Fall Color Tours!

Gold Belt Fall Color "Mini" Tour

Date: Saturday, September 16, 2006 NOTE DATE CHANGE
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm
Cost: $40.00 per person
Meet At: Ute Pass Cultural Center Parking Lot, 210 East Midland Ave., Woodland Park, CO
Advance reservations/payment required: To register, please call the Woodland Park - Parks & Recreation Dept. at (719) 687-5225.

Description - Join us for a chance to shoot beautiful fall color scenery around Cripple Creek and Gold Camp Rd. near Victor. Please meet at the Ute Pass Cultural Center rear parking lot by 7:45 a.m. and we'll caravan together. I'll show you some of the best spots to shoot in the area and will be available to assist you in technique or composition. Please bring your own transportation (regular vehicles are OK), water, warm clothing, camera gear and plenty of film. Those with SLRs, bring all your lenses - you'll have a chance to use them all! Please bring extra batteries for your camera. Be prepared for a great time! Non-photographing spouses or family members are welcome to observe at no charge.

Participants will be limited to 8, so register early. First come – first served! Carpooling will be encouraged prior to departure.


Fall Color Weekend - Instructional Photo Tour (IPT) / Crested Butte, CO

Date: Saturday, September 30 to October 1, 2006
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Cost: $250.00 per person
Meet At: Crested Butte, CO, Friday evening, September 29.
Further details will be provided to participants.
Advance reservations/payment required: To register, please call the Woodland Park - Parks & Recreation Dept. at (719) 687-5225.

Description - Join us for an unforgettable fall color photo shoot in the Crested Butte area (north of Gunnison). You’ll be able to witness incredible blooms of wildflowers among rolling hills with groves of brilliant aspen!

We’ll meet for dinner Friday, September 29th in Crested Butte. I'll show you some of the best spots to shoot in the area and will be available to assist you in technique or composition.

Bring your own transportation, water, appropriate clothing, a hat, sunscreen, camera gear and plenty of film or digital cards. We will be shooting “rain or shine”, so be prepared for a possible shower. A digital or film SLR body with interchangeable lenses and tripod would be most useful. Digital cameras with a zoom telephoto lens will also work for this tour. Feel free to call me ahead of time with equipment questions. Be prepared for a great time! Non-photographing spouses or family members are welcome to observe at no charge.

Participants will be limited to 6, so register early. First come – first served! Hotel / food, not included.

Digital Photography Seminar - Colorado Springs, Sept. 15-16

Understanding Digital Photography comes to Colorado Springs, September 15-16. The two-day seminar is being put on by the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, a non-profit visual arts organization based in Florida. The seminar this year will be taught by Fatima NeJame, executive director of the Centre for the past 21 years. She's taught digital camera technology and Photoshop since 1992 and lectures nationwide.

Day 1 - Digital Cameras Made Easy
Day 2 - The Digital Darkroom

Pre-registration cost; $80/day - or at the door; $90/day.

For more info: www.workshop.org.

Adobe Lightroom Beta - Windows

From Tim Grey's DDQ:

"Adobe has launched the Windows version of their beta of Lightroom, a workflow application designed from the ground up for photographers. The beta for Macintosh has been out for some time, and now Windows users can also preview the features of this application. I've been very impressed with what I've seen so far, and expect great things in the final product. This is also a great opportunity for you to provide feedback to Adobe on the features you think are important. For more information, or to download the Windows version of the Lightroom beta, go here:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/?sdid=IGRC"

Wildflower Tours in July!

Wildflower “Mini” Tour

Date: Saturday, July 15, 2006
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Cost: $40.00 per person
Meet At: Ute Pass Cultural Center Rear Parking Lot, 210 East Midland Ave., Woodland Park, CO

Advance reservations/payment required: To register, please call the Woodland Park - Parks & Recreation Dept. at (719) 687-5225.

Description - Join us for a one-of-a-kind wildflower photo shoot north of Woodland Park. You’ll be able to witness incredible blooms of wildflowers among rolling hills with groves of aspen!Please meet at the Ute Pass Cultural Center parking lot promptly by 7:45 am and we'll caravan to the site together. I'll show you some of the best spots to shoot in the area and will be available to assist you in technique or composition.

Bring your own transportation, water, appropriate clothing, a hat, sunscreen, camera gear and plenty of film. We will be shooting “rain or shine”, so be prepared for a possible shower. A macro lens (or telephoto with extension tube) and tripod that can be positioned low to the ground would be most useful. Digital cameras with a "macro" mode will also work for this tour. I plan to show you some cool flash techniques on this tour, so please bring any flash gear you have. Feel free to call me ahead of time with equipment questions. Be prepared for a great time! Non-photographing spouses or family members are welcome to observe at no charge.
Participants will be limited to 8, so register early. First come – first served! Carpooling will be encouraged prior to departure.


Wildflower Weekend - Instructional Photo Tour (IPT) / Crested Butte, CO

Date: Saturday, July 22-23, 2006Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Cost: $250.00 per person
Meet At: Crested Butte, CO, Friday evening, July 21. Further details will be provided to participants.

Advance reservations/payment required: To register, please call the Woodland Park - Parks & Recreation Dept. at (719) 687-5225.

Description - Join us for an unforgettable wildflower photo shoot in the Crested Butte area (north of Gunnison). You’ll be able to witness incredible blooms of wildflowers among rolling hills with groves of aspen!
We’ll meet for dinner Friday, July 21 in Crested Butte. I'll show you some of the best spots to shoot in the area and will be available to assist you in technique or composition.

Bring your own transportation (high-clearance recommended), water, appropriate clothing, a hat, sunscreen, camera gear and plenty of film or digital cards. We will be shooting “rain or shine”, so be prepared for a possible shower. A macro lens (or telephoto with extension tube) and tripod that can be positioned low to the ground would be most useful. Digital cameras with a "macro" mode will also work for this tour. I plan to show you some cool flash techniques on this tour, so please bring any flash gear you have. Feel free to call me ahead of time with equipment questions. Be prepared for a great time! Non-photographing spouses or family members are welcome to observe at no charge.

Participants will be limited to 6, so register early. First come – first served! Hotel / food, not included.

CNP now RMNP

The Colorado Nature Photographer's (CNP) discussion forum is now the Rocky Mountain Nature photographer's forum! This group is a regional forum within the NaturePhotographers.net on-line magazine and association. Check it out at: http://colorado.naturephotographers.net/index.shtml. This is a wonderful group of fellow nature photographers in the Rocky Mountain region. Please stop by and consider joining!

Malaysia Trip #2

Hi All, just returned from another trip to Malaysia. Here I am visiting the Snake Temple in Palau Penang and being "initiated" with a poisonous (probably de-venomed) pit viper. Picture by my good friend Teng Beng Soon.

I plan to return one more time this year. The people there are really friendly and the food is great. Give anyone a smile and you'll get a flashy grin in return.

George Lepp in Colorado Springs

The Peak Digital Imaging Society, presents well known nature photographer, George Lepp, who is scheduled to present his talk, "New Possibilities in Outdoor/Nature Photography", July 27th, at 7:10 pm at the Colorado Springs Senior Center (1514 N. Hancock). The presentation is free to the public.

A founding member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), he has been published in National Geographic, Time Magazine, and the New Yorker. He's been a field editor for Outdoor Photographer and PC Photo for several years.

George has been a pioneer in digital photography and his presentations are always worth a listen.

Canyonlands N.P. - Grand View

Last weekend, we spent a few days touring/camping around the Islands and Needles Districts of Canyonlands N.P. This shot was taken at sunset a couple miles form Grand View Point. The photographers add a sense of scale to the landscape.

More images may be seen in my portfolio:
http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=up&pi=KEN_WYATT&u=25060.

Paint Mines, Calhan, CO

I'd heard of the Paint Mines several years ago from fellow photographer Bob Volpe, but had never investigated beyond that until recently.

The Paint Mines are a cluster of eroded "hoodoos", similar to Bryce Canyon in Utah. They are located near Calhan, CO on Paint Mines Rd (what else?), just off the Calhan Highway south of town. They are now part of the El Paso County Parks system.

Trails lead all through the formations and you could easily spend half a day photographing.

More examples are posted to my portfolio at: http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=up&pi=KEN_WYATT&u=25060.

Tulip Interior Featured on NANPA Home Page

My photo, "Tulip Interior", is currently featured on the opening page of the NANPA Web site today. To prove it doesn't necessarily take expensive equipment to capture a neat picture, this was taken with a Nikon CoolPix 995 with fisheye adapter during the Ottawa Tulip Festival last May. I simply stuck the fisheye lens down just inside the tulip cup and fired the shutter. The extreme depth of field of the lens threw everything into sharp focus. This was earlier selected as part of the NANPA Showcase 2006 - best 200 images from the NANPA membership. Copies of this compilation are available at the NANPA Bookstore. http://www.nanpa.org.

Woodland Park HS Photo Club

I had the priviledge of presenting a segment on "Improving Your Composition" at the Woodland Park High School Photography Club last February. I always enjoy the chance to share my passion for nature photography with others. Photos by Josh Tracy.

Garden of the Gods - Part 2

Here's one more shot of gateway Rocks with storm clouds brewing behind.

Garden of the Gods - Saturday, April 15th

Garden of the Gods Park is located just at the western edge of Colorado Springs and is a favorite shooting location among local and visiting photographers. Here's a good reason why shooting in rainy weather can pan out with unexpected results. I left home very early and it was sprinkling pretty hard. As I drove down Ute Pass towards the Springs, it turned torrential. I was hoping to catch a nice sunrise, but I really started to wonder as I drove along. By the time I arrived at the visitor center parking lot, it had stopped raining, so I waited (patience is a virtue for nature photographers, they say!). Soon, the rocks started to glow faintly. Then the sun peaked through a narrow opening in the clouds and just lit up the rocks! Everything else was left in shadow.

I decided to create a panoramic by taking a sequence of five overlapping images and stitching them together using a low-cost piece of software called Panorama Maker 3.0. This program does a wonderful job in figuring out just where to assemble the separate images. After a final crop, I used Photoshop to back off the saturation in order to match what I remember seeing, opened up the shadows slightly with the Shadow/Highlight control and gave it a little sharpening using Unsharp Mask.

Here's the result. Nice 'eh?

Rent your lenses!

Here's a nifty idea. Why buy an expensive lens costing several hundred (or thousands) of dollars that may only be used a few times, when you can rent one for one, or more, weeks for a fraction of the cost? Rent Glass (www.rentglass.com) currently has several Canon lenses (Nikon coming soon) at very moderate rental prices. No big telephotos, though. Check 'em out...

Nature's Best Photography Experience - Denver

The Nature's Best Photography Experience is coming to Denver this coming April 9th! This educational seminar is being presented by Blue Pixel. Instructor Daniel Cox is a profesional nature photographer whose images have appeared in Nature's Best photography, National Geographic and has appeared on Animal Planet a number of times. For more info: http://bluepixel.net/naturesbest. Price for the full day seminar is $149 for on-line registration or $169 at the door.

Daniel was one of the keynote speakers at the recent NANPA Summit and his presentation on his grey spotted owl project was spectacular.

Balanced Rock Lightpainting

Here's a shot of Balanced Rock in Arches N.P. taken last Feb. where I seriously tried my hand at light painting for the first time. I used a $20 battery-operated spot light and set the camera for a 30 second exposure in manual mode with an aperture of f4. The white balance was set to incandescent. Notice the constellation Orion just above the rock. I swept the base of the rock to give a sense of "base".

With digital, it's so very nice to be able to check your shot immediately for these unusual lighting situations. It turned out that with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and sweeping the light constantly during that whole period, the exposure seemed just right.

One variation I'll try for the future is to leave the shutter open for 1 to 2 hours in order to pick up the "star trails". I think that would look very cool.

Try it some time!

Malaysian Sunrise

Here's a sunrise I shot out the window of my hotel in Palau Penang, an island just off the coast of Malaysia and a popular location for a lot of U.S. electronics manufacturers. I didn't fool with the color adjustments at all. These are accurate representations of what I saw. I believe the highly pastel coloring was due to the high humidity level. Both images were taken with the new Canon 5D with (believe it or not) a Tamron 28-300mm at around 200mm. JPEG Fine and manual exposure. There was so much water vapor in the air, you could literally stare at the sun without any problem. It was like shooting through a very dense "tobacco" filter. And yes, near the equator, the sun really does rise straight up and sets straight down! Enjoy, Ken

Images of Greatness

While perusing through my local Big Lots store (don't ask!), I came across the book, Images of Greatness - An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, by Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza. This is a classic coffee table book and portfolio of one of the photographic greats. This normally $35 book was being closed out at $1.99. It's worth grabbing.

"Golden River" image featured on NANPA home page

One of my two images accepted for the 2006 NANPA Showcase was selected to be displayed today on the home page of the NANPA website!

2006 Seminar and Tour Schedule Posted

I just posted my 2006 seminar and tour schedule today. The next seminar will be the ever popular Digital Photography in Nature the evening of March 7th. Sign up through the Woodland Park Parks & Recreation Dept. at (719) 687-5225. For details on this and the others, go to: www.wyattphoto.com and click on "seminars" or "tours".