Mary Louise is an experienced photography instructor who has trained hundreds of amateur photographers. Many of her students have gone on to earn awards for photographs made following their training with her. She can help with both the technical and aesthetic aspects of picture making.
organize their images so they can be easily found
quickly identify which images to work on from a photo shoot
optimize their images for tone, color and artistic vision
edit photographs to remove unwanted objects
do basic portrait retouching
export their images for a variety of uses including social media
Fantastic wildlife photography
opportunities exist right in your own backyard, and species vary with the
seasons. In this workshop you’ll learn the secrets to capturing beautiful bird
portraits, and gain insights to the key factors for creating a bird-friendly
habitat suitable for photography in your own backyard. You will learn
about the best camera settings, shooting technique and composition for creating
beautiful backyard bird images in live online (zoom) sessions in preparation
for a day and a half in-person photo shoot at a private property location specifically
designed for backyard bird photography. This shooting location offers multiple
perches, water features, and two large photo blind structures, each large
enough to each comfortably accommodate 5 photographers at a time. This
workshop is suitable for photographers with mobility issues, since photographers
can sit in the photo blind and photograph either using a tripod or handheld.
The birds are acclimated to the setting and come in relatively close to the
blinds – typically within 10-25 feet. As a result, heavy super telephoto lenses
are not required and more manageable zoom lenses in the 150 – 600 mm focal
length range can work very well in this environment.
Some birds that may be
sighted during the workshop include: Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee,
Carolina wren, Tufted titmouse, Ruby-crowned kinglet, House Finch, American
Goldfinch, American Robin, American Crow, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Nuthatch,
White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Bluebird, Pine warbler,
Yellow-rumped warbler, Yellow-throated warbler, Brown- headed Cowbird,
White-throated sparrow, Chipping sparrow, Downy woodpecker, Red-bellied
woodpecker, Blue Jay, Eastern Towhee, Mourning Dove, Hermit Thrush, Brown
Thrasher, Northern Mockingbird. Adding to the possibilities, the workshop is timed
so there is a good chance of capturing the birds with colorful spring flowers
like azaleas and wisteria. Of course, Mother Nature will dictate which birds
and flowers will actually be seen.
For those who would like to extend their visit to the Clemson, SC area, other local attractions for photography include the South Carolina Botanical Garden in Clemson and the Blue Ridge Mountains which are a short drive away.
"If you'd like to learn to photograph birds, you couldn't ask for a better setting, better materials or better instructors. But it's more than a backyard birding workshop: you learn invaluable skills and techniques that can apply to every aspect of your photography whether or not your goal is bird photography." – Scottee C
"The Nut House is an incredible location and
very easy to get around - no strenuous walks, wonderful blinds, perfect setup
for photography. Having
the online sessions in advance is critical to doing well on site, and the
session following the workshop to go over photos was an invaluable learning
experience. " – Scottee C
"This was the best learning experience. I would highly
recommend it to anyone. It was time well spent!!" - Harvestine M.
"I really enjoyed the workshop format! It was great to have
lecture format sessions on Zoom and then to have a field portion for the
workshop to practice what we had learned with experts readily available to
answer questions.
The feedback session was awesome! I learned something from
each of the image critiques. I thought the detailed examples of changes to
images were extremely useful." – Linda J .
Join Mary Louise for a flower garden trifecta in this workshop based in America’s Garden Capital – the greater Philadelphia area. We’ll visit the area’s crown jewel – Longwood Gardens during the prime time for spring bulbs. This extensive garden on the former duPont estate offers a variety of flower and plant subjects in both outdoor gardens and a large indoor conservatory. Next, we’ll have a “straight out of Holland” experience at a tulip farm. Acres of tulip rows of different colors offer a variety of photo possibilities from macro closeups, to "shoot throughs", and intentional camera movement. Rounding things out, we’ll visit another one of the area’s 30+ gardens – which one will be revealed at the workshop because Mary Louise will select it based on the bloom conditions the week of the workshop. In this workshop you’ll learn a variety of flower photography techniques – close-up/macro, shooting intimate landscape vignettes, intentional camera movement and soft glow - achieved either through use of in-camera multiple-exposures or a Lensbaby brand “velvet” lens
The Oregon Coast contains some of the most varied and unique coastal photographic opportunities in the US. On this workshop you’ll experience its rocky coastline with majestic sea stacks, crashing waves and dramatic sunsets over the ocean, picturesque lighthouses, colorful working fishing harbors, coastal wildlife like sea lions and shore birds, and the intimate landscape of tide pool habitats. During this workshop we’ll explore the coast from the central towns of Newport and Yachats to the southern coast around Bandon. This area offers great and different photographic experiences at every turn – from bold and dramatic to quiet and moody. We will be at the right place, at the right time to capture some amazing images, found only on the Oregon coast while honing our photographic skills. We’ll visit some of the well-known, iconic places, as well as many places off the beaten path. Specific locations have been determined by years of experience. This is the ultimate Oregon Coast photo workshop!
Our low student to instructor ratio for the workshop is ideal for maximizing your learning experience. This workshop will be 5 1/2 days of total immersion into photographing along the beaches and harbors in this beautiful area. We will conduct image reviews along with educational sessions during the workshop to help elevate our creative vision and technical skills in capturing this magnificent location.
Creating a photo album, a travel journal, a family history, a cookbook on whatever flavor of "book" you desire doesn't have to be a complicated or expensive process. Your project could be 20 pages or 200 pages, a printed book or an eBook, just pictures or text and pictures. In this online class, Mary Louise will show you how to use Adobe Lightroom Classic's Book module to create your own book. Adobe Lightroom Classic is integrated with blurb.com to print hardcover or softcover books or magazine-style booklets. It uses a template-driven approach to simplify the process of book design. Users can drag and drop images from their Lightroom catalog into a desired page template.
The class is in three sessions. Session 1: Scoping out your book project - ideas, preparation and planning. Session 2: Customizing Lightroom's templates to create your desired look and layout. Then we'll break for a while to give you time to get started on your project before reconvening for Session 3: Project sharing and feedback where you can get feedback on your work in progress. If you've wanted to put together a book project, this class will help you get started on the path to success.
As a judge of many photo competitions over the years I’ve noticed that many photographers struggle with how to effectively address noise and sharpening of their images. Noise in images gives them a grainy appearance, often accompanied by splotches of magenta, purple and green that wasn’t in the original scene. Many amateur photographers either ignore addressing these issues all together, or wildly overdo their processing resulting in images that look either plasticized or “crunchy”.
While popular editing tools
like Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop offer integrated tools for
noise processing and sharpening, I’ve found that Topaz Labs’s plug-in
application Denoise AI produces superior results and, being based on
Artificial Intelligence, it is getting even better as times goes by and
it is trained on more and more images. However, users often assume that
auto settings are the best choice when using this tool, which is
frequently not the case.
In this class, you’ll learn how I use Topaz Denoise AI as part of my Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop image editing workflow. I’ll explain how I choose which of the five available processing models to use, and how to adjust the parameter settings for each model to yield the best results. There is no “one size fits all” solution when using the software, each image should be evaluated based in its inherent characteristics. So, it’s important to understand what to look for, in order to know how to optimize the processing. When used appropriately, DeNoise AI can be used to make even high ISO images into perfectly usable, printable images. That in a nutshell is what makes this software a game changer in my opinion and something all photographers, especially action photographers need to know how to use
No matter what camera you have, one sure way to improve your photography is to use tried and true strategies for composing the design of your shot. Make more dynamic images of your garden subjects by learning about a handful of easy to remember compositional guidelines.
In the “shooting through” flower photography technique, we use flowers positioned close to the lens to creatively “frame” our flower subjects in the distance. When photographed with a telephoto lens, and an appropriate aperture, the framing flowers will become an undefined “wash of color”, producing a creative photographic effect for a flower portrait image.
The smartphone is the camera many people have with them at all times. The camera integrated with these phones has advanced with each smartphone generation, making it worthy of our attention as a legitimate camera. In this session you’ll learn about basic iPhone camera functionality like focusing in a specific place, adjusting brightness, shooting in bursts for action and adjusting background blurriness in portrait mode. We will then practice in the gardens of the arboretum.
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