We are very happy to announce our first oopoomoo how-to photography eBook – Sit, Stay and Smile – Easy! Outdoor Dog Photography (there will be lots more new titles coming in the future!).

We have been photographing dogs for years for  stock photography,  for magazine assignments, and for our local humane society. And now we bring all our tips and tricks on dog photography into one detailed eBook. The most challenging aspect of dog photography is understanding how to make photography a fun game for your pooch — we teach you how!.

We give you the guidelines you need to get your subjects ‘paws’itively performing for the camera! In addition, you’ll learn the essential techniques behind the lens to pull off great photos no matter what breed of dog you are photographing or what outdoor lighting situation you find yourself in. Anyone who has struggled to make exciting photos of dogs will benefit from this eBook.

To learn more simply click on the photo above –  only $10 CAN!

Big shout out to our amazing eBook designer and all around amazing collaborator on all things webby – Stephen Desroches! Stephen helped us design this website and did a spanking job on this new eBook. Plus he is a great guy and a fantastic photographer. – check out his blog as well.

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This Week’s Photo Contest Winner and More

Go over to the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies blog to see this week’s winner of the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Photo Contest. Be sure to enter before the the end of September to get that fabulous prize from Aurum Lodge!

Samantha and I are consolidating a number of our endevours into one landing place on the web. Watch for that coming soon! In the meantime we are doing some housecleaning and that means that some of our products and services will no longer be offered or will change significantly in the future. One of these products are our online courses over at Nature Photographers. Samantha is doing one more session of her acclaimed Learning to Speak the Language of Visual Expression six-week on-line course. I just reread her PDF lessons and I really think she has one of the best courses I have seen on creative and personal expression. If you are struggling with getting your voice to translate into photos, then this might just be the course for you.

And if you haven’t seen any of our instructional eBooks over at Visual Wilderness be sure to check them out. We are closing the shop at the end of August and this is your last chance to grab any of the titles that might be of interest. There are some free eBooks you can get like Good Photo in Bad Light, The l’il eBook of Trees, Trophy Hunting vs Immersion and Winter Musings. Grab ’em before they are gone!

And of course you can get any of our popular titles like Essential Filters for Digital Nature Photography, Aperture: 3 Simple Rules, or The Basics of Light Painting. Grab them at 15% discount by using the code THANKS on checkout.

©Darwin Wiggett

Visual Wilderness Website is Closing

One year ago Jay and Varina Patel and Samantha and I started a website called Visual Wilderness where we hosted instructional eBooks for nature photographers. Our eBooks have been well received and we have had many comments about how much people have learned from these products. But… to every thing there is a time and a season. This week we are announcing that Visual Wilderness will close by the end of August. Here is what we wrote over on the Visual Wilderness website:

What a year it has been here at Visual Wilderness!

When we look back, we are humbled by the support of all the photographers who have visited this site and found useful instruction in our eBooks.  Visual Wilderness was begun because we saw a need for accessible, high-quality instructional eBooks on how to photograph natural subjects.  Based on your comments and support, this belief was affirmed.  We truly appreciate your faith in us!

Looking back, we have also learned valuable lessons.  The photography market has changed a lot over the last two years with many new excellent photography products and services proliferating across the internet.   Being a nature photographer and photo instructor requires the wearing of many hats:  entrepreneur, graphic designer, book-keeper and marketer are just some of the skills of a successful modern-day photographer.  All of these roles take time.  Sometimes in a business you need to take an objective look at future directions.  Each one of the contributing photographers on this site has his or her own individual business offering services from stock, assignments, and prints to instructional products like seminars, webinars, workshops, tours, and eBooks. For each of us, making our individual businesses viable is our first priority, and to do so requires much investment into marketing and promotion. In the end there is little energy left for a ‘community’ project like Visual Wilderness.

So it saddens us to announce that we will be closing the Visual Wilderness website  and the Visual Wilderness store by the end of August 2011 to concentrate on our individual projects. We’ll post links here over the next few weeks about where you can find each of us and what we are doing in this new world of photography.

Before we close our store for good, we are having a big sale on all of our eBooks. All eBooks on the Visual Wilderness site are discounted by 15% until August 31 at 11:59 PM EST.  Just use the code THANKS on checkout to use the discount. Thank you for your support and happy shooting!

Jay, Varina, Samantha & Darwin

Be sure to take advantage of the 15% discount to get great instructional eBooks

First two winners of the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Contest

Note: To see all future reviews please note this blog is no longer active, please visit me over at oopoomoo.com

Check out the first two winning entries for the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Photo Contest

Week one is Jeff Lewis and his Bow Lake Reflection Panorama.

Week two is Michael Jame’s Vermilion Lake Infrared.

To enter the contest just click on the banner ad to the right of this post and you’ll be set to win a two-day stay at the acclaimed Aurum Lodge in the Canadian Rockies.

If you are keen about learning how to make our own eBooks and marketing them on the web check out this interview with Stephen Desroches and me over at SMIBS TV.

For a recent review of the Rockies eBook see Younes Bounhar’s blog post.

Canadian Rockies Photo Contest

How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Photo Contest

Contest runs from July 15 – September 30, 2011

I am happy to announce a new photo contest to celebrate the glory of the Canadian Rockies and promote my new website How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies. Enter your best images of the Canadian Rockies. Any subject matter is acceptable (sports, wildlife, landscapes, macro, travel, or people) as long as the photo was taken within the Canadian Rockies (see this map for geographical boundaries of the Canadian Rockies). The contest is easy to enter and the prizes are great!

Prizes: The winning image will net the photographer a two night stay at eco-award winning Aurum Lodge, located 45 kilometres west of Nordegg, Alberta, Canada in the heart of the Bighorn Wildlands and situated overlooking Abraham Lake. The prize includes accommodations for one or two persons in a superior corner room and includes one evening meal, two breakfasts and taxes (value $400 CAD).

The winner also receives a 20-image personalized portfolio critique by me (Darwin Wiggett) presented as an interactive PDF (value $200 CAD).

To Enter: Simply go to How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Flickr group, join the group and enter your favourite image taken in the Canadian Rockies. You may enter up to 10 images per week. If you are already part of the group, your images are automatically considered for the contest. Every Thursday I will pick my favourite entry from the Flickr group and post it on the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies blog. The final winning image will be chosen from the weekly picks and awarded the prize on Thursday Oct. 6, 2011. Enter weekly, enter often – final deadline is September 30^th at 11:59 MST.

Terms and Conditions: Only images of the Canadian Rockies are eligible (open to any photographer, anywhere in the world). All images must be the original work of the photographer. By posting on the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Flickr Group the photographer grants publication of images on the How To Photograph the Canadian Rockies blog. The photographer retains copyright and the only use granted by entering is posting of a weekly winner and the final winning image on the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies blog. If you are already a member of the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Flickr group and do not wish your images to be eligible for the contest, you must withdraw your images from the Flickr group for the duration of the contest.

The prize of two nights’ accommodation to Aurum Lodge is available only during the off-season, from October 2011 to April, 2012, excluding public holidays.  Transportation to and from the Aurum Lodge is the responsibility of the winner.

Good luck!

©Darwin Wiggett - The deck at Aurum Lodge

The Weekly Photo – June 6 – Tilt Shift Magic

©Darwin Wiggett

The photo above was taken on the Spring Photo Tour in the Canadian Rockies. I shot this image at sunset at the Kootenay Plains Reflecting Pools (my unofficial name for the place – click on the photo to see it larger). I used a Canon 24mm Tilt-Shift lens for three distinct advantages:

 

First, I used the shift feature to correct the perspective in the scene. With a normal 24mm lens the camera would be pointed down to take in the foreground deer skeleton and the trees in the background would distort and look like they are falling into the frame – yech! With the shift feature on the 24 TS-E lens, I simply leveled the camera back so that it was parallel to the trees and then shifted the lens down to take in the deer skeleton. The result are straight trees in the background with no distortion.

Second,  I  also used the shift feature to give me a wider field of view than a 24mm lens can give. In a single frame I could just get the skeleton and the tops of the mountain in the scene, nothing more. I wanted more sky than the 24mm lens could take in, so I shifted the lens up and took a second photo which was easily merged into a wider rectangle using Photo Merge in Photoshop CS5.

Finally, I used the tilt feature for enhanced depth-of-field. With tilt I got everything sharply focused from near to far by tilting into the plane of focus (see scheimpflug rule). Tilt can give you depth-of-filed from inches from the lens to infinity – very cool!

If you don’t know the advantages and creative power of Tilt Shift lenses for landscape photography and if you want to try out and learn how to use Tilt Shift lenses (Canon or Nikon) then be sure to come out to a seminar and field workshop by Samantha and I entitled: The Tilt-Shift Lens Advantage for Outdoor and Nature Photographers where we will demystify these powerful tools and show how they can be used in an easy to understand way. This hands on session is limited to 15 spots and we’ll have lenses on hand or bring your own lenses. The session is held in Calgary, June 11 1-4PM – see this link or email seminars@thecamerastore.com or call 403-234-9935 for more information.

Speaking of Samantha, she has just published an article for those unsure of using Social Media in photography – To Tweet or not to Tweet – check it out to see if you are a tweeter or not. So far I haven’t taken the plunge into the the twittery world….

And those of you who are fans of eBooks and like to promote the ones you find useful to friends and colleagues we are happy to announce that both Visual Wilderness (VW) and How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies (HTPTCR) websites now offer affiliate programs so that you get a percentage of any referrals you make. Help us spread the word and get paid and buy new camera goodies!

VW Affliate Program

HTPTCR Affliate Program

Finally, Here is one more sample of how to use the shift feature on Tilt Shift lenses to create megapixel wide scenes:

I took these three photos below with the lens shifted up, in the center position and then shifted down. In Photoshop all three images overlapped perfectly and Photo Merge in Photoshop CS5 aligned them perfectly into the final image (the fourth one below – from the Kootenay Plains Reflecting Pool – click to see the photo larger).

Lens shifted up

Center image - no shift

Lens shifted down

Final Image

The Weekly Photo and Two New eBook Releases

Below is an image taken during the spring of 2008 at the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park that I finally got around to processing.  Yikes, gotta get caught up!

The cool thing is that the longer I wait to process images the more likely I am to delete most of the photos from the shoot. After several years, my objectivity about the images is much higher and I realize that most of the photos I make actually suck! Only those images that are a tad different or say something that I haven’t said before are likely to survive the ‘aged’ editing process.

The image below was one of the few survivors. I took this image with my Canon EOS-1ds Mark III and a Canon 24mm TS-E lens (the original version). I liked the grungy look and enhanced that look by converting the image to a textured black-n-white (and then toned blue) with Silver Efex Pro 2. Any one interested in buying this software (which I am a huge fan of) can get 15% off if you use the code darwin on checkout.

©Darwin Wiggett

Speaking of the parks and the mountains and melting glaciers… I am happy to announce two new eBook releases. I have just released my latest eBook over at How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies. This latest book is a big compendium of all the great places to go in Banff National Park – check it out! You’ll need this eBook if you plan a visit to Banff National Park because it directs you to all the best spots in the the right light and in the correct season (over 50 locations are discussed).

And if that isn’t exciting news, then this is; my good friend and Canada’s best wildlife photographer, John Marriott has  written an eBook for all of us Canadian Rockies fans. Check out The Icefields Parkway: Wildlife Edition

Here is more good news. I am offering a 20% discount on these $10 eBooks if you buy 2 or more eBooks by June 7 (midnight MST). Just use the code LLTL on checkout. This is the last time you’ll get this big of a discount. Going forward the standard discount will be 10% but only if you buy 5 or more eBooks.

And finally, if you want to share images you have taken in the Canadian Rockies, be sure to post them to the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies Flickr group. Why bother? Well, I will be there to comment on your photos and also I will pick out a great photo once a week to feature on the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies website!

Finally thanks to Stephen Desroches for his amazing hard work designing these eBooks and building the website and of course thanks to Samantha for her great editing job and moron (oops… I mean moral) support. Happy shooting!

Why I’ll Never Be an Actor

Note: To see all future reviews please note this blog is no longer active, please visit us over at oopoomoo.com

Some of you may have seen the goofy video that Samantha and I made called “Six Silly Uses of the UV Filter“.  That video is below if you haven’t  suffered through it yet. You wouldn’t believe hard hard it was for me to make that video (or if you know me, you might not be surprised at all). It seems I just couldn’t and still can’t memorize lines. So much for my acting career…. Oh well, check out the blooper video below and watch me stumble over and over and over again. I may not be able to act but at least I am having fun – I think. Be aware there is a bit of cursing involved (I seem to remember how to say those words perfectly well!). And of course Samantha was flawless (well almost).

The Weekly Photo and Jasper eBook Release – May 16, 2011

The photo below is from one of the iconic photography locations in Jasper National Park. This image was taken from Patricia Lake looking towards Pyramid Mountain at sunrise. I used a Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens and shifted the lens to the left and then to the right to make two photos which I then merged into one panoramic image using photo merge in Photoshop. I also used a Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer to darken the sky and saturate colours and a Singh-Ray 2-stop hard-edge grad to hold back exposure in the peaks and the sky. Click on the photo for a larger image.

©Darwin Wiggett

I am also happy to announce that my latest eBook, Jasper National Park – All Four Seasons from the How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies website is now ready for download. This eBook is an updated and expanded version of the Jasper National Park chapter in my printed book How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies. The new eBook is 181 pages long with detailed descriptions of 60 locations and illustrated with 114 images. If you want to get to the best locations in the right light in any seasons in Jasper, then this eBook is the perfect solution! Thanks to Stephen Desroches for his fine work designing the eBook and to Samantha Chrysanthou for her careful editing.

And stay tuned for another release coming up very soon: The Icefields Parkway – Wildlife Edition by John Marriott

New eBook – Advanced Filters for Digital Nature Photography

Note: To see all future ebook releases, please visit us over at oopoomoo.com

Samantha and I have just released our latest eBook on Advanced Filters for Digital Nature Photography.

This eBook continues where our last eBook, Essential Filters for Digital Nature Photography, left off and introduces photographers to advanced filter techniques that lead to creative imagery often impossible to replicate in software.

Learn how to use in-camera filters to create unique and desirable effects. Darwin and Samantha cover the Gold-N-Blue and Blue/Yellow polarizing filters, the 1.5 stop hard-edge grad filter for reflection photos, the Daryl Benson reverse ND grad filter, and specialty ND filters like Lee’s Big Stopper and Singh-Rays trio of Vari-ND filters.

Learn how to correct colour casts caused by filtration in post-production, see why a 1.5 stop ND grad is the solution for perfect reflection photos, discover why the Daryl Benson reverse ND grad is an essential filter for prairie and desert photography, and be creative by using ND and Vari-ND filters to ‘paint with time’. Finally, Darwin and Samantha show you the creative power of combining two or more of these filters for expressive and creative photography. The eBook costs $10, is 49 pages long and is available here.