Great American Photography Workshops

In April of 2010 I will be co-teaching with Jack Graham our “Macro and More” workshop for the Great American Photography Workshops.  I am honored to be part of one the countries leading companies offering workshops.  Well known photographer like Galen Rowell, John Shaw, Art Wolf, Bill Fortney have all taught workshops fo GAPW. They are Sponsored by Nikon, Fujifilm, Epson, Outdoor Photographer Magazine.  Here is the workshop Jack and I will be presenting, and to register go to GAPW website http://gaphotoworks.com

April 28-May 2, 2010 Marco and More Great Smoky Mtns

Jack Graham and Mike Moats

Dates: April 28-May 2, 2010
Limited To: 15
Faculty: Jack Graham and Mike Moats

Cost: $795
Nearest Airport: Knoxville, TN
Hotel Information:
Townsend, TN
Valley View Lodge
865-448-2237

Description: MACRO & MORE™ photographic workshops are much more than regular photographic workshops. We will me putting lots of time & effort into both landscapes as well as macro photography. Locations for MACRO & MORE™ workshops are carefully selected in order to not only offer great landscape opportunities, but also feature subject matter for the macro world as well. The GREAT SMOKIE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK is one such area.

GREAT SMOKIE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK lies between the Little Tennessee River and the Big Pigeon Fork River encompassing over 800square miles of some of the most interesting terrain in the country. We will be there in prime wild flower time in late April when carpets of spring wildflowers serve not only as subjects for our MACRO & MORE™ workshop, but add to the beautiful spring landscape, found only in the Smokies. Streams, trails and unique vistas are the palate for endless photographic opportunities. Subject matter for both landscape and macro photography is almost everywhere. Spider webs, wildflowers and other parts of a diverse ecosystem offer endless opportunities for both Macro photography. We will be based in Townsend, Tennessee, with locations such as Clingman’s Dome, Chimney Tops, and Newfound Gap and others close by.

This workshop is a very different workshop in that both landscape as well as macro photography are featured. You will come away with information and knowledge that will with out question make you a better photographer in both areas.

Both Mike Moats & Jack Graham bring their own special knowledge, style and expertise in photography to the GAPW in offering their MACRO & MORE™ workshop in the Smoke’s. This weekend is a truly unique experience and one you will truly never forget. Come join us!

Photoshop/Nik Software Workshop

I will be posting some of the new stuff for 2010 in the next few days.  First in the beginning of the year I will teach a Photoshop and Nik Software workshop.  This class will be for beginners to intermediates and those who would like to learn more about the incredible Nik Sofware programs like Viveza, Color Efex Pro, Dfine, Sharpener Pro, Silver Efex Pro. You will be amazed when you see the Nik Viveza work, simplicity and effectiveness at its best.  The workshop will run three hours and will be held on January 16th,2010 at the ConCorde Inn,   Rochester Hills,   Michigan.  Cost $39.00 contact me if would like more info. mgmoats@yahoo.com

Jpeg or Raw – Jpegs or Tiffs

I’ve never been good at learning from reading, so when I buy a product that  needs  assembling, I look at the picture on the box and put it together.  My wife always yells at me, get the instructions before you start messing with it.  Reading instructions is always frustrating as I have a hard time trying to figure out what they are telling me to do, so I get upset and just figure it out on my own. 

My learning process in macro photography has been much the same, as I have been totally self-taught in shooting, depth of field, composition, exposure, processing in photoshop, printing, and the business end of nature photography. 

In 2001  I bought my first 35mm SLR and a few lenses off eBay.  I went to the Barnes and Noble bookstore and purchased a few nature photography books.  Like the instructions that come with a new product, I had a hard time understanding what the books were teaching me, so I just went out on my own learning and having fun through trail and error. 

When I started shooting with my first Digital SLR I decided to shoot using the fine  jpeg format.  At the time I wasn’t interested in the RAW system as it seemed like it used to much file space, and my 512ram, slow processors took longer to work an image, so the jpeg format just seemed to make my experience with photography easier. 

I bought my first printer an Epson 1280  which printed to 13″X19″ .  I  processed  my jpegs through a free 2.0 Photoshop Elements program I got with the 1280 printer and then print them out.  I was amazed at the excellent quality of the images and the prints. 

Even though I wasn’t very knowledgable in the process of digital photography and printing, the system I was using  looked  every bit as good as anything I was seeing from the photographers at the local art shows or galleries.

Four years ago I enter the art show business and to date I do about twenty-five shows a year.  I also show in a few galleries, had tons of images published and have won numerous local and international awards. All with jpegs and my PS Elements program.

After I got into digital I started to play on the internet at some of the nature photography sites, www.naturephotographers.net and www.birdphotographers.net (it ain’t just for birds) I began reading posts in the photography forums talking about the digital process like jpegs versus raw, processing images, saving in jpegs, tiff, or PSD files, and all the technical stuff.  What I was reading said that basically everything I was doing was wrong.  I’m shooting jpegs when I should be shooting raw files, I was saving the images as jpegs when I should have been saving them as tiffs or PSDs.

I was scratching my head as my prints look as good as everybody elses and I’m doing it all wrongs according to the experts. 

I’m not saying I’m right and everyone else is wrong, but as my photographer friend Jack Graham says the proof is in the print, and I agree with that, whatever process you use that produces a great print go with it. 

The other day a  photographer friend and I were talking about all this stuff about shooting jegs, compression issues, and saving images as tiffs rather than jpeg.  Now I know all about the compression of a jpeg and that when it saves an image the compression throws out information in details, color, etc.  All I can say it must be throwing out all the crap because it leaves my jpegs with plenty enough good stuff to produce and excellent image when printed even up to the largest I can now print 24″ X 36″.  I also understand that the raw file is easier to adjust exposure for the landscape people with the problems of high dynamic range, but in macro I don’t run into this issue very often, and I can usually correct it in the field. 

My friend says to me, well what about when you have to do some reprocessing work on the image, you lose file quality every time you open and resave the image.  He says that isn’t a problem when you use a tiff file, you can open, do some tweaks and close without any damage to the file.  I don’t know about that, but when I process an image and get it where I what it for print I save it one time and I’m done.  I don’t go back over and over redoing the image.  He says but everytime you open it to print do you resave it.  I said no after I print I just click don’t save and it revents back to what it was before I opened it. 

Have you ever seen the  TV program called myth busters, I decided to do my own myth busters and test my method of how I process and print my images against all the info I read on the forums and what every photog tells me.  I need to at least investigate to see if maybe my images could somehow look better saving in tiffs and also wanted to see if I opened, reworked and resaved a file would it cause a noticable difference in the final print.

I’m printing this test on a Epson 7880 large format 24″ printer, so  no one can say well you’re using a crappy printer so the test is flawed.   

I picked an image that as been my best seller over the last four years, and it will be my test image.  I took the original jpeg and did my normal processing in PS Elements and saved it as a jpeg.  Took the original again and did the exact same processing and saved as a Tiif file.   I then open the jpeg and sized it to 18″ X 24″ at 300 dpi and printed it.    I did the same for the tiff file and printed.    The jpeg file when saved at this size came out at 21 megs. and the tiff file at this size was a whopping 130 megs.  I guess you would think with all those extra megs the tiff would kick the jpegs but.  Because you remember the jpeg compression throws out all that details, color,etc. info.  

Well listen up people!  the prints look identical.  I can’t tell any difference from the over bloated tiff file from the puny jpeg file. I even went back and lowered the DPI to 200 on the jpeg image to see if there would be quality differences and when printed it looked the same as the others.  So with this test why would I ever save as a tiff and deal with clogging up hard drives, slowing processing when I’m not getting any improvements.

The second issue, if I open a jpeg, do a little tweak and resave it will it show a decrease in quality in the print.  I figured why just open and resave it one time, I’ll do it five times, that should show a difference if there is any.  I open the jpeg, went into Nik Softwares Viveza and did a little tweak to a leaf in the image.  I then resaved and closed the image.  I reopened it and did another tweak and resaved and close it again.  I did this process five times and figured that should be enough to show some degrading if any.   I made the print still at the 18″ X 24″ size and printed.

Listen up people!  It looked identical to the others, couldn’t tell any difference. 

So now you say well it’s an 18″ X 24″ print maybe you’ll see the difference when you go bigger.  So I resized the jpeg and the tiff files to 24″ X 36″  and printed.  Guess what they look the same, NO difference. 

That tiff image eats up four times the hard drive space,  and doesn’t offer me any better quality.

Now if someone says I open and reprocess my image more than five times, why are you having to reprocess an image that many times, I do it once and I’m done, and even if I had to reprocess an image my test shows it’s not a problem at least up to five times. 

I don’t care when someone  says, but what about the statistic or mathematical equations or lets blow it up to 200 percent and look at it, I only care about how the print looks when it comes out of the printer.  That’s how I make my money from the print so I don’t care about all the other BS.

I will say that I have been recently working with the NIK Software programs and they are amazing.  I will post some info on this in the future.  Even with my jpegs the NIk programs have no problem making the adjustments I need.

In closing I will say that I’ have  never had a magizine editor, art consultant, contest judge, gallery owner, art show customer, workshop partisipant, ever tell me my images suffered from the lack of using raw  or tiffs files.

I’ll stay with my jpegs. 

Nature’s Best – Windland Smith Rice International Competition.

I had an image that won “Highly Honored” in the 2009 Nature’s Best Magazines  Windland Smith Rice International competition.  The mag should be out soon, they just posted press releases and the winners on their blog.   They pick from over twenty thousand images from all over the world.  You can see the winners from the different catagories at www.naturesbestblog.com  Here’s mine that won “Highly Honored”

Macro Boot Camp

Macro Boot Camp

 
Presented by Mike Moats, an award-winning, published nature photographer specializing in macro photography. www.tinylandscapes.com

 

    Sponsored by

Tamron –  Lensbaby – Photoflex – Hunt’s Photo – Helicon Focus - Nik Software

  

This will be an in depth unique three days of learning, fun, and entertainment.  It is for the beginner to the advanced photographer wanting to learn more about the macro world in nature.

Where;  The Embassy Suites Hotel,  Livonia,  Michigan (just outside Detroit)

Dates and Times :
March 26th  5:00pm – 8:00pm
March 27th  9:00am – 5:00pm
March 28th  9:00am – 2:00pm

Mike will cover macro lenses, Lensbabies, the best tripods and heads for macro, special macro accessories, stacking images with Helicon Focus, reversing lenses. Composing, and learning how to see the artwork in nature.  Learn how to control depth of field. See how to build a collapsible enclosed plexiglas wind shield for shooting flowers.  Camera positioning for that perfect background. When and how to use reflectors, diffusers, plamps, focusing rails, and more.  Mike shows his image processing using Photoshop and Nik Software.

Bring your camera because Tamron and Lensbaby will be providing lens for you to try out. Mike will have subjects set up for you to shoot.

You will have a chance to win door prizes from our sponsors.

Sales on many of the products you see at the workshop will be offered in a Hunt’s Photo flyer.

Each participant is encouraged to bring five prints of their best macro shots to share

The Embassy Hotel will offer special room rates for this event.

Lunch on Saturday and Sunday included in the price of workshop.

Limited to forty participants,  so don’t wait to register or you may miss out.

If you register and pay before January 1^st, you will receive a free PDF of Mike’s e-book, “Running A Successful Nature Photography Business” ( $39.00 value).

For more information or to register by credit card, call Mike at (586)770-3992 or (586)264-7100
Or register online at www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

 

Do You Like Murder Mystery Books

Any of you out there into murder mystery novels.  My brother Bob has written a great series of seven books and is working on the eigth right now.  The series is based on a senior citizen sleuth Jim Richardson.  Check out the books at, MurderNovels.com

Macro Boot Camp Update

I would like to thank those that took the time to take the survey for the three-day ”Macro Bootcamp”.  It was good to find out a few things I needed to know to set this event up. 

I’m honored to have Tamron, Lensbaby, Photoflex, and Hunt’s Photo so far as sponsors that will provide macro lenses for the participates to try out, and  door prizes.  With the help of the sponsors I was able to lower the price off this event from $189.00 down to $149.00. 

I have  set a tentative date as March 26,27,28 and will be held at the Embassy Hotel in Livonia Michigan,  (a beautiful hotel just outside Detroit). I’m still contacting companies to sponsor for door prizes. 

It will be a great learning experience, fun and entertaining.   I will have  more details about the workshop and will be taking registrations hopefully by the end of the week. 

This workshop will be limited to forty participates, so don’t wait long when it comes time to register.

Click here for Macro Bootcamp

First Good Frost

This morning we had a good frost with the leaves at a perfect stage for group shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check back as the “Three Day Macro Bootcamp” in March is almost ready to announce a date and Sponsors.

To see more frosty group shots go to, www.tinylandscapes.com

Macro Reminders

Here’s some simple macro tips, read them before you head out into the field to shoot.

Macro Reminders,

Look for subjects that have contrast, colors, textures, light.

Check your camera settings before every shot: ISO, white balance, Jpeg, Raw, etc.

When shooting flowers or any standing subject, check the background before shooting. View from all sides to find the least distracting background.

For a less composed look, place straight lines on diagonal rather than vertical or horizontal through the frame.

Arrange the image so the main subject is in the thirds of the frame rather than the middle.

Make sure the subject you pick to shoot is the one in the best condition. No blotches, missing parts, discolorations, etc.

 For a soft blurred background, set the f/stop in the smaller number range. For the sharpest image throughout set f/stop on the largest number. Try to remember: bigger number, bigger focus – smaller number, smaller focus.

If possible, shoot your subjects in overcast or shady conditions. If subject is in direct sun light use a diffuser to shade the subject, unless you’re using the sun light for special effects like back lighting, or side lighting.

Make a copy of this and carry it in the field.

Macro Boot Camp / Click Here

tinylandscapes.com

Three Day “Macro Bootcamp” Survey

I’m looking at offering a in depth three-day Macro Bootcamp.

It would start on Friday evening, seven hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

The class would be for beginners to advanced photographers and cover all aspects of macro.
The workshop would be instructional only covering Lensbaby, stacking images, working all depths of field, Reverse lens, composition, abstracts, equipment, technique.

Please go to my survey to offer your opinion. Click Here

There’s A New Fast Shooting Lens In Town

If you watch old westerns, the fastest shooter in town was well-respected, and so is the new Tamron 60mm fast shooting macro lens.  This f/2.0 out shoots the other  macro lenses by a full stop.  This really helps with macro as we tend to shoot subjects like small moving critters, flowers blowing in the wind, and if you’re like me, I shoot a lot in wooded areas were it can get pretty dark.  So to help stop a moving subject or speed up my shutter in low light, the Tamron 60mm macro fits the bill. 

The wide f/2.0 aperture of the this lens also helps to blur backgrounds, which is a problem you usually have with the short focal length lenses.  I had no problem producing a nice blured backgrounds or abstracts, and the results rivaled some of my longer focal legth macro lenses.  This lightweight lens is also great if you’re hand holding shots.

Those of you that know my style of shooting know that I like to shoot a lot of subject using full depth of field. I was very happy with the way this lens performed when stop down all the way. Nice sharp images though out.

Here are a few shots from the Tamron 60mm macro lens.

(Mike Moats is sponsored by Tamron)

www.Tamron.com

 

Monthly Newsletter

Starting in the month of October I will be publishing a short monthly newsletter.  The newsletter will help you improve your macro work with  a monthy macro tip, photography equipment news, and and my updates for workshops, art shows and new products.

Click below and add your name to the email list.Click Here

Scary Day In The Swamp

I was out in the swamps this morning shooting the floating leaves. This was shot after my camera unhitch itself from the head and took a swan drive into the swamp water. My hand shot into the water like out of a canon, so the camera wasn’t submerged more than a fraction of a second. Had no towel to clean it so had to use my t-shirt. It seems to be working fine as this image was shot after the dunking. You can bet I was cranking on the knob that tightens the camera on the head after that.

Lensbaby’s New Fisheye Lens

Lensbaby introduced its new fisheye attachment today.  I had a chance to play with this lens last month and found it very interesting and a creative tool.  I only wish I had more time to spend with it but hopefully this month things slow a little so I’ll paly some more. Check it out at www.lensbaby.com

This top image made it on the lensbaby website (fisheye images) to promote the new lens.

 

Hunt’s Photo Annual Sale

Hunt’s Photo will be having their big annual sale at the end of October. If you have something in particular you’re looking for, e-mail Gary at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com and let him know what you’re looking for and he will call you to let you know how much you can save when the big sale starts. These will be their lowest prices of the year on almost everything photo related.

Hunt’s has recently changed their 800 phone number. You can now contact Gary Farber at 800-924-8682 ext 2332 or by e-mail at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com or Kathryn at knazzaro@wbhunt.com. The old 800 still works, but they have modified the connection system with the new number.

Check them out.

www.huntsphotoandvideo.com

Macro Boot Camp / Click Here

What’s New

Back from the workshop in the Eastern Sierras, had good weather and everyone had a good time shooting.  Shot at mono lake, and if you every get a chance to visit the ghost town of Bodie, it’s very cool and a great place to shoot some intresting macro images in the old buildings.  We also got to visit and shoot the bristle cone pines that grow on the top of a mountain at 11,000 feet.   Haven’t had time to process any of the images I shot but hopefully this week I will have time to post some.

Yesterday I was at the Rock Financial Showplace for the Great Lakes Fine Art Show.  It also runs today and tomorrow from 10:00am till 6:00pm and is located in Novi, Michigan.  Anyone in the area stop by and say hi.

The fall color in lower Michigan is starting to turn.  So far the color looks really good.  The last couple years the leaves have been blotchy and lacking good colors.  This years the leaves have great color and no blotches.  So looking for some great opportunities for images.

I’ve been shooting with the new Tamron 60mm macro and Tamrons new 17-50mm lens and will post a review and some of the images.

In 2010 I will be offering a photoshop workshop that will also feature the Nik software programs. They will be one day workshops held in Rochester Hills, Michigan.  No dates set yet, but will I will post info as I put them together.

Online Workshops at Naturephotographers.net

http://www.naturephotographers.net/onlinecourses/ will be starting their new online workshops on November 1st.  I will be teaching the macro workshop.

The Nature Photographers Network™ is pleased to present its series of online nature photography courses. NPN online courses are conducted in “virtual classroom” private forums and are instructed by today’s top nature photography professionals. Students are granted access to the virtual classroom for the duration of the course. All lessons and interaction with the instructor – and other students – take place in the virtual classroom.

Each course includes six lessons, which are presented in publication-quality PDF format. Each lesson is allotted one week for completion and includes a shooting assignment. The student may post questions in the virtual classroom at any time during the week for the instructor to answer. Once the assignment is completed, the student will post their work in the virtual classroom for instructor and peer review. At the completion of the course, each student will receive a personalized Certificate of Completion.

You can pay for the course via your PayPal account or directly with a credit card. We are so confident that you will enjoy and benefit from any of our online nature photography courses that we offer a no-hassle, no-questions-asked 100% satisfaction guarantee. Once the course commences, you have 14 days to cancel and receive a full refund.

 We look forward to your participation!

Any one looking to sign up for the macro course go to http://www.naturephotographers.net/onlinecourses/

St James Court Art Show

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky.  In town to do the St. James Court Art Show. This art show is rated in Sunshine Artist magazine as the second best art show in the county.  Draws around 250,000 people over three days and has over seven hundred artist from across the county.  Stop in and say hi if you’re in the area.

Fun On The Rocks

Over Labor Day weekend I was in Harrisville, Michigan exhibiting at an art show.  I arrived Friday morning to set up, and I had the afternoon off to go out and do some shooting.  I was staying at a friends home during the show and we planed to head to an old light house on Lake Huron, where I wanted to shoot some of the colorful rocks off the point of the lighthouse.  We waded out into about a foot of the cold clear water and began shooting abstracts of the rocks.  The wave action that was hightlighted by the sunlight create interesting patterns as it distorted the colorful rocks.  I was shooting some macro images earlier with my Tamron 90mm macro and decide to use it when I ventured out for these images.  My settings for the three images were, f/8. shutter 1/2000, and ISO 1600.   The high shutter speed stop the movement of the waves and captured some interesting lines in the rocks.  In the last image I caught a wave that was just entering the frame.

 

 

Upcoming Workshops

“Macro and More” in the Eastern Sierra mountains of California.  Jack Graham and I still have an opening for this  workshop October 8th thru 11th.   Anyone interested in joining the group let me know, mgmoats@yahoo.com

NEW!! www.naturephotographers.net  will add a new feature to their site next month.  They will be offering online workshops for nature photographers.  I will be teaching the Macro workshops.   Below are some of the courses.  More will be added.  Each course will vary, but I think most run around six weeks.

The Ultimate Digital Nature Photography Coursewith Richard Bernabe.    

The Essentials of Digital Landscape Photography – Part 1: Field Techniqueswith Darwin Wiggett.  

Learning to “Speak” the Language of Visual Expressionwith Samantha Chrysanthou.    

Fine Art Abstract Photography – The Art of Seeing and Special Techniqueswith Joesph Rossbach.    

Creating “Wow” Images – The Fundamentals of Landscape Photography Composition with Ian Plant.    

Macro Nature Photography with Mike Moats.

Looks like the course will get started hopefully next month.  Contact me for more details, www.mgmoats@yahoo.com