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Happy New Year!

As I type these words it’s about 45 degrees F in northeast Ohio, which has been enjoying a mild winter for the past couple of months. The weather forecast for early January predicts warmer than average days, with a return to colder temperatures with snow showers by mid-month. Now is a good time to catch up on office tasks and other indoor projects.

Assuming we get colder, snowy weather later in January, the photo above shows what Holden Arboretum’s rugged Stebbins Gulch may look like, with icicles adorning the sandstone cliffs. This will be the destination for the afternoon photo shoot on Saturday, February 2 as part of our annual winter photography workshop at The Holden Arboretum. 

The workshop begins with a morning slide program on winter photography at Holden’s Visitor Center. We’ll cover winterizing your digital camera equipment, the best smartphone and digital camera settings for winter photography, and lots of specific tips for finding, lighting and composing great photographs of icicles, ice patterns, snowy vistas, rural scenes and wildlife in winter at the best locations in Ohio.

After the slide program, we’ll carpool a short distance and enjoy a hike through Holden’s winter woods to Stebbins Gulch, a rugged gorge with 80-foot sandstone cliffs, frozen waterfalls, and picturesque icicles, if the weather is seasonally cold. We’ll descend into the gorge (knee-length waterproof rubber boots are highly recommended), shoot for a couple of hours, then hike out of the Gulch and return to Holden’s Visitor Center to socialize and enjoy a hot drink.

There will also be an afternoon session on Saturday, February 9 from 1-4 pm at the Holden Visitor Center to share and critique your favorite photos from the Stebbins Gulch photo shoot, and we’ll review some techniques for fine-tuning your winter photos using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and a few smartphone apps.

This workshop is limited to 16 participants, and you should have a basic knowledge of digital photography and be familiar with the controls and operation of your smartphone camera, digital point-&-shoot, SLR or mirrorless camera.

To register for the program, visit Holden’s website at: www.holdenarb.org