A while ago I posted this image I took at Kootenai Creek.

Well, now I’ve spent a little bit of time in Photoshop doing some “pruning”, local color corrections, dodging/burning, and cropping.  Now it looks like this:

And when I say “a little bit of time in Photoshop,” I mean about 8 hours. :)  The hard part was rebuilding the rock where the branch overlapped and making it look believable.  How’d I do? 

This is the image I printed and matted the other day.  It was also the image that was being critiqued.  The teacher who critiqued it seemed to dislike the hard, high contrast light I shot it in.  She said in a perfect world I would have shot it under softer light, like on a cloudy day or when the rock was under shade.  I totally disagree, of course.  If this was a image of a nice, peacefully flowing river, then, yeah, I agree, but this isn’t that type of river.  This was a violent and turbulent stream rushing down the side of the mountain.  The harsh light accentuates that turbulent and chaotic feeling.  I think the light was perfect for the shot I was trying to get.  And since I took the picture, my opinion is the only one that really counts, right? :) 

Anyway, want to buy it?  All it needs is a frame.

I’m sitting here listening to the near constant roar of motorcycles driving by today.  Hell’s Angels are in town this weekend for their annual gathering.  This year it’s in Missoula.  I can’t decide whether I want to walk around town and check things out or get out of town entirely.  I’ll probably do a little of both.  I’ll probably walk around a bit early this evening.  It’ll probably be pretty quiet since the majority of Angels won’t be here yet and I’ll be avoiding all the drinking establishments.  Then, tomorrow, I’ll be heading up to Glacier for at least a night…probably two.  I’ll get back into town on Sunday when things are beginning to quiet down.  I don’t really think things will be that bad.  From what I’ve read, the gang usually doesn’t cause many problems and are pretty well-behaved, but occasionally there are exceptions.  And actually, from what I understand, the last time they were in Missoula in 2000, it was the police that got a little out of hand with the locals.  The chief of police ended up getting fired because of it.  Apparently, the gang can cause problems even when they’re behaving.

So this weekend, I’ll be avoiding either Hell’s Angels or grizzly bears.  Which is worse?

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve posted a pretty good sample of pictures on my website, wanderinglightphotography.com.  All the good pictures from the first month and the first couple of days of July are posted in the RMSP category shown on the home page.  I’ll probably be posting most images there from now on and only post blog images or images from my phone on Flickr.

Looking at what I’ve taken so far, I realized I don’t have many wide panoramic type shots of the mountains yet.  I need to work on that I think.  I may have to head up to Glacier this weekend.  We’ll see.

In other news, I’ve declared that I’m not spending any more money on photography equipment this summer.  I just spent another boat load on a carbon fiber tripod and new tripod head.   My old tripod is just too heavy to carry on long hikes.  I needed something lighter.  My new Gitzo tripod only weighs 2.1lbs plus another 1lb for the tripod head.  My old tripod legs weighed more than that themselves not including the head.  I think I cut the weight in half with this purchase…and probably my bank account as well…just kidding. I still have plenty of money left for the summer and fall.  But I won’t if I keep upgrading gear, so I’m done…for now.

I’ll be back in the studio tomorrow shooting still life…

Tomorrow night, we have a guest speaker: Peter Read Miller.  You’ve probably seen his work if you’ve ever picked up Sports Illustrated.  I think he’s going to talk to us about sport photography…just a guess.

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy.  So here’s a quick recap on what we’ve been doing in school.  We’ve basically covered the technical side of photography at this point and have started to move into the creative side of things now.   We’re learning to critique photographs and discussing what makes a good photograph.  We’ve also had our first print lab where I got to print out a couple of my photos.  It’s amazing how good they look when you have a good printer. 

We also had some more studio time, this time working with multiple light set-ups.  I’m not really getting into the studio work.  I’m finding I like shooting outdoors much better…big surprise, I know.  One of the last technical concepts we covered was the color zone system.  I’m finding that it makes my life much easier when shooting.  In the last week or two, I’ve found that I can get the exposure right the first time on the majority of my shots rather than having to take additional shots to make adjustments.  I think I’m finally making some improvements here.

Last weekend, much of our class went to Augusta, Montana to shoot the rodeo.  I ended up with a few good shots, but the majority were not as great as I hoped, primarily due to the lens I was using.  The 50-500mm lens I have just isn’t very good.  So the following Monday, I cracked open my wallet and bought the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens and the 1.4x teleconverter.  It’s not as long as the 500mm obviously, but it’ll work in most cases and will give me much better results.  It’s a very nice piece of glass.  And just for fun, I bought a Lensbaby 2.0 as well.  If you’re unfamiliar with those, you’ll see some shots from it in a week or two.  It’s a lot of fun.

Speaking of photos, I’m way behind in my processing, which is why you haven’t seen many being posted lately.  I’ve started catching up so you’ll start to see new stuff being posted little by little in the next couple of days.   The moon shot above is from the middle of June when the moon was full.  We had to stay out until about 11:30pm before it was high enough to clear the mountains.  My 500mm worked well for this type of photography so I guess I’ll keep it around despite having the new lens.  There’s a few more shots of the moon on my Flickr stream.  The shot to the right is from a old growth cedar grove I visited during the second or third week here…I forget when.  Days and weeks are starting to run together now.

Tonight, I’m going to try my hand at photographing fireworks.  With any luck, you’ll get to see any good shots I get by the end of the month.

I know I haven’t been posting for a while, but I’m still here.  I haven’t been eaten by a bear or anything.  After the first two weeks, I decide I needed to make a change to my Internet and phone plan.  I no longer have an Internet connection at home besides the one on my phone.  I’ll be using free wifi hotspots for my Internet needs.  In addition, I was rebuilding my computer last week (Verizon wireless really screwed up the networking) so I didn’t have everything installed that I needed to blog frequently.  Everything is up-to-date now so you should start to see an increase in posts again.

I will also be uploading some new pics to my Flickr account soon so stay tuned.

It snowed today in Missoula.  Snowed!  Can you believe it?  We’re not even at that high of an elevation.   It’s crazy.  Thankfully, it’s suppose to be in the 70’s by the weekend.  Highs in the 40’s today and tomorrow though, with rain.  Yuck.

Yesterday, was a long day of classes, but I learned a lot.  In the morning, the discussion was primarily about metering modes.  I have to admit, that’s not something I knew much about.  I knew there were different modes I could use, but that’s pretty much it.  I didn’t know what the differences were between them.  Now I know all about it and I’ve discovered I’ve been using the wrong one all this time.  I’ve been using the one that is probably the most inaccurate in most situations.  Oh, well. Now I know.

My second class yesterday was Lighting with Allison Leach (who I talked about in a previous post).  We basically discussed the different types of light and began talking about how to control it.  She showed us a pretty cool trick for estimating the number of stops of light between a well lit area and a low light area, such as full sunlight versus the shade.  You use your camera to meter off your hand while standing in the sun and then meter again off your hand while standing in the shade.  The difference between the two will give you the range of light in your photo.  Anything over about 5 stops will be too great of range for your camera to record properly and you’ll have to use some sort of light modifier (scrim/diffuser or reflector) to try and reduce the overall range.  It’s a pretty nice trick.

Today, I had a 4 hour class discussing nothing except lenses.  And that was probably too short.  It’s amazing how many things you have to consider when buying one.  There were a lot of lens characteristics I never really thought about in the past, but can make a big difference.  Unfortunately, a lot of it comes down to what type of shooting you will be doing before you can know which characteristics are the most important and which you can get by without.  It’s almost like the more you know, the harder the decision becomes.  But, the more you know, the more likely you are to save some serious cash by avoiding the lenses that are more than you really need.  Right now, I think I have all the lenses I really need, but I’m sure that will change by the end of the summer.

The rest of the day was spent working in Lightroom.   Most of that was a review for me since I’ve been using it for over year already.  But, they covered some best practices that I wasn’t following so some good came from it.

My schedule gets progressively lighter the rest of the week so I might actually have a chance to go do some shooting outside of class.

Well, week one of the Summer Intensive course at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography is officially finished.  Honestly, it felt much longer than a week.  I don’t know if it’s because we have classes six days a week or the length of each class period (typically 4 hours) or a combination of both, but I feel like I’ve been here for a couple weeks already.  They weren’t kidding when they named it Summer Intensive.  (Although, the summer part needs work.  High’s in the 50’s, lows in the low 40’s.  That’s not summer weather, even in Montana).

The beginning of the week was mainly about preparation.  We covered the basics of what type of equipment would be needed and where to get more (at a discount).  They made sure everyone’s computer was set up properly with the required software.  The covered where to shoot in Montana and how to not get eaten by a bear. :)  And they spent some time getting to know each of us and helping us get to know one another.

And that was just the first day of classes.

As the week progressed, we started covering the basics of photography: shutter speed and aperture.  We covered how to control them in the camera and how they relate and affect the final image.  Most of it was a review for me, but I picked up a few tidbits along the way, such as where to set your focus when shooting a picture with a large depth of field.  They encouraged those of us that were familiar with these concepts to start shooting in manual mode to really drive home the relationship between the two.   When shooting in Av or Tv modes (that’s Canon terminology), it’s easy to ignore what adjustments the camera makes for you.  I found that shooting in Manual in a controlled environment (i.e. indoors) isn’t that difficult, but in a variable environment (such as outdoors on a partially cloudy day) it gets much tougher.  The light keeps changing so if you’re not quick enough between setting the right exposure and composing you shot, you may have to start all over.  It can get really frustrating.  But, I’m working on it.

Tomorrow is a day off so a bunch of us are going on a little trip to a nearby ghost town to, of course, take some pictures.  I’ve never been to a ghost town so it should be interesting.   I’m sure you’ll get to see some results if you follow my Flickr stream.

Now for the really good news…I got my 5D back!!!  The shop where I took it to be fixed was able to do it in house and didn’t have to send it out to Canon.  If they would have sent it, it probably wouldn’t have been ready for 3-5 weeks.  That would of sucked.  But, I’m happy now because I have it back and the repair was only $130.  I was expecting much higher.

Finally, I ran a couple of times this week…or tried to.  Either I got out of shape really quickly or the move from an elevation of ~1500ft to 3300ft has a bigger effect than I would have thought.  The first time, I was sucking wind after about 6 blocks!  That’s pathetic.  I probably only ran about a mile and half before I just walked home.  The second time I probably went closer to two and ran the whole way.  I feel like such a wuss.  It’s been a long time since I haven’t been able to run at least three miles.

Well, that about sums it up from Montana.

Today was a pretty long day in classes, 9am-9pm.  So far, the past two days of classes have been more or less an introduction into equipment: what’s available, staff recommendations, pros, cons, etc.  We also spent some time today setting up student computers.  Mine, of course, was already set up and ready to go. :)  Also today, they had representatives from Bogen and B&H Photo come in and talk.  The B&H rep talked to us about their history and covered their new student program that gives us substantial discounts on many (not all, unfortunately) items in their store.  Then, the Bogen rep showed us an impressive line-up of Manfrotto and Gitzo  tripods and later, Kato bags.  The carbon fiber Gitzo tripods are really impressive and so light.  I’d love to get one, but the price for those things is staggering.  I think I’ll be keeping my Manfrotto aluminum tripod for a while.  The Kato bags are pretty sweet, but I’ve got so many bags and cases already, I can’t really justify more.

The finale for the day was a presentation by Allison Leach.  If you’re not familiar with her, you probably are with her work.  Her photos have appeared in all the major magazines such as People, Men’s Health, Esquire, Vanity Fair, etc.  The list goes on an on.  She showed us some of her work and gave a detailed presentation on what its like being an editorial photographer. (Editorial photographers shoot the pictures that accompany articles or advertisements in magazines.) She also gave us some funny antidotes about working with celebrities.  It was really interesting, but thoroughly convinced me that I have no interest in that type of work.  Allison, by the way, will be our instructor for our Lighting class this summer, which I think is pretty awesome.  Nothing like learning from an accomplished working pro.

Today was the opening orientation at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.  For the Summer Intensive (SI) portion of the program, there are 101 students, 61 female and 40 male.  The age range goes from 18 years to 69 years old.  I wouldn’t say there’s really any age group that really dominates.  There seems to be a pretty even mix.  They told us that in past years there were far more of the younger crowd and less of the older students.  Also, in previous years the female to male ratio used to be closer to 80/20.  So it seems their demographic is shifting.

They broke us up into six groups for the summer.  Each group has around 16-17 students.  Each group attends the various lectures and labs at different times.  Although, they do double up the groups for many of the lectures.   Some days, we’ll be in lectures and labs all day.  Other days, we might only have a couple hours worth.  It varies quite a bit.  I imagine the days without lectures, we’ll be out shooting on our own for assignments.  Most lectures/labs are held from 9am-1pm, 2pm-6pm, and 7pm-9pm.  Some days I’ll only be there for one (or only part of) a section.  Other days, I may have to be there for all three (so 9am-9pm, yikes!!!).  There’s a couple of labs on the schedule that go to 11pm as well, so there could be some very long days in my future.

We didn’t have any lectures today.  It was all about getting to know the staff and teachers and getting to know your fellow classmates.  It was interesting to see where everyone came from and what career paths they left behind to come here.  We have classmates from several countries including Canada, UK, Finland, Denmark, and Australia so my two day drive doesn’t seem so bad anymore.  Some people had been planning this for years.  Others found out last week that they were coming (they were on a waiting list).

Everyone seemed really friendly, excited, and a little scared/nervous.  I think everyone is wondering how they compare skill-wise to everyone else.  I know I am.  But, I don’t think it will matter much once we get going.  I’m pretty excited to begin.  But, I’m also a little nervous about the intensity of it all.  We’ll be covering a lot in the twelve weeks.  But, I remember always feeling the same way at the beginning of each semester in college when we’d were given the class syllabus.  It always seemed like there was no way I’d be able to get it all done.  And then at the end of the semester, I’d look back and realize it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I keep telling myself this will be the same.  I’ve almost got myself convinced.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a vast majority of Mac users in my group.  I’m heavily outnumbered.  I’d guess at least 90% of the group said they used Macs.  In case you aren’t aware, I’m not much of an Apple fan in general.  But, I will not be converted!  On the plus side, it seemed like their were more Canon shooters in my group than Nikon shooters so I won’t be a total outcast.

We finished the day with a discussion on where to shoot around Montana.  I heard about some really great day trips around the area, so if you are ever planning making a trip out here someday, I can give you some tips.  They covered the Missoula area as well as Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks.  I can’t wait to visit some of the spots.

On to SI Day 2!

I arrived in Missoula, safe and sound, on Thursday night after two very long days of driving.  I left Chippewa Falls at around 11:30am CDT on Wednesday morning and arrived in Rapid City, SD at 9:30pm MDT for a total of 11 1/2 hours (with the time zone change) behind the wheel.  After spending the night, I left Rapid City Thursday morning at 7:30am and arrived in Missoula at 7pm, completing my second 11 1/2 hour day behind the wheel.  I believe that’s about my limit.  I was pretty exhausted.

The drive from Wisconsin to Western South Dakota is one of the most boring drives ever.  There really is nothing to see until you reach the Badlands (and it was dark by the time I got there).  I’ve done this drive several times when visiting my brother and his family in Rapid City, which makes it all the more boring.  What little there is to see, I’ve already seen before.

The drive from Rapid City to Missoula, on the other hand, is incredible.  It starts in the Black Hills, briefly degenerates to open grasslands, but then jumps into one mountain range after another.  It just keeps getting better.  Even though I was tired from the previous day, I still really enjoyed it.  I tried to take pictures while I drove (not that safe, I know, but there was very little traffic and I shot everything one-handed without looking through the viewfinder) and I ended up with a few really nice ones.  This is my favorite:

You can view the rest in my Flickr stream starting here.