Art Wolfe – Europe: London Calling!

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BLOG: Art on the streets of London 2012 – Images by Art Wolfe

I came to London to give my seminar on The Art of Composition to a sold out crowd at the RGS (Royal Geographical Society) on September 8.
Yesterday, I strolled around London and took a few shots with my iPhone. This city is still very much alive even after the Olympics were just here.
I took about 15 iPhone photos walking through London, among the images you will see are the Old Globe theatre, interior of the Modern Tate Museum, Kings Cross train station, Soho and a few additional photos around the city.

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Olympic Peninsula Workshop, August 2012 Participants Gallery


Photos from the talented photographers who joined us on the Olympic Workshop in January. The weather presented some challenges, but the group was adaptable and made the most out of the situation. Even a foggy wet beach was transformed into a beautiful serene environment. We were impressed by the variety of images this group was able to capture!

Juan Abal

Vicki Braden

Jane Herzog
“What a transformative 3 days in my world of nature and photography. The instructors are outstanding, each with his/her unique perspective and skills, and it is really a privilege to learn from Art. His vast experience, humor and sensitivity are inspiring…I look forward to participating in more of Art’s adventures in the future!”

Steve Kidd
“The Art Wolfe Olympic Peninsula workshop was fantastic. Art and all of the instructors were extremely approachable and always offered great advice. I came away with much better photographs than if I had just gone to the locations myself. A very worthwhile trip!”

Roland Kilcher

Yolanda Moreno

Sheri Pascual
“Art Wolfe is so unbelievably talented and creative and very willing to share his expertise with his students. The Olympic Peninsula’s forests and beaches gave us very diverse photo opportunities. We started our day before the sun came up and ended when the sun went down. I learned more in two days about composition and technique than I have learned in the last three years. Art also has an amazing group of accomplished photographers to help and advise as well. I was always able to get help when I needed it. Thank you Bill, Jay, and Libby! I can’t wait to go on my next workshop!”

Jeff Signorini

Marjorie Walle

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Canon 1DX – My First Impressions

I have recently picked up a Canon 1DX, the latest flagship camera for Canon and, spoiler alert, I am thrilled! This camera represents a whole new world for photography. It’s not so much about how many megapixels the camera has, we’ve essentially passed the resolution of the best slide film in its day, now it’s all about the performance at higher ISOs and Canon has re-set the bar with this latest model.

If you know me, or have been to one of my seminars you know I am an artist first, a photographer second and a technical anything is not even on my list. The camera is a tool for me, just like my brushes and paint, thus I will leave the technical reviews to the likes of Jay Goodrich and others who play in that arena. This write-up is more my impressions of what it’s going to be like using this next generation camera going forward.

I have been shooting for over 30 years now, back in the good old days when you had to walk uphill in the snow both directions to get a shot of a moose, the ISO speed was 25. Yes, that’s not a typo for those of the internet generation, ISO 50 didn’t come around for many years after I began my career, and 100 was largely unheard of for professional photographers. You panned with your subjects, not always for the effect but because you had to, even wide open you couldn’t always get a shutter speed fast enough except in the brightest of conditions. Hand holding was just a fantasy that we all had to disregard.

So when did I make the switch to digital? As soon as it was available as mass market product. I was in a small inflatable zodiac in Antarctica photographing iceberg formations with an 11 megapixel Canon 1Ds. It was my first time using this camera and I was shooting at ISO 100 when the opportunity to photograph a leopard seal that had just hauled itself out on the ice. Remember, this was my first time shooting with digital and when I was able to bump up the ISO to 400 and capture a decent shot of the seal while bouncing on the waves and then try another at 800, I was sold. I never loaded another roll of film again and I came home with 300 rolls of unexposed slide film, that I sold the very next week.

Up through the 1DS Mark III and 5D Mark II, I was comfortable pushing the ISO to 400, but not much higher. The grain and noise that came in at higher ISOs began to impact the image enough and the gains of one more stop simply didn’t buy me enough to justify it, it was still a tripod, mirror lock-up situation afterall.

But not any more…

With the 1DX, I can easily see going up to ISO 6400 and perhaps further, I haven’t tested much beyond 6400 as the idea is so absolutely foreign to me. Unless I’m looking for slower shutter speeds to blur the motion of a river or pan with a moving animal, I don’t imagine I’ll even set it any lower than 1600 on most days. This is an absolute game changer for me. With this camera I will return to try and capture old subjects that I would have otherwise passed up earlier in my career. I can return to photograph swift moving animals in the forest canopy in the late afternoon where there simply was not enough light to allow for a fast enough shutter speed. I have never favored flash unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then the results rarely made the cut.

Now shooting at ever changing ISOs being the highlight for me, Canon has located the ISO button perfectly, even differentiated with a raised bump such that I can switch settings with my eye to the camera as easily as I would change the aperture.

Shooting at higher ISOs also opens up new worlds for controlling Depth of Field. A slight breeze while photographing flowers in the meadows of Mt. Rainer meant choosing between tack sharp foliage vs. a depth of field appropriate to the composition. A compromise, and rarely a good one. People even marketed “plant clamps” to hold the foliage steady for you. Now I can simply dial up the ISO to get the shutter speed I need without sacrificing F-Stops and Depth Of Field.

Though I have said it many times in the past – “If you want to improve your photography get a tripod, cable release and mirror lockup, and use it…” you will find me hand holding the camera more and more often in the future. I am not religiously tied to a tripod, they are excellent tools allowing you to shoot with slower shutters speeds, but if I can bump up my ISO to 4000 and still come home with sharp images, I will. It will allow me to be more nimble, more reactive to moving animals and people.

I’m often asked about the one that got away… It was in Varanasi, India. I was walking down the back streets of the bustling city trying to keep up with the guide and my friends, but I knew I was falling behind overwhelmed by all the sights and smells, a photographer’s paradise. As I glanced down an alley way I saw a dog curled up sleeping on top of a cow taking advantage of the warmth and comfort it offered. It was a spectacular shot especially considering my book “Dogs make us Human” had yet to go to press and I could potentially include this image…Alas, had I chosen to get my tripod out, set up and get the shot, I would have had one more great shot in the bag and the guide would have been long gone leaving me completely lost in the back allies and small streets of this enormous city. He was just out of earshot given the ambient noise, I couldn’t call out, I just had to enjoy the moment and press on hurrying to catch up with the guide. Had I been carrying the 1DX…I would have simply shot it at ISO 6400 and been able to easily hand hold the camera for the exposure racking off several frames (up to 12 in a second actually) and then hustled on to keep the back of my guide’s head in sight.

During August I led a tour to Lake Clark Alaska with Jay Goodrich and 9  participants. The shot that made the trip for me was when a young mother grizzly came within view trailing 3 very young cubs. We were told that she was new to the area and uncertain of the surroundings. In the deep grass a pair of otters scurried through, unable to see what had made the noise, she immediately let out a sharp grunt calling her three cubs to her side. One by one the three cubs reached mama and stood at attention ready to head her next command. With the camera set at ISO 1600 I was able to capture the scene with sharp focus from the mother bear to the last cub in line – absolutely perfect! It was a fleeting moment and one I would have missed with a lessor camera in the past.

Canon has dramatically changed the focusing system as well, and for the better. While I didn’t specifically test out the focusing abilities of the 1DX, I was in Brazil recently shooting with the new Canon 5D Mark III which has a similar focusing system. The 5D Mark III allows you to not only pick from 61 different focusing points (in a variety of automated ways) it allows you to choose different scenarios to track the subject from erratic to predictable. While in Brazil at the Buraco das Araras (the Hole of the McCaws) the colorful birds were moving in and out of the canopy as if they were sparrows. They’re not like our bald eagles here in the Pacific Northwest – gently and predictably soring over the ground…They would dart in and out of my frame as they quickly moved from tree to tree. The advances in focusing made it possible for me to get tack sharp images of these birds in flight as I watched the scene through the viewfinder reacting to flashes of color as they made swooping passes across the open spaces. The camera accurately tracked their movements maintaining the focus for me. Could I have shot this scene in the past? Yes, but with far fewer successful exposures. It would have been much more of a “shoot a lot and hope for a little” situation. With this new focusing system, I was able to get vastly more keepers for the archives.

For all of the complexity Canon has done a great job with their menus and labels – this was my first time out with the camera (the manual safe at home of course) and I was able to navigate the settings to reprogram the shutter release and other buttons and general setup to suit my preferences. It’s also a very solid camera, well built, it feels like the professional tool in my hands that it is.

The extent of the buttons that can be utilized while your eye is to the camera to adjust and change settings is wonderful. I can (now more easily) check the depth of field, switch between focusing modes, change the ISO settings, and adjust exposure; most everything I can foresee needing will be at my fingertips now, rather than having to pull away from the camera and navigate through menus and potentially missing a shot.

Yes, I’m sold on the new 1DX, and while I’m sure I’ll stop giggling eventually, every time I look in the LCD to see sharp images at incredible ISOs, I think of where technology is going next. There are going to be a lot of firsts with this camera over the next year or so – first time reacting to a charging lion at sunset, first time with birds in flight at F13 without a tripod, first time stopping the motion of a wheat field with sharp focus throughout…It’s going to be a good year.

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Labor Day Weekend! 25% OFF SALE!

 

Trim 25% off Art of Composition seminars in London and Cologne as well as all Art Wolfe merchandise at store.artwolfe.com

Use coupon code BL083112W for the seminar.
>>LONDON
>>COLOGNE

Use coupon code BL083112M for the merch.
>>STORE

SALE STARTS TODAY AND ENDS MIDNIGHT, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 3RD.

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NEW WORKSHOP! South Carolina


I just announced a new workshop in South Carolina December 7-9.
This will be based out of Charleston, SC.
Join me for the last workshop I am doing in 2012.

The architecture of Charleston is rich and beautiful and provides great opportunities to explore. This historic city has an abundance of great photographic subjects.


The light at this time of year is long and dramatic. We will also be traveling to take in the beautiful live oaks of this area.

 

And a Southern plantation, too.

 

>>CKICK HERE to go to my Workshops website and find out more information and register.

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JUST ANNOUNCED! PODAS Workshop -Kimberley, AUS

This Workshop has just been announced by PhaseOne for their PODAS (PhaseOne Digital Artists Series) Workshops. This Tour promises to be the The Ultimate Luxury Photography Cruise.

We travel aboard the True North and have unparalleled access to the incredible landscape of this Paradise on Earth.

The ultimate location with the best accommodations utilizing PhaseOne digital medium format photographic equipment. Wow!

Instructors for this tour are Art Wolfe, Michael Reichmann and Christian Fletcher.

>>ITINERARY

>>REGISTER
Don’t hesitate. Follow the link and book your spot on this cruise to The Kimberleys today.

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Guest Photographer: Harry Ableman

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Walking into my first Art Wolfe Workshop, I was a self-taught photographer, anxious and concerned I may not keep pace. Within minutes I was diffused. Fast forward seven seminars/workshops and I find myself standing next to Art ready to board our small plane heading towards Coastal Brown Bears. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have taken the opportunity long before my first.

He has treated me as a friend; given knowledge and support peppered by encouraging opinion. He has shared; I have tried and failed and he has tirelessly shared again. He has crept into my brain, opened my eyes and opened my world. I have grown. For that I am thankful.

Harry Ableman

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Lake Clark, Alaska Participants Gallery


Once again we experienced tremendous photographic opportunities with the bears at Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park. Here are some of the picks our fellow travelers and photographers took!

Next year the workshop will be led by Jay Goodrich & Gavriel Jecan. If you are interested in getting on their mailing list, please contact info@jaygoodrich.com.

Jim Waterbury www.jimwaterbury.com
“Thanks for a terrific workshop! What a treat to see the magnificent coastal brown bears up-close, interacting with each other in a natural setting, and seemingly oblivious to the presence of humans. As usual, I found Art’s artistic vision, passion, and vast experience photographing wildlife to be both inspiring and educational … a real privilege to have been able to spend 4 days with Art and Jay, in the wilds of Alaska, yet in a very comfortable environment. Looking forward to the next opportunity! Thanks!”

Dale Moses

Hanspeter Leupin
“Taking pictures of the bears was an absolutely amazing and breath taking experience. With the input I got from Art and Jay I learned to enhance my skills in taking pictures.”

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Early Bird Registration for MONP

 

There are many reasons to embrace motion in your images. Learn some tips at the Masters of Nature Photography seminar that I’m doing with Frans Lanting and Tom Mangelsen on November 9-11 in San Francisco.

Early bird discount ends August 31!

REGISTER TODAY!
www.mastersofnaturephotography.com

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Second Call for Europe!

 

Art is taking his Art of Composition Tour to Europe this fall!

September 8th: Royal Geographical Society, London
Check out Art’s bio in the latest Amateur Photographer magazine & get a discount on the London seminar:

>>CLICK HERE

September 22nd: Cologne (During Photokina)

>>MORE INFO

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