Joel Sartore Workshop

[CaraRose]

Got to do a one day workshop with National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore at one of the forest preserves by my work. Really fun day, indoor discussion and some critique, followed by a few hours of shooting in the afternoon.

1. Large milkweed bug, lit by a gold reflector.


2. The group shooting macros. Joel was loaning his Nikon macro to anyone who didn't have a macro lens, and I offered up my Canon 100mm 2.8 IS to anyone shooting Canon :0). I had two Canon shooters tell me that the 100 was now next on their buy list.


3 They tethered the preserves captive hawk and owl for us to shoot.


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20 Couple shots of Joel Sartore


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[paulnj]

Very nice series of images! Really like those owl images.

[armando_m]

Love the bird photos !

[mjs1973]

What a great opportunity to learn from one of the top photographers in the field! Love #18.

[Eric D]

What a great opportunity to learn from one of the top photographers in the field! Love #18.

Nice series!

[Loupey]

Wow what a great opportunity! I'm a fan of Mr. Sartore.

I like the lighting in #17.

Kind of surprised that Mr. Sartore centered the hawk like that. Any idea which lens he was using?

[CaraRose]

Thanks everyone

#17 and #18 are my favorites. I think I like 17 best because the light is just awesome.

Loupey-- I think it was a 24-70 2.8. He had a basic kit in his vest (that vest was like a magicians hat, he kept pulling gear out of it), 14-24 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 105mm macro, and a 70-200mm 2.8. Interesting fact, he keeps them in the jacket with the hoods in place and no lens caps so they're ready to grab and go. Since he doesn't use caps, he keeps cheap glass filters on his lenses (the ones we all hate here.. myself included). Other than that he doesn't use any filters at all. He also does no post processing on any of his shots (my mind still reels) and almost never crops a shot. Pretty much anything of his you see came straight from his camera.

He probably was taking a shot to see if he liked the light and depth of field. He constantly takes a shot, checks the shot and the histogram, adjust, take another... so on and so on. In the discussion he showed us shots he took at the forest preserve the afternoon before, first showing the ones he thought were okay, then showing all the shots he took from start to finish. It was very cool, you could see he would try an idea, work it, adjust it, sometimes give up on that thread and start something else, and just constantly adjust and change either the aperture or perspective or sometimes the setting. It was really cool.

[Dylan8i]

if he wasn't doing much or any PP was he shooting raw or Jpeg?

[CaraRose]

if he wasn't doing much or any PP was he shooting raw or Jpeg?

He said he shoots raw + jpeg and the jpegs are mainly a backup if the raw gets corrupted.