The last few weeks I’ve been busy with the Bellevue Arts Fair & our family vacation to Whistler, BC.  I am also going back up to Alaska on the 16th for two weeks, but before I go I wanted to post a few new pictures and stories.  This image is from Daniel Stainer, my photography workshop client who came out last month to spend a week with me in Olympic National Park.  We had some great days together.  Rainy afternoons spent in the Hoh & Sol Duc Rainforests, followed by interesting sunsets at Second Beach.  Here is what Dan had to say about working with me,

“If you’re looking for someone to just drop you off at some iconic location for a few hours of casual shooting, then Jon’s probably not your guy.  If you have a strong desire to push your photographic skills to greater depths while getting inside the head of a seasoned landscape pro, then Jon is exactly the right person!   From proper use of graduated neutral density filters and creative scene extraction techniques to aligning shooting opportunities based on a thoughtful interpretation of weather trends, Jon’s proven insight and deep explanations will help you master and fine tune your own photographic vision and approach, no matter what your current skill level.

While Jon is always sensitive to the physical capabilities of his participants, don’t expect to be sitting around for too long or hanging around some scenic overlook off the side of the highway, because Jon will have you hiking to that magical location at the perfect time of the day in search of epic light and unique dramatic landscapes.  As Jon likes to humorously say, “you’ll have time to eat and sleep later.”  Probably the two biggest lessons Jon taught me, were that the best shots require a tremendous amount of patience and often involve multiple visits; the second lesson is that you should not rule out shooting because of inclement weather, because things can always change for the better on the fly-which we learned firsthand when socked in gray and rainy skies made way for a brief sun break.    Aside from Jon’s superb hands-on teaching style, Jon is a great guy with an excellent sense of humor and laid back demeanor.    If you’re serious about your photography, then I cannot recommend Jon’s workshops highly enough.  You’ll be a better photographer because of them!” - Daniel Stainer, July 2009

Thanks so much for your kind words, Dan.  I had a great time, too.  I also want to share some of the video that I shot during our trip with my visitors.  For those of you that do not know, my new Canon 5D mkII has the ability to shoot 1080p video.  I’ve been dabbling with it this year.  Here is some of my footage.

I am super excited to be participating in the Bellevue Arts Fair again. It has been 5 years since I last participated, and though I have done a number of art shows around the country since then, none has generated the enthusiasm I received at Bellevue in 2004.  My booth location is I-12, which you can find on this map. The forecast predicts weather in the 90’s for later this week, which guarantees that the fair will be busy.  I look forward to seeing you there!

This image is another one from my recent private workshop that I lead for a client of Olympic National Park.  it was only 2 weeks ago today that we were out on the coast getting rained on.  We took advantage of the gloomy weather to focus on rainforest compositions.  We certainly got our fill of green, mossy pictures.  This photo was taken along the Spruce Trail in the Hoh Rainforest.  I created it with my Canon 5D mkII, 17-40 lens, f16, 1 sec, ISO 100, Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer, Gitzo Basalt tripod, & Acratech Ultimate ballhead.  Oh, yeah, and a lot of patience waiting for the decisive moment when the leaves were perfectly still from a total lack of a breeze.

This is another beautiful green temperate rainforest image that I took last week while leading a private photography tour of Olympic National Park.  This image is from the Sol Duc Valley on the way up to the iconic Sol Duc Falls.  About 1/2 way to the falls is a very scenic little stream covered in green moss that is often photographed.  About 3 winters ago, one of the big storms caused a terrible amount of flooding in the area, and a lot of the moss that covered the boulders was washed away.  I was out there last year and did not even take a picture while leading a private workshop.  This year, I decided to walk up hill to scout for better photo ops.  A good 10-15 minutes above the bridge that crosses the stream, I found some much more pleasing mossy boulders than lower down and proceeded to spend several hours taking pictures.

This is my favorite image.  This vine maple overhung a nice section of moss covered rocks and had some really cool delicate branches.  Even though there was no wind blowing, this image was incredibly difficult to photograph as the leaves were ever so gently bouncing, making long exposures blurry.  I was trying for the largest depth of field possible by shooting within 2 feet of the foreground leaves while trying not to fall into the stream on the slippery rocks.  I finally got one image while shooting at f16, 3.2 sec, and ISO 400.  You gotta love the backlit leaves during a photo shoot in the rainforest!  Also, you better like the color green.

I just returned from a 1 week private photography workshop/tour that I lead for a client of Olympic National Park.  The trip started last weekend with a sunny 80° day in Seattle.  We drove down to Mount Rainier National Park for the first night with ambitions to photograph Reflection Lake at sunrise.  The weather changed while we were sleeping, and when we woke up it was cloudy and 40°.  So after getting skunked, we started our drive out to our main destination for the week in typical NW crummy weather.  I kept telling Dan, that this weather was going to be great for our ambitions to photograph in the rainforest, but that it might not be great for photographing beach sunsets.  Over the next 4 days, it mostly drizzled or poured on us, but we took advantage of the weather to photograph the spectacular greens of the temperate rainforest.  I spent a lot of time walking around looking for patterns and unique mossy things to photograph.  I really felt like I pushed myself photographically in a way that I have never done before in the rainforest.  It is not an easy place to see the pictures through the chaos of branches and leaves.  I was especially drawn to backlit leaves that just glowed green.  I had fun, but it is again sunny and 80° here in Seattle.  I’ll be outside working on my tan this afternoon.

A few weeks ago, I lead a private photography workshop for Mark & Ross from Minnesota. We had a very busy 3 day trip photographing the rainforest in the afternoon and beaches at sunrise and sunset. I had not been out to Second Beach for several years, but it was as spectacular as ever. I think that we all agreed that this sunset image was the nicest of the whole trip.

Please visit my Nature Photography Workshops page to learn more about my private photography workshops or visit my Olympic National Park Photography page to see more of my images from the Washington coast.