I just got back from a pair of workshops in Grand Teton National Park and the Palouse region of Washington State. Didn't get much cooperation from the sun in either workshop, but both had their moments. And really, as nature photographers, that's about as much as we can expect.
There were lots of flowers to be found in the Tetons and we got lucky in that Schwabacher's Landing, which had been closed for road repairs and not slated to open until the end of June, opened up while we were there. And that just happened to be the morning with the best light.
The Palouse had some of the best conditions I've ever seen. The wheat looked great and we found plenty of canola. You can read my Palouse workshop report here.

Speaking of the Palouse, I've already scheduled the 2015 two-part Palouse/Lightroom extravaganza. The dates are June 21-25 for part one and June 25-28 for part two. You can read more about that in my Palouse workshop report here.

During these last two workshops I used a focus stacking technique to not only get all the important parts in focus, but to also control the background.
Especially with close ups, the problem you run into when trying to get enough depth of field for your main subject is that you often pull in too much detail from the background. By taking a series of shots at a wide aperture opening, focused at different points, you essentially have the same background in all the images. And once you stack them up using Photoshop or a stacking program like Zerene Stacker, you end up with your subject all wrapped up in focusy goodness while preserving a nice clean out of focus background.

The folks at Mind Shift (from the folks at Think Tank) have just released a neat way of carrying and accessing your round filters: the Filter Nest. You can use it in a number of ways. You can attach it to your belt, you can remove the interior filter holder to make it more compact to fit, for instance, inside your photo pack, and you can hook it to your tripod for easy filter access while in the field.
There's room for eight filters and the pockets are deep enough for those thicker variable neutral density filters. The pockets are lined with a soft material that protects your filters from scratching. Each of the four filter pockets is wide enough for two filters and has a divider in the middle. And each of the four pockets is color coded, making finding the right filter a little faster. The features I really like are the tripod strap and the removable filter pack.
For years I've been using a LowePro filter wallet that holds six filters. I really like it because it's compact and my filters are really easy to get to. The down side is that one side of the filter pockets is a nylon mesh, and while this doesn't scratch the filters, it often seems to leave a sort of "residue" that needs occasional cleaning.
I'll be giving this new Mind Shift Filter Nest a try over the next few trips to see if this is something that can fit in with the way I work in the field. So far I like the concept. Filter retrieval is a bit slower than from my LowePro wallet, but the diversity of functions that the Filter Nest exhibits may well be worth the trade off.

My next three workshops are sold out: two in Olympic National Park and my Northwest Territories trip. But there's still space in my Zion National Park workshop.
Zion is one of my all time favorite autumn destinations. Yellow cottonwoods and red rock make a great combination. Add a splash of red from the Box Elders and it's hard to beat. The scenery is fantastic and the climate is very comfortable (well, it could be really, really, really cold if we make the sunrise trek over to Bryce Canyon).
This workshop is limited to only eight. If you've never been to Zion, why not make an autumn visit your first? You'll fall in love with it.
The remaining 2014 workshop is the Bald Eagles of British Columbia workshop with Kevin Pepper. Five days with Bald Eagles as well as some landscape photography. For more on this workshops visit my Bald Eagle Workshop page.

Well, I managed to get the tile floor and the new vanities installed before leaving for last months' workshops. After my return, the new countertop and sinks were installed. And I've finished off installing the faucets and reinstalling the plumbing for the sinks. Next is just replacing the mirrors and adding some trim.
And once back from the next set of workshops I can concentrate on tiling the tub/shower enclosure, painting, and adding the final finishing trim. At least this bathroom isn't taking as long as the last bathroom I remodeled.
At least not yet.
That's it for this episode of Holmes on Homes. And that's it for this month's newsletter!