Last time I was in Death Valley I wanted to photograph the Racetrack, but was informed by the park ranger that it was a very bad idea in 125-degree heat. I went there this time and was not disappointed. It is about an hour drive on a very dusty and bumpy dirt road to get up the mountain and photograph the moving rock that marks trails in the playa.

We photographed the Mesquite Sand Dunes on two different days, the first day was nice and warm, and the second was a little different. It was very cold and the wind was kicking up the sand so bad you didn’t want to change lenses on your camera, but then we went to the bigger dunes in the back and it made it all worth the journey.

Here are a few photos from Death Valley:

Here is a video that Rick made while in Death Valley with a quick tip for shooting landscape photography.

There are a few openings left for the workshop in Death Valley. Click here to learn more.

Here are a few photos from my trip a few years ago.

When trying to photograph a public space with so many people visiting it is a hard to get a great shot without people in it. I have come to the realization that I really hate camera phones! I am not talking about dislike, I mean a real deep hatred that raises my blood pressure and makes my eyes pop out of my head!!! Now everyone has a camera phone with them and stands in the way of any real photographer trying to CREATE a photograph. Most of these photos that are shot will never be viewed by anyone or lost because they lose, break or replace their phone, as most don’t know how to save their images. Some will get posted on Facebook to make them and their friends think they actually have a life. Did I tell you I really hate cell phone cameras, do you feel it?

Here is one of the shots I was able to take without any tourist in it.

I moderated Dave Black preconference Photoshop World and let me tell you it was a great experience. Dave is an awesome sports photographer and someone who paints with light that is just incredible. I was able to participate with the class and take a couple shots so here they are.

Because of the bad signage, one of my wrong turns turned into a happy photographic accident. I found this little seaside town called Horseshoe Bay and was able to take this photograph of it. I just did a video on how I created this effect for this photograph, but as I go through my over 4000 images, I think this is becoming one of my favorites.

Whenever I go out on a photographic excursions I do like to plan and do research to decide where I’m going and what I want to photograph, but as you can see taking a wrong turn because of bad signage in Canada can lead to a great image.

So my question is; was it really a wrong turn?

I decided to stick around the Vancouver area for a couple of days and do some photography of my own. I have lived and been to some great places and I now count myself lucky to add Vancouver to that list. It was Awesome! Driving the Sea to Sky highway was just incredible; with its snow caped mountains going down to the bay was unbelievable.

I had heard of a lighthouse in West Vancouver that I wanted to shoot and after getting lost and passing the entrance two or three times I finally found it. After climbing over rocks and jumping over water I was able to capture this image.

I ended up in the mountains at a location called “Lost Lake” up by Whistler where the 2010 winter Olympics where held. I happened to be there with thousands of mountain bike riders and fans, as a big tournament was being held that weekend. I was still able to get this shot from that night.

I had to try an HDR image with a waterfall and see how it came out with rushing water, and I mean rushing. This is Squamish Falls and one of the easiest climes I had all day. Everywhere I turned there was another waterfall in British Colombia and it wanted to be photographed, I had to stop or I would not shoot anything else.

You will be seeing more over the next few weeks as I work on the thousands of photos I took.

This cemetery sits on top of the hill and you can see the skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta from it along with some damage that was done from tornadoes a year before. Jim’s assistant, Keith came along and he showed me some of the Confederate gravesites and the Confederate Unknown Soldier Memorial. We were photographing in the middle of the afternoon and it was extremely hot and humid, so in that short time here are some the images that I was able to capture that day.

This tutorial will shoe you how to correct a buildings perspective using Free Transform in Photoshop.