November Tours:
Fall Colors at Lake Martin
I led three photo tours this fall: one Custom Tour and two scheduled tours. We focused on two primary locations: Lake Dauterive and Lake Martin.
We visited Lake Martin and Lake Dauterive during the first two-day custom tour. We had excellent weather, and both locations yielded excellent photographs. We also spent some time photographing in Breaux Bridge and visiting Avery Island, resulting in some lovely pictures.
The second and third trips were more challenging due to less cooperative weather. However, we could still take some fine photographs by selecting the locations based on the conditions.
While the primary focus of the trips was to create Cypress Scenes in the water, we also managed to take some excellent bird photographs.
Great Egret Fishing in Fall Colors
Usually, we visit Henderson Swamp for the Fall Tours. However, the water levels needed to be higher, and we only visited once, resulting in less-than-ideal results.
Going Mirrorless
In November, I made the switch from DSLRs to Mirrorless cameras. Until now, the combination of poor autofocus performance with my preferred Nikon Cameras and the physical size of the best Nikon camera, the Z9, made me hesitant to make the switch. The announcement of the Z8 and the continued improvement of the autofocus system with firmware updates convinced me it was time to make the switch. Initially, I had planned to use my existing lenses with an adapter, but the performance of the native Z lenses convinced me to upgrade my lenses as well.
Based on the results from the November photo tours, I'm convinced I made the right decision. Camera performance and the significant weight reduction have significantly improved my photography. The 600mm and 800mm PF lenses are excellent in their performance, and the size and weight are much smaller than the lenses they replaced.
Computer Issues
My Mac Studio computer failed in Late October. It was probably the internal SSD that failed, and since that is soldered onto the logic board. Apple needed to replace the logic board. My computer wasn't a standard configuration; the logic board was not readily available. After nearly a month, Apple replaced the computer with a newer, more powerful model. I plan on publishing a lessons learned article later with recommendations concerning backing up and computer strategies to avoid some of the problems associated with a computer failure. Fortunately, my backup plan worked with only a slowdown from working on a slower backup computer.
With the upgrade to mirrorless and the associated faster shooting speeds, quickly picking keepers has become much more critical. I've been using the application Photo Mechanic for many years primarily for its ability to quickly import images. It also allows you to quickly view images and tag the ones you want to keep. It is much faster than Lightroom or Adobe Bridge. It has enabled me to go through the thousands of images I now shoot and quickly pick the best ones.
I have spring tours scheduled for:
April 14–17, 2024
April 17–20, 2024
May 5–8, 2024
The Fall Tours are:
November 3–6 2024
November 17–20, 2024
You can view them and book them here.
Reviewing the listings, I discovered a glitch on the site that precluded customers from signing up. I've fixed the link, and you should be able to click on it and go to the sign-up page.