Landscapes, Travel, Wildlife and People
We hope your photography in 2023 is already off to a good start. We are headed to Chile and Easter Island this weekend for our first photo workshop of 2023.
We just returned from an fascinating scouting trip in Ecuador. We wanted to share the details of our trip with you, and you can read all about it, click here
If you decide you would like to join us in Ecuador in June 2024, we have space available Read more
Thanks for reading our posts! …..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!
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.
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
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?
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.
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
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!
Tom and Cree
At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For November we chose an image from our Botswana and Zimbabwe Photo Workshop created by Alex Sneiders. Alex has photographed wildlife in Africa several times and was happy to finally see a Serval Cat on this trip. We hope you enjoy Alex’s images as much as we do!
The Story…
I was enjoying the scene. I was fascinated by the vultures waiting in the wings on the tree. I visualized the clouds as they were coming in and the impending rain. I tried to capture all of that in the photo.
The dead elephant had a whole pride of lions enthralled with eating. They totally ignored us.
I was captivated by the elephant being in one corner of the frame and the vultures in another corner.
I shot in Infrared with the intent of shooting a couple of unique images. This was my favorite so far.
I converted the camera with Lifepixel. It is much easier to shoot IR with a mirrorless camera. The focus is automatic with mirrorless but not with a SLR or DSLR.
I was trying to do a color conversion at first. I found that with the color conversion, there was too great of a departure from what it actually looked like. I find that the black and white versions frequently come out elegantly.
EXIF Data:
Nikon Z7 with IR Conversion, Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 lens shot at 51 mm
ISO 800 1/2500 sec f4
Aperture Priority Mode
About Photographing in Botswana and Zimbabwe
The difference between these countries and my previous safaris was mainly the Chobe River in Botswana. There were lower views of the wildlife and faster action.
There was a different variety of animals, particularly in the bird life. That was the highlight of the trip for me.
When using the pre-release feature while photographing Malachite Kingfishers, I learned that the jpeg images are quite good. You have to be patient and keep your finger on the shutter button.
When using Pre-release, you have to cull through all of your images to find a few pieces of gold.
Alex’s Tips for Photographing on Safari:
Tip 1: Bring lots of cards. I took 45 thousand photos on this trip. That is a record for me. Using Pre-release with the Nikon Z9 added a ton of jpegs
Tip 2: Be patient
Tip 3: Practice focusing. Play around with different focus patterns modes like 3D, wide area large and single point. Practice switching between them as well.
On Alex’s Horizon:
Antarctica
Greenland
Namibia
Mongolia
Indonesia
Faroe Islands
Pantanal
Svalbard
Galapagos
Workshop News
Just Added: Masking Made Easy: Online Editing Class. Join us in mid January to brush up on your editing skills and learn how to use all the new masking features in either PhotoShop or Lightroom. Click here to learn more.
Space is still available on our 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 traveling in Argentina and Chile right now with our Patagonia Workshop. Look for updates on social media.
Enjoy the holidays. Thanks for reading our posts!
Tom and Cree
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are ready for the holiday season. We will be hosting our Annual Bol Holiday Gift Guide tomorrow at 5 pm on Zoom – that’s Saturday, November 26 MDT Denver time. Send us a quick note here to get the link for this free event
To learn about our recent trip to Botswana and Zimbabwe , click here
We are headed to Patagonia next week and look forward to starting off in Buenos Aires by photographing the world champion tango dancers. Always a terrific trip and Marcelo Martinez will be right by our side as we travel through Argentina and Chile.
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
We are back in Fort Collins watching our first snow of the season. With winter just around the corner, we wanted to share the highlights of our colorful workshop in Acadia National Park from earlier this month. Take a look at our trip report to see photos and learn what we found.
To see the report, click here
Our final two workshops of the month are coming up in November and december. We will be headed to Botswana and Patagonia. We will be posting on Facebook and Instagram while traveling and will share our highlights with you when we get back.
We are heading to Lofoten, Norway on February 18-25 to photograph aurora and landscapes in winter and have a few spaces available. Lofoten is warmer than Alaska in winter and walking will be minimal on this workshop. Click here for a link with more info.
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
Just back from our 11 day photo adventure on the South Island of New Zealand. We explored the mountains and lakes of New Zealand and ended with a spectacular wildlife shoot on the ocean. Take a look at our trip report to see the photos and find out more.
To see the report, click here
Looking for an international photography workshop? Is photographing Northern Lights on your bucket list? We are heading to Lofoten, Norway on February 18-25 to photograph aurora and landscapes in winter. Lofoten is warmer than Alaska and should have plenty of open water to reflect the northern lights. Click here for a link with more info. Four spaces available.
For our next stop, we are headed to Acadia National Park for fall foliage. We will be posting on Facebook and Instagram while on the workshop.
We wish you wonderful fall travels and photography!
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
At Tom Bol Photo Workshops, we celebrate great images created on our workshops by selecting a Photo of the Month. For September we chose an image from our Lofoten Norway Workshop created by Lauren King. Lauren was in the right spot at the right time. As a portrait photographer Lauren immediately was drawn to the couple on the beach. We hope you enjoy Lauren’s images as much as we do!
The Story…
We were all on the beach. We wanted to make sure we had lined up for the shot without other people being in the shot. I had my super-wide lens on to capture the full arch of the creek.
I have been trying to work on shooting from different angles. I was holding my camera above my head and finger touching on the screen. Then this couple walked into the scene.
I waited for the couple to find their spot. Then…..voila! It just happened.
I have been working on sunstars and sunstar placement in my images. Getting a sunstar right behind the little mountain with the couple in the foreground was my goal.
I did very little in post process. I smoothed some of the sand in the foreground. I also worked on slightly cropping the image so that the sunstar was in the right place and the couple’s shadow was still in the frame.
EXIF Data:
Nikon Z6ii, Nikon 14-24 lens shot at 15 mm
F22, 1/100 sec, ISO 100
Manual Mode
Lauren’s Tips for Photographing Travel Images:
Tip 1: Think outside of the box. Think about what people are not getting. What can you shoot that is not right in front of your face? What is not obvious?
Tip 2: Use the reticulating screen. If you use the screen when shooting people, they may not realize you are taking a photo. This means they will be less self-conscious in the image.
About Photographing in the Lofoten Islands
Oh my goodness, it was amazing!
I felt like we were lucky with the weather. I expected a lot of greens from Norway. I did not expect all the reds and yellows at ground level. We photographed at a small lake one day and I could have stayed there all day.
Lofoten is very pristine. It was nice to be out in the fresh air. From the grand views to the tiny flowers – there was always something to shoot. There were worlds within worlds.
Cabin Shoots:
Everybody was at Nusfjord and went up the hill above the yellow cabin. It was muddy and I did not think I would make it up there.
I told myself to go back down and find something that no body else had seen. I went in between the buildings and this is what I found (image above).
I did very little in post process for this image. I cropped a small bit. I also removed a person who was standing below one of the windows in front of the yellow cabin.
In my mind this was a modern take on Norway even though they are old cabins.
At Statles Rorbuer, where we stayed I went out by myself on an afternoon break. Even before I got to Norway, I knew I wanted to try selective color on the cabins. I saw the line-up of cabins and knew it was the right one for my image. I used a color range mask to select the cabins and worked with Cree on the editing.
On Lauren’s Horizon:
Inagua Island, Bahamas for flamingos
France near Paris
Austria and Switzerland
Everywhere else without snakes!
We are headed back to the Lofoten Islands in Norway this winter on February 18-25 for snowy landscapes and the Northern Lights. Space is still available. Click here to read more.
Where are Tom and Cree?
We are looking forward to our next photo adventure in Acadia National Park. Mid-October is the perfect time to be in Maine for red fall leaves and we are headed there next week with a full group of photographers.
To see our 2023 schedule, click here
We hope you are enjoying a great fall. Thanks for reading our posts!
Tom and Cree
We spent a wonderful week exploring the fjords of Norway in the Lofoten Islands with our latest workshop group. We chased dramatic light and were dazzled by the fall foliage covering the hillsides. Take a look at their trip report to see the photos and find out more.
To see the report, click here
We are headed back to Lofoten this winter and have space available. Trip dates: February 18-25, 2023. They are sure to fill quickly. Click here for a link with more info.
We are on our way to New Zealand to explore fjords in a different hemisphere. We will share our highlights when we return to Colorado on October 4.
We wish you wonderful fall travels and photography!
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
Just getting back from our Brown Bear Safari in Katmai National Park and what a workshop! Seeing more than 100 bears in a single day was a definite highlight. We were also lucky with the weather and were able to fly to all the best spots for bear photography. Take a look at our trip report to see the photos and find out more.
To see the report, click here
If you are interested in the Bear Safari in 2024, we have a few spaces open. They are sure to fill quickly. Click here for a link with more info.
We are traveling to Norway and New Zealand with workshop groups for the next few weeks. We plan to be back in the office on October 4 and will answer al your inquiries as soon as we get back. We will also check messages when we have good wifi.
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
We had a wonderful time on our recent workshop to the Galapagos in Ecuador. Daily snorkeling, sailing on a three-masted ship and walking right up to incredibly rare birds were just a few of the highlights. Take a look at our trip report to see the photos and find out more.
To see the report, click here
If you are interested in traveling to the Galapagos on the Mary Anne with us for a future workshop, send us a note via our contact page, link here Ask to be on the Interest List.
We will be trading in our bathing suits for parkas as our next workshop starts soon in Iceland and Greenland with Strabo Tours. We want to be able to answer all of your questions as soon as possible and will check messages whenever we have coverage. After the workshop, we will be readily available and in the office from August 25-30 if you need anything.
Thanks for reading our posts. We hope to photograph with you soon!
Tom and Cree
