Photograph by Rick Sammon

Yesterday was the last day of my "In The Footsteps of Ansel Adams" workshop. During the last week we shot in Yosemite, Mono Lake, Bodie State Historical Park and finally in Alabama Hills.

It was a fun, productive and rewarding experience for the group.

Dozens of cowboy movies were made in these hills. So I thought it would be a good idea to hire a real-life cowboy for my workshops participants.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from that shoot. All were enhanced with Nik Color Efex Pro, which I recommend to all my students. You'll find more examples of creative plug-ins on my plug-ins page.

Photograph by Rick Sammon

Action shots and portraits are nice, but so are detail shots. They help to tell the story. Moral of the story: Don't forget the details.

Also: When you remove some of the true color from the scene, you remove some of the reality; when you remove some of the reality, your picture can look more creative and artistic.

Photograph by Rick Sammon

I took these photographs with my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens. See all my gear on my gear page.

If you mostly shoot outdoors in bright light, the 70-200mm f/4 lens is a practical choice. It will save you more than a few bucks over the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, which is great for indoors, low-light shooting.

Photography by Scott Prokov

Above: Workshop participant Scott Prokop took this behind-the-scenes shot of me directing the students during our last shoot. Thanks Scott for the fun shot.

I hope to see you on one of my workshops. We photographing running horses at the California Photo Fest and on my Florida Photo Caravan. Shoot me an email to get on my mailing list.

Ride 'em cowboy.
Rick

P.S. On our way out of Lone Pine we made a final swing through Alabama Hills.

Photograph by Rick Sammon

Photograph by Susan Sammon

Susan and I took a few fun iPhone shots. I used the wide-angle lens in the iPro Lens System mentioned on my Apps page.