Active Light Photography Travel Portfolios


	Where did they go? Tracking the Anasazi Trace the progress from pit houses to Great Kivas as you photograph Great Houses along the tracks of the Anasazi. You'll discover multi-story buildings built by hand, rock art showing what the artist thought of a supernova, and the astronomical significance of the ruins. I'm very familiar with Great Houses at Chaco Canyon, plus Anasazi complexes at Aztec and elsewhere in the U.S. Four Corners. Share my knowledge of Anasazi traces in northern New Mexico as I get you to the ruins and petroglyphs at the best times and light. I'll also talk about shot design - how I place shapes and textures for high visual impact. I'll even let you in on where they disappeared to. Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.	What do they eat? The Secret Lives of Young Birds Discover the difference between altricial and precocial young birds, and why it will help you photograph them. Join me for a day with greedy young ~~beggars~~ nestlings as they grab parents' bills for the food that appears there. You may see Mom or Dad scaring up a meal for their young. In the late afternoon, we'll watch young avocet and stilt chicks as they pace the marsh in search of food. On the second day, watch for young songbirds around the sloughs in San Francisco's beautiful Baylands. The afternoon and evening bring us to the home of burrowing owl parents and their six to ten youngsters. In between photography sessions, learn why cleanliness is next to Godliness for your digital SLR camera's sensor, and the best ways to keep it clean. I'll also discuss why you need to understand behavior to photograph wildlife, and what you can expect to see. Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.
Lightroom - The Essential Tool For Photographers Do you have a digital shoebox full of pictures that you navigate by feel? Let me show you how to bring order to your collection. Adobe's Lightroom 2 is one of the best ways to import and organize digital images. I'll show you how to set up a file system tailored to your subjects, transfer files from your memory card into different subject folders in Lightroom, adjust shadow, dark, light and highlight levels, saturation of individual colors, sharpen and reduce noise on one image. You can clean up pesky dust spots with spotting techniques for the digital age. Then learn to apply all those tweaks to other similar images and save yourself a ton of time. Want to lighten the sky, or selectively enhance contrast on a face? I'll show you how to use Lightroom 2's new brush tool to do it. And I'll give you a quick fix for white balance problems. Organize related images into collections that you export to web pages with a few clicks. Then upload those pages to your site for everyone to see. You'll also learn how to create a list of keywords you can search to find those images of spectacular bird takeoffs in your picture library, or your kids blowing out their birthday candles. You'll also discover Lightroom's other powerful image search tools. Heck, you can even manage your older scanned film images with Lightroom. All those tools will give you back your time - and time outside with your camera is the whole point, right? Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.	In General... All workshops and instruction are restricted to six people or less to give you the best instruction and great chances at high-energy photographs. You need basic picture-capturing skills with your dSLR, plus the ability to transfer images from the camera's memory card to a laptop computer. You'll also need your own laptop for on-site use at any workshop. It can be Mac or Windows - either one is fine. You can do nature photography with a sophisticated point and shoot like a Canon G10, but I really recommend a digital SLR and interchangeable lenses. For wildlife, you need at least 400mm on a Canon Rebel, 10D-50D, 1D series, or Nikon dSLR. That's a minimum - you really should use a 1.4X converter with the 400mm lens, or use a 500mm lens. Knowing wildlife behavior lets you get away with shorter lenses, but longer lenses are better for more 'keepers' or when you're getting started. You'll need a good tripod and head too. Ruins and travel require less equipment. I've used a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom on Canon 1D-series cameras for some of my best work. A 70-200mm or 70-300mm helps when you need extra reach for a distant, unapproachable detail. Anything wider than 24mm gets only occasional use - but when you can't back up, there's no substitute for 15mm or 16mm. And a tilt-shift lens is great for ruins and interiors. All attendees receive hints and recommended equipment lists before their workshops. Contact me at (408) 866-9405 or email for specific equipment recommendations, or with any questions.
	All images copyright © Mark Bohrer

Active Photography Tours and Photography Instruction - Active Light Photography

Where did they go?

Tracking the Anasazi

Trace the progress from pit houses to Great Kivas as you photograph Great Houses along the tracks of the Anasazi. You'll discover multi-story buildings built by hand, rock art showing what the artist thought of a supernova, and the astronomical significance of the ruins.

I'm very familiar with Great Houses at Chaco Canyon, plus Anasazi complexes at Aztec and elsewhere in the U.S. Four Corners. Share my knowledge of Anasazi traces in northern New Mexico as I get you to the ruins and petroglyphs at the best times and light. I'll also talk about shot design - how I place shapes and textures for high visual impact.

I'll even let you in on where they disappeared to.

Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.

What do they eat?

The Secret Lives of Young Birds

Discover the difference between altricial and precocial young birds, and why it will help you photograph them.

Join me for a day with greedy young ~~beggars~~ nestlings as they grab parents' bills for the food that appears there. You may see Mom or Dad scaring up a meal for their young.

In the late afternoon, we'll watch young avocet and stilt chicks as they pace the marsh in search of food.

On the second day, watch for young songbirds around the sloughs in San Francisco's beautiful Baylands. The afternoon and evening bring us to the home of burrowing owl parents and their six to ten youngsters.

In between photography sessions, learn why cleanliness is next to Godliness for your digital SLR camera's sensor, and the best ways to keep it clean. I'll also discuss why you need to understand behavior to photograph wildlife, and what you can expect to see.

Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.

Lightroom - Essential Tool For Photographers | Active Light Photography

Lightroom - The Essential Tool For Photographers

Do you have a digital shoebox full of pictures that you navigate by feel? Let me show you how to bring order to your collection. Adobe's Lightroom 2 is one of the best ways to import and organize digital images.

I'll show you how to set up a file system tailored to your subjects, transfer files from your memory card into different subject folders in Lightroom, adjust shadow, dark, light and highlight levels, saturation of individual colors, sharpen and reduce noise on one image. You can clean up pesky dust spots with spotting techniques for the digital age. Then learn to apply all those tweaks to other similar images and save yourself a ton of time.

Want to lighten the sky, or selectively enhance contrast on a face? I'll show you how to use Lightroom 2's new brush tool to do it. And I'll give you a quick fix for white balance problems.

Organize related images into collections that you export to web pages with a few clicks. Then upload those pages to your site for everyone to see.

You'll also learn how to create a list of keywords you can search to find those images of spectacular bird takeoffs in your picture library, or your kids blowing out their birthday candles. You'll also discover Lightroom's other powerful image search tools.

Heck, you can even manage your older scanned film images with Lightroom.

All those tools will give you back your time - and time outside with your camera is the whole point, right?

Email me or call (408) 866-9405 for more information.

In General...

All workshops and instruction are restricted to six people or less to give you the best instruction and great chances at high-energy photographs.

You need basic picture-capturing skills with your dSLR, plus the ability to transfer images from the camera's memory card to a laptop computer. You'll also need your own laptop for on-site use at any workshop. It can be Mac or Windows - either one is fine.

You can do nature photography with a sophisticated point and shoot like a Canon G10, but I really recommend a digital SLR and interchangeable lenses. For wildlife, you need at least 400mm on a Canon Rebel, 10D-50D, 1D series, or Nikon dSLR. That's a minimum - you really should use a 1.4X converter with the 400mm lens, or use a 500mm lens. Knowing wildlife behavior lets you get away with shorter lenses, but longer lenses are better for more 'keepers' or when you're getting started. You'll need a good tripod and head too.

Ruins and travel require less equipment. I've used a 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom on Canon 1D-series cameras for some of my best work. A 70-200mm or 70-300mm helps when you need extra reach for a distant, unapproachable detail. Anything wider than 24mm gets only occasional use - but when you can't back up, there's no substitute for 15mm or 16mm. And a tilt-shift lens is great for ruins and interiors.

All attendees receive hints and recommended equipment lists before their workshops.

Contact me at (408) 866-9405 or email for specific equipment recommendations, or with any questions.