|
|
|
|
Greetings,
And once again, I find myself surprised that it’s staying light out until nearly nine o’clock at night. I mean, I’ve been on this planet for 60 something years and you’d think I would no longer be startled by it. I suppose that before I know it, it will be getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon.
Our yard is coming right along too, and it will soon be time to train my close-up gear at the flowers. I’m startled by that, too.
Here are the flowers in waiting!
And if you read to the end, you'll get to see a cute picture of Sydney the labradoodle!
|
|
New Yellowknife Aurora tour now open for registration!
This September I’m partnering with NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) for a photo tour to Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories to photograph the Aurora Borealis (northern lights).
As many of you already know, I’ve been going to Yellowknife for over a decade and this year I’m excited to be working with NANPA to offer this tour to photograph what is truly a wonder of our world.
The tour is September 7-14, 2026 and is limited to 10 participants. Sign up is through NANPA. If you’re not a member, you can join for $100 and then take advantage of the member pricing for the tour, which is $200 off. And early registration pricing is good until June 7.
If more than six people register, I’ll be joined by my friend and colleague Mary-Louise Ravese.
If you’re thinking about it or are unsure and want to know more, I’m scheduled to present a webinar for NANPA on May 28th. It’s not listed on the NANPA event calendar yet, but it should be soon. Keep an eye out here.
For more information and to sign up, click here.
And if you've been wanting to go, but can't make it this year, I'm already planning for 2027 Yellowknife tours. If that piques you're interest, drop me a line and I'll add you to the early notify list, plus I'll let you know about potential dates so that you can start planning.
|
|
Fun with smart phones and auroras
 Speaking of auroras, during last year’s aurora tours, several people were using their smartphones to record regular video and time-lapse video. I brought a tripod mount for my iPhone so I could try for myself. Others were using similar mounts that attached to their camera’s hot shoe. That way they could record a timelapse at the same time as creating still images.
The timelapse videos I recorded were a lot better than I had anticipated. My problem was that I was concentrating more on regular stills rather than recording timelapse video with my phone. This led to missing great opportunities for exciting sequences. But it also resulted in groups of pretty exciting still images! There are trade-offs.
The advantage of creating timelapse videos in your phone is that you don’t need to take an hour or more worth of shots and then assemble them into a timelapse. It only takes 15-20 minutes of recording to get a decently long timelapse (20-30 seconds or so) as opposed to 45 minutes to an hour of recording for a 10-15 second video.
The downside is that you have very little control over, well, anything. As far as I know, there’s no way to change shutter speed or aperture or ISO. This means that if the auroras aren’t bright enough, the timelapse can be dark and very noisy. But if you have bright, active auroras, then the video looks great. At least on the phone screen.
But no matter; it’s lots of fun either way. And if you’re already serious about timelapse photography you’re probably set up with an intervalometer to record, and specialized software like LRTimelapse to process the images and assemble the timelapse.
|
|
A few days left to grab a room for the Palouse
My June 16-21 Palouse workshop, limited to only seven, still has a couple of spaces left. But the window is closing on a guaranteed room at our host hotel. The cutoff date for our room block is May 14 so be sure to let me know if you want to join us so I can get the hotel information to you before it’s too late.
For more information and to sign up, click here.
|
|
Sitka Whales
Oh my, but did I see some great pictures last month of Humpback whales bubble-net feeding in Sitka in late March/early April. I was really sad that I couldn’t make it this year.
But as they say, there’s always next year!
I just talked with Captain Gary, and he didn’t rub it in. Too much, anyway. We're setting up another whale tour in Sitka for March 26-30, 2027. This would give us three days on the water. Any takers out there? Let me know if you’d be interested and I’ll let you know when I get it set up. There may even be an early bird discount involved.
You can read more about the tour in this blog post.
|
|
Lofoten and Faroe Islands tours
I'm really excited about returning to the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Lofoten holds some of the most dramatic landscapes one could hope for. Plus, it was a blast!
There are still spaces available in my Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2027 photo tour. See more here.
Later in 2027 I've planned for a tour to the Faroe Islands, located half-way between Iceland and Norway. I've not been there before but I'm teaming with the experts from Lofoten Photo Tours who did such a fabulous job during my 2025 Lofoten tours. There's room for you on this trip as well! Take look here.
|
|
Dog paddling
 We recently took a short three-night RV vacation to Lake Chelan State Park, which is in north-central Washington State. We brought along our inflatable kayak and, since it was a mid-week visit, we practically had the lake to ourselves the two days we went out. The water was glass-calm (a good thing since we lack a lot of experience) and the weather was very comfortable.
Sydney did pretty good on the kayak all the while stoically wearing her life vest. But she was a pooped pup after a morning on the water.
It was a fun and relaxing trip; we're planning a return visit for another three nights soon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
