Earth Day is Today!

Every day is Earth Day…

Happy Earth Day! – Images by Art Wolfe

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Update – More Reasons to Sign Up for the Spring Tour

Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy

Time is running out! You still have until May 1 to sign-up for the Art Wolfe Spring Tour photography workshops and receive the early sign-up discount price of $195, but after May 1st it will be $295.

And here’s some good news: Lowepro and X-Rite have generously donated door prizes to be given away at each city!

Lowepro is providing the Pro Runner 350 AW pack. This is Art’s personal pack of choice, it allows him to carry all of his necessary photo equipment in addition to his 15″ laptop. It’s below the maximum legal carry-on size so you never have to part with your valuable gear on the airplane, and the harness system is supportive and comfortable to allow you to wear this pack for hikes and travel while on location.

X-Rite has contributed the ColorChecker Passport, a great tool for managing and controlling color. This compact color chart is designed to be taken into the field and photographed. The included software integrates with Adobe’s Creative Suite and lets you quickly and consistently edit your color to get perfectly mastered images time after time. Another great tool.

With more reasons and a discounted price for the remainder of this month why wouldn’t you sign up?

loweprologo

xritelogo

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Art Wolfe Creative Eye Workshop begins Tomorrow!

cairns, Port Angeles, Washingto ©Art Wolfe

Tomorrow (April 20,2010 11am-1pm PST) on creativeLIVE.com Art will begin teaching his Creative Eye Workshop. If you have ever wondered how a simple set of stacked rocks like these can become visually stronger like the image below, you need to join this live workshop series. The best part is that it is free! Yes free! In addition, if you are in the Seattle area you can watch the event in person at the Art Wolfe Studio in SoDo. The address is:
1944 First Avenue South
Seattle WA 98134

Want a chance to win a free copy of Art Wolfe’s book Edge of Earth|Corner of Sky? Retweet this workshop to be entered into a random drawing. Add #EOECOS to all of your tweets.

cairns, Port Angeles, Washingto ©Art Wolfe

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iLCP April 2010 Newsletter

ilcp april 2010

There is no question that part of the glue that holds societies together and that helps us understand our place in the planetary puzzle is the art of story-telling.  The proverbial “campfire” around which stories of our common ancestry, the challenges we face, and the ideas we share, have, generation to generation, been passed through stories.  Today’s technology allows us to gather around the global campfire in new and meaningful ways and skilled artists and story tellers have become key players to move the conservation agenda by helping ‘connect the dots’.

Translating science and complex conservation priorities into compelling messages that are accessible to larger audiences and decision-makers is an imperative that more and more conservation organizations are taking seriously, both in their strategy and in their budget.  Using effective communications, strong visuals and interesting graphics is fast becoming an integral part of the conservation toolbox. The skills of photographers, film-makers, writers and other creative artists will be instrumental to help tell the story of how our planet succeeded in turning the tide, or of how we failed.

The story is not over yet.

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Cristina Mittermeier
President
International League of Conservation Photographers

To read the whole newsletter head to the iLCP’s website.

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NWCCC April 2010 Newsletter

Art’s book release for Alaska is featured in the latest newsletter from the Northwest Council of Camera Clubs. There is a wealth of additional information provided too.

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Constructing the Composition: Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, ©Art WolfeArt has detailed the steps that he goes through in order to create his final image compositions here on the blog. He now has a brand new series from Angkor Wat that you can view over at Luminous Landscape.

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New Book Release – Alaska, 10th Anniversary Edition

Art’s photographic tour of Alaska has become the standard volume of its class. These 150 images take the reader from the lush Southeast to the singular Denali Mountain and across the northern tundra. The tenth anniversary edition of Alaska features gorgeous landscape-format photography, with sections including “Mountain,” “River and Lake,” “Tundra,” “Sea and Coast,” “Forest,” and “Island.” With text by Nick Jans, author of many books about Alaska, including The Grizzly Maze.

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In Memory – Stewart Udall (January 31, 1920 – March 20, 2010)

A titan of the American environmental movement has passed. Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Stewart Udall (January 31, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was largely responsible for the enactment of environmental laws in Johnson’s Great Society legislative agenda, including the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts and Amendments, the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the Land and Water Conservation [Fund] Act of 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, the National Trail System Act of 1968, and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.

Pictured here are a few photos from some of the lands protected under his tenure:  Assateague Island National Seashore, Canyonlands National Park, North Cascades National Park, and Redwood National Park.

BLOG: Stewart Udall’s Legacy in Photos – Images by Art Wolfe

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iLCP March 2010 Newsletter

The history of conservation photography did not begin with the creation of the iLCP.  Although it is true that as a collective of concerned photographers we coined the term and gave the concept new impetus, the idea has been around almost since the advent of the camera.

There is a long legacy in conservation photography that has blazed the trail for the way we currently use photography for environmental advocacy – William Henry Jackson, Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter are among earlier photographers whose advocacy work, in one way or another, translated into the protection of special landscapes. Jackson’s 1871 photographs of Yellowstone, for example, provided the visual argument that convinced legislators to create America’s first national park, and since then, photographers all around the world have used images for advocacy.

How we use conservation photography today demands a higher degree of urgency, as the issues challenging our planet are ever more complex, pressing and devastating.  Addressing these issues by simply making pictures and hoping they reach the right audiences is not enough.  Photographers today must take on a very active role in finding ways for their images to impact the right people. Sometimes the audience consists of legislators and other decision-makers, others it is made up of influential people whose opinions and recommendations move attitudes; more often than not, we are trying to educate end users, corporations and extractive industries on the impacts of their activities and how to mitigate them. Rarely is the image made by a conservation photographer used as mere entertainment.

Today’s conservation photographers must strive to be visual activists – activism here defined as  “the use of strong actions in opposition to or in support of a cause” – because if we fail to be activists, we will inevitably be merely “inactive”.  The difference between making great images and making great images that work hard to protect our planet is what really defines conservation photography.

Cristina Mittermeier
President
International League of Conservation Photographers

To read the whole newsletter head to the iLCP’s website.

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Epson Filming Art in the Office Today

Dan “Dano” Steinhardt was at the gallery today discussing the new line of EPSON signature worthy papers (velvet fine art paper, hot & cold press papers) with Art.

He and his crew filmed Art with the RED ONE video camera with BUILD 21 & Redcine-X software.

The resulting several minute video will be posted on the EPSON web site and used at trade shows around the country.

Epson Video Shoot – Images by Art Wolfe

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