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Greetings,
Happy New Year everyone!
Amazingly enough, my Seahawks, who were completely written off at the beginning of the season, stand a chance of making the playoffs this year. We'll know Sunday afternoon.
And if they do make it and do well, be prepared for Seahawk logos to pepper the next newsletter.
You've been warned!
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Smokies and North Carolina Waterfalls
Cliff Zenor and I still have plenty of room in our two Eastern US workshops coming up in the end April and early May.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park workshop is April 25-29 and the North Carolina Waterfalls workshop is May 1-5.
Both of these workshops are limited to just eight participants.
For the Smokies, it's spring in the oldest, most biologically diverse ecoregion in North America. We'll have abundant photographic subjects: from the mountain tops that are just waking up, to the river valleys that are green and glowing.
Western North Carolina is a land of vast and verdant hardwood forests. Under the tall tree canopies, hundreds of waterfalls spill over Appalachian outcroppings. Some falls are grand and easily accessible. Others are surprises off the beaten path. We’ll explore the best of them every day at the best time of the day.
If interested, follow those links above for more information. And if you're a glutton for punishment and want to join us for both trips, I think I can arrange a discount.
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Update your copyright notice
This is one of those things I usually forget until after the first shoot of a new year. Not this time though! This time I updated my copyright notice on New Year’s Day. So how do you do this? Wait, you’re not doing this? But it’s so easy.
If you’re a Lightroom user and you’ve never done this before, create a Metadata Preset and apply it every time you import new images.
Step One: Create or update a preset
Creating a Metadata Template is easy. From the Library Module go to the Menu Bar, choose Metadata, then choose “Edit Metadata Presets…” from the list.
Fill out everything you want to have in your presets. Make sure the little boxes are checked for everything you want included and are not checked for things you don’t want to include. When you’re done, click on Preset: Custom button at the top of the dialog box and choose “Save Current Settings as New Preset…” and name your preset.
If you ever need to go back and change anything, go back to the Edit Metadata Presets dialog, click on the Custom button and choose your preset. Make your changes, click the button at the top and choose Update Preset “preset name” from the dropdown. You can also delete or change the name of a preset by clicking the button and choosing Delete or Rename.
Step Two: apply it when importing.
In the Import dialog (in the right-hand side of the Import screen) under the Apply During Import tab, choose your new preset.At this time, you can also add any keywords that are common to all the images you’re importing.
I actually create a new metadata preset for each year. This way, if I run across older images that for some reason or another didn’t get the proper copyright info, I can just apply the proper preset. To do this, I edit the previous year’s preset then save it as a new preset.
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Humpback Whales Bubble Net Feeding
In case you missed the extra email I sent out last month, I’ve added a new Sitka adventure: photographing Humpback whales bubble net feeding. What’s bubble-net feeding? It’s when a group of whales work cooperatively to hunt and feed on herring.
Last year, during my August Sitka tours, Captain Gary (of Capt. Gary's Sitka Adventures) told us that we really needed to come back in March for the bubble-netting. He showed up pictures and told us tales and several tour participants wanted to come back for it. So that’s what’s happening. This trip is limited to four, and three of the spaces are already spoken for.
The tour is planned for March 27- April 1. The 27th and the 1st are the arrival and departure dates, respectively. The plan is for four days on the boat searching for whales and whatever else crosses our path. We’ll probably see eagles and otters and other critters too.
And on land, we can explore harbors, forests, and downtown Sitka.
Cost of this tour is $2850 ($100 discount if paying by check).
If you’re interested in taking that last spot, reply to this email. It’s on a first come, first served basis, but I will start a wait-list if needed.
You can read more about the spectacle that it bubble-net feeding (and see some pictures) on the Sitka Conservation Society website.
And you can find more details about this tour on this page.
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Olympic National Park in May
 I still have a few spaces open in this May’s Olympic National Park workshop.
May is a really great time to be in the park. The streams and waterfalls are full, the forests look great, the beaches are spectacular, and it’s not overly crowded like it can be in the summer months.
And since this workshop is limited to seven, we won’t be getting in each other’s way, and you’ll get as much help in the field as you can possibly stand.
We’ll be based in Forks, which is well situated for us to get to Lake Crescent and the Sol Duc areas as well as the Hoh rain forest and the ocean beaches.
Speaking of beaches, if you want to try some dramatic surf photography, be sure to bring along overshoes and rain pants! And coastal photography is a great way to learn how to use ND filters to get your shutter speed just where you want it for ethereal misty water or dramatic sprays of water.
More information on my Olympic National Park page.
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Palouse openings
There are also a few spaces left in my Palouse workshop this June 19-24. This workshop is limited to just seven.
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Update on Maven Filters
You may remember me telling you about Maven filters in November’s newsletter.
In brief, Maven Filters is a new company making magnetic photo filters.
Well, the Kickstarter time frame ended, and the filters are starting to ship. I may be getting mine as early as sometime this month. I’m really looking forward to trying them out.
After the Kickstarter ended, backers were able to buy some add-ons. One of these add-ons is a Night Sky light pollution filter. Can’t wait to see how well that works.
I also added an extra adapter ring so I wouldn’t need to move the included ring from one lens to another and extra front caps so I could just cover the filters to protect then while on a lens.
I’ve not heard yet when these filters will be available for retail sale or if there might be an affiliate program with discount codes, etc. But I’ll be sure to let you know if that happens. This is assuming I’m sufficiently pleased with the filters to become an affiliate.
Here’s a link in case you’re interested in finding out more about the filters.
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Yellowknife Auroras
It's still eight months off, but it's never too early to get excited about seeing auroras in person. There's simply nothing else like it.
I've got two tours planned, September 10-17 and September 18-25. The second tour has one space remaining, but the first tour has a few more spaces than that available.
Mid to late September is usually pretty good for fall color (in addition to auroras) so we'll have plenty to photograph both day and night. And in September, the night-time temperatures aren't too bad at all. It will sometimes get down to freezing, but it's easy to stay warm by just dressing properly, And when the lights are dancing, you won't notice the cold at all!
Visit my Aurora Tours page for more information.
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In Closing
Hope you are all coping well with the winter weather. Be careful out there, folks!
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