use a tripod

Another Incredible Panoramic Photographer
I would like to introduce you to another panoramic photographer named Jaspal Jandu.  He has pictures from every corner of the globe and a photography book.  I have not gotten his photography book yet, but the reviews say that it is fantastic.

"Resplendence" Torres Del Paine, Chile by Jaspal Jandu

Kilimanjaro
We just returned from Amboseli National Park in Kenya.  This park offers the best views of Mount Kilimanjaro of any other place.  Of course, Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania.  So my question is why are the best views of the mountain from Kenya.  Well, I found out that Kilimanjaro used to belong to Kenya, an English colony.  Tanzania was a German colony.  The English Queen at the time gave Kilimanjaro to the German Prince as a birthday present.

This picture was taken early in the morning.  It is actually 8 pictures taken with a 45mm lens on a panoramic tripod head called the Panosaurus.  I took the 8 photos and “developed” them in Photoshop’s Raw Convertor.  I then used Photoshop’s tool called Photomerge to stitch them together into one big photo.  This photo printed out at full size (no up-rezzing) would be almost 4 feet long!

Kilimanjaro Sunrise

Panoramic Photography
I love panoramic photography.  The big, broad landscapes just draw you in and ask you to stay a while.  There are many great panoramic photographers out there, but one of my favorites is Ken Duncan.  He is from Australia, but he takes pictures all over the world and ships worldwide.  I would love to have a Ken Duncan Limited Edition, but they are out of my price range.  He does have some more affordable options, though.  I just enjoy getting on his website and browsing for the inspiration.

Forest Lords, NSW by Ken Duncan

Photograph
I photographed this massive cape buffalo in Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in Tanzania.  Look for some pictures coming soon from my recent trip to Amboseli National Park in Kenya.  We just returned from there and got some fantastic views of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Big Bull

HDR Mastery
For some reason, I love high dynamic range photography.  I determined a couple of years ago to learn how to do it.  One of the best tools I found to help me on my endeavor was a dvd produced by Ben Willmore.  You can see examples of his photographs here at his portfolio website.  I cannot find the dvd for sale anymore, but I did find a link to a place where you can download the video.  The video takes you all the way through his workflow with a photograph from his Route 66 Series.

Photograph
This photograph was taken at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.  This is actually 5 photographs that I took and later stitched together in Photoshop.

Lion Mountain

Favorite Photographer
I would have to say that my favorite photographer is Nick Brandt.  He has two fantastic books out, one called “On This Earth” and the other called “A Shadow Falls.”  He takes pictures of East African animals.  I would love to have a Nick Brandt original photograph, but they are a little out of my price range right now.

Nick Brandt - Elephant Drinking, Amboseli 2007

Photograph
This photograph was taken in an old swamp next to the Arkansas River about 2 miles out of Little Rock, AR.  It took me a little bit of effort to get to the edge of the water, and once there I had to find a place to put the tripod.  Swamps are not the easiest places to photograph.

This image is actually available for download at Shutterstock.  This is a great stock photography website.  I have just started uploading photos to the site, and I have already started making a little money from it.  It’s not much, but if it continues to grow as it has over the last few weeks, it will be substantial soon.  All I have to do is upload some photos.  They then go through them and approve or disapprove them.  Once the pictures are approved they are offered for download on the site.  Every time someone downloads your photograph, you get between $.25 and around $.50 depending on what they will use the photo for or their subscription service.  It is really easy to set up.  Of course, once you are set up, you just watch what happens.  I took some time studying different sites to see what people were looking for when they download stock photography.  I think this will help you as you go out and start shooting for stock.

Huge Cypress

Website Recommendation
I highly recommend that you check out the website Luminous Landscape.  On this website you will find fantastic reviews for almost any piece of photographic equipment and many different tutorials and articles.  I am also a huge fan of their video called “From Camera To Print.”  It is a great video teaching you how to take an image that you have shot, get it print ready, and print it.  You can buy it and download it from their site.

Photograph
This is a photograph of a bouquet of roses that I got my wife.  Believe it or not, something like this only costs about $4 in Kenya (don’t tell my wife).  This is actually five shots put together using Photomatix.  After I had finished, I thought the photo looked a little too harsh, so I threw a filter on top called Glamour Glow in Color Efex Pro produced by Nik Software.  After I applied the filter, I lowered its layer’s opacity to around 50%.  It really gave me the look I was going for.

Roses

New Book
I am extremely excited about a new book that has just come out.  It is called “A World in HDR” by Trey Ratcliff.  You can buy it here or it is supposed to hit bookstores soon.  I love High Dynamic Range Photography, and I think that Trey’s photographs are the best out there.  This book is supposed to not only show you his spectacular photography, but also let you in on how he accomplished them.  Trey runs the world’s most popular travel photography blog at www.stuckincustoms.com. 

Photograph
This photograph was taken in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.  This big guy mock charged us as we tried to go around him.  We stopped and backed up as fast as we could.  We were uncomfortably close to this elephant, but got some great photos. 

You can actually buy this image at a new website called Imagekind.  All of these prints are printed using archival ink on photographic paper.  They are designed to last 100 years without any noticeable fading.  This is museum quality!  You can also have them frame and matte the photo how you want it.  They have many, many options. 

Elephant Bull

More Photobooks
This is another service that I have used. Viovio produce photo books as well.  I don’t think the quality is quite as good as Mpix (see post below), but the price is much better especially if you are going to produce in quantity.  They also allow you to set up a store and sell it as a print-on-demand product, so you don’t have to buy a bunch up front.  You can just send your family and friends the link, and they can order what they want.  I really like their big hardcover portfolio book.  The paper is not as heavy weight as I would have liked it, but I loved the size and how it laid flat.

Photograph
I took this photograph at Camp Orr.  Camp Orr is a Boy Scout camp in Northwest Arkansas.  I used to go there as a kid every summer.  I still remember hiking to Twin Falls and playing in the water at the base.  Twin Falls is a part of the Buffalo River Watershed.

I took this photo a couple of years ago while I was up there taking a weekend photography class from Tim Ernst.  I had a great time and learned a tremendous amount from an incredible photographer.  If you have never had the opportunity to see his photography slideshows, they are spectacular.  I saw his photos from Yellowstone and his presentation of Arkansas waterfalls.  They are all put to music and shown on an high-definition projector.

This photograph is actually 5 shots taken at different exposures.  I then used Photomatix to put them together, and later I brought them into Photoshop for finetuning.  Some people don’t like these photos because the are unrealistic.  I am obviously not going for realism.  I enjoy how the post-production brings out the vibrant colors and the different light effects.  I hope you enjoy it.

Twin Falls

Mpix
This is the website I use for my photography books.  Mpix allows you to download a software that lets you design your own book or use their templates.  The quality of these books is outstanding.  The last book that I produced was a book of some of my African animals.  I have had many people comment on the excellent quality.  Mpix also makes many other fantastic products.

We usually take all of our family photos for a certain length of time and put together a book.  We have decided that it is no good just to keep photos hidden on your harddrive.  This gives our children a chance, anytime they want, to see our old pictures.

Photograph
While driving home one evening, some movement made me look in the acacia forest to my left and we saw this big herd of giraffes just browsing among the leaves.  One of my favorite filters that I use (and that I used on this photo) is the Tonal Contrast Filter in Color Efex Pro 3.0.

Giraffe Herd

Blog
I would like to introduce you to a blog that I have been reading for a while.  It is produced by Brian Auer.  It is called Epic Edits – A Resource and Community for Photography Enthusiasts.  In the bottom right-hand corner I especially like to check out his top posts.

Photograph
This photograph was taken on top of Pinnacle Mountain near Little Rock, Arkansas.  In the upper right corner you can just get a glimpse of Maumelle Lake.  It is 5 photographs taken at different exposures and processed together in Photomatix.  I find that when I use Photomatix, I usually then need to bring it into Photoshop to add some depth to the photo by working on a curves layer and other things.  Be looking for a tutorial soon of my High Dynamic Range Photo workflow.

Mountain Sunset

Framing
One of the most useful websites for me to use has to be American Frame.  If you have ever had a picture matted and framed locally, you know how ridiculously expensive it is.  American Frame allows you to buy the material yourself and do it yourself.  Of course, you have to put it together, but if I can do it, I promise, anybody can.  They also have a great service where you can upload your own photo and choose your matte and framing options.  They will then print your photo, matte and frame it, and ship it to you – all for a fraction of the cost.

Photograph
This photograph of two Egyptian Crowned Cranes was taken in Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in Tanzania.  This crater is technically a cauldera, which is a huge mountain that basically fell in on itself.  The rich volcanic soil produces lush grass and attracts animals from all over.  These animals attract the predators.  It is an incredible place to visit.

For this photograph, I used Topaz Detail to convert to black and white.d to sharpen.  The contrast and sharpening really brought out the details in the feathers.

Crowned Cranes