As the saying goes, sometimes the best things in life are free; this is an understatement when it comes to Canon’s Photography in the Parks.

The workshops are featured at four of the top national parks in the country - Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Acadia.

Getting to the park is your deal, but once you get there the workshops repeat twice a day for consecutive days at each park during the summer. The 2009 season (Acadia is left for late August) is just about over but Canon expects to post the 2010 dates by next spring.

Each day the workshop repeats itself with a morning and afternoon session. The day ends with a slide show hosted by the photographer who leads the workshop.

“Photography has played a critical role in both the creation and preservation of the parks and we believe that encouraging people to record their photos and videos represents an act of stewardship that will ensure that national parks and other public lands like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Acadia and the Grand Canyon, continue to be protected,’’ said Joel Saferstein associate publisher of the American Park Network.

In many cases the workshops are led by one of Canon’s distinguished Explorer of Light photographers. On my trip in early August to Yellowstone, I had a fabulous experience watching photographer George Lepp lead the class.

Lepp is one the most famous outdoor photographers in this country. Among the publications featuring Lepp’s work for over 25 years is Outdoor Photographer as well as PC Photo magazines.

The vast majority of students is beginners; most had little if any experience using a digital SLR, said Saferstein. “The goal of our workshops is to impart three or four important skills and/or concepts-composition, lighting, depth of field, to name a few-so that they feel more empowered and confident when they get behind the lens in the future,” he added.

Registration is done on site the day of the workshop. If you don’t have a camera, or if you want to try out some of the latest and greatest gear from Canon – no problem. They are stocked with equipment to loan for about 60 people per workshop.

The equipment ranged from the new Canon 5D Mark II SLR to Powershots. Lens options ranged from wide angles and fish eyes to 300 2.8 telephoto lenses.

The setup at Yellowstone was right outside the Old Faithful Inn, positioned beside the popular and photogenic Old faithful Geyser. From there Lepp led my group on a walking tour of the area, which took about two hours for the mile walk.

Every 20 yards or so he stopped to explain the situation we were at along with going over extensive photo tips on how to get the best images out of each location.

After explaining a few things Lepp photographed the subject himself, and then allowed the students to view the images on his LCD screen. From there he helped some apply his tips to make there own images.

He as well as all the other instructors explained what gear they were using, as well as tips on what filters could be used to improve a photo.

While talking with some students, Lepp brought up something, which is a slam-dunk in my mind. The topic came up on whether film or digital gives you the better quality image. Lepp was adamant that digital has passed film and I couldn’t agree more.

“Shooting at ISO 400 with the 5D Mark II is so much better than film these days. Years ago it might have been a valid argument but not today since today’s digital cameras shoot better images then film, even at high ISO settings,” Lepp said.

Other topics included how to choose the proper f-stop to get optimum quality along with the correct depth of field. Often people want to photograph flowing rivers, but they want to have the water blurred with motion using the correct exposure. While we weren’t at a river during this time, Lepp still took the time to explain how this image can be captured.

Composition is always a topic in photography, which is debated on what is right or wrong. “Photographers can think and see things in all aspects of photography differently,” Lepp said.

This is also true with panoramic photos. “How much you overlap each image is based on the lens to be used and software will do the rest,” he said. The software he used is the latest version of Adobe Photoshop and Photomerge.

You can put your own memory cards into the loaner cameras to keep your images or you can borrow a media card. At the end of the workshop, Canon will allow participants to print some of the images on 4×6 postcard ready paper, but I would encourage anyone wanting to go to the workshop to use there own memory card to preserve the images.

The night program consisted of Lepp showing a slide show of his work, some taken that day and others while on other assignments around the world. It’s a very interactive program and he took questions about how he captured his images, what software was used, locations, gear, etc.

In addition to the sponsorship of the program and the camera gear, Canon also has its fourth annual Canon Photography In The Parks Photo Contest.

The contest is open for entries from May 15th to September 30th, 2009, and has the theme “Inspirational Nature Images.”  Users can enter photos taken at any park or monument in America through the Canon Digital Learning Center Web site at: www.usa.canon.com/parks.

This year, Canon has two contest divisions for photographers. One for the ages of 13 and 17, and another for adults18 and older. Each category will offer prizes ranging from the latest Canon digital photography gear to the grand prize - a trip to a National Park

“Through our Photography in the Parks Photo Contest, we have seen a great number of awe-inspiring outdoor images submitted from around the country. It is during these beautiful spring and summer months that we all should take the time to go outside and enjoy all that nature has to offer,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, Canon U.S.A. in a recent email.

If you plan your calendar right, once the 2010 dates are announced try and plan it out so your workshop features on of the Explorer of Light photographers..

www.usa.canon.com/dlc

www.nps.gov/archive/yell/OldFaithfulcam.htm

– Gregg Ellman