Just a reminder that there are less than 36 hours left in our Black Friday Sale, with 35% off my Landscapes in Lightroom 5 ebook and video package, and 40% off The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite iPhone and iPad app. The sale ends at midnight Pacific time tomorrow, December 2nd. Again, you don’t need to enter any special codes – those are just the prices until the sale is over.
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
— Michael Frye
Yes, we’re having a Black Friday sale too! Here at our world headquarters in downtown Mariposa, California, we’ve cooked up two sweet deals:
35% Off Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide
Normally $14.95, this ebook and video package is now only $9.95! You don’t have to enter a discount code – that’s just the price until midnight Pacific Time on Monday, December 2nd.
In this ebook I take you step-by-step through processing six images in Lightroom. You can download the Raw files so you can follow along yourself, plus you get exclusive access to eight videos demonstrating different aspects of Lightroom’s Develop Module.
This is a great gift for the photographer on your Christmas list! Just click “Add to Cart” underneath the words “Gift Coupon.”
40% Off The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite iPhone/iPad App
This app is a must-have for any photographer visiting Yosemite. Normally it sells for $6.99, but until midnight Pacific Time on December 2nd it’s only $3.99! Click here to go to the iTunes store, and once again there are no discount codes you need to enter.
Sunbeams and corona in a redwood forest, CA, USA
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States, a day of gratitude.
As a photographer, one of the things I’m thankful for is the art and craft of photography itself. Photography encourages me to get out and see things I would otherwise miss. I’ve been lucky to witness so many extraordinarily beautiful moments that I would never have seen without the camera tugging at me and telling me to go look – to pay attention to the beauty around me.
And I’m always especially thankful for all of you, my readers. Your participation, ideas, and passion for photography make writing this blog a pleasure. Thank you so much for your support!
I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday, filled with good company, good food, and many things to be grateful for.
— Michael Frye
Moon rising between El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks from Valley View. What’s the least interesting part of this image?
The best compositions are simple; they present only the essentials, and leave out extraneous clutter. The most common mistake in photography – by far – is including too much in the frame. Anything that’s not adding to the photograph’s message is detracting from it.
To help simplify your compositions, ask yourself, before you press the shutter, “What’s the least interesting part of this photograph?” Try to identify the weakest area of your composition, and find a way to get rid of it. Then, once you’ve done that, ask the same question again: “Now, what’s the least interesting part of this image?” And get rid of that. And keep doing that until there’s nothing left that you could possibly cut out without losing something vital.
To give you some practice, look at the photograph above. What’s the least interesting part of that image? And if you got rid of that, what would be next – what’s the next least interesting part of the photograph?
I’ll give you a minute to think about it. When you’re ready, take a look at this next photograph, and answer the same question: what’s the least interesting part of this image?
A creative cloud over the North Carolina/South Carolina border
Adobe is now offering its Photoshop Photography Program to everyone, not just those who own a license to a previous version of Photoshop. This program includes Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC for $9.99 per month. This new offer is only available until December 2nd. (If you own a license to Photoshop CS3 or later you still have until December 31st.)
For people who would like to try Photoshop, but don’t own a previous Photoshop license, this seems like a good deal. In the past you would have paid nearly $700 to buy a full version of Photoshop for the first time. Now you can get Photoshop, plus Lightroom, for $120 per year.
For those who already own a license to Photoshop CS5 or CS6 things are less clear cut. The pricing for this Lightroom-and-Photoshop package is attractive, but you’re still renting rather than owning, and if you stop your subscription you lose access to the software. Many people are choosing to stick with their older versions of Photoshop, since they own a perpetual license and will never lose access to it. I discussed some of the pros and cons of this deal in a previous post. (Be sure to read the comments, as there are lots of interesting thoughts there.)
Half Dome and the Merced River, 4:28 p.m.
Is it better to be active or static? To change your location and composition to suit the light, or hope that the light changes to suit your composition?
There’s this persistent myth that Ansel Adams would camp for days at one spot, waiting for the right light. Ironically, this myth is often repeated in relation to Clearing Winter Storm, which was made at Tunnel View, only a few miles from his warm home and comfortable bed in Yosemite Valley. In fact Ansel wrote, “I have always been mindful of Edward Weston’s remark, ‘If I wait for something here I may lose something better over there.’ I have found that keeping on the move is generally more rewarding.”
I have also found that keeping on the move is more rewarding. I’ve sometimes regretted moving, but more often regretted staying when I ignored the inner voice that told me the light would be better elsewhere. And when I do find myself in the right place at the right time, I’ve found that it pays to stay active with my camera and my compositions, and not get lazy about changing lenses or camera positions. If I decide in advance what my composition should be, and stick with that no matter what, I’ll probably miss some great opportunities.
Half Dome and the Merced River, late afternoon, autumn, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
Ansel Adams used to say that “chance favors the prepared mind.” His point was that photographs like Moonrise Hernandez and Clearing Winter Storm weren’t lucky accidents; he was able to capture those moments because he had honed his eye and his photographic technique, and was able to apply those skills when a special opportunity presented itself.
Last night a private workshop student and I had an opportunity to test our mental preparation. We got lucky, as the sun broke through a layer of clouds late in the afternoon. For 45 minutes we watched and photographed a spectacular light show, with beams of sunlight first illuminating the cottonwood trees along the Merced River, then moving upward to reach the Royal Arches, North Dome, and Half Dome itself.
Every landscape photographer hopes to get lucky and capture a beautiful light display like that. But when it happens, will you be prepared? Will you be able to do justice to the gift that’s presented to you?
The first part of that preparation comes with being in the right place at the right time. Luck plays a role here, of course, but so does the ability to anticipate and predict the weather.
California black oaks in El Capitan Meadow, autumn, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
I’m flying to Dallas today to teach a Lightroom workshop for the Sun to Moon Gallery, but I wanted to give you a quick update on the fall color in Yosemite Valley. And there’s still plenty of color. The yellow big-leaf maples are mostly gone, and the dogwoods are also past peak, but the black oaks were close to peak when I left the valley on Saturday, and the cottonwoods were still at least 30% green. Leaves tend to linger on the oaks, so I expect both the oaks and cottonwoods will look good for at least another week.
I made the photograph above last Wednesday, and if you look closely you can see that there’s still a touch of green in some of the leaves. The image of cottonwoods below was captured on Thursday, and again you can still see some green leaves. It’s not uncommon for these trees to peak in early- or even mid-November in Yosemite Valley. Fall isn’t over yet!
— Michael Frye
Aspens and morning sunlight, Inyo NF, CA, USA
I’ve always felt that the best photographs capture a mood or feeling. It’s easier to convey a mood when the weather gets stormy, but how do you capture a mood on a clear, sunny day? The answer, I think, is to go with it—to emphasize the sun, the blue sky, and the brightness of the day. Find the visual elements that say “beautiful, sunny day,” and highlight them.
One way of doing this is to include the sun in the frame. Nothing says “sunny and bright” like the sun itself. But putting the sun in your photograph brings challenges. First, you’re likely to get lens flare. This is not the end of the world—in fact, many photographs use lens flare to great effect—but sometimes the flare can be distracting. The other challenge is getting the exposure right.
Autumn along a creek in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Inyo NF, CA, USA
I just returned home after spending nearly two weeks on the eastern side of the Sierra. It was fun spending so much time among all the yellow and orange leaves, and we had two wonderful groups for our workshops.
We had cooler-than-average weather in September and early October, which set things turning early this year. Despite that, there was still a lot of color around the June Lake Loop and lower Lundy Canyon when we left on Wednesday. This image, from Wednesday morning, shows the diversity of eastern-Sierra habitats, with a creek, aspens, willows, and sagebrush-covered hillside.
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
