Eastern Sierra Workshop part 3

After the early morning shooting at the Alabama Hills we stopped for breakfast.  While it was not cold this morning it still felt good to stop, sit down and have something warm to eat and drink.  From there we returned to Bishop, our home base for the night.  After a short break to get our stuff together we went into the South Lake area of the Inyo National Forest.

We couldn’t have picked a better week for the workshop.  The fall colors were in their prime, the weather warm and the winds calm.  A few clouds would have made for better images but I will take what I get.  Jack told us over his 20 years of holding workshops here he has seen everything; green leaves to no leaves, heavy rain, deep snow and everything in between.  I feel fortunate with the state of the flora here; since California is in its third year of extreme drought.

aspen cha-cha

We stopped at a couple locations spending 1 – 2 hours at each, shooting whatever inspired us.  It is hard to get a bad ‘fall colors’ image here.  I find that I am finally starting to incorporate the topics that were brought up the previous evening; slow down, look, think, create.  I used to just stop, set up the tripod, shoot, and move on; repeat.

I pulled out a few of my other tools; a graduated neutral density filter to darken the bright skies while leaving the darker foregrounds the alone.  I also got out my 10-stop filter for long exposures, up to several minutes if desired.  The image of the leaves swirling in the pool is a 15 second long exposure made possible with the 10-stop filter.

I tried doing a few still life images with the leaves and tree trunks, some of them work and others not.  This is another area where I have to work on my technique.

abstract

I experimented with moving my camera during an exposure to lengthen the lines of the aspens and blur the leaves.

All the time I am thinking about improving compositions; leading lines, bold structures, colors and positioning each within the image.

Thanks for stopping by,

Mark