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Greetings,
OK 2020, you can go away any time now.
It's been a very strange last week or so. Thankfully we're nowhere near the fires; I'm just stunned and heartbroken over all the devastation, the uprooted lives, and those who've been lost in these fires. We're lucky, we've only had to deal with the smoke and the awful air.
Thankfully, a little bit of rain has started around here. I hope the entire west coast gets enough.
On a happy note, my Seahawks won their season opener. It was nice watching football and to have a little normality, if only for a little while.
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Milky Way
I've not gotten out to do a whole lot of photography this year. I went to Death Valley before the public knew the pandemic was a problem. I went to the Palouse because there really wasn't a problem around there then.
And I went to Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park to photograph the Milky Way. I meant to go in July but the weather and, to some extent, the tides weren't in my favor. But I did go last month!
It was a few days after the new moon so I still had the moon to deal with, but it was less than half full and was setting at 11:30 p.m. So I got best of both worlds: Good Milky Way conditions and a setting moon.
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Guide to Night Photography in the Great Outdoors
 Speaking of the Milky Way, Grant Collier has updated his excellent guide to night photography. I've not had a chance to go through it all but according to his write up there is new material covering newer equipment and new/updated processing techniques using new and updated tools in Photoshop.
I believe there's a discount if you've purchased the first edition.
You can read my review of the first edition on my blog. There's also a link there to purchase the book. And the best news of all is that it's an affiliate link, which means that if you buy his book using that link, I get a little taste too. A win/win!
Seriously though, it's a good book and you'll learn a lot. I did.
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2021 Workshops and Tours
Due to that darned virus, I've postponed my October Bandon, OR workshop to next May 19-23. I'll be co-leading this workshop with Cliff Zenor. It'll be nice to get in and amonst the sea stacks and the lighthouses.
My May 12-16 workshop in Olympic National Park, based out of Forks, is already half full. This workshop is limited to only six people so if you want to visit Olympic in the spring with a small group, this is your chance. The waterfalls are full, the streams look great, the forest is green and the coast is, well, the coast. It's a good time to go. We may even see some elk.
There is still room in my Palouse tour too. I'll also be co-leading this one with Cliff Zenor. Dates are June 15-20.
This year there was a ton of canola, that bright yellow carpet of flowers you see in so many pictures. Apparently, because of market forces, the farmers are going to be planting more canola in the coming years. So there should be bunch next year too.
My July 11-18 workshop to Olympic, this one co-led with John Barclay has, I believe, two spaces available.
What's the difference between my two Olympic workshops? Other than two months: wildflowers and mountain scenics from Hurricane Ridge and Deer Park, and the lavender farms of Sequim. All of that will be in peak season. Plus deer at Hurricane Ridge, with a high probability of spotty fawns!
In August I'll be leading a pair of photo tours to Sitka, AK to photograph whales and other sea mammals, fishing boats, harbors, old growth forests and more. There are four spaces available in the August 7-12 tour.
In September John Barclay and I are once again heading north to Yellowknife for the auroras. There is still some space available in our first tour. More info here.
That's all I officially have on the books for 2021.
I still have October to look at and I'm considering a few possibilities including Newport, OR, Silver Falls State Park and perhaps Zion. We'll see.
Cliff Zenor and I are also in the process of planning another pair or workshops: Bosque del Apache Nov. 30- Dec. 5 and White Sands National Park, Dec. 7-12. These dates are tentative. Be sure to let me know if you want to be put on the notification list for either or both of these trips.
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The Turning Gate announces Backlight 3.1
Those of you who've been reading this newsletter for a while know how much I like the web site publishing tools for photographers that are made by The Turning Gate (TTG).
Backlight 3 was a big leap in features and functionality. And the recently announce Backlight 3.1 is another.
I've been testing it (trying to break it) for the past couple of weeks. And though I was initially successful in causing mayhem, those bugs got squished quickly and now I'm having no success in breakage.
The big leap in the 3.1 version is in the Backlight Publisher. This is especially good news to those not using Lightroom. Personally, I prefer publishing my image albums from Lightroom, I like being able to control and organize my photographs in one place and not having to first create (and manage) web versions of my images.
I really like being able to watermark my images when they get published from Lightroom too. Now, though, the Backlight Publisher, which resides on your site's server, can apply watermarks to images. This is a big help to those not publishing through Lightroom.
They've also added an option for Lightroom Publisher users where you can upload one master image and all renditions (thumbnails, display images, hi-res version, and download version for purchase) are create online by Backlight. This can save a lot of time in the publishing process.
Backlight Publisher has also added some pretty great management features too, including reordering albums and album sets using drag and drop.
There's lots to like. If you're a Backlight user and you're curious, Matt from The Turning Gate has posted a video demonstrating a few of the new features.
I don't know when Backlight 3.1 will be released, but I suspect it will be any day now.
If you're a user of Backlight or one of the older TTG web engines and want to upgrade, there is a limited time left to upgrade from Backlight 1 and earlier CE versions with a discount, as announced in the most recent newsletter.. If you get the Turning Gate Newsletter you've already seen the details, if not, you can view the latest newsletter here.
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Lastly
 I truly hope you and your families and friends are all safe from the fires and the virus and are coping with everything and staying as sane as possible.
Fall color is coming and I'm going to do my best just to get out and (safely) enjoy it. Good thing I have a national park practically in my back yard.
Here's another Milky Way shot from Ruby Beach. I'm not exactly sure why Jupiter (that bright one) has what looks like a starburst. I think it may have come from some mist on the lens. It looks cool so I'm chalking it up to a happy accident.
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