Third Dawn - Reflection Lakes, Washington

Teaching 10 star photography workshops at Mount Rainier last summer gave me a great chance to really explore the area during mornings and off time. Reflection Lakes was one of the places we would all shoot, and I still consider it one of the best locations to shoot at Mount Rainier. Personally I like it for sunrise, but some amazing sunsets can be found there as well. Interested in checking it out for yourself? Here is the exact location from which I took the shot.

This year I picked some new locations to shoot at during my In the Field Summer Star Photography Workshops, which provide student's with dark skies, and beautiful landscapes for sunrise and sunset. Many of the students have processed some of their shots from this past summer and shared them on the Star Photography Student Upload Gallery. There are some really cool shots in there that I think you will enjoy, feel free to share some of your own as well. If you're interested in joining me head on over to the workshops page which is linked above! Hope to see you out there:)

If you're new to this site you may not know that I provide a long list of inspirational photographers half way down the page on the right-hand side bar. This is a dynamic list, so there will be some new content every now and then!

I had a lot of fun writing my newest tutorial which allows you to ditch your heavy laptop and start traveling with a Google Nexus 7 or Nexus 10 as a full time travel device. When I first set this thing up, it seemed a little bit complicated, now the learning curve is gone and I can fully set everything up and start transferring pictures in under 5 minutes. The biggest win for me is carrying such a light pack, with nearly any hardware. I urge you to check out the tutorial which I have linked below. Does anyone else have a nice travel setup that doesn't include a laptop? I know some of you post process on the road some this kinda thing seems unfathomable. 

Using Your Nexus 10 or Nexus 7 to Transfer Picture Files from Your Camera's Memory Card to an External Hard Drive

The Shot

I kinda forget which summer workshop this was, but our caravan of 8 or so cars rolled into Reflection Lakes around 4 AM after a full night of shooting the Milky Way over at Sunrise on the opposite flanks of Mount Rainier. Myself and a few night owls were able to grab some really nice starry twilight shots before the sun started to rise. My favorite part about Reflection Lakes is the moody fog which always sits over the lake. Good times...

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Split Decision - Jonsrud Viewpoint, Oregon

Just getting back from an internet hiatus and a really nice trip to China which allowed me to reset my motivation and inspiration as well as get moving on a few projects that I have wanted to start. I also just posted my in depth review on how I have started to use the Google Nexus 10 as my full time travel device. I put a lot of detail and work into this, so I think you will really like it:)

Using Your Nexus 10 or Nexus 7 to Transfer Picture Files from Your Camera's Hard Drive to an External Hard Drive

Workshops Update:
New Star Photography Online Post Processing Group Workshop dates have just been added along with my 2014 In the Field Star Photography Group Workshop Schedule. Grab a spot before they sell out, half of the In the Field Workshop spots have already sold.

In terms of the trip to China we accomplished everything we wanted to, and thankfully the weather played along. I just got done processing the first D800 picture from the trip last night, but tried to post some with my iPhone here and there while on the road. As always you can find all of these pictures in my Behind the Scenes Album over on good ole' SmugMug. Here are a few of my favorite locations that we were able to shoot at.

Paul Weeks & I Riding Bikes in Yangshuo China / D800

A Boat Crusing Through Hong Kong Harbor / Nexus 10

Bamboo Rafting Down the Lijiang River, China / iPhone 4

 

The Shot

I have been to this location a bunch of times to shoot in the past and it's really hit or miss with the weather. At times you can see Mt. Hood jutting out in the distance, at others you can't see a thing. Well the morning of this particular shot the only thing I could see was the foreground fog and blazing sun pouring through it, here is what came after a run through Nik Silver Efex.

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2014 In the Field Star Photography Workshop Schedule - Out Now!

After teaching 90+ students over a year of sold out star photography workshops in 2013. I am excited to announce 4 more star photography workshops in 2014. I will be out traveling much of 2014 and won't be around to teach 10 workshops as I did last summer. That being said, these 4 workshops may fill up pretty fast, 15 spots have sold already, so grab your spot today:)

You can find the full details, logistics, and sign up dates on my 2014 Star Photography Workshop Page. I am also including all my Star Photography Post Processing Video Tutorials and Under the Stars Lightroom 4 & 5 Presets as an added bonus for signing up. You will receive all of these digital products as soon as you sign up for the workshop, no need to wait til the actual workshop date:) Please note, although I do provide Lightroom and Photoshop tutorials as free and added bonus with the workshop, you do not need to know anything about either program, nor own any post processing programs to get the full benefits of the workshop.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions that are not answered on the workshop page. 

I hope to see you under the stars this coming summer!

As for now it's off to China for the next few weeks to do some exploring, camping, and photography of course. I will not be updating the blog during that time, but I'll leave you with my newest shot from Palouse, Washington and a few star shots to spark your interest:) 

The Shot

Over the past 10 weeks I have been traveling non-stop to new locations all over the Pacific Northwest loading up on pictures before the winter months. While these pictures sit on the computer and cool off for a bit as they always do, an older picture from Steptoe Butte Washington will have to suffice. This was an easy one exposure capture adjusted in Lightroom with a few random sliders, then exported to the good old portfolio. 

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A few Milky Way photos from one of the locations we will be shooting from during my 2014 Star Photography Workshops.

Outside the Niche - Snapshots in Time

I find it interesting that photographers are usually known for a niche of photos that they provide to the world on a regular basis. On the other hand as a photographer I know that my finger is constantly on the shutter button when exploring any new city, landscape or foreign land, and I have a lot more photos on my hard drive than ever make it online. As with anyone that wants to learn and grow as a photographer, I feel that constantly experimenting with new mediums, ideas, looks and inspiration is key. For me this is often done behind the scenes on my on free and experimental time, but why not share it with the world? Here is a random selection of stuff that I have captured while exploring and and experimenting in the digital darkroom. Click on any of the shots to head over to my Snapshots in Time Gallery where all these pics are stored:) PS: There is a lot of texture blending going on... a tutorial and textures package is coming soon.

If Only Time - Crater Lake, Oregon

Are you from Seattle or visiting the area? Twenty of my pictures are currently hanging on display at the Triple Door in Seattle. These are big, colorful and vivid prints of 20 x 30 inches and larger, printed on an array of mediums from canvas to Satin Thin Wrap and ready to hang on your wall. If you come down and buy one, I'll sign the front or back of the picture for you depending on which you prefer:) The prints will only be up til the start of November so come down and check it out while you still can!

Time is running short and so are the remaining spots ( 2 left ) in my Online Star Photography Post Processing Group Workshop. We will work through one of my Milky Way shots from star ( RAW file ), to finish ( portfolio JPEG file ), you'll even receive the RAW file to work along with me. Try something new this month and signup, you will be glad you did:)

I have been looking for a compact way to transfer photos from my memory cards to external hard drives while on the road without taking my bulky Macbook Pro. Well the solution is solved, a Nexus 10 Tablet arrived in the mail yesterday & allows transfer of files from my memory card to a single external hard drive, once that transfer is complete the action is repeated with another external hard drive for duplicate backups. Using the Nexus 10 is slightly slower than a laptop, it takes around 40 minutes to transfer 32GB of data from my card reader to the external 1TB hard drives. In turn I can now travel very VERY light without a laptop. A full review on how to do this yourself will be added to this website in the coming weeks, after testing the setup on a two week trip to China. PS: I've never tried Android before, and it's pretty damn awesome, especially with the new ( crap ) IOS 7, it may be time for a mobile change too.

The Shot

This one comes from the latest Oregon Coast trip, where we swung over to Crater Lake on the way towards Samuel Boardman State Park. Actually, I don't know if 600 miles out of the way is considered a swing, but none the less the weather was great, and so was the Milky Way. In this shot I really wanted to capture the nice colorful blue hour that the location almost always produces, and some stars on the side never hurt anyone right?

Check out my Free Star Photography Tutorial & learn how to take this type of shot on your own. There is also a gallery for you to share your star shots included on the tutorial page.

Post Processing Info ( Grab some discount codes to the programs below at bottom of About Me Page )
Processing Time: 35 Minutes
Music: TJR Set live on Diplo & Friends
Drink: White Russian ( Muhahah! )

Lightroom 4

• Two RAW files, one for the stars, and another longer exposure for the rest of the scene. 
• Adjust white balance to accentuate the blues and bring out stars using "Highlights" slider. 
• Adjust highlights and midtones to bring out the "frosty glow"
• Minimal sharpening and clarity adjustments
• + Vibrance & - Saturation

Photoshop CS6

• Apply Tony Kuypers Luminosity Masking Actions & Techniques to blend the stars into the longer exposure file.
• Apply color correction using "Color Balance" adjustment.
• Selectively adjust contrast using "Curves" adjustment.
• Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast
• Nik Output Sharpener ( selectively )
• Noiseware Professional by Imagenomic, the best NR software out there...
• Slight global vignette application
• Save to JPEG.

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Just a Perfect Day - Southern Iceland

My thoughts go out to all the photographers & students who were supposed to teach & learn at our amazing national parks in the coming days and maybe weeks. Thanks to big government & personal agendas, lovers of exploration, learning, nature and photography will all suffer along with countless others. It's a pretty disgusting idea that we are inclined to vote for such beasts, or turn our shoulders and take the only other path, letting them walk all over us with no representation at all. No matter what you do in life, provide inspiration, motivation, and make something beautiful for people to enjoy for a long time in the future. There is no reason to play within the realms of destroying what people have worked for and created in the past only to come away with nothing in the end.

The Shot

While rocketing our KuKu Camper through Southern Iceland we came along a really cool gorge, with lots of little streams and tributaries dispersing into it from infinite angles and locations. I decided this was a good time to stop and take a shot, well I can't lie, a bunch of shots. After busting out the ND filter and circular polarizer I set up my tripod and fired away... For more info on the photo gear I use check out the "What's in My Camera Bag" section of this website. PS: If you want to see this picture fill your screen instead of the scroll view, just click on it:)

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