Photo of the Day: Fire Dancer of Queenstown

I'm not going to lie, I was terrified of this shoot. Trey Ratcliff announced this portion of the evening by saying, "this is going to be one of the hardest things you'll ever shoot as a photographer." He was right. We were thrust into the abyss of fire dancers!

I wasn't sure ow to shoot this. I mean I thought I should dump it over to Manual mode and try getting the right shutter speed, ISO, etc. But that takes time. I wound up firing off some longer exposures in Aperture Priority Mode which gave me some amazing light trails. I should have taken one nice HDR shot of the house and hill side without the girl in the frame but there wasn't enough time. With that one HDR I could have used it as a canvas to mask in the dancer later. 

It's one of those live and learn shots because knowing what I know now I would have approached it a whole different way. wish I had managed to grab some fast shutter, high ISO shots of her face but alas I did not. 

To grab a copy of this print click here.

Photo Adventure: Taking Photos in New Zealand

I'm offline, off the grid, and deep in the mountains of New Zealand. The good news is that I'm busy taking hundreds and thousands of photos as part of Trey Ratcliff's NZ photo adventure. 

I'm a few days in and we're having a blast. We've been super busy waking up at 5:30AM and shooting until breakfast. Then a few hours doing some valuable post processing time, lunch, and then off into the sunset for more shooting. Rinse and repeat.  

I'm learning a boat load and can't wait to start sharing more tips and tricks I've learned along the 'unexpected journey'. Meanwhile, here's a sunrise shot I took this morning at a super secret location called The Hills. This is an HDR using seven exposures with my Nikon D800.

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The Hills in New Zealand at sunrise. 

How To: Moving from Hobbiest to Pro Photographer

Have you ever wanted to know what it takes to become a pro photographer? Of course you do!

Well I was thrilled to be a part of a whole discussion about that very topic on Trey's Variety Hour. I tried to play the role of curious observer because there are so many questions I know folks have about this subject and it's rare that you'd get such a great group of pro's together to discuss it!

I was joined by: Host Trey Ratcliff, Alfie Goodrich (pro), Nicole S. Young (pro), Scott Jarvie (pro), Gino Barasa (raconteur, gun advocate, and accomplished photographer) and Melvin Little (pro-curious). We had a ton of fun.

I am joined by Clayton Morris from Fox News, Alfie Goodrich (who wrote the article below), Nicole S. Young (pro), Scott Jarvie (studly pro), Gino Barasa (no qualifications whatsoever) and Melvin Little (pro-curious). We have a discussion about how and why to move from a being a Hobbyist to a Pro Photographer then show off some of our latest photos!

Basics of Photography with Trey Ratcliff part 2

ere's the second part of my photography basics segment with the great Trey Ratcliff. We shot for a few a hours in Central Park. I hope you learn as much as I did.

Join Trey Ratcliff as he shows Clayton Morris the basics of getting started with photography. In this 2nd part, Trey talks about the fundamentals of composition with a walk through Central Park.

Photo Basics with Trey Ratcliff part. 1

Here's part one of my photo basics segment with Trey Ratcliff I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Join Trey Ratcliff as he shows Clayton Morris the basics of getting started with photography. In this first part, Trey talks about the fundamentals of composition and camera gear.