Favorite Places: Makoshika SP in Montana

There is a very cool state park I try to stop and shoot at when visiting the region near Glendive, Montana. It’s called Makoshika State Park. The name Makoshika is Lakota for ‘land of bad spirits’ or Badlands.

Similar to the badlands of North and South Dakota, with eroded hills and outcrops of various rock layers, cut by the Yellowstone River a long time ago, Makoshika will satisfy those photographers who enjoy shooting badlands type landscapes.

Sitting on the edge of Glendive in Eastern Montana, Makoshika is 40 miles west of the North Dakota border.

There are numerous hiking trails including Kinney Coulee and the Caprock Trail. The park also has camping available. This park is open year round and can be photographed early and late in the day for great results.  Here is a picture and website info. … Continue Reading

Corey Rich Films ‘Why’ for Nikon and The New D4

Corey Rich is a superstar in the ranks of the outdoor adventure photography and filming field. He recently completed production on a new film: Why, shot for Nikon using the new D4. Corey has done a lot of stuff and seems to hop continually from one high profile project to another.

He was recently on the TV series Flying Wild Alaska which ran in December and featured him and an expedition team heading in to remote Alaska to climb some unclimbed routes.

Here is the D4 film, WHY and also the link to his interview with Adweek Magazine regarding the shoot. And if you want to read how he did the shoot you can find it on his blog post .

WHY – Nikon D4 Release Video from Corey Rich on Vimeo.

For Love of B&W: Cole Thompson’s Ethereal Landscapes

Editors note: I discovered Cole Thompson’s beautiful photography and website while wandering the net. Cole is a true artist whose passion for nature photography is very obvious. He does not ‘shoot for the markets’, he just shoots and his imagery is presented in a manner we often don’t see and I am sure you will agree. Many of images would in my opinion, not be as powerful in color as they are in B&W. I had to know more about him and his work so I asked him if he would tell us about himself and his photography.

I am an amateur as measured by the old definition of the word; I am self taught, I create out of love and do not use my art to earn a living. I feel extremely fortunate to create only that which inspires me, without regard to how the markets or critics will receive my work. My only measure of success is how I feel about my art.

I am often asked, why black and white? It may be because I was born into a black and white world. Television, movies and the news were all in black and white. My heroes were in black and white and even the nation was segregated into black and white. Perhaps my images are an extension of the world in which I grew up.

I cannot categorize my work since my subject matter is so varied and diverse. In addition to several traditional landscape and seascape projects, my portfolios have ranged from “The Ghosts of Auschwitz-Birkenau” in which I portray the spirits of the dead who still linger at the death camps, to a distorted architectural series entitled “The Fountainhead.” From a street portrait series entitled “Ukrainians, With Eyes Shut” to unique look at “Ceiling Lamps” which were photographed from directly below. … Continue Reading

Chris Gomersall Releases New Book on Wildlife Photography

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Chris Gomersall’s new book: Wildlife Photographer: A Course in Creative Photography is officially released today.  His book addresses the creative aspects of nature photography in this fresh and accessible guide, taking account of developments in photography without dwelling on technical details.

As nature photography has shifted decisively towards digital in recent years, much has been written offering guidance and tips on technical matters, but there has been little published on the creative aspects. In Wildlife Photographer, ten thematic chapters on subjects such as Space, Light, Time and Developing a Narrative are generously packed with examples, advice and suggestions for projects and exercises. The second part of this book features sixteen case studies, where Gomersall describes how he achieved some of his most outstanding images. … Continue Reading

Robert Rodriguez Jr. Self Publishes a Calendar and Tells Us How

For the past 5 years I have produced a yearly calendar of my landscape photography, and apart from being commercially successful, is also one of my best marketing tools. My experience has shown me a successful calendar needs three things: compelling images, a good design and layout, and a good dosage of marketing.

The first step in making a calendar of course is choosing the images. I try to select from images I’ve made during the past year or so, making sure I’m not repeating any from past calendars. I create a collection for each calendar year in Lightroom, and this makes organization and processing a breeze. Once I select the images, I make virtual copies and place them into the collection (ie. Cal 2012), this way if I crop or otherwise modify them specifically for the calendar, I am not modifying my original RAW files.

I look for images that are appropriate for each month and season, and this seems to create a natural flow and continuity to the calendar that might not exist if the images were chosen at random. Because I also include 12 inspirational quotes, I may choose an image specifically because it adds a strong visual component to a particular quote. … Continue Reading

How To Emphasize Action When Shooting Outdoor Adventures

Sometimes images do well in the market if they convey a sense of motion and action. As photographers we are storytellers and our images need to convey that story.

If you are into photographing action subjects like skiing, mountain biking, running, water sports, or any moving subject, you can enhance an image and story by emphasizing that movement.

There are essentially two ways to show motion: you move the camera with the subject or you move the subject while the camera is still.

You might think that freezing a moving subject in place tells a better story and it will in some cases like a skier in the air or any subject better displayed as ‘frozen’ in place.

This image works better as a frozen subject: … Continue Reading

Dave Showalter Tells Us How He Writes and Photographs for Wilderness Magazine

Dave Showalter is a nature photographer from Colorado who also specializes in conservation photography. His clients include: Outside, Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic Books, Backpacker, Wilderness, All Animals, Crested Butte Magazine and many more.

Dave recently had a photo essay he wrote and photographed featured in Wilderness Magazine, the journal of the Wilderness Society. His article highlights a grassroots effort to protect Noble Basin in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest from industrial-scale natural gas drilling.

As today’s nature and outdoor photographers face smaller demand for still images, the need to find other ways to market photography becomes crucial to business success. Writing is one of many ways photographers can see their images published.

Dave has been doing that for years, researching ideas and generating proposals before submitting them to editors and it has resulted in an impressive list of publishing credits. We asked Dave to tell us about this article and how he generates ideas and magazine proposals. … Continue Reading

Lewis Kemper Talks Nature Photography, Photoshop, and The Photography Business

Lewis Kemper has been photographing the natural beauty of North America, and its parklands for over 30 years. During his extensive travels, he has been to 47 states from Alaska to Florida.   His work has been exhibited and published in magazines, books, and calendars worldwide.

Chase Jarvis Shares How He Filmed an REI TV Commercial

I have had the pleasure of meeting, drinking a round (or two), and teaching at the same venue in Dubai with Chase Jarvis. If you are not familiar with Chase, you should be as he is in many ways, an International ‘Phenom’ in the photography world.

Chase began his career as a adventure and ski photographer (as far as I know) and has become one of the hottest advertising photographers on the planet with an impressive client list. One of those clients is REI, the outdoor equipment and apparel company. Chase shoots photography and video production for REI and he recently posted the commercial and how he shot it in a series of posts on his blog. If you are expanding your services to include video you might enjoy these behind the scenes posts by Chase. Continue reading for links to the blog posts.

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Don’t Recycle Your Christmas Tree Until You Create Images Like These

Now that Christmas has passed, there is still time to plan some photographs using Christmas theme. And one great topic revolves around the Christmas Tree. So before you recycle your Christmas Tree you might want to consider using is as a prop for Holiday themed images that you can later license as stock and use for next years Christmas card.

I have photographed quite a few outdoor Holiday concepts over the years and had several planned for this Holiday season, but we have no snow yet for what I have planned.

There are the usual ideas such as the Christmas tree in a living room window with Christmas lights, both inside and outside, turned on. And the tree near a glowing fireplace. I have done those but find I enjoy the outdoor concept better.

Snow has not arrived where I live yet so I will have to wait myself, but in the mean time, here are a few ideas that are easy to do with your used tree before you recycle it.

How you shoot your Christmas tree in the outdoors depends on where you live. I live in the mountains and can easily shoot in the forest after the next snowfall. But I think there are excellent concept images that can take place anywhere from a front yard to placing the lit tree in the desert somewhere.

I am always brainstorming concepts that are not the norm such as a tree in the desert and this could be a marketable concept since you don’t normally see deciduous trees in the desert. What about a lit Christmas tree in an auto junkyard? Or a tree along a river bank surrounded by forest? The ideas are of course unlimited and it is your concept and idea that will make the image marketable. Here are some ideas I have shot in the past. … Continue Reading