Photo insights november '15

Jim Zuckerman’s

PH OTO I N S I G HTS November 2015

• Five portrait looks • Actions palette • Middle gray • Problem solving with cut and paste • Warm fingers in winter • Online photo courses • New ebook • Student showcase 1

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Five portrait looks Actions palette Problem solving Middle gray Warm fingers What’s wrong with this picture?

Short and sweet Ask Jim Hotel Architecture Student showcase Back issues

Jim Zuckerman demonstrating how to take a super closeup with a selfie stick!

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elfie sticks! Couldn’t you just throw up? I see them everywhere. There is an epidemic of narcissism that is sweeping the entire world, and every famous place or event I visit, whether it be a waterfall, a temple, a ruins, a beautiful landscape, or a painted elephant at a festival, has lines of people so they can take photos of themselves in front of the famous thing. They don’t even take pictures of the beautiful place they came to experience. Everyone simply wants a picture of themself to show their Facebook friends how much fun they’re having away from home.

And these narcissistic people don’t just take one photo of themselves. It doesn’t cost them any more to take a hundred. They use their selfie sticks in front of every view and every angle of the famous location. At Iguazu Falls in Brazil, for example, I saw people photographing themselves in front of every view point above the falls. At the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, they shoot themselves in front of every large strangler fig tree that engulfs the ancient architecture, and in Burma they have to be photographed in front of every temple, with every monk, and next to every Buddha. That got me thinking about all their friends back home who look at all of these snapshots. Would I want to see 50 or 100 pictures of my friends in front of a waterfall? (Here’s Jessica in front of this view; and here’s Jessica in front of that view; and here’s Jessica in front of this other view holding up two fingers that mean peace . . . ad nausium). I don’t think so. I have more engaging things to do in my life. I guess many people don’t.

The conclusion I come to is that either I’m completely abnormal, out of touch, clueless, and very possibly brain dead, or much of the world is now insane or very, very bored.

Jim Zuckerman www.jimzuckerman.com 3

Five portrait effects T

here are pretty much an infinite number of ways to photograph people. The human face has been the subject of countless paintings and photographs for as long as artists have been creating art. With the advent of Photoshop and its many plugins, the sky is the limit in what we can now achieve. This article offers five effects with which I’ve experimented -from psychedelic and outrageous to subtle and beautiful-- and you can apply these

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same techniques to your own work and/or continue experimenting with unique and compelling imagery using the many options in the plugins I discuss as well as other techniques that you might learn about online or from other instructors.

Filter Forge: Stevie J’s SpectroChrome I’ve discussed the program Filter Forge in two previous issues of this eMagazine, and

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it continually amazes me by its potential. The effect you see on page 4 -- this is a portrait of a young girl in the Falkland Islands -- is one of over 11,000 filters that are part of this program.

This particular one is called Stevie J’s SpectroChrome. Within each filter, there are presets you can use for various related effects as well as sliders so you can manually alter the look of each effect. This stand-alone program has so many possibilities that you’d never have to take another picture with your camera, and yet you could produce an infinite number of artistic interpretations of pictures you already have.

Topaz Impression: Da Vinci Sketch 1 This new plugin from Topaz has become one of my favorite methods of turning photos into paintings. Topaz Impression offers very unique, stylized abstractions, and when it comes to faces you can get some intriguing images such as the portrait of a young lady from Vietnam on the previous page. I used the same original picture to create the cover of this month’s issue.

Within each preset there are many ways to tweak the images using sliders. This Photoshop plugin is so easy to use that no instruction is needed. Really.

Nik Silver Efex Pro 2: Antique Plate II Silver Efex Pro 2 by Nik is known for converting color originals into black and white. It does that very well, giving you many presets along with the ability to tweak each one to your liking.

There are also a few presets that introduce subtle colors that work well with monochromatic imagery, such as the sepia-like coloration of the portrait of a young girl, upper right. I photographed her in Vietnam, and she was extremely sigh in front of my photo tour group. Therefore, 6

it was just not feasible to ask her to move away from the distracting background elements. It was all we could do to ask her to look toward our cameras. The beauty of this particular filter is that the periphery of the photograph is obscured to a certain degree, and that completely mitigated the bad background. By applying the filter twice, as I did here, the clutter of the items for sale behind her completely disappeared.

Topaz Adjust 5: Smooth and flat Suites of plugin filters like Nik, Topaz, and On1 offer special effects that can be done in Photoshop if you know how to do them. However, the plugins make it easy to achieve simply by choosing a preset or moving a few sliders. The effect I created on the Cambodian dancer on

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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Carnival in Venice, Italy Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, 2016

Outrageous costumes in a medieval environment! Venice is beautiful any time, but during carnival it’s beyond amazing.

Frog & Reptile Workshop Close-up encounters with poison dart frogs and exotic reptiles in St. Louis, MO.

Nov. 14 - 15, 2015

Home Photoshop workshop Learn amazing techniques that will give you unparalleled control over your images such as replacing the sky, making composites, using layers, and more.

April 2 - 3, 2016

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page 7 can be done using layers and opacity settings in Photoshop, but in Topaz Adjust 5 it’s as easy as clicking on a preset. The result looks like a cross between a diffusion filter and a watercolor painting, and for portraits I think this is exquisite. Any blemishes, wrinkles, and skin discoloration disappear and the person looks almost magical. There are many different filters in the Adjust suite, and this is my favorite for portraits.

Sketch: Photoshop step by step While Topaz and Alien Skin have sketch effects, here is a technique that you can do in Photoshop and, in my opinion, this is the best approach for this particular look: 1. Open image, make duplicate layer (Ctrl/ Command J).

2. Open Image > adjustments > hue/saturation and in the dialog box move the saturation slider all the way to the left.

3. Make another duplicate layer, Ctrl/Command J. 4. Invert with Ctrl/Command I. 5. In the blend mode pulldown submenu, located in the Layers palette (the tab shows the word ‘normal’), choose color dodge.

6. Choose Filter > other > minimum. In the dialog box, choose 3 or 4. You now have a sketch. At this point, flatten the layers (Layer > flatten image) and adjust the image further if needed using Image > adjustments > levels.

7. Add color if you wish as I did below with Image > adjustments > color balance. §

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Actions palette

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hen I conducted my semi-annual Photoshop workshop in my home last month, I realized that most photographers are not taking advantage of the actions palette. As you gain more ability and skill in Photoshop, your mind races ahead of your fingers and it can be somewhat frustrating to make laborious hand movements in choosing various commands within the program.

Shortcuts reduce the amount of time it takes to accomplish something, and as creative ideas come into your mind shortcuts allow your fingers to keep up with your thoughts.

The actions palette is simply a collection of shortcuts that tell Photoshop what to do. For example, instead of pulling down a menu item such as Select > modify > feather, you can instead hit the feather button in the actions palette and the same dialog box pops up instantly.

These buttons are custom made by you. Everyone will have a different selection of actions depending on the commands you most use in Photoshop. The palette you see above is mine.

There are two kinds of buttons you see here:

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1. Photoshop command buttons, such as File info (File > file info) and Flip horizontal (Edit > transform > flip horizontal).

2. A sequence of actions, such as 750 pix (this button is in the lower left corner of my actions palette) in which Photoshop performs several commands in a sequence. In this case, when this button is pushed an image is reduced to 750 pixels for both horizontal and vertical images and saturation and contrast are added. Then the picture is saved as a jpeg on the desktop.

The sketch button performs the steps for making a sketch of any image as I describe for the blue portrait on the previous page.

Here are the steps to create an action for #1. If your actions palette is not open on your desktop when Photoshop is active, go to the pulldown menu Window > actions. As you make more actions, you can expand the palette to two, three, or more columns by pulling at the lower left corner (magenta arrow).

Click on the tiny icon at the upper right corner

of the palette -- the green arrow in the screen capture on the previous page -- to find the following commands.

1. If you have never used the action palette before, choose clear all actions.

2. Choose button mode.

3. Choose new action. In the dialog box that opens, type the name of the new action such as ‘Image size’. Choose a color if you want and then click OK. 4. Choose insert menu item. Now select which command you want in one of Photoshop’s pulldown menus and click OK. 5. Choose stop recording.

6. Choose button mode and you will see the new buttons in the action palette you just created.

Here are the steps to create an action for #2. If you have never used the action palette before, choose clear all actions.

1. Choose button mode.

2. Choose new action. In the dialog box that opens, type the name of the new action such as ‘Image size’. Choose a color if you want and then click OK. 3. You now choose all of the commands you want to perform. For example, if you want to prepare images for submission to a stock agency or to upload to your website, you may want to resize the image, add some saturation and a bit of contrast, then add a slight amount of sharpening, and finally you want to save the picture as a hi res jpeg in a particular folder.

When all of those commands have been done, go to the next step.

4. Choose stop recording.

5. Choose button mode.

If you like a particular technique that takes several steps every time, you can use an action to complete it on picture after picture with the click of one button. §

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Problem Solving A

in the field

s time passes, more and more obstacles for photographers confront us.

This is true all over the world. For example, no tripods, no flash, no photos, more and more scaffolding and structural supports, horrible energy saving light bulbs that can’t be color balanced, new structures that ruin the classic look of ancient ruins, fences, and more.

of the rocks. I work at 300% to make sure the selection is precise. When the top of the rocks have been outlined, I had to complete the circuit by placing an anchor point in the lower right corner, then the lower left, and finally I placed the last point on top of the first anchor point I’d made at the left side of the rocks. This completed the path.

On my recent photo tour that included Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I was disappointed to see that the government had built a new wooden walkway throughout the best temple there -- Ta Prohm -- and in addition they put up railings and made platforms on which tourists can take selfies of themselves in front of the most photogenic parts of the ruins. Unbelievable!

Next, I activated the paths palette. In the upper right corner of the palette is a small icon, and by clicking that there is a drop down menu. I selected ‘make selection’, and this turned the path into a selection. I then used Select > modify > contract, and in the dialog box chose one pixel. This eliminates any telltale line from the original background. I followed this with Select > modify > feather and used one pixel to soften the edge slightly for a perfect composite.

In the inset photo on the next page, you can see what I’m talking about. In addition, the dozens of rocks that had been on the ground before this recent construction made the ruins look awesome, like you were in an Indiana Jones movie.

The state of decay was artistic, compelling, and intriguing. Now, the sandy foreground looks unnatural.

Not to be outdone by brain dead government officials, I solved the problem with Photoshop and the ability to preconceive a new image. I looked for a pile of sculpted rocks similar to what had been removed, and I found it in another courtyard a short distance away (right). I took the picture and then used the pen tool in Photoshop to precisely outline the top of the rock pile.

This is very easy to do -- the pen tool simply lays down a line of anchor points along the edge 12

Finally, I copied the selection to the clipboard with Edit > copy, and then pasted the rock image onto the shot of the banyan tree covering the ruins with Edit > paste. I sized it appropriately with Edit > transform > scale and moved it into place with the move too. That covered up all the junk in front of this classic site. §

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NEW eBOOK One of the most important ingredients to great picture taking is lighting. Most of your pictures are taken with natural light, and that’s what this ebook addresses. You will learn to recognize the best types of lighting for the most stunning photography, which types of light to avoid, how to make the most out of bad lighting, how to expose perfectly every time even in tough situations, and how to deal with the constant problem of contrast.

If you are in any way insecure about your photography when it comes to using natural light, this easy to read ebook is a resource that you’ll feel is essential to your growth as a photographer.

Click the photo to see inside the ebook

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Middle Gray

he concept of middle gray is less relevant than it used to be when we shot film, but for those of you who want to be very precise in your metering and want total control over the medium, it is still an important concept to understand.

Middle gray refers to the point halfway between black and white. Ansel Adams called it Zone V. All meters are programmed to produce the perfect exposure when they detect this particular middle tone. Middle gray is the color you can see within the letters of the title of this article. However, the color that a meter ‘sees’ isn’t relevant. Middle red, middle yellow, and middle magenta will all produce the same correct exposure as middle gray.

If you want to do photography the old fash-

ioned way of metering a precise portion of a composition with spot mode, first you have to be able to recognize middle toned areas.

The procedure is to take a light reading on that middle gray (i.e. middle toned) area and then set the shutter speed and lens aperture to those numbers after switching the camera to manual exposure mode. If there are no middle tones at all, such as a polar bear in a snow storm, then you have to use a gray card or any subject, such as jeans or backpack fabric, that is middle gray.

In the photos I’ve included here, the circles represent middle gray areas from which an accurate light reading can be taken. It’s important to take a reading on an area that is large enough in the composition so non-middle tone adjacent elements don’t taint the reading.

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The green circles indicate middle toned areas from which an accurate light reading can be made. These are not necessarily the only middle toned areas in each picture. Note that in order to derive the correct exposure, you would need to use either the spot mode in the camera plus a telephoto lens (to narrow the angle of the light reading to insure accuracy) or a hand held light meter that is capable of reading the narrow angle of one degree. In this way, the meter won’t be sensing adjacent non-middle gray areas.

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Become a better photographer with

eBooks

Click on any ebook to see inside

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Keeping Your Fingers Warm

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inter is almost upon us -- at least for those of us who live in cold climates -- and for photographers who like to shoot outdoors at this time of year, keeping fingers warm is a serious challenge. We need dexterity to work the camera controls, yet thick gloves and mittens make it impossible to work the menus and to push tiny buttons on our cameras.

I’d like to share my technique for being able to work the camera and still protect my fingers.

I have tried all kinds of gloves, mittens, and hand warmer packets inserted into my gloves, and nothing works as good as this. I last used this technique during my snowy owl workshop

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in Canada last February, below, and it was bitter cold. But I was absolutely fine.

I put five hand warmer packets in the righthand pocket of my parka. After 10 or 15 minutes, the interior of the pocket gets quite hot.

Not mildly warm, but hot. I hold the camera with my left hand which has a glover liner, a glove, and then a mitten over that. For my right hand, I wear only a glove liner. This is fairly thin, giving me complete dexterity. When my right hand gets really cold (in minus 20 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit that’s every two minutes or so) I put my hand into the pocket with the hand warmers, hold them tightly, and I’m instantly warmed up. §

LEARNING TO SEE

online course

by Jim Zuckerman

The ability to ‘see photographically’, to really grasp how your camera and lenses capture a subject or scene (which is different than how we see with our eyes) underlies successful picture taking. It is the bottom line that you’ve been looking for to take that quantum leap forward in your photography.

The great thing about online courses is that they can fit into any schedule. Life gets in the way at times, and Jim puts no limit on the time you can submit your work for his critiques. CLICK THIS PAGE to read more about this course.

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INDONESIA WILDLIFE & CULTURAL TOUR July 8 - 22, 2016

orangutans komodo dragons birds Bali ancient temples

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What’s wrong with this picture?

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ost photographers, I think, would be very happy with this picture.

It’s a dynamic picture of a snowy owl in flight, and the white on white color theme happens to be one of my favorites in nature.

The wing formation is excellent, and the fact that those piercing yellow eyes stand out against the white environment adds to the visual impact.

The reason I’m not happy with it, though, is because the ends of the wings are not sharp. My shutter speed was 1/1600th of a second, and that was a reasonable choice. But even though large birds don’t flap their wings with the same rapidity that small birds do, the tips of their wings move through the air much faster than the portions of the wings close to the body. That was the problem here, and as a result they are less than sharp even though the shutter speed was quite fast.

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The photo pictured above is sharp throughout, and here my shutter was 1/5000th of a second. For large birds in flight, this was overkill but after seeing the blurred wings on some of my pictures, I wasn’t taking any chances.

I’ve determined that with a shutter speed of 1/2500th of a second or faster, the wings of snowy owls will be sharp when in flight. For smaller birds, the shutter needs to be at least 1/3200th of a second (this excludes hummingbirds).

My strategy for assuring the best shutter speed plus a certain amount of depth of field was to use auto ISO. I set the shutter to 1/2500, for example, and the lens aperture to f/11 (the snowy owls have depth, I wanted to make sure I had enough depth of field). The auto ISO setting varies the ISO per the amount of ambient light at the time given the shutter speed and the f/stop I’ve chosen. You have the option of putting a ceiling on how high the ISO can go, but in daytime and with a white environment (which shows less noise than shadow areas) I wasn’t concerned with noise. I could deal with that later using Dfine 2.0 by Nik Software or DeNoise by Topaz. More important to me was freezing those wings. § 22

SHORT AND SWEET 1.

For a winter project, take pictures of mannequin heads in shop windows and then manipulate the images in Photoshop. You can do amazing things with them. Photograph them straight on as well as 3/4 views and profiles for a lot of possibilities.

3. In low light environments, depth of field is a luxury

you can’t have by closing the lens down to a small aperture because you will lose too much light. Instead, if possible use a wide angle lens (here I used a 14mm) because even with a large lens opening, these lenses inherently have extensive depth of field.

2. Landscape photographers require complete depth

of field. This means you should use f/22 or f/32 and a tripod. Even though f/8 is the sharpest lens aperture, it doesn’t have enough DOF. This is one of the compromises that must be made in photography.

4.

I did not replace the sky behind this lovely view of Cobh, Ireland. I instead, I simply darkened the sky using the graduated filter tool in Adobe Camera Raw. That instantly dramatized this cityscape and at the same time the darker clouds direct our attention to the wonderful architecture of the town. §

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ASK JIM

Every month Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.

Q:

Jim . . .In a picture like this that I shot in Disneyworld, do I need a model release for the people? And what about the buildings in Disneyworld that are recognized the world over? I’ve abstracted the image, and I was wondering if this would negate the need for releases. What do you think?

Lauren Miller, Coral Gables, Florida.

A:

As for Disneyworld, a property release is required. However, they won’t give you one even if you ask nicely. They are very protective of their name, trademark, etc. As for the people, due to the very real possiblity of getting sued, stock agencies (who have deep pockets) now require model releases even if people aren’t fully recognizable (such as during carnival in Venice when they are wearing masks!). Many stock agencies will accept this kind of image and license its use for editorial purposes, such as a newspaper, with the understanding that the publisher assumes the risk in case of a lawsuit. §

© Lauren Miller

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Photography Tours 2016 - 2017 CARNIVAL IN VENICE Feb, 2016

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS Mar, 2016

WHITE HORSES, FRANCE April, 2016

CROATIA, SLOVENIA, MONT. May, 2016

ARMENIA & GEORGIA June 2016

INDONESIA July 2016

KENYA migration Aug. 2016

CHINA Sept. 2016

GREECE Oct. 2016

AMERICAN SOUTHWEST Oct. 2016

THE PANTANAL, BRAZIL Nov. 2016

PATAGONIA Apr. 2017

For a complete list of all the photo tours/workshops Jim conducts, go to his website: www.jimzuckerman.com.

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KENYA PHOTO SAFARI August 4 - 15, 2016 The greatest concentration of wildlife on the planet - The Migration

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Hotel Architecture W

hen you travel, either domestically or abroad, you have a choice of many hotels. I’ve learned that some of the world’s most beautiful architecture is in (mostly) four and five star hotels, and even though these are more expensive, they can afford you some amazing photographic opportunities.

Many times you can photograph large and dramatic interiors of hotel lobbies without being a guest. In other instances, the hotel staff will frown on you setting up a tripod and shooting

if you are not a registered guest. In addition, if you are not staying at the hotel you probably won’t be allowed to go to the upper floors where great pictures may present themselves such as the incredible fisheye view of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, below. I took this shot from the 17th floor, and I stayed there just to get this image and several others.

The best lens to use for these powerful images of lobbies and other parts of the hotels is a wide angle, and usually the wider the better.

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Lenses in the 14 to 16mm range are great on full frame cameras, while a 10 to 12mm focal length is ideal from cropped sensor cameras.

You will need depth of field, especially if you place foreground elements close to the camera position as I did in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco, above, and the unusual sofa in a hotel in Bilbao, Spain, then a tripod is required so you can use f/22 or f/32.

The white balance I use is usually tungsten (or incandescent or ‘indoors’). Sometimes hotels use the energy saving bulbs that produce very strange colors and it’s hard to color balance them. In those cases, I use AWB and then color correct in Photoshop. §

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AMERICAN SOUTHWEST photo tour October 7 - 16, 2016

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Student Showcase Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one or more of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same place. Everyone gets great images on my trips.

Martin Dunn, Hernando, Florida American Southwest

Š 2015 Martin Dunn

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Student Showcase, continued

Š 2015 Martin Dunn

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Student Showcase, continued

Š 2015 Martin Dunn

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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home

Sat. & Sun., April 2-3, 2016

Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, modifying lighting, replacing backgrounds, using layer masks, blend modes, adding a moon, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand it and can remember it.

Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you

creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken.

I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest or with a GPS. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.

Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §

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PHOTO INSIGHTS® published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved © Jim Zuckerman 2015 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com mail address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014

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