Storms move through

Nasty storms last night. Tornados west of us and lightning and thunder all around us. We managed some light wind and some rain. These were taken at the Iowa City Airport.

Workshop weekend

Things went really well at our first photography workshop. We had fun, learned lots and got some great photos.

 

We spent Friday night going through a presentation of "5 Things To Make You a Better Photographer" and then went out to photograph the sunset, then on to another location to shoot some photos of the stars and do a little lightpainting. Saturday we spent hiking to a couple of waterfalls then back to the cabin to process our images. I gave her an overview of Adobe Lightroom and used that software to process her images. Saturday night we tried our hand at some more lightpainting.

We shot these 45 minutes after sunset and used a high powered flashlight to illuminate the trees.

 

 I really enjoyed the weekend and look forward to doing more of this.

AIRVENTURE NEWS

Looks like I'll be a photographer and the worlds largest airshow, EAA Airventure in Oshkosh Wisconsin.
I sent in an application to be a volunteer a while back  and got a call recently that they want me to take photos.

I'll be shooting all during the week long event and will get my assignment soon. I've been to Airventure several time but this time I'll be in the trenches! Can't wait.

Airventure is the worlds largest airshow. During the week 10,000 aircraft arrive at Oshkosh for a week of aviation overload. 500,000 people from around the world decend on Oshkosh. If you're interested to find out what Airventure is all about head on over to www.eaa.org

Workshop news

While  we had to cancel the workshop i'm still helping out a friend this weekend. I'm meeting her and her husband at Starved Rock anyway.

It's too bad no one else signed up, we were looking forward to working with people to improve their photography both in the field and at the computer. Not sure why 94 people indicated they were coming but only one signed up and paid. We'll have to work on our marketing I guess.

Anyway, I'm excited to be working with our friend this coming weekend. I have many things planned that should help her become a better photographer. I'm excited about this adventure and hope to do more in the future.

 

That magic light

Magic hour, golden hour, civil twilight, whatever you call it that time when the sun is below the horizon just before sunrise or after sunset is a magic time of day.

Photographer seek out that time like moths to a flame. The scientific term is rayleigh scattering, sunlight is passing through the densest part of the atmosphere causing light rays to scatter. Here's a link for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering

 

This scattering occurs as the sun set below the horizon. Civil twilight usually last for 20 -30 minutes after sunset or before sunrise. There are many resources on the net for finding out when this golden hour occurs. Here's a partial list:

http://www.golden-hour.com/

http://photoephemeris.com/

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

 

 

Scouting a location will save you time and headaches. Sometime you get lucky and stumble on a scene that just begs to be photographed.

As I stated in earlier post, Myself along with my brother will be hosting photography workshops starting in the midwest but expanding soon to other locations throughout the country. It's 3 days of sharing and shooting. If you would like to join us head over to www.naturalightworkshops.com and check our schedule and book a workshop. We're also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/naturallightworkshops/

Hope to see you at a workshop.

 

Happy Easter everyone.
Christ has risen! Praise be to God!

I'm excited to be bringing photography workshops to the mid-west and beyond. My goal over the each weekend is to be able to help our participants grow as photographer and provide some guidance to help them make photographs. The great part about these workshops is they are  hands on. We'll be in the classroom sure, but we'll be spending most of our time in the field.
Anyone can take a photograph a true artist MAKES a photograph. Hopefully our workshops will teach people how to make a photograph.

 

I've got a lot of information to share and really excited to spend a weekend making great photos.

 

One thing my wife and I got to do was take a trip to Nassau Bahamas last December. We spent 4 days with my good friend James and his wife.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to going back soon.