Tom and Cree just finished a spectacular workshop in the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Norway is known for terrific aurora photography with warmer temperatures than in Alaska. Because of all the open water in the winter, it is possible to photograph the northern lights reflected in the fjords. After weeks of blustery weather, our group won the weather jackpot….
To learn more about our Photography Workshop in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, check out our trip report, click here
Looking for a warmer destination in January 2024. We have three spaces available on our Oaxaca: the Colors of Mexico Workshop. We will be photographing vibrant art, food, people and more with Marcelo along to show us the sites. Read more
Thanks for reading our posts. Happy photographing from our family to yours…..Tom and Cree
Nothing like a few days on a tropical island in January to shake off the winter blues. We just returned from Easter Island and Chile and could not have had better weather: warm breezes, afternoon clouds and tropical flowers in all the right places.
To learn more about our Photography Workshop in Easter Island and Chile, check out our trip report, click here
We will be heading back to another sunny destination in January 2024. We have three spaces available on our Oaxaca: the Colors of Mexico Workshop. We will be photographing vibrant art, food, people and more with Marcelo along to show us the sites. Read more
Want to learn more about using speed lights? Join us in Old Car City in March 2023 and we’ll teach you to light cars in creative ways and to create portraits with speedlights. Read more
Thanks for reading our posts. Happy photographing from our family to yours…..Tom and Cree
At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For December we chose an image from our Patagonia Photo Workshop created by Greg Ness. Greg has photographed wildlife in Patagonia several times and was delighted with his condor encounter on this trip. We hope you enjoy Greg’s images as much as we do!
Congratulations to December 2022 ‘s featured photographer – Greg Ness
Greg, dressed for the weather, at the Mirador del Condores (Condor Viewpoint)
The Story…
It was humorous. When we arrived on scene we looked like a cautious infantry unit. Everyone took 5 steps forward. Then everyone took 5 more steps. The condor was eye balling us the whole time. It must have been thinking, “What are they doing?”
I was using the Sony A1 because I was hoping for a flight shot. I figured if he did fly it would be a very quick shot. I got a couple of decent flight shots but they were kind of at an angle that did not show off his wings.
I loved the bird just sitting there. What an interesting face. You have to ask yourself, what is it about that bird? A face that could stop a truck. Why is it designed like that. I am sure bird experts have some interesting theories on that. I wanted to show the interesting features.
December 2022 Photo of the Month
The light was just right. We had intermittent sunshine. It illuminated the grass right in front of the bird. This made for a nice counterpoint to the dark body of the bird.
I would like to know why it sat there as long as it did. It must have been eating something.
After I got home I did some research. The condor is the biggest flying bird in the world if you combine wingspan (up to 10 ft) and weight (up to 30 pounds). We saw them all over the place. With the Patagonian winds they barely have to flap their wings to take off.
EXIF Data:
Sony AI Sony 200-600 mm f5-6.3 lens at 600 mm
ISO 500 1/2000 sec f6.3
Aperture Priority Mode
Exposure compensation -.03
The view of Mt Fitzroy when heading into Chalten
About Photographing in Patagonia
One of the things that intrigued me about Patagonia is its ties to our past. Anyone who lives in Colorado asks themselves, wouldn’t it be fun to transport yourself back to the Old West. Some one described Patagonia as being like the Old West – large plains, mountain ranges, dramatic weather.
It’s big and wild there. It’s also hard to get to a lot of the places. It keeps the majority of the tourists out. You have to work for photographs in Patagonia. Even if you get to the locations, you can spend days trying to get a picture of Fitzroy or El Chalten and never see it.
This means you have to have patience. The last day we were in Torres del Paine. The calm waters were incredible. How many people have seen that before?
Calm waters at Hosteria Pehoe, our hotel for 3 days
Greg’s Tips for Photographing in Patagonia
Tip 1: I took two rented lenses. This was not a great idea. Know your lenses and know your camera equipment really well. If Marcos is sprinting across the pond on his horse, you may only get one shot of it.
Zoom lenses are really valuable to have. A condor is sitting on the ground, but it could fly at any minute. My suggestions are: 100-500mm and 70-200 and 24-70mm. Take two bodies: anything could happen.
Tip 2: The weather was like last time. It would almost knock you over one day and the next day, no wind. Shoot a lot on the good days. Consider black and white for the cloudy days.
Tip 3: I liked using black and white for the gaucho photos. It fits with the idea of a hard to get to place that is almost lost in time. It has not changed that much in the last 9 years. But it will slowly change.
Patagonian Grey Fox at ground level
On Greg’s Horizon:
Wanaka in New Zealand
Lofoten in Norway – want to return for hiking
Arizona for a month – both hiking and photography
Polar regions -Greenland, Iceland
Cruise to Northern Greenland
Faroe Islands
Madeira in Spain
Greg photographing a Porcelan Orchid
Workshop News
Few spots left: Masking Made Easy: Online Editing Class. Brush up on your editing skills and learn how to use new masking features in either PhotoShop or Lightroom as well as older features like luminosity masks. Click here to learn more.
Few Spots Left: Old Car City Workshop from March 30-April 2, 2023. Photograph classic cars in the Georgia hardwoods. Learn about speed lights for creative effect. Click here to read more.
Where are Tom and Cree?
We are just back from a personal trip to Jackson, Wyoming. We photographed Great Gray Owls, Moose and Coyotes and had a splendid ski in front of the Tetons on New Years Day.
We hope you have a wonderful 2023 and find plenty of time to take photos. Thanks for reading our posts!
At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For July we chose an image from our Glacier Workshop created by Eric Lacey. Eric traveled with us to the North American Indian Days in Browning, Montana. We hope you enjoy Eric’s images as much as we do!
Congratulations to July 2022 ‘s featured photographer – Eric Lacey
Portrait of Eric by Kim Lafleur with a f1.2 portrait lens
The Story…
I was looking for an opportunity to photograph a Native American person. I wanted to minimize all the distractions in the background. I was paying as much attention to what was in the background then to what the boy was doing.
Everyone at the event was phenomenally cooperative.
I took 4 or 5 photos with the boy standing in this position. I liked this one the most. He looks contemplative.
Photo of the Month July 2022
Aperture of f2.8: The tepees in the background give it a sense of place. I wanted enough bokeh in the background to blur it but also I wanted the viewer to be able to tell what it is.
Shutter Speed 1/8000: It was a bright sunny day so I shot at a really high shutter speed (1/8000 sec) This is the highest my camera would allow.
Exposure compensation of -1: I always shoot with some negative exposure compensation if I am shooting in aperture mode. I prefer lightening up an image rather than darkening it down in post process. I didn’t want to blow out any of the highlights.
This was the first time I used my mirrorless for portrait work. I was pleased with how it performed. I just love the EVF info and being able to see the histogram in real time. It simplifies the actual shooting.
EXIF Data:
Canon R5, Canon 70-200 RF 2.8 shot at 95mm
F2.8, 1/8000 sec, ISO 200
Aperture Mode, Exposure Comp of -1
Tips for Portraits:
Keep shooting – you will end up with a lot that aren’t great. Increase your keeper ratio by shooting plenty of frames.
Control the background – I didn’t move around the subject much. I knew I wanted the tepees in the background as a frame behind him.
Control the light – we had strong overhead sunlight, so I had to work with that. I softened the light in post. Luckily his headdress didn’t cast too much of a shadow on his face.
Sunrise at Swiftcurrent Lake in GNP
About Photographing in and near Glacier
Glacier exceeded my expectations photographically.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect because Glacier is less well known as a national park. The vistas aren’t as iconic. Compare it to Yosemite. Everyone knows about Half Dome and El Cap. I was very pleasantly surprised.
As for Browning and Indian Days, I thought it was one of the best parts of the trip. The photography was very different for me. Aside from the photography, I really enjoyed just watching. The remembrance tributes were really moving.
Taking portraits was a great way to expand my photographic check list. It was something we hadn’t done before. I took hundreds of photos and only had two keepers. It was really a blast!
Eric learned his lesson with this image
My Lesson Learned:
We went out the first morning and we had a beautiful pink sunrise. I thought the shoot was over and packed everything up and headed to the car. As I was walking up the hill, I heard Tom say, “Look at the light”.
I ran back down and unpacked everything. I used my ND grad filter to darken the sky in this image.
I learned that you don’t pack up until you’re sure the show is over!
On Eric’s Horizon:
Pantanal in Brazil
Puffins on Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine
Oregon Coast & Redwoods
Tanzania
Eric and Kim photographing horses on route to Browning, Montana
Where are Tom and Cree?
As you read this we are sailing around the Galapagos Islands with a group on a three masted sailboat. We will be back in the office from August 8-12 and then off to Greenland with Strabo Tours to photograph enormous icebergs in Disko Bay.
Want to join us for an international adventure? We have a few spots open:
We just returned from our Lake Clark Bear Workshop and are already longing to go back next year. The spring cubs were just wonderful. Take a look at our trip report to see the photos and catch up on what Crimp’s Cub looks like this year.
Tom has been busy working on articles for Nikon in his spare time. Check out his new piece on the Pre-release Feature of the Nikon Z9. If you are an Olympus user you probably already know about it. If you are a Nikon user, this allows you to record images before you push the button and capture a burst of activity. Great read! Click here. Most of the images for the article were taken on our Texas Birds Workshops in May
Tom and I will be out of the office for several weeks in August with workshops in both the Galapagos and Greenland. We want to be able to answer all of your questions as soon as possible and will check messages whenever we have coverage.
We will be readily available and in the office from August 8-12. We are also around for the next several days (end of July) if you need anything.
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
After postponing for two years, our entire workshop group was delighted to be going to Glacier National Park. We showed up in the early morning for our first shoot and an amazing rainbow appeared over Wild Goose Island. It was a spectacular year to be in Glacier!
Click on this link to learn more and to see images from our photo workshop in Glacier National Park.
We have a busy international schedule coming up from now until December. We are traveling to the Galapagos and then on to Greenland next.
Most of our trips are full but there are a few spaces available on our Lofoten Norway Workshop on September 11-18 Learn more This is the perfect place to cool down after a warmer than usual summer!
We also have a few spaces on our Botswana and Zimbabwe Workshop November 10-22 Learn more We visit Victoria Falls, ground level elephant blinds and boat on the Chobe River.
Thanks for reading our posts. Hope you are having a great summer!
We will be returning to Alaska next week for an assignment with the Mat-Su Visitor’s Bureau (Palmer, Wasilla and Talkeetna). One of our shoots will be photographing stand up paddle boarding on a glacier pool. It sounds exciting. We are also looking forward to the annual Alaskan brewery photo shoot!
Arches and Canyonlands
New Workshops for 2024
Over the last few weeks we have been rounding out our 2024 Schedule with a few new workshop destinations. We keep adding new destinations in order to give you plenty of options, both international and domestic. We have space available on both of these:
Arches and Canyonlands Nov 3-7, 2024
Details: This is one of our favorite national parks. Tom has been leading photo workshops and doing assignments in Moab for the last 20 years. Photograph striking red rock formations on blue skies. Explore myriad arches against an iconic western landscape. Learn More
Orangutans and Volcanos in Indonesia February 13-23, 2024
Details: Join Tom, Cree and Phillip Bartlett on a 10 day adventure to the exotic islands of Java and Borneo. These islands are part of the country of Indonesia – we will be photographing wildlife from a riverboat, landscapes and taking travel portraits. Learn More
Orangutans in Indonesia Photo by Phillip Bartlett
Openings for 2022
Our domestic trips are all full for 2022. We have a few new openings for international trips. We have been traveling abroad since last November and are finding it easier to travel now that the testing requirement for covid has been lifted for re-entry into the US. We are happy to talk more about international travel with you if you have questions. Click on the underlined links to learn more.
At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For April we chose an image from our Costa Rica Rainforest Workshop created by Joe Campbell. We hope you enjoy Joe’s images as much as we do!
Congratulations to April 2022 ‘s featured photographer – Joe Campbell
Costa Rica
The Story …
I had been sitting on a log having lunch by myself. I looked around and asked myself, “Where is everybody?” The guides said there was an anteater down the road so I decided to mosey down there.
I went down the road and everyone was shooting from the side by the road. Tom was on the beach side so I went and started shooting near him.
The anteater was climbing down the tree and sat down to rest for awhile. It was like I asked him to pose like that – sitting and enjoying the ocean breeze.
I was telling myself, “This is a damn good shot” How can you miss with a pose like that.
April 2022 Photo of the Month
I like using the ring to set the exposure compensation. With the Nikon Z9 you can see it happen right in the viewfinder.
The ISO on the anteater was 2800. I used Topaz Denoise and it worked fine. It does a great job of removing noise most of the time.
EXIF Data:
Nikon Z9 with a 500 mm pf lens
F8, 1/640 sec, ISO 2800, Exposure Compensation +1.3
Manual Mode, Auto Focus Pattern wide-area small
Eyelash Viper shot with a 500 mm pf lens
This was the best shot I got from the eyelash viper shoot. Eduardo was using his hook to place the snake on the heliconia. I used content aware to remove the hook from the photo. I try to walk around the subject to get different angles and shading.
I recommend changing your position until you find something that works.
I had never really shot snakes before. I plan to do it again.
About photographing in the Costa Rica jungle
It’s hot. It’s sweaty. And it’s worth it.
I like the variety. Without the guides I would not have seen anything. I do not know how they drive and see things way up in a tree at the same time.
The same was true of the river guides. The boat driver would stop and say, “There is a boa in the tree.” How the hell did he see that. I look over and it looks just like a bee’s nest.
The Sierpe River is where I learned that toucans eat more than fruit. We heard a lot of noise up in a tree. We saw several great-tail grackles chasing a toucan. We saw that there were actually 2 toucans. One was distracting the grackles while the other stole a baby grackle from the nest.
It flew off and I was lucky enough to get a shot of the chick in its beak.
I thank the Z9 for that.
A Bare-throated Tiger Heron in the Jungle
On Changing Positions:
We got a lot of shots of the Tiger Heron from right below the tree branch. Jose, the guide, suggested we move to the other side of the tree.
It popped. That was the place to be.
On Joe’s Horizon
Rookeries in New Jersey at Ocean City and Cape May (great egrets, white ibis, night herons)
Machias Seal Island for puffin
Alaska for Grizzlies
Norway for Northern Lights
Joe in Fairbanks – not dressed for the Costa Rican jungle
We are off to South Texas next for two bird workshops at Laguna Seca and Santa Clara Ranch. After that we are headed to to Southern Spain with Strabo Photo Tours – space still available.
We will add another trip to Costa Rica in April 2024 and have a similar workshop in 2023 in the cloud forest of Ecuador, click here to learn more.
Enjoy your spring and thanks for reading our posts!
Just back from a terrific workshop in Death Valley National Park. Right before the workshop began, two days of wind wiped the sand dunes clean….the only footprints we saw were from a fox the night before. Click here to see the report.
News update: with omicron numbers declining, more people are interested in traveling internationally. Our upcoming trip to Sicily in March is full, but we have space on our Spain Workshop in May. Two spaces just opened up for our Costa Rica Workshop on April 4-11, 2022.
We hope that 2022 is off to a great start and you are finding time to get outside and create photos!
Tom and Cree Bol like to celebrate the great images created by their photo community by selecting a Photograph of the Month. For November we chose an image of a Sandhill Crane at the Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge created by Riley Brissey . We hope you enjoy Riley’s images as much as we do!
Congratulations to November 2021 ‘s featured photographer – Riley Brissey
Riley Brissey on location
The Story …
This was day one in Bosque. That evening we had crazy clouds. The whole time we were there cranes were flying in from the left and the right. They never stopped.
Most of the people were photographing birds in flight. I felt like I should be doing the same. I kept looking at the reflections in the water and was thinking how beautiful it was. I wanted to get something in there too.
I started focusing on the water. I was sitting in the grass beside the road, looking for a cool pose or something really neat that would be worthy of putting on the wall.
This crane was a bit further away, probably 12 yards from me. I saw it walking towards the golden light of the reflected clouds and knew I needed to get ready. I was also watching several other cranes and their position. This was the one that was right where I wanted it.
I lowered my exposure to keep the red channel from blowing out. Tom had mentioned this earlier. Because it was a moving subject I kept my shutter speed relatively high for the light conditions. I always like to shoot birds at wide open apertures and I just let the auto ISO do its thing…..
November 2021 Photo of the Month
EXIF Data:
Nikon D850 with a Nikon 500mm PF lens
F5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 2000, exposure comp of -1
Manual mode with auto ISO
About photographing on at Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico
It is a very interesting place. The way the refuge managers have handled the drought is great. They adapted to the conditions this year and still kept it a beautiful place to photograph. They gave the cranes new places to feed and roost.
If you go there any other time of the year, it would not look nearly as beautiful. I came back to Washington after the sunshine in Bosque and it was cloudy and forecast to rain for the next week and a half.
Riley’stips for photographing Sandhill Cranes:
All these things I managed to catch came down to being observant. Blink and you miss it.
On the first morning, I missed the mating dance of two cranes in good light. I was looking to the right and completely missed it.
Keep an eye out all of the time. Put the camera down and look around. There’s only so much you can see from the viewfinder.
Be really attentive and observant of the moment.
Sandhill Crane portrait in the new crane pond
On Riley’s Horizon
Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan
Iceland
Backpacking in Germany
Riley getting close at White Sands National Park
Ready for a bucket list photo adventure in the United States? We have a few spaces open for our Northern Light in Fairbanks Workshop. Click here for more info.
