My 4- week and 8-week on-Line courses began again on November 5. I have a new 4 week course in Stock Photography that might interest you. As a professional photographer, the best thing I ever did was join a stock photo agency.
Do you want to make money in photography? Want to feel more confident in exposure? Learn how to expose correctly when you shoot into the sun like the photo below. Interested in learning more about Photoshop (like putting fireworks in the sky or removing lens flare). Are you insecure about your compositional skills?
I teach several 8-week and 4-week courses on-line for Betterphoto.com
The way the courses work is this. Every Wednesday, you receive a lesson that consists of text and photos, explaining various principles in either photography or digitral manipulation. At the end of each lesson there is an assignment, and you have plenty of time to take pictures and upload them for my critique. You can use photos you did specifically for the assignment or images that you have taken previously.
On-line photo courses are like virtual classrooms but not in real time. Other students can see your pictures, read my critiques, and comment on your work. Similarly, you can comment on the pictures of other students.
One of the wonderful things about these on-line courses is that students participate from all over the world. In a single lesson's uploads, you may see pictures from Bryce Canyon or Brazil, or from Singapore or South Carolina. It's a very simulating environment as well as a learning experience, and it will help you become the photographer or digital artist that you want to be.
On the Betterphoto.com website, you can read the lesson outline of each course and see sample photos. In addition to going to Betterphoto.com, you can also access the courses I teach drectly by going to my website, jimzuckerman.com, and clicking on the link 'Courses'. at the top of the home page.
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THINGS I LEARNED IN KENYA
I just returned from leading a photo tour to Kenya, and as always it's extremely exciting to see and photograph the world's most awesome wildlife. We had a wonderful group, and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience and they took some awesome images as well.
I learned a few things on this trip that I'd like to share with you.
1. When using an image stabilized lens (Canon calls it IS and Nikon uses VR) on a tripod, turn the image stabilization off. I shoot Canon, and they maintain that with the newer lenses, it's OK to leave the IS turned on when using a tripod. My experience tells me this isn't true. What was new to me was that I had to turn the IS off when using a bean bag in the vehicle. I had assumed that since there would be slight movement on the bag, that it would be an advantage to keep the IS turned on. This turned out to be absolutely not true. I was using my 500mm f/4 IS lens, and for a couple of days I was getting less than sharp pictures. Needless to say this was very frustrating. I was only using a bean bag since tripods are impossible to use from a vehicle. When I turned the IS off, guess what? All my images were sharp again. 
Now I only use the IS feature if I am hand holding the lens. Since I rarely hand hold the huge 500mm lens, the image stabilization feature is basically useless in super telephotos. I don't use a monopod, but I would think that the IS or VR feature should be turned off when using one of these, too. If you have a monopod, do your own experiments, but I'd bet it's best to turn the image stabilization off.
2. Always walk around with my camera. Birds and animals surround the game lodges and you never know when something is going to happen that will turn out to be a great photograph. One evening at 6:30pm as I walked to dinner (with my camera bag) a giraffe came in and drank at the pond right in front of the lodge.
I got a wonderful image of this magnificent animal with the legs spread in that very vulnerable position (vulnerable to a lion attack). This is something I've wanted for years. Other people in my group who didn't have their gear with them missed it. The giraffe only drank for a minute and then the wonderful photo opportunity was gone.
3. Zip up your photo backpack when it is laying on the ground. There are several reasons for this. First, monkeys and baboons can come along and steal your stuff. This may sound cute until you can't get it back. Second, the dust in Africa during the dry season is incredible. You don't want wind-blown dust entering the backpack. When I was in the Maasai village, it was extremely windy and the sand and dust were blowing low on the ground. This stuff gets into every possible nook and cranny, and it's important to keep your gear as clean as possible. As I was photographing the two people in the above photo, sand was being blown into my unzipped pack and it was a mess cleaning it up later. And third, if you pick up the pack without thinking and it's not zipped up, stuff will fall out ... and that is definitely not a pretty picture.
 4. When it is raining (as it did a few times even though this was the tail end of the dry season), watch animals carefully. They often shake the water off, giving you a great photo opportunity.
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Going Sepia
One of my favorite pictures from the Kenya trip is this shot of a magnificent black maned lion. His mane was blowing in a strong wind, and he had just finished a brief but ferocious fight with the young male that you can see in the background (I missed it because it happened so fast). As a fine art image, I felt that the lion in the background was distracting. I usually don't crop my images, but in this case I made an exception. Then, I thought about converting this to sepia.
Using the Photoshop pull down menu Image > mode > grayscale, I turned the photo into a black and white picture. I then chose Image > mode > duotone, and now there are myriad choices of colors and tone. I selected a sepia tone, which is actually dark orange. I darkened the background, the grass, and parts of the lion so the facial area was the lightest part of the image. Rembrandt taught me, through his paintings, that our eye is drawn to the lightest part of an image first. If you want attention directed to a certain area of your image, it should be lighter than the surroundings.
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January FROG AND REPTILE WORKSHOP
 There is still space available in the workshop I give twice a year in St. Louis to photograph rare poison dart frogs and exotic reptiles. The people that participated in this workshop last August got incredible pictures. Because we set up several stations with various backgrounds, each person has the opportunity to shoot for two days and get the best macro images imaginable. Before the shooting begins, I discuss principles involved in macro photography and lighting strategies so you know exactly how to get the best shots.
The workshop is held in a hotel near the airport (there is a free shuttle to the hotel), and then in the evening we go downtown to photograph the remarkable St. Louis Arch at twilight.
The cost of the workshop is $890. To read more about this event, and to see more photos that were taken during the workshop, here is a link on my website: http://www.jimzuckermanworkshops.com/-frogs-and-reptile-photo-works/
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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP IN MY HOME
The February 7, 8, 2009 Photoshop workshop in my home has been sold out, so I am offering it again on Saturday and Sunday, March 28 and 29. Photographers have never had such a remarkably creative tool to manipulate imagery, and knowing how to use Photoshop is one of the most exciting things you could ever learn in photography. I love working in Photoshop, and it's exciting for me to teach it. I know that learning this program can be intimidating, but it's not hard. Really. There is a lot to remember, but going over each action two or three times is what you need to imprint the information in your brain. I will walk you through many of the most important parts of Photoshop, and you won't believe what you'll be able to do with your pictures.
 The fee of $450 will include instruction from 9 to 5 on both days, two lunches and one wonderful dinner provided by my wife (who is an amazing cook). I will provide a list of nearby hotels where you can stay. I will shuttle you back and forth to my home as well as pick you up from the airport if you fly in.
This workshop is for beginners who know nothing (or very little) about Photoshop, but it very quickly gets into intermediate and even advanced techniques. Photoshop can't be taught in a linear fashion, like math. It doesn't work like that. For example, you don't have to know how to use the clone tool -- a basic function of Photoshop -- to do layer masks.
In the workshop, I will begin with the tools palette and explain how these tools can be used to make incredibly creative images. Even if you know what these tools do, you will learn ways of applying them to various photographic situations that will amaze you. I will then go into layers and layer masks, selections, replacing the sky, adding lighting effects, adding reflections, making silhouettes, an impressive list of awesome plug-ins, the relationship between the cloning tool and the healing brush, cloning from one photo to another, and much more. By doing each of the techniques I discuss under my direction, you will be able to remember the steps and then this wonderful knowledge will be incorporated into your work flow.
You will need to bring your own laptop computer, and this will make it easier for you to concentrate on the techniques rather than fiddling with someone else's computer. I will demonstrate more creative ideas in these two days than you can imagine.
If you are interested, contact me at photos@jimzuckerman.com. The airport that you will fly into is Nashville, Tennessee.
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For other photo tours, speaking engagements, and seminars that I will be giving, please visit my website: jimzuckerman.com and click on the frog photo you see on the home page of the website. One of the exciting new tours I'll be leading next year in July is to Poland.
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Missed a newsletter? You can see all of my past newsletters (starting February, 2008) if you paste this link into your browser:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs031/1101654139463/archive/1102299763866.html
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