Read the Dan Bailey Photo Newsletter, Nov 2020 Edition
Published: Mon, 11/23/20
I'm a little behind on my newsletters. I sent the last one to you back in August and then I spent most of September expanding my woodworking skills by building a new shed in my backyard. In addition to being an excellent pandemic distraction, I spent many hours alone outside engaged in the process of learning new skills, making mistakes and figuring out how to try and fix them, as well as solve all of the other problems that occur when a carpentry novice takes on a project like this.
I enjoyed the whole process (mostly) and of course, I couldn't help but how it all relates to photography and creativity in some way. I'm pretty good at taking pictures, but I needed a lot of help and guidance on the shed. I can do camera stuff with my eyes closed and get it right much of the time, but with this, it often took me way longer to do what an experienced carpenter would accomplish in mere minutes. Shimming the door alone took me the better part of a day, but that was ok. I was in deep mourning for the tragic loss to caner of one of my creative heroes, Eddie Van Halen, and so I hung the door while listening to the first six Van Halen albums in their entirety.
Between the completion of the shed and Eddie's death, my mind has been in a very challenging place lately. With the shed, I reveled in the capacity of us humans to try new things and expand our skills, and the notion of being creative when it's not something we normally do. With the loss of a true creative genius, and one of my guitar heroes, I can't help but think about how much impact and influence one person can have on the world with their talents and skills. Add in the whole COVID thing and that just takes it to a whole new level. We humans are so resourceful and we can create and accomplish so much with our skills and our interactions with other humans, and yet it's all so fleeting.
I know that's kind of a big thing to ponder, so I'll just leave it there. That's where my mind has been lately. Haven't shot very many photos in the past couple months, but I've baked a lot of bread and have been playing more music lately. I think that taking breaks from our usual things and following whatever whimsy sparks our mind is a good thing. It's healthy. It keeps our minds active, and when we do find ourselves ready to return to our regular things, we usually come back with renewed ideas, enthusiasm and a fresh approach.
New Photos
That's not to say that I haven't shot any photos lately, just not as much as usually do in an average month or two. I made a couple of trips out to the glaciers this fall, hitting it right when the foliage peaked, and then capturing my first sunset aerials of the season. I also took a couple long walks through the wooded parks in my neighborhood with my Fuji X100V. That's something I don't often do, since I'm usually riding bikes, but I do find it refreshing to slow down and just putter around on foot sometimes when I'm carrying the camera.
Video Lessons and other Fun Stuff
One of the biggest developments in my photography life during the past year has been doing video tutorials and making fun videos set to original music. Obviously, all in-person teaching is off the table for the time being, but I actually started doing my YouTube lessons last summer, well before COVID hit. It's been a really fun adventure for me, and I've learned a lot. I typically post a handful of lessons over the course of two or three months, and then take a short break.In my latest lesson, I take you behind the scenes and walk you through one of my favorite landscape/glacier photos from the past few years. I share the story behind the shot, and give you insight as to my creative approach, lens choice, technical decisions and all the other factors that went into making the final image. You can watch this lesson here on my YouTube Channel.
In a coulee of the of the lessons I did last year, I explore the notion of how we see color and how that plays out in our photography, and also the fun practice of creating monochromatic color images.
I've also done a couple of "Adventure Videos," where I take you along with me on one of my outings and share the views and the excitement I had when I was there. These are set to music that I wrote and produced, and I'm really proud of them. My favorite is the one I did last winter, called AERIAL ADVENTURE - Winter Flying in Alaska. I'm so proud of this one, especially the music, so if you haven't seen it, then please check it out. Even if you already watched it last winter, maybe you want to treat yourself once again. I've got a growing number of videos up on my YouTube channel, so if you need a good way to blow some time, or if you want to hear my photography insight, then head on over to my page and subscribe, if you don't already do so.
Black Friday Deals
Here we are, blasting our way through November, and that can only mean one thing: Black Friday Deals are back! No matter if you're in the market for a new lens, camera body, software, or other photo/video accessories, there are lots of opportunities to pick up things at a hefty discount. Here is the master page for the B&H Black Friday Deals, and here are a few notable items that
I think you might be interested in.
Fujifilm X Series Lens Deals: Save up to $300 on many of the X Series lenses, and save $500 on the XF100-400mm lens.
SanDisk Extreme External SSD Hard Drives: These are my favorite go-to external hard drives these days. They're fast, rugged, very slim and they work great for just about anything, especially when you want fast data transfer. They come in various sizes, but the 500Gb version and 1TB version is by far the best value right now, especially since it's on sale.
Dell UltraSharp 27"IPS Monitor: I've used Dell monitors for years and I've found them to be excellent quality displays that will give you good, consistent and accurate color and tonal performance at a very good price. Their latest 2560x1440/27" screen gives you a very wide color gamut that includes both 100% Adobe RGB and 100% sRGB color spaces and works great for any kind of photo and video editing tasks.
MindShift Gear PhotoCross 13 Backpack: MindShift makes great camera packs, and the PhotoCross is a great size for going light and fast, but still giving you enough room to pack extra items if needed. The side-loading PhotoCross will fit a small DSR or mirrorless camera and 3-5 lenses (it fits a 70-200mm lens) and it also has room for a 13" laptop or tablet and other small goodies. And it's even got a rain cover. Right now, the PhotoCross is $40 off.
Very best regards,
Dan
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