sand in the cameras? No, not really a worry. The tent camp was nice and clean so our equipment was find.

Morocco Photo Tour Kasbahs

2010-11-17T01:51:00.004-06:00

The last two days have been magnificent. We spend two night at the Ben Morro Kasbah near Skoura. This is a lovingly restored Kasbah (family owned fort) on the edge of a palm grove.

The Ben Morro gave us a home base to photograph the building, the fields in the palm grove, the people around the Kasbah, and the neighboring Amerhidil Kasbah.

Notice the straight line on the left of the star trails photos. That's the space station flying over.

We left Ben Morro yesterday morning and spent the day exploring the Dades Gorge. Think Sedona, Arizona, without the crowds and a lot of exotic Moroccan flavor. The Ail Mouted Kasbah was magnificent.

Today, November 17^th and Aid el-Kebir or the “grand festival.” This is the day that celebrated the day Abraham was allowed to sacrifice a sheep instead of his son. For days, we’ve seen male sheep for sale everywhere. All male heads of the household have to sacrifice a sheep today. Shopping leading up today was on par with the day before Christmas at home.

We've seen sheep on the tops of cars, sheep in taxis heading to towns, sheep in trucks, sheep in carts in the medina, and even a sheep precariously held by a man on a moped.

We’re heading to the desert, though, and will miss all the festivities. Sahara Desert tonight and tomorrow. Camel riding here we come.

Morocco Photo Tour Marrakech

2010-11-15T09:17:00.003-06:00

Marrakech, Morocco was so exotic. We toured the medina, or old part of town and found these musicians.

Our guide, Ismail, is so good with the local folks. He stops and chats, as he did with the musicians, and asks if we can photograph them. These two men were such hams there is no way they would have said no. What fun to listen to their music from the Sahara and photograph at the same time. What local flavor!

This little girl was shy but what child wouldn't be. We walked the medina and sought out the local flavor where we could. She was so cute.

Our group was photographing this bicycle leaning against the wall with the shaft of light shining through in the background. As we worked the shot, we found that people walked through the opening. Sometimes we got tourists -- notice I didn't show you those -- and sometimes we got wonderful local folks. This lady was so beautiful.

Away from the medina was the quiet of the Majorelle Gardens. These gardens were built by the artist Jacques Marjorelle. The colors are spectacular and the setting to picturesque. We spent an hour in the quiet an solitude enjoying the sights.

Another beautiful view at the Majorelle Gardens.

The Place Jemaa el-Fna is a main square in old Marrakech. There are thousands of people in the square after about 6:00 at night. We stayed in little groups and roamed throughout the crowds. This man's lovely eyes called out to me. His face was so wonderful.

This is a waterman. He's traditional to Morocco and used to serve water out of little brass cups. Today he's good for photographers and tourists. We had a great time photographing this guy. His face and costume have so much character.

Look at this lady whizzing through the square at dusk. We found ourselves in the middle of a motorcycle thoroughfare in the middle of the crowds. There was so much movement, color, and activity that we resorted to motion blurs. The camera is set at 1/45 second shutter speed on aperture priority. I suspect the aperture was around 5.6 since it was dusk. Then I moved the camera with the subject as she cycled by.

Many of you know that I hate snakes. The snake charmers have to be photographed though. This is not a cobra, photos of him are elsewhere, but the snake is on display. Creepy but so Moroccan and so much the color of Morocco.

Morocco Photo Tour Day 3 and a half

2010-11-11T09:13:00.004-06:00

Morocco photo tour day 3 and a half. Day three was spent driving from Casablanca to Essaouira with many lovely stops in between. Yet, after dinner I was just too tired to post images.

So here it is the middle of day four and I've had lunch, coffee, and rest and am posting an image. We arrived in Essaouira on the central Atlantic coast of Morocco near dinner time yesterday. After dinner, I was beat so I went to bed.

Today we headed out into the medina after breakfast with our guide. What a tour through the spice markets, vegetable markets, and meat markets. I didn't care for for the chicken market but did find the others interesting. We've been overwhelmed by the tastes, smells, and sights of Morocco. It seems there is a photo everywhere we look.

We've all agreed to head out at 3:30 for another round of photos in the medina so I'll sign off for now and regroup this evening.

Morocco Photo Tour Day 2

2010-11-09T15:28:00.007-06:00

Unbelievable day exploring Casablanca, Morocco. We met our fabulous guide, Ishmail, at breakfast and then loaded into the bus for the trip to the market and Hassan II Mosque.

This is one of the largest religious buildings n the world and is impressive. From a photographer’s point-of-view, I loved the building because it is so symmetrical. It opened in 1993 so there are no new buildings around to obscure the view or additions to ruin the harmony

The 656 foot tall minaret is incredible from across the wide plaza. The intricate mosaics, tile work, and door details could have occupied us for a long time. The shots you see here were taken with a 24-105mm lens as well as a 16-35mm lens.

Our mid-day break was spent sipping coffee outside a coffee shop and watching people go by. What an amazing mix of people in Casablanca!

Then at nightfall we headed to the medina for our first outing in the crowded streets. There was almost too much to see and photograph in such a short period of time. Luckily, we have several more medinas to see during our trip.

Tomorrow, we visit Parc de la Ligue Arabe then head south with stops along the way at the Portuguese Cistern, before reaching Essaouria and our hotel in the old medina.

Morocco Photo Tour Begins

2010-11-08T16:10:00.000-06:00

Morocco Day 1

Getting to Morocco is simple and quiet. It reminds me to picking my cat up from the kitty hotel. He gets in the box then he sits, endures the journey, and waits for an opportunity to run for the doors.

Those of you who have traveled on long airplane flights know what I mean. You get on the plane that gives you as much room as a kitty carrier. Then you sit and wait. No use getting all up in arms and howling at the top of your lungs. You’re stuck like my cat on the way home from the kitty hotel.

The nice people on the plane feed you. You get to use the litter box. Then they feed you some more. Then you take a snooze that really isn’t like sleeping in your bed at home. If you’re patient and endure the journey, you get to run for the doors at the end.

Yesterday I left Houston on the 1:10 Continental flight to Newark. Connected through Newark to Lisbon, Portugal. Oh, how I wanted to run for the doors in Lisbon. It was beautiful from the air. So inviting.

But, no I stayed in the kitty carrier one more time and flew from Lisbon to Casablanca. One more trip to the litter box, gather my luggage, one more check of the passport, then beautiful outside air and a friendly driver to take me to the hotel.

No great photos today just traveling and settling in at the Sheraton Casablanca. This place is beautiful and the staff is so friendly. I’ve seen women completely covered in black burkas and women in the latest, fashionable clothing. I’ve seen a donkey cart traveling along the side of a modern highway right next to a Mercedes sedan. I’ve seen the 100 year-old entrances to the medina on the same street as modern, gleaming hotels.

This is going to be a great photo tour. My traveling companions are a wonderful group. Photos tomorrow if this wonderful Internet connection continues to work.

Venice Italy Photos -- Finally

2010-11-03T16:13:00.002-05:00

Finally have posted my photos from the photo tour to Venice in September. My group met Ron Rosenstock and his group in Venice for the tour. I can't thank Ron and tour guide Laura enough for showing us all the sites in Venice.

Strabo Photo Tour to Venice