Come photograph at the Silk Mill!

Come photograph at the Silk Mill!

Yes, the Silk Mill is BACK! Tom & I went in the Spring and it was wonderful. The new owner is using the proceeds of the photo tours to aid in the restoration of the mill, starting with his goal of a new roof before winter. We are holding another workshop in PA the day before. From New Haven this location is ~3 hours and then the silk mill is ~3.5 hours away so you can split the driving up into two smaller segments. 

Sign up here https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/286770551/

This historic place has a plethora of images waiting to be created! Storytelling, historic scenes, life after humans, wide-angle, closeups, setups, HDR, lightpainting, and more. Tom will be setting up some photo ops, as well as doing a light painting demonstration.

See a few of our photographs from our trips to the Silk mill here https://www.photographybylisaandtom.com/Locations/Silk-Mill

Join us to experience the history of a bygone era. We have been to the silk mill many times!

We always have a small group -- so you can get those wide-angle shots without having tons of people in your scene!

The Lonaconing Silk Mill (also called the Klotz Throwing Company) is located in Lonaconing, Maryland along the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad’s mainline. It is the last intact silk mill in the United States and was in operation from 1907-1957. Initially, silk was imported from Japan and China and the factory produced silk thread. During World War II that changed to rayon. The mill shut down operation in 1957 and has fallen into disrepair.

How experienced do you need to be? As long as you are willing to learn and experiment then this is a good photo op for you! Bring your camera manual (pdf on your phone/device or paper). Tom and I will also assist you with your compositions. Tom loves setting up shots and then sharing them with our participants.

People may choose to bring any camera with them a smartphone, DSLR, film camera, and/or mirrorless. ..any camera is welcome!

You may choose to shoot completely on your own (some photographers come with us mainly for access to these fabulous historic places) and/or to photograph with us for compositional and/or technical advice, and show you what we are shooting and thinking. Tom and I will be photographing, as this is a photo tour, but we are always there for advice and to answer questions, and to inspire -- we love to share and teach.

Please note that all of our workshops require the participants to sign a liability waiver. Download it; then print, read, sign it and bring it with you -- Thank you! http://www.tinyurl.com/cuchara-workshop-waiver

Please note that some locations will have you sign their liability waiver at the site as well.

Please note that this and all classes/workshops have no refunds. You may send someone else in your place. By signing up for our classes/tours/workshops, you agree to our terms and conditions, see http://www.photographybylisaandtom.com/p/workshops.html

One on one flower workshop

Flower Workshop: Improve your compositions, Backgrounds, Focus, etc. one-on-one

Join me Lisa Cuchara for an intimate flower workshop.

• 8am https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/285746874
• 10:15am https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/285746901

Work on compositions, backgrounds, etc. Let me help you improve your flower photography! Learn about backgrounds, composition, depth of field, macro, Bokeh, Zoom bursts, ICM (intentional camera movement), and more. If you have a camera that has in-camera focus bracketing or in-camera focus stacking we could also work on that. Any camera welcome!

Bring your tripod (and cable release if you have one, plus extra batteries). Most lenses will work, my three favorite flowers lenses are my 60mm (120mm equivalent), my 40-150 (80-300 equivalent) 100-400mm (200-800mm equivalent).

Cost $239. Includes admission and you can take home 10 cut tulips to be able to practice at home!

Please note that all of our workshops require that participants sign a liability waiver. Download it; then print, read, and sign it and bring it with you -- Thank you! http://www.tinyurl.com/cuchara-workshop-waiver. Please note that some locations will have you sign their liability waiver at the site as well.

Please note that this and all classes/workshops have no refunds. By signing up for our classes/tours/workshops, you agree to our terms and conditions, see http://www.lisaandtomphotography.com/p/workshops.html

Come photograph at the Silk Mill!

Come photograph at the Silk Mill!

Yes, the Silk Mill is BACK! The new owner is using the proceeds of the photo tours to aid in the restoration of the mill, starting with his goal of a new roof before winter. We will be having another workshop in PA the day before. From New Haven this location will be ~3.5 hours and then the silk mill is ~4 hours away so you can split the driving up into two smaller segments. 

Sign up here https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/285690709 or email us for an invoice 

This historic place has a plethora of images waiting to be created! Storytelling, historic scenes, life after humans, wide-angle, closeups, setups, HDR, lightpainting, and more. Tom will be setting up some photo ops, as well as doing a light painting demonstration.

See a few of our photographs from our trips to the Silk mill here https://www.photographybylisaandtom.com/Locations/Silk-Mill

Join us to experience the history of a bygone era. We have been to the silk mill many times!

Email us after you sign up for hotel information.

We always have a small group -- so you can get those wide-angle shots without having tons of people in your scene!

The Lonaconing Silk Mill (also called the Klotz Throwing Company) is located in Lonaconing, Maryland along the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad’s mainline. It is the last intact silk mill in the United States and was in operation from 1907-1957. Initially, silk was imported from Japan and China and the factory produced silk thread. During World War II that changed to rayon. The mill shut down operation in 1957 and has fallen into disrepair.

How experienced do you need to be? As long as you are willing to learn and experiment then this is a good photo op for you! Bring your camera manual (pdf on your phone/device or paper). Tom and I will also assist you with your compositions. Tom loves setting up shots and then sharing them with our participants.

People may choose to bring any camera with them a smartphone, DSLR, film camera, and/or mirrorless. ..any camera is welcome!

You may choose to shoot completely on your own (some photographers come with us mainly for access to these fabulous historic places) and/or to photograph with us for compositional and/or technical advice, and show you what we are shooting and thinking. Tom and I will be photographing, as this is a photo tour, but we are always there for advice and to answer questions, and to inspire -- we love to share and teach.

Please note that all of our workshops require the participants to sign a liability waiver. Download it; then print, read, sign it and bring it with you -- Thank you! http://www.tinyurl.com/cuchara-workshop-waiver

Please note that some locations will have you sign their liability waiver at the site as well.

Please note that this and all classes/workshops have no refunds. You may send someone else in your place. By signing up for our classes/tours/workshops, you agree to our terms and conditions, see http://www.photographybylisaandtom.com/p/workshops.html

OM SYSTEM Ambassadors

Tom and I are excited to share the news -- we have been invited to continue as OM SYSTEM Ambassadors! This is a continuation of our prior roles as Olympus Educators (note that now we are all known as OM SYSTEM Ambassadors). Tom and I are honored to be included in this group of amazingly talented photographers!

Tom and I are excited that we will be representing OM Digital Solutions (formerly Olympus cameras) as OM SYSTEM Ambassadors!

"Lisa and Tom are photographic artists and workshop leaders who love to share their passion with others. They love photographing almost every subject, but are especially drawn to night photography, light painting, urban exploration, nature photography, and creative photography. Their photography allows them to pay attention to the details, to be mindful, and to appreciate all of the beauty and nuances of our world."

Please note that while Tom and I are OMDS ambassadors 

and we occasionally offer a workshop specialized for OM SYSTEM users, that 

ANYONE is welcome on our workshops and we have people come on our workshops with smart phones, film cameras and every make and model of dSLR, point-n-shoot, large format, and mirrorless camera out there. 

Our Olympus/OMDS journey. I first was exposed to the amazing Live Composite feature while leading a night photography workshop in the Fall of 2016. One of our participants was able to SEE the night scene developing DURING the exposure. I immediately inquired about the EM1 Olympus camera features and was impressed with many features, but especially the computational technologies. I went home from the workshop and researched and saw that an EM1 mark ii was coming out and I ordered one. Tom and I were Canon for decades, and I tried Sony and Tom tried Fuji, but we both preferred our Canon dSLRs. Upon purchasing the EM1 mark ii the Canon was not making it out of the camera bag anymore. Tom tried mine and we switched to Olympus in 2016 too. 

Then Tom and I went to Cuba and we only brought our Olympus system, which really rocked with the image stabilization, live time, and much lesser weight and footprint. At that time we still thought that we would use the Olympus for macro, night, street, travel, landscape and that we might keep our Canon for birds (we each had a 500mm f4 lens). One month after going to Cuba we went to Florida, bringing our Canon and Olympus systems. We were going to use the Olympus the first day and then compare to using the Canon the next day and so forth. Well, the Canon never ever made it out of the hotel room, so we came home from Florida and sold all of our camera gear and purchased all Olympus. We have never looked back! The ability to easily handhold (and without teleconverter) fast 600mm FFE and now 1000mm FFE lenses is a big deal for our bird and wildlife photography!!

Serendipitously, I was presenting a program to a camera club in Pennsylvania and the leader of the Olympus camera club contacted me and asked me to give the same program for them (they had a lunchtime camera club at Olympus). The person who contacted me did not ask or know what camera we were using. At the end of the presentation he said "You should be an ambassador for Olympus" and introduced me to a couple of people. Now I should add to this that I was never one to get into the whole "Canon versus Nikon" debate, it was six of one and a half dozen of the other type of debate. But Tom and I found ourselves organically discussing all of the virtues of the Olympus system. The system can just do things, like focus stacking in-camera, pro-capture, LiveTim, LiveND, Live Composite, etc. that other cameras simply cannot do. and now we have the new OM1 camera and to say the new OM-1 and its computational photography features are incredible is an understatement! The new AI detection AF for birds, mammals, etc. is so much faster than the already outstanding Olympus OM-D E-M1x and this is due to the amazing processing power that was packed into this new body. 

We look forward to sharing what OM SYSTEM cameras can help us create thanks to their brilliant computational photography features and AI detection AF, among other things.  

Thank you to all of my followers (and to Get Olympus/OMDS). Stay tuned for future exciting content and announcements in 2022!

Below, please enjoy our favorite 21 from 2021. That is, our favorite 21 Birds in Flight, Birds, Flowers, Nature and Non-Nature photographs from 2021-- all taken with our Olympus/OM System cameras and lenses! 

Peak Design Tripod

Tom and I are in love with our new tripod -- the peak design. https://bit.ly/2WUfJYU 

We first saw the prototype at Photo Expo in NYC Fall 2019. We purchased them as soon as they were available last year and just love them. Small but mighty. We have been using their camera straps and clips and wrist straps for a few years, but this tripod is a game-changer. It folds small but it is sturdy enough for night photography and big lenses. It is easy to use, does not weigh a lot, and comes with an articulating Acra swiss compatible ballhead (or you can purchase an adapter and use your own ballhead). 

We appreciate you using our affiliate links to make your purchases https://bit.ly/2WUfJYU 

https://www.peakdesign.com/?rfsn=6152920.325a62&utm_source=6152920&utm_medium=affiliate

I did purchase the universal head adapter, so when I want to use the Acratech head or my Flexshooter head I just easily pull out the Peak Design center column and slide in the universal head adapter with my other head attached. https://bit.ly/2WUfJYU 

Nik and Pure RAW software on sale

Tom and I use the Nik plugin filters for creative editing. About half of our images are SOOC (straight out of camera) but the other half we enjoy creative editing. 

Nik is on sale for Black Friday. 

Order here https://tidd.ly/32okP1W

Tom and I also use the DxO PureRAW for noise reduction. I have done side by side comparisons with many noise reduction software (Topax AI clear replaced Topaz Denoise, but not PureRAW is superior to all other products. 

Purchase PureRAW here https://tidd.ly/32okP1W

FYI, Tom and I do not use the DxO Photolab as we like the control that Adobe ACR and Nik offers

You can compare the default ACR settings (sharpening = 40) in Adobe Camera RAW going into Photoshop (same as the lightroom develop module) here to the next version, where the noise was processed with DxO PureRAW. Images can actually look noisier in Adobe software than in the native software so we have changed the RAW defaults to sharpening = 0 for ORF RAW files)

PureRAW from DxO is a game-changer for high ISO images, like this one, and also for low ISO images where the image was underexposed (typically you want to expose to the right)

Topaz Black Friday Sale

Topaz Black Friday Promo Dates. Now through Monday, Nov 29th. Everything is on sale. Use our link https://web.topazlabs.com/ref/130 and enter promo code breaphotos for an additional 15% off

We just love, love, love their products. Our favorites? Topaz Glow, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz AI sharpen, Topaz Impression

• Image Quality Bundle. Includes: DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI
  On sale for $99.99, more than 60% OFF the retail value of $259.97 
• Everything Bundle. Includes: Image Quality Bundle + Video Enhance AI
• On sale for $199.98, $359.98 OFF the retail value of $559.96 
• Everything is on sale!. Get 25% off any individual app, as well as 25% off upgrades 

We just love, love, love their products. Our favorites? Topaz Glow, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz AI sharpen, Topaz Impression

Enter the discount use code breaphotos for 15% off Topaz products. https://web.topazlabs.com/ref/130