My idea for the image was to take this very graphic owl photograph and add a forest texture to give the illusion of the owl in a forest. This is already a departure from the normal approach, where you add a texture layer to grunge, or tint an image in some artistic way. See my original post via Denise Ippolito for a refresher on this concept. My original high key image had no background per se and although I love it as it, I always want more. Don’t we all? I didn’t have the right foresty image to use as a texture and so I looked through some of the stock texture images that you can find online. Most of these images I found would work fine if I just wanted to composite my owl in to a forest. I was wanting something more artistic. My moral compass on modifying images moves rather freely with the only real no-no, is putting a subject in a different setting. I’m OK with “fixing” wing tips and feet and other Photoshop gardening, but I don’t like huge additions or subtractions that make the viewer think this is what I saw and photographed when it was not. An artistic and obviously no longer photo real presentation is fair game for anything you can dream up…

Since I could not find the image(s) I needed for plan A, I went veering off course with plan b. I decided to use another very graphic image of a forest in the fall that I made with a vertical blur technique in camera.

Since this was going to end up being very graphic, I wanted to punch up the colors so I used the Brilliance/Warmth filter in Nik Software’s  Color EFEX Pro 4 to punch it up.

I added the texture layer to my image and I experimented with the Blending Options and found multiply was the best choice for this project. I also felt like the forest was too dominant and my owl looked like he was in jail and not in a forest.

I took the jail bars err, I mean the trees out of the forest. Can we still call it a forest? Goodness, but Content Aware Fill in Photoshop may be the awesomest gardening tool ever!

I also felt like the original owl composition was wrong for the “forested” look I wanted so, I reversed things and I added the owl on top of the forest.

Fortunately my image was high key and so I could knock out the white with the Blending Options menu and use Blend if Grey slider to get rid of the white background. This gave me a much smoother blend. I suppose I could have just gone back and used the un-cropped version of the owl here, but then I could not have told you how to do in Photoshop.

Much better, but now that my owl is flying in the forest, the perch that he was landing on is a distraction…clone tool to the rescue.

Hmm, OK now what can I do to it. I think it is still a bit flat and so, I’m going to add some more depth by using a another Photoshop filter from Fractalius. Play, play, and then play some more here. This filter is super easy, but the effects are quite variable and a bit unpredictable. The key lessons, use a layer and the opacity slider is your best friend.

I actually really like this crazy version, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do today. I tamed it by setting the opacity  to 28%. In doing so, the Fractalius layer had the unexpected, but welcome effect of bringing back the forest!

I still wasn’t done playing…my inner child was on a role of 3rd grade proportions! Let’s see what my filters from Topaz labs can do to it. I actually did have a plan and that was to brighten it up and see if I could get a bit more depth. I used their Micro Contrast Enhancement Filter found in Topaz Details 2. I just went default here, there are a zillion options, but I was already happy with what I got.

One more quick adjustment in Photoshop, I tweaked it a bit more with levels, curves and vibrance…

Lastly….I signed it!

This technique is on the advanced side of the spectrum, but if you have a working knowledge of Photoshop, you should be able to make it work for you. Of course, I’ve also used several filters that are not free and that makes this one out of reach for the casual fan to play along.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave a comment, I answer them all.

This is an advanced process and does require a working knowledge of Photoshop CS.

In this mini-tutorial Denise will walk you through some creative texturing applications as well as multiple filtering applications to bring your textured images to life. You will learn how to blend an image with the right textures as well as some highlighting techniques that will help you create an artistic stylized image.

Choosing the Texture

You should generally, Ok always in my opinion, choose a texture that matches or compliments the features of the image. In other words, don’t use a strong pattern on a dainty flower. Similarly, don’t use colors that are more dominant than the color pallet in the image. We are trying to compliment the image with additional textures and colors, not overwhelm the image. Don’t confuse strong contrast with strong colors. Contrast can be used with great effect.

When you choose a texture think outside the box. Remember that not only are you going to change your image, but you can also change the features of the texture you are going to use. For example, if your image has strong horizontal lines and the texture that you really want to use has vertical lines, just rotate the texture image to match what you want. The same goes for hues in the texture image. If you need azure not teal, just tweak the texture image rather than trying to find a “perfect” match.

Applying the Texture

OK, now let’s have some fun…!

Open the image and the texture in Photoshop and tile the images.

Drag the texture on top of the image. The original image should now be the Background Layer and the texture will be Layer 1.

Adjust the size and position of the texture layer so that it covers your image completely.

Now that you have the texture layer on top of the base image you can begin to experiment with the Blend Modes. This is somewhat of a trail and error phase so experiment with all of them. Multiply, Soft Light and Overlay are the ones that I use most often.

Fine Tuning Your Art

Usually you will want to reveal some details form the image. Add a layer mask to the top layer and start by using a soft brush set to 40% opacity and feathering it outward by starting at the center of your subject.

Finishing the Art

Add a new Layer and then apply filters to the image.

Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow

Start with settings Graininess 0, Glow Amount 1, Clear Amount 9. Experiment with these number with your image. I often adjust the opacity level or even a new blending mode to get an effect that I find pleasing. Remember you are the only that has to be happy, have fun with and play with the settings.

Add another new Layer and apply some light.

Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Start with Light Type Omni, Intensity Slider 35, Focus 40. As with this whole adventure in the world of textures: experiment, experiment and experiment!

Before and After Image Gallery

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Resources

Shadow House Creations has a ton of free textures on their website. http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.com/

RADLAB has a plugin called “Dirty Pictures” that will automate the process of adding the textures. It is $149 and available on their website. http://www.gettotallyrad.com/products/dirty-pictures/

Denise Ippolito shares more tutorials as well as her workshops and eBooks on her website. http://deniseippolito.smugmug.com/

Using my Nikon D300s and a 10mm lens I set up the shot and programmed the camera to take 9 images and to change the exposure by 1 stop on each image. My exposure duration went from 1/400 to a little more than half a second so of course I was on a tripod. In the camera, the images went from nearly black with just the light from a few of the stained glass panels to nearly blown out all over the image in the last. UGH, this was ugly.

I am a big NIK software fan and I buy all of their software whether I really needed it or not and so I have their HDR Pro software. As a side note, I use Dfine and Sharpener on all of my images. The next step is really the easiest. You open the images in Photoshop and open the NIK HDR filter and say “merge says a me” and voila, you’ve got a fully exposed image. Yes, I know you don’t really have to say the magic words, but it so magical it makes it more fun. Try it, you know you want to. This is the quite simplified version, there are a lot of sliders and effects that you can play with and come up with a bunch of other looks for your HDR image. I was trying to create as natural an image as possible given the situation. Many of the options will give you a far more artistic rendering, so enjoy it! Click the image to embiggen it. I like to make up words too…

You can buy a copy of NIK HDR Pro from this link.

Nik Software HDR Efex Pro Software

In case you were curious:

• Size: 26 to 41 in (66 to 104 cm); tail, 4 to 7 in (10 to 18 cm) and weighs 11 to 30 lbs (5 to 14 kg)
• The bobcat is the most abundant wildcat in the U.S.
• bobcats can kill prey much bigger than themselves
• Collective Noun: A group of bobcats is a tantrum.

You can see more of my bobcat images and order prints…HERE.

I have several opportunities to join me on these wildlife photography workshops, read more…HERE.

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These images were taken on private property, but I still like to include the map so that you know where you will be going when you sign up to join my workshop and photograph a bobcat for yourself!

The Bighorn lambs in these images are about 5 days old and already ready to leep great distances as well as run with their moms. Which is a good thing when you have Golden Eagles hunting them too!

In case you were curious:

• Bighorn ram’s horns can weigh 30 lbs (14 kgm)—more than all the bones in his body combined.
• They have split hooves which aid in balance and rough hoof bottoms for natural grip.
• Can jump a length of 20 feet (6 meters) ledge to ledge

You can see all of my Bighorn Sheep photography and order prints…HERE.

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Here’s the map of the top secret location for finding the bighorn lambs! Ok, it isn’t really top secret, but it is where I found them most evenings.

It was quite a rush to be able to photograph them on a couple of occasions. Of course having a long lens is essential and I was lucky several times to be at the right pull off at the right time to get some images. Still there are a lot of bears. I was surprised that I only saw 1 black bear and that was at a great distance…

You can see all of my bear photography and order prints…HERE.

In case you were curious:

• The largest land mammal in North America
• In 1800 there were 50,000 bears in the lower 48 states of which there are now 1300
• Males can be 7ft tall and weigh upwards of 600 lbs
• 85% of their diet is plant life

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It was cool seeing the bears in virtually every part of the park. You can see where I photographed mine on this handy map. Since they are territorial, who knows you might still find them!

I chose to go the park in May assuming that I would have gorgeous spring weather in the mountains, green grass, wildflowers and babies galore…oops! We have snow, snow and more SNOW! One morning when I got to the park I was informed that every road in the park was closed except from Madison to Old Faithful. Then one morning there was a rockslide closing the road to the Lamar Valley from Tower and of course the pass from village to Tower was still under 14 FEET of snow. Ahh, spring in Yellowstone!

BUT, that meant that despite the fact that it was memorial day weekend the park was relatively devoid of people. I photographed a grizzly by myself for about 20 minutes and the longest “animal jam” was about 15 minutes. No sweat.

There were quite a few baby bison, but not any great numbers. A friend was there a week or so after me and said that there were a lot of babies and equally bad weather. Still I managed to make some nice images.

You can see all of my Bison images and order prints…HERE.

In case you were curious:

• The bison herd is now about 3500 in Yellowstone
• From 1800-1890 men killed at estimated 65 Million bison
• Adult bulls are 6 ft tall and weigh about 1 ton

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As is my custom, here is a map showing the locations in the park that I made my images.

At Yellowstone the thing that I found was everyone is so busy looking for big game like bison and bear, the wee birds often go unseen. Several times I caused an inadvertent ”bird jam” as people were stopping in traffic to see what I was photographing, most left disgusted! I found that by simply ignoring things that were more than a foot tall helped. The other “trick” was to use every pullout along the road and look around to see what might be flittering by. Lastly the area around Old Faithful had quite a lot of birds and they were a bit more tolerant of people stopping to take a few pictures.

You can see all of my bird photography…HERE.

The park boasts 330 documented bird species, here are 9 of mine! Guess I need a lot more patience and focus!

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In case you are visiting the park, here is a map showing where I made the images.

This past week I was once again driving to Kalispell for one of my wildlife photography workshops and was talking to my friend David (David Middleton) for comedic relief. Our conversation went something like this:

David: Where are you?

Me: On my way from Missoula to Triple D for my workshop.

David: Are you going to Ninepipes?

Me: Well maybe, I’ve been there a lot including 3 or 4 times with you and we never take a picture!

David: But you should find Yellow-headed Blackbirds on cattails!

Me: Acck, I don’t even think that bird exists, I’ve looked all over the west and have never even seen one. (Note this part was edited to remove some colorful adjectives that might not be suitable for all audiences).

David: Well, I think you should stop.

Me: Oh, OK David…

I was ready to stretch my legs and so I decided to heed David’s words and drive along the dam at Ninepipes and see what I could find to, hopefully, photograph! I really wasn’t paying  close attention and so missed the proper turn off to Ninepipes, but I turned on the next road which was Duck Rd and it was good name as I found these Northern Shovelers. There was soo much flooding that temporary “ponds” were everywhere.

I took the first left to head back towards Ninepipes and as you may have guessed by now, I found this!

Holy pre-visualization Batman! It was terrific and I spent about 20 minutes working on these birds to get one to land on the right cattail and face the right direction and start singing and have the best background. I would have to say that patience did finally pay off for me and I was able to engage in some bird photography at Ninepipes Wildlife Refuge.

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It would be easy to give all of the credit for this to David, but as you can see from this map, I didn’t actually photograph these birds on the Ninepipes refuge. They were on the way to Ninepipes, but not in Ninepipes. I can officially keep my non-photography streak alive and I don’t have to hear “I told you so” from David, well at least not that often! And you can also bet I’ll always stop at Ninepipes…

If you would like to see more of my photography and or order a print you can do that…HERE.

If you would like more information about my wildlife photography workshops, you can do that…HERE.

I was surprised by the lack of shorebirds along the 7.2 mile causeway over to the island, but with the insect problem, I wasn’t getting out anyway. Once on the island I drove the main roads and saw quite a number of species including chuker, meadowlarks, Upland Sandpiper on a boulder (this perch still seems crazy to me), magpies, bison, pronghorn, mule deer, Brewer’s Blackbird, Horned Lark and quite a few more.

It is a place that I would visit again once the temperatures get up in to the 90′s (the boiling point for the no-seeums) and give it another go.

In case you were curious about Antelope Island:

• Antelope Island State Park, consists of 28,022 acres
• It is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake measuring 15 miles long and seven miles wide at its widest point.
• In 1969, Utah State Parks and Recreation created Antelope Island State Park with the purchase of 2,000 acres on the northern tip of Antelope Island; then in 1981, the rest of the island was purchased for recreational purposes.
• It is home to some 500 Bison, Pronghorn Antelope, Bighorn Sheep and about 250 species of birds

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I’ve also attached a map of the locations for the images that I took on my trip to Antelope Island.

When I made the switch to Lightroom a few years ago, I abandoned my beloved file system for a straight store by date system. We can debate the merits of this later, it works really well for me, but it does hinge on using keywords as if your life depended on it. This is something that I had not done prior to LR and it meant that I had about 60,000 images that were now stored by date alone. YIKES! I am still, 2 yrs later, going through the attic of my images and deleting the junk and keywording the treasures.

I really was a hoarder of images when I started, I mean I never deleted an image. EVER! All of those blurry, legs chopped off, and 9 identical shot bursts were on my hard drive. Ugh! No matter how far software technology progresses, you don’t need to keep busted pictures. Deleting them is a liberating if not really dull experience. The upside of this and the reason I can force myself into the attic, is I have a better eye now and I have more software skills. I can find nuggets in there and that makes this project time worth spending.

The other reason to do this is that I need to get all of that stuff keyworded, so I it can be found later. I can still look at my images and recall when and where I took it. As my portfolio grows and my grey cells are overloaded, this is not going to be so simple. Getting the images out of the attic and in to the light with keywords will be very useful in the future.

When you are bored or there is nothing to photograph go in to your attic and get to work, you never know what you might find. Here are some images I re-discovered this week in my attic.

Drop me a note and let me see what you’ve discovered.

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You can see all of my images and order prints if you would like…HERE.

The eaglet has rapidly grown and at 11 weeks is larger than both of the parents, like I said a well-fed eagle. Over the past 2 weeks the eaglet has been doing lots of stretching and wing flapping and some small hovering, really more like slow hops than a hover. However, it had not flown or even left the nest for nearby branches, when the unthinkable occurred. The eaglet tumbled out of the nest! It somehow managed to land on a small broken limb about half way down the tree. Unfortunately, this new perch was barely there and far too small for the adults to land on to feed the eaglet. The poor eaglet was there for 24 hours and by that time the news was out. These eagles are neighborhood celebrities and their fans were coming up with all sorts of rescue ideas. Fish and Game had been summoned to see what could be done to help get the eaglet back in the nest with its parents.

Leave it to mother nature, one of the adults brought a fish back and flew low and slow over the distressed eaglet and then…the eaglet flew! And she flew about 75 yards to the oak tree that the adult had landed in with the fish. Never underestimate the power of food… or devoted parents for that matter. The eaglet had now landed in the top of the oak and was in a not very secure spot, certainly not someplace it could stay for any period of time.  Again teaching by example, the adults took the now rather ragged fish and flew over the eaglet a couple of times and then back to the nest. They did this twice and the eaglet launched itself from the tree and made a lazy circle around the pond and came in for a near perfect landing, safely in the nest.

For first time parents these 5 yr. old eagles seem to have it all figured out and their eaglet really learned how to fly like an eagle at just the right time!

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The eagle family will be gone, soon but I am sure that they will back next winter, so stay tuned! In the mean time you can enjoy all of my eagle photography and order prints if you’d like…HERE.

This was the first image that I took. It was about 10 minutes after sunrise so the light was very gold and soft. This light was bounced back on to the pond by the brown and green reeds at the back of the pond. It gave the water an incredible golden glow and fortunately this Ring-necked Duck has a yellow eye and a black head which was a very cool look on this image. The water was soo  great that I decided to back off of the zoom (that’s what that ring on the front of your camera lens is for!) a little bit so you could see how cool the light looked.

The next picture was a few minutes later, but in a shaded part of the pond. The light was still golden or as photographers like to say, “sweet light”, but because this one was a bit shaded the water has more of a coppery look to it.

The next image the sun was getting higher and most of the sweet light was gone and the ripples from the breeze where reflecting the blue sky.

This last image the sweet light was all gone and no longer being reflected from the reeds so the water was now a bright blue reflection of a sunny spring day.

Here is a map of the “duck pond” at Tierra Verde where the images where taken. There are always ducks there and often 7 or 8 species. It’s a good place to take a quick look while you are on the way to or from the fantabulously birdy, Ft. DeSoto.

This video shows how easy it is to move a folder in Lightroom.

This video shows how easy it is to move a folder in Lightroom.

There are no bad times to photograph at Triple D, but winter is special. The animals have great thick fur coats and they love to romp in the snow! You’ll come back from this one with amazing shots from a winter wonderland in Montana.

The complete details are on my wildlife workshops website…HERE.

Here are a few images to give you a taste of what to expect. I’ve taken a lot of images there over the years and love going there. If it is a mammal and it is in the snow, I likely photographed it on one of my workshops. You can browse the images…HERE.

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If you have an iPad then you know how gorgeous your images are on the iPad. Now you can use that same high resolution display to identify birds in a way that isn’t possible in print. They have included hundreds of quality images from professional photographers and then added thousands more from Flickr users around the world. It’s possible that you could see 50 or more images of just a single species. You would have to carry an encyclopedia with you to have the information that is available at the tap of your finger with iBird Pro HD.

I’m not a birder, but I am a bird photographer and I need to be able to properly identify birds in order to get them published. Even the best guide books are sometimes not good enough. There are huge differences with many species of birds depending on age, time of the year and a whole bunch of other nerdy things. Most bird books describe these things using a technical language that I just don’t speak. With iBird, I look at my picture and look at the picture on my iPad and I can usually get it sorted out quickly. How easy is that? I mean, I learned how to do that in kindergarten and have gotten pretty good at it by now!

If you are a photographer that likes to photograph birds, you need this app. I’m assuming that you already have an iPad, but if you don’t you should and this app will justify the cost when it saves you from an embarrassment of submitting a wrongly identified image to a publisher.

How you like an app always comes with a certain amount of subjectivity, but the numbers don’t lie. Look at this excerpt (click it for a bigger version) comparing the iBird app with others in the app store. Clearly the data shows that this is the macdaddy of the iOS apps. You can see the full version…HERE.

Even if you have no idea where to start to find out the bird you’ve found, iBird can help. It let’s you describe colors and shapes and sizes and then shows you some possible birds. How cools is that? Oh, you can also narrow it down by state!

I think you get the idea, I am a fan. I think that you should go buy this app right now. At $29.99 it’s a fair price and not priced much higher than some print versions. But wait, there’s one more thing! (wink to Steve Jobs) The good people at iBird have created a trial app, called iBird HD Lite and its FREE!. Awesome way to try before you buy. My advice, save your time you’re going to buy the full version, so just buy it today.

I’ve been working on some older images and many of them I have not seen in a decade. New software and a better eye has let me mine a few nuggets while scanning and scanning and scanning…ick. At the end of the day, getting images that I can use, that i didn’t know I had…priceless. I’ve also found a few minutes of video (hand-held so be kind) including a “fun” charging elephant. The charging elephant was not intent on doing us harm, but the guides instruction to the driver do give it some urgency! I’ve never had the computer horsepower or the software skills to create something like this before now and so nobody has ever seen me being charged by the elephant!

Ngiyakuthanda ngempela means “do you like it” in Zulu…Let me know!

I am not going to add the map this time but the majority of the images were taken in Botswana and the rest were in South Africa and Zimbabwe. If you are curious just ask.

Hummingbirds have always fascinated me and when I began serious wildlife photography I spent hours “practicing” on my backyard birds, especially the hummingbirds. I figured that if I could photograph a bird that has wings that beat 80 times a second AND can fly backwards I could photograph most things. Not so fast bucko…

Looking at what the “pros” were doing with 3 or 4 high-speed flashes, backgrounds and a huge amount of other gear was quite intimidating. I didn’t have the budget for several thousand dollars of gear to make these crazy setups. Since I could not afford that gear and after all I was a photographer not a Rube Goldberg type inventor. And since my images really were not very good in comparison to the pros, I just assumed you had to have all that gear and do it that way and I abandoned trying to photograph hummingbirds for several years.

Observation has always been a key to improving my wildlife photography. This means watching bird behavior and learning what makes them tick. It has enabled me to take far better photographs than when I was just out running around chasing the birds. My moment of clarity came when I was with a friend and watched the hummingbirds feed from a feeder that was still in his hand! Hmm, these guys don’t really care about much except that sweet nectar in the feeder. DING DING DING went the bells in my little brain…

Ok, the feeder is no problem, cheap and easy. So now I started banging away on the hummingbirds at the feeder. This worked out well, but I don’t like the feeder in the image and yes I can do some photoshop tricks and make it go away, but that can be a pain and I try to avoid that kind of manipulation.

I’m having a blast literally blasting away taking lots of “great” images, but there is still something lacking. Now that the feeder is gone there is no context in the image. The hummingbird is good (because it is in focus and has a nice pose), the background is awesome (because there is nothing in it) and the light is good (because it is behind me) so why be sad? Well it doesn’t tell me why the hummingbird is there and that hurts my head. My little brain is trying to add something to the image to help it make sense for me. So now what do I do?

I had to add context. I needed something natural, pretty, and useful that would help my photographs pop! I was in Colorado and the hummingbirds were quite active on my friend’s feeders and I had seen (remember that observation thing) hummingbirds occasionally dip for a sip on some cinquefoil growing in the garden. DING DING DING went my bells again and I attached a bit of cinquefoil to the hummingbird feeder. It looked good, hummingbirds liked it and it was a natural perch and food source…perfect.

Now to photograph! I aligned myself with the sun behind me for a great light source, I had the perch in a place that gave me a great background and I set my camera up at eye level with the perch. That’s it! No flash, no backdrops, no fuss no muss hummingbird photography.  I didn’t need a flash because I had plenty of natural light to freeze or mostly freeze the birds in flight. I like a bit of blur in the wings as it seems more natural. How many times have you seen a hummingbird fly and seen the wings clearly…umm never. You’ll need bright light and a shutter speed of 1/1200 or more to get crispy sharp shots.

Now I was set and all I had to do was wait! It really didn’t take long and with full disclosure in mind, I was actually sitting in a chair with a glass of wine. I didn’t think about writing this until after the fact or I would have taken a picture of me hard at “work”.  Hey it worked!

Now that’s a lot more like it and so I went all out. Now I had the concept down and so I began to play with some variations. I used a stepladder to hold the perches in order to be able to move the perch so that I had a better background and light. I put a bit of Wild Lupine on and got my images. Next, I clamped a bit of columbine to the ladder and got my shots. That is what is great about doing this, I could be photographing the same bird over and over, but all the images are new and interesting because I selected the perch. I could have and did move the feeder to a better spot as well. The results though were better when I moved the perch and left the feeder nearby.

A quick story: my dear friend Claire was very supportive of all of this hoopla around her bird feeders. She was also a tad skeptical about this rigging of feeders. She was going to the big box store and asked if I needed anything and I replied, “yes potted plants”. Her eyes really rolled back at that one!  Off we went to the store and I bought a ragged foxglove for $3, brought it home and put it on a table under the feeder. Got my chair and my camera and within 15 minutes had this one… Claire actually BOUGHT a print for her house!

Of course you don’t always get what you want! And this brings up a lesson learned. You don’t want to give the birds a choice that will give them the chance to perch where you cannot photograph them. In other words it is best to put out one perch and make sure that when they use it, you can shoot it. Hummingbirds have the largest brain to body size ratio in the bird world, best not to let them out think you. A similar trick is to actually use some tape to close the extra feeder openings on the feeder. This will force them to your spot. This is very important when you have a few hummingbirds; it’s not necessary when you have a big number of birds on the feeder.

Don’t let the big rigs and complex technology stop you. You can do this with a relatively small (200mm) lens, a tripod and some patience! Have fun experiment with your perches finding something your birds like. When all it takes is time and a few dollars worth of stuff there is no reason for you not to start making some incredible hummingbird images.  You never know what you might catch…

Here are all of the images that I made in Colorado using this technique…

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I’ve used variations on this technique for hummingbird photography in the past and you can see all of my hummingbird images…HERE.

One of the best places in the US to photograph this species is the Block Creek Natural Area near Fredericksburg, TX (which is also near Austin). Why is it good? The people are super nice, they love birds and they love photography. They have some outstanding blinds with well stocked feeders and the birds never refuse a free meal. All of these and many more species were photographed over a few morning sessions at the ranch. Check it out at blockcreeknaturalarea.com and tell them Jeff sent you!

I’ve started shooting some HD video with my Nikon D300S and I love it. Here is a short movie I made of the Painted Buntings at Block Creek.

Jeff Wendorff Photography – Painted Bunting – Block Creek Natural Area from Jeff Wendorff on Vimeo.

Here are the images in an easier to view gallery…

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As always the map is a general reference, the land is private property, but if you ask real nice the folks at Block Creek will let you know how you can photograph there as well…

About the Workshop

I am sitting on a knoll above my house in an island of uncut October grass, in an ocean of unkempt Autumn brambles. The view here falls away at my feet through meadow and wood to the northern tip of the Valley of Vermont, pinched here between the eastside granitic rise of the Greens, and the westside marbled peaks of the Taconics. In the valley bottom Otter Creek snakes quietly north. Down in the valley there is room enough for a creek, a field, and a road, but not much more.

Before me are all of the seasons of the year. I see fall in the crimson and golden leaves of maples and birch and summer in the changing green of the oaks and pines. Winter lies hidden in the shrinking shadows where this morning’s frost still lingers and spring I hear in the twittering notes of nearby robins and wrens.

This is my Vermont, David Middleton’s Vermont. It stretches as far as my eye can see. Within this view are hidden my favorite places to photograph, places that I go to regularly, places that are as familiar to me as old friends. These are not the skim-the-cream places that flatland workshop leaders truck their people to hoping to get the same old, same old shots. These are my special places, my favorite local haunts, join Jeff Wendorff and me this fall and they will become your favorites as well.

On this PAW workshop we will be photographing all the colors of the New England Fall; beautiful tumbling creeks framed by a riot of reds, blazing yellow hillsides, and glowing orange reflections shimmering in the mist of dawn. Our workshop will have the privilege of visiting the old farm that is now David’s home in order to photograph the ponds, meadows, and meandering creek that make up his property. Not only will David welcome you to wander his property, you will also have the unique opportunity to visit his digital darkroom and see first hand how David works on his many projects as he and Jeff share their processing tips and tricks.

However, the most unique part of this workshop will undoubtedly be the hours you spend photographing at the beautiful working farm that is the subject of David’s latest book. This family run farm is a traditional New England dairy with old wooden barns, ancient sugar maples, miles of stonewalls and views that any calendar would love to have. Why not join us on this workshop and take full advantage of David’s personal relationship with the farmers in order to gain access to explore and photograph a farm that is recognized as one of the most beautiful in the entire state of Vermont, if not all of New England?

Included in the Workshop

Needless to say, your fees include the professional instruction of a PAW leader. All workshops have leaders, however a PAW leader is an expert on the location and has proven skills as a workshop instructor. Our instructors are there to help you make better images and fill your portfolios, not theirs. PAW leaders don’t photograph on our workshops; they teach.

On this particular workshop your fee also includes individualized field instruction, classroom instruction, honest critiques, and access to the dairy farm as well as unlimited access to David’s small but perfectly formed brain. That should be worth the cost of admission by itself!

The workshop will allow a maximum of 12 participants and requires a minimum of 6 participants.

Schedule

This is one of PAW’s most popular workshops and so we anticipate offering this workshop in consecutive weeks. However, we will not accept enrollment in the second weeks workshop until week 1 reaches 10 clients. Clients may ask to be placed on the waiting list for the 2nd week, but you must agree and understand that the 2nd workshop will not run unless week 1 runs with 10 clients.

The workshop will run October 6-10, 2010 and the wait list only dates are October 13-17, 2010. The basic itinerary as described below will be the same for both workshops. Please contact us if you are interested in attending both workshops. WOW that would be a lot of Middleton, so we’ll give you a mental health discount for the second session!

Finally, PAW will also offer our P3 , Print, Process and Publish class between the sessions. Oct 11-13. See the website for full details.

You can expect to photograph everyday early and late and do critiques and lessons in the middle of the day. We keep the daily schedule flexible to ensure us going to the right places at the right times and to take advantage of any unusual weather events. No exertion is required for this workshop. All photography locations are close to parking and ambling is the desired top speed for participants.

The workshop begins at 7:00 PM on Wednesday evening and ends late Sunday morning. Suggestions as to where to go before and after the workshop will be gladly given.

Equipment and Gear

Bring all your photo gear that you would normally use to photograph all the various aspects of a landscape- from macro to wide-angle to medium telephotos. Long telephotos will probably not be needed. Also bring some means of reviewing and selecting your images – a laptop or portable hard drive with viewing screen- to make critiques easier and more instructive.

You can expect chilly mornings (around freezing), pleasant days and dark nights. In fact, we guarantee that the nights will be dark. A warm hat and gloves are good ideas as are rain pants and jacket. Light, waterproof hiking boots are a good idea as well. Snacks for the leaders (we prefer calling them medication), especially dark chocolate, is always prudent especially immediately before critiques.

Feel free to contact Jeff or David if you have specific questions or concerns about what to bring.

Be sure to let Jeff know of any special needs that you may have so that we can try to accommodate them.

Transportation and Lodging

You are responsible for all transportation to the workshop, and travel during the workshop. Lodging and Meals are not included, but the quaint general stores of Vermont will be open to sell you whatever you can find.

The workshop is based in the scenic little town of Manchester, Vermont. Tucked under looming Mt. Equinox, Manchester is a thriving tourist town with lots of places to eat and dine and plenty of places to spend the night from mom and pop motels to intimate bed and breakfasts to fancy inns. You are free to choose accommodations that match your taste and budget. We are more than happy to answer questions about lodging, so just ask.

All workshop meetings, critiques and classes will be at the Inn at Willow Pond, a very nice lodge a few miles north of town.

The nearest airport is Albany International Airport in Albany, New York. The airport is about a 75-minute drive to Manchester. The next closest airport is north of Manchester in Burlington, Vermont. This airport is about a 2-hour drive to Manchester for most people. For photographers in October it can take all-day and then some. Boston International Airport is 4 hours to the east of Manchester, Vermont.

Suggested hotels and airports for Fall in Vermont are shown below. Click on the name of the hotel or airport for more information, including a map. This information is provided as a helpful resource for our participants, but is not guaranteed accurate. Please confirm any important details before making travel plans.

Review the workshop description carefully for more information about rates, locations, and dates. If you have any questions, please contact us before making your reservations.

Hotel(s)

The INN at Willow Pond

Route 7A North Manchester, VT, 05254United States Website

Airport(s)

Albany International Airport (ALB)

737 Albany-Shaker Road Albany, NY, 12211United States Website

Burlington International Airport (BTV)

1200 Airport Drive South Burlington, VT, 05403United States Website

Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)

1 Harborside Drive East Boston, MA, 02128United States Website

Date

Start: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 – 7:00pm End: Sunday, October 10, 2010 – 11:00am

Location

Manchester, VT

Price

$995.00 Register Now

Participants

Minimum: 6 participants Maximum: 12 participants

Workshop Flyer

View information about Fall in Vermont as a PDF.

Leader(s)

David Middleton

David has lead more than 150 photography tours and taught more than 200 photography workshops. He is a gifted and enthusiastic teacher who has taught photographers and nature lovers of all levels and interests.

Jeff Wendorff

Jeff believes it is important to have fun while learning, serious fun, so be prepared to enjoy yourself when you are with him.

Final Thoughts

Time flies like an arrow, but house flies like cows! We’ll “bale” you out of your photography woes! ~ Sign up today!