Tom Bol Photo Blog

In Alaska right now on an assignment.  Had the chance to see friends with my family beforehand.  We used to live in Alaska, and still love many aspects of life up north.  One thing we talk about is the Alaska factor.

The Alaska factor refers to how everything seems bigger and almost surreal up here.  The mountains are big, the wildlife is big, the stories are big.  You just never know what you will encounter here.

This great gray owl is a good example.  We were driving up to Fairbanks and found this owl on the roadside.  Great gray owls are not common, and seeing one in the lower 48 is a big deal.  In Alaska they hang out on the roadside. I always travel in AK with my long lens attached, you never know what animal is around the corner.  I was able to get a few shots of this owl before it flew into the thick boreal forest.

People have asked about the printing element at the Glacier Workshop.  We will have an Epson printer and show you how to get the best prints from your images. Everyone will get a chance to print and take home some poster sized prints.

And speaking of Alaska, there is still room on the Denali Photo Workshop.

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In Patagonia right now with Photo Quest Adventures.  We are in Chalten, a small town right below Mt. Fitzroy, one of the most spectacular mountains I know.  We went out to shoot sunrise on Fitzroy, and our timing was perfect to catch a full moon setting.

As we were setting up waiting on sunrise, we worked on night images with the moon.  Just by chance we had a car drive past adding nice curved headlight streak in the foreground.

Sunrise was also spectacular.  The high winds of Patagonia created saucer lenticular clouds and for a brief moment the sky caught fire.

Patagonia teaches a well known rule in photographing landscapes. You can never predict weather, and you can never create a great landscape shot by staying in bed.  We left our hotel skeptical about getting any light, but in the end we captured both moonset and sunrise images.

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In Acadia NP on a Great American Photography Workshop right now.  We have a great group, nice fall color and some good light.  

As I roamed around the locations helping participants I kept my P7000 Coolpix around my neck to take quick snapshots.  I have been amazed at the quality of this camera, and how seamless it is to use coming from the DSLR Nikons.   These images were shot with the P7000, quick grab shots with no tripod.  This camera is opening up possibilities for me that I wouldn’t have using a larger camera.

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Just returned from teaching a flash workshop in Las Vegas for Photo Quest Adventures.  We worked with some fabulous models, including Priscilla,  a dancer I have worked with before. She can come up with an amazing array of costumes, poses and ideas, no doubt a reason why she is in demand as a show girl. We set up on a dry lake bed right before a storm, which worked perfect for adding drama in the sky and blowing her scarf horizontal.  This image was lit with 2 SB900s, one aimed at her and the other at the end of her scarf. To make the image more dramatic I underexposed the background around 1.5 stops.  Shot with a D300s and 24-70mm.

On another note, I am very excited to be joining the ranks of Kelby Training with online training videos focusing on adventure sports. If you are not familiar with Kelby Training, they offer a huge variety of online training videos on topics from photography to photoshop, check them out when you can.

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I was just in the tetons recently photographing fall color on a Great American Photography Workshop. After we shot the classics we tried some more abstract ways of documenting color. One of my favorite techniques is twisting the camera while pointed upward to get some pinwheel effects. Shutter speeds from 1/30 and slower will get good results, it just depends on how fast you can twist. Also try zooming in and out on a zoom lens during a long exposure for more interesting effect.

Tech: D300s, 24-70mm, ISO 100, F22 at 1/25.

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Just returned from spending a week with my friend Colby Coombs and teaching a backcountry photo workshop for the Alaska Mountaineering School.  This class was unique in that we hiked into a remote area near Mt. McKinley and camped for a few days. We focused on landscape shooting, adventure sports and how to carry all that photo gear on a backpacking trip.

We had a great group, incredible weather, bears walking by camp and  fall colors on the tundra (yes, it is fall in Alaska right now). A great thing about camping is you just crawl into your sleeping bag and watch the sunset from your tent, no need to go anywhere. Denali and the mighty Alaska Range came out in full force.

We brought flash gear with us on this trip, and used a couple of Elinchrom Skyports to trigger some SB900s in our tents under an amazing sunset.  I use custom Elinchrom Skyport cables by Flash Zebra to trigger my speedlites from far distances where the SU800 wouldn’t work. Colby is a fantastic ice climber and was happy to climb up onto a fin on the glacier for the top image.  This coincided with storm clouds building in the background adding to the drama of the image.

Colby and I used to work together as climbing guides. He continued on to start his own well-known mountaineering school while my interests took me down the photography career path. Great to reconnect!

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Just in from teaching a workshop for the Mentor Series in Seattle and Olympic NP.  We had a great group and got lucky with the weather.  It has been raining a lot in Seattle this spring and summer, but our day on the beach was a sunny blue sky day.

I can’t get enough of the old growth forests in the NW.  It is almost a religious experience to wander along a stream below these huge trees.  I wanted to capture that, so I worked on an image with silky slow water.  It is always interesting to see what people prefer, silky water or frozen whitewater.  Silky water matched my idea of a peaceful scene more than freezing the water motion.

We also visited La Push, an area I have wanted to see for a long time.  This area is famous in sea kayaking circles for some great surfing with stormy seas.  Our day was calm on the water, but the obvious break in the bay had a few surfers working the waves.  I plan to return in winter for some exciting paddling shots.

Off to an assignment in Alaska now, the first of three trips there this summer.  Hope I get as lucky with the weather.

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I have been on the road a lot lately, Moab, Canyonlands, Arches, and now just in from Miami.  My friend, Cesar Rivera, and the Pines West Camera Club invited me down to speak and teach a class on TTL flash photography. I have to say they rolled out the red carpet for me, a great group of people and a very active club. We worked on some flash images at the hotel I was staying at, and we had 5 incredible models to work with (thanks Elvisay!).  I had a chance to shoot a few frames of Claudia, a fantastic model, sure makes my job easier when you have beautiful people to photograph.  Just used one Elinchrom Quadra shot through a 39″ octabox for this image.

One item that was a real hit was the Lastolite Ezybox.  We used the 24″ size, love the quality of TTL flash coming through these. We also used the grid panels to control and modify the light.  My favorite is the narrow strip, really narrows the light down, great for tight places where you don’t want spill.

And the greek food?  The club took me out to Taverna Opa restaurant for some great food, but what really caught my attention were belly dancers and patrons dancing on the table as I ate, quite the dining experience!

Tech (portrait): Nikon D3s, 24-70mm, 1/250 at F18, ISO 100. Elinchrom Quadra shot through a 39″ Octabox, triggered by Skyport wireless system.

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Just back from spending a week in one of my favorite places anywhere, Baja California MX.  I guided sea kayaking trips here for years, and when Photo Quest Adventures asked about running a workshop there, I couldn’t wait.  The Sea of Cortez is loaded with marine life, and our trip confirmed it.  We saw numerous whales including Humpback, Blue, Pilot, Finback and dolphins by the hundreds.  The Humpback whales were breaching, and the game began to see who could get a shot of a breaching whale.  I caught this one in the distance.  This was the first trip I got to try out my D3s, and shooting at really high ISOs was perfect for fast shutter speeds to stop the action.

A highlight of the trip for me was when two of our group renewed their wedding vows.  I wanted to do a portrait of them, and had the idea of having them neck deep in the ocean.  I really like this look, especially with a sunset in the background, just something about putting people in the water that really brings things to a pure, clean level.  John and Suzy were happy to oblige, and waded out in their nice clothes.  The lighting for this was one Lastolite Ezybox and a SB900.  In order to reduce the amount of flash power needed, and reduce recycle times, I took out the internal baffle in the Ezybox.  Tech (portrait) Nikon D3s, 24-70mm, 1/125 at F5.6, ISO 200. SB900 triggered with a SU800 transmitter, shot through a 24″ Lastolite Ezybox.

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Just returned from speaking and teaching at a unique symposium, Shoot the West, in Winnemucca, NV.  I didn’t know much about this area when I arrived, but what  I found was a location rich with interesting history, ghost towns, cowboys, basque herders, historic buildings and some of the friendliest people you will meet.  I taught a location lighting class with the help of Dave Erickson and Craig Moore who I met at a Manfrotto event a year ago, and also spoke at the conference about adventure sports shooting.  For the lighting class we shot skateboarders and bikers at the local skate park, and these kids were really talented.  All that was needed was huge power from the Elinchrom Rangers and we were set.  The students got some great images!  I also got to judge a photo contest that was part of the symposium, fantastic work documenting cowboy life and the West in general.

I had a little free time before the conference and drove out to Paradise Valley to a ghost town.  I love exploring these areas, and the tilt shift lens seemed to be the right choice for adding even  more mystery to the image.  Tech: Nikon D3, 45mm tilt-shift, 1/800 at F2.8, ISO 200.

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