We received an excellent response to the first GreyLearning Photo Contest, and it was very difficult to select a winner among the many entries we received. In fact, we’ve selected three Honorable Mention images in addition to the Grand Prize winner, because there were so many beautiful images submitted.
Moon in Yellowstone by Mark Lagrange
The Grand Prize image (shown above) was submitted by photographer Mark Lagrange. You can find Mark’s photography page on Facebook here:
Here are the circumstances Mark described in capturing this dramatic image:
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This image was taken in Yellowstone National Park. Seeing the moon and the image potential spurred a heightened sense of pursuit driving rapidly from one ridgeline compositional opportunity to the next! We knew that the compression yielded by a large lens would be just the ticket for this moon, if we could find a good ridgeline that would align with that much lens, and have the moon angle not “get away” from us. We drove from spot to spot, until coming across this one. Stopping the car in the middle of the road in Yellowstone at night is simple. All the tourists are gone by that hour! Seeing the moon’s moment behind this stand, I quickly threw the bean bag on the hood and proceeded to adamantly tell those in the car to “not even breath” as I fired off a few bracketed shots! Adrenaline landscape night shooting with a 600mm… fun stuff!
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The image was captured using a Canon 600/4 IS II lens with a 1.4x teleconverter, using a Canon 1Dx camera body. The exposure was 1/200th of a secong at f/11 with an ISO setting of 2000.
As the Grand Prize winner, Mark will receive one year of free access to the entire GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle.
Honorable Mention Awards
In addition to the Grand Prize image shown above, we selected three images for Honorable Mention. Here are those three images, with notes about the capture from the photographer:
International Space Station and the Moon by Tim Gray
The above image shows the transit of the International Space Station across the moon, captured by Tim Gray. Tim Gray is a team member of the Professional Photography Group and assistant teacher for The Photography Classroom, both based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tim explained the circumstances as follows:
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I took this on October 6, 2017 at Catawba, South Carolina using my Canon 7D M-II, Tamron 150-600mm, Manfrotto tripod, and shutter cable release. I shot in Manual mode at f/8.0 and 1/500 sec and set the telephoto to 500mm to avoid any distortion, but knowing I would have to enlarge in post. Since the duration of the transit was only 1.2 seconds, I was using High-speed continuous mode shutter release. While transit finder told me down to the hundredth of a second when it would occur, I was unsure how accurate my phone or watch was, so I started shooting about a minute early.
Holding binoculars with one hand and the shutter release with another, I could barely keep the moon in sight let alone see any details so I kept the shutter running for about 2 ½ minutes not knowing if the transit had happened.
After going home and downloading the photos into Lightroom (all 1,415 photos), I had to wait just a little while (just a little) for Lightroom to make the standard previews. I opened the first one in loupe view and ran through them by mashing down right arrow key. I didn’t see the transit so I went to bed thinking I had somehow blown it.
Next morning, armed with a cup of coffee, I went through each photo one at a time and found the station on the 566th photo. Then it was just a matter of stacking the 11 shots into Photoshop, aligning & applying masks, B/W adjustments, etc.
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Moon with Half Dome by Martin Pothier
The image above featuring the moon above Half Dome in Yosemite Valley was captured by Martin Pothier. Martin described the photo as follows:
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This image was taken with a Hasselblad. I had plans to visit :Yosemite a week after the full moon. I captured the moon in my sisters yard in Foresthill, Ca. and removed the film back. At yosemite, after composing for Half Dome, I put that film back, back on the camera and make the second exposure. That miight be rather difficult to do with today’s digital!
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Eclipse Sequence by Marion Vaisman
The above image showing the progression of a full lunar eclipse with a sequence of captures was captured by photographer Marion Vaisman. Marion explained the image as follows:
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The images of the moon were created during the last fool moon eclipse visible in North America, using a Nikon D4 camera with the Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens, on a tripod. I was correcting manually for the position of the moon prior to each image capture, which were every 15 to 20 minutes. I used a 5-frame bracketed burst including during the total eclipse phase, when the sequence of bursts were obtained more frequently to ensure capturing the “Blood Moon” color. The best images were selected from each phase and composited in Photoshop as seen here. It was a lot of fun specially since the eclipse occurred between 2:30 and 5:15 AM Eastern Time.
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Congratulations again to the Grand Prize and Honorable Mention winners! And thank you to all of the photographers who submitted great images to the “Shoot for the Moon” GreyLearning Photo Contest.
While the new version 7.2 update to Adobe Lightroom Classic CC might technically count as a “minor” update, there are a few new features that I think can add a major benefit to your workflow.
You can check out the top new features of the Lightroom 7.2 update in the latest episode of Tim Grey TV here:
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube to ensure you see all of the latest updates!
We have published a new course in the GreyLearning library focused on showing you the many ways you can share your photos using both the Photoshop Elements Organizer and the Photoshop Elements Editor.
The course is called “Photoshop Elements: Sharing Photos”, and it includes lessons that guide you through the process of exporting copies of your photos, sending images easily via email, creating a calendar featuring your photos, and much more.
The “Photoshop Elements: Sharing Photos” course is included in the “Mastering Photoshop Elements” bundle of courses available through GreyLearning. In addition, you can purchase “Sharing Photos” as a standalone course here:
The theme for the GreyLearning Photo Contest for February is “Motion in a Still”. Any still photograph that depicts motion in some way can be entered, and the winner will win a free year of access to the full GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle.
UPDATE: You can see the winning image for the “Motion in a Still” photo contest here:
Copyright registration in the United States could suddenly be getting a lot more expensive for photographers.
A tip of the cap to the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) for spreading the word about a change in policy at the United States Copyright Office that could make it considerably more expensive for photographers to file their images for copyright protection.
Effective February 20, 2018, submissions to the US Copyright Office will be limited to 750 images. Previously there had been no limit, which meant photographers could effectively submit a virtually unlimited number of photos in a single batch, paying only a single fee.
Now, the $55 registration fee will only cover submissions of up to 750 images, which could cause the total cost to go up significantly for photographers who want to submit a large number of images.
If you have a large number of photos you’ve not yet registered with the US Copyright Office, you may want to hurry up and get your images submitted before February 20, 2018.
You can read the details of the new application process (including a link to a PDF document with the final rule that implements the change in submission guidelines) on the US Copyright Office website here:
We have published a new course in the GreyLearning library focused on helping you truly understand the various organizational features in the Photoshop Elements Organizer. The course, called “Photoshop Elements: Organizing Photos”, will enable you to define (and follow) a workflow that helps you manage your photos with confidence.
The “Photoshop Elements: Organizing Photos” course is included in the “Mastering Photoshop Elements” course, which you can find on the GreyLearning website here:
In today’s presentation as part of the GreyLearning Webinar Series, Tim Grey shared his top “hidden” features in Adobe Lightroom. You can view a recording of the full webinar presentation on the Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
Be sure to subscribe to the Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube so you’ll catch new webinar recordings and other videos. And note that recordings of all presentations in the GreyLearning webinar series are included in the GreyLearning Ultimate Bundle.
The GreyLearning Webinar Series is sponsored by Tamron USA.
We have published a new “Photoshop Quick Tips” course in the GreyLearning library, featuring a new episode every week with quick tips to help you make the most of Adobe Photoshop.
Every Friday we will add a new lesson, with tips aimed at helping you discover “hidden” features in Photoshop, techniques for leveraging various tools and features, and more. This course is included in the “GreyLearning Ultimate” Bundle as well as the “Photoshop for Photographers” Bundle. You can also purchase this course individually, at a low initial price of just $9.
If you’d like to get a new quick tip on Photoshop every week, you can get all of the details on the GreyLearning website here:
Today’s presentation as part of the GreyLearning Webinar Series was a question-and-answer session focused on Adobe Lightroom. The “Lightroom Q&A” webinar provided photographers with the opportunity to submit their questions, which Tim Grey addressed in real time.
You can watch the full webinar presentation through the Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
The GreyLearning Webinar Series is sponsored by Tamron USA.
The topic for today’s presentation as part of the GreyLearning Webinar Series was “Good Organizational Habits for the Photographer”. During this presentation, Tim Grey shared tips to help photographers define the key aspects of their organizational workflow, such as by defining a strategy for naming folders, being thoughtful about metadata updates, and more.
You can watch the full webinar presentation through the Tim Grey TVchannel on YouTube here:
The GreyLearning Webinar Series is sponsored by Tamron USA.
