In that blog post I talked about photographing what I perceived as an interesting sculpture along the Danube River in Budapest. What I failed to realize at the time was that this sculpture was actually a memorial to the victims of a horrible crime the occurred near the end of World War II.

From a photographic perspective, I found this subject to be fascinating. And I still find it fascinating, though in a very different light now that I understand the meaning of the subject.

Those who know me well can surely appreciate that I meant no offense in talking about this photographic subject in a relatively light-hearted way. But I still feel horrible that I didn’t even think to research the subject, and find out what it was, before I wrote about photographing it.

My friend and mentor George Lepp always reminded me to, “Know thy subject”. This is a lesson I neglected in this particular situation.

So, while I’ve removed a blog post that I worried might be perceived as being insensitive, I’m now able to share a learning moment. Many times a subject we take at face value can actually carry far more meaning than we might realize. Even when you think you know what you’re photographing, it might be a good idea to do a little bit of research to make sure. I sure wish I had in this case.

The memorial I am referring to is called “Shoes on the Danube Promenade“, and it memorializes a very dark moment in human history. In light of the meaning of this powerful memorial, I’ve spent some time trying to interpret one of my photos of the memorial in a way that hopefully better conveys the subject matter.

When you want a cat to come in for the night, you’re likely to sing the refrain, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!”.

But what do you do when you want a cow to come your way? This is a dilemma I faced while recording my latest video training title, “Time-Lapse Photography Workshop“. We had been driving around through the mountains, hoping to find either some nice cloud development or cows grazing in a field. So I felt incredibly lucky when we drove around a corner through a valley to find both in the same place.

As we approached, the cows were right up against the fence, and they seemed very curious about what we were doing, milling about and moo-ing in our general direction. I eagerly started setting up my tripod with a wide-angle lens, getting everything configured for my time-lapse. But since I would be recording a training video I didn’t start capturing the frames of the time-lapse. After all, I wanted the viewer to see me doing that on camera.

We setup quickly, and I started introducing the topic on-camera. And after a couple of sentences, a loud tractor approached to turn the hay in a neighboring field. It was too noisy, and we had to stop recording for about ten minutes.

And of course, during that ten minutes the cows decided they were no longer curious about the crew and all of our equipment. They also decided they had enough to eat for the time being, and it was time to gather in the middle of the field (far from the fence), to lay down and digest. The great time-lapse I envisioned was no longer what I envisioned.

We started recording anyway, and I initiated the time-lapse capture, hoping that during the period of about forty-five minutes that I would be capturing frames, the cows would get curious and approach our position again. A few did, but most didn’t. The time-lapse was still cool, but I think it could have been so much cooler!

The lesson? Sometimes the photography really has to come first. Even though I was about to go on camera to demonstrate the technique of setting up and capturing a time-lapse video, I should have started the time-lapse as soon as I got setup in front of a cool subject. On camera I could have always explained to the viewer that the scene was just too good to pass up, and that I had already started capturing my frames. Then I could talk about the settings I had used for the captures, while the camera kept shooting all along.

You would have forgiven that, right? Let me know in the comments below, or share your own experience of when you wish you would have put photography first.

One of the things I generally strive for (though not always) when composing a photograph is simplicity. I tend to focus on trying to include in the frame only that which really needs to be there. Sometimes I do better at this than at other times. But sometimes the world seems to be conspiring against me (perhaps those who call me high-maintenance will also now call me paranoid).

I’ve never been a big fan of power lines. As a technology buff I’m a huge fan of electricity (preferably from the greenest sources possible, of course), but I just don’t like power lines. For as long as I can remember they have seemed to be in just the wrong place when I’m composing a photograph.

So as I was wandering around Graz, Austria, I found myself getting a little bit frustrated (in a low-maintenance sort of way) about all the power lines. These power lines provide the power for the trolleys and buses, but they sort of get in the way when they are in between my lens and a subject I want to photograph.

But then I decided that perhaps I should just embrace the power lines. Perhaps I should make them part of the composition.

At this point I sort of feel that I’ve gone halfway. I’ve been focused on not sweating it when the power lines get into the frame. But I think to really take this full circle, I need to actually make the power lines the key subject, with everything else in the frame simply providing context. I’ve not found that composition just yet, but I’m keeping my eye out for it.

What do you think? Can something that I thought of as a blemish actually become the key subject in a good photograph? I’ll keep my eye out, and see what I can come up with, but in the meantime post your comments below to let me know your thoughts, and perhaps to provide suggestions on how I should setup the shot.

No, I’ve never had that happen to me either.

Well, OK, that’s not true. It happened to me just the other day. I was taking a break from the recording studio, where I was creating some new training videos (more on that soon!). I needed to get some lunch, but more importantly I needed some fresh air. So I headed out, with my camera in hand, of course. There had been some rain earlier in the day, so plenty of puddles could be found nearby.

As the later afternoon light started painting everything in sight with a warm glow, things started looking pretty cool. As often happens (at least for me) in photography, a scene presented itself to me that I wasn’t really looking for. It was a simple puddle in the gutter of a cobbled street, with the reflection of an apartment building illuminated by warm light revealing itself in the puddle.

I responded instantly, bringing the camera to my eye, zooming in on the puddle, and then… I needed to decide whether to focus on the street, with the reflection in the puddle appearing out of focus, or whether to focus on the reflection of the apartment, so the surrounding cobbles would be out of focus.

OK, sure, I could have set things up so that everything was in focus, but that definitely didn’t seem like the right shot.

I first photographed the scene with the reflection of the apartment in clear focus.

I felt like this was the right approach. But I was second-guessing myself. I wondered if perhaps the “opposite” shot was the right shot. So, I figured, why not capture both? With digital any extra frames are “free”, or so we tell ourselves. So I caved in and captured the “other” version of the scene.

Here’s the worst part: After reviewing both, I was still struggling to decide which was my preferred interpretation of the scene. My gut tells me the image with the reflected building in focus is the better image. But there’s something compelling about having the cobbled street in focus and the apartment building out of focus.

I’m still not sure…

What do you think? How would you approach this (or a similar) subject? Share your thoughts by commenting below…

Kodak is a company founded in 1888 that became the iconic brand in photography for professionals and amateurs alike. It survived many challenges over those years, and was an early pioneer in digital photography, but for a variety of reasons the company simply couldn’t get a strong foothold in a digital world.

The prospect of losing Kodak is a sad one for me, as I’m sure it is for many photographers. For so many of us (even those who had been using Fuji films), the Kodak brand was one that often stirred feelings of respect. I suppose now those feelings are more of nostalgia, which I suppose only underscores that the decline of Kodak is something that has been going on for quite a number of years.

Several years ago I visited Rochester, and it was truly a sad and difficult experience. A company that epitomized photography for me when I first got started working in a wet darkroom in high school, was now partially represented by a large number of empty buildings.

While my expectations aren’t high, I hope Kodak is able to work its way out of bankruptcy, and perhaps find a way to reinvent itself as a viable and meaningful company that photographers will once again look to for leadership in this industry. Part of me just wants that brand to stick around, if for no other reason than so I can hold on to a piece of the past that is so meaningful to me.

Best of luck, Kodak. And thanks for the memories you’ve provided, and the memories you’ve helped me retain through photography over the years.

I’ve taught many workshops at many locations around the country and even around the world, but my experience at Maine Media Workshops (MMW) stands out. Allow me to explain…

When I first agreed to teach a workshop at MMW last year, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. The Workshops are located in the small town of Rockport, and I learned that we’d be eating all of our meals “cafeteria-style” as a group. I was skeptical. I shouldn’t have been.

It turns out the food at MMW is quite remarkable. And the group dining experience actually turned out to be one of the best aspects of the week. There are several (sometimes many!) workshops going on at one time at MMW in the summer. To be sure, there’s a tendency for each class to sit together as a group. But there’s also plenty of cross-pollination among the groups. This invariably leads to conversations with students and instructors in other workshops, and that proves both enjoyable and inspiring. You get to find out what everyone else is working on, and that can help feed into what you’re working on in your own workshop.

My class even had a little bit of “extra” fun, capturing images of ourselves against a green screen so we could assemble a cool group photo to include in our end-of-the-week class presentation to all of the other attendees that week. It was loads of fun, and had me jumping for joy!

Before my workshop was even over last year I was already asking the staff about coming back. And I also started thinking about a workshop experience that would best benefit from the unique environment at MMW. So I created a course where the workshop participants will help define a real-world project we’ll work on together. Then we’ll all head out to capture new photographic images for that project, and will work both individually and in groups to sort, organize, optimize, and share those images.

In the process, workshop participants will get a chance to work on their photography, and will also learn to make the most of Lightroom in the context of a real-world project. The result will be a greater confidence using Lightroom, along with lots of new skills and knowledge.

I’m very excited about this new workshop offering, and hope you’ll consider joining me for a great week at Maine Media Workshops. You can get more details about this workshop through the Maine Media Workshops website here:

http://www.mainemedia.edu/workshops/photography/lightroom-photo-project-workshop-tim-grey

Once I had the camera back, naturally the first step was to test it out to make sure the repair had been successful, and that everything was in proper working order. This is where I got a little silly. I mean, I couldn’t just capture a black frame with the lens cap on. And I couldn’t just point the camera randomly in the room and snap a photo of nothing in particular. I needed to try to take a “real” picture. But what the heck do you photograph on short notice when you’re really just testing out a camera? I mean, I didn’t need a “real” capture. I just needed to know that the camera was functioning properly. Oh, it can be so difficult being me…

Fortunately, after an embarrassingly long time wandering around to find something mildly interesting to photograph as my first test frame with the repaired camera, a bowl on the counter caught my eye.

Not exactly an award-winning shot. And it took way more time than I really needed to spend to test out the camera. But I’m happy to report the camera is working great again. And I’m not too embarrassed to admit just how silly I am when it comes to capturing a test frame.

So what do you think? Just plain silly? Or totally what you would have done too? Am I alone in the “just plain silly photographer” category?

At stores like this where you have a variety of different products on display from different manufacturers, the key is to really stand out among customers. In one corner there was a wind tunnel being used to promote Buick automobiles, and you could go inside the wind tunnel to get your picture taken. Cool, and fun, but I didn’t get a chance to go inside. Instead, I watched as a very clever photographer decided to put a model into the booth and photograph her with the wind going full blast.

Naturally I couldn’t resist looking over his shoulder, and snapping a few photos of my own showing him at work (and showing the model being blown away, almost literally). I would later learn that the photographer is just getting started in the industry, and is a very nice guy too. His name is Gideon Clare.

I didn’t want to disturb the photographer, but I sensed from his reactions to the shots that the lighting wasn’t quite what he was looking for. He had a remotely triggered flash setup with an umbrella, but it seemed that the angle for the light wasn’t quite right. Because of the shape of the wind tunnel, and the fact that there were glass walls on the sides, there wasn’t a tremendous amount of flexibility in terms of positioning the flash.

That’s when Gideon got a little more clever and creative. He had an assistant step into the wind tunnel with the model, and hold the umbrella in position as the fan was kicked into high gear. I imagine most of you are familiar with the umbrellas used in studio flash photography, so you can surely appreciate the effect. From my perspective it was a little comical, with the umbrella being contorted wildly in the wind.

Of course, I figured Gideon was perhaps getting a bit nervous about his gear (and his assistant!). After he was finished I approached him to chat about his shoot. He explained that he was working on a project for possible use in a magazine. I asked about putting his gear at risk, and he said sometimes you just have to take a chance to get the shot.

I thought that was very well put. As far as I’m concerned, Gideon was taking a chance not just with his gear, but also with his creative approach to this particular photo shoot. And for that, I commend him. Creative thinking can go a long way in photography. I just hope his photos ended up turning out great…

There had been hints of a problem with the shutter on this camera for a while. At first, those hints weren’t terribly obvious. At least they didn’t seem like obviously hints at the time. But over time, I started getting errors, and the camera would refuse to take pictures. Or pictures would show up black. Or pictures would show up with a dark region that was evidence of the shutter passing by the sensor at the wrong time.

The issue really became a problem in terms of consistency when I was on a trip to Austria to record my latest video training titles, “Mastering Macro Photography” and “Time-Lapse Photography Workshop“. It wasn’t a significant issue during recording of the Macro course, but it certainly became an issue when I was attempting to demonstrate the capture of hundreds (if not thousands) of frames to create a time-lapse video. I had to borrow a friend’s 7D so I could use the same camera model to complete the filming. Problem solved, for the time being.

Of course, during a side trip I was left with the only camera I had with me. This proved frustrating, as I would randomly get dark frames when capturing a series of images. This was especially problematic while I was in Venice. I would be on a boat (of course) moving from one area to another, and waiting for just the right moment to capture an image I had in mind. That was the moment the black frames were most likely to occur, of course. Thank you, Mr. Murphy.

As the shutter issue started really getting problematic, I started doing some research to figure out the exact nature of the problem. I learned that the 7D (and other cameras, I’m sure) is susceptible to getting a sticky shutter if you use Live View too much or record a lot of video. In both cases the shutter is left open for an extended period, and it just isn’t really designed for that sort of treatment apparently.

Of course, you might be tempted to cry “foul!” at this sort of failure. But to be fair, the shutter is rated for 150,000 cycles. I’m not sure exactly how many images I’ve captured (I neglected to pull that info from the camera before shipping it off to Canon), but in my current Lightroom catalog I have 137,340 images captured with my 7D, out of a total of 220,929 master images in the catalog. Considering the random images that got deleted along the way, a few time-lapse image collections that I discarded, and other shutter cycles that didn’t end up resulting in a photo in my Lightroom catalog, I’d say I probably exceeded the expected lifetime of the shutter anyway. Considering the repair only cost about $250, I really can’t complain.

Mostly though, I’m just happy to have my good friend and travel companion back. And just before heading back to Austria to record some more video training titles. Perfect timing!

The opportunity was via a remarkable exhibit called Dialog in the Dark (www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com) in New York City. Think of it as providing a simulation of life with blindness. All I knew going into this was that I would experience complete darkness, and that a guide who was actually blind would do the leading.

I had first learned of this exhibit when I was in Vienna, Austria, recently. At the time they were booked up for the next few days, and I was heading back home in a couple days, so I wasn’t able to attend. I thought Vienna was the only location that offered this unique exhibit, so I just added it to my to-do list for a future visit to Vienna.

More recently, I learned that there are actually multiple locations for Dialog in the Dark, including New York and Atlanta in the United States. So I made plans to attend the New York exhibit.

Of course, as a photographer I’ve dealt with a pitch-black room, back in the days when I had to load film into rolls, or into development canisters. That was a little disorienting at first, but there wasn’t much to navigate. Once in the room there were just four walls and a counter. Pretty simple.

Upon arriving at the Dialog in the Dark exhibit in New York, I was presented with a blind walking cane, and led into a pitch-black room. I was left at a railing as the guide introduced himself and proceeded to get to know all of us. We were then led through the completely darkened exhibit. No light whatsoever.

We were led through models of a variety of locations, including Central Park, a grocery store, and then a subway ride (it actually moved to simulate the ride!) to Times Square. There we were overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds, which proved to add to the disorientation. And then we had to cross the street on our own. With very realistic sounds, it was a bit of a frightening experience.

Finally, the entire group settled into a booth at a cafe, and the lights very slowly came on. We all thanked the guide for an incredible experience, and went back to a world of sight.

The experience not only helped me empathize with those who must navigate through the world without the benefit of vision, but also gave me an increased awareness of just how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy the sights around me, and how lucky I am to be able to record those sights through photography.

I encourage all photographers (and indeed everyone) to experience Dialog in the Dark for themselves if the opportunity presents itself. The experience of not seeing might just make you a better photographer.

Well, I’d like to share a tip about a bit of “equipment” for time-lapse photography that won’t cost you much at all, and won’t weigh you down. It’s tape! Simple, inexpensive masking tape (or painter’s tape). Check out this tip in video form via my YouTube channel here:

And for more on the concepts, equipment, techniques, and more related to creating incredible time-lapse videos, check out my latest video training title, produced by video2brain. This new title is called “Time-Lapse Photography Workshop“, and it features almost three hours of HD video aimed at teaching you everything you need to know (and then some!) about time-lapse photography.

You can check out this new video training title in the video2brain online store here:
http://bit.ly/timgrey-timelapse

To begin with, with this exhibit the artwork isn’t displayed on the walls as with all other exhibits I’ve seen at the Guggenheim. Instead, the many objects (including some photographs) are hung from the ceiling, like an infant’s mobile gone wildly out of control. I hadn’t brought my “real” camera, of course, because I knew it would be pointless. But I wanted to document this very interesting exhibit in some way, so I took my iPhone out and started snapping some photos. After all, everyone else was doing it (of course, that excuse never worked with my mom when I was growing up).

I’m not sure how I would have felt if I had only seen a single piece from Maurizio Catellan. But the retrospective was incredibly interesting and fascinating and cool. I greatly enjoyed exploring it. So I wanted to share the photo and write something about it here on my blog. Preferably without getting in trouble with the Guggenheim.

So I wrote an email to the Press Office at the Guggenheim, explaining my situation. You know, I’m kind of sort of like press, right? I expected to be turned down. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a reply (promptly, I might add), letting me know that photography was actually allowed for this particular exhibit. Very cool! Except for the part where I didn’t bring my real camera along with me. Perhaps I’ll have to go back…

If you have the opportunity to check out this show, and to learn more about the artist, I certainly encourage it. I can’t promise you’ll love the art, but I am pretty confident you’ll be fascinated by the story behind the work. The show runs through January 22nd, and you can get more details on the Guggenheim website here:

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/maurizio-cattelan-all

In the video lessons included with this title, I guide you through the equipment, concepts, and techniques to help you improve your knowledge and gain confidence in your ability to capture great closeup and macro photographs.

In addition, this title includes several macro “project” lessons, where I take you step by step through the entire process of capturing a particular macro photograph. One of my favorite projects included with this title involved photographing a spider web.

I had been driving around with the video crew the morning after some light rainfall, traveling through hills and mountains in search of interesting photographic opportunities. We found a small dirt road off the main road, with a large woodpile and some wildflowers. We pulled off, and I started exploring. Thanks to the overcast sky and the droplets left behind by the rain, there were countless photographic opportunities in this small area.

Wandering around the area, I spotted several spider webs among the wood pile, with one in particular in a relatively accessible location. Still, there were a few challenges. Obviously a spider web is relatively delicate, so I needed to be careful with my equipment and myself, to ensure I didn’t damage the web. And I needed to squeeze myself up against a wood pile on a small incline in order to get into a good position. The ground below my tripod was rather soft, which presented an additional challenge.

I managed to get into position, to get setup, and to create a basic image of the spider web. But then I decided I needed a better background. So I took a couple of relatively large leaves, and held them up behind the spider web. This provided a more interesting (I think) backdrop than the wood pile that was actually behind the web. All things considered, I was happy with the final photo, and I had a lot of fun making the image.

For more details, or to purchase this great new video training title, visit the video2brain online store here:
http://bit.ly/timgreymacro

You can view a video of this particular macro photography project through my YouTube channel with the embedded video below.

If you’re not able to view the embedded video above, you can view it on my YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lv7WfhBIJ8

You see, “the tree” is sort of a big deal. Both literally and figuratively. It’s a big tree, and it’s a big attraction. And this time of year, there are large numbers of tourists in Manhattan who want to check the tree off their list. So the place is crowded.

To make things worse, the tree isn’t exactly accessible. I mentioned the crowds, and that’s certainly part of the challenge. There are also quite a few barricades to (in theory) help control the flow of people. And the tree itself is surrounded by barriers (and security) to prevent you from touching the tree. Unfortunately, those barriers also prevent you from getting directly below the tree, or otherwise positioning yourself into position for an interesting perspective. I found it surprisingly frustrating to get a good angle on the subject, even though I’ve visited the tree numerous times and have certainly faced these limitations before. So you sort of end up with the same “standard” photos that everyone else gets. Makes me feel like I’m just another tourist, not a “real” photographer.

But here’s the thing. If I got myself all setup with gear a bit more advanced than an iPhone, and actually took the time to get into a good position, wait for the right time, and set everything up perfectly, I’d end up with a good photo. But just how good could it be? I’ve seen good photos of the tree, but nothing that is knock-your-socks-off amazing. I’m sure it can be done. But I’ve never done it. And I don’t quite feel the motivation for it. So I’m thinking I’ll leave it to someone else.

Then again, I’ll bet after midnight the crowds are smaller and I could get a great shot. But the tree is only lit from 5:30am to 11:30pm. So… Sunrise photography of a Christmas tree anyone?…

The technology behind the Lytro camera is pretty cool. Imagine being able to capture an image where you have relatively narrow depth of field, but you can define which subject you want to have in crisp focus? That’s the basic idea behind the Lytro camera, and in the future they also expect to enable you to define the specific range of the depth of field. That’s pretty cool. In addition, you can shift perspective via parallax. Also cool.

What I found most interesting about the approach being taken by Lytro in promoting this camera, however, is that they seem first and foremost focused on how the images are shared, not how their captured or edited. In theory, the “Living Pictures” (as Lytro calls them) that are created from this camera can open up a whole new way for us to interact with photographs.

As a geeky photographer, I was a little disappointed with some of the specifications. You can only get prints of good quality up to around a 5″x7″ size. You can’t replace the battery, or the memory card. You can’t adjust the shutter speed. Their software will initially only be available for the Macintosh operating system.

But I think focusing (no pun intended) on the limitations of the initial Lytro cameras is a mistake. This is very cool technology, with a lot of potential in a variety of applications. I applaud Lytro for the effort they are clearly putting into making a successful product. As the technology develops and the product lineup matures, I could very easily see large numbers of photographers scrambling to get their hands on a product like this. And the Lytro representatives suggested that an SLR version of the Lytro camera might be possible in around two to five years.

Today the Lytro camera isn’t yet shipping, and is a little expensive for a digital camera with relatively low resolution and somewhat limited utility. But if Lytro is successful in their efforts, I would anticipate much lower prices and more powerful cameras. The question is, will these cameras be embraced by consumers and photographers, or will they be seen as a gimmick? The future will tell, but I encourage you to check out the Lytro website (www.lytro.com) to see the “Living Pictures” in action. And if you decide to become an “early adopter” of one of their cameras (or get a chance to play with one at one of their events), let me know what you think.

The room consisted of some very wild furniture and overall decor, but in particular there were stripes. Lots of strips. Everywhere. Black and white stripes, orange and black stripes, stripes along walls, stripes along pipes (I feel like I’m caught in a Dr. Seuss book). It was wild, and it was interesting, and it was fun from a photographic standpoint. How could I resist?!

One of the things that I found most interesting is that because so many different areas of the room had so many different stripes, I could adjust my position to shift the relative position of the different stripes. For example, in the image shown here, there was a column on the left side of the frame that was relatively close to the camera, and a wall in the background that was further away. I shot with a variety of settings, but thought it might be interesting to open up the aperture a bit (I went to f/5.6) in order to render the closer stripes in focus and the further stripes with a bit of a blur.

Mostly I thought it was interesting that this sort of scene had such potential to trick the eye, and so I tried to capture images that similarly created an element of “What is that?!” on the part of the viewer. In other words, something of an optical illusion. But not just in terms of not being able to precisely identify the subject, but also not even being entirely sure that the image was a photograph, as opposed to something created from scratch in Photoshop, for example.

I love finding subjects like this, simply because I find it interesting to explore a variety of different possibilities. I’m never quite sure what I might end up using such a photo for, but they sure can be fun to create!

One common situation where a tripod can be helpful is when photographing from a motorboat. You want a stable platform, but you don’t want to transmit the vibrations of the motor through the tripod to your camera. A tripod represents a good compromise. I had a chance to put a monopod to extensive use while co-leading a field photography workshop in Alaska, spending eight days on a yacht with a group of great students. The tripod I used was a Gitzo GM5541 carbon fiber tripod, but just about any sturdy and lightweight tripod will provide a helpful platform.

I also consider a monopod to be a great compromise when a tripod is a bit too constricting of your movement, but you’d prefer not to shoot handheld. On the boat in Alaska this was most certainly the case. When whales, eagles, mountain goats (on the shore nearby, of course) or other subjects made an appearance, it was necessary to move quickly from one part of the boat to another to get the shot. A monopod is much easier to move around with compared to a tripod, and enables greater flexibility than a tripod for moving around once you’ve found a good position to shoot from. Plus it provides an extra degree of stability compared to shooting hand-held.

You might consider adding a monopod to your equipment closet if you find yourself in situations where you’d like to have some additional stability with a platform that doesn’t require as much space as a tripod.

I showed them an image that I captured in the Palouse region of eastern Washington state while co-leading a field photography workshop there. Of course, I had already pretended to mis-lead the audience a little. I had been joking that the reason the shadow of my head was in the frame was that I had done so on purpose, in order to provide a good sample image for a later image cleanup effort. The truth (which I quickly ‘fessed up to) is that I was a little careless while shooting with a wide-angle lens, and the shadow was there entirely by accident.

That little fib was an intentional effort at humor, with no intention of anyone believing that the shadow was there on purpose. But then I explained that sometimes the automatic image cleanup tools in Photoshop let you down a little bit, and you need to use a manual approach. Then I told the audience that I had actually never tried to clean up the shadow with the automatic approach. I just used this image to demonstrate the manual method, without a concern about whether the automatic approach might work better.

I don’t think they believed me at all. But it was actually true! The image worked well for demonstrating a manual approach to image cleanup, and I had never bothered to test to see how the automatic tools fared. I tried to convince the audience that I really had never tried, and that I was about to try the Spot Healing Brush with the Content-Aware feature for the very first time on this particular image to see how it would do.

Lucky for me, the Spot Healing Brush tool actually did a pretty bad job with this particular image cleanup task. And that only served to validate the value of the manual approach to image cleanup I was going to demonstrate moments later.

That manual approach happens to involve creating a selection that is a little larger than the area you need to fix, moving that selection to an area of the image that represents a good source of pixels to replace the blemish, duplicating the pixels in that area (presumably from the Background image layer), and then using a layer mask to blend the correction in. Simple, and effective.

If you’d like to learn even more about image cleanup to make all of your photos look their best, check out my video training title “Photoshop Image Cleanup Workshop” available from the video2brain online store here:
https://partner.video2brain.com/timgrey/courses.htm#/?c=798&t=1

And so it was when I was returning home from dinner after teaching all day at my “Photoshop Power Workshop” in New York City. It had been forecast to rain all day, but that didn’t quite pan out. However, the weather conditions did lead to some low clouds and mist after sunset, and while walking home I noticed the well-illuminated Empire State Building looked very mysterious and interesting as clouds blew by.

So, after returning home I gathered my gear and headed up to the roof. The intent was to spend just a few minutes capturing a quick image of the Empire State Building. You know how that goes. I took time trying to find the best location. Then I had to tinker with the exposure settings. Then I fine-tuned the composition. Then I captured several frames, all with relatively long exposures. Then I realized I was getting pretty wet, even though it was only misting. After every few photos I had to wipe off the front of the lens. And between short sessions I had to put the lens cap back on the lens.

In short, it was fun. Lots of fun! More fun than it probably should have been capturing relatively pedestrian shots of a building that has been captured millions of times. But it didn’t matter. I was enjoying the process, and that was good enough.

Photographers are becoming increasingly aware of the non-destructive workflow in Lightroom, and that certainly extends to cropping. And I hear from many photographers (and I agree with their sentiment) who feel that cropping in Lightroom is for the most part far superior to cropping in Photoshop. But most of them, it seems, aren’t aware that you can apply a (relatively speaking) non-destructive crop in Photoshop.

The basic process of non-destructive cropping in Photoshop involves first converting the Background image layer to a normal layer. This is done by double-clicking on the thumbnail for the Background image layer on the Layers panel and then clicking OK in the New Layer dialog that appears (typing a new name for the layer before clicking OK if that’s your preference).

You then choose the Crop tool and click-and-drag across the image to draw the initial crop box. At this point you can select the Hide option for Cropping on the Options bar. The default setting is Delete, which as the name implies will completely remove the pixels that fall outside the crop box as soon as you apply the crop. By choosing the Hide option what’s actually happening is that the document frame is being resized so you can only see the area of the image included within the crop, with pixels outside that area still remaining but not visible.

If at any time you change your mind you can simply choose Image > Reveal All to expand the document frame to show all of the pixels that fall outside of that frame, effectively un-cropping the image.

I use this trick all the time when I want to crop an image in Photoshop, and I’m not completely certain that I won’t change my mind later about the specific cropping I’m applying.

I was reminded of this while getting some work done from the passenger seat while heading back to New York from Kentucky toward the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. The side view mirror revealed a remarkably colorful sunset behind me. But I knew better than to think I was going to be able to get a great photo. Without an interesting foreground subject, something to silhouette, or a sunset that is truly breathtaking, the photographic results aren’t likely to impress.

Still, I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t reach into my bag in the back seat to get my SLR, but I did break out my iPhone to capture some images of the sunset and clouds reflected in the side view mirror. As you can see from the photo here, I didn’t end up with anything I would ever use for any real purpose, but it was great to experience the incredible color, and fun to try to capture some interesting photos while enjoying the fading daylight.

My first reaction was that there was no need for me to travel all the way to Europe to record new videos. Oops. What I meant to say was that I’d love to visit Europe again. I had never been to Austria, and frankly didn’t have big expectations. I didn’t know a lot about the country, but I knew that as far as I could tell it wasn’t a huge tourist destination. Then I got there and discovered this country is one of the best kept secrets in Europe!

The Alps simply defy description. Driving through the Alps was simply breathtaking. I visited Vienna, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Graz, and a variety of other destinations in many areas of Austria. I loved it. Austria is a beautiful country with a rich sense of history, friendly people, and great food. Not to mention great photographic opportunities!

So I decided after several trips to Austria that I’d really enjoy leading a field photography workshop there. On subsequent trips I visited and re-visited locations to map out a plan, and I set about researching the possibilities. And now, I’m happy to announce that my Austria Photo Workshop is a “go”, running May 19-26, 2012.

If you’re interested in signing up, you can do so (or get more details) through my online store here:

http://timgreystore.com/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=Austria2012

And if you’d like to see a short video where I talk a little about this workshop, you can see that on my YouTube channel here:

Tim Grey photographing from the bow of the Alaskan Legend while co-leading a workshop in Alaska with Light Photographic Workshops. Photo by Hal Schmitt of Light Workshops.

First and foremost, I am thankful to my many readers. These are the photographers who actually tune in to what I have to say, who provide positive feedback (and worthwhile criticism when it is warranted), and who ultimately make it possible for me to make a living doing what I love. Thank you so very much.

I’m also thankful to some of the many companies who have supported my ten year anniversary celebration. My good friends at video2brain have done a great job producing my many video training titles over the past couple of years, and were kind enough to provide a free video training title to one lucky winner for every single Ask Tim Grey email newsletter during November. My friends at Lowepro provided a couple of Fastpack 250 backpacks (the same pack I use most when I travel) and a free Lens Exhange bag (check out my video featuring this bag on my YouTube channel) every day in November.

In addition, there were great prizes from Photodex, Red River Paper, Wacom, PhotoGlow, BorrowLenses.com, AV Bros., LensCoat, PictureCode, Florida’s Birding and Photo Fest, and of course, a few prizes from me.

I’m so grateful to everyone who has helped make this anniversary month a success, the Ask Tim Grey email newsletter a success, and my overall efforts a success. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here’s to another ten years. And beyond!

Of course, the truth is that I simply do my best to keep up with the publication schedule as best i can, along with all my other deadlines and responsibilities. Sometimes that means writing from some unusual locations, which I always find amusing. I’ve written the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter (as well as chapters of books, magazine articles, and more) from locations that include airplanes, trains, cars, airports, hotels, restaurants, bars, and much more.

So I wasn’t exactly surprised when I looked up from my laptop while writing an article for my Digital Darkroom Quarterly publication to see the landscape of Pennsylvania streaking by (don’t worry, I wasn’t doing the driving). I had taken some time to visit my mom, two of my sisters, and most of my nieces and nephews for the Thanksgiving holiday, and on the long drive back to New York City wanted to do my best to get some work done. So I’ve managed to make the most of my mobile office to wrap up the latest issue of Digital Darkroom Quarterly, write a few blog posts (including this one, which I’m writing while heading east on Interstate 78 through Pennsylvania), and respond to some emails (though the inbox is still overflowing).

Back when I took my cross-country photography road trip I wrote about one of my better purchases, which was a power adapter that provides a standard household outlet adapted from the cigarette lighter power source in the car (though some cars now include a standard power outlet without the need for an adapter). That power source actually enabled me to power up my three-terabyte external hard drive so I could transfer some additional files to my laptop to wrap up some of my work.

So, while I’m amused by the wide variety of locations from which I end up writing, I’m equally amused by just what you can manage to pull off in a mobile office. I have an assortment of devices and more cables than I care to count, but I’m managing to get some work done while enjoying the view and making progress toward home…

I was at the PhotoPlus Expo trade show in October, and was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to catch up with my friends Suzanne and Derrick. They were kind enough to offer me a gift, and brought out what looked like a relatively small bag designed to hold a 70-200mm lens. I thought it was a little odd that they’d give me a gift aimed at a particular lens they didn’t even know I had, until they showed me exactly what this bag was.

The Lens Exchange bag is a very clever bag, allowing you to very easily swap lenses without the risk of fumbling a lens and dropping it to the ground. There are two “secrets” to this bag. The first is that it has two slots inside, so that when the bag is open you can fit two lenses inside. This provides you with a place to put one lens until you can grab the other to put it on the camera. The other secret is a nice big handle that enables you to open and close the bag with one hand when it is attached to your belt.

I see the Lens Exchange bag as a perfect fit for photographers who ever face a situation where they need to be able to change lenses quickly. This brings to mind photojournalists, sports photographers, and even wedding and event photographers.

To get a better sense of what this bag has to offer, check out this quick video I put together:

If you can’t play the video inline above, you can also find it on my YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqWWSbq66mo

And if you’d like to get more info about this cool bag from Lowepro, you can find it here:
http://amzn.to/lensexchange