Category Archives: Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop
According to the Cherokee tradition, hidden deep within the Smoky Mountains, there is an enchanted lake that humans cannot see. Known as Atagahi, this magical lake is an oasis for animals of every kind, with thousands of water birds, fish, reptiles, and bears enjoying its water.

Atagahi-The Enchanted Lake
In one story, the enchanted lake reveals itself to a young Cherokee man after days of fasting and continuous prayer. Having proven that he has no intention to hunt at Atagahi, the pure hearted man is permitted to see the lake’s stunning violet water and teeming wildlife. When his vision ends, the man marks the location of the secret lake with a pile of rocks.
A short time after this discovery, a terrible winter brings the Cherokee to the brink of starvation. Faced with no other choice, the young hunter returns to Atagahi to bring food back to his family. When he shoots a bear with his bow, however, the animal falls into the purple water and emerges unscathed. The bear tells the trespasser that he has betrayed them and the young man is attacked by a furry horde.
After the snowstorm passes, the Cherokee find the body of the young man, but there are no tracks from the bears who mauled him. Although Atagahi was forever sealed off from human intervention after the young hunter’s treachery, legend has it that you can still see morning mist rise from the magic lake when you stand at the top of Clingmans Dome.
Clingman’s Dome is a sacred mountain to the Cherokees, where the “magic lake” was once seen. The Great Spirit told the Cherokees that “If they love me, if they love all their brothers and sisters, and if they love all the animals of the earth, when they grow old and sick, they can come back to the ‘magic lake’ and be made well again.”
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1 Comment | tags: Paul Christopher James, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs | posted in Atagahi-The Enchanted Lake, Smokey Mountain National Park, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Spring Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, The Magic Lake, Topaz Clarity
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
Bob Parry a friend and photographer from the Cleveland area won a couple of nice awards with two images that he captured during the Charleston and Pisa Italy workshops.
Cleveland’s west side photo club had an intra club competition with the Chagrin Falls photo club. The subject was “reflections” so I had to search through files to find some photos I hadn’t used before. I could submit 4 to my club for a pre selection as the club was limited in the number of photos we could submit and all 4 of mine we included. Two of the four were selected as second place earning 24 out of 27 points. The two that won second places are the reflection of tower of Pisa which was done on your Tuscany workshop I think in 2011 and the other was the red bridge from your Charleston I think in 2009?

Oriental Bridge, Charleston

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Cyprus swamp, Charleston

Cottonwood reflection on the Virgin River in Zion
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Southwest Photo Workshop | posted in Charleston Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Photographic Workshops, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour
When shooting in close for macro or close up images it is often difficult bringing everything into focus even at f/22 or f/32. The depth of field of an image will often come up short and leave parts of the image out of focus. This is when focus stacking becomes useful. This image was focused manually starting at the point closest to the lense and work my way into the image taking 4 exposures at different focus points. After taking the four exposure I blended them in Photoshop bringing the whole image into focus.

Focus Stacking in Photoshop CS6
The image below focuses on the flower pistil closest to the lens. I took 4 exposures at different focus points leaving the corners at the top soft to help draw your eye into the image.

1st of four focus exposure
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Paul Christopher James, Rome photo workshop, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in Adobe CS6, Charleston Photographic Workshop, Focus Stacking, Michigan Photo Workshop, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Rome photo workshop, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Tuscan Photo Workshop
My friends at Topaz labs added one of my images of the Venice lagoon in their Clarity Gallery

Santa Maria della Salute on the Lagoon
http://gallery.topazlabs.com/Photography/Topaz-Clarity/i-3Xc24mB/A
It is always fun having your images spotlighted.
April 28 through May 2 I will be teaching in Venice and revisiting some of my favorite locations with clients. I still have 2 spots open for the adventurous photographer.
For a list of upcoming Workshops click here
To Save 15% on any of the Topaz product Click Here
Topaz ReStyle is $20 off its original price of $59.99 (reducing the price to $39.99) coupon code ‘FEBRESTYLE’ click here
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Michigan Photo Workshops, Rome photo workshop, Southwest Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Tuscany photo workshop, Venice Photo Workshop | posted in Michigan photographic workshops, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Rome Photgraphic Workshop, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Smoky Mountain Photo Workshop, Southwest Photographic Workshop Tour, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Labs, Tuscan Photo Workkshop, Venice Photographic Workshop Tour
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
An old traveling and photography friend from my Navy days liked the three window image from Charleston that I posted a couple of days ago and asked if it would look good in Black and White. This image casts some wonderful shadows created by the Morning Sun and I think it does look better as a Black and White than it did in color.

Three Windows. Charleston-Silver Efex Pro
To process this image I used Silver Efex Pro 2 part of the Nik Software suite makes this image pop the way the old B&W films would and for this image I used the following settings shown in the screen capture. Green filter, Kodak 100 TMAX Pro, Copper Toner 16, Burn All Edges Image Border-Off.

Silver Efex Pro 2 work flow
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Topaz Clarity, Tuscany photo workshop | posted in 2012 Magnolia Plantation and Gardens Photo Contest winners, Azaleas, Capturing Highlights and Shadows, Charleston, Charleston Churches, Charleston Doorways, Charleston Graveyards, Charleston Photographic Workshop, Crape Myrtle, Cypress Trees, Depth of field, Dogwood Tree, Nik software, Slave Cabins, Smokey Mountain National Park, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Simplify, Windows, Wisteria
This Cemetery image Captured on my Cannon 5D in Old Charleston needed very little work in Photoshop camera raw. After opening the image in Photoshop I finished processing the image using Film Effects in Nik software – Color Efex Pro3.

Dogwood-Graveyard
Battery Park stretches along the lower shores of the Charleston peninsula, bordered by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers which meet here to form Charleston harbor. This area of Charleston is famous for its stately antebellum homes and is one of the best spots to photograph and get to know Charleston. This historic spot on the waterfront features southern mansions with hidden gardens and our oldest churches with cemeteries where our founding fathers are buried. The Battery has incredible views of Fort Sumter, Castle Pinckney, and the Sullivan Island Lighthouse.
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Photographic Workshop, Digital Photographic Workshop, Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Photographic Workshops, Tuscany photo workshop | posted in Adobe CS6, Azaleas, Charleston, Charleston Churches, Charleston Graveyards, Charleston Photographic Workshop, Charleston South Carolina, Color Effex Pro, Dogwood Tree, Italian Photographic Workshop, Nik Software, Paul Christopher James, Photographic Workshops, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop

Clingmans dome - Rim Frost
On Monday, April 23 on the first full day of the Smokey Mountain workshop there was rime ice that made the narrow winding switchbacks mountain roads to Clingmans dome too treacherous for driving and the road was closed for most of the day. Fortunately after 4pm the road to Clingmans dome was reopened and we were able to capture some fabulous images. I have traveled through the Smokey mountains for the last 20 years on my way home from the southern art fair circuited and this is the first I was able to capture Rime Ice sometimes known as hoar frost.

Mount Le Conte
The summit of Mount Le Conte to the east of 441 was covered in rime ice. Sunlight played on the landscape like a painters brush as it dappled the trees on the mountain with light as we photographed. It is always a wonderful experience watching when nature presents us with her handiwork.
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Leave a comment | tags: Charleston Spring Photo workshop, Nik Software, Photoshop training | posted in Adobe CS5.5, Clingmans dome, Hoar Frost, Mount Le Conte, Nik Software, Photographic Workshops, Rime Ice, Smokey Mountain Photo Workshop, Smokey Mountain Photographic Workshop, Smokies, Uncategorized