Josh Cripps 

Some people have character, some people are characters.  Lucky for us Josh Cripps is both.  Incredibly talented, yet humble and funny.  

Ask a random photographer what lens to use for landscape photography and 90% of the time you will be told "a wide angle, duh!!" Wide angles and landscapes are so closely connected it sometimes feels like "thou shalt use a wide angle" is a commandment handed down from the landscape photography gods. In Josh's opinion the BEST lens for landscapes is the telephoto! What?! Heresy!! I know, I know...

You see, photography is all about telling visual stories. And every complete story needs to do at least three things:

1. Establish the environment.
2. Provide storytelling moments that showcase what unique things happen at a place.
3. Show intimate details about the subjects/places/things in your story to help your viewers understand the place more deeply.

Telephoto lenses can do all of these things, and they are particularly good at numbers 2 & 3. Which means that telephoto lenses allow you to be clearer, more personally expressive storyteller, since the specific moments and details you notice are very likely to be unique to you and you alone.

However, when the rubber hits the road, shooting landscapes with a telephoto lens is extremely challenging. There are compositional challenges, technical challenges, and visualization challenges, just to name a few. But not to fear. In this talk I will cover 7 secrets that will allow you to harness the power of your telephoto in order to tell more effective visual stories and become a more complete photographer.

You can find more about Josh and his work at https://www.joshuacripps.com/

Josh will be supporting Friends of the Inyo https://friendsoftheinyo.org/ with the 10% from the registration fees. 

Length: 2 hours

Cost:  $27 or as part of the entire series for $167

Rachel Jones Ross

We started the Spring Series with one of our incredibly talented neighbors to the north, the acclaimed nightscape photographer Rachel Jones Ross.  A coffee-loving, light-chasing, intellectual junkie, who is most inspired by a sky full of stars! 

Rachel recently underwent her 100 nights project where she set out in 2019 to spend 100 nights in the year under the stars.   The images, experiences, and what she brought back to share with us continues to inspire. 

Her photography is deeply inspired by the night sky, and the stories it tells. You can typically spot Rachel in the wild anywhere clear skies can be found, but she will linger for sunrise and sunset when conditions are favorable. Rachel is a member of the Sony Alpha Imaging Collective, a PhotoPills Master, and teaches photography workshops at her home in the Canadian Rockies, as well as the California desert, the Azores in Portugal, Ireland, and Norway. 

In this series, Rachel will be sharing her technical approach to photographing the night sky under a wide variety of light conditions, including moonlight, Milky Way and the ever changing light of the Aurora Borealis. From white balance, to blue hour blending, when and how to stack images for noise reduction, this session is packed full of technical expertise.  

Rachel will also demonstrate how to bring those elements together in post-processing. She will edit both a blue hour blend with the Milky Way , and an Aurora image so you can see how shooting with technical precision offers more creative flexibility and exceptional image quality. 

You can find more about Rachel and her work at https://www.astralisphotography.com/

She will be donating her 10% of the registration fees to the International Dark Sky Association https://www.darksky.org/ 

Length: 2.75 hours

Tony Sweet

Entering into the surreal world of Infrared is easy. All one needs is to have a camera converted and dedicated to infrared or use a filter on a color camera, which will render 720 b&w infrared.

Tony Sweet is 35yr professional photographer, author, educator, and workshop leader. He was awarded the Nikon Legend Behind the Lens in 2006 and is a Singh Ray Ambassador. He has been photographing in Infrared for 25 years.  His interest in infrared started innocently enough. At the age of ten, he saw a magazine cover with red palm trees (The caption read “achromatic infrared”).

It made an impression and infrared became a lifelong passion.

After the transition to digital, Tony converted his D200 to standard (720) B&W infrared as soon as it became possible and began carrying color and infrared cameras, making infrared images throughout the country, Iceland, and Cuba.

Infrared, by its nature, is surreal. Greens can turn white and various shades of gray, depending on conditions and POV. Wet subjects are darker than dry subjects, and skies can change radically depending on the chosen angle of view and time of day.

The presentation will include some technical aspects, but mostly will cover the applications of practical and artistic considerations when photographing in infrared. Quality, angle, and intensity of light will be illustrated, as well as mood, and the ethereal nature of infrared. The most conducive times of day and weather conditions will be discussed. As well as, the inherent glow and increased detail in the highlights, which are infrared specific traits.

“Infrared is a muse, mystical, and a source of inspiration for me. It enables me to see the world in a different way, affecting my subject selections, compositions, creativity, and use of light.”

BONUS:  The last 90+ minutes of this talk, Tony did a review / critique of your infrared images.  

See more about Tony on his website http://tonysweet.com

Tony will be supporting The ASPCA, http://aspca.org 

Length: 3 hours (Extra time)

Cost:  $27 or as part of the entire series for $167

Mike Mezeul II 

Mike Mezeul II has spent the past 22 years of his life chasing storms with his camera in hand through Tornado Alley and beyond. From Texas to North Dakota each spring season, Mike takes to the road logging nearly 15,000 miles in just two months trying to find the perfect storm to put in front of his lens. 

Documenting their beauty and power, he attempts to capture images that convey a story of just how miraculous nature can be. During this presentation, Mike will discuss his techniques for documenting these unique storms. From forecasting for the chase to the technicalities of the camera and his vision for each frame, Mike will share what it truly takes to be at one with the storms. He will also be sharing some of his favorite stories from some of his most captivating moments beneath the clouds.

Come see and learn about just how amazing the sky can be! 

See more about Mike on his website https://www.mikemezphotography.com/

Mike will be supporting the Best Friends Animal Society https://bestfriends.org/

Length: 2 hours

Cost:  $27 or as part of the entire series for $167

Theo Bosboom

Theo Bosboom  is a passionate photographer from the Netherlands, specializing in nature and landscapes. In 2013, he turned his back on a successful legal career to pursue his dream of being a fulltime professional photographer. He is widely regarded as a creative photographer with a strong eye for detail and composition and always trying to find fresh perspectives.

For many landscape photographers, intimate landscapes are a genre they start practicing at a later point in their career, often out of a desire to create more subtle and personal work. For Theo, the situation is different. From the very beginning of his photographic career (some 20 years ago), he has developed a strong preference for intimate landscapes. And this is reflected in his work. He is widely regarded as one of the super specialists in this field, with a very individual view of nature and often creative and original angles. Theo has also been giving workshops and lectures on this subject for many years, so he also has a lot of experience in sharing his knowledge in this area. 

The beauty of intimate landscapes is that they can be found everywhere, and you often have much more choice in your compositions than with wide landscapes. And that, at the same time, is perhaps the difficult part. How do you turn a few autumn leaves or some colored rocks into an attractive photo? During this webinar, Theo shares all his secrets with you.

• The art of seeing, how to recognize interesting opportunities in the field
• How to achieve a balanced composition, with the right mix of calmness and interest value
• How can you best incorporate moving elements, such as flowing water, into your intimate landscapes?
• How to create good abstract images of smaller scenes     
• How to apply focus stacking to get your intimate landscapes in focus from front to back?
• How to best optimize your intimate landscapes in image processing

More about Theo and his images can be found on his website www.theobosboom.nl

Theo will be donating 10% of the registration proceeds to Landvernd, the leading nature conservation association in Iceland, striving to protect the whole central highland of Iceland as a national park. https://landvernd.is/english/

Length: 2 hours

Cost:  $27 or as part of the entire series for $167

Jennifer Renwick 

Jennifer is based in Colorado but travels full-time in a travel trailer with her partner David Kingham teaching photography workshops, exploring and photographing the American West. I extend my photography passion to students by teaching visual storytelling, how to slow down in the field to connect with their subjects from behind their lenses, and how to express themselves through their imagery.

Sand dunes are Nature's shape-shifters and a very dynamic and mesmerizing subject to experience and photograph. Dunes make up continuously evolving landscapes sculpted by the harsh and arid environments they reside in. Because of these conditions, dune landscapes offer photographers a wide assortment of subjects and compositions to photograph.

From the exciting, wide scenes to the smaller stories and unique abstract opportunities, Jennifer will share techniques and tips for photographing sand dunes and how too can maximize your photographic opportunities during an adventure on the dunes. She will share how to capture their different moods and conditions, utilize black and white for dramatic imagery, and demonstrate her post-processing technique to bring out the beauty and charm of these dynamic subjects.  

More about Jennifer and her images can be found on her website https://www.jenniferrenwick.com/

Jennifer will be donating 10% of the registration proceeds to the Death Valley Natural History Association since they do so much work to help preserve and educate about Death Valley.  https://dvnha.org/

Length: 2 hours

Cost:  $27 or as part of the entire series for $167

Adam Gibbs 

Adam Gibbs-"Inspiration in the Forest”

For many of us we stare into the confusing landscape of the forest and cannot find a way to tell a story, find order, and produce the kinds of images that evoke the wonder and awe of the natural landscape in front of us. Lucky for us we have 2018 International Landscape Photographer of the year, Adam Gibbs to share with us some of the ways he goes about constructing his evocative images of the forest, woodland, and tree scenes he has become so known for.

Adam will be covering what inspires him about woodland photography, how he goes about looking for compositions and the types of things he looks for in a woodland. Adam will be covering light and the types of light that he likes in forests. He'll also show lots of examples of his work and discuss what inspired him to make the image and how.

Finally as part of this time together, he will demonstrate how he approaches post processing his images and what he is looking to showcase as he brings the scene he imagined to life.

You can find more about Adam and his work at https://adamgibbs.com/

Length: 2.5 hours