Bringing Photographers Closer to Their Natural World
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News from The Nature Workshops #1
Hello, everyone:
We just came in from some fabulous fall shooting in Door County, Wisconsin, and Flagstaff, Arizona. Even with the extremely dry summer in the West, the aspen in the Flagstaff area were fantastic this year. The next month should provide some spectacular fall color in the Sedona and southern Arizona areas.
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You are receiving this, our first official newsletter and the beginning of a bimonthly issuance, because you are an alumni or registered for a future workshop. We will never sell or share your email address with others. If, however, you would prefer not to receive these newsletters in the future, please reply with the word "cancel" in the message area. We will promptly remove your name from the mailing list.
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In this issue, we will discuss:
The results of the 2000 photo contest (plus a packaging tip)
Recent changes to our web site
The 2001 schedule of offerings
Call for ideas
NANPA Summit in Las Vegas
Travel Supplement to Nature Photographer Magazine
Some interesting questions were posed with gallery images
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The Results of the Nature Workshops 2000 Photo Contest
If you haven't already reviewed the winning images for the 2000 photo contest, you should check out what some of your peers were doing at 2000 Contest Winners
(http://natureworkshops.com/contest_winners.htm). The quality of the work was very high and there were approximately 200 entries. Congratulations are definitely in order for the winners and honorable mentions. The judges had an extremely difficult time picking the final winners -- the original thought was that at least fifty entries could have been winners. Note that any slides that made it to the final judging are marked with a red check mark. If you have a slide(s) with the red check mark, you definitely had one that was close.
Judging was again done by someone who has several years experience with the jurying process at the Tempe Arts Festival. However, this year that individual also had some help from a local art/photography instructor. We could not do this contest without their help and, luckily, they have really enjoyed seeing the fruits of your efforts.
It became evident that most people do not know how to package and send their slides for a contest or other submission. I am going to address that here and, for your future reference, this brief piece will be added to the tips section of our web site. Although these tips are the result of seeing the packages received for the contest, many of the tips are more relevant to submissions of work for editorial or jurying use.
Care of Slides
The most important part of making any submission is not whether you win or lose a competition or whether a publisher or editor chooses your work for inclusion in their publication, but whether or not your slides actually arrive there and return home in good condition. Most of that is in your control. Care of the slides and packaging can make all of the difference in the world.
Clean labeled slides -- Don't send filthy or scratched transparencies. Not only does it make a very bad first impression on the individual reviewing the images, they are more easily damaged if they are laden with dust and who-knows-what. Look at the transparencies you are getting ready to send. If they have dust and other things on them, use an air bulb or canned air to blow the loose debris off. If they are still dirty, you will have to resort to more drastic cleaning methods. The best way to avoid dirty slides is to keep them in clean situations all of the time. Put them in slide sheets when you get them back from the lab -- they will collect a lot less dust that way. Also make sure all of the slides you send are labeled with your name, address and telephone number.
Slide packaging -- Loose slides do not travel well in the mail. They can scratch much easier or even become torn in transit. There are single clear plastic slide sleeves that fit snugly directly over individual slides (or other transparency sizes, too) and add to the protection while in transit and while being reviewed by other people. They are not necessary to be removed to view the slide, or even to scan it, and will fully eliminate the possibility of finger prints on the slide itself. In The Nature Workshops 200 photo contest, only one individual use these sleeves to package their slides. The individual sleeves are #SS22B and come in packages of 100 for $5.10, 500 for $20.70 or 1000 for $37.20 from the Stock Solutions (online ordering at Slide mounts, sleeves and pages - all photo transparency film formats or
http://www.tssphoto.com/sp/index.html).
With or without the individual slide sleeves, all slides should be transported in the "mails" in clear plastic (preferably archival) slide pages. If you are using the individual slide sleeves mentioned above, put the slide into the sleeve so that the seam on the sleeve is in the bottom back of the slide. Then place the slide into the slide page slot with the seam properly located and you will notice how easily it enters the slot. If the seam is located in any other manner, it will hang up on the lip of the slot in the page when inserted. Ease of handling will only endear you to the person reviewing your work.
If you are sending a full sheet (20) of slides, arrangement does count! Arrange the images so that they "face" the inside of the slide sheet. That is, animals should be facing the middle of the sheet and landscapes should "flow" toward the middle. Additionally, if possible, put the redder and most dynamic images in the corners to catch the reviewers attention right away. Make sure the first row is powerful, but keep in mind that everything should be strong -- you will be judged mostly by the least powerful image you send. Thus, if you have 18 great images, do not add a couple of "also rans" to the batch just to fill the sheet. They will do damage, not good.
Once you have the slides in slide sheets, put the sheets between two pieces of stiff cardboard and put rubber bands from corner-to-corner around the cardboard to hold them together (this should take two rubber bands, each stretched from opposite corners and crossing one other). Do not use tape because it is difficult for the individual you are trying to impress to remove and the small impressions you make can make a difference (especially negative ones). Package everything into an envelope or box that is clearly of adequate size for what you are sending.
Sending Your Package -- If the slides are important to you (and if they were not, why would you be sending them in the first place?), you should send them by some means that allows tracking of the package (i.e., Fed Ex, Airborne, UPS, Priority Mail, etc.).
You should also include an SASE for the return of the slides. That package should also be of adequate size for the safe transportation of the images. SASE means just that -- Self (means you do it) addressed (you put on your address) stamped (again, you do it) envelope (adequate packaging included). Of the approximately 200 entries into this year's photo contest, only two came with no return postage (a huge improvement over last year), but 39 came without self addressed return packaging. That will easily work once with us, but it would never work with virtually anyone else, whether contest or editorial related. Examples of things not to do include, but are surely not limited to, sending your Fed Ex account number with no
air bill or package, sending cash/check for postage with or without an accompanying package, sending the return packaging with no address, sending loose stamps in the envelope, sending a credit card number with or without packaging, etc., (you get the idea). It never seems that it would be hard to address an envelope when you send them that way, but believe me, 39 was a little painful and imagine how many large contests judges or magazine editors see all of the time. Most people will simply throw away your images if you do not comply. Don't let this happen to you.
Moral -- It would be a shame to spend all of that time in the field and make all of these great images, just to have them ignored, or worse yet, thrown away, because we didn't take enough time to carefully package them and assure their safe return. Also, if acceptable, you can send well done transparency scans via the Internet and avoid most of the pitfalls (not everyone will accept scans).
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Recent Changes to our Web Site/2001 Schedule of Offerings
We have nearly completed our updates for the web site (The Nature Workshops) for the year 2001 offerings. Please note that a couple of the 2001 workshop dates did change from the originally posted dates -- Aspen is now September 20-23 and the Smoky Mountains fall workshop is now October 18-21 (these changes were made before anyone registered). Additionally, we have added workshops in Pt. Reyes National Seashore (not a full workshop at this location last year), Olympic National Park, Victoria (British Columbia), the Northwest Territories (Dance with Caribou -- believe it or not, this is not just a cute name; those who participate will actually dance with the caribou), Rocky Mountain National Park, and a fall Smoky Mountains National Park. Keep looking at the site -- we may add a few more workshops in the next few weeks.
There are currently 23 photographers represented on our (your) gallery pages. I would recommend reviewing those pages when you have some spare time. Use them not only to marvel at how well your workshop friends are doing, but also as learning tools. Think about the images you are viewing -- why do you like them? What is being done right that makes this such a strong image? What might have been done differently? What ides con you use in the future when making your images? There are millions of ideas out there -- sharing good images is the same as sharing good ideas. If you have a gallery page, we would like to keep it relatively current. Please try to send new images at least twice per year. As some get older and no new images are added, we will probably need to remove them form the site. We do have plenty of space available. Additionally, if you have your own web site and would like to have a link to it on your gallery page, we would be happy to add that. Send it to me, and, as time permits, I will add them.
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Call for Ideas
We would certainly be interested in your ideas about places at which you might be interested in attending a workshop. Any given in the course critiques this year are still be evaluated and may come up in the future. For the near future, we definitely want to stay in the western hemisphere and likely in North America.
One idea has come up several times in the last year, in one form or another, and we would like to know if there is enough interest to pursue it. We are not asking for a commitment, just an indication form anyone who might be interested, given timing and their own availability. Several of you are interested in mounting, matting and framing your own work, whether for sale or hanging in your own home. It might be possible to do a weekend workshop in Scottsdale (or possibly St. Louis -- let us know if the location matters) that would have an agenda something like:
Friday evening -- student slide presentations. About thirty participants (juried, if necessary) would have approximately six minutes each to show and discuss ten slides (juried from a submission of 20-40 slides).
Saturday sunrise and early morning -- group shoot relatively close.
Saturday during the day -- presentation on mounting, matting and framing, with very specific instruction and demonstrations. Discussions would include materials, methods, tools, alternatives, etc. Additional discussions regarding sales of images is also possible if there is enough interest.
Saturday evening -- group shoot and possible cookout.
Sunday morning -- sunrise shoot? Open question session (anything at all is OK) and any additional discussion of any of the matters already opened. Alternative -- digital discussion.
Session would break about noon to allow everyone to get flights home Sunday afternoon.
This workshop would likely be priced at about $100 with each participant responsible for his/her own transportation and lodging arrangements. The cost of meals would not be included, but time would be scheduled to eat (that was Roger's idea). If you have an interest, drop us a short line. Obviously, we would need a larger than normal group to justify this type of program.
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NANPA Summit January 17-21, 2001 in Las Vegas
The registration forms are out and we encourage everyone to give this a lot of consideration. There will be numerous opportunities to meet some of the best photographers in the world and listen to their thoughts and ideas. Several of them will teach in short breakout sessions. If you need additional information, or you still need to join North America Nature Photography Association, check out their web site at NANPA
(http://www.nanpa.org/). I have never known of anyone who was disappointed that they joined or attended.
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Travel Supplement to Nature Photographer Magazine
Most of you know that I am Special Travel Editor for Nature Photographer and that we do an annual travel supplement to the Sept/Oct issues. The most recent Sept/Oct issue has been out for some time now and I hope everyone has had a chance to see it. I think the entire issue is one to be proud of and hope everyone is receiving the magazine, whether by subscription (for subscriptions see Subscriptions or
http://www.naturephotographermag.com/-subscriptions/subscriptions.htm) or newsstand purchase.
We are not going to do the annual travel supplement any more -- it will become a semiannual section within the magazine beginning with the Jan/Feb 2001 issue. We are excited about the change and hope you find it worthwhile.
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Some Interesting Questions Surfaced in the Packages with the Gallery Images
Some of the following questions were included with packages for the gallery section of the web site and we will attempt to answer them in our Tips/Frequently Asked Questions section of the web site soon. We added them here just as food for thought:
1. I am very frustrated with my volume of throw aways from the workshop. I guess one has to expect that with bracketing and taking so many images...?
2. Does getting moving water right mean trying to second guess it or trying out lots of different speeds?
3. How do you figure out where to place the split neutral density filter so your image looks good afterwards?
4. Does Provia have more detail than Velvia? Because of contrast, won't Provia be better with the higher contrast of sunrise and sunset than Velvia?
These and others will be on the web site soon. We are also adding a mechanism to ask questions on the site for the Frequently Asked Questions section.
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This was rather long but probably typical of what to expect in the future. We will try to include at least one tip section in each news letter.
Keep having fun and keep shooting. Let us know how it is going.
Lonnie Brock
The Nature Workshops
10898 E. Dale Lane
Scottsdale, AZ 85262
303-828-3210
lonnie@natureworkshops.com
www.natureworkshops.com
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