For the last three years I have attend a photography workshop in Cape May, NJ. The workshop is called MARS (The Mid-Atlantic Regional School of Professional Photography). MARS is a nonprofit organization made up of professional photographers, whose primary goal is to provide students with a rewarding experience in education. The workshop takes place the first week of May at the Grand Hotel, which is right on the beach in Cape May.
So what is so special about this school? MARS offers a one week all inclusive package that include your hotel room, most of your meals and a full week worth of training.
MARS has anywhere from 5 to 7 instructors each year that teach an assortment of topics related to photography. Students sign up for one of the instructors and then spend the week with that instructor. These classes are not sessions where you sit and look at power point slides all day long. These classes are “see and do” session! Most of the time the instructor covers a topic and then you break out into groups and try out what you were just shown. Since classes are small with anywhere from 10 to 15 students in the class, your instructor is able to work with you during the session. MARS also has models on hand so you have a chance to work with models to try out your skills.
But that is not all the training you get. They offer additional sessions thought out the week, so you get even more exposure to many different aspects of photography. Many of the speakers are on the cutting edge of photography and talk about things you may have never though of. I have learned more in one week at these sessions then all of the little workshops I have attended combined.
My instructor last year was Dennis Craft. Dennis is a well know portrait photographers who specializes in portraits of children. He also happens to be the past president of the Professional Photography Association, and a great guy, I might add. Dennis shared with us many great tips on photographing people in natural light. As part of the class we had three field trips where we went out into the Cape May area and tried out the techniques he showed us. Dennis then critiqued the work of each. The learning experience was incredible.
The instructors are always icons in the world of Professional Photography. Some of the past instructors were Eddie Tapp, Hanson Fong, Jane Connor, Suette Allen, Fuzzy Duenel, and Nancy Emmerich just to name a few.
You may be thinking that MARS is for “Professional Photographers” and someone from a “Camera Club” does not belong there. NOT True!!! The school is open to anyone who would like to advance their knowledge and skill in photography.
The 2011 program is the 15th year and the program looks awesome. Check out the list of instructors for 2011:
* Mark Campbell – Photoshop –
“Turbo Charge Your Workflow. The Need For Speed” (beginner to intermediate)
* Paul Gero – Wedding/Portrait –
“IN THE MOMENT – Incredible Wedding and Portrait Images Using Simple Techniques and Tools” (all levels)
* Bruce and Josh Hudson – Portraiture –
“A Week With Hudson And Hudson” (all levels)
* Dave Newman – Portraiture –
“… With Dave Newman” (all levels)
* Garrett Nudd – Wedding –
“The Complete Wedding Photographer” (all levels)
* Art Rainville – Inspirational –
“An Artistic Journey Through Creative Expressionism” (intermediate to advanced)
* Tony Sweet – Environmental Art -
“Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography” (all levels)
If you are interested in advancing your photography and having a great time doing it, you should consider attending May 1 through May 6, 2011 classes.
If you do sign up please mention my name. (Nath Kaplan)
You can find out more about the MARS program at their web site:
http://www.marsschool.com/courses.htm
I will be teaching a flower photography workshop for the Essex County Parks Department at the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens. The workshop is a one hour lecture, followed by a few hours in the gardens photographing the flowers. I will work with each of the students to help them photography the iris. The session cost $35. For more info call:
(973) 239-7072 or e-mail khartwyk@parks.essexcountynj.org.
http://essexnjblooms.org/NaturePhotographyWorkshop.aspx
| Date: |
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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| Time: |
9:00am – 1:00pm
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| Location: |
Presby Memorial Iris Gardens, Upper Montclair, NJ
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These days just about everyone has a digital camera and they save their photos on their computer. Today’s computers are yesterday’s photo albums. All of your photographic memories are on your computer.
My question to you: when was the last time you backed up your photos? By back up, I mean copied the photos to DVDs or external hard drives. Most people will answer this with one word, Never!
Not backing up your digital photos is a very dangerous thing. Computer hard drives fail. It does not matter if you are a “Mac Person” or a “PC Person”, hard drives will fail. If the hard drive fails you could lose ALL of your photos! All of those family memories will be needlessly lost.
You can prevent that disaster by backing up. External hard drives are about $100 and are connected to computers in minutes. You can copy all of your photos to the external hard drive in minutes. Many of the hard drives come with software that will let you set the computer up to back up the photos automatically.
If the external drive is not for you then you should at least make copes of the photos onto DVDs. This takes a little more time, but it could save you in the long run.
Backing up your photos now could prevent a tragedy later.
So what would happen if you took a lens that was made for a cropped sensor camera and put it on a full framed sensor camera? You would get a nasty vignette! Below are two photos that I took with the Canon 5D Mark II and a lens from a third party. Click on the photo to see the full effect.
I will be teaching a photography workshop at the Laurelwood Arboretum, in Wayne, NJ. The workshop is on how to photograph flowers and gardens.
We will begin with a presentation on various techniques used to capture both flowers and gardens then we will head out into the Arboretum’s gardens to spend time putting these techniques to use. I will be working with each student to help them refine their skills.
This course will be offered on Saturday, June 6th from 9AM to 12PM. $35
Call 973-202-9579 to register!
I am happy to announce that I will be teaching a photography workshop at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum. The workshop is on how to photograph flowers and gardens.
We will begin indoors discussing various techniques used to capture both flowers and gardens then we will head outdoors into the Arboretum’s gardens to spend time putting these techniques to use. I will be working with each student to help them refine their skills.
This course will be offered on Saturday, May 16th from 9AM to 12PM. $45
Call (908) 273-8787 x15 to register!
Today, New Jersey was hit with a late winter storm. Schools were canceled and I did not have to work. So like any good photographer, I grabbed my equipment and went out shooting.
It was 18 degrees with a 20 mph wind. Here are a few of the photos. These are all from Verona Park.
Click on photo for a larger view.
Well over the last few months I have been playing with the Lensbaby. It is an interesting lens that can add some creative elements to your photography. It takes sometime to get use to how the lens works and how to use it in you photography. I have been working with the lens on a few different projects and I have started to get use to using the lens. I have also been using the macro add-on filter. This is a lot harder to use. The macro add-on is a filter that screws onto the front of the Lensbaby. The filter requires that you be a set distances from the item in order for the subject to be in focus.
Based on what I have done so far, I think the lens gives the best effect in portrait photography.
That being said, I am interested in trying the lens out in some garden photography.
Below are a few examples of the photos that I have done with the lens. I also have a side-by-side photo of a regular photo and a Lensbaby photo.
Click on photo for a better view.
Hi Everyone. Sorry I have not posted for a few months. I will try to be better in 2009.
Here are some web sites with Free Plug-ins and Actions for Photoshop. The web pages are packed full of information.
Free Photoshop Plug-ins Collection
Photoshop Actions for Photo Touch-Ups and Enhancements
60 Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Touch-Ups
Photographers are always concerned with people stealing their images. You hear about watermarks and copyrighting your photos. The problem is, that a great deal of photographers are not sure what the copyright does or how to copyright a photo. Well I have few web sites that will help you better understand how to protect your images.
Scott Kelby’s blog had a two part video interview with an attorney who specializes in Intellectual Property. The interviews are short and very informative. You can find this interview on Scott’s blog.
Hyperphocal.com has a nice simple web page that explains Copyrights and what you should know. Go to Hyperphocal.com.
The Professional Photographers of America have a website Copyright Defense, this site has information on Copyrights and what is happing with Copyright laws. Their web site states they “…are the imaging profession’s copyright watchdog”
And last, but not least is the US Copyright website. The site has a lot of information and you can even file for copyrighting on the web site.
I hope this all helps to address your questions on Copyrights.
As Memorial Day weekend arrives, so does the iris at the Presby Iris Gardens, in Montclair, NJ.
Today, I visited the gardens and found some wonderful iris. I was a little surprised at how few of the irises have bloomed. It looked like only about a quarter of the flowers have bloomed. I was told by a friend that due to the cool spring, the blooming was delayed.
If you are in the Essex County, NJ area, you might want to stop by and see the gardens.
For more information on the gardens visit their web site, Presby Iris Gardens.
Here is a photo from todays shoot.
Last week I went to MARS. No, I am not crazy, and I don’t sit around with foil on my head! MARS is The Mid-Atlantic Regional School of Professional Photography. It is a one week workshop that has been held in Cape May for the last 12 years. The school brings in big name experts in the area of photography, digital images and running a photography business.
This year’s instructors included the following:
Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga – The Photoshop Edge You Need
Carl Caylor – Secrets of Natural Light
Jane Conner – Painter – Fundamentals for Photographers
Hanson Fong – Mastering the Techniques – How to be a Complete Photographer
Randy McNeilly – Zen and the Art of Portrait Photography
Michael Redford – Portraiture and Marketing – A Master Class
Tony Sweet – Creative Compositions with Nature
Eddie Tapp – Empower Your Digital Workflow Skills
Each student spends the week in one of the workshops. I was not happy with the workshop that I took, but I felt the school was very well organized. The school also had some off hour lectures that were held by the various instructors. I attended a lecture by Jane Conner on “Facial Retouching with Photoshop” that was wonderful. Eddie Tapp spoke on the “Digital Workflow” and “Color Profile” that was very informative. There was also a session with Tony Sweet. If you want to push the photographic envelope and look at things different, you should look at some of the work that Tony has created.
One of the best things of the week had to do with Canon. Canon had a full line of their cameras and lenses on hand and anyone could sign out and use any equipment for 24 hours. I took out the Canon 5D and the 70 – 200mm, IS 2.8 lens. In the 24 hours that I had the camera and lens, I took over 600 photos. That was a wonderful setup and I am looking at upgrading my equipment. But that is not all Canon had to offer, they had a Canon Service Technician on had that was there to service your Canon cameras. They cleaned the sensors, update firmware and made other minor repairs. Needless to say this was VERY popular with the Canon users.
As I said before, I was disappointed with the workshop that I attended. I don’t think we covered the information that was stated in the program and we did not get any hands on photo shoots. I did speak to many of my fellow students in the other workshops and they all sounded happy with their programs.
At this point, I am not sure if I will or will not attend next year, but I do think they offer a good deal. The workshops, hotel room and most of your meals cost around $1000.
Next year the school will be held on May 3 to 9. The topics are listed below.
“Imagine” Joyce Wilson and Emily Connolly
“Mastering The Techniques” Hanson Fong
“Go Home” Fuzzy and Shirley Dunenkel
“Discover the Magic of Corel Painter” Nancy Emmerich
“Wedding and Portraits with the Documentary Approach” Paul Gero
“The Photoshop Edge” Suzette Allen and Jon Yoshinaga
“Best of Both Worlds” Jamie Hayes and Mary Fisk Taylor
To find out more about MARS check out their web site http://www.marsschool.com/
The photo on my web page was made up of 12 photos that were taken of the Blue Ridge Mountains, outside of Asheville, North Carolina.
The photos were taken with a Canon 20d set to Manual and on a tripod.
The photos were all adjusted in Lightroom and then all 12 photos were opened in Photoshop CS3.
In Photoshop, I used the Photomerge function to create the panorama photo.
Photomerge is found under, File, Automate, Photomerge.
When you have Photomerge open, click on the Auto icon, and then click on Add Open files.
You will see all of the files listed in the center box. When that is done click on the OK button.
Photoshop will do the rest. This will take a few minutes.
When the photo is done, you will see one single photo on the screen. The photo will need to be cropped. After cropping you will have your panorama photo.
Like everyone with a DSLR, I had dust on the sensor. For the longest time I use the Giotto’s Rocket-air Blower. After years of dust, the blower just did not work anymore. So I needed to something else to get the dust off the sensor. After speaking with one of the major camera stores, they suggested the Arctic Butterfly. The Arctic Butterfly is a small brush that has a battery and a motor. The motor spins the brush and creates a small static charge. The theory is that the static charge and the brush are will pull the dust of the sensor. To use the brush, you turn the motor on, the brush spins and build up a charge. Turn the motor off and wipe the sensor with the brush. You repeat this process until the dust is removed. The Arctic Butterfly may work for general dust, but it did not work for the dust that was built up on my sensor.
Well, it was now time to do something I did not want to do. I needed to go to a wet cleaning system. I needed something with swabs and cleaning solutions. So what product do I use? That decision was simple to make. When I spoke to the camera store, they said there is only one chemical cleaning product that they were legally permitted to ship via UPS. That product was the VisibleDust System.
This is actually two products, the cleaning solution and the swabs. I have to admit I was a little nervous putting a swab with wet liquid on my sensor, but it was not that bad.
When the product arrived, I read the directions twice and went about cleaning the sensor.
I put a fully charged battery in the camera and switched the camera to sensor cleaning mode. I followed the directions on the VisibleDust package and went about cleaning the sensor.
Basically, you put a drop or two on the swab and wipe the sensor with the swab. Anyone with a DSL will know that this is where the uncomfortable part came in. Well after two or three passes with different swabs, I am happy to say the spots on the sensor are gone!!!
Some things you should know about the swab system:
1) You need a swab for the size of your sensor
2) The swabs should only be used for one swipe per side. Each swab has two sides.
3) The system is not cheap. The swabs are around $40 and solution is around $35.
Adobe has just released the brand new Lightroom 2.0 for public beta.
You can download the program for use it for FREE!
It sound like you will be able to use the beta version for about a month
or two until the final version is released.
Lightroom is a great program and will do most of the photo adjustments
that photographers need to do. The program can also catalog your
photos, print, create slide shows and much more. It is a nice all
around program for photographers. The new version has offered many
improvements over version 1,
The NAPP provides general information on the new program and
has links to free online video tutorials on how to use the program.
You might want to check it out.
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