Ok, I just had to get that out of my system.

But. S E A HA W K S ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Plus, my son is going to the Super Bowl. How cool is that?

The other day Bailey and I were exploring the woods off-trail. Bailey really loves this. Something wild comes over her and she just goes nuts, running and running in a frantic forest frenzy. It's one of her all-time favorite things to do.
On this day, we explored a little farther afield than we normally do and eventually came across a place where someone had cut down a tree. In the middle of this forest. For no apparent reason. There was a trail leading away so we followed it and came to another trail. Left or right? Left or right? We went right and eventually (probably close to a half mile I'm guessing) the trail came out on a road of a nearby neighborhood.
But I'm still wondering why someone would go all the way back in the woods just to cut down one tree? It makes no sense as they'd have to haul the wood out a long way and there are so many trees so much closer to the road.

You might be wondering where the other end of the trail leads. A couple of days later we went back and followed the left hand branch of the trail. This led right back to the logging road we normally walk on. So for these last however-many years, I've walked right past the access to this trail without even knowing it; it's not obvious at all from the road.
And this is where I'm guessing Leo came from. For all I know, Leo was the one who cut down the tree in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps it was blocking access to his dimensional portal.

Last month I mentioned a program called Zerene Stacker. I've done some playing with it and I am super impressed. Just to see what it would do, I took a series of 62 images of the six-inch ruler you see at the right. I shot this with my 105mm macro lens at f/6.3, changing the focus via the focusing ring ever so slightly for each image. If you've ever done any close up work you know that f/6.3 doesn't give you a whole lot of depth of field.
Here's an example of just one of the images in the stack.
I loaded 62 full resolution 16-bit tiff files into Zerene stacker and in just a few short minutes, I had the result. To compare, I've done focus stack of just six or seven full resolution images that took Photoshop at least 15 minutes to slog through.
And this just scratches the surface of what this program can do. Its after-the-stack editing capabilities are outstanding. And it has even more features that I've yet to explore.
Bottom line is that if you want to easily create deep focus images, the $89 price for the Personal Edition is money well spent. Seriously, download the free 30-day trial and give it a spin. I can't wait to start doing some serious close up stuff with this. So far I've only played with stuff in my office, like a pile of marbles, but I can see some fun times ahead. Maybe even with a glass of wine. (Subject or accompaniment? Make a guess.)

Mindshift Gear is a new company founded by the creators of Think Tank Photo. They're developing new packs with the active outdoor photographer in mind.
Head on over to the site and check out what they have to offer. The new Rotation 180 Professional looks intriguing.

Who doesn't love waterfalls? They make for some of the most enjoyable (and best selling) images. From abstract sections of the falls, to stream level views, to depictions of power and grace, waterfalls are always a favorite subject for landscape photographers.
Oregon's Columbia River Gorge is home to some of the most picturesque waterfalls in the country, some of them right on the side of the road. Others require a bit of a hike. Some of them you can even photograph from behind the falls.

This May I'm leading a limited space workshop in Oregon's Columbia Gorge. In addition to the waterfalls, we'll also be visiting a prime wildflower prairie at a Nature Conservancy site.
I'm limiting this trip to seven participants so we won't be getting in each others photographs at some of the more "intimate" waterfall locations.

And the Columbia Gorge is just one of my workshops this year. There's also Colorado's San Juan Mountains. Last year's sold out trip saw some of the best wildflowers I'd ever seen there.
The Olympic National Park workshop that I'm leading with Don Mammoser could be a bit more interesting this year. We haven't had a lot of moisture this winter so I'm hoping that a particular road will be open for exploration. This road gives a bit a different view than the normal view from the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center. Plus there are more wildflowers and marmots out that way. We'll see.
This workshop is already over half full so start making plans if you want to join us.

The Palouse region of Washington State should be on every photographers agenda. This year, Victoria Dye and I will be leading a two-part workshop, the second part being dedicated to working in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. This is always a fun trip with lots to see and photograph.
Grand Teton National Park is another great landscape destination. Mountains, flowers, maybe a moose or two. Don Mammoser and I will be leading this trip next June.

And lastly, there's the Northwest Territories this fall. Colorful tundra, wildlife and Northern Lights are the main attractions in this remote location. But frankly, being in a remote location is a main attraction in itself.
I won't lie, this trip is expensive, but it's also in one of the most remote and wild places in North America. Check it out here.

That's it. I may have a new piece of equipment to review for the March newsletter, so be looking for that.

I've been in a Seahawk buzz ever since the NFC Championship nail-biting win. Frankly, I'm hoping this Sunday's game isn't as exciting as that. Personally, I'd rather see a comfortable Seahawk win. Something tells me that Payton Manning is not about to let that happen though. So I'm thinking it's going to be a gut churning, hand-wringing game all the way down to the end.