PRESENTATIONS
Informative. Entertaining. Inspiring. Designed with a high production value.
Blending incredible imagery with insightful narrative, I'm a much sought-after public speaker. I've been honored to do keynote addresses, presentations and seminars for conferences, camera clubs, private groups and charitable events. My current presentation schedule is listed below. I'll also be doing public multimedia presentations and book signings. This section is updated as events are scheduled, so please visit again.
To inquire about a presentation for your group, contact me.
I'm proud to be sponsored by Hunt's Photo & Video and the Adirondack Photography Institute.
PRESENTATION SCHEDULE
Mar 9, 2024
10am
FORESTS: The Art of Photographing Trees & Woods
Presentation via Zoom
Orleans, Ontario, Canada
Apr 20, 2024
1 - 4:30pm
Host a Presentation
I'm now booking presentations of the following programs, including the spectacular FORESTS presentations.
For more information and to schedule an event, please contact me.
PRESENTATION DESCRIPTIONS
I'm currently offering the following presentations. To learn about projects in the works, visit the In Production page.
FORESTS
Going Deeper Into Trees & Woodlands
Premiered at the Out of Chicago Live! 2024 Virtual Conference
Now available for camera clubs & conferences.
Following in the path of my magnificent FORESTS project, this new presentation, several years in the making, goes even deeper, with new strategies and insights for creating meaningful, artistic forest imagery. The conventional advice for photographing woods is to simplify the chaos. That's valid, but there's so much more to artistically portraying trees and woodlands. Solving the visual puzzle is challenging, but the resulting images can be incredibly fulfilling.
We'll examine a wide range of creative possibilities presented by individual trees and stands of forest, from the understory up into the canopy. I’ll illustrate how to compose for visual separation, depth and dimensionality, and how to showcase tree forms, gestures, textures, and color palettes, while avoiding pitfalls. I’ll also cover producing expressionistic abstracts using blurs and intentional camera movements. And we’ll look at seasonal opportunities under various weather and lighting conditions.
Artistic processing can take forest imagery to another level, enhancing mood, atmosphere and feel. I’ll illustrate how image softening techniques can reduce visual chaos, how selective contrast and color adjustments, and dodging and burning, can enhance depth and relief. And the benefits of refining white balance and sharpening.
Learn to see trees in a new light and expand your creative vision for forests. It’s an eye-opening presentation.
INFORMATIVE. INSPIRING. MONUMENTAL.
LANDSCAPES
Moments of Inspiration & Revelation
Featuring the best of my latest still images, time-lapse sequences and video, I’ll share insights and techniques gleaned during moments of inspiration and revelation, that viewers can use to dramatically improve their own imagery. Inspiration — when events coalesced to create heartfelt imagery, and revelation — when, in the light of personal discovery, I came across a specific strategy or technique of remarkable artistic effect.
I’ll share the thought processes and field craft that took my imagery to another level:
Lessons in the Art of Seeing
Possibilities presented under specific weather & lighting
Using light and shadow to add depth and drama
Compositional choices – visual flow, image design, compelling vantage points
Exploring with telephoto lenses
White balance selection
Color and textural contrasts
Creating "images" of mood & feeling
What video and time-lapse can teach us about shooting stills
Painterly landscapes using impressionistic techniques, in-camera and beyond
I’ll also share processing lessons on creating a light path to guide viewers’ eyes, artistic dodging and burning, selective color and contrast control, and more.
An ambitious project. A monumental presentation.
Fresh. Creative. Informative.
FORESTS
The Art of Photographing
Trees & Woods
In celebration of the majesty of trees and woodlands, this project examines in-depth the fine art of seeing and photographing these magnificent life forms. It is commonly thought that to photograph forests well, one has to make order out of the chaos. That's true, but there’s so much more to artfully portraying trees. I’ll delve deep into seeing creative possibilities, composing for visual separation and to accentuate lines, forms, patterns and textures. I'll offer strategies for photographing deep inside forests, along their edges and from on high, and illustrate the artistic opportunities presented by different weather and lighting conditions, most notably, fog. Good tree and forest imagery is
also elevated through artistic processing. I'll cover effective contrast and color adjustments, image softening techniques, abstract expressionism and amazing black and white conversion — all with the goal of creating moody, atmospheric woodland images that convey the beauty, grace and power of trees.
FINDING NOVEMBER:
With Artistic Flair
In 2020 I extended my original Finding November project, again with the goal of looking beyond the bare trees and gray skies to discover the month's hidden beauty. It would be an exercise in the art of seeing and bettering my craft. This time, I enhanced the artistry with some creative processing techniques. I shot every day of the month — still images, time-lapse and video — and recorded my impressions while fresh. As before, November continually surprised me with unexpected subject matter in inspired light and circumstances. The results are truly fascinating. This presentation is full of lessons in the art of seeing and going deeper, exploring the creative potential of the landscape throughout the year, and translating the essence of our imagery with mindful processing. Come experience this remarkable time as never before...
WINTERSCAPES
The Beauty of Snow & Ice
Winter in the Northeast is a magical time, with special happenstances that can lead to distinctive imagery. Blanketing snows provide a clean white canvas on which Nature paints beautiful, intimate scenes. Winter is most dynamic in its extremes — big snows and heavy icing. Portraying winter artistically in photographs requires special attention to the weather and light, composition and exposure. Mark will explore the art of seeing winter’s beauty and offer strategies, tips and techniques for crafting compelling images of dramatic snow-covered mountains, pristine backwoods, and intricate ice formations on lakes, ponds and waterways. He’ll also offer insight into image processing. Even small snowfalls can create winter wonderlands. Snow simplifies the landscape, accentuating lines and form. Winds sculpt it into fanciful patterns. The possibilities for beautiful imagery are unbounded, ever-changing with the weather and light.
MOONLIT
The Art of Photographing by Moonlight
Unbelievably beautiful... otherworldly... Moonlight on the landscape opens profound creative possibilities for night photographers. It provides fill light, outlines details, and adds ambience and mystery.
This multimedia presentation features still images, time-lapse sequences, audio and video, accompanied by inspired narration. It's an in-depth exploration of a largely-disregarded facet of night photography — shooting under all phases of the moon. Learn the technical details of calculating exposure, achieving critical focus, shooting time intervals, and much more. And learn to see the creative possibilities of photographing the moonlit landscape.
CELESTIAL NIGHTSCAPES
State-of-the-Art Imaging
With still images, time-lapse sequences and video, this presentation covers the latest techniques for capturing many celestial objects and phenomena in relation to the earthbound landscape. New equipment and refined processing techniques are allowing photographers to push the bounds of what’s possible to capture in the deep dark of night. I'll take you beyond making traditional images of the stars and Milky Way to expand your nocturnal repertoire and create heavenly nightscapes.
INNOVATIVE NIGHT
IMAGE PROCESSING
Featuring live demonstrations of the latest techniques for processing night images in Lightroom and Photoshop CC, Starry Landscape Stacker, StarStax and more. I discuss the field techniques required to generate the images, then in post-production, demonstrate how to:
Blend separate exposures for detail in both the night sky and the landscape, via layer masking, and by creating
high dynamic range images.
Reduce noise by blending multiple exposures
Expand depth of field through focus stacking
Merge multiple exposures to create star trails and circles, panoramas of the night sky and Milky Way, and timed intervals of the moon
Merge separate images of lighthouse beams to create one with beams radiating out in different directions
Reveal colorful nebulae and galaxies
Create incredible time-lapse movies of the stars and planets traversing the cosmos.
Learn to capture the mystery and wonder of the celestial heavens and elevate your night imagery to the extraordinary.
The latest processing techniques for a variety of night imagery.
ENVISION
The Art of Seeing Creatively
Learning to use our powers of observation — to envision an image in the mind’s eye — is a life-long learning process that can elevate our imagery to ever-higher levels. With compelling still images, time-lapse sequences and video, I cover field strategies for looking deeper, working with a wide range of weather, light and subject matter. I discuss seeing subjects not only for what they are, but what they can be. I also examine how to truly see, then transfer what we envision into a strong image by refining subject placement, using lines, form and detail, colors and tones to create interesting compositions. With example image sequences I relate how my thought processes and compositional choices evolved from the initial appeal to the final results — images with heart that resonate deep within us.
FINDING NOVEMBER
In 2015 I undertook a self-assigned project to photograph November, staying close to home in western New England and northern New York State. I was out nearly every day — anytime from predawn to night — making images and recording my impressions. My goal was to look beyond the bare trees and gray skies to discover November’s hidden beauty. It became a very personal project, an exercise in the art of seeing and improving my craft.
This presentation is a learning experience for all — photographers and non-photographers alike. It reveals the depth and character of the month, and the treasures to be found by looking deeper.
COMPELLING LANDSCAPES
The Journey of Discovery
In this presentation — designed for photographers of all skill levels — I share how to create special landscape images by using the camera as a vehicle for discovery. With example images from a variety of landscapes, shot in different weather and lighting conditions, I illustrate how “looking deeper” guided me to ever better results and new discoveries. I relate how the camera led me beyond my presuppositions to unforeseen compositions and vantage points, how it suggested when to re-visit a scene to see how subjects might be rendered at different times of day or in different light, how it helped me hone in on subjects and refine compositions, and how by eliminating distractions, we become more attune to color and shapes, patterns and textures.
By letting the camera guide us as we chase light, we become better artists, with a deeper understanding into the creative possibilities of Nature’s ever-changing beauty.
MULTIPLE EXPOSURES
FOR
MAXIMUM LANDSCAPES
By shooting multiple exposures in the field and combining them in-camera or in the digital darkroom, photographers can extend exposure latitude, depth of field and camera resolution. We can push the bounds of what's possible to capture with a camera, achieving results closer to how we envision them than a single exposure could, and opening opportunities for capturing “never-before-possible” images.
In this popular program, I cover the field techniques, camera settings and state-of-the-art software used to produce many types of multi-shot composites:
Layer masks and HDR’s for expanding exposure latitude
Focus stacking for extreme depth of field
Panoramas and HDR panoramas for expanding exposure range and resolution
Time interval and time-lapse sequences
SEASCAPES
The marine coasts — the edge of land and sea — are some of Earth’s most photogenic environments. There’s so much going on here: the ever-changing weather and light, the rugged topography, patterns created by incoming waves and outgoing wash, reflections on the wet sands. Marine life abounds, in tidal pools and in the air.
I provide an in-depth look at the photographic possibilities of shooting the coasts, with tips and techniques on reading weather and using light creatively, rendering mood and atmosphere, shooting at different times of day and into the night. I discuss the benefits of shooting at low tide, finding compelling foreground subjects, strategies for shooting waves, and the artistry of long exposures.
The coasts are places of motion, ideal for shooting time-lapse sequences; I cover both field technique and processing. Power-packed with information on fieldcraft, equipment recommendations, and processing tips, this presentation will help photographers create images that convey the power of the seas and the beauty, charm and character of coastlines.
IN STODDARD'S FOOTSTEPS
In a career spanning the settling of the Adirondack wilderness, the heyday of the guide, the steamship, and the grand hotel, pioneer photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard produced more than 8,000 images of the evolving landscape — the largest documentary record of late nineteenth century life in the region. More than a century later, I literally followed in his footsteps, faithfully re-photographing the exact locations he visited. This program offers a behind-the-scenes look at how I re-created many of Seneca Ray's classic images, with side-by-side comparisons and historical accounts, noting changes in the landscape and its people in the last 100-125 years. The results are fascinating, sometimes surprising, in every case, illuminating.
This image in loving memory of Bill Frenette.
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK OF RICHARD DEAN
Hailed as the “dean of Adirondack photographers”, Richard Dean produced the largest collection of Adirondack images in existence. He shot hundreds of thousands of pictures of resort villages, hotels, lodges, stores, restaurants, tourist attractions and people. This tribute to my grandfather, featuring many of his classic images from the 1940's to the 1990's, also recounts personal anecdotes of the man behind the lens.
