Wow! It occurs to me that I have not blogged in a while.

Last month I took part in a photography workshop in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was an experience... good and not so good.

The good.

The workshop of ten participants was led by Richard Bernabe of South Carolina. An article, which he wrote on Iceland, appears in the May 2013 issue of Popular Photography. He travels the world photographing and leading workshops. He leads photographers in workshops to Patagonia, Iceland, and North America. His techniques are excellent and I learned a few things. We shot every sunrise and sunset. Some were better than others, but I believe I got some good shots. Some have been accepted by my stock agency.

Cape Hatteras abandoned pier DSC_5790

What I learned.

Richard did a presentation on the camera's histogram and how to best use it. The idea is to get all the graph within the frame of the histogram with the majority of that graph to the right. The detail of the image is weighted to the right within the graph. That's probably not a very clear explanation, so you may think I didn't really learn anything about histograms.

There was also a night photography session on shooting star trails. It was conducted beneath the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

The not so good.

The only negatives about my experience on the workshop were the time of year it occurred. Early March. Before the beginning of the tourist season. Not much was open, but had plenty of good restaurants and really all we needed. Also, the temperature range was from mid 40's to low 60's. Chilly mornings and evenings.

Then there was the high waves and high water on the roads, making for interesting travel, particularly in arriving and leaving the Outer Banks. Enought on that.

Sunset with waves and shorebird DSC_5861

Overall, it was a great photographic adventure and an educational workshop.

Thanks Richard.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and sand dunes DSC_5847