I hope everything finds you well as we head into spring. It's been a while since my last newsletter, December in fact, but hey, I have always said they're occasional. As the weather gets warm around here in California I've been getting busier and busier. I've recently returned from a pair of private workshops and I'm trying to make enough time to do a little shooting myself, though I must admit it's difficult. I hope as the weather continues to warm up you get out and start making some new images of some of the beautiful revitalizing life that is spring, wildflowers, blooming trees, rushing rivers and wildlife. Feel free to send me a link to your website or flickr where I can see some of your work and we can become friends if we're not already.
Happy Spring,
Edward Mendes April 2010
New Release - Setting sun on Bonsai Rock, Lake Tahoe, NV
In the past I've released my new images for each year all at once, around March, however in doing so I spend the rest of the year wishing I could release some new images as I create them. So this year I'm trying something different and releasing my new images throughout the year. Above is my first, Setting Sun on Bonsai Rock. The image was taken in September of 2009 as my wife and I celebrated out 3rd wedding anniversary in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada.
Lake Tahoe is known for both its clear water and the beautiful rock formations that lead from it's shores and into the lake. This area is informally called Bonsai Rock and is one of the Lake's most beautiful areas. Bonsai Rock is one of the more difficult areas to discover and once you do there really isn't a trail leading down to the area, just a few worn areas in the vegetation, all of which are fairly steep and have areas of very loose dirt and rocks.
Once making my way down I scouted the area for a while before finally settling into this final composition. The sky was absent of clouds but I was lucky enough to have a bit of haze in the air which I knew would help to color the sky and give me a nice gradation of colors.
I sat there for some time watching the light as it changed and some nearby birds playing in the water. I made a number of images, some vertical, some panned over to the left or right and at different times as the light changed but liked this one the best.
This is already becoming one of my more popular prints. If you'd like to add it to your collection, or make it the first piece please let me know either by phone at 209.541.1815 or
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. The image will also be available online in a couple of weeks after my gallery update is completed. All of my newsletter subscribers enjoy a 20% discount on all fine art prints and free shipping to anywhere in the lower 48 states.
If you're interested in more information regarding my fine art pieces please visit my information pages Fine Art Pricing, The Process or of course the Gallery to view my images.
2011 Workshops Announced!
I've spent the last few months planning my new workshops for 2011 and I've finally finished setting the dates and getting the information online. I've been very fortunate that my workshops have been selling out fairly quickly so I decided to repeat my 2010 offerings in 2011. The major change is in the addition of a workshop in Grand Teton National Park in June, the 7th thru 10th 2011.
Grand Teton National Park is one of the most breathtaking I've been to and is actually my favorite park. That's saying a lot considering I live only a couple hours from Yosemite. But Grand Teton has a special quality all it's own, the wildlife and grand landscapes are everywhere you look, it's a truly stunning place.
As is normally the case with my workshops, most are weekend events, starting on Friday evening and ending after our sunset session on Sunday. The Grand Teton workshop however is a four day workshop which will really give us the opportunity to explore the park in detail.
As always, one of my goals for the workshops is to make them available for everyone and to fit everyone's budget. I truly believe that these are the best workshops available.
If you'd like more information regarding my upcoming workshops please check out the workshop page of my website. There you can find both general information regarding the workshops or specific information on each.
Photoshop CS5, Already?
Yep, I received the email from Adobe a few days ago for, an invitation to the online sneak peak event on April 12th. I was more than a little surprised as it seems CS4 was just recently released, I'm still working with CS3. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised however as CS5 will be the 12th version of Photoshop and 2010 marks the program's 20 anniversary so if you do the math Adobe releases a new version every 1.6 years.
I had a chance to check out some of the new features that are of particular interest to photographers and must admit, there are some pretty cool ones. One of the cooler features I saw in CS5 was "Content Aware Fill", this really blew my mind. It allows you to intelligently and accurately remove major areas of the image with a single click of the mouse, blending it perfectly with the surrounding image, it's really quite remarkable and could be a real time saver for commercial and portrait photographers. A few other nice feature updates are in the areas of noise reduction and lens perspective correction, both of which looks to be major steps forward.
From this short preview I saw today it looks like CS5 has some major changes and updates since CS4, which hold true to Adobe's past history of making every other Photoshop release a major one with features and updates that actually makes it worth upgrading. So if you can afford it, CS5 looks like it's going to be worth the money, then you can sit back and relax until CS7.
Here's a link to the CS5 Preview site, I've already registered so for me the link works and goes right to the preview videos. You'll probably need to either register or log-on if you already have an account, for the link to work.
*NOTE: The link will open in a new window so if you don't see it check your pop-up blocker.
On The Trail
I'm traveling a lot these days with my workshops, here are a few places I'll be in the coming months. If you see me out on the the trail be sure to say "Hi!"
The Big Sur Coast.................April 29th to May 3rd (Big Sur Workshop) Yosemite Valley.....................May 6th to May 10th (Yosemite in Spring Workshop) Yosemite High Country........Early to Mid July
Workshop Openings
By the way, I'll be in the Big Sur and Yosemite areas as part of my next two workshops. If you're interested I have one opening left in the Big Sur Workshop and two left for the Yosemite in Spring Workshop. If you're interested you can signup via my website's workshop page or via the links above. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd love to see you.
The Art of Landscape Photography
A new addition to my newsletter is this section, The Art of Landscape Photography. Different things will be showing up here, maybe a photography tip, a bit about creativity or in this case an article I've written for a website or publication.
Sometimes it all works out
I’m one of the lucky ones; I live within a couple of hours drive from two of the most beautiful places in the world, Yosemite National Park and the Big Sur Coast. With this good fortune comes an opportunity to visit them often during the year and I take advantage of it. I make it a point to visit Yosemite many times during the year and I always visit at least once each May to bask in the wonder of dogwood blooms and waterfalls. While these trips are usually taken either by myself alone or with my brother-in-law John, this year I made the trip with a group of photographers. The trip had been planned for months to coincide with the peak season for dogwood blooms in the valley, early May. Unfortunately however, the dogwoods were rather late this year and instead of being greeted by tunnels of white dogwoods enveloping you as trees from both sides of the road stretch over your head to meet one another, we found only small bits of color here and there, we were early.
It didn’t take long for me to decide I’d be coming back to the park in a couple of weeks and started to make a weekly call to the Ranger station to check on the dogwood conditions. Each phone call was greeted by the same response, “They aren’t really blooming yet, pretty soon thought”. Finally, early this week my weekly inquire was answered with a much more exciting statement, “Yeah, they’re really popping, it’s like snow everywhere.” Woo-whoa! That was all I needed to hear, Yosemite here I come. I’ve been fortunate enough to see some pretty wonderful dogwood displays in the past and it was all I could think about as I got nearer and nearer to the park. I entered Yosemite and smelled the clean cool air, the Merced River guiding me along the roadway to the granite lined valley that is Yosemite Valley where the famous peaks Half Dome and El Capitan live, where majestic waterfalls plunge from hanging valleys and where the spring dogwoods would be white as green Jello. What? Umm, what’s going on? Where’s the dogwood blooms, everything has already leafed out. What the heck!
After a few minutes of disbelief I wondered out loud, “How could they be so wrong? Why would they tell me everything was white as snow when there isn’t a white bloom anywhere? Why lie to me?” After huffing and puffing for a few minutes I came to accept the fact that dogwoods weren’t going to be in my plans today. As photographer’s often do when greeted with ever changing conditions, I was forced to adapt and try something new. On this day my something new was taking a trip to Glacier Point for the sunset, if you’re not familiar with Glacier Point, it’s a sight to behold, you’re high above the Valley, looking straight across at Half Dome as the Valley, its waterfalls and meadows open in front of you. For any first timers it’s definitely a “WOW” moment.
I arrived at Glacier Point hours before sunset and had time to slow down and pick my composition carefully. I also had the time to sit, on a large granite rock, and watch my subject as it changed, as clouds came and went, as the sun and shadows moved across it, it was wonderful! I also had the opportunity to meet another photographer, not uncommon when you're in the field, Claude. He's from Hawaii and drove tanks as a member of the Artillery earlier in his life. As the final rays of light came and went across the face of Half Dome and the color faded in the clouds, I loaded my camera gear back into my pack and headed back to the car. I wasn't sure if I'd taken a great image or not but I was happy and content none-the-less. I hadn't gone to Yosemite with Glacier Point in mind; I hadn't gone to Yosemite with the thought of watching nature and God do their work and I hadn't gone to Yosemite with the intent of meeting another wonderful character that have freckled my photographic journey throughout my life. But it's what ended up happening, very different from what I originally set out for but equally as satisfying and perhaps what I needed more.
Lets network
It seems like everyone is on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and guess what, I'm no different. If you'd like to keep up-to-the-second on what I'm doing check out my profile on some of the sites below, add me as a friend or follow my Twitter.
Copyright 2009 Edward Mendes Photography
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