Category Archives: Greenbrier
I will be going in a day or two early for the Smoky Mountain workshop to capture morning images on the Gatlinburg side of the Smoky Mountains and I am anxious to spend a sunrise at this location.

Sunrise along the rivers in the Smoky Mountains
On August 25th topaz will be releasing an updated version of our masking software Topaz ReMask 5, , complete with new features. As always, the updates are free to anyone who already owns ReMask. And for those who don’t own it, ReMask 5 will be on sale ($20 off) from August 25th – September 18th take advantage of the discounted price of $49.99 (regularly $69.99)
Click here to get to my Links page for the discount code for ReMask 5.
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Leave a comment | tags: Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity | posted in Cades Cove, Fall Smoky Mountain photo workshop, Greenbrier, Lightroom, Ogle Cabin, Paul Christopher James, Paul James, Smokey Mountain National Park, Smoky Mountains Institute, Smoky Mountains National Park, Topaz Clarity, Topaz ReMask 5
Yesterday was a great day to get out and enjoy nature with a bike ride along the Dexter to Hudson Mills bike trail. If you live in the Ann Arbor area it is a great place to ride and see amazing fields of wild flowers. For me it was a reminder that falls in only a few weeks away and I am looking forward to capturing the colors in the Smoky Mountains. Hope that you can join me!
Smoky Mountains Fall Photographic Workshop Tour
October 25 – 28 2015

Fall Colors along the rivers in the Smoky Mountains are amazing!
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Leave a comment | tags: Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs | posted in Cades Cove, Fall Colors, Fall Smoky Mountain photo workshop, Greenbrier, Lightroom 6, Ogle Cabin, Smokey Mountain National Park, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity
Along the rivers and streams in the Smoky Mountains there are elegant compositions everywhere. This simple scene with the water flowing around the two rocks had a nice flow leading you into the picture from the top left across the image to the center right and then back down to the bottom left. It is not you traditional rule of thirds image but it works for me.

Two Rocks along a Smoky Mountain Stream
I captured this image on my Canon 5D Mark II at F/16 3.2sec and with an ISO of 200

Two Rocks Raw image
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Southwest Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in Charleston Photographic Workshop, Fall Smoky Mountain photo workshop, Greenbrier, Michigan photographic workshops, Ogle Cabin, Paul Christopher James, Photoshop CS6, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Smoky Mountains National Park, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour, Spring Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Tuscan Photo Workkshop, Venice Carnival - Photographic Workshop Tour, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop, Zion National Park
Often when I am out shooting I talk to other photographers as I wait for the light and on a rainy overcast day I am often the last person to leave the location. On a shooting trip 25 years ago to the Dolomites in Northern Italy the mountains were socked in and I decides to call it a night and went back to the lodge where I was staying. As I was eating my meal and looking out the window at the mountains the clouds parted and the most wonderful light hit the top of the mountains. That is when I made myself a promise never to leave until 15 min after the sun has set. I always wait for the magic to happen and I am seldom disappointed.

Clingman’s Dome – Gods rays
Some of my favorite shots are on overcast days when a break in the clouds can give you dramatic effects.
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Rome photo workshop, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Labs, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in Cades Cove, Charleston Photographic Workshop, Dogwoods, Fall Smoky Mountain photo workshop, Greenbrier, Michigan photographic workshops, Ogle Cabin, Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain spring photo workshop, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour, Tuscan Photo Workkshop, Venice Carnival - Photographic Workshop Tour, Venice Italy Photographic Workshop
The 4th of July is a great day to have fun with family and friends and plan trips to our great National Parks. My images below capture the beauty of Grand Canyon and remind me of the visual treasures the parks hold for us to photograph. I have scheduled two workshops this fall in our National Parks, hope you can join us.
The Great Smoky Mountains Workshop tour October 26-29 2014
Southwest Slot Canyon Workshop tour Nov. 8-14 2014.
Hope you can join me in one of our national parks!

Shadow Lands, South Rim of the Grand Canyon
Both Topaz and Nix software can work magic on your image. Today Ihave spent a little time today working on images of the Grand Canyon that are in my Panoramic Gallery. The Topaz software that I used to finish these images makes a huge improvement over the original processing in Photoshop CS3 used just a few years ago.

Tapestry of Light, South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Raw image with a few adjustments
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Leave a comment | tags: Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Southwest Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity | posted in Antelope Canyon, Cades Cove, Dogwoods, Fire Canyon Arch, Fire Wave, Fog Bow, Grand Canyon, Greenbrier, Hopi Point, Little River Road, Natural Arch, Nik software, Ogle Cabin, Owl Canyon, Page Arizona, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Rime Ice, River time exposure, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Slot Canyon Workshops, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Smokies, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Smoky Mountains Institute, Southwest Photo Workshop, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour, The Watchman, Topaz Photo Software, topaz simplify, Tremont, Valley of Fire, Virgin River, White Rainbow, Zion National Park
While in Cades cove a couple of years ago I captured this wild pink Aster at F5.6 to keep the majority of the blooms in focus while fading out the background. The image was nice but I did not want to spend time cleaning it up so I let it sit until a couple of days ago when I decided to run it through Topaz Simplify 4. 1st I creating a layer and then in Effects I selected Painting in Presets then I selected Impressions Color. After Simplify made its changes to the layer I changed the opacity to 35% to soften the effect and this gave the image the a nice look and color boost without healing areas of the flower that I would normally.

Aster processed using Topaz Simplify
This weekend I will be heading to the Smoky Mountains to arrive a day or two ahead of my workshop group which starts on the 21st of April. The wildflowers are in great bloom in the park and the shooting will be amazing. We will have partially cloudy skies with some chance of rain with temperatures will be from the low to high 70’s during the day and drop down to the 50’s at night.

Aster Raw image unprocessed
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Leave a comment | tags: Digital Photographic Workshop, Little River Road, Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Simplify | posted in Dogwoods, Greenbrier, Greenbrier, Little River Road, Ogle Cabin, Photographic Workshops, Rime Ice, River time exposure, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Smokies, Smokies, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Smoky Mountains Institute, Smoky Mountains National Park, topaz simplify, Tremont
This New Years day I sat down to work on past images from the Smoky Mountains. With the Smoky Mountain Workshop only a few months away it was enjoyable looking over images of mountain streams rushing with spring runoff, delicate blooms of the dogwoods and the soft greens of the young leaves on this cold winter day.

Smoky Mountain spring runoff and dogwoods
On New Year’s Eve I ordered the Epson 9890 on New Year’s Eve. It will be great having the new Epson for my printing workflow for the art fairs and if everything goes smoothly with delivery and set up I will be printing with my new 9890 by this weekend.
The start of each new year brings a feeling of exhilaration and enthusiasm for the places that I will be visiting, the images that I will capture and everything that this year will hold for me. I look forward to another full year of displaying my images at Art Fairs, teaching location workshops while spending time with old and new friends.
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2 Comments | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop | posted in Dogwoods, Greenbrier, Photographic Workshops, Smokies, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Smoky Mountains Institute, Smoky Mountains National Park, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Tremont