Announcing the February Print of the Month – Upper Antelope Canyon 4. 

Nearly every landscape photographer aspires to photograph the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons.  And thousands have.  For the February Print of the Month I have chosen a photograph I took back in February of last year.  I think it’s different from the typical Antelope Canyon photograph you see – no shaft of light, no tortuous corridor, but rather a glorious, dramatic portal into another existence. 

Upper Antelope Canyon #4 (2008)

Upper Antelope Canyon #4 is available for the month of February, 2009 for 1/3 the normal price.  This applies to 16X20 open edition prints, both matted and framed. 

Click here for more Print of the Month photographs. 

Click here to go to the Gallery.

Last two days for the Early Bird discount for the upcoming Death Valley photography workshop (Feb 14-17, 2009).  Get a 10% discount off the workshop fee if you register by Sunday, Feb 1st. 

You can expect three things from the workshop

1. Photographing California’s most spectacular and amazing desert in the most beautiful light.
2. Personal one-on-one attention to help you grow as a photographer.
3. Three days away from the grind and filled with photography.

Details and registration forms are on the website.

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/workshops/2009_death_valley/2009_dv_announcement.html

See photos of previous Death Valley workshops here.

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/workshops/2008_death_valley/2008_dv_photos.html

See more of my Death Valley photogrpahs and more…

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/coll_cadesert.html

How often do you hear that?  People are on vacation, a family outing, a business trip even.  And they see something that really moves them.  So they whip out their camera, holed it up in front of their face, cock their head back a little, squint their eyes and ‘click.’  They get their picture.

But they’re often not satisfied and you hear them say, “This picture doesn’t show it like it really was.”  And they’re a bit disappointed.  They image they tried to capture lives only in their memories.

Those of us that are, what shall I say, serious about our photography often do varying amounts of post processing with our images.  I don’t know how many times I start with a RAW image that is, well, not very interesting.  It’s not what it looked like or, more to the point, it’s not the way it felt.  But I remember the shot and how excited I was.  So I start taking it through my work flow.  That’s what I experienced tonight as I started working on an image of an apple orchard near Fruita, UT.

Apple Orchard, Fruita, UT - BEFORE

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This photograph I’m finishing up right now makes my wife laugh.  I call it…

The Wanderer (2008)

Upcoming Events

Death Valley Workshop, Feb 14-17, 2009  It’s not too late to take advantage of the early registration discount.

Joshua Tree Gathering, Feb 17-Mar 1, 2009

I print my fine art prints with Image Print, an excellent RIP.  And I print on an Epson 4800.  Image Print gives you the option of printing at 180 or 360 ppi.  I’ve printed a lot of great looking, rather large photographs at 180 ppi.  A lot of my friends are shocked.  They say I’m compromising the quality of the print.  But no matter how close I scrutinize the prints I really can’t see any difference.

Enter Genuine Fractals.  Genuine Fractals really objects if you try to resize an image to 180 ppi.  The smallest it is comfortable going is 240.  To get it to accept 180 ppi I have to fake it out. 

But the fact that it defaults ot 240 raises all sorts of questions.  What if I resize at 240 ppi and print at 180 or 360?  For that matter, is there a difference between 180 and 360.  So the other day I was printing some 16X24 images and decided it was time to finally ran a test. 

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I’m always buying photography books and on the lookout for good DVDs.  I like the books because I can read them at my leisure.  And if they contain assignments at the end of each chapter that’s even better.  DVDs, on the other hand, can be even better because you can see the photographer in action.

But not all DVDs live up to this level of expectation.  Sure, you can get see where the photographers are photographing.  And often you can see what they captured.  But all too often you aren’t privy to what is going through their minds.  Well, I found a DVD that sets the standard.

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I have a couple of Lee graduated neutral density filters in my camera bag.  I don’t use them very much because I’m kind of an HDR guy.  But the past couple of mornings we’ve had some very clear sunrises and given the location of our home in the Southern California foothills this turned out to be a good opportunity to play around with my grad ND filters.

I discovered a few very interesting things.  I’m just going to provide a checklist here without any illustrations.  Hopefully it will make sense.

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We’re continuing the 10% early registration discount for the 2009 Death Valley photography workshop until the end of January.  It is scheduled for February 14-17.  Click here for more information.  And if you are a customer of mine, take off another 10%.

The 2009 Death Valley Workshop is just six weeks away.  Jack Graham and I are teaming up to present three days of fantastic shooting in this most beautiful of California deserts.  With two experienced instructors, workshop participants are assured lots of valuable hands-on assistance. 

Scheduled for February 14-17, 2009, this workshop will have the potential for some great winter light.  For more details check out 2009 Death Valley Workshop.

Happy New Year!  This is the first post for 2009.

I get a lot of questions about sharpening so I thought I’d share with you the way I do it.  Let’s begin with the question…,

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