Recent Bird Photography Trip

While the vast majority of the shots I took on a recent bird photography trip to the coast were of waterfowl (coming in a later post), I did grab this painted bunting as well. I've always loved these birds. They're probably the most colorful bird in North America.

WPPI DVD Special Promotion

For a limited time, photographers can take advantage of our DVD sale. Only $129 (regularly $199) for the hard copy or only $99 for a digital download version (regularly $149). Click HERE to order, then visit the "Sign-up and Shop" tab!

2010 Thirst Relief Photography Mentor Auction is on NOW! Win a FREE seat in the next McWorkshop!

Hey photographers!

It's that time again... the next ThirstRelief mentoring auction is ON NOW! This is a perfect opportunity to further your education while helping out a great cause! As always, I'm also donating a FREE seat in the next McWorkshop to the winning bidder! Click HERE to BID NOW. Check out http://thirstrelief.shootq.com/

Workshops, Antics, and Shenanigans!

Goodness... I debated pretty hard about posting this video. Certainly there's nothing wrong with it at all, in fact quite the opposite... it's fun, but oh so embarrassing. It's from a 4-Day workshop in Kansas called Keep N it Fresh where I was the featured photographer. We had a great group of photographers and we all learned a ton of information... and had fun doing it. So why the hesitation in the posting? Because never before have my dancing 'skills' been publicly on display... I worry now that I'll be getting too many calls from recruiters wanting me to be a backup dancer for Justin Timberlake. I'm already just slammed as it is.

Here are a few shots from the workshop too...

Chris Smith shooting...

Darrin Hackney and a couple of background chimpers ;)

Nicole Goddard sporting a cool shooting pose..

The talented Brett Schauf, co-host of the workshop, holding my SB-900 for the above photo.

And as I've had so many requests from other photographers to add some technical info as to exactly how I get some shots, I'd thought I'd start here. I've added the exif data to the below image... as you can see it's a bit dull looking as is. I purposely underexposed it on what was otherwise a cloudy, but bright day. That way, when I added a single, gelled, hand-held SB-900 from the side, it provided a nice warm, almost sunsety kinda look. 

Exposure and camera settings didn't change for this photo from the above. I just added the flash. 

The result:

One night we went out to shuffleboard! Super fun!

My skills were nearly unmatched! Although I still lost... to a girl. ;)

A few of the shooters. Thanks everybody, for such a great workshop!

The Next 5-Day McWorkshop Announced!

In the podcast for Pictage I recorded yesterday, I officially announced the dates for the next 5-Day McWorkshop to be held here in beautiful Asheville, NC, so I thought I'd better get those dates on the blog too! Mark your calendars and grab your seat while they last... May 4-8, 2009. Check out www.mcworkshops.com to learn more and to sign up. Get ready for lots of learning, shooting, sharing and more... can anyone say Cinco de Mayo? Here are a couple of shots from the last workshop...

Pictage Ask and Learn - Today, Wednesday, Jan 28th!

Once again, I've been asked to participate in the Ask and Learn Wednesday on the Pictage Forum! All you Pictage photographers out there, please join me this evening as I answer your questions and hopefully provide a little advice on not only surviving, but thriving in today's tough economy.... hope to see you there !

Keep'N it Fresh!

Hi all! I'm back from a great Pictage conference in LA and am already excited for the next speaking engagement. Coming up in a few weeks, I'll be the featured speaker for 4 education-packed days at the Keep N it Fresh workshop! We'd love to see all of you photographers out in Kansas October 20-23, 2008. Here's some verbiage from their site...

Are you ready to take your photography business to the next level?

Wondering how to reach the privileged masses from your own backyard?

Internationally recognized photographer Corey McNabb shares his secrets for creating rock star demand in a hometown locale.

After taking on SoCal’s Hollywood scene for more than a decade, McNabb successfully transplanted celebrity rates to his hometown of Asheville, N.C. — population 75,000.

McNabb shares professional secrets during a powerful hands-on workshop that will help you book more sessions, shoot on the fly, edit like a master and market like a pro.

Tuition includes:

• Four days of interactive training with Corey McNabb as he takes participants through hands-on workflow. From artfully closing a consultation to managing an editing backlog, McNabb will free you to learn more and earn more.
• Workshop sessions with a think-on-your-feet approach to on-site shooting, natural lighting techniques, web-based client management and color correction software.
• Break-out sessions with marketing and accounting consultants who specialize in strategic business planning for photographers.
• Professional models.
• Most of your meals, and transportation to and from session locations.

Who should attend:

• Photographers who want to grow their businesses and better manage workflow.
• Professionals ready to invest in real-world techniques designed to unleash artistry and improve income.
• Photographers who want to build a professional network of resources.
• Trendsetters ready for a chance to win more than $6,000 in industry-chic prizes.

McWorkshop. Round 3. Day 5.

Amber again. 

The final official day of the McWorkshop arrived. Friday was contest day, and our awesome attendees had stayed up crazy late (some not even going to bed!) the night before working on their contest submissions. Our morning started off with Will from ShootQ giving us a quick ShootQ tutorial. After he finished sharing this awesome studio management software with us, Corey took the stage for his final day. One of our awesome students, Jessica, had to leave just after lunch in order to get back for a wedding, so Corey gave the whirlwind version of his Lightroom tutorial and his DAM (Digital Asset Management) workflow so that she could see both... all before lunch! 

Lunch was at Cafe on the Square, and was sponsored by ShootQ. (Thanks so much to Will for coming up, and to Rachel and Andrew and Mark for being wonderful and dear friends. Much love.) 

(um, ew!)

Good times, as always.



After lunch, we did the contest. We were so stoked to see the contest entries and winners! We're going to do a separate blog post on that later this week. [Edit: I'd have to say that all of the contest entries were really great!]

Corey wrapped up the day of teaching with a little more Lightroom instruction and his final mentoring sessions. We broke for a short naptime, and then met back for our final dinner. Photographer's Edit sponsored a delicious dinner at Fiddlin' Pigs.



We usually love Fiddlin' Pigs for its fun bluegrass and clogging, but we had never seen it this packed! We opted to sit outside... where we could hear each other talk, but still enjoy the music!



I was so excited. Corey's wonderful wife and my dearest friend, Jill, was able to join us for dinner this time. I had missed her all week....she'd not been feeling well. 



The weather outside was ominous... but the rain managed to miss us. Whew.



Fun times!





(And just for fun... Mariah with giant food, one more time.)



After dinner, we headed back to the studio for a few cocktails and RockBand! Have I mentioned how much I love RockBand?? Someone commandeered Corey's camera, so we have no idea who grabbed these images... but thankfully, someone did. Corey and I were obviously too busy playing.







One more post to come. I'll get it up as soon as I can!

McWorkshoppers... we miss you!!

-amber

McWorkshop. Round 3. Day 4.

Amber here again... Thursday was a huge day for the McWorkshoppers. The day we take the group to the Biltmore Estate has historically been my favorite part of the week, and this was no exception. We had a wonderful time! 

The day started out with Corey's intensive explorations concerning extreme shooting techniques and micro-composition. I was excited that Corey had had the opportunity to discuss some of his theories on lighting, as well as share information about specific techniques he uses when shooting, before turning the students loose with our beautiful models at the most amazing location. I was so excited to see their progress and their final images! 

I remembered to stop and grab a quick image of Corey imparting knowledge to the class before we headed out for our shoot.



At the February McWorkshop, we headed to the Bilmore Estate and it was insanely cold (see blog post here), but this time it was so wonderful to be there this week with absolutely amazing weather!



This group was so excited to be at the Biltmore Estate. (Actually, this group was pretty excited about most things.) They were awesome to be around...



Corey had one of his spectacularly beautiful brides model for us. Sadly, she isn't getting married until October, so we can't show you any of those images until after her wedding. I've had a sneak peak though, and he captured her beautifully! Maybe we'll get a chance to post those sometime after her wedding. 

We were blessed to have an awesome couple, John and Lindsey Bamber (from Chattanooga!) return to model/attend for the second time in a row. They are amazing photographers, as well as spectacular models. A huge thanks goes out to them for coming and hanging out with us! As Corey was busy shooting his bride this time, most of these shots are mine:











We also want to say thanks to the lovely Liz from The Purple Iris for providing us with gorgeous bouquets for our models. We love you, Liz!







Tara joined us because it was one of her brides who Corey was photographing. She's SO much fun to have around! She borrowed one of Corey's D3s for a few shots...





At the end of the shoot, Corey took us to this cool sunflower patch. I love these images that he captured of John and Lindsey in that location!





After our shoot, we enjoyed a tour and tasting at the winery, and then headed for dinner at Usual Suspects. Apparently, we've decided we like that place.

Corey received a fun new toy in the mail in between the shoot at Biltmore and dinner, so he had a fun time playing with that! [Edit: Corey here. It's been a long time coming, but we finally were able to send off one of my cameras for conversion to infrared! We've had it boxed up and ready to go for about a year and just couldn't seem to get around to sending it off. Well, thanks to Jeremy's, Katie's and Amber's amazing help recently, we finally sent it off... and it's cool! More later.]

I just want to note, that this first image of a self portrait is well after dark, hand-held at 1/5th of a second. Darn fun.



Our new favorite hangout. Darts and delicious food, what more could a gal want?!



Corey using his new infrared camera. (That's Will from ShootQ in the background. ShootQ is another one of our amazing sponsors for this workshop!)



Mariah may kill me for posting this image... but I had NEVER seen such a huge porkchop!



And just a few images from the darts portion of the night. We got pretty competitive, so there was more shooting darts than shooting photos....

But Corey did grab this brilliant image of Mariah, scoring some serious "style points". [Edit: Corey again.  Interesting side note- those were fully-tinted sun glasses. I'd only had the infrared about an hour at that point, but I just thought it was interesting that it removed the tint.]



And another of someone's lucky bullseye... I'll never know who, since it's someone who stole my camera when I wasn't paying attention!



Final days' posts coming up soon!

-amber