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| Green River Bridge, Guilford Vermont : Foliage Workshop |
This
is the time of year for the traditional “best of” list. I have always
avoided trying to assemble a slide show of my bests of the year. First it
would difficult and more than a little self-indulgent to attempt to
select my ten, twenty, or one hundred best images. More importantly
the process of discarding hundreds of my pixelated babies would be agony.
They are all my babies, but as I think of this, it might be fun to pick
my ten worst published pictures of the year. A great idea for a future
blog, but I’ll save that for sometime during stick season.
As
I think back over 2016, it is the special opportunities and experiences that
are worth celebrating. Happily, the experiences that have inspired and
changed my photography this year, as every year, have all triggered
articles in my “Getting It Right in the Digital Camera” blog. Having that
material languishing in my archives makes it easier to assemble a couple of
“best of” articles. Just now, I need all the help I can get to leave time
for another major project, my up-coming Lightroom course.Figuring Out Lightroom, Again!
I’m
currently working on reviving my Introduction to Adobe Lightroom course, and
will be presenting it to a fresh group of victims starting this coming Tuesday
(1/10). I am a dedicated Lightroom user, but my familiarity with the
program centers around my day-to-day work. Preparing for a comprehensive
course means that I must go back and explore all the features which are not
part of my routine work-flow. It takes time to relearn all those
short-cuts and special preference settings, and I must remind myself of the
differences between PC and MAC key strokes. The result of all this work
is that I must try to simplify my blogs for the next couple of weeks.
This
week I will mention my 2017 photographic experiences that centered around
education, both my teaching of others and the vast amount that I have learned
from those efforts. I will say it again, in my classes, I always learn much
more than I teach. All these teachable moments are worth a brief mention,
but there are much deeper discussions in the referenced blog articles.
Education
The
Getting it Right in the Digital Camera Blog
One of my most surprising accomplishments of 2016 is that I have continued to publish my weekly blog without interruption. After almost 350 articles it has become increasingly difficult to come up with fresh topics. I must admit that it has become an obsession, but despite all the work, I recognize that the process of researching, writing and illustrating a weekly article has been THE major path to the improvement of my understanding of the art and craft of digital photography.
New England Photography Guild Blog
The
New England Photography Guild is a
great organization of some of the most talented photographers in the region.
I am honored to be a Member and proud to offer my occasional
contributions to the NEPG Blog.
Photography Courses
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| Abigail and Grayson |
Over the last couple of years, I have finally fulfilled a long-held goal of dedicating time to offering formal courses on photography. I have frequently presented short talks to camera clubs and other organization throughout the region, but assembling the material for more comprehensive courses always presented a daunting challenge. How to start? I found that the most important step was simply to set a date. I scheduled it far enough out so that it presented no immediate cause for panic, but with a deadline established I had no choice but to produce.
Fortunately
I had an extensive collection of material already organized. My 350+ blog
articles included discussions and illustration of most of the topics that
I
would cover in my courses, and many of the images were ready to move over
into PowerPoint. I had to learn how to keep the slide captions simple and
dynamic. I was conscious of the importance of avoiding slides that were filled with
boring text. The words should only be prompts for discussion, augmenting the images. Any slide that stayed on the screen for more than a few
seconds was usually a failure, as I felt my audience drift away. I have
now run my Introduction to Digital Photography Course three times (number four
coming in April), and I continue to reorganize and refine the material each time.
Hopefully it is at least keeping me fresh and interested.
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| Washington NH, Perspective Control |
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| Mt Wshington Hotel Pano |
One
of the best parts of my introductory course is the opportunity to join the
class on a couple of shoots. It is always a challenge to find a time and
location that works for most of the class, but it is great fun to wander among
the students as they try to apply what they have learned to the real world.
Back in class, I always spend time “gently” critiquing the students work.
Always, there are “teachable” images and many wonderful examples of fresh
perspectives. I frequently find myself saying, “Why didn’t I see that!”.
Introduction to Adobe Lightroom
Adobe
Lightroom is a remarkably powerful program which has become my go-to
application, not only for image management, but also for the majority of my
initial global image editing. I still bring my images into Photoshop for
final touch-ups, but for most photography enthusiasts, Lightroom may be all that
they need.
It
made sense that my first attempt at teaching digital edit should be directed at
Lightroom. Lightroom is also much more intuitive to use and far less
intimidating than the massively powerful Photoshop.
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| First Lightroom Class |
Last
spring I gave my first Lightroom course. I decided to keep it simple and
informal, holding the classes around my dining room table. I planned to
limit the number to 8 but somehow ended up with 10. The class went well
with the only surprise being that I needed to add a fifth class to over all the
aspects of this widely capable program. Fortunately, and perhaps because
of the quality of the snacks, no one seemed to mind the extra session.
My
second Lightroom course starts next week and once again I was incapable of
keeping the group to under ten.
Fall
Foliage Work-Shop
I
have always liked the idea of running photography workshops and the fall
foliage season seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a try. After an
evening introductory session where I discussed digital photography in general
and foliage photography in particular, we gathered for shoots on the Saturday
and Sunday after Columbus Day. The weather was great and the color
spectacular. 
The route had to be flexible depending on the conditions,
but my goal was to provide a range of locations and conditions that would
provide opportunities to work through a range of photographic challenges.
Saturday night, we reviewed the results of shooting in southern Vermont
over dinner around my dining room table. On Sunday morning, we explored
Route 124 along the west side of Mount Monadnock. I think everyone
enjoyed the weekend. I had a great time and will back next year, but I’m
also considering other opportunities for workshops.
A New Camera
I
must include in a discussion of my education for this year the work I spent
learning my new Camera. I have stuck with my faithful Canon 5D Mark II
for many years and even resisted to temptation to take the expensive leap to
the Mark II. It is a great camera, but it just didn’t do enough for me to
make the jump. The new Mark IV was a long time coming and by the time it
was 
announced I had to up-grade. I was considering dumping Canon entirely
and opting for a mirror less system, but Mark IV had most of what I was looking
for. I can deal with the weight and it is nice to protect my investment
in glass without resorting to adapters. I’m still learning how to get the
most from all the new features, but in the meantime, I’m loving the image
quality. Perhaps it partially because I am jumping from the Mark II, but
the resolution and the dynamic range is remarkable. And besides, the
automatic GPS recording is saving from all the complex gyrations with which I
used to struggle to record locations.
announced I had to up-grade. I was considering dumping Canon entirely
and opting for a mirror less system, but Mark IV had most of what I was looking
for. I can deal with the weight and it is nice to protect my investment
in glass without resorting to adapters. I’m still learning how to get the
most from all the new features, but in the meantime, I’m loving the image
quality. Perhaps it partially because I am jumping from the Mark II, but
the resolution and the dynamic range is remarkable. And besides, the
automatic GPS recording is saving from all the complex gyrations with which I
used to struggle to record locations.There is always more to learn about the art and craft of digital photography and I look forward to the discoveries of 2017. Next week I'll list some of my favorite explorations of 2016 the Costa Rican rain forest to the wilds of my own back yard.
Jeff Newcomer
partridgebrookreflections.com
603-363-8338
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