Sierra Nevada East Side
Photography Outing - October, 2016
Kwangsik Kim is from Korea.
I'm Margie Lembo, friend of Sharon Ulrich who is also on this trip and responsible for urging me to join. We had previously joined Dave and Ken on a Yosemite excursion in May, 2011, which was truly a wonderful experience. I've been back to Yosemite 2 or 3 times since and love and appreciate it all the more.
I enjoy taking pictures, especially outdoors. Unfortunately, I tend to get buried in the daily grind until I finally get out and remember how much else there is to be seen and experienced. I'm really looking forward to this outing, seeing the Autumn colors of the Eastern Sierra and "re-learning" how to best to capture it all.
Jay Shoemaker: Like many of my comrades in this expedition, I am recently retired. I spent the last 20 of my 40 year business career as the CEO of the Coppola Companies where I managed the businesses owned by Francis Coppola and his family. The companies included the Inglenook Winery, The Francis Coppola Winery, The Virgina Dare Winery, American Zoetrope film and television and a series of restaurants and resorts around the world. My quantitative orientation and skills made me the perfect foil for my highly creative owners. This quantitative orientation carries over into my photography.
I have been interested and involved in photography since I was ten, when my father mistakenly purchased a Rollei twin lens reflex that he never bothered to learn how to use. As soon as I could afford to, I migrated over to an SLR. I really enjoyed the film days and found myself lost for days in the darkroom, developing, dodging and burning. My favorite photographer was Jerry Ulesmann as I greatly admire his painstaking work in the darkroom. My digital photography life has been primarily focused on landscapes and a series of Nikon DSLR's were my favorite tool. Two years ago I sold all my Nikon bodies and lenses and switched over to Fuji mirrorless. True to my quantitative bias, I find working in Lightroom more interesting than actually taking pictures, but recently, I have attended a series of lectures from well known photographers and this has opened my eyes to the creative side of lighting and composition that has been lacking in my work. I am hoping to learn to be more patient in composing my shots so that I can achieve the kind of excellence I admire in the work of professionals.
I reside half the year in the Suisun Valley wine appellation, two valleys over from Napa. The rest of my time is spent in Honolulu, Hawaii.
My name is Sharon Ulrich and I live in North San Diego County, CA. I've been interested in photography as a hobby for as long as I can remember. My main interest is landscape photography. I very much enjoyed a previous trip with Dave and Ken to Yosemite in 2011. I've been looking forward to being able to take this Eastern Sierra trip ever since.
Brian Schultz: I am a scientist in the biotech industry, and live in Pacifica, a city along the coast just south of San Francisco. At various points in my life I have lived in Seattle, Boston, Pasadena, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to photography, I am a runner and hiker, and if I ever have the time, I also enjoy woodworking.
Photographically, I shot with film for many years using a Minolta X700 before moving to digital in 2012. I shoot mainly landscapes and birds/wildlife, and also like to do astrophotography when I can get to a clear, dark place. This will be the fourth workshop I have done with Dave, the first three being Yosemite, Death Valley, and Indian Country. My photographic claim to fame is a cameo appearance on page 185 of Fearless Photographer: Nature by David M. Wyman, which you can purchase from Amazon using the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Photographer-David-M-Wyman/dp/1435460499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476757199&sr=8-1&keywords=fearless+photography+nature See what I look like in HDR! (No, Dave didn't ghost write this).
If you are interested, my photographs (including a photograph of me) can be found at brianeschultz.zenfolio.com.
Daniel Low: I am a professor at UCLA in the department of radiation oncology. Most of my life, my use of cameras was to take snapshots. I couldn't understand why my pictures were so boring. Two years ago, I went to Death Valley with my 11 year old nephew and was blown away by his ability to see the world and take captivating photographs. I decided to commit to learning how to visualize, compose, and take photographs rather than the snapshots I had been taking. I understand the technical aspects of photography, including post-processing, and can work Lightroom and Photoshop reasonably well.
My goal for this trip is to continue to learn to compose and visualize. I am captivated by shallow depth of field photographs and how they can isolate the subject what would be an otherwise cluttered scene. I will also bring my telescope and, weather permitting, set it up on Friday night, when the moon won't rise until nearly midnight and either take pictures or just look.
Mike Stone: I am from the Chicago Metro area and I work as a law enforcement officer for a municipal agency. I have always enjoyed photography and have learned a great deal over the past couple of years by challenging myself. This will be my third workshop with Dave. Participating in these photography workshops has greatly enhanced my abilities to properly compose and "see" my subject matter before taking the shot. I am ready to challenge myself further and think outside the box in how it relates composition.
I enjoy landscape, travel, pet and architecture photography. I particularly enjoy black and white photography. I have recently been trying street photography and incorporating people into landscape shots. I like the randomness and spontaneity of capturing people doing everyday things with picturesque backgrounds. I enjoy learning from other photographers because everyone has something to offer regardless of skill level or experience.
Rob Simmons and Diane Wardrup: We are from Austin, Texas. I have been doing photography since I was a kid. I have had some of my work in galleries and done some commissions as well. I have worked with musicians such as Kenny Chesney and Everclear as well as featured on the Travel Channel. I will shoot sports and wildlife and concerts with my digital setup but for landscapes I will be bringing film. I also do astrophotgraphy as well.
Diane is learning photography and actually has a very good eye about composition. I have helped her get off of the Green Camera Auto setting and she is learning how to shoot with the A and P and M modes.
John Beach: I am 63 years old, am recently retired and live in Reno. I have been shooting digital photographs for the past 10 years after a hiatus of several years from film. I consider myself a serious amateur and am comfortable with technical aspects of the photography. I most often shoot landscapes, landscapes with the moon, architecture, nighttime, and, occasionally, action and portraits.
I can take and process reasonably-well composed photographs, am trying to get to the next level, working on composition and style, and refining my photographic voice. I currently shoot a full-frame Nikon DSLR. I have a rather ramshackle Flicker site here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jfbeach/ .
Jim Becker: I retired from my 38-year career in engineering a little over a year ago but have had a lifelong interest in photography as a hobby. I started using my first (Kodak Brownie) cameraat age 6, graduated to an Argus 35mm rangefinder at age 10 and set up a darkroom when I was in high school. As a recent convert to digital photography, I’m still getting used to auto-exposure, auto-focus and auto-white balance. I’m looking forward to new cameras when they introduce auto-composition and auto-critical moment functions.
I mostly enjoy scenic, architectural and concert photography but lately have been working on more street/people photography. I’ll occasionally take on a paying gig as an event photographer. Earlier this year I fulfilled a long time desire by going on a photo tour of Cuba. For me, this was the trip of a lifetime.
I am always looking forward to more photo adventures. I am a long time Nikon user, but lately have been shooting a lot with Fuji mirrorless cameras. Being an old guy, I still prefer cameras with knobs and dials to those with multi-level menus.
You can see some of my photos on flicker at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbecker1/albums/with/72157666814756736. Or you can find me on Facebook by searching for Jim Becker in Torrance, Ca.
Richard Stuntz: I am an emergency physician and live in South Carolina. Our company has contracts all over the US and I belong to a smaller group of physicians who travel to fill gaps in the schedule.
I became interested in photography in my teens and shot a variety of cameras and lenses. My first good good camera was a Nikon F1 with the phototomic finder. It was completely manual but had a superb metering system. I was slow to move into the digital arena and had an extended hiatus from photography. However, now I am back with renewed enthusiasm. I have never had any instruction and learned by trial and error.
My goal with this trip is to become more efficient and facile with digital, infrared, and film photography. I am also looking to relax and enjoy the scenery.
Martin Cutrone: I'm excited to be participating in this tour. I am a cardiologist in "real life", here in Charlotte, NC, and I have 2 main hobbies that divert me - photography and woodworking.
I'm stuck somewhere between film and digital. I'm bringing both with me. I started with photography in high school, after getting an Olympus OM10 for christmas. After years of just taking snapshots of my growing kids with cheap digital cameras, I started experimenting with film again a year ago and it has become an obsession. I love the tactile nature of film, the deliberate approach and thoughtful shooting (there's only 36 shots/roll!), and the tone of well exposed slide or negative. Recently, I've started to shoot more black and white film, and plan to shoot Bodie in black and white. I tend to shoot digitally the same way - deliberately, less exposures than others.
I'm looking to expand my abilities to compose and expose properly and to enjoy the beautiful scenery of California. Our family lived in San Jose for a few years when I was in high school, and my memories of Yosemite in 1975 keep me coming back to that area as I get older. I look forward to the comraderie of fellow enthusiasts on this tour. I've appreciated Ken's straight comments and opinions and Dave's beautiful images of California nature, and look forward to meeting you both.
Bill and Becky Burgin are from Apex NC (near Raleigh) and became friends in high school photography class in the late 60s and married in the 70s. As an architect, Bill uses photography to document buildings and recently bought a new digital camera for his office. As a retired Art Teacher, Becky used to teach photography and black/white darkroom procedures to high school students before digital cameras. Now she mostly takes iPhone pictures of the 4 grandsons. As a painter and quilter, Becky hopes to find scenes for landscape work.
Leonard Susatyou: I’m a beginner photographer, interested in nature/landscaping subjects. I just started this hobby from last year. I’m from Chicago, IL. I would like to be able to produce good photographies that I can be proud of and showcase them in exhibits, etc. I care about nature and surrounding area.