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. Josh believes 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 effective at numbers 2 & 3. Which means that telephoto lenses allow you to be a 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 lens in order to tell more effective visual stories and become a more complete photographer.

You can find more about Josh and his work here.

Josh will be supporting Friends of the Inyo with the 10% from the registration fees. 

Length: 2 hours

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, inspired by a sky full of stars! 

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

Her photography is deeply inspired by the night sky and the stories it tells. You can spot Rachel in the wild anywhere clear skies can be found. However, she lingers at 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. She also teaches workshops in the California desert, the Azores in Portugal, Ireland, and Norway. 

In this series, Rachel will share her technical approach to photographing the night sky under a wide variety of light conditions. These conditions include moonlight, the 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 here.

She will donate 10% of the registration fees to the International Dark Sky Association. 

Length: 2.75 hours

Tony Sweet

Entering the surreal world of Infrared is easy. All one needs is a camera converted and dedicated to infrared or use a filter on a color camera, which renders 720 B&W infrared.

Tony Sweet is an experienced 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 a lasting 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 the skies can change radically depending on the chosen angle of view and time of day.

The presentation will include some technical aspects, but mostly 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 infrared's ethereal nature. 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 reviewed and critiqued your infrared images.  

You can find more about Tony and his work here. 

Tony will donate 10% of the registration fees to the ASPCA. 

Length: 3 hours (bonus time in this session!)

Mike Mezeul II 

Mike Mezeul II 

Mike Mezeul II has spent the past 22 years chasing storms with his camera in hand through Tornado Alley and beyond. Each spring season, Mike drives from Texas to North Dakota. He logs nearly 15,000 miles in just two months looking for the perfect storm to photograph. 

Documenting their beauty and power, he attempts to capture images that convey a story of nature's miraculous nature. 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 share some of his favorite stories from some of his most captivating moments beneath the clouds.

Come see and learn how amazing the sky can be! 

You can find more about Mike and his work here.

Mike will donate 10% of the registration fees to Best Friends Animal Society.

Length: 2 hours

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 full-time professional photographer. He is widely regarded as a creative photographer with a strong eye for detail and composition and is always looking for fresh perspectives.

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

Intimate landscapes can be found everywhere, and you often have 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 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

You can find more about Theo and his work here.

Theo will donate 10% of the registration fees to Landvernd, the leading nature conservation association in Iceland. This association strives to protect the whole central highland of Iceland as a national park.

Length: 2 hours

Jennifer Renwick 

Jennifer is based in Colorado but travels full-time in a travel trailer with her partner David Kingham. Together they conduct photography workshops, exploring and photographing the American West. "I extend my photography passion to students by teaching visual storytelling. I teach 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 are continuously evolving landscapes sculpted by 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. You will also learn how to maximize 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.  

Learn more about Jennifer and her images here.

Jennifer will donate 10% of the registration fees to the Death Valley Natural History Association since they do so much work to help preserve and educate about Death Valley. 

Length: 2 hours

Adam Gibbs 

For many of us, we stare into the confusing forest landscape and cannot find a way to tell a story. How do we find order, and produce 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 constructs his evocative images of the forest, woodland, and tree scenes he has become so known for.

Adam will cover what inspires him about woodland photography, how he looks for compositions and the types of things he looks for in a woodland. Adam will cover light and the types of light he likes in forests. He'll also show a collection of examples and discuss what inspired him to make the image and how.

Finally, 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 here.

Length: 2.5 hours