news, announcements and articles

Full Moon Night Photography in Mono Lake

August 22-25, Mono Lake, California
led by Lance Keimig and Scott Martin
Wisp by Scott Martin
Lance Keimig and Scott Martin team up to present a four day and night photography workshop at Mono Lake, California. August is a great time to visit this remote location that is a favorite among photographers for its unique geological formations. Mono Lake’s signature monolithic rock structures that extend upward from the lake are ideal for night photography. Other photographic locations may include the dramatic granite moonscapes of Tioga Pass in Yosemite, the Travertine Hot Springs, the town of Bridgeport, and the world famous Bodie Ghost Town.  This year we’re going to get into some advanced night photography topics and really take a close look at light painting and mutli-hour star trail image stacking. Techniques and inspiration will be constantly discussed, demonstrated and put into practice. We will all work closely together, sharing our knowledge and experience.

This workshop will have both field and classroom instruction. We will be in the classroom each day from noon until we leave for the field before sunset. When out in the field, participants can stay out shooting as long as they, or their camera’s batteries, hold out. In the classroom, we’ll critique and develop our work as well as study the work of historical and contemporary night photographers. We will examine a parametric workflow using the latest tools for night photography, from high quality digital image capture, RAW file processing, image stacking and HDR imaging. Light painting, multi-hour exposures, film technology, color management and equipment recommendations will all be discussed. Because this workshop has two instructors, each participant will get lots of attention. Participants should expect to share some of their images for review, as the goal of this workshop is to enjoy the creative process and be inspired to make great images.
(more…)


private workshops on demand

for intermediate and advanced photographers
by appointment in San Antonio, Texas

As a fine art photographer I know the challenges involved with making creative images while simultaneously mastering the technical aspects of workflow, exquisite printmaking and the polish of final packaging. I strive for an even balance of these qualities in my own work, and I enjoy helping others achieve better equilibrium between inspiration and presentation. Sharing my passion for photographic excellence has been driving my training business for over 16 years now.

In addition to on-location training and group workshops, I’d like to start encouraging a third option – private, one-one-one workshops in my printmaking studio. The range of printing equipment, papers, lighting, color management tools and atmosphere provides a training experience that I can’t quite bottle up and take with me to my client’s studios or location workshops.

Studio

Private training in my studio isn’t anything new for me, I’ve been offering it since 1999. But the studio has grown and matured over the years. The studio has three main areas – a digital darkroom main room for image development and small format printing making, a larger area for 60″ grand format printing, and a large warehouse area for spraying and packaging final prints. Solux, daylight, incandescent and viewing booth light allows visitors to compare prints under a variety of light sources and grasp the importance of high quality lighting. A range of the latest wide format printers up to 60 inches wide, combined with a variety of papers and media to choose from allows us to produce gorgeous prints that participants can take home with them. Spectrophotometers, colorimeters, RIP software, refreshments, an espresso machine and nearby macrobiotic vegetarian restaurant are all window dressing for this experience.

These private sessions are for intermediate and advanced photographers looking to perfect their process and final product. It’s a great opportunity to work side-by-side on your own images, discussing every aspect of the process and leave with a beautiful print. Email me with your particular needs, thoughts and requirements and I’ll prepare a customized training session for you.

Finesilver Pano


Photographic Muse:Austin

Dates to be announced (TBA) March 2011, Austin TX
presented by Penny De Los Santos, Lynn Johnson and Scott Martin

Penny De Los SantosPenny De La Santos, Lynn Johnson and Scott Martin are combining their talents to present a seven day intensive photography workshop in Austin, Texas overlapping with the South by Southwest Festival. Austin is located at the edge of the Texas hill country and is known for it’s live music scene, progressive atmosphere, swimming holes, green spaces and inviting South Congress neighborhood. The South by Southwest festival is a unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. This week is an ideal time to see Austin through the lens. Temperatures should be perfect ranging from the mid 50s to the mid 70s with moderate to low humidity.

This is a new kind of photography workshop that will help you shape and share the story of your mission whether that is your work, your passion, or your life. We invite you to come to Austin and learn from three photographers with 75 years of combined experience in newspaper, magazine, freelance photojournalism, documentary and fine art photography. (more…)


Double Exposure: Moab (sold out)

April 28th-May 2nd, 2010 in Moab, Utah
with Scott Martin and Andy Biggs

Spires

Scott Martin and Andy Biggs join forces to present a rigorous five day photography workshop in Moab, Utah. Moab is the epicenter of red rock country with its famous arches, balanced rocks and spires in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. If you have never photographed in the Moab area, you owe it to yourself to witness some of the most famous geological formations in the American West. The area is also famous for mountain biking, motorcycling, and offroading. April is arguably the nicest month of the year to be in Moab and we have planned this workshop to take place after all the big offroading festivals that descend upon Moab in the spring.

These medium altitude, ~4000 foot (1.2 km) locations will be between 50F (10C)  and 80F (27C) degrees during the workshop. Combined with low humidity, we will be quite comfortable. If you’ve never been to this part of the world before, you are in for a surprise. Moab and the surrounding areas have far more then one can possibly experience in a weeks time.

Moab Arches

This workshop will be packed with both field and classroom instruction. We will be in the field early in the morning and early in the evening to catch the dawn and dusk light with (more…)


Digital Capture, Lightroom, Change, and why, yes, you really do have to learn this File Management Stuff

October 16th, 2009, 9:30am – 4pm, Houston TX
massive amounts of filespresented by Scott Martin via ASMP Houston

In my day-to-day consulting I am seeing photographers struggle with organizing ever-increasing, huge amounts of images. To add to this, the “file browsing” applications photographers have been using are showing their age and Adobe Lightroom is emerging as a surprisingly powerful tool for not only image file management, but also as a total workflow tool.

This one day class will examine (in great detail) every aspect of file management in Adobe Lightroom. Streamlining the file import process, working with keywords and file naming conventions will be discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of the DNG Digital Negative format will be covered along with folder based vs. search based approaches. We will discuss a variety of scenarios including transferring images from a desktop to a laptop and back. This workshop is customized for ASMP’s Houston chapter and is intended for professionals, not beginners.

Image file management may not sound like the most exciting topic to examine for a day but it might be the most important one for your image library. This workshop won’t cover optimizing image development, web gallery generation or printing. This workshop is appropriate for new Lightroom users for seasoned Lightroom professionals alike. Handouts and lunch will be provided.

(more…)


Seminar: Digital Capture, Lightroom, Change, and why, yes, you do have to learn this File Management Stuff

September 13th, 9am – 4pm, University of Texas, Austin TX
presented by Scott Martin

In my day-to-day consulting with photographers I see them struggle with organizing ever-increasing huge amounts of images. To add to this, Adobe Lightroom is a powerful new tool to learn that has opened up new possibilities for image file management.

This one day class will examine (in great detail) every aspect of file management in Adobe Lightroom. We will discuss a variety of scenarios including transferring images from a desktop to a laptop and back. We’ll talk about managing files on different computers simultaneously and merging them onto one. We’ll also look at how to take advantage of the DNG Digital Negative file format. We’ll talk about streamlining the file import process and working with keywords.

File Management may not sound like the most exciting topic to examine this weekend but it might be the most important one for your image library. For a little relief from the serious geek stuff, we’ll also discuss optimizing exposure for RAW Capture and learn how to determine the perfect exposure for any situation. This workshop is appropriate for new Lightroom users for seasoned Lightroom professionals alike. Handouts will be provided. (more…)


Seminar: Lightroom to Digital Pro Lab

July 22nd, 6:30 – 9pm, Digital Pro Lab, San Antonio, Texas
led by Scott Martin

This 3 hour seminar takes a look at photography workflows from capture-to-lab using Adobe Lightroom. We’ll take a close look at some new and unusual ways to send images to the lab.

Topics covered
Importing procedure from memory card
File Management
Keywording
Optimizing RAW development with Lightroom’s Develop Module
Display calibration
Review sample prints
Printing from Lightroom
Sending files to the Lab using ROES (new!)
Sending files to the Lab right from Lightroom
(more…)


Full Moon Night Photography in Big Bend, Texas

October 20th-23rd, 2010 in the Big Bend region of West Texas
with Scott Martin and  Lance Keimig


Scott Martin and  Lance Keimig team up again to present a four day/night photography workshop in the Terlingua ghost town in the Big Bend region of West Texas. The Big Bend region is 300 miles away from the nearest city and feels every bit of it. It’s one of the country’s best kept secrets, full of history and pristine landscapes (more…)