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Greetings,
 I’m back from Iceland, sporting some new and pretty pictures and a cold I caught somewhere along the way.
Speaking of cold, it was cold and windy, and occasionally rainy in Iceland. That didn’t stop us from finding and photographing some pretty amazing scenes though, like this one late in the day looking east towards Reynisfjara beach and the Reynisdrangar sea stacks near Vík. With the sun going down behind us, rainbows would form in the crashing waves, sometimes several rainbows at a time!
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The return of the Flower Pod
 A few years ago I wrote a blog post about the FlowerPod, the brainchild of a photographer named Les Saucier. It was a pretty popular post and I’m sure a number of people ended up buying a FlowerPod.
The FlowerPod is an ingenious way to hold tiny, delicate things in place and keep them from blowing in the wind so you can get pretty pictures. It's very cool.
And then, the FlowerPod was gone. It seemed as if Les just closed up shop on the FlowerPod. I’d get emails and blog comments wondering where the fabled FlowerPod could be had. I ended up taking down that post because I thought the FlowerPod was extinct.
And then, out of the blue, I get an email from Les. (not to me personally, I’m on his mailing list)
The Flower Pod is back!! What news!! And it can be ordered now!
I have no affiliation with Les. I just like his FlowerPod and wanted to pass the good news on to you.
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Aurora tour trip report
It was another great aurora trip, despite more clouds and lower temperatures than have been usual for this trip. But we did get a few good nights to photograph the auroras. And as the week went on, the cold temperatures did a number on the fall color and by the last few days of the tour, what started as just ok fall color turned into Holy Wow! fall color.
Auroras are addictive. And as far as addictive substances go, they’re the opposite of dangerous. I think they’re good for you and the more auroras you see, the better you feel. The only known side effects are sleep loss, jaw-drop-itis, awestruckedness, and crane neck.
You can read more about the trip and see some of the pictures on the trip report posted on my blog.
This year I teamed with John Barclay, who is a great trip leader and fun guy to be around. You should take a look at his website and some of the trips he offers. They sell out pretty quickly though.
Next year’s trip is planned for the fourth week in September. I'll likely be doing this trip on my own and it will be limited to no more than six participants. If there's enough demand I may add a second trip. More exact details are pending, but if you’re interested, drop me a line and I’ll put you on the early notify list.
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Iceland!
I recently returned from my Iceland photo tour. Got to see and photograph some incredible sites including the ice beach at Jökulsárlón. Now that was challenging. And fun.
 The goal is to get the motion of the surf retreating around a chunk of ice. For me, a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds was giving me the results I liked. But the foreground is constantly changing with every wave that comes in. So you need to wait until a wave comes in, often flowing past you and your tripod, and then starts retreating. The sand under your tripod is shifting. The wave often will move the chunk of ice. So the challenge is to wait until your tripod isn’t moving and (hopefully) the ice isn’t moving, to take the shot.
And occasionally, an extra big wave comes in and you really have to be paying attention and be on the look out for this to happen. If it’s not too big, you can just stand there and let it flow past you. More than once I had a good size chunk of ice bump into me. But sometimes, the wave is a little too big to chance letting it hit you and that’s the time where you retreat. And if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to do it gracefully and not like a panicked bird.
Read more about the Iceland tour on my blog……
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Palouse and Olympic workshops
 Both of my Washington State workshops are open for registration.
Olympic is May 15-19. This is the best time for rain forests, and streams. Sunsets on the coast can also be more interesting because in May the weather is still unsettled, and you can get some dramatic clouds.
This trip is based out of Forks, WA and we’ll be visiting the Hoh rainforest, Lake Crescent, Sol Duc Falls, some waterfalls in the Quinault and of course, the wild and pristine beaches. Olympic is a great place to be in the spring.
This trip is limited to seven participants so be sure to reserve your spot soon.
My Palouse workshop is June 12-16. This trip is also limited to seven participants and it usually sells out.
Visit my Workshops website for more information.
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Winter is Coming
That's about all I have for now. I've got a few winter projects in mind, some of which are not home improvement related.
One of these is to finally update my website to the latest version of The Turning Gate's Backlight platform. Long time readers know that I'm a big fan of The Turning Gate and have used their Lightroom plug-ins and now their Backlight web platform to create my photo sites.
I figure that since I'm a beta tester and a forum moderator, I should have more than my test sites running the latest version.
I'm also going to dive into luminosity masks (I haven't played with them in a long time but my interest is piqued again), time-lapse photography and more.
Hope you all find some great fall color!
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