Cool Shot

©Marion James, 2008

Marion James shot the photo shown above this morning in the hills south of San Luis Obispo. We thought it was a great shot and wanted to share. Just another beautiful day on the Central Coast. See you here soon.

Sunrise Shoot

Up early this morning to shoot an assignment on light. The class spent a few hours starting just before sunrise exploring light and shadow.

Everyone is busy now editing the shoot and we will review and critique again this afternoon.

We had a great time last night shooting a playground scene using the "light painting" technique. Ambient light was very low, so Rob and Hal provided almost all illumination with a few flashlights. It was a good shoot with everyone very surprised and inspired by the results. We've found that once you are exposed to light painting you will want to try it more and more.

Rob Day 2

Curlew prowling!

We met early this morning for an assignment on composition. The class shot for about 2.5 hours and then returned to the digital darkroom for review.

After a few more Lightroom lessons from Rob and Hal, everyone edited their images and optimized five for a critique from Rob.

The class is in the middle of the critique right now and the discussion is going very well. Rob's constructive criticism really gets everyone thinking about what and how they shot and, more importantly, how they would do it differently and better the next time.

We'll be heading out again to shoot soon so there will be plenty of opportunity to improve.

Cheers!

Rob Sheppard is Here

Long time Editor of Outdoor Photographer is here this week teaching Building Blocks to Better Photography.

We spent most of today reviewing images and discussing techniques to improve our photography.

The day finished with a good discussion of Lightroom 2.0, one of Rob's favorite programs for his aftercapture workflow.

Tomorrow we'll be out shooting. Stand by for the images.

Cheers!

It's Been Awhile

Harvest is finally winding down and it is time to get back into the swing of things here on the blog.

We've run a few classes over the last month but most of our time has been spent up at Midnight Cellars winery working the 2008 vintage. It was an interesting year as yields were down but quality was surprisingly good. The final grapes of the season will come in next Monday. I'll miss them as Rob Sheppard is here teaching Building Blocks to Better Photography.

We haven't been shooting a whole bunch but Victoria recently shot a promo for Brian Benson Cellars' Ed's Red wine. The composites below were some of the better ones.

Take care and we'll be updating often now.




Cheers!

Hal

Wolves

Quick pic from a wolf shoot Victoria and I did earlier today. A handheld three shot HDR of two living, moving subjects is always a challenge.

The three wolves we photographed are part of a wolf rescue program. They are currently in the Five Cities area but are moving north to Oregon very soon.

The shots from this morning will be used to create a calendar in hopes of raising some much needed funding.

To the Dogs

Victoria thought "Heck, if the Papillon can do it..."

Just finished up day four of the Best of Lepp Institute. We have been shooting like crazy. I think all the students are worn out since the lab is empty right now. Of course, we were out shooting horses at sunset on Pismo Beach until 8:15!

We'll give a more detailed run down of the week later. Wanted to put up a few pics of our agility dog session earlier today.

Cheers!