Elizabeth Carmel's Landscape Photography Blog

Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit

Yosemite Renaissance is the name of a non profit foundation that exists to support the arts in Yosemite Valley. Every year they hold a juried exhibition, the purpose of which is to:
"encourage diverse artistic interpretations of Yosemite. Its goals are to bring together the works of serious contemporary artists that do not simply duplicate traditional representations; to establish a continuum with past generations of Yosemite artists; and to help re-establish visual art as a major interpretive medium of the landscape and a stimulus to the protection of the environment. Historically, the arts have played a very important role in the establishment of our State and National Parks. It is our hope that they can be just as important in future efforts to preserve and protect that heritage."

I was pleased to find out that one of my entries for this year's exhibit was selected - "Tuolumne River in Summer." The opening will be Feb. 29, 2008: Yosemite Renaissance XXIII opens at the Yosemite Museum Gallery. Awards will be presented at the opening reception, 5:30-7:30 p.m. I am planning on attending the opening - it is open to the public and is a great way to support the arts in Yosemite. Most of the pieces that are on display are for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going to support Yosemite Renaissance. The exhibit is well worth viewing if you are planning a trip to Yosemite - it will be on display at the Yosemite Museum until May 2008.

Tuolumne River in Summer

PHOTO LA

The 2008 Photo L.A. is scheduled for January 11-13 in Santa Monica. This is the premiere show for fine art photography on the west coast, and is well worth attending for both photographers and collectors. This year the show will be in a larger venue since they outgrew the smaller venue where it was previously held. The fabulous Crista Dix of Wall Space in Seattle will be showing my work at Photo L.A.. If any of my blog readers will also be showing work there please post a comment letting us know who you are and which gallery will be representing you. I hope to attend the event, depending on weather and time available. There are also various collecting seminars and presentations that provide valuable information.

Report from Photo Plus NY

Thanks to everyone who came to my presentations in New York and Chicago. It was a pleasure to meet the attendees and hear about the interesting projects people are working on. I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Calumet – Wednesday, December 5th – 2-4pm, the San Diego Calumet – Thursday, December 6th – 2-4pm
and the San Francisco Calumet – Thursday, January 17th, 2008 – 2-4pm. It seems that the Southern California fires have been mostly contained at this point. The good news is that the devastating loss of property was not accompanied by a large loss of human life. The landscape will regenerate over time which can be a fascinating process to watch. We have a large burn area near us in Truckee (Northeastern California) that becomes more vegetated and colorful with each passing year and must provide some diverse vegetation for the local wildlife populations. I have also seen the burn areas in Yellowstone regenerate over time.

Attending Photo PLus New York gave me the chance to see what is new in the world of photography and to take some classes on web marketing, print finishing, and fine art marketing. Going from the small mountain town where I live to Manhattan is like going to another planet as far as the environment and the energy, but I find it very energizing and inspiring to be there. Of most interest to me was the event held at the Hasselblad setup at Splashlight Studios. They are introducing a very exciting new image processing software called Phocus, which looks to function very much like Adobe Lightroom. There will also be the ability to use a new Hasselblad GPS accessory with the H3D that will allow GPS data to be stored in image metadata and mapped using Google Earth.

I also had the chance to see the new Epson 11880 printer which is 60" wide. We could really use a larger printer like this and look forward to getting one in the near future. This printer also allows easy switching between black ink modes so it would be possible to print on the photographic luster papers in addition to the matte papers I currently use. Epson was displaying their new exhibition fiber paper which appeared to reproduce wonderfully rich colors on a surface very similar to silver halide papers.

I was also in the market for a waterproof point and shoot digicam that I could take snorkeling on our upcoming trip to Baja. Olympus seems to have a very good offering in their series of Stylus 720 & 770 SW cameras. I have purchased one of these and will give a report on its performance after I have used it. It has digital image stabilization and an underwater shooting mode to help with color adjustments. I think using the rear lcd screen to compose underwater shots will be easier than the previous method I tried of looking through a Canon Rebel viewfinder in an Ewa Marine waterproof bag.

Since we are producing larger and larger prints I took a class on print finishing to see if there were any new ideas on how to display these really large prints without having to matt & frame them with glass. It looks like the best solution is what I am currently doing with the mounting of large images on gator board, treating with Premier Art Print Shield, and framing without glass. There is also the well known method of stretching canvas. I did not see any better solutions at the expo or in the workshop, but am interested in any other ideas people may want to share in the comments.

I will be working on my autumn images over the next week and hope to post them soon on this blog. I have also updated to the new Apple Leopard operating system and find that Photoshop CS3 runs noticeably faster with the new OS. I also think the time machine back up system alone is really worth the price of the upgrade. The only downside so far is that my Imageprint RIP will not work with Leopard, so I have to use another computer with the older OS to do all my printing on the Epson 9800. Imageprint is working on an upgrade so it looks like it will be a temporary problem.

Off to New York, Photo Plus Expo, and Chicago

I am heading off to New York tomorrow for my event at the New York Calumet on wednesday the 17th from 2-4 PM. There is no charge to attend this 2 hour seminar, so please drop by if you are in the area. I will also be checking out the Photo Plus Expo at Jacob Javitz convention center, and will mention any interesting finds in a future blog post. I am in the market for a waterproof digital camera to take to Baja, so I will be comparing those at the expo. Hasselblad also has a few events planned this week in New York.

Mark Duhaime of Hasselblad USA writes: "Hasselblad will be at Splashlight studios during Photo Plus (across from the Javits on W35th St. On Oct 18th we are doing a new product launch starting at 4:30pm. On the 19th we are hosting an open studio from 10:00am-5:00pm. Please be sure to come by and see us are one or both of these events."

I also plan to check out the photography exhibits at MOMA, and go by Duggal Imaging to check out the latest in print display techniques.

I will also be at the Chicago Calumet from 2-4 PM on October 22, and invite all the Chicago blog readers to the event.

This morning I received an email that my website had an error that my site was unavailable because the "bandwith had been exceeded." (!) I found out that in the past week traffic to my website had doubled, thanks to a blog post at Lightroom Killer Tips So, thanks Matt for the "exposure" - guess its time for more bandwidth!

I spent the last week photographing autumn colors throughout the Sierra - I hope to have time during my travels to look at the images and start selecting the ones I will add to my portfolio of fine art prints. We had some great colors this year even though there has been some early snowy weather in the Sierra. With snow storms forecast for this week we are probably going to see the colors start to fade as winter approaches.

LA Calumet Speaking Engagement Changed

Due to the workshop in Baja, I had to reschedule my LA Calumet presentation to the following day. I will now be in the Los Angeles Calumet speaking on Wednesday, December 5th – 2-4pm. I hope this does not inconvenience anyone who had planned to come on the 4th.

Baja Workshop Announcement

Olof and I are excited to announce that we will be the photographic leaders for a 10 day Baja voyage with American Safari cruises on the Safari Quest Yacht from November 25 to Dec. 4, 2007. This is the company we traveled to Alaska's Inside Passage with earlier this year, and we think they provide the ultimate in wilderness waterway exploration. This trip has a few spaces left if you are interested, more information is at the American Safari Website. We will be providing on-board instruction in digital image processing and optimization, and will be doing lots of shore excursions for sunset and sunrise photography. There will also be opportunities for underwater photography while snorkeling, and wildlife photography. The staff and gourmet food on these trips are wonderful - we are thrilled to be a part of this exclusive adventure program in one of the world's great Biosphere Reserves.

Dates for My California Calumet Seminars

I will be giving a series of mini-seminars in California courtesy of Calumet and Hasselblad. The dates are as follows:

Los Angeles Calumet – Tuesday, December 4th – 2-4pm
San Diego Calumet – Thursday, December 6th – 2-4pm
San Francisco Calumet – Thursday, January 17th – 2-4pm

Locations for these events are at the Calumet Website. These will be the same sessions I am giving in New York and Chicago, more specifics are on my website.

Thanks to On One Software I will be able to raffle off a few free boxes of the OnOne Plug in Suite 3 at the New York and Chicago Events, and will also try to get some copies for the California events. These retail for $400.

Photoshop World Vegas & New Epson 64" Printer

I just returned from Photoshop world in Vegas and am very enthused about some new tools for optimizing print quality that I learned about. I will be doing some blog posts about these over the next few weeks as I experiment with these new techniques of using Camera Raw Smart Objects (courtesy of Jeff Schewe). Jeff has a great blog at http://www.photoshopnews.com/. Epson has also announced their new printers - I think the new Epson 11880 64" wide printer will be awesome and I look forward to checking one out at PhotoPlus NY in October.

Speaking Engagements at Calumet

It has been a busy summer so I have fallen behind on my weekly postings, but I will catch up after Labor Day. I have scheduled some speaking engagements at Calumet Locations in New York and Chicago. Hasselblad is sponsoring these events. I will also be presenting at some Calumet locations in California later in the year, and will post those dates when they are confirmed. The confirmed New York and Chicago dates are:
Wednesday October 17 from 2 to 4 PM at the Calumet in New York (this is scheduled to occur the day before the start of PDN PhotoPlus Expo in NYC), and Monday October 22 from 2-4 PM at the Calumet in Chicago. For locations you can go to the Calumet Web site.

The topic of my presentation is described in the following press release:

Fine Art Landscape Photographer Elizabeth Carmel, a 2006 Hasselblad Master Photographer, will give a presentation on how she successfully self – published her book "Brilliant Waters: Portraits of Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and the High Sierra". Elizabeth will also discuss how she uses the Hasselblad H3D, a 39 megapixel Medium Format Camera System, to create her award winning landscape images, which are often taken in remote wilderness locations.

A book of your photography is a great way to increase the audience for your work and put your photography career into high gear. In this session, learn important tips for publishing your own photography book, getting a book distributor, getting press coverage, and making your book project profitable. This is your chance to learn from fine art photographer Elizabeth Carmel, whose photography book “Brilliant Waters” is currently in its third printing and has been successfully released to a nationwide audience via major bookstores and independent booksellers. In her first self-publishing project, Elizabeth Carmel got Robert Redford to write her book’s foreword, secured nationwide book distribution, and obtained major press coverage for her book in People Magazine, Outdoor Photographer, Sierra Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other publications. Elizabeth will give a detailed power-point presentation on the process of designing her book, selecting an off shore printer, working with a print broker, obtaining a distributor, and getting nationwide press coverage. Elizabeth will sign copies of her book which can be purchased by seminar attendees. This event is sponsored by Hasselblad and Calumet. There is no charge to attend.

Artour 2007

Olof and I will both be at the gallery this friday 7/13 through sunday 7/15 for the Artour open studios tour. If any blog readers are in the neighborhood please stop by. We also have free Artour maps so you can visit the open studios of the other artists who are participating in this regional event. This event is sponsored by the non-profit North Tahoe Arts organization.

I have been getting many emails from people who have seen the article in Calumet Focus. I hope to do a series of talks sponsored by Calumet and Hasselblad later in the year. I will post info on this site as soon as a schedule is confirmed.