Upcoming Workshops

There are a couple of workshops coming up over the next two months that readers might be interested in. Click through to find out more...

Cow Pats and Fence Poles

Yesterday I found myself staring eyeball to eyeball with a surly cow. Usually this isn't too much of a problem, but when my knee is resting neatly in a cow pat and said surly cow keeps dropping her head and making aggressive shifting movements towards me I start to wonder why I'm sitting in a small fenced in field with a smelly, albeit grassy, turd oozing through my trouser knee.

Thanda in the Springtime - September Thanda Workshop and a note on Live View Focusing

One of the myriad advantages of doing a regular workshop in a single location is that you get to experience the location of a series of seasons. I'm continually asked by potential photographers on the African Impact Photography Project about what time of year would be best to visit. The answer is never simple I am afraid as every season, or month of the year for that matter, has something different to offer. I do however enjoy Spring and early summer the most most though. It's the sudden change from desolate brown to verdant green that does something for me.

Photographing the Cathedral

The Milky Way over Didima Camp at Cathderal Peak, with the Reserve's namesake in the distance (that's Tryme Hill on the left).  

I have been wanting to take students to photograph Cathedral Peak from a particular vantage point for quite some time now. The vantage point in question is half way along the standard route to summit Cathedral in the Mdedelo Wilderness area of the Drakensberg (also known as Cathedral Peak National Park). This means for a rather early start in order to hike the 5 odd kilometres to get to a point where the Cathedral Peak range can be effectively viewed at right when the sunlight hits it first thing in the morning. This means starting to walk before 4 in the morning. Amazingly, apart from a few half-hearted grumbles, the photographers were all up for this. Game on!

Giving Images ‘Bite’ in Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture NX2

One of my favourite techniques in the images that I use is to add a sense of clarity and ‘bite’ during post-production. I, like many other photographers, use a variety of programmes to accomplish my processing workflow. One job might be done entirely in Lightroom (usually for convenience), while another will spend most of its gestation in Photoshop proper (when complexity in processing is called for) and lastly, a great deal of my imagery is also processed through Nikon’s Capture NX2 (for ultimate quality - although this is debatable).