Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. Teaching workshops around the country is a lot of fun and one of my favorite groups to teach for is the American PHOTO Mentor Series. You meet great people, get to be involved in the participants discovery and improvement of their photography, and sometimes I even get to take some pictures while on the Trek. I’ve done several jobs in the San Diego area over the past few months, so a return to the Southern California coastline to teach a Trek with famed photographer Tony Corbel was a real delight. Tony is a fantastic photographer and wonderful teacher, and has written several books and pioneered many aspects of Photoshop and Nikon Capture NX. He is most certainly a Master of Light. In a word, Tony is “HOT,” and it was a joy to be teamed up with him as co-mentors in San Diego. We managed to photograph a lot of subjects during our brief stay in the area … sites, animals and even surfing ………. So, without delay let’s see what San Diego is all about.

Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. Teaching workshops around the country is a lot of fun and one of my favorite groups to teach for is the American PHOTO Mentor Series. You meet great people, get to be involved in the participants discovery and improvement of their photography, and sometimes I even get to take some pictures while on the Trek. I’ve done several jobs in the San Diego area over the past few months, so a return to the Southern California coastline to teach a Trek with famed photographer Tony Corbel was a real delight. Tony is a fantastic photographer and wonderful teacher, and has written several books and pioneered many aspects of Photoshop and Nikon Capture NX. He is most certainly a Master of Light. In a word, Tony is “HOT,” and it was a joy to be teamed up with him as co-mentors in San Diego. We managed to photograph a lot of subjects during our brief stay in the area … sites, animals and even surfing ………. So, without delay let’s see what San Diego is all about.

Image #1      Canyon Lands … This is my first image of the San Diego Mentor Series Trek, Canyon Lands, Utah taken during my flight from Denver to San Diego. For those of you who have not read past editions of the Workshop at the Ranch, (they are all archived for your enjoyment,) I have on several occasions promoted the idea to photographers of booking a window seat on flights they take and making some pictures out the window. The planet below your aircraft is a marvel of the universe and makes great imagery. So, stop reading Sky Mall and look out the window, and when you see something that makes you say to yourself, “wow”, then take a picture. Nikon D3, ISO250, 1/320 at f11, WB Auto A5, Picture Control VIVID with Contrast and Saturation +3, Lexar 8G Flash Card.

Image #2      Intelligent Design Series #82 Plant Life … After Tony and I gave the class our introductions, presentations and advise we set out for Balboa Park to photograph Spanish architecture and beautiful flowers. This was a good starting point for our Trekkers to get to know both Tony and myself, get accustomed to our teaching styles, and for my group, learn about off camera flash. The botanical garden house in Balboa Park was a perfect studio like environment for many of us to use our small strobes held off camera to illuminate the flowers. Nikon D3, ISO400, 1/125 at f6.3, 3D Tracking with 51 points, Nikon 24-70mm Lens, WB 3570K, Picture Control VIVID with Contrast and Saturation +3 and Hue -3, One Remote Nikon SB800 Speedlight with Warming Gel and LumiQuest Snoot that I “Pinched” to a smaller opening with a paper clasp, Power Output +1.3, Nikon SU800 Commander to fire the Remote SB800 Speedlight, Lexar 8G Flash Card. I under exposed the general scene by about 1 1/3 stops. I used a cool WB of 3570K to add some cool blue to the overall image. Then I used the warming gel (full CTO Warming gel that comes standard with each Nikon SB800 Speedlight) on the flash and placed a LumiQuest Snoot with my own paper clasp to “Pinch” the snoots opening down to narrow hole. This “Pinched” snoot reduced the throw of light down to a thin shaft of warm light to just enough to illuminate the one flower and leave the others in the cool blue underexposed scene.

Image #3      San Diego Skies … Thanks to Tony’s expertise of the San Diego area our group of Mentor Series Trekkers had a fantastic location to photograph the San Diego skyline at sunset. As the sun began to set we all realized that the clouds in the sky were going to become spectacular and so a wide lens choice helped include the impressive sky above the downtown area, but it got even better. A US Navy ship was coming into the scene at just the perfect moment of golden sunset light. Our picture was now complete. Nikon D3, ISO320, 1/125 at f8, 3D Tracking with 51 Points, Nikon 24-70mm Lens, WB 7140K, Picture Control VIVID with Contrast +2, Saturation +3, and Hue -3, Hand Held No Tripod, Lexar 8G Flash Card. Sunset city, colorful clouds and now a ship, WOW!, Tony thinks of everything.

Image #4      Giraffe Profile … No trip to San Diego is complete without a visit to the Wild Animal Park. Our Trekkers enjoyed the comforts and superior photographing mode of travel during our tour of the park, …the open truck with bench seating. With trucks and Trekkers ready we were off on a photographic adventure that produced some amazing pictures. Our truck tour brought us VERY close to the parks inhabitants. This Giraffe portrait using my SB800 Speedlight was one of my favorites of the day. Similar in technique to image #2 of the flower, I under exposed the overall scene to where my subject, the Giraffe, was nearly in silhouette against the sky. I then revealed my subject with warm light produced by my SB800 Speedlight with warming gel. Nikon D3, ISO Auto (500), 1/1600 at f7.1, Nikon 24-70mm Lens, 3D Tracking with 51 Points, WB 3200K, Picture Control Standard, One Remote SB800 Speedlight with warming gel and power output -0.7, SU800 Commander, Lexar 8G Flash Card. This cool blue background and warm lit subject is a favorite style of mine. There are several Workshop at the Ranch articles that explain in detail this stylized lighting technique.

Image #5      Surfer Hurdle … COWABUNGA Dude! Now we are talking action photography. Surfers frequent the coast line of California and I have had the pleasure of working with a few VERY talented athletes this year at Ocean Beach. The Ocean Beach Pier provided a perfect view of this surfing Mecca and our fearless, and I do mean fearless, dudes of the waves. These terrific athletes put on a display of surfing athleticism that would have brought the Duke Kahanamoku to a standing ovation …and we got to photograph it! Nikon D3, ISO1000, 1/2000 at f6.3, 3D Tracking with 51 points, Nikon 200-400mm G VR Zoom Lens, WB 7100K, Picture Control Standard, Lexar 8G Flash Card. The Nikon 200-400mm G VR Zoom Lens was a perfect lens choice for the afternoon of surfing photography. Sometimes surfers would come so close to the pylons supporting the pier that when zoomed out to the minimum of 200mm the subjects easily filled the frame and when waves were breaking farther away the maximum 400mm length still included all the action I wanted. Love the Nikon 200-400mm G VR Zoom Lens.

Image #6      Sunset Aerial … My Trek ended the way it began, with a picture from my window seat. As is customary with my travel plans I booked a window seat for the flight back to Denver. What a great weekend of learning and picture making. But, there’s always time for one more shot. Nikon D3, ISO320, 1/2000 at f5 (very turbulent air), 3D Tracking with 51 points, Nikon 24-70mm Lens, WB 10,000, Picture Control VIVID, Lexar 8G Flash Card.

The American PHOTO Mentor Series is one of my favorites workshops to teach. We consistently have great places to photograph and great access to our subjects. I want to extend my thanks to Michelle Cast who makes all our arrangements for the treks. She works tirelessly for our group and makes sure all is ready each day so we can maximize getting wonderful images. Thanks also to Erika Johnson who has joined the Mentor Series with Michelle at American PHOTO. And a HUGE thanks to Tony Corbell who was a fantastic mentor and helped all of us feel at home in his city of San Diego.

Well, I hope this gives you an idea of what goes on in San Diego and our Mentor Series Trek. Thanks for joining me and I hope to see you next time here at Workshop at the Ranch.

Adios. Dave