Hello! Even though we have stayed close to home this summer, it has still felt like a whirlwind. We recently returned from Crested Butte, a beautiful area in the Colorado mountains known for its incredible wildflowers. I had the honor of teaching two successful and fun multi-day workshops, each filled with enthusiastic and open-minded participants, in partnership with the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. The festival staff were great partners and I hope to work with them again in the future.
I am also getting closer to completing the Colorado Native Plant Master program through the Colorado State University Extension. I'll have a lot more to say about this experience in the future but will briefly mention that the three courses I took this spring and summer have all been inspiring and very educational. It is exciting to know much more about the plants I am photographing, how to identify them more accurately, and notice many new-to-me details. I find that naturalist programs like these are becoming one of my greatest sources of inspiration. If you have never taken a naturalist course on botany, ecology, wildlife, birds, or some other topic that interests you, I'd encourage you to find one this fall and sign up.
This newsletter is a little sparse because we have been doing a whole lot of behind-the-scenes work on our website. After years of wanting a Wide Range Galleries website, we finally signed up and should be launching our new site within the next month or so. All the work of curating, sequencing, adding keywords/captions/titles, sharpening, uploading, and organizing is quite tedious but we are so excited to finally have a functional, searchable, and attractive website. You will be the first to know when it is ready.
Below, I share information about two upcoming webinars, a few things you might enjoy, and some autumn photos since cool, crisp autumn days are on my mind…
Cheers,
IMAGE REVIEW WEBINAR
Details Matter - Why Paying Attention to the Small Things Will Elevate Your Photography
On Wednesday, August 27th at 5:00 pm Mountain Time, I will be hosting a unique online webinar in partnership with the Nature Photography Collective.
For this webinar, I will start with a short presentation about my approach to refining and curating my own work and then will review participant submissions with a focus on the details, both for individual photos and curated sets.
When it comes to refining your photos, the details matter—things like precise composition, careful framing, eliminating distractions, a subtle approach to processing, and attention to colors across the frame. Beyond paying attention to the details for each individual photo, it is also essential to consider how a set of photos will work together in terms of visual impact. I'll discuss and demonstrate all of these things during the session.
I hope you will join me on the 27th to learn about these simple but powerful techniques to elevate your photography.
I'll be joining the team behind the upcoming Horizons Photo Conference for a free webinar on Tuesday, August 12th at 6:00 pm Mountain Time.
Five of us, including me, Michael Bollino, Matt Payne, Huibo Hou, and Talor Stone, will each give a short presentation on a creative insights we'd like to share. I'll be talking about the labels we give ourselves and how they can propel or stifle our progress as photographers. For example, if you ever say things like, “I'm just not that creative,” I hope my talk will help you think about labels and identity in a more productive way.
This webinar is free but you need to register in advance.
CHASING THE LIGHT PODCAST DISCUSSION: At a conference in May, I met Ian Dawson and we enjoyed chatting on a few occasions about a lot of things related to photography. Ian invited me on his new podcast to continue the discussion. He asked a lot of great questions and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Ian has also spoken with William Neill, Jerry Dodrill, and Justin Black, and I'd recommend each of those conversations as well.
PIKA EATING A REALLY LONG STEM: A cute video from Mount Rainier National Park's Instagram account showing a pika munching on an incredibly long stem. Definitely worth 30 seconds of your time.
“Refuge” Blog Post by Alex Kunz: This piece from Alex really resonated, “The voices are growing louder: everyone must speak out, every day, in these unprecedented times. I do not disagree with the assessment of the times we find ourselves in and yet here I am, mostly sharing just photographs and related content. How can that be enough?” Click the link to read his answer.
Seed to Tree Timelapse:This link will take you to a two-year timelapse of a pine tree growing from a seed, condensed into 60 seconds. Really cool!
A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and the air coming in through our windows felt … chilly … for the first time in months. Fall is not here just yet but this bit of cool, crisp air made me feel excited for when the leaves to start changing here in southwestern Colorado.
In addition to time among the aspens and oaks, I am also looking forward to seeing a lot of friends and making new ones at the Horizons Photo Conference in Durango, Colorado from October 2 to 5. If you are looking for an inspirational learning opportunity this fall, I hope you will consider joining me. My discount code, SARAH100, will save you $100 off the registration fee through August 15. Martha and Shanda, the founders of this conference, also organized a conference I attended in February. That February conference was just great---very fun with excellent speakers and a really lovely group of attendees. I expect all of those things to repeat this fall in Durango.
Back to fall colors: I recently wrote a short article for the Horizons blog about autumn photography, and shared what I think is the most important lesson I have learned about photographing fall colors: there is no such thing as “peak fall color.” Instead, autumn is a process: flowering plants go to seed, birds begin migrating, temperatures start to drop, the days become shorter, some animals prepare for hibernation, and trees move toward winter dormancy. I think it is helpful to think of photographing autumn in the same way in the sense that the season evolves slowly, often over the course of a month or two, and from the photographer’s perspective, there are opportunities all along this spectrum.
You can read my full post, along with helpful tips from the other conference speakers, here. Below, I share a few of my favorite photos from my time wandering around southwestern Colorado in the fall.
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