Seal. Crazy. 4:00am. I think it has been my ring tone for 15 years now, way before the iPhone was even a concept. It is this song that closely reflects the life of a photographer. I mean who in their right mind would wake up at 4am? The beauty of my current situation is that Art is as much of a morning person as I am. We firmly believe that waking up this early should be minimized on all accounts. Seriously, the coffee shops aren’t even open yet. The flip side is that we have no problem staying up well into the evening to photograph stars. I guess that justifies sleeping in way past sunrise. At least in summer.
We were in Moab. It was the first day of leading ten people around with a certain and much different workshop challenge. Discover the subjects beyond the obvious. Yes, if you have never been to Moab you can shoot those icons, but after that we wanted our participants to move beyond and work not only their subjects, but their minds too. As a participant you are restricted to keeping those iconic images to yourself. We all know that they are already good compositions. During our critiques we want to see the other images. The ones you have questions about. Or the ones you struggled with until you thought you failed. Those are inevitably the ones that are most successful.
If this sounds like a duality of common sense, it probably is. Those images that you struggle with force you to work, and when you work at your composition, you put thought into it. This thought process always comes through in the images you produce, even if you don’t realize it at the time.
The desert is a magical place. The colors are extremely brilliant and complimentary. Unbelievably clear and dry blue skies complimented with deep reds and oranges as the sun comes up. This time of year though, it only lasts about an hour after sunrise, so timing is of the essence. And lesson number one is to illustrate this on morning one, day one, without any prior instruction. The forthcoming discussions will change this ideal and then we will progress to make you think even harder. Once you are challenged with trying to find subjects beyond the icons, we are going to take you an abandoned town. At Noon. With one request, find us subjects.
We continue by highlighting specific techniques. Specific ways of processing images utilizing Adobe Lightroom 4. Adding in creative options here as well, so that you realize that every image shouldn’t be super-saturated color, a perfect blend of multiple exposures, or even produced in the 2 by 3 format. This is were your ideas are taken into reality. The creative juices are beginning to flow at this point and you are beginning to see. To see less like a recorder and more like an artist. You begin to realize that you are in control of what your viewer perceives and almost understand that the image you create becomes your viewer’s reality.
Then we add different perspectives into the mix. How to create composite panoramics, star trails, and nighttime compositions. We do this by taking you to different eco-systems and different environments continuously throughout the day. The main rule here is if you can find something of merit to photograph at high noon in the summer desert, you can find a subject just about anywhere at any time. And then, all of a sudden, everything clicks, (figuratively and literally) you become a creative. The word photographer only has meaning to you because you choose that as your mechanism to display your vision.
You in fact become a little crazy and like the song says, “But we’re never gonna survive, unless, we are a little crazy.” Now you want only one thing. MORE. Stay tuned we will give you that real soon. — Jay Goodrich
It’s no secret that I absolutely love international travel. For the past 30 years, I have spent 9 months of each year on the road. I have met some amazing people and seen fascinating and varied cultures in my travels. It reinforces my belief that we are all connected.
I became hooked on international travel in 1984, when I was asked to join the first US Everest Expedition allowed in through Tibet. I didn’t go to climb Mt Everest, or even to just stand on her flanks. I went to see the magical city of Lhasa. I had learned about such incredible places in school and had always wanted to see one with my own eyes. I was instantly hooked and I’ve been traveling the world ever since.
The Pantanal offers a wetland environment like no other on the planet. At 54,000 square miles you could hide the whole of the Florida Everglades in the center and never find them. It’s no secret that I love photographing wildlife and the Pantanal offers some of the best avian photography anywhere. While the Amazon rain forest may be larger, the Pantanal has a concentration of wildlife that allows you to see (and photograph) 100 times more birds and animals than you ever would in the Amazon. I chose the Pantanal for my “Travels to the Edge” TV show for this very reason.
You will have the chance to photograph capybaras and caimans and many of the 400 species of birds that live in the Pantanal. Nearly a quarter of these birds weighing in at over a pound (1.6kg) – which is a pretty big bird when you stop to think about it. We may even get to see Giant Otters (big as a grown man) and Giant Anteaters. If you’ve seen the episode of “Travels to the Edge” from this region you have some idea of what you’ll be in store for. But don’t worry, when it comes to the caimans, we’ll keep a respectful distance (this time).
Through traveling to photograph wildlife, I have been blessed with getting to know some of the most interesting and diverse cultures around the world. For this tour, I have scheduled visits to two working Brazilian ranches so we can get a taste of what it is like to pull a living from this land and call it home. To visit a country without getting to know the people is an incomplete story for me. There is so much to be learned from others who share this earth with us but have different perspectives and unique viewpoints. Seeing the challenges they face can bring a new perspective to our own lives.
And if you’re not hooked yet… on my previous trips I have stumbled across a very remote corner of the Pantanal where there is an incredible opportunity to see Jaguars in the wild. This particular group has become habituated to seeing people much like some of the lion troops you would see on safari in Africa and they no longer
instinctively retreat and hide in the dense forest. It may take a while to swallow your heart back down from the middle of your throat, but seeing a Jaguar in the wild is a experience you will never forget.
Art Wolfe Lecture Series – 10am to 4pm at Mt. Hood Community College – Gresham Campus
Art Wolfe is presenting his ever popular class “The Art of Composition”. This is a great learning tool for anyone wanting to grow their compositional skills. This is not a technical class, but an improved way of seeing and identifying ways of better expressing your artistic vision. >>More Info
Art Wolfe Oregon Coast Workshop – Cannon Beach, OR
Three days on the beautiful Oregon coast to immerse yourself in photography and learn to see what Art Wolfe sees and how he finds his subjects.
Art has some favorite spots on the coast that are waiting to be shared. >>More Info
September 12, 2011 – Port Angeles, WA – With Jay Goodrich.
This 1-Day class follows Art Wolfe’s Olympic National Park Workshop. This is a great way to take what has just been taught in the field and learn to improve your process of development and managing large volumes of images with Lightroom 3.
As the popularity of digital image making grows, so does a photographer’s image catalog. How do we manage a hundred, thousand, or even 10,000 images? With the latest edition of Lightroom 3, Adobe is making the life of the photographer much, much easier. Photographer and writer Jay Goodrich has been using the Lightroom package since the first version, and is now offering a class to help those who are in need of a management solution for their collection of photographs. This one-day addition to our Olympic Peninsula workshop will begin with an overview of the Library and Develop Modules. Jay will then spend the rest of the time working with each participant to help catalog and maximize the images they created during the previous three days.
This class has become so popular, that we are now extending it for a third session. This is a unique workshop, don’t miss it!
It starts with a Bang! Welcome Reception at Art’s House on May 27th – 6pm to 8pm. Light appetizers & hors d’oeuvres. Then two days with Art fine tuning your vision.
Just listen to participant Carol Ann Morris if you need help making up your mind about this workshop:
I attended Art’s Composing Effective Images workshop in Seattle in January…it was just what I needed. If you’re thinking of doing it, just do it! His enthusiasm and passion for his art is so inspiring; the momentum he creates when he teaches pushes you to new heights. It is SO worth it. Right after the seminar, I signed up for his workshop on the Olympic Peninsula.
In conjunction with Phase One Digital Artists Series (PODAS), Michael Reichmann and I will be leading a much-anticipated workshop to Washington’s Palouse region this summer. The Palouse is a remarkable agricultural area in eastern Washington, and one of my favorites places to photograph in my home state. The landscapes are varied, full of sagelands, wheatfields, empty roads, and deep horizons.
This is a rare opportunity as this is the only field workshop that Michael will be doing this year. And since it is a PODAS workshop, each participant will be provided with a IQ160 60 Megapixel back, a Phase One DF camera body, and a 75– 150mm lens. Other lenses from 28mm – 300mm will be available to participants as well.
You can learn more about the workshop and PODAS here:
Yesterday I arrived on the Olympic Peninsula to prepare for my workshop this weekend. Jay Goodrich, Gavriel Jecan, and I headed up to the top of Hurricane Ridge on a scouting mission to see if this would be a good location to bring students to in the coming days. I did find some remarkable subjects, but also found the deepest snowpack that I have ever seen in my 40 years of photographing in this region. There was a ton of rockfall, huge avalanche run-outs, and below freezing temperatures as we approached closer and closer to the summit. I decided that this wouldn’t be the greatest location to bring a group of 25, but was rewarded with a great photo session of a raven.
Today we will be heading to the Sol Duc and then tomorrow to the Hoh Rain Forest and the coast for sunset. More coming soon.
Art Wolfe is bringing his “Art of Composition” to Atlanta on May 15.
Do you need a shot in the arm? How about inspiration to see differently and more expansively? This one-day seminar in Atlanta on May 15, 2011 will be held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center from 10:00am to 4:00pm.
Art brings his unique style and experience to this not-to-be-missed program.
