Hello Reader,

It’s been quite the year, hasn’t it? With everything that’s been going on in our lives, it’s been hard keeping up with the newsletter and photography. In our last update to you in July, we had recently returned from Yellowstone, and it just so happens that’s where we just returned from a couple of weeks ago. Since February, we have done little photography for ourselves, besides the two trips to Yellowstone. We know many of you can relate to this as well, so don’t feel alone!

After a summer of trading the outdoors for indoor work in Denver, we planned a great fall trip in Colorado. We were excited about the prospect of personal photography time and teaching our first workshop since the pandemic started. Unfortunately, our plans were not to be this year. My mother was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer in August that had already spread to her bones. Four weeks after this diagnosis, mere hours before the start of our Colorado workshop, we received news that the outlook was dire. We decided that I needed to see her before she passed, and while she was still lucid. Suddenly, a twenty-hour drive was on our agenda instead of a workshop. We delivered the terrible news to our clients, and they were incredibly understanding. We issued them a refund and gave them a detailed itinerary so they could still enjoy the beautiful mountains. They stuck together as a group and came away with some beautiful photos.
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My mother passed a week after we arrived, but I’m thankful I could spend some quality time with her, which I will always cherish. After such a devastating loss, we needed to escape, so we headed to Yellowstone. We spent nearly three weeks in the park photographing for ourselves and working on an ongoing project (that we will announce next year)! The time in nature was an incredibly cathartic experience and much needed.
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RV Life has been a challenge for us this year as well. When you do this full-time as we do, there are bound to be challenges and repairs. On our way to Yellowstone, one of our shackles on the suspension broke, which we had repaired in Jackson, Wyoming. Then, when we left Yellowstone to drive back to Denver, our leaf springs alsoe broke. Thankfully we were able to limp it back to Denver as it happened two hours from home. Last week I completed all the repairs myself, and we are ready to get back on the road soon.
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In December, we will head back to Death Valley to lead our first workshop since February. We’re both looking forward to being back in one of our favorite and familiar places after a rough few months. We have one spot open on that workshop for anyone that wants to join last minute!

As we approach Thanksgiving, we have taken the time to be thankful for what we have. It’s easy to lose sight of this when the year has been so challenging, but there is always something to be thankful for. Our most sincere thanks goes out to all of you for supporting us this year. Whether you attended one of our many webinars, the Out of Chicago events, reached out to us to see how we were doing, donated, or bought our educational products, we THANK YOU!

This year would not have been possible without all the support from you. As a small business, this year has been the most challenging yet. It was also one of the best because we found new ways to connect and teach with students while we couldn’t be in the field. We are also very thankful for our colleagues’ relationships, as we all supported and collaborated to help one another out during the year. Your support and encouragement have helped us along, and we are looking forward to a more “normal” year next year. We hope to see many of you out in the field and look forward to meeting those of you we haven’t yet. We just wanted to say thank you for all the support and love.
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We also hope you have been able to get out and photograph despite the pandemic. We could all use a dose of nature and creativity to heal us during these trying times. It’s time to dust off the camera and get back to what we all love! We realized how much we missed it and how important photography is in our lives. We hope you will share your photos with us in our community, it’s a great way to stay connected with other photographers and encourage each other. Have a safe Thanksgiving, everyone!

- David

Lightroom Webinar Next Week

I’m excited to be showing my unique Lightroom methods in a webinar on Tuesday, November 19, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. After years of frustration with Lightroom using the traditional methods, I developed these techniques. I came up with a workflow that takes an entirely new approach and could change how you approach your editing forever. The webinar will go in-depth, and there will be plenty of time for your questions.

Workshop Openings

We are excited to get back in the saddle to teach workshops again! We never officially announced our 2021 workshops because they are mostly a repeat of 2020 due to the pandemic. Many of our workshops are already full, but we have a handful of openings.

• ​Death Valley - December 11-15, 2020 (1 Spot Available)
• ​Death Valley Small Scenes with Sarah Marino - January 28-February 2, 2021 (Waiting List)
• ​Death Valley - February 17-21, 2021 (3 Spots Available)
• ​Utah Small Scenes with Sarah Marino - May 9-13, 2021 (Waiting List)
• ​Grand Tetons - June 10-13, 2021 (1 Spot Available)
• ​Colorado Wildflowers and Waterfalls - July 26-30, 2021 (3 Spots Available)
• ​Colorado Fall Colors - September 29 - October 3, 2021 (3 Spots Available)
• ​Zion Narrows - November 3-6, 2021 (Waiting List)

We may add more, but we have to wait and see how a few other things pan out first, but you will be the first to know!

New Lightroom Feature - Color Grading

Adobe just released a new version of Lightroom with a powerful new feature. Color Grading replaced the Split Toning panel, a tool to change the color of the highlights, shadows, and now midtones separately in your image. I use this to add a cool blue color to the shadows and warm yellow/orange/red to the highlights. This gives a nice color separation to create a different contrast in the image. Michael Frye put together a great video going more in-depth into this feature.

You Might be Interested In...

We love to support our friends and colleagues by making you aware of the new products they have released. Here are our favorites this month:

• Our friend Michael Frye has released a Lightroom course called Landscapes in Lightroom. Find details and a discount that ends today on his site.
• Another friend and inspiring photographer, Eric Bennett, has released a stunning coffee-table book “Conversations with Nature.”
• William Neill only has a few hardbound collectors editions of his book “Light on the Landscape.” Bill was so kind as to send us a copy, and it stunning and inspiring. Use the code LIGHT20 to take $20 off.

And here are some other articles and events for you to look at:

• Jennifer and I were both selected for LensWork's Our Magnicent Planet book, which is shipping now!
• Jennifer was featured on the blog for Vallerret Gloves (our favorite gloves!) 15 Incredible Female Photographers to Follow on Instagram in 2020​
• ​Ask me Anything with David Johnston on NPN
• ​Enhancing Mood - an article by Eric Bennett
• ​Lost in a Fog - an article by Ed McGuirk
• ​RULES: An Enemy of Personal Expression by Sarah Marino
• ​FLOW - an article by Igor Doncov
• ​Dear Bubbles - Colleen Miniuk answers any and all questions you have!
• ​Interview with Jerry Monkman on Matt Payne’s podcast about conservation photography

New Photos From Yellowstone

We had a productive three weeks in Yellowstone last month, and we wanted to share a few of our images. We haven’t had time to get through all of them, but we have a sampling of what’s to come in the community. Check them out and please leave a comment!

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