10 Day Mighty St. Lawrence Voyage and Photo Workshop, June 14-23

Departing Quebec City, on June 14, we'll spend 10 days exploring the stunning landscapes surrounding the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Saguenay Fiord as we make our way to Saint Pierre-et-Miquelon, a tiny French Island off the South Coast of Newfoundland. Each day we'll take Zodiacs to shore and visit a number of Provincial and National Parks to hike, explore and photograph spectacular scenery and feeding grounds for marine and bird species, and experience the mixed Acadian and English cultural opportunities of this region.

Knik Glacier Winter Photo Workshop - Only 4 Spots Left!

There are only 4 spots available for my Knik Glacier Winter Icescapes and Aerial Photography Workshop, which is scheduled for March 20-22, here in Alaska. This is a two-night weekend workshop based at the Knik River Lodge, where you'll have the chance to photograph some amazing glacier and winter landscapes of the Chugach Mountains. 
 
We'll spend our big "glacier day" by flying out to the ice via helicopter, which will give you a chance to shoot aerials and see these incredible rugged icescapes from the air. Then we'll land and spend a number of hours exploring and photographing the ice formations up close. I'll be right there with you providing you instruction and teaching you the ins and outs of winter landscape photography in person.
 
This will be a small group; it's limited to only 7 people and three spots are already taken. If you're interested in coming out to the ice with me, please visit the official workshop page at Alaska Photo Treks to see all the details. If you don't live up here, Alaska Airlines always has great winter deals on flights to Anchorage in the wintertime. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you can join me!

Read my Cover Story in CLARITY MAGAZINE, Vol. 5

As a pro photographer, it's always great to see one of your photos land on the cover of a magazine. This month, I've got the cover of CLARITY: Photography Beyond the Camera, Vol. 5. The issue includes a feature story that I wrote called Below Zero: How to Make Amazing Winter Photographs While Protecting Yourself and Your Gear.

The piece contains a number of tips for dealing with winter light and conditions, with regards to exposure, compositional ideas and other things you'll need to be aware of in order to create striking cold weather imagery.

CLARITY is a quarterly magazine all about photography. Not just gear, it's emphasis is on composition, ideas, techniques and approaches that help feed your creativity and excitement for the craft and art of photography. It's always packed with great article and photos. Check out what's included in this issue and pick up a copy. I guarantee, there's something in there for everyone! 

Note, due to the different tax laws with regards to downloads for European customers, the regular links above won't work for you. If you live in the EU, you'll need to use this link in order to access the storefront and download the magazine. 

Cradoc Photography Business Software - What I Use

Over the years, I've tried a number of photography business programs, but I've always come back to fotoBiz and fotoQuote by Cradoc Software. I first started using fotoQuote over 20 years ago while working at a small stock photo agency in Boston, and I'm still using it today as part of the comprehensive fotoBiz program.
 
No matter if you're a full time or part time photographer, you need a good system for keeping track of clients and contacts, creating estimates and invoices, pricing your photography, tracking sales, equipment, licenses and seeing what areas of your business are giving you the best return on your investments and time. In the past, I used to have different forms, databases and spreadsheets scattered all over my computer; today, all of this stuff is in handled with one program: fotoBiz. 

 
fotoBiz is a powerful and affordable photography business management software that does everything you need. It starts with contact management. After entering or importing your client details into the system, you can create assignment estimates, stock quotes, invoices or create over 100 types of documents, forms, emails, letters and reports. You also have a section for clients that you're trying to land where you can keep track of your marketing efforts for each prospect, and there's a section for stock production. This is where you can track exactly how much you put into, and get back from your photo shoots. 

Once you land a stock sale or an assignment, fotoBix lets you easily create the proper invoice and license for that job. It keeps track of all of your open and closed invoices and lets you create reports and export the data for outside bookkeeping. There's even a place to keep track of all of your equipment for insurance purposes.

The great thing is that fotoQuote is comes included in fotoBiz, or else you can get the standalone version if you already have a regular photo business software management system. I highly recommend checking out these two programs, they're relatively inexpensive, and they're invaluable with regards to how much time, money and efficiency they'll save you. Not only will they let you streamline your business, you'll just look more professional every time you reach out to a client.

Around The Web

The other day, Scott Kelby reviewed a brand new, yet unreleased app called Project Luca that looks pretty cool. It's an iPad app that lets you create visual stories with gorgeous design and animation in minutes. Imagine taking some really cool shots, and putting together a stunning presentation in a very short amount of time, whether to show the art director or your friends and family. I like how this looks- it could come in really handy! As I said, it's not out yet, but you can get on the list to try out the app before it's released to the public.
 
Uh oh, it's happened again. This time it's Sports Illustrated, who recently laid off all of their remaining staff photographers. The photography industry continues to change in a big way, or rather, continues to get crushed in a big way by the giant media players. Are they leaving us in their dust, or are they setting us free to pave our own roads and create our own business models outside of the regular system? I see it as both, and it's yet another reason why I agree so much with Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind, in which he explores the reasons why right brain creative thinkers will rule the future. The tides are turning.
 
If you're a Nikon shooter and you love wide angle lenses, especially primes, you have something to be excited about. Nikon just released a brand new AF-S 20mm f/1.8 lens. It's fast, sharp, and optimized for full frame FX systems. Here's a review of the lens on the Nikonians website. 
 
It's really fun to move light and fast through the outdoors, but sometimes this conflicts with the traditional notion of landscape photography, where you plant yourself in front of a subject with a full bag of gear and wait for the light. What about the approach where you make the most of what you have in the moment and maximize your creativity on the spot. Rather than coming back or waiting, you walk away with a compelling photograph right then and there. Creativity on the move, so to speak. That's that this great blog post is about. Read Traveling Light and Working Faster, by UK photographer Lizzie Sheppard.

Preorder my new book, Outdoor Action and Adventure Photography, due to be published on April 28!