Books, Reviews and Recommendations

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The 3 Best Books for Learning Adobe Lightroom 5

Adobe Lightroom 5 is built with a highly improved processing engine, as well as a wide array of powerful new features. Some of these include a new Advanced Healing Brush, Radial Gradients, Upright Tool, video slide shows, Improved photo book creation through Blurb, location-based organization, advanced black-and-white conversions and more.

Perhaps the most useful new features is the Smart Preview option, which allows you to generate smaller stand-in files of your full sized images This lets you edit and tag your images on the go, even when you’re away from your master library, like when you’re using a laptop that has limited hard drive space. Any adjustments that you make to these Smart Previews will automatically be applied to your original files when you reconnect to device that holds your master catalog.

If you’re upgrading from Lightroom 4, and especially if you’re new to Lightroom 5, you may not know all that’s included in this latest version. You could dig in and spend some time navigating menus, but chances are, you don’t lots of time to spend trying to learn how to get the most out of brand new features that you’ve never seen before. That’s where having a good book can really make a difference.

Here are a few of what I consider the best books for learning Lightroom 5. Any one of these can help you get up to speed and learn how to adapt the latest features into your workflow. All have Kindle and/or PDF eBook versions so that you have use them as reference manuals on your iPad or tablet alongside your computer.

1. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.

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All of Scott Kelby’s Lightroom books have been bestsellers and well received. Much like his companion book, The Adobe Photoshop CS6 and CC Book for Digital Photographers, this is an essential update to the previous version.

Kelby relays very practical information in an easy-to-read style. He shows you how to get the most out of the program in a very down-to-earth, conversational style; just like if he was in the room with you.

He takes the “down and dirty” approach and leads you through a complete workflow, all the way through to archive and output, while sharing his own personal settings and explaining the exact techniques and methods that professional shooters use to import, edit and organize their images. He even shows you how Photoshop fits into your Lightroom system.

The book is clearly illustrated with lots of full color screenshots that detail each and very step, which makes it easy to follow along. In addition, this version of the book comes with a downloadable collection of develop presets that you can use in your own workflow.

If you’re a Lightroom 4 user, there will certainly be some overlap and techniques that haven’t changed since older versions, but there is still tons of brand new and worthwhile material here. If you’re new to Lightroom and want to get started quickly and build an efficient workflow, then this book is highly recommended. When I first started with Lightroom a few years ago, I turned to the Kelby book in order to get me going.

2. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book, The Complete Guide for Photographers, by Martin Evening.

Martin Evening is a digital imaging/Photoshop expert who been working on Lightroom with the design team at Adobe since the beginning. He knows the program like the back of his hand.

In his current edition, Martin describes in detrail all the new features of Lightroom 5 from a photographer’s perspective. He covers all areas of the program, from image management, editing, tagging, processing and organization.

Martin Evening is an extremely accomplished instructor who teaches you every aspect of the software and how to make all the necessary adjustments to your photographs. Tonal correction, sharpening, lens correction, noise reduction, it’s all there, with step-by-step instructions.

People who have read Martin’s books have remarked that they’ve learned more from an hour spent sitting down with one of his manuals, than from entire day workshops that they’ve taken.

At 736 pages, Martin Evening’s Lightroom 5 book is without a doubt, the most comprehensive manual on the subject. It’s the Lightroom 5 bible and it contains a vast collection of tricks, tips and pro methods. It’s probably the best single complete book on Lightroom. It’s big, though, and you’re looking for the quick how-to guide book, then this is probably not it.

However, if you an intelligently written reference manual that will teach you everything you would ever want to know about Lightroom 5, then get this book. I’ve used Martin’s Photoshop books in the past, and I can attest, they’re extremely well written and very helpful!

3. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 – The Missing FAQ: Real Answers to Real Questions Asked by Lightroom Users, by Victoria Brampton.

Maybe you’re someone who likes to dive into a program, figure it out for yourself, and only look for answers when you get stumped. Then Victoria Brampton’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 – The Missing FAQ is the book for you.

Rather than being a complete step-by-step tutorial, this book is a FAQ style reference book that addresses the most commonly asked questions by other Lightroom users out there.

It does contain a Quick Start guide, but the main focus of the book is to address the issues that you’re most likely to run into and answer the questions that will let you avoid likely mistakes and problems. It doesn’t tell you what you should do, instead it help you to understand the pertinent information that’s you’ll need in order to make your own decisions and set up your own digital workflow.

Perhaps the best part of Victoria’s book is that it includes a free searchable PDF eBook. When you purchase the print book, you email the order confirmation to the author website and can then download the PDF version, as well as two other eBooks for free. For most people, the eBook becomes the main resource, and the print book becomes the companion. Pretty cool.

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September 19, 2013
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Creative Tips, Featured Post

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3 Ways to Overcome Creative Block

BIK-AK-02385No matter how much you want it, sometimes the brilliance just doesn’t come. You’re fully prepped and ready for ideas to pour forth from your mind, but despite strong motivation to be creative, you sit stagnant. Nothing new comes out. At least nothing new that excites you or satisfies your artistic and imaginitive urges.

This block happens to everyone. Writers even have a special name for it. Photographer’s block doesn’t quite have the same ring, but it’s pretty much the same thing. More often than not, it’s our own expectations for perfection that get in the way and clog up the pipeline. Other times it’s because we’re so distracted in life that we can’t focus.

Regardless of the reasons, it’s no fun to be in a rut. Here are three simple ways to overcome your creative block and start the flow rushing again.

1. Change Your Environment

Creative ideas don’t live at your desk. I use that saying metaphorically, because we don’t usually shoot photos while sitting in our office chairs, but we do spend a great deal of time there. Most of us also spend a great deal of time in the same locations. Getting away from your regular path can make a huge difference because sometimes it’s difficult to come up with new ideas when you’re following the same routines.

Bust out. Take a trip. Hike a new trail. Hell, walk a different route to the store. That alone will expose your eyes and brain to new sights, sounds and other sensory input. Usually that’s enough spark to fire up the old creative engine again.

2. Use a Different Tool

As a guitar player, I also get in creative ruts when it comes to writing music and coming up with new melodic ideas. I get stuck in the same old scales, chords and riffs that have been melded into my brain and fingers for years. I end up playing the same things over and over again, stuff that I could play in my sleep.

A few weeks ago, I bought a harmonica. Totally new instrument that requires completely different techniques that my brain and body aren’t nearly as familiar with. I’m still playing music, but since I have to think and work in a new way to make sounds and melodies, my creative mind is being exercised in an entirely new way. I come up with original ideas that I’m able to expand on when I go back to the guitar.

Sometime I’ll even switch to an entirely new medium for awhile, such as sketching or writing. Stuck on picture taking? Try writing a story or drawing a picture. It’s not pictures, but it’s still creativity.

With photography, try using a new piece of gear. A less familiar set of buttons, dials and optics will surely stretch your brain and ignite something new. Try shooting with a different camera. Dig out that thing that’s been living in your camera bag for years that you rarely use. Consider renting a new lens for a week or so. This is a great, and very economical way to break things up.

3. Use Limitations our Rules

It’s been shown that many of our creative blocks in today’s life are due to our endless excess of choices. We simply have too many options. (I get caught up with this one.) With a multitude of selections at our fingertips, we spend an inordinate amount of time mulling over all the possible choices at the total expense of our own creativity.

Rather than go use our camera, we waste time by thinking too much about what piece of gear is the exact best choice for the job, or worse, concerning ourselves with what other people think about it. This wasn’t an issue before social media was invented; people used whatever gear they had on hand. In fact, some of the greatest creative ideas in history came from people who had an extremely limited selection of choices at their disposal.

Chances are, you already own the right gear- YOUR gear. Go out and use it. Take things one step further and apply limitations or rules to your methods. Leave the house with only one body and lens, or maybe just a compact camera. Say “I’m only going to shoot wide angle shots today, I’m going to focus on closeups or only do [insert your rule here] when I shoot this afternoon.”

Do these things with an open mind and your creative blocks will start to dissolve.

September 17, 2013
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Featured Images

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Cyclocross Season is Here Again!!

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Fall is here, which means that it’s cyclocross season once again here in Anchorage, Alaska!! If you’re a regular reader, you may remember my photo series from last year, when I shot and raced every single week of the 2012 season. I tried to approach each week with a slightly different technique, which really pushed my creativity from week to week. Unfortunately, I got there late this week and didn’t have much time to shoot photos of the first race, I just snapped a couple of shots with my Fuji X20.

However, I did race. After taking 3rd place last year in Beginner class, I jumped into the Open class and got my clock totally cleaned by the ENTIRE FIELD. It was great! I came in a little unprepared; with such awesome weather in Alaska this summer, I spent quite a bit of time exploring in the little Cessna. Flying doesn’t get you in shape for cycling, though. I figure that I’ll get in shape while I race.

After jockeying for position through the first few turns, I quickly found myself at the back of the pack as soon as we hit the first straightaway. I spent the next 3 laps all alone by myself on the course, pedaling through wet grass and puddles that suck your energy and make you fight for every inch, running and carrying my bike  through shin deep mud and trying to avoid the moose turds on the corner over by the sandy section.

Halfway through the race, the leader lapped me, and a few minutes later, some of the other top racers passed me as well. I came in last place, but I managed to ride fast enough to get a bell lap. Got a good workout, though. 56 minutes of all out exertion and getting my lower body covered in mud. Just what I needed.

Halfway through the race, the leader lapped me, and a few minutes later, some of the other top racers passed me as well. I came in last place, but I managed to ride fast enough to get a bell lap. Got a good workout, though. 56 minutes of all out exertion and getting my lower body covered in mud. Just what I needed.

I plan to shoot more photos during the next race, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out my series from last year, including the final race in heavy snowfall, and think about what kind of multi-week project you can do with your photography this fall.

Open men competitor Dan Bailey pushes his bike through the mud hazard in the Arctic Cross Cyclocross race at Balto Seppala Park in west Anchorage, AK on Saturday, September 13, 2014. BOB HALLINEN — Anchorage Daily News

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September 16, 2013
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Cyclocross Season is Here Again!!

Camera Gear, Creative Tips

4

The Incredible Versatility of the 50mm Lens

My first lens was a 50mm f/1.4 with manual focus, and from day one, it was true love. It went everywhere with me, attached to my shiny, chrome body Nikon FM2. We shot everything together, mostly because that was the only lens I had.

Then I bought a 28mm wide angle, and shortly after, a 70-210mm telephoto. Such cool views that those two lenses offered! After all, they showed the world in very different ways than my eye saw it. That appealed to me, and with new infatuation, my poor 50mm got shoved into my camera bag where it sat, neglected and rarely used for a long time.

Over the years, as my love has matured, I’ve come to see just what a versatile tool the 50mm lens is. Eventually, I picked up the Nikon 50mm f1.8D, and never looked back. (If I were buying today, I’d get the AF-S 50mm f/1.8G, which doesn’t cost much more.) It sees regular use these days, because it’s able to do so many things well, especially when you consider how inexpensive these lenses are.

Keep in mind, that if you have a DX crop sensor DSLR, you’ll want the Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens in order to get the same view as a 50mm on a full frame camera. Canon also has a 50mm f/1.8 lens as well as a 35mm f/2.0 AF lens.

50mm lenses are sharp, lightweight, compact and they have a very shallow depth of field if you’re shooting up close. They do have one big limitation, which is that you lose all depth of field effects at longer distances. This factor makes it a less than ideal choice for shooting sports and events, because at those kinds of distances, you can’t isolate your subjects from the background.

Once you come to terms with this limitation, you’ll find that the 50 can almost do it all. Here are some examples of how I use it.

Low Light Photography

AK-AVI-VDZ2011-115Since they’re so fast, (most fixed 50mms are either f/1.4 or f/1.8) they’re extremely usable at night, indoors and in darker conditions. Often times, you can even hand hold with a 50mm lens and still get sharp images in the dark. They make great lenses for shooting the northern lights and inside dark museums. Combine a 50mm with a remote flash and you have enormous creative options.

Travel Photography

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I’ve used my 50mm lens extensively while traveling over the years. It’s so small and light that it takes up very little space in my camera bag. There’s no reason to leave it behind, especially since it offers such wide options for shooting inside, which you tend to do while traveling. Even outside, it has a very nice way of portraying the view that’s right in front of your eye. It’s easy to compose photos with 50mm lens, because it has a very similar angle of view and perspective to that of the human eye.

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Portraits and People

Portrait of cyclcross racer, Tim Berntsen. Anchorage, AlaskaThe 50 is an awesome lens for portraits. Get in close, and it will give you incredibly gorgeous bokeh. It will blur the background and make your subjects stand out beautifully against a soft wash of color. It also has a closer working distance than a telephoto lens, and it lets you shoot at slower shutter speeds, which makes it more usable when the light varies.

Back up a little bit and the 50 lets you show some of the environment. Not too much, just enough to help flesh out the story of your subject. Also, since depth field begins to widen out at medium distances, your background subject becomes more discernible.

Portrait of Chet Harris and his Maule M5 airplane in a tall grass field, Alaska

Closeups and Details

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Move in even closer and your depth of field becomes very shallow, which creates the ideal effect for closeup photography and shooting still life subjects. It won’t get you as close a macro lens, just close enough to isolate your subject matter against a very soft background.

Studio Photography

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Since it has a relatively narrow angle of view, 50mm lenses are ideal for use in small or home studios, where you don’t have a ton of space. With a 50mm, you don’t even need a big roll of seamless to create professional looking studio shots. I shot this in front of a 3-foot wide background. That’s plenty of room to do portrait work.

Landscapes

_DSC9360I don’t use my 50mm lens all that often for landscape photography, but sometime it gives me just the right view that I’m looking for. Since it closely replicates the way that your eyes see, it lets you focus on what’s right in front of you, without worrying about all the distractions in your peripheral vision.

The Tusk, a 2.500 foot rock spire, Neacola Mountains, Merrill Pass, Alaska

Adventure and Sports

BIK-AK-01142It can be tricky to shoot adventure and sports subjects with your 50mm lens, but if you approach it right, you’ll get great results. Remember, since you lose all depth of field effects at longer distances, you can’t make your subjects pop against the background. Don’t try to shoot that way, switch your thinking and  treat your 50 like it’s a wide angle lens. Shoot the broad scene and try to show how your subjects relate with their environment. Show how they fit into the bigger world.

Support this site: If you don’t have a 50mm lens, I’d highly recommend getting one. It’s an inexpensive, yet valuable investment in your photography. If you do, consider visiting and purchasing gear through these links. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and it help cover the costs, effort and time that it takes to run this site and produce these reviews and articles. As always, thanks for reading!

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September 11, 2013
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The Incredible Versatility of the 50mm Lens

Books, Reviews and Recommendations

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Massive eBook: The Visual Toolbox, by David duChemin

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I love the premise of David duChemin’s brand new 200-page eBook. It’s called The Visual Toolbox: 50 Lessons for Stronger Photographs. By his own description, it’s an imaginary curriculum for a photography course that he’s unlikely to every teach in person, mostly because he’s… well, kind of a nomad. The way he sees it, if you did one lesson per week, the course would last you an entire year, with two weeks off for vacation. 50 lessons.

If you were to look at the Table of Contents, you’d see that it reads very much like the standard photo curriculum that everyone teaches. After all, there’s only so many concepts that you can get across. Chapters include Learn to Sketch, Try it in Black and White, Shoot From the Heart, Front Light, Side Light, Back Light, Lines, Patterns, Horizons, Balance and Tension… Go ahead. Tell me that you haven’t seen this stuff in other books.

HOWEVER, it’s not what David teaches you, it’s how. David is indeed a modern day visionary who has extraordinary powers of inspiration. I’ve said it before, I have a total professional man crush on the guy, which I swear, has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I’ve now seen him in pink tutu. It’s because as a photographer who also gets excited about the success of other shooters, and who also helps to foster that roundtable of success, I’m constantly amazed at the brilliance of his words and imagery.

More than anything, David has the ability to remind us, or make us understand that what matters is the photographer’s ability to move the human heart. He teaches us stuff that we’ve all heard before, but he does it by arranging letters and words on the page in such a way that they plow right through all of our self-critical and judgmental roadblocks that get in the way of us fully exploring our passions, creativity and imagination. VTB_Spread-1

The thing about photography is that it has rules, but they’re all meant to be bent, twisted, cracked, torn, welded onto other rules and otherwise ripped apart from where they originated. However, before you go tearing them from the page and transforming them into you own style, you’ve got to understand the fundamentals of how they work and why they’re even there in the first place.

The best way to understand how any of this works is to see image examples that excite you and speak to you in some way, but are also presented in such a way that offer you something other than the WOW factor. In going through The Visual Toolbox, I see page after page of photographs that represent honest journeys into creativity and experimentation. He doesn’t just give you the goods, he takes you by the hand, leads you through the valley of photography shadows and past the garden of creativity and guides you forward so that you can take the steps under you own power.

I realize this just sounds like I secretly want to hold hands with David duChemin, and that may very well be true, but this is not about me, it’s about David and his new book. The Visual Toolbox is filled with the lessons that you need to know in order to be a better photographer, and assignments for each lesson that give you clear pathways to exploring the language of your own photographic journey.

Not only is it well worth having on your virtual eShelf, I think that it’s worth the investment in having someone like David around in our photography world. We need him and the way to keep getting him is to support his efforts.

You can download The Visual Toolbox here.

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September 10, 2013
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Massive eBook: The Visual Toolbox, by David duChemin

Industry News

6

Adobe Announces The Creative Cloud Photography Program

Earlier this year, Adobe took the entire software model and stuck it in the blender. What came out was a brand new recipe that left a bad taste in the mouths of many photographers.

They called this exciting newdish “Creative Cloud,” and from this point forward, all Adobe software will be available as subscription-based service. Yes. ANOTHER monthly fee. Ho hum.

The move caused quite the stir with many people who felt that Adobe was trying to force everyone to upgrade to each new version when it comes out instead of letting people skip a version and upgrade at their liesure. David Hobby called it, “feels like the biggest money grab in the history of software.” In Adobe’s defense, Photoshop CC is indeed a powerful upgrade that offers a wide array of new features and improved processing engine, but why can’t we just go back to the old model? Sorry. Not happening.

When Creative Cloud was announced, Adobe had two pricing models: $19.99 for single app, or $49.99 for the entire Creative Suite set of applications. If you’re a designer who uses Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver, then fifty bucks is a pretty good value.

However, for many photographers, who only use Photoshop and Lightroom, and don’t need the entire suite of CS apps, $49.99/month just didn’t taste right. Your could buy Photoshop as a $19.99 single app, but that meant you’d have to still have to pay for Lightroom. In Adobe’s defense, Photoshop CC is indeed a powerful upgrade that offers a wide array of new features and improved processing engine.

These two options seemed to leave out the very foundation of what Adobe was built on- Photographers and photography software. Sure, there are alternatives to Photoshop (read 10 Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Adobe’s Creative Cloud) but when it comes to full blown photo software, it’s hard to beat Adobe. As of last week, I still hadn’t decided whether to move to the CC service, since I use  PS, LR and InDesign.

Problem – Solution

Adobe listened. At Photoshop World last week, Adobe announced a brand new pricing option, called the Photoshop Photography Program. It costs $9.99 for Photoshop CC plus Lightroom 5 (and future upgrades), 20GB of cloud storage, and CC training resources.

Now THAT’s reasonable. If you’re a Photoshop user, then you should jump on this deal, because in order to get the $9.99/month pricing, (annual plan) you have to sign up by December 31, 2013. It’s available to anyone who currently uses Photoshop CS3 and higher.

If you recently signed up for the $9.99 Photoshop single app plan, (I did last week,) then Lightroom and the other new features will be automatically added to your CC soon. If you’re not so excited about the Creative Cloud subscription plan, Photoshop CS6 is still available as a stand-alone perpetual license version, and it’s still an extremely powerful and capable program. You can always go that route, and then see what your options are in a few years when it starts to show its age.

For more info about Adobe Creative Cloud, check out their FAQ page.

September 9, 2013
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Adobe Announces The Creative Cloud Photography Program

Featured Images

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Blackstone Glacier, Prince William Sound, Alaska

Blackstone GlacierWhat do you do when you get visitors in Alaska? You go do tourist stuff! My mom was in town last week, so I took her on a glacier cruise in Blackstone Bay, one of the deep water fjords in Prince William Sound.

She’d never seen a glacier before, so this was a pretty special treat for her. The boat goes right up to the massive Blackstone Glacier, which is part of the 300 square mile Blacktone-Spencer ice complex that covers many of the mountains southeast of Whittier. We got to see otters, waterfalls, sea birds, a seal, and of course, lots of ice, some of which calved off into the bay right before our eyes.

The Photography Stuff

Just because my mom was there, didn’t mean that I was off-duty. I took along my DSLR with my favorite lens of late, the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/4G ED VR Telephoto Zoom Lens, which I consider to be the Outdoor Photographer’s Dream Lens. It’s considerably lighter than the heavier f/2.8 version, but it still has full-on pro quality optics, including ED glass, Nano Crystal Coat, AF-S silent wave motor focusing and a brand new five-stop VR system.

The new VR more than makes up for the one stop difference in speed, and it certainly helped when I was shooting in dark overcast light during our glacier cruise. I used this lens extensively last winter for backcountry skiing photography, and I’m also finding it to be a great landscape lens as well. You can read my full review of this lens here

I also took along my Fujifilm X20, which performed quite well under the overcast lighting conditions. The 28-112mm zoom lens let me get in close, which is key on in theses kinds of situations, because you’re pretty far away on the boat. I actually shot a couple of these photos below with the X20, but I won’t tell you which ones. You’ll have to guess and leave me a comment.

At any rate, enjoy the shots and let me know what you think!

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September 5, 2013
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Blackstone Glacier, Prince William Sound, Alaska

Creative Tips

1

How to Achieve Simplicity and Power in Your Photographs

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Photographs that carry the strongest visual impact not only captivate your audience upon first glance, they stick in your viewer’s mind and are remembered long afterwards. They accomplish this by being simple. They don’t distract or overwhelm the viewer with lots of information and they don’t try to say too much. You’ve probably heard the term “Less is More.” In photography, consider this the golden rule.

If you see the viewfinder as your canvas, then you have final say about what goes into it. More importantly, you also get final say about what gets left out. Each and every element that gets included in your shot should there because it helps set the mood and tell the story, not because it just happens to lying there in the scene.

Sunset silhouette of Nokhu Crags, Cameron Pass, Colorado

When you compose your photo, include only the vitally important subject matter, whether it’s a specific feature in the landscape, a person or the color of the light that’s falling on the subject. Remove any distracting or unnecessary element in the frame by zooming in, waiting for the optimum moment or by simply changing your vantage point.

Aim for an image in which all the elements in the frame are related in some way, whether they compliment or contrast each other. Narrow down your scene into one main subject and then play it off of one or two relating elements. This applies no matter if you’re shooting landscapes, portraits, travel , adventure or photos of your kid at the soccer game.

Whaling boat made of driftwood on the edge of the Chukchi Sea, Barrow, Alaska

If you’re having trouble composing your shot, then ask yourself this simple question:

“What’s the picture about?”

Without knowing the answer to this question, you run the risk of making boring, cluttered, pictures where nothing prominent stands out to greet the viewer. You run the risk of losing your audience, who will remember very little about your photo as soon as it passes their eye.

“What’s the picture about?” tells the story, and creates the narrative on which the foundation of the image is built. It gives meaning to everything that lies within the borders of the photo and it defines the relationships between all of the different subject elements that make up your shot.

“What’s the picture about?” ensures that your photograph has a skeleton, legs to stand on, room to breathe and enough muscle mass that it can throw its weight around with agility. You want your imagery to quick and nimble, not unsightly and obtrusive.

You should know the answer to this all important question before you press the shutter, because if you don’t know what the picture is about, then your viewer won’t know either, and that’s a very bad thing.

Further reading: For more tips and insight on how to compose powerful photographs, check out my eBook, Making The Image- A Conceptual Guide for Creating Stronger Photographs. It explores how the human visual system responds to the world, and breaks down imagery into individual concepts, such as light, color, balance and viewpoint.

August 29, 2013
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How to Achieve Simplicity and Power in Your Photographs

Featured Images

4

Radovan Gulch, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

Wrangell Mountains
Radovan Gulch, on the south side of Glacier Creek

In 1908, a young Croatian immigrant named Martin Radovan (changed from Radovanovich at Ellis Island), arrived in Cordova, Alaska with thousands of other workers to help construct the Copper River & Northwestern Railway line. Backed by J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim brothers, the railway was built to support the huge copper boom at the Kennecott mine near the town of present day McCarthy.

Winding for 196 treacherous miles, the line ran up the mighty Copper river, curved around massive glaciers, spanned treacherous canyons, tunneled through walls of solid rock, cut beneath avalanche prone mountainsides and meandered over great expanses of rolling tundra.

After completion in 1911, Martin stayed in Alaska and worked a number of mining related jobs in the area before prospecting for copper in some of the creeks in the Nizina river mining district east of McCarthy. In 1929, he laid a number of claims in a side canyon on the south side of Glacier Creek, a tributary of the Chitistone River.

Convinced that a massive copper deposit lay in the contact zone between the limestone and greenstone layers high on the walls of the cirque, Martin spent the next 40 years carefully and meticulously scrutinizing every inch of the contact zone. For most of this time, he worked the walls completely by himself.

With little technology and no formal mountain training, he spent nearly his entire adult life (into his 80s) skirting along precipitous, sandy ledges that cut along the vertical cliff faces, moving up and down wire and rope ladders that he built to access unclimbable walls and digging tunnels in the rock at elevations of up to 7,000 feet. (The area where Martin spent most of this time lies just above the dark band of rock in the upper right wall of the top photo.)

Martin never did find his dream deposit, but he did built a rich, full life that perfectly illustrates the concept of a rugged Alaska frontiersman. His legacy in the area is so rich that the National Park Service has worked to preserve the record of his life. It’s a fascinating story; I read an entire book about Martin Radovan while staying at the Glacier Creek cabin during my recent Wrangell Mountain flying trip, not even a mile away from where he lived in his own cabin across the river.

Camera Info

I shot this image of Radovan Gulch during a day hike up Glacier Creek with a Fujifilm XE-1 and the XF 18-55mm lens. Although I love how the JPEG files on the Fuji X cameras look, I was faced with some pretty strong and contrasting light here, so I took the photo in RAW. This allowed me to control the extreme highlights that result from the sun spilling over the top of the cliffs against the shadowed, north facing rock walls. Below is the original file without correction to show you the level of contrast that I was dealing with.

August 27, 2013
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Radovan Gulch, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

Books, Reviews and Recommendations

1

New Book: Blogging for Photographers, by Jolie O’Dell

blogging bookIf you’re a photographer, you should have a blog.

Period.

Blogs allow you to promote your professional photography business, showcase your portfolio, attract new clients and customers, and in some cases, they can even bring in an extra source of income.

Blogging has opened up a huge number of doors for me during the past few years, and these days, mine brings in more money than all of my stock agencies combined.

They hone your writing chops, they provide a unique and regular outlet for self-expression, they spurn on new ideas and they also provide a platform whereby you can connect with other photographers around the world.

At the same time, being a successful blogger requires a number of skills. You’ve got to be highly creative, or at least be willing to put your photos, stories, tutorials and personal musings out there for the world to see on a regular basis. You also need to be somewhat technically inclined. Most blogging platforms are pretty easy, but in order to run a successful site, there are a few software related things you’ll need to know.

In effect, a good blogger a a content provider, a computer guru and a marketer all wrapped into one.

I realize that many of you already have blogs. I’ve seen them. I also know that there are quite a few of you out there who are still sitting on the sideline. For whatever reason, if you’re a little intimidated, overwhelmed, mystified, or otherwise confused about how to get going, then check out Jolie O’Dell’s new book, Blogging for Photographers: Showcase your creativity & build your audience.

This awesome little resource is written specifically for beginning and aspiring photo bloggers, and it does an excellent job priming your for what blogging is all about, and how to get started with one. Whether you want to run a purely personal site to show off your best imagery, or whether you want to engage with other readers, tell your stories with words and photos, pass on your knowledge to other photographers, Jolie’s book covers everything you need in a concise, easy to understand manual.

The book starts with an overview of blogging, and then outlines different blogging platforms, software like WordPress and Tumblr, themes, sidebars, widgets and even how to get a URL and set up your own blog.

It then shows you how to find your voice and write effective posts that attract an audience, how to engage with the blogging community, and how to monetize your blog so that it can become a money making source for you and your photography business. There’s quite a bit in this chapter, more than you might think!

A chapter in inspiration gives you some ideas for those times when you run out of steam. Believe me, it happens to every blogger. Coming up with regular content week after week can be pretty challenging. There’s also a chapter on Photoshop and how to prepare your image for your blog, and finally, a resource section that lists a wide variety of software, hosting and app options.

Throughout the book, Jolie points to a number of other blogs and outlines how each one has found success in their own niche. Although I’m totally crushed that didn’t include my blog in there, she did pick some pretty good and diverse examples.

Truth be told, there are a lot of blogging books and websites out there, but I find Jolie’s Blogging for Photographers book to be a refreshing little tome. It’s very well laid out, extremely easy to read and it covers a wide range of material without going overboard or going off track. It’s very relevant, and even for someone like me who’s been blogging for awhile, there are some inspiring tips that I feel will help me with my own site.

If you’ve wanted to start a blog but have been waiting for the right time, the right reason, or the right anything else, NOW is the time to get started. The world is not stopping and waiting for you to get on, and the sooner you get your blog up and running, the sooner you’ll be able to reap the creative, motivational, community and perhaps even monetary related benefits that blogging brings to your photography life.

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August 22, 2013
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New Book: Blogging for Photographers, by Jolie O’Dell