New Portland Workshop, Moonrise Shoots and Apple's New Mac Pro.

(Links Below) I'm planning a moonrise shoot for my summer 2020 Portland, Oregon workshop, so I thought I'd share my process for being in the right place to incorporate the moon into landscapes and cityscapes. I'll show you how to use a combination of phone apps and website to figure out where to set up. Afterwards I talk a bit about Apple's new Mac Pro specs and build options and then take some questions about Nikon's Z6 and Z7 cameras. Finally I'll show some cool updates in the latest version of my favorite camera strap.

Upcoming Portland, Oregon workshop

February 2020 Kauai Workshop

Newly updated links to all the gear I use

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The Photographer's Ephemeris Webapp

Sun Surveyor Phone App

Photo Pills Phone App

Thanks to everyone for the great questions you are sending in. Keep them coming either in the comments below or by emailing me directly.

FAVORITE MOMENTS OF 2015

I've had the good fortune to participate in some epic photographic adventures in 2015. Here's a quick slideshow of some of my favorite moments of the past year.

Happy New Year everyone!

Mount Hood

Mount Hood on a January Dawn.

Twilight on the Ledge

San Diego Sunset Cliffs just after sunset. Waves coming over the rocks look like mist in long exposure.

Last Light

At the cliffs of San Diego

Tampa Bay Dawn

Ultra-hi-res Pano Merger

Death Valley Dunes

Ultra-Hi-Res Pano

Dawn at the Crater Rim

An ultra-hi-resolution, 270-degree panoramic merger of the crater rim at first light.

Entering the Blue Mosque

A couple enters the Blue Mosque in Isanbul at sunset.

Greek Umbrella Art

Stacey just after we learned of our pregnancy.

Our Windmill in Mykonos, Greece

One of my favorite places I've stayed.

Stromboli Smokes At Sunset

Volcanic smoke rises from Stromboli's crater as the sun sets over the sea.

Stromboli Erupts at Bluehour

Stromboli throws lava bombs and fire into the night sky above the sea below just after sunset.

The Amalfi Coast of Italy

Amalfi Dawn

Dawn rises over Atrani on the Amalfi Coast of Italy as chairs await beachgoers.

Notre Dame Sunset

The sun sets as a star beside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

Mont Saint Michelle Blue Hour (Ultra-Hi-Rez-Pano)

French Island Monastary refelcts in tidepool after sunset with blue clouds.

Paris Bastille Day

Milky Way and Smoke

Last summer's fires covered the Northwest in intense smoke.

A Special Blue

Steve canoes on the cobalt Waldo Lake.

Desert Trucks

Ultra-hi-res Pano Merger for a client in the Alvord.

Patagonian Sky

Torres del Paine, Chile

Glacier Grey

There’s nothing like seeing a massive glacier calving close up.

Stars over Lago Torre

Argentina

Dawn over Cerro Torre

Argentina

Fitz Roy Falls

I climbed up to these falls below Fitz Roy early one morning and was completely blown away. I'm used to scenic waterfalls in the Pacific Northwest, but this?

Patagonia Horse

How lucky is this horse?

Breakfast at Dawn

Andy at the crater rim of Mount St. Helens

Patagonia Time-lapse: Cerro Torre While We Slept...

We had an amazing star show as we slept at Lago Torre in Argentina. Even more rare -- calm water in these wind ravaged mountains. It was a rare opportunity and I left both my Nikons (D810 and D750) running as we tucked into our tent that night. Watching this video makes me long to get back there.

TO THE EDGE: A MOUNT SAINT HELENS SLIDESHOW

Portland Lights Siberian Haze

I wanted to photograph stars this night, but instead haze from Siberian forrest fires were lit by Portland's city lights. It was a cold night.

Not much snow this year

Stacey packs her skis up Monitor Ridge

Backlight

Andy Adkins in the sun's extreme backlight.

Skinning Up

Stacey Guggino puts skins on her skis in preparation for an ascent of Mount Saint Helens.

My pack

I adore my F-stop Satori pack for it's ease of camera access and great harness, but I wish it was a tiny bit bigger for this type of trip...

Setting up the Splitboard

Film-maker extraordinare Andy Adkins readies his split board to climb.

Waxing the skins

Waxing my climbing skins to keep them from absorbing water and balling up with fresh snow.

Headed up

Stacey puts her bindings in climb mode and starts the ascent.

Ridges far below

Andy takes in the big Alpine evening.

Climing in the last light

We hurry for the summit to catch sunset.

Crater Sunset

The view to the west as we rolled up on the Crater. Cornices are a deadly hazard here.

Sunset crater Panoramic

Ultra-hi-rez, ultra-wide panoramic-merger West to the Left; East to the right behind Andy's small figure.

Afterglow

The crater rim fills the foregroud while countless ridges stretch to the last light.

Siberian Haze

Me looking out at Portland lighting haze from Siberian wildfires from my summit bivy on Mount Saint Helens.

Dawn at the Crater Rim

Yeah, 2nd copy of this Panoramic. This is my favorite image from the trip and its the first I created this morning.

A Day At The Office

I love waking up to work in a place like this. Photo of me by Andy Adkins

Steaming Dome & Spirit Lake

Fumerols rise from the growing dome inside the crater. Spirit Lake is still covered with logs from the massive eruption more than 3 decades ago.

Sunstar

Here's Stacey with a sunstar. I love how these look with Alpine skies.

Panoramic of Crater and Camp

This shot shows Andy and work and our camp in the foreground for scale. It's another big Panoramic-Merger

On The Edge

Andy Adkins doing his film-making magic in one heck of a spot.

Crater Abstract

I ljust love the swirly patterns of snow and rock inside the crater.

Breakfast Bivy

Camped at the crater rim of Mount Saint Helens, Andy Adkins boils water for breakfast as the sun rises behind him.

Looking to Rainier

The view from the crater rim out over the dome and Spirit Lake to Mount Rainier.

Below The Rim

Andy hiking below the edge of the crater gives the scene needed scale.

The Best Way Down

There is nothing like descending on Backcountry Skis. If only there was more snow this year.

Well Deserved Cold Ones.

It's always good to bury a treat in the snow for your return to the car...

End of a Great Trip!

Can't wait for the next adventure!

What a trip! A couple of weeks ago I skied Mount Saint Helens with Stacey and my friend Andy Adkins. Andy and I bivyed overnight at the crater rim. Not only did we create a bunch of great photos and video, but we also had a really fantastic time.

Like any mountain expedition, we had surprises. Knowing there was little snow this year, we were still shocked at how little there was down low. Temperatures at the rim were a lot colder than forecast and haze from Siberian wildfires obscured the Milky Way, but gave us a crazy light-show all it's own.

At the top is a 26 image slideshow of the trip. I've briefly captioned each slide to tell the story. Hope you enjoy the adventure.

If you haven't already, I hope that you'll sign up for my free newsletter with tales of adventures, prints, workshops, tips, tricks and all things photographic.

Special thanks go out to Outdoor Research, Black Rapid, and F-Stop for helping us make this trip possible with their amazing gear and support. These guys make incredible gear that shines in demanding expedition use. Also thanks to Andy and Stacey for the shots with me in there...

-Hudson

New onLocation Video: Capturing the Milky Way and Stars

Click to watch

This new video is the second of onOne's new onLocation videos. Andy Adkins of Distill Productions and I created it last summer on the southern coast of Olympic National Park. I hope you enjoy it.

In this installment I share some tips for photographing the night sky from location scouting and traveling in wild places to exposure settings that will avoid blurring the stars at different focal lengths.

If you're curious about how I used Adobe Lightrooom 5 and onOne's Perfect Photo Suite 9 together to edit the RAW files I captured into the final images below, please check out this longer Perfect Inspiration Video Episode where I go into detail about how I edited them.

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Olympic National Park: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24, F2.8 for 20 seconds at 3200 ISO

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Olympic National Park: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24, F2.8 for 30 seconds at 2500 ISO

Thanks so much to onOne and Distill Productions for making these onLocation videos possible.

-Hudson

Desert Milky Way

I'm finally getting around to editing some of my recent desert images. This is one that I have been excited to process for weeks now. 

The cracked patterns on the surface of the Alvord Desert are captivating. This enormous playa (dry lake bed) stretches East from Steens Mountain. My friends, Rick Lepage, Susan Witcraft, Peter Kinnan, Andy Adkins, Matt Kloskowski and I spent some fun days and nights camping and exploring this crazy landscape.

The patterns of the Alvord have always seemed mysterious and otherworldly to me. To capture this feeling I decided to create a vertical panoramic of the cracks with the milky way above. Thankfully we had a clear moonless night to work with...

To keep the foreground cracks in focus and clean of noise, I created my first image at dusk 2 stops underexposed using a lower ISO, middle aperture, and close focus. Once I had the image of the cracks that I wanted, I tilted my Sachtler head up until only the mountains were at the bottom edge of my frame, focused on infinity, covered my lens and left it waiting for the milky way to line up in my composition. Right before going to sleep I returned and captured the stars at ISO 1600 for 20 seconds at F4. 

As usual I developed my RAW files using Adobe Lightroom and then applied the finishing touches to the sky and foreground in onOne's Perfect Effects 9. Using onOne's Perfect Layers 9 I composited the two images into one using the dark outline of Steens Mountain as a natural blending point.

I can't wait to print this big and get it up on the wall.

-hudson