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....Steve looks for flies on his camera....
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Nancy then beguiled us with a dazzling display of her own work that both inspired a mesmerized audience and established the framework for particular concepts she wished to highlight. After illustrating points of composition, focus, exposure, lighting and other technical issues, she turned our attention to the crux of great macro photography, the creative side: going beyond the documentary image! She proposed ideas on how to stretch ourselves to find new ways of looking at familiar objects, personal ways that integrate the subject with our own imaginations. “Before you even start shooting,” she suggested, ”sit down for a few minutes and ingest what is around you, what it means to you.”
Saturday also was replete with door prizes thanks to our sponsors (see below). And Canon’s technical representative, Michael Nadler, was available to answer questions on Canon’s equipment and provided a display of their technology. He also graciously loaned some of us particular Canon lenses to test out the following day.
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....Bill tries to figure it all out....
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Sunday, a field day, started early for the ambitious with a sunrise shoot of wildflowers (well, mostly wild!) at a field next to Albertsons in North Palm Springs. There was a rich display of buds and open flowers, and opportunities for backlight, sidelight, flashlight, diffused light, reflected light and any other kind of light (both good and bad!). Participants were to be seen sprawled in every possible position trying to capture the essence of their imagination. As with the rest of the day, Nancy coached us individually, providing helpful insight on how to put into practice what she had preached the day before. All the scattered reflectors in the field looked like large wildflowers intruding on the multi-colored natives!
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....Lillian gets down
to business....
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....and so does Judie
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Any readers who did not attend the workshop and who are interested in furthering their macro skills might well wish to purchase Nancy Rotenberg’s wonderful book: “How To Photograph Close-Ups in Nature” co-authored with Michael Lustbader. It’s available from Amazon at an attractive price. Click here.
(Note: both this link and the price could expire and you may have to search directly on Amazon or elsewhere)
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Then on to Moorten’s Cactus Garden in South Palm Springs, where we amplified our efforts, capturing the cornucopia of cacti that were at hand, many of which were in bloom. Nancy’s helped us think about backgrounds in framing our images, even to the point of arranging them without damaging the plants. Photographers were lining up to photograph one now-famous shot of a hooked cactus bud against a background of red flowers that Nancy had arranged.
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.....Nancy comments on Stuart's handiwork....
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Lunch for the (by now) grunge bunch was wherever anyone would take us, following which we headed for Sherrill Associates in Cathedral City. There we were treated to set-ups in professional lighting environments, mostly flowers reflected into mylar sheeting christened with drops of glycerin. We shot ‘til we dropped, sweating from the hot lights, exhausted with aching joints and stretched muscles, but a fitting end to an extraordinary weekend. Home to days of processing our captured images for posterity…. or at least for learning from our mistakes!
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....while Joan looks for
her camera!
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We owe a huge debt of thanks to Nancy Rotenberg for everything she taught us. But we also greatly appreciate the efforts of all the volunteers who made all the arrangements to make the weekend a success, particularly Lillian Roberts and Joan Petit-Clair. And special thanks to: our sponsors: ColorGraphix (31265 Reserve Drive, Thousand Palms), Camera Exchange (875 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs), DoublePhoto (555 S. Sunrise, Palms Springs) and Nancy Rotenberg herself who all generously provided financial support; to Moorten’s Cactus Garden for discounting their entry fee; and to those organizations who graciously provided products for our door prizes: Wimberley, Hunt’s, Canon, Hoya, LowePro, Photoflex, and Vertex Photographic.
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Text by Stuart
Photos by Stan |
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