New eBook and Photo Contest over at Visual Wilderness

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

Hey y’all, time to wander over to Visual Wilderness for two new offerings!  The first is Samantha’s new eBook, Foundations which is part of her new Mastering Composition and Design Series of eBooks. That means there are more eBooks on this topic coming in the future. This first book lays the foundations for those who have difficulty ‘seeing’ potential images while in the field. Personally, I think any visual artist needs to master the foundational skills in visualization; Samantha introduces you to the essential skills that underpin creative photography and all for just $4.95. Click on the photo below to learn more.

The Visual Wilderness team has just announced our next photo contest with the theme; American Landscape. So if you have a killer landscape image taken in the United States of America then head over to Visual Wilderness to enter. The prize? This month Jay and Varina Patel are giving away a four-part webinar: Nature Photography and iHDR Workflow worth $196 US greenbacks. These webinars have gotten rave reviews by all who take them. And for those of you who have no US landscape photos, no worries, in the following months we will be covering other geographical locales like Bahrain, Gabon, Laos, Mozambique and Uruguay.  😉

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Inspirations – Burnt Trees and Shadows on Snow by William Neill

© William Neill

Camera: Wista 45 View Camera
Lens: Rodenstock Sironar-N 210mm f/5.6

“The big Yellowstone fire of 1989 both killed these lodge pole pines and made sculptures of them. The winter snows provided a backdrop for the interplay of trees and shadows. As I worked in thigh-deep snow, I moved from side to side to find a spacing that created tension between the lines of the trees and shadows.” ~excerpt from “Landscapes of the Spirit” by william neill

Inspirations – Marion Faria

©Marion Faria

I took this on a freezing cold afternoon at dusk at Ponagansett Dam. The sun was behind the spillway of the dam but shrouded in clouds so it gave me a nice even light. I used my Canon 70-200mm f4L with 4 stop ND as I sat in 2 feet of snow because I wanted to shoot from a low angle. I watched the ice covered rocks with water spilling onto them… and I was looking for the right feel of rock and water. It’s strange, but when I shoot, it seems I’m always waiting for the right ‘feeling’ about a composition coming together. And then something just clicks  while I am composing… something inside me says: yes, “this is what you want”.

I liked the way this image came together that day; it just felt right…the only thing I had to do as far as editing was to give it a slight blue tone. marion faria

Secrets about Varina Patel

Samantha has done some deep investigative reporting and has come up with some dirt on Varina Patel (famed photographer, mother to Jay Patel… 😉 and six children).

Check out this blog post to learn more.

Speaking of Varina and Jay Patel check out their wonderful FREE new eBook on Photo workshops… it shows just how much fun you can have if you spend some time with Varina and Jay.

Inspirations – Metropolis by Tim Engle

© Tim Engle

 

Nikon D200, AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D, ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/60 second

The painter, Michael Rosner of Eye Level Studios is truly the mastermind behind this series of images as he came up with the designs and color schemes. The technical part for me was the lighting. We tested many different lighting sources until we came across, by chance, using shop lights. If you look closely at some of the images you can see the catch light in their eyes. Using these allowed me to have a repeatable lighting setup that could be duplicated so that the images became more about the painting than about the photography. I shot with the Nikon D200 and on these images a 50mm fixed. For most of these images I used Apple’s Aperture and Adobe Photoshop CS3. Most people think there’s some sort of digital manipulation involved but there isn’t. It’s all paint. Each session takes anywhere from 10 to 13 hours to complete and consists of multiple layers of paint. Click here to view a behind-the-scenes video to view the process. ~Tim Engle

Photo Inspirations – Light From Above

©Ian Plant

Canon 5D Mark II, 100-400mm lens, ISO 100, f/13, 1/500 second

During a very cold, clear night in the Grand Tetons, a layer of inversion fog formed over the flats to the east of the mountains. Everywhere the fog drifted, the landscape was touched with frost, turning trees into living ice sculptures. I photographed sunrise and kept shooting for another hour, at which point the sun rose high enough to burn away the fog. I was about ready to end my morning session when I came upon a low, steep hill that still had mist clinging to its western slope. The sun suddenly cleared the top of the hill, sending scattered beams of light through the breaking fog. I quickly set up my camera and tripod, just in time to snap a few frames before the sunbeams disappeared. To me, this is what nature photography is all about: those fleeting moments when an otherwise mundane scene is transformed into something sublime. ~ ian plant

Travel Photo Contest – Matthew Garsteck

Matthew Garsteck

©Matthew Garsteck

This image is taken in Hollywood California. Why I thought this was a great image for the contest is because I wanted to step outside of the cliche/typical theme for travel photography. Sure I could have taken pictures of the Hollywood sign but I really wanted to capture the essence of what its like to enter a new city and you aren’t used to seeing such tall buildings. In fact it can be overwhelming in many ways, which is why I chose the composition and I did the edit the way I did (HDR).

Travel Photo Contest – Bill Speaks

Bill Speaks

©Bill Speaks

Located on the Navajo Reservation east of Tuba City, AZ., Coal Mine Canyon is like a mini-Bryce – without the crowds. Over the course of several days of hiking and visiting rock art and archeology sites in the area, I repeatedly returned to the canyon hoping to get a sunrise or sunset shot. Returning from Tuba City to the Hopi Lands of the Third Mesa one evening, my wife and I stopped to have a picnic and enjoy the quiet and beauty of the canyon. As sunset neared, a storm formed near the mouth of the canyon. Seeing the opportunity to use my Lightning Trigger, I quickly setup the composition anticipating that lightning would occur at the front of the storm. One of several strikes captured, the photo captures the wildness, beauty and mystical nature of the American Southwest. Even more importantly, I was able to share the experience with the love of my life. Tech Stuff (sorta): 1/4th sec, f11, Canon 20mm, Lightning Trigger, Luck and some foolishness

Travel Photo Contest – Brad Mangas

Brad Mangas

©Brad Mangas

Gateway Arch, St. Louis Missouri.

The Gateway Arch, also known as the Gateway to the West, is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, it has become the city’s iconic image.

Canon Xti,18-55mm, f/8, 30.0

Travel Photo Contest – Hayley Pankhurst

Hayley Pankhurst

©Hayley Pankhurst

Friends and I recently did a 6 day roadtrip from Toronto to Martha’s Vineyard. With such short time, the priority was to make the most of the beaming sun, golden sands and warm blue seas. On the mainland, waiting for the boat to come in to take us across to the island, we enjoyed a cold beer and browsed the local newspaper, front page…”Great White shark spotted off Cape coast”. Quite a distance from where we will be, so all’s good. Little did we know until we spoke to locals once we arrived, it was the 24th Annual Monster Shark tournament the following day. This photo was taken after a day of cycling the islands coast, the water was so refreshing on our toes but we weren’t as brave as some!