ATPI Summer Workshop June 2016

ATPI Summer Workshop.
June 2016.

Wow. Just Wow.

First, I had to take "street photos". Really? Me? Ok. So I got into my car in the middle of the day 24 hours before the photos were due. The day before I leave for the workshop. They were due uploaded to the ATPI website by sundown on Saturday. "I'll go shoot one or two decent photos", I thought. In auto mode, of course.

Then about 6:00 pm, the sun was setting in the sky and the light was perfect. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to take a few more pictures.

And to my surprise, when I got back, some of them were not half bad!

Hopson June 2016 - Street Photos

We met early Sunday morning in Austin, beginning with a slideshow and an introduction of John Isaac. He is undoubtably one of the greatest photographers of all time. His stories brought joy, as well as tears, to all of our eyes and hearts. He deserved the Pulitzer. He deserves more Pulitzers. Do yourself a favor and become familiar with his work.
johnisaac.com

Next was the critique of our Street Photos that we uploaded. The first 4 went well. They liked the content, which was surprising since I really did not spend a lot of time on them. And in some cases, just felt like I got really lucky with "that shot". But I soon learned, my eye was better than I thought. What was holding me back was my lack of camera skills.

So off we went for our Urban Experience led by experts John Isaac and John Knaur. We started at Barton Springs, on the back side with the canoes and waterfalls. I was shooting a shot of the canoes when a paddle boarder came into my view and was framed by one of the trees. I immediately went back down to the ground and took the shot.


Bazinga! I got it! During our critique that evening, I showed this picture first and many said "I almost got that shot." I replied, "Well, I did get it."

My confidence was up, but I was still shooting in auto mode.

Before lunch we went out to a very bright soccer field where folks were playing volleyball, soccer and ultimate frisbee to practice action shots. The sun was harsh and straight up in the sky making it hard to shoot. However, we all commented that this is the time of day when most of our photographers are taking action shots, so we all started taking pictures. I learned how important it was to be on the "good" side of the sun, even in mid-day. I also got out of auto mode when a few folks helped me set the manual setting for bright sun. The following is a decent action shot, but the shadow is on his face because I was not properly placed in relation to the sun. I needed to be on the other side of the field with a longer lens to get the sun on his face instead of a shadow.

 During lunch, Leah Waters, one of the expert volunteers and a photography teacher, sat next to me and began to explain how aperture, shutter speed and ISO all work together. After lunch we headed to downtown Austin. I took a few good shots, but mainly folks took good shots of me that day.
Here is my best from downtown. Nice repetition, but no subject to draw the eye to.



Here is Delia Alderete's version of the same, except with a subject.

Much better. Yes, that is me.
These too. Lol.



The workshop began on Monday afternoon. We were given 4 assignments for the workshop to shoot, choose our best 4 or 5 photos to crop, color correct and input metadata. As I went through the week, I decided to focus on my skills of balancing the ISO, white balance and shutter speed while in low light. So I requested dark places, such as a theater, winery tasting room and a jewelry show.

And although you would think that the winery would have been my favorite, right? Here are a few from the winery tasting room, as well as a video we put together as a group.

(Oops - too big for Blogger, need to upload to YouTube and link. I will do that later!!)

Well, actually, my favorite shoot was the Moon Dance Arts Jewelry shop in Wimberley Square.  The owner's were absolutely lovely and so excited to have us. We dove right in taking photos of the equipment, machinery, shop and jewelry. The owner's, Kathy and Gary Arnold, also demonstrated several techniques of jewelry making for us to photograph. And here is my end product of the Moon Dance Arts Jewelry shop. I cannot believe that in just 4 days, I was able to shoot such detailed photos of shop owners and their beautiful jewelry! This is due to the great teaching from all of the experts and volunteers who were at the ATPI Summer Workshop!

I cannot wait until next year!
(And yes, I also taught myself how to create a video using the Photoshop Slideshow technique.)

Tri Girl 2010

About a quarter mile into the run part of the race, I heard a distinctly southern voice call out to me "come on, you and me, we are going to do this together". Her name was Sandra, she was a few years older than me which meant that she went out with the last wave while I went out with the first wave. She had caught up with me. She saw my age on the back of my leg, and saw that I was struggling, and offered help. In her sweet southern voice, she said "C'mon, well run to that tree, then walk to the orange cone down the way." I said "Okay", and off we went. After running together for a little bit, I asked her if this was her first. She said no, that her partner was younger than her and had already finished and she needed a buddy to finish. So, we were buddies. I asked her "Are you an angel?" She said "No", and I said "Well, this is my first and today you are my angel." At one point towards the end, I started to lag behind, and she said "C'mon". I answered "I'm right behind you." She replied, "You can't be behind me, you have to be with me", so I sped up and we ran together across the finish line with her sweet southern voice encouraging me all the way "Were almost there, you can do it.".

And I did it. Although I think I might have been last in my heat to get out of the water, I really did it. I swam in the open water without a life vest attached to my body. I put my face in the water and swam. The water felt good, soft and warm. When I got nervous, I began my drills: one two three, left side, one two three, right side. When I got tired, I flipped over onto my back and kicked my way to shore. Just like everyone told me to do.

And I wasn't last! (Almost, but NOT LAST!)

Thank you to all of the encouragers who help me along the way. There are too many to name and I will leave someone out if I try to. Thank you to all of the WOL's, coaches, friends, and Running Buddies! You are all Angels!
My sticker is on my car now, too!
Linda Hopson, triathlete