Robert Trueman Photography

Wow, it’s finally the last day of the workshop.  We (Martin, Steve, Cathy and I) decided to sleep late and have a final breakfast together at a nice place in town.  Ahhh, sleeping in!!!  The great part of today is that I’m not heading home!  In fact, Martin, Cathy and I are taking a late-morning run up to Yellowstone to have another full day of shooting.  Martin was staying for another workshop the following week and Cathy and I were flying out on Sunday.  Sweet.

ROAD TRIP!!! After stocking up on gas and junk food, we headed out towards Yellowstone.  The plan was to drive for half the time and head back to the Tetons for sunset images.  That was the plan…

Our first stop  Oxbow Bend where I took my winning picture.  I wanted to show how many people are there to shoot Oxbow, but in the middle of the day, there aren’t many.  Oxbow is a morning spot with upwards of 100 people crowding around to get the shot.

As we progressed, we came upon a number of vehicles on the side of the road and people with cameras standing looking down in to the woods.  Wildlife.  In this case it was a mother moose and calf:

Heading further into the park we ran across a crow that really wanted to pose for a photograph.  Using the 300mm f2.8, I shot this:

While not a huge fan of the composition, I was blown away by the sharpness of this lens.  This was shot wide open at f2.8  Hmmm, where did I put my lottery ticket?!?!

Our next stop was the Artist Paint Pots.  This is an area of thermal activity where the mud in one location bubbles or shots into the air.  It’s actually very interesting to watch.  Simply set up your tripod and start shooting until you get something interesting:

Watching the bubbles

One highlight of Yellowstone is the animals.  They’re so used to people that you can often get too close.  People tend to forget that they’re still wild animals and a number of folks each year are gored, trampled or otherwise hurt.  Of course, everyone blames the animal.  I was amazed how close we were able to get to a mother and calf elk in a parking lot by the side of the road. I waited until I could improve the background to a stream instead of a parking lot and shot this:

I was also able to capture this:

Mother elk looking for her calf

Our final stop of the day was at Grand Prismatic.  This is a huge hot spring with amazing colors of red and blue from the bacteria growing in the water.  I was surprised at the amount of color this year.  It was much less than what I saw last year at this time (although still quite striking).  I’m hoping this isn’t a forecast of what’s to come, but a natural cycle of the springs:

As the sun went down, I shot into the sun for this unique shot:

As the sun went down, we ended the road trip and the last day of the trip with this image.  The colors were outstanding, the company fantastic and the location amazing:

This morning we met at 5:30. To start, the entire group went to shoot the sunrise over the valley.  I hopped in Scott Stulberg’s Jeep along with Richard, another ANPW winner.  When we reached the shooting location the whole group set up and waited for sunrise.  Now, sunrise isn’t a “flip-the-switch” type of activity.  You see this coming.  Common sense would have kept me in a warm car until the light of day was coming over the eastern hills.  But, no…  We all stood out in the 20-something degree weather, in the dark and waited.  And waited. :)  No complaints, but I certainly learned something.  It’s better to be warm and on time than early and cold!  I attempted my first HDR panoramic.  It still needs some clean up, but here are the results:

Panoramic of the Tetons Range

Next, the group headed towards Mormon Row.  This was one of my favorite places in the Tetons and the location of two of my favorite images from last year - Moulton Barn and Moulton House).  As is typical of this location in the morning, it was packed full of photographers.  I shot this HDR of a small barn:

This was a good time to chat with the others and we soon were in a small lighting technique lesson by Scott Stulberg.  He showed us how to properly use reflectors and natural light to light the side of a model - in this case Lisa Bettany.  I wish I had pictures, but I was the guy holding the reflector.  I’m hoping Lisa or someone else posts the images.  It was interesting.  After a failed attempt to find some animals to photograph, it was off to lunch and our last day in the classroom.

In class we learned additional ways to create in Aperture and looked at some of the new plug-in technology.  Martin reviewed books, cards, slide shows and more.  I’m even more impressed and excited by the things I’ll be able to do with Aperture.  I’ve wanted to find a way to show pictures to family and friends without sitting around a laptop or viewing a typical photo album.  I love the book feature and the amount of options you  have with them.  This is something I’ll definitely look in to for sharing my pictures going forward.

Lastly, we were given a taste of some of Steve Simon’s photography in the form of Aperture presentations.  Set to music, we sat in awe as we viewed the solemn aftermath of 9/11 to the funny, but thought-provoking Big Cow to the captivating images from the Republican and Democratic conventions.  Steve is one of the best photojournalists around.  Visit Steve’s site to get a sampling of his talent.

As Scott Bourne brought in more “gifts” for us to see (one year subscriptions to training site Lynda.com and a certificate for Lensbaby equipment) we learned that the evening shoot was wildlife.  I have to say, when Scott gets prizes, he doesn’t mess around.  Everything was the top-of-the-line including the Drobo (Firewire, not the USB model), subscription to Lynda.com (premium all-access for one year), the certificate to Lensbaby (so we could get the latest Lensbaby creation), the ThinkTank 360 Backpack (their latest creation) and the PeachPress books (all photography related books).  Plus a copy of Aperture and a lifetime subscription to Photrade.com.  It’s amazing that he put this all together and I’m extremely grateful.

Teaming up again with Martin, with Brian in the car, we took off for the place we found elk the day before.  Unknown to us, it was also private property.  While we did manage to see another herd of elk, property management also found us and escorted us off the property.  Hey, sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness then permission! :)  Caravan in tow, Martin took off looking for more wildlife.

We drove for a while heading towards the place were we had seen the bison the evening before.  As we did, light was fading fast.  We noticed that Scott Stulberg had dropped from the caravan.  Still we searched for wildlife.  Scott Bourne dropped off as well.  It was just Martin’s car with Martin, Brian and I inside.  Around the next courner and BINGO!  A large heard of bison.  Fantastic.

This again proves that you have to keep going to find what you’re looking for and to MAKE YOUR SHOTS.  Also, shooting in dim light isn’t a bad option.  Sometimes you need to get the shots the clients looking for and you can’t wait for perfect light or anything else.  Make your shots.  Sometimes they don’t always come during the “golden hours”.

Heading back towards the hotel, we were in contact with Scott Stulberg’s car.  They had pulled on to Mormon Row and were looking to make some astro shots.  We joined them and I captured one of my favorite pictures from the trip - Big Dipper over Grand Teton

This one also:

You can see a very thin line towards the bottom of the picture.  This isn’t a plane or shooting star - it’s a satellite.  Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either, but you can see satellites with your naked eye provided there isn’t any light pollution.  It was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen.

As we were getting ready to leave another group approached.  It was David Black a legend in the Nikon world.  He was shooting with a National Geographic team in the surrounding mountains.

One last picture before I turn in.  This one is Jupiter (the large point of light), the Milky Way and the light from Jackson Hole.  Oh… and a stop sign!  Enjoy!

I have to admit, after getting up early, shooting like a fiend and having a large, late breakfast, I thought my attention span in Martin’s first Aperture class was in jeopardy.  I was tired!  But my tired feeling quickly took the backseat to Martin’s fantastic hands-on demonstration of Aperture.  Simply put, Martin’s reputation as the premier Aperture instructor is firmly in place!  As for Aperture, this application is fantastic and a huge step up from my current work flow.  While I really like Nikon’s Capture NX software, the elegance and depth of Aperture will greatly improve my time to edit images.  I’m a believer and moving to Aperture as soon as I get home.  Check it out at apple.com/aperture.

I teamed up with Martin again for the afternoon/sunset shoot.  On the way out the light was really flat and dark clouds adorned the sky.  It didn’t look like a night to be out shooting pictures.  Ha!  One lesson I’ve learned is that regardless of the situation you’re put in, there are times when you need to make pictures.  Your clients aren’t going to listen to, “there wasn’t good light”, “I didn’t find anything to shoot”.  You must make the shots and “Never give up, never surrender!”.

Following this motto, we continued into the park when the sun broke through the clouds and bathed the valley in a glowing light:

The clouds behind the Grand Tetons opens and the sun shines down on the valley

Continuing on we drove north through the park looking for animals.  We were able to shoot a number of horses, some distant antelope and a lone bison.  I’m processing images, but it’s taking quite some time and there isn’t a lot of it on the trip.  It’s shoot, learn, shoot, shoot, sleep!  It doesn’t make it easy to post.

On the way back it was getting dark and the clouds were preventing us staying out for astro photography.  We did stop to shoot a well lit statue on the way into Jackson:

Statue on the way into Jackson, WY

In the evening, Martin and I decided to take a walk around town.  Honestly, I wasn’t feeling well, but didn’t want to give up on shooting for the day.  Remember the motto - “Never give up, never surrender!”  the town of Jackson is very beautiful and shooting at night was interesting.  Again, not a lot processed, but I thought this was interesting:

Of the way back to the hotel, we noticed the sky had cleared.  Against my body’s wishes, we loaded up the car and took off for the park.  Our goal - to get far enough out of town to escape the light pollution so we could shoot astro photography.  I’d never shot astro and was very interested in learning the technique.

When we finally pulled over and hopped out, there were more stars in the sky then I had ever seen.

The haze in the sky is actually the bands of our Milky Way galaxy.

The haze in the sky isn’t from clouds, it’s the bands of the Milky Way.  It was awesome.

Enough for now.  I need some sleep.