B&H Photo is offering some great deals on a variety of SanDisk memory cards for digital cameras. For details and online ordering click here.

I’m pleased to announce that my photography will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Denver Photo Art Gallery in the Arts District on Santa Fe. The show runs July 1 to August 25.

The exhibition is titled An Intimate Look at Nature and includes 15 photographs selected from my close-up nature collections, presented as large prints with contemporary finishes.

My artist statement for the show: “Nature is all around us, but much of its beauty goes unnoticed. Subtle textures, patterns, colors and shapes beg for a closer look. These photographs invite you to contemplate the simple yet sophisticated beauty of the natural world, and will impart peace and tranquility to your surroundings.”

The signature image for the show, titled Flow III (above right), is presented as a 40×40-inch fine art print on canvas. The image depicts the shallow water of a mountain stream, flowing over brightly colored pebbles. As a large print, this photo has great impact and fine detail.

Please join us for the opening reception Friday night, July 1. Additional openings are scheduled First Fridays and Third Fridays through July and August. All work is available for purchase during the receptions and regular business hours, or by appointment other times.

I’m excited and honored for the opportunity to show my photographic art in one of Denver’s premier galleries for photography.

Denver Photo Art Gallery
833 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
303.744.7979

For more info about the exhibition and gallery please visit www.DenverPhotoArt.com

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This photo was submitted by Dan Gerth.

I have to say up front that I really like this photograph. And the title really brings it all together.

What I like: clean, simple composition with strong graphics and a very well established center of interest. Really nice color harmony, with warm and cool tones interacting in a very dynamic way. The juxtaposition of the kids’ lemonade stand against the “big brother” of the higher-end store is very appealing. This photo has a great story, and loads of character.

What doesn’t work for me: although the shadows are deep and dark and should be, they are actually quite plugged up, with some posterization around their boundaries. In these transition areas, color noise is very evident. I’d like to see some smoother transitions here. Also, there appears to be some chromatic aberration visible in the lines of the shingles on the front of the building.

This is a wonderfully expressive image, made under difficult shooting conditions. With a little technical refinement this can be an excellent image.

Thanks, Dan, for submitting your photo… really nicely done!

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This photo was submitted by Dan Gerth. At first glance, the atmospheric effects are sublime, and definitely pique my interest. I love the balance and interaction between the sun-streaked clouds in the middle and the clouds at the top left. These are two very different design elements interacting in a way that imparts a lot of energy.

The tones in the black and white conversion were handled very nicely. There’s a wide range of brightness levels, from near pure white to deep black. I love how the layers of mountains are rendered in different tones.

My one real nit about the image is the composition. I get that it’s a picture of the sky, of light, and of ethereal atmospheric effects. However, I find that my eye tends to wander somewhat randomly around the bright part in the center of the photo, without finding a place to rest.

For most photos, having a strong, well-defined focal point or center of interest is crucial. In this photo, I’m not sure exactly where to look, which becomes a little unnerving after a few moments of viewing the photo.

An eagle soaring in the bright part of the sky would have solved this

Overall I think it’s a well seen and well executed photo; I’d just have preferred to see a bit more strength in the design. Thanks, Dan, for submitting your photo!

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This photo was submitted by Christy Tebsherani. This photo is bold and dramatic, with a lot of immediate impact. Overall I like the way you handled the composition. There’s a lot of depth conveyed by the perspective of the receding mountains, and I like how the focal point resolves at Half Dome.

Usually, grand scenic landscape photos like this look their best when photographed at sunrise or sunset, or with dramatic weather conditions. Notice how the trees in the forest in the middle of the picture appear as an almost solid field of green. This is because the light is coming from behind the camera position, resulting in front lighting on the scene. Front light is the least attractive kind of light for most landscapes, because you can’t see any shadows. (The shadowed sides of the trees and mountains are on the hidden side of the objects, facing away from the camera.)

In most all types of photography, the quality of light is the most important factor in creating a superior image vs. one that’s just ho-hum. There’s no such thing as “bad light”, but you always need to match the light with the subject matter to produce the best results. For wide landscape images, side lighting reveals a lot more depth in the scene. For this reason, most nature and landscape photographers don’t make photographs of landscapes during the middle of the day, because the light is harsh and unflattering on the land. In nature photography, you’re working with natural light, and the time of day makes all the difference in producing a winning photograph.

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This photo was submitted by Christy Tebsherani. I like the simplicity of the composition. The Statue is portrayed cleanly and strongly. I like that it’s centered, but I wonder if it might be a bit more dynamic if the Statue was placed more to the right, so the flame of the torch is perfectly centered. Might be worth trying some different cropping.

Overall the image is pretty flat and lacking “pop”. This is due to the lighting conditions and atmospheric haze, neither of which renders the Statue in its most flattering light. You might try adjusting the contrast to help overcome this. Generally speaking, though, a subject like this will look its best with strong sidelight, which would add depth and drama. Shooting at the end of the day just before sunset would be a good approach.

I couldn’t adequately evaluate the sharpness of the image; it’s pretty low resolution and there are significant artifacts from the JPG compression. However, there does appear to be some color noise that could be reduced with noise reduction controls like those found in Adobe Lightroom.

Overall this is a clean, strong composition. It could have been improved with better weather and lighting conditions. Thanks for submitting your photo, Christy!

My next introductory Lightroom class is in Denver August 20. Details and registration are at www.LightroomClasses.com

Photographer Thomas Hawk posted a good discussion about using watermarks and signatures on photos http://bit.ly/iR0h5y

Adobe has just published an updated document on ways to maximize the performance of Lightroom, you can read it here.

Summer in Crested Butte: Alpine Vistas and Colorful Wildflowers in the Colorado Rockies
with Russ Burden and Nat Coalson

July 18-July 23, 2011

Join us for a photo workshop in the Colorado Rockies this summer!

We’ll photograph wildflowers, aspen groves, pristine rivers and lakes against the spectacular mountain scenery around Crested Butte, Kebler and Ohio Passes and the ghost town of Gothic.

Your instructors are professional photographers Russ Burden and Nat Coalson, both of whom are experienced, caring teachers who have led successful photography workshops and classes for many years.

In the field, Russ and Nat will help you develop the skills needed to make photographs that fully express your vision. We’ll focus on composition and creativity as well as mastering your camera’s many functions. In the classroom, you’ll learn how to use Adobe and Nik software for the ultimate creative control over your images. Throughout the workshop, hands-on demonstrations, lessons and group critique sessions will help you refine your image-making skills.

For details and registration visit www.NatCoalson.com/photo-workshops