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Greetings,
A lot to unpack this month. Sort of making up for the skimpy newsletters lately. So you MUST READ IT ALL!
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A change to the White Sands workshop
As smaller groups seem to be more desirable these days, Cliff Zenor and I have decided to change the maximum number of participants in our White Sands workshop to six. We’ve also set the minimum to three (there are now currently three people signed up!).
To do this successfully (and to make a little profit) we’ve raised the price from $1235 to $2060. There is a discount if paying by check.
What this means is that participants are guaranteed to be in a small, flexible group and that they will have the benefit of two experienced instructors to guide them and help them get the best images they can.
It also means less of a likelihood that we’ll be getting in each other’s shots. And it means you can take some time finding great compositions without having to feel that you’re competing for them.
Interested? Take a look at our White Sands page.
Image above by Cliff Zenor
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Death Valley
Cliff Zenor and I are once again heading to Death Valley for a photo workshop. This one is Feb. 14-18, 2022 and will be based inside of the park at Stovepipe Wells.
This workshop, like White Sands, is limited to just six participants and also has a minimum of three.
The price for this trip is $2260 ($2195 if paying by check), but if you sign up before June 30 there’s a $100 discount. Just write back to me and I’ll send you a link and password to sign up at the discounted price.
Remember, this is limited to six people. The first who write will get the spots. If you want to register two people, be sure to tell me in your email.
For more on this trip, visit our Death Valley page.
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Olympic National Park and Bandon workshops report
In May I had two workshops! The first since nearly a year ago. Both of them were fun and everybody was happy to be getting out and photographing again. I think it took a little bit of time for all of us to get the rust out, but, like riding a bike, it all came back.
(an aside, perhaps riding a bike isn’t the best analogy. For instance, my wife and I took our bikes out a few weeks ago after not having ridden for a long time. I was a little wobbly, Tracy, on the other hand……what’s that dear? You want me to shut up?? Oh, Ok.)
Where was I?
Oh, getting the rust out. The point is, it didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things. Mostly. (see tripod leg story below)
 In Olympic, I continued my possibly Quixotic quest for my fantasy sunrise at Lake Crescent and I dragged my participants along for that ride. Then we went up to the Sol Duc and got some nice shots of the falls and then spent some high quality time on what is possibly my favorite stream on the whole planet.
We also had some luck with other waterfalls and the coast, including the mile plus hike to the sea stack on Rialto Beach. We arrived in time to see the sun come out and light things up for what seemed like mere seconds but was probably mere minutes. Still, we got some pretty nice shots out of it.
 The Bandon workshop went well too. We practiced long exposures on the beach during the mostly overcast mornings and afternoons. These made for some interesting and moody pictures. And when the light did hit, it got even more interesting.
We had a great sunset at Shore Acres State Park. I got a few landscapes but also managed to capture just the great sunset sky.
The next morning, we were photographing the Coquille River Lighthouse from across the river. It was a dull morning, so I decided to liven it up with the sunset from the night before!
Completely fake but it was fun. And it looks pretty cool too!
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Sand in my legs!!
No, that’s not how I feel now that I’m closing in on 61 years of age. It’s what happened to my tripod on Bandon Beach.
You see, while I was out shooting before my workshop started, I had this bright idea of hand-holding some pictures of surf. With my 16-35mm lens and Vibration Reduction, I figured I could handhold shots as slow as ¼ to 1/8 second. That was the bright idea. But I also had my tripod with me and instead of setting it down out of reach of the surf. I just set it down next to me. With its legs contracted. All the leg-lock rings were really close to the sand. And as the surf came in, instead of lifting my tripod out of the water. I just held my tripod down so it wouldn’t get knocked over.
A bit later I extended the legs. Yep, scratchy, scratchy, stuck legs that were hard to pull out or push in. I had made the cardinal mistake of seascape photography.
What one should do when using a tripod in the surf is to extend the bottom section so that the locking rings/levers are high enough so that the water isn’t injecting sand into the mechanisms. Sigh.
Not the end of the world. The next morning I went to the store and got a toothbrush, a pack of cloths and some anti-seize lubricant grease.
In my hotel room I took the legs apart a section at a time and rinsed brushed and wiped the legs, lock rings and threads. Then I reassembled, adding a dab (just a dab) of grease to the leg threads. As the leg lock rings screw on, they spread the grease to the rest of the threads.
As a result, my tripod is now working more smoothly than it has for years. I should have done this a long time ago. And it’s so easy to do that I no longer have any excuse not to clean the legs, etc. regularly.
Now, I don’t know if this the “proper” grease for the legs; the grease Gitzo makes is $32 for two small tubes. That seems a little ridiculous. What I did works and my tripod and I are once again happy together.
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New photo pack!
 I just got a new pack! The MindShift Elite 45L. It can carry a lot of gear when needed. And when also needed it can carry personal gear like extra water and food, layers, my Neos overshoes. Heck, I could strap my chest waders to this pack, which is nice since in the past I’ve had to just carry them.
The Ellite 45L is about the same size as my LowePro Pro Trekker that I retired years ago mainly due to frustrating zippers.
The pack I’ve been using the most these last few years has been a ThinkTank ShapeShifter. The ShapeShifter is the best pack I’ve ever had for traveling on plane. I can squish that thing into just about any overhead bin. But it has this ability at the expense of a fixed internal gear carrying system that consists of pockets. Lenses cannot be attached to bodies, instead everything fits in pockets. Camera bodies, instead of sitting upright as in most packs, lay flat. This makes it easy for the bag to be much thinner than standard bags, but it can be a pain to work out of.
So I’m finally going back to a pack that will not only be easier to work out of, but will easily carry water, snacks, layers, first aid kit. Heck, I think I can even configure it for a two-night backpack if I need to. I may just try testing that out this summer or fall and break out my one-person tent and highly squishable goose down sleeping bag.
Once I’ve had a chance to work out of the pack, I’ll probably post a review on my blog.
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One final thing
John Barclay and I are still not sure if we'll be able to run our aurora tours in Yellowknife this year. It all depends on the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories. If they open up to travel without restrictions, and they give notice of that soon enough (like by the middle of July or the 1st of August), we'll be going.
If you're interested in (hopefully) going with us, we now have space in both trips. You can get more details on our Aurora Tours page.
Ok, that's it for now. Wish me luck with the new backpack!!
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