Wes' Magical Mystery Tour

It has been a little over a year since I have had my first DSLR camera, the Canon SI.  In February I found out what some of the limitations were in my photography, and upgraded to the Canon 7D.  I must say, I still have a long way to go before I feel like I know what I am doing.  Perhaps that is a feeling I need to keep, so that I can constantly improve.

These two weeks brought me to San Diego, CA for business, which I then combined with a personal trip to Death Valley, CA.  I traveled with camera in hand.

The Death Valley gig, was with Canon Live Learning.  As with the session I went the end of March, beginning of April this year, I learned once again what I did not know.  So now I know, and boy do I have a lot of homework.  Jennifer Wu was our photography expert, full of energy beyond belief (a very good thing) and the sweetest person you will ever meet.  Jennifer showed us a Death Valley that most are probably not aware of.  It was grueling, hiking where we did to take photographs.  However, it was well worth it.

Here are some photos of these two outings.  I hope you will enjoy them, as much as I did photographing . . .

Now to Hoover Dam and a short stop in Vegas . . .

Had to photograph the Trump building behind McDonalds . . .

Now, off to Death Valley . . .

Now for my Canon Live Learning class . . . leaving 5:00 AM or something like that . . .

The above photo was a 32 minute exposure. I started at 64 minute, however I did not trust my camera setting, and I had too many cars driving by. So I stopped it and reset for the shorter time in order to be done with the rest of the class.

Looking at the photo, you understand why naval would use the North Start to navigate.  Though the North Star moved as well, in a tiny circular motion, the other starts move around it giving the North Start the appearance of the non-moving center.

Believe me, there are many more photos. We spent about 12 hours out in Death Valley this day photographing and learning. A very cool experience.

Day 2 I had to pass. I do feel bad about that because I missed a good experience. There was much to learn and do. My health was just not up to snuff. A lot of hiking the day before wore me out. I did go out on my own for a little bit to photograph. Here are the photos.

Day 3. Another morning shoot, but not as early as the first day. Less driving, less hiking, and more time in class critiquing each others photos and learning more about what we did the past 3 days. Here are some of the photos taken in the morning. I did do a time lapse of the sunrise. I need to get it into a movie for you.

The trip took me to San Diego to Hoover Dam, to Death Valley, and back home. A lot of photography, a lot of learning. I am grateful for the Canon Live Learning sessions, because this gives me the time to learn what I do not know, get the tools to learn about it, then go off and do it.

I am planning to go to the Canon Live Learning April event in Atlanta, with Parish Kohanim. I have a lot of respect for his talent, his understanding of photography, his "seeing" the opportunities. You can check out my prior experience by clicking here.

For more information on Perish Kohanim, click here.

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