Wow! That’s about all I could say after returning from Vegas teaching a flash workshop for Photo Quest Adventures. Las Vegas is full of interesting people to photograph, and we had lots of great models over the weekend. I would have been happy just walking around the strip with camera in hand to photograph the locals.
One highlight was photographing a belly dancer on a dry lake bed at sunset. Not only that, but she offered to twirl flaming torches above her head and ignite flames on the desert floor around her. Are you kidding?! The trick with any twilight shot is getting the image at the perfect sunset moment. To early and the sky is washed out, to late and the sky is black. We had about 15 minutes of really sweet sunset glow, and everyone rapidly shot through this moment. I normally don’t shoot much on these workshops, I want the students to get the image. But I squeezed in about 4 frames, and this was one.
To light this image, we chose a deep octabank which is a little more directional than a standard softbox. This light illuminated her well, but didn’t spill to much onto the desert floor. We wanted the flames to add their orange color here. The light was positioned high to further reduce spill onto the ground. A Ranger RX powered the light, triggered by a Skyport. Tech: Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/160 at F5.6, ISO400.
Just in from photographing bears on the Katmai coast on a tour organized by Photo Quest Adventures. We had incredible weather, 25 bears at a time right near us, and lots of cubs. Every year these giant coastal brown bears pack into the streams to eat spawning salmon. This year there was an incredible return of pink and dog salmon, so the bears packed in to feast.
From a technical standpoint, photographing bears is pretty straightforward. Matrix metering generally nails the exposure, so it is more about anticipating the bears behavior and being ready for the shot. Because these bears walk by so close, say 7-10 feet away at times, you have to be careful about your choice of aperture. An image shot at F4 at 400mm on a bears face may result in the nose being sharp and the eyes going soft. The other technique we used frequently was using continuous focus modes with multipoint autofocus patterns to capture bears running through the creek chasing fish. We also used this technique to track bald eagles flying over head.
We decided to take the boat back to Kodiak (we flew over by floatplane to start) from the Katmai coast in hopes of photographing whales and sea otters. Once again we had great luck finding both otters and orcas.
It’s great to see abundant wildlife in these wild places. Alaska never disappoints. Tech: all images shot with a Nikon D3 and 200-400mm F4 lens, some with a 1.4x converter. attached.
The southern part of Mongolia contains the Gobi Desert, a vast high plateau characterized by camels, gers (circular dwellings) and sand dunes. This area is very remote and sparsely populated, and the endless skies are amazing. We visited many nomadic families in this area, including one near some sand dunes. Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens, 1/250 at F8, ISO400.
Gers are the traditional houses for nomadic families, and much of our time was spent living in our own gers. These circular houses are cool during the day, warm at night and surprisingly spacious. Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/20 at F14, ISO 400.
In addition to camels on the Gobi, there are lots of other livestock the Mongolians raise including cows, sheep and goats. This skull was near our camp in the Gobi and a great foreground for sunrise. Nikon D3, 14-24mm, !/60 at F16, ISO 400. One SB900 with full CTO gell used to light the skull from above using a SU800 to trigger the flash.
Mongonlia was fantastic! Endless rolling grassy hills, huge sand dunes, pristine lakes and friendly people make this a varied and interesting photography destination. Our guide, Anand, was one of the best and deserves huge credit for arranging a lot of our photo ops. And this trip wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of Mirjam Evers and Photo Quest Adventures. I was lucky enough to have one of the first Elinchrom Quadra flash units to take along on this trip and really give it a tough trial run. This pack endured hours of kidney-jarring four wheel drive roads, rain, sand, inconsistent power and even yak dung! The Quadra performed flawlessly. I really enjoyed the benefits of this pack when photographing portraits and needed to shoot a lot of frames fast. The instant recycle times of the Quadra allowed me to shoot blazingly fast, and controlling flash output via the Skyport system was a huge advantage. This image is of “Zoloo”, a throat singer, on the shore of Lake Hovsgol. Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens, 1/250 at F10, ISO 100. Shot with the Quadra using a 39″ Elinchrom Octabank, triggered using Skyports.
Dancing and throat singing are a big part of Mongolian culture, and I was thrilled to photograph one of our dancers, “Tsegii”. Her mesmerizing dancing along with Zoloo’s throat singing was a powerful experience. Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/250 at F16, ISO 100. Quadra and 39″ octabank used, triggered wirelessly by a Skyport. 
I had better luck with the deer at Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan in 710, and still has many beautiful temples. Nara also has tame deer, tame enough to come up to you and nibble on your camera bag. This deer are fed by the tourists, and aren’t bothered by flash. So I decided to snoot my SB900 with a Honl snoot, and see how close I could get. This deer was sure the flash was edible, and came right up for a taste. Tech: D3, 24-70mm 2.8, f8 at 1/250, incandescent white balance, SB900 gelled with orange, Honl snoot.
