Photo of the Day

Inn at Loretto, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Nikon D700, 24-70mm. B&W Conversion and toning in Adobe Lightroom

Behind the scenes photos from our Lightroom and the Fine Art Digital Print workshop

Here are some behind the scenes photographs from our most recent workshop. All images copyright ©2009 Michael Clark.

Indoor teaching session on fine art digital printing

On our first afternoon, we saw the first snowfall of the year up near the Santa Fe ski basin

Trevor, our resident gear hound, putting his Hasselbad to work

Liftoff at the Balloon Fiesta

We spent an afternoon taking a nice hike near Georgia O'Keefe's home at Abiquiu, New Mexico

Lightroom and the Digital Fine Art Print workshop testimonials

Here are a few testimonials from some of our recent workshop participants:

"..Hello Andy, Michael, and everyone else,
I can't help but smile every time I think of the wonderful experience garnered from our workshop. Between what I learned from the two of you, as well as from my talented classmates - this was a great experience, and I would do it again. In fact I'm trying to figure out a way to do Moab and Africa."

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"..Andy, thank you and Michael for a wonderful, educational, experienced based workshop in Santa Fe. Today I reread my notes from the classroom work and have been amazed at how deeply informative it was. Michael's Lightroom Book as well as yours about digital printing have given me a whole new level of understanding especially around the Lightroom Develop module as well as on the entire topic of printing and color management. I really appreciate how you and Michael showed your individual processes for image workflow. Comparing and contrasting both methods allowed me to take the best of both and adapt them to fit my needs. My increase in knowledge along with the additional hands on guidance we got in the three photo sessions for aspen fall colors, Albuquerque Balloon Festival, and Abiquiu landscape site, will enable me going forward to make the best photos I'm capable of producing. Showing the class the image evaluation image printed on many different papers was most informative as was printing a few of our individual "best" photos from the week.

Andy, I've taken several photography seminars over the past few years. Without a doubt your's has been the most informative,well organized, openly sharing event I've attended.

Thanks again for all your help and guidance. It's clear you don't hold back when teaching and sincerely want all attendees to get as much out of the seminars as we're able to absorb.

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"..Your workshop at Santa Fe was too good and I came away with a lot of knowledge and renewed energy. The level of expertise that you and Michael shared was topnotch and I hope to repeat this experience again. Thanks for such a great workshop."

Santa Fe workshop followup

I have just returned from a workshop that I co-led with friend and adventure photographer Michael Clark. The workshop was located in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and over a 4-day period we had 4 outdoor photo shoots and 4 indoor lectures. The outdoor shoots were a mix between the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and landscape locations near Santa Fe. The indoor lectures were split between Adobe Lightroom's Library and Development modules and ending up with a fine art digital printing lecture with hands-on printing.

We had 16 participants with both Michael and I as instructors, as well as 1 assistant. We based the workshop at Hotel Santa Fe, and we couldn't be any happier with their facilities, proximity to good culture and dining, as well as service.

I took both still photographs as well as high definition video during the workshop, and I have to say that shooting video is a whole different ball game. This was my first time to shoot any video, and the first thing that I learned was that I need to storyboard what I want to shoot before I even turn the camera on.

I am still processing video and some of the images from the workshop, and will post a few behind-the-scenes shots soon. Michael and I are working on doing similar workshops in Santa Fe in 2010, and we are putting the plans in place right now. Here are a few photos from the Balloon Fiesta:

Nikon D700, 14-24mm @ 14mm, 1/40 @ f/3.5, ISO 1250

Nikon D700, 14-24mm @ 18mm, 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400

Michael, Linda and Jim

D700, 24-70mm, 1/250 @ f/8, ISO 400. Pop-up fill-flash (notice the round shadow at the bottom? Don't use the lens hood when using the built-in flash on the D700 or D300!)

D700, 14-24mm @ 24mm, 1/250 @ f/5.6, ISO 800

D700, 24-70mm, 1/800 @ f/8, ISO 400

Nikon D3s announcement

Well, the camera everybody on earth already knew about has finally been announced. The Nikon D3s is pretty much the same D3 except in a few ways. Here are the high points:

• new 1280x720 24P high definition video
• ISO 200 - 12,800 is now standard, expandable to ISO equivalent of 102,400
• new anti-dust Sensor Cleaning function. About time!!
• Larger buffer with up to 48 RAW frames (was 18 in the D3)

There are other small enhancemenets, but these are pretty much the ones that I chose to report on. As many of my friends already know, my D3 was stolen when we were burglarized last month. Some of our items have been recovered, and some are still out there. For my next safari, I will be taking a D700 and a D300, both with portrait grips. I suspect I will end up buying the D3s when it hits the shelves soon.

Good Day New Mexico, Oct 28 at 11:00am. Tune in!

I will be on Good Day New Mexico, the Albuquerque NBC affiliate on October 28 at 11:00am. I was in their studios last week when I was in the state for my Adobe Lightroom and the Fine Art Digital Print workshop. The segment won't be a long one at only 3 minutes, but we had a nice time chatting in front of the cameras. Mary Ann Orate was a wonderful host, and I look forward to seeing just how dorky I look on tv. Hopefully they will have me back again next year when I will be running another workshop that will coincide with the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Images to follow in a day or so from the workshop from last week.

Safari Testimonial: Jeff Schweiger

"..I wanted to thank you for a wonderful photo workshop in Botswana. I have participated in several of your workshops over the last couple of years, but this trip was, by far, the best photo workshop that I have been on. Every aspect of this trip was first rate, and well planned. The preparation and planning by you allow our group to concentrate only on photography. The four camps that we stayed at were all wonderful, and the guides were fantastic, and contributed to this being a once in “once in a lifetime” trip, and I will remember fondly for the rest of my life.
 
In addition, I also wanted to thank you for the help and advise that you provided between game drives with the processing of my images. With your help, I was able to improve my images, and learn a great deal on how to post process my pictures. Your knowledge and experience with wildlife photography really help me in both in understanding what shots worked and what didn't and helped me to improve my photography in the field.
 
I look forward to our next trip together!"

You can see my 2010 African safaris online here. I have spots available on some of my safaris and not on others. If you are interested in one of these safaris, please email me at info@andybiggs.com while there is still space available. My safaris book up early!

Finding the perfect photo bean bag for safari

Buddy Eleazer has just posted a great summary of the most popular bean bags on the market on his Chobe Safari blog. This is a great resource if you are in the market for a bean bag.

Finding the perfect photo bean bag for safari blog entry

My own personal preference is the Kinesis Safari Sack. I have a few dozen that I have for my safari travelers that are always in Tanzania waiting for me. We fill them up with red beans that we purchase at a local market, and the guides empty out the bean bags at the end of our safari and take them home with them to eat. I don't want to have beans sitting around rotting in the bean bags. If you are traveling and do not anticipate having access to beans, I highly recommend purchasing the Kinesis Safari Sack that is prefilled with buckwheat. It is a lightweight option, and the buckwheat is an excellent filler.