ISSUE 36 - January 2025

IN THIS ISSUE:

• North Rim Photography Guide
• Print of the Month
• Masks Simplified
• The Radial Filter
• Workshops
• Upcoming Travel

This ebook is finally finished after about a year of work that started after I completed the South Rim Guide. If you are going to the North Rim (closed until about May 15), this ebook can help you with planning now. If you are a photographer and do not yet subscribe to Photographers Trail Notes or you don't have any of the other guides, give them a try. Many guides can be very helpful to the casual photographer who is mostly interested in seeing the sights.

Every year, about two million people visit the viewpoint just a hundred yards or so from this vantage point. Only a handful every day make it to this spot for a totally different perspective. If I see a crowd, I generally head elsewhere. It doesn't hurt to also pick the best time of day and get lucky with attention getting streaks of light.

Many photographers prefer to leave the post processing to others…or take images straight from the camera. Perhaps the challenges of using masks have discouraged them at some point. Today’s software options make masking easier than ever. Masks give you many options to transform good images to exceptional images. Over the next few months I will cover the ways you can use masks, while keeping it very simple. This means using the tools available in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. While learning these techniques, you will see examples of suitable application of each type of mask. READ THE INTRODUCTORY ARTICLE

In the article on Leading Light I referred to learning techniques on how to create light in your photos and referred you to now slightly outdated YouTube video by Serge Ramelli. This video on the use of radial filters to create light is the technique I have employed the most for adjusting light in areas of my images. The radial filter is simply a mask that affects portions of your image. As used in LightRoom or Adobe Camera Raw, you don’t actually seen the mask as a separate layer the way you would if you were just creating a mask on a separate layer in Photoshop. That makes it more difficult to adjust after you are back in the Layers Panel in Photoshop, but it is the simplest way to effectively improve the light in your prints. READ THIS ARTICLE.

If you happened to catch the movie, Caddo Lake, you saw how truly beautiful and sometimes eerie this hidden gem can be.

My crew had a fabulous time exploring the backwaters of Caddo Lake. This very large lake and its surroundings are home to the largest bald cypress grove in the world. There is so much to explore here on a relaxing kayak paddle or with our personal "mudboat" guides that most of my clients plan to return again next year..

To see finished images from swamp trips, visit the Swamp Gallery. 

All workshops are custom designed for small groups of photographers, usually three or four, but a maximum of six. These workshops are planned around our mutual timing, not just my timing. Because I don't advertise, you save. Because you are with friends, there is more good natured fun! Just the days you want and a very reasonable cost! Request your preferred times early. Offerings are limited each year.

Our upcoming travel will be limited and local until need we need a break from our new digs...likely late spring or early summer when the heat turns up again in the Southern California desert.