New Iphone

Spent today on Palenville, New York - Catskill Region of the Hudson Valley - in an IPhone workshop with Dan Burkholder. Dan has been in front of the IPhone curve for quite some time now and his workshops are always informative,  equal parts technical and IPhone fun.

The image above is from Iceland - it was done by stitching together 7 vertical images on the IPhone....The image below is me playing around with some new ways to use texture that I  learned today in Palenville.

Waterfall

 I was told by our hosts the Iceland has over 1000 waterfalls.....This is an image from the second day of the workshop....I am still experimenting with HDR and Nik filters.

More HDR

I have been having allot of fun with the HDR process this week.

Since being on the week long Iceland Workshop with Tony Sweet last week I have been experimenting with a more 'illustrative' HDR look. To this end I have been  using more Nik filters and pushing Photomatix more then I would normally.

As mentioned previously we had access almost anywhere in Iceland we wanted to shoot. The two images posted today are from an industrial site just outside of Reykjavik, our first stop of the week. It was nice to get up so close to these architectural structures rather then shooting them from the other side of a fence.

HDR

High Dynamic Range Photography... I have not always been a fan of this particular HDR look but sometimes an image gets in your way that absolutely calls for this treatment...This, to me, is one of those images.

There was absolutely no light inside this old farm building in Iceland - only the light coming in the small door where the camera and tripod were set up - I had to get out of the way during exposure to let any light at all get into the space.

Another one of my favorites from the trip....Love the depth created by the process....

More Iceland

A couple more images from Iceland.

The one above is from a town called Vík í Mýrdal located on the south coast of Iceland. The mountain on the right is called Reynisfjall and the three rocks in the distance are called Reynisdranger. It turns out that the leader of the workshop was born in this small town.

We had stopped for lunch in this town and after lunch I looked over and saw the three rocks in the ocean....the whole scene appeared very mystical to me.... surely there is a story that we do not know from a time gone by.

The iamge below is called  'Church with Red Roof'. It was captured out the bus window in the rain....we had been out shooting closer to the church when the rain started so we retreated back to cover and started making images out the window. Our workshop leader, Tony Sweet,  told us how to shoot this and make it work. I want to see this image layered with a texture which I wil lget to later this week.

Iceland - IPhone

Today is our last day of shooting in Iceland. The workshop has been all I expected and then some. I am posting a few of my iphone images today...enjoy...

I can't say enough about Tony Sweet - I had been trying to attend one of his workshops for quite some time and he did not disappoint. I enjoyed his approach to making images and the gentle way he delivered information - if you listened closely he imparted a great deal of valuable information -both mindful and technical. In general he mad for a fabulous workshop experience - I would highly recommend getting to one of his workshops.

Off to the last day of shooting now.....Stay Tuned..

Iceland

It has been virtually non-stop since arriving into Iceland last Monday morning. The days have flown by - and there are no real nights as it never turns completely dark this time of year. The sun rise starts at around 130AM and lasts until 4AM - sunset starts at 11PM and runs until twilight at 130AM....perfect for our purpose.

I am trraveling with a group of photographers on a workshop  led by Tony Sweet which has been organized by Focus on Nature...We move around the countryside in a large 4 wheel drive bus which literally can go anywhere we might want to shoot.

The Focus on Nature staff, Einar, Asta, Ziggy and Gudmundur are very accommodating and there is virtually nothing they can not make happen. Hotels and food are not an issue and the coffee needs to be packaged for use at home - comes in handy after being out on the glacier until midnight and then have a wake up call for 2:45AM the next morning to catch a sunrise at Glacier Lagoon.

Iceland has a good deal to offer if you are a photographer - we have hardly touched the surface and have shot an industrial site, mountain range, glaciers, glacier lagoon, ocean and two farms one working and one from the a few centuries back. The first thing you notice about Iceland is the warmth of the people - at the farm above i was set up in the field shooting a waterfall and the farmer was driving back and forth in a tractor right in front of me. When it came to the part where he would either run me down or go around me, he went out of his way to drive around me with a smile and a wave - simply amazing!!!!!

You also find that there is access everywhere even at the industrial plant mentioned above. You can simply set up and shoot anywhere at any time. I am sure someone asked for permission but there are no fences, barbed wire or "Keep Out" postings unless it warns of impending danger or physical harm.

And did I mention the herring is to die for.......

Off to another sunrise now.....