Park City Trip

Before school started back up I took a short vacation to Utah and spent some time in Deer Valley and Park City. For the better part of one morning I visited the galleries of three very impressive photographers. Two of them--Thomas Mangelsen and David Schultz--I have featured on the blog in the past. The other--Gary Crandall--I hope to feature shortly. They all take stunning photos, and, as I have mentioned in my posts, their work must be seen in person; their websites don't do them justice. Part of the experience is seeing these photos in poster size. Next time you head to Park City for Sundance or to go skiing, take a little time to check out their galleries. They are all on the east side of Main Street and are all within just a few blocks of each other.

I also got to spend some time shooting, which is rare these days. I have posted a couple of shots below and would appreciate any feedback!
























Websites:
www.westlight.net
www.imagesofnature.com
www.dancingcrane.com

Featured Professional: John Fielder

Routt National Forest Horses

Again, my apologies for not posting for a while. I am excited to get back to the featured photographer post. This weeks featured photographer is John Fielder, a Colorado based photographer.

Corn Lily and Sneezeweed-Weminuche Wilderness

Mr. Fielder’s shoots almost exclusively in Colorado, and is an old school tough guy who shoots 4x5 and humps all of his gear—including film and holders, tripod, and lenses—with him on his backcountry excursions.

Avalanche Creek Pond - Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness

I haven’t had the chance to visit his gallery yet, but I am impressed with his work and his sense of purpose. Mr. Fielder is a stated conservationist and uses his photography to advance causes important to him. His love of Colorado and nature is evident in his photography, which makes his photos that much more interesting.

Website: www.johnfielder.com

All images ©John Fielder; used with permission.

Blogging takes a back seat again

My apologies, dear readers, for my absence. I have been working all summer long at an internship for a packaged goods company, and have recently been very busy and unable to devote time to blogging. I am sure that I haven't been missed.

I wanted to post today about Photoshop, as I have been using it quite a bit the last few days, but unfortunately not for editing photos. In my internship I have been working to develop a new product and as part of that have been mocking up a package design. The design of the package ultimately resides with an agency that we pay to do that kind of thing, but I have been putting together elements that we would like included so that we can send the agency an idea of what we are hoping for. This project has reminded me how lacking I am in PS skills.

Photo editing ethics aside (I would like to discuss them in a later post at some point), I think it is very important that anybody who considers themself a serious photographer today knows how to use PS. And I mean know PS. Most of us can click the auto tone, auto contrast, etc. commands or do the minor levels or saturation adjustments. What I mean is that it is important to know how to adjust color (or remove it altogether) with the channel mixer, to know how layers and masks work, to know what luminance is, and so forth. Knowing these things can help us to take our photographs to a new level.

Unfortunately I don't understand even a fraction of what is available in PS. I have, however, been trying recently to find some sites that can give me the most basic of instruction. I have included these sites in my list below:

Photoshop Essentials--this is a good site with some very helpful tutorials. There content isn't comprehensive and is definitely not geared to the outdoor photographer. But, still, it does teach some good, basic PS concepts.
Julieanne Kost's Blog--this site is a bit more advanced than Photoshop Essentials. Ms. Kost is what I would call a PS power user and her blog is linked to on the Adobe PS site. Good stuff, but maybe not the first place to look. A great place to learn PS keyboard shortcuts.
Adobe PS Help--this is Adobe's actual help page for PS. The material isn't super in depth, but it has info on just about everything. This is a good place to look for basic inquiries, but will almost always lead you to google a topic to learn more about it.

As stated in past posts, I hope to add even more sites to this list and the links list to the right. Being able to master PS is an essential skill and helpful in more areas than just photography.