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Greetings,
It's been a wet and often cold summer so far up here in the Pacific Northwest. I'm not complaining though. As some of you know, I'm not a fan of the warm weather. I'm a warm wimp. So I've been enjoying the cool summer. I am, however, hoping for some clear weather though in the next couple of weeks as I have plans for shooting the Milky Way on the Olympic coast.
This month I have a workshop report! I also have some information on postponements as well as next year's schedule.
Along with all that, a suggestion for some quality indoor learning.
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Palouse workshop report
What a year in the Palouse! According to one farmer we talked to, the garbanzo bean market took a dive, so many (many!) farmers planted canola instead. For photographers, canola is something highly sought out. I can remember years when we could only find a field or two and I’d be asking anybody and everybody if there was any canola around. Well this year we didn’t need to search. Canola was everywhere. We could even see a giant field from our hotel in Colfax. You can see a few of the pictures in the Palouse report on my blog.
This year I had, unsurprisingly, a very small group for my workshop, just three hardy souls and myself. If you are wondering about how safe we were, Whitman County is one of the safest counties in Washington state. Apparently, there were something like seven cases of Covid-19 in the area and six of those are in the same family. Even so, we took precautions.
According to one of the farmers I spoke to, because of market forces there may lots of canola in the coming years too. Speaking of that, next year’s Palouse workshop (with me and Cliff Zenor) is set to be June 15-20, 2021. I’ve yet to post the workshop to my Workshops site, but if you’re interested in this trip, send me an email and I’ll put you on the early notify list.
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Photoshop Essentials
 Do you want to start using Photoshop in your photography workflow? Do you use Photoshop now but want more skills? Are you comfortable with Photoshop and think you know all you need to know? (I sort of fall in this last category). Do you need to keep yourself busy during quarantine?
Well, Sean Bagshaw just released his latest course: Photoshop Essentials for Outdoor Photographers.
I’ve been using Photoshop for many years and figured I knew all the basics and was able to do what I needed to do to my images. Then I started watching Sean’s new Photoshop course. Right away (just in the first couple of videos) I learned new things. I’m only 13 videos in and I’ve learned all sorts of new and useful skills.
If you’re absolutely new to Photoshop, I’d suggest first starting with a basic intro to Photoshop like Sean’s 10 Steps to Getting Started With Photoshop.
But if you’re already familiar with Photoshop and want to learn more or just improve on what you know (or, like me, think you know), Sean’s Photoshop Essentials for Outdoor Photographers is a gold mine.
I have no affiliation with Sean. I met him last October at a photo conference and he’s the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet and makes you feel like you’re his best friend so I’m pretty sure that Sean is my bestest friend. That’s not creepy at all, is it?
One thing I do know for sure is that Sean is really good at what he does. He’s a great photographer and he’s an excellent teacher (he used to teach science). And he’s really good at putting together instructional videos.
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Olympic July 2021
John Barclay and I have postponed our Olympic National Park workshop until July 2021. The dates will be July 11-18. And though I believe this workshop is sold out, if you’re interested in joining us, let me or John know and we’ll put you on the waiting list. More info on the workshop can be found here.
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Aurora trips
John Barclay and I still don’t know if we’ll be able to run this year’s aurora tours. Much depends on Canadian border policies regarding the pandemic. That and common sense.
If we must postpone, those currently signed up will have the option of transferring to one of the 2021 trips.
We have tentatively set the dates for those trips to be Sept. 3-10 and Sept. 10-17.
We’ve already had one or two people drop out of this year’s trip, so if you want to take a chance that we’ll be able to run those trips, contact John to sign up. By signing up now, you’ll also be reserving a place in the 2021 tours in the event we have to postpone this year.
You can find out more about the trips here. And you can sign up or get on the waiting list by contacting John via email.
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Other 2021 trips
Besides what I've mentioned above, I've been toying with the rest of my 2021 schedule. Possibilities include:
- Olympic National Park in May
- Sitka in August
- Newport and/or Bandon Oregon with Cliff Zenor (dates not set)
- White Sands with Cliff in early December
- Perhaps Bosque del Apache with Cliff in late November
- Fall in the Palouse, October
- Silver Falls State Park, OR, October
- Willamette Valley, OR wine country
Let me know if any of these interest you and I'll add your name to the early notify list.
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On to the summer projects
One "upside" to having to cancel workshops is that I now have free time to do other extremely fun and exciting things. Like repairing decks, replacing a fence post that got damaged in a storm last winder, adding a fence extension, and building a porch swing.
And splitting wood. We're having some more trees taken down and this time, instead of just giving the wood away, I plan on trying to sell it.
But I'm still also planning on getting to Olympic for that Milky Way shot.
And I want to get to Hurricane Ridge. And Sol Duc...
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In memory
In memory of William Lee Barbee 1935-2020
Thanks dad for kindness, camping and baseball.
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