Best Of 2013

As the year draws to a close I've created a gallery of not necessarily the best of, but more accurately my favorite shots that I've taken in the past year.  You can check them out on Google Plus or Facebook:

https://plus.google.com/+KevinSchaffer/posts

https://www.facebook.com/KevinSchafferPhotography

You can view my full gallery (and purchase prints and other merchandise) here

Books, Blogs, and Other Stuff

I thought I'd end the year with a look at the books, blogs, and other things that I turn to when I have a technical question, when I need inspiration, or to keep developing my skills both in the field and in the digital darkroom.  This list is by no means all inclusive, I'm just trying to cover what I've found to be the best (and/or most useful).  

Books - For the beginner (that I keep referring back to):

Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book Series - I consider these books an essential resource.  They cover a variety of topics and although they are written for the beginning photographer, I still find myself referring back to these books.  This series has been recently refreshed (volume one was first published in 2009) so make sure you get the  updated version.

Bryan Peterson's books, esp. Learning To See Creatively - Another series of books for the beginning photographer.  Although I don't refer to these as much as I used to, Learning To See Creatively is still a good resource.

Landscape Photography - From Snapshots to Great Shots - Rob Sheppard - A good introduction to the subject.  I've also found that as a whole the Snapshots to Great Shots series is a good introduction to a variety of photography related subjects.

Books - That focus on the technical, particularly composition: 

Within The Frame - David duChemin - duChemin is both one of my favorite photographers and an excellent teacher when it comes to (his) thoughts on composition.  This is probably my favorite book on photography.

Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - David duChemin - Another excellent book from duChemin about photography and composition.  duChemin states early on in the book: “My vision for this book is that readers learn to approach digital development as a craft in service of their vision."  What does that mean?  I won't even try to explain put that in my own words - you'll have to check it out yourself...  The one caveat is that he wrote this using examples with Adobe Lightroom 3 (which was the most recent version at the time) so when reading it now you have to "interpret" some of the examples into Lightroom 4 or 5 "speak." 

The Photographer's Eye - Michael Freeman - An excellent book on composition that focuses on the technical aspects of photographic composition - subjects like the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, the appearance of the Fibonacci sequence in nature and how these concepts lead the eye through a photograph. 

Books - That focus on a specific topic:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers - Scott Kelby - A good overview of Adobe Lightroom 4, that covers a variety of topics.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers - Scott Kelby - Basically the same book, revamped for Lightroom 5. 

EBooks

Pretty much anything from Craft&Vision, but in particular anything by David duChemin or Piet Van den Eynde - duChemin for thoughts on composition and den Eynde for technical information, specifically info relating to Adobe Lightroom.  Anything by Craft&Vision is well written, beautifully illustrated, and available as an affordable, downloadable PDF.  

Blogs - By excellent photographers that cover a variety of topics: 

Moose Peterson - Wildlife photographer extraordinaire, also a master of landscape and aviation photography.  For years I have read his blog religiously, and I'm still learning something new or viewing awesome photos often enough to keep coming back. 

Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider - Although called the Photoshop Insider, that's only one of the topics covered.  What I like about this blog is that in addition to being an excellent (and very versatile) photographer, Scott Kelby is a great teacher, and he always shares the technical details of his photos shoots, be it landscapes, a wedding, football game, and it's always done with a bit of a sense of humor, and he shares the good, the bad, and the ugly of what happened.

David duChemin - As noted above, duChemin is one of my favorite photographers.  He blogs on an occasionally infrequent basis, but I'm always checking for his latest post because when he does share his thoughts, he rarely disappoints.

Photofocus - Started by Scott Bourne (who has recently turned over the reigns to a capable team) this blog covers a variety of topics daily.

Blogs - That mainly focus on technical issues:

Focus on Singh-Ray Filters - Singh-Ray produces top quality camera lens filters.  This blog features a variety of photographers who write about how and why they use these filters.  Usually a good read and always great photographs. 

Matt Kloskowski - A good source for the latest tips on using Adobe Lightroom (and other software).  

Lightroom Killer Tips - Another blog from Matt Kloskowski that focuses specifically on Lightroom.  There's enough difference between this and Matt's other blog that I check both on a regular basis.

Equipment 

B&H Photo Video - The choice of professional photographers.  Anything and everything a photographer could ever want - or need.

This list also serves as a point in time of sorts, in that it covers everything I've discovered from the first day I picked up a DSLR until now.  This will allow me to, from this point forward, share my thoughts on books, blogs, and other stuff as they arise, or to do a yearly wrap up of the best of the best.  

Capitol Reef National Park

Last month we went on a tour of some of the National Parks in southern and south-central Utah (which was also our honeymoon).  One of the parks we visited was Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. 

As plans for the trip were being made, the idea was to do a "loop" through southern Utah, going from Zion National Park to Bryce National Park, then over to the Moab/Canyonlands National Park/Arches National Park area, finally turning south towards Monument Valley.  These were the parks I was familiar with, but as I mapped out the route I saw Capitol Reef and thought to myself "cool, another park we can drive through on the way."  Then I didn't give it much thought after that, other than it being another spot on the map.

The drive over from Bryce (going through a corner of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on the way) was spectacular.  We pulled into the Torrey, Utah, where we were spending the night, late in the afternoon, and decided to continue on and explore the area a bit before settling in for the night.  

We drove into the park and were immediately struck by the beauty of the area.  Spectacular cliffs and domes lined the road.  When we turned down a short side road I saw this lone tree and had to take a few shots of it silhouetted against the moody evening sky... 

We got up early the next morning, both anxious to continue our journey and wanting to catch the sunrise.  We weren't disappointed as we caught our first glimpse of the rising sun....

Turning and facing west, I liked the blue sky peeking out through the clouds with the moon present as well....

Then turning back towards the east I was drawn towards the spectacular clouds...

That morning we took the scenic drive that included a trip through the Capitol Gorge area of the park before heading down the road towards Moab.  I can say without reservation that Capitol Reef was one of the highlights of the trip, and I would not hesitate to go back there again and explore the area further.

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-55 DX

Order prints (or other merchandise) here

San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church

I recently visited San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church, located in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. Ansel Adams photographed this church, Georgia O'Keefe painted it, and I feel lucky to have been able to stand where they stood and create my own image of this iconic structure.

First I worked the back side, the view that is most closely associated with this church.  When I processed the photos of this view later, sepia just seemed to capture the mood...  

Then I walked around to the front.  Although this isn't the iconic view associated with the church, I still thought it was beautiful, especially the look of the adobe walls against the clear blue sky....

Then I concentrated on getting a "different" shot altogether.  I went as wide as possible with the lens I had, then pushed in close to the entrance, using it as a frame.  A lot of times photos seem to happen through a sense of serendipity, but this time I was very conscious of trying to find perfect balance, a sense of symmetry, with this shot, with the way the white trim of the door way framed the inner courtyard, how the blue cross on the ground aligned the white cross on the roof, how all the elements were placed in the frame...

Purchase prints here

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-55 DX

Holiday Sale

Holiday Sale!  Use the code "HOLIDAY2013" to save 15% on all orders placed through my web site - not just prints, you can save on greeting cards, puzzles, and other merchandise...  You can check it out here...

Classical Gas Museum

These shots were taken in February 2013, at the Classical Gas Museum in Embudo, located along the Rio Grande River about 43 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I happened upon this place, noticing it as I drove by.  A quick u-turn and I was soon inside, checking things out and asking a few questions.  I also took a few photos, which also happened to be one of the first times that I had used my wide angle lens.  After I got back home to Alaska (having not yet made the decision to move to Santa Fe) I was pleased with some of the photos from that day, and basically set them aside.

I recently decided to reprocess some photos from that day using techniques I've been experimenting with and refining over the past several months.  I chose to do this because I thought that the original images were a little "flat" compared to what I actually saw when I was there.  First I tweaked things a bit in Adobe Lightroom 5, mainly concentrating on bringing out details in the shadows, then I further processed them using the Color Efex Pro 4 Lightroom plug-in (with the Tonal Contrast preset to make the colors "pop") and Dfine 2 Lightroom plug-in (to reduce the noise some since I took these shots hand held in a low lit room), both of which are from the Google Nik Collection, then I did some basic sharpening back in Lightroom before finally exporting the final images.

This first shot - obviously - is a wide shot of the main room...

I worked my way around the room, moving in towards the right side of the back wall...

Then the lower left side...

Before moving to the smaller side room, which had this great Chevron sign...

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 10-24 DX

Buy prints of these photos here

(The Other) Las Vegas

Last month we went on a day trip to Las Vegas.  Las Vegas, New Mexico, a small town east of Santa Fe, about 66 miles by road.  I had wanted to visit there for awhile, after both reading that the town had over a hundred buildings that have received historically significant designation, and having driven by there (twice) and just thinking that it looked like an interesting place to visit (and photograph).  It also didn't hurt that significant portions of "No Country For Old Men" (and many other movies) were filmed there...

Walking around the downtown square area, and the adjacent side streets, was more interesting than I had imaged for several reasons.  First of all, I found the historical aspects fascinating.  Finding out that I was walking on part of the old Santa Fe Trail, or standing where Francisco Coronado stood in 1541, was thought provoking, as I've always been interested in history, an interest that has been reignited with our move to the Southwest...  Secondly, seemingly everywhere I turned, I wanted to take photos.  Old buildings, quirky buildings, that I immediately wanted to photograph, and later on seemingly screamed to be processed using high dynamic range (HDR) processing techniques.  I've done quite a bit of HDR photo processing over the last couple of months, and have been refining my use of it, but the images I captured in Las Vegas just called for going a little "over the top"...

Like this drug store...

And the corner of an antique store (that was a treasure trove of cool stuff)...

Or this old, but still operating, cafe...

A shuttered building...

And this is only a sampling.  I also ended up with several shots of old, abandoned buildings, found in another part of town, that I'll have to share in another post...

Purchase prints of my New Mexico photos here

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-55 DX