Thursday, October 30, 2025

Alaska Photo Tour - Wow the landscape!

This was my first photo tour in Alaska and myself and my guests were all looking forward to photographing, whales, bears, icebergs and more. Even though we did capture all those things, we also found ourselves captivated by the landscapes. In this blog, I want to share with you some of the beauty that we saw on the tour.

The day before our boat headed out, we all met in the small town of Petersburg, Alaska. This is a small fishing town which also has a pretty harbor. We watched as sea planes went in and out of the area. In this photo you will see lots of seagulls feeding in the water. That is because the local fish processing plant has a pipe which sends all the excess fish parts back into the water. The birds love that!

We walked around the harbor and enjoyed the fresh air and peaceful sites.

This is a view of Petersburg and the majestic mountains in the background.

This one of the few photo tours where I packed a drone. Late in the afternoon, I sent the DJI Mavic 2S up into the sky to get an aerial shot of the small town.

The next day, we boarded our boat and started out of the harbor. As we did, we watched as the clouds danced across the tops of the local mountains.

It was fun to capture the beauty surrounding us.

Great reflections.

Once we left the harbor and headed out into the inner passage, we went through some really dense fog. I was a bit worried since we could not see anything and I really wanted my guests to get some good photos on our first day.

After an hour or so, we came through the fog and everything opened up. We also saw Humpback whales for the first time. We all had a great time photographing the whale tails as they came up out of the water. In the days to come, we got much better whale shots, but hey that is another blog post.

At the end of our first day we saw the late afternoon sun coming through the clouds. I taught everyone the best camera settings for capturing the "gods rays". It was an awesome way to end Day 1.

In the following days, we saw endless photographic landscapes.

Once again, we enjoyed photographing the clouds amongst the mountains.

We saw this pretty waterfall (with an iceberg in front of it), and I thought it would make a pretty photo. Usually for waterfalls, I try to photograph them at 1/2 second to show the motion of the water. In the past we would not have been able to capture this at such a slow shutter speed. You can't use tripods on a moving boat and it would have been tough to handhold a camera at this speed. With these newer cameras (with in-camera stabilization and stabilization in the lenses), it is now possible to handhold a camera even at 1/2 second or even longer. I encouraged everyone to try this. I was mostly using the Canon R5 Mark II on this trip.

We had numerous sightings of rainbows.

This rainbow was captured on the last morning of the trip. All of us were in the boat looking at our images when Laura went outside with her cup of coffee and saw this beautiful sight. We all scampered outside and captured this moment. This was another good lesson of under exposing the camera to bring out the colors of the rainbow.

This last shot was taken from outside the tiny "airport" as we were all leaving Petersburg. We had some time before our plane arrived so I grabbed the Canon R5 Mark II and RF 100-500mm lens and took this final image. Not a bad view from the road.

And just wait to see the other photos from this photo tour!

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Tuesday, October 21, 2025

How to take one photo and create AMAZING art!!

I was scrolling through Instagram and came across this really cool company and had to stop and take a full look at what they were doing. The company is called Wirestyle and what they do is really amazing! They literally take a regular photo and turn it into a piece of art using nails and a single line of string.

I talked to the founder of the company (in Germany) to get more information about what they do, and to determine which images look best using their technique. After careful consideration, and their advice, I decided that this elephant photo from Botswana would look the best.

The first thing I did was convert the image to black and white (using Adobe Photoshop) and then I uploaded that image to Wirestyle.

They sent me a confirmation that they received the image, and they also sent me this rendering showing how it would look once completed.

Two weeks later I received a delivery from DHL all the way from Germany, with my artwork inside. You can click HERE or on the image above to watch the video of me opening the well-packed box.

This is what the artwork looks like from a distance...

...but when you look closer, you see all of the nails and the single piece of string.

The varying amounts of string are what create the dark and light parts of the image. It is really amazing to see up close.

Each piece of art comes with a time lapse video of it's creation.

You can click HERE or on the image above to see that video.

The packaging is more than sufficient to get the artwork delivered without any damage. I will say that the frame is not substantial and looks a little "cheap". Since the frame is a simple screw-together metal frame, I recommend replacing it with something nicer. I am going to do that for sure. I may also enclose mine in glass so that I don't have to worry about dust forming on the string.

If you would like to have one of your photos created using this string art technique, go to www.wirestyle.com and let them know that you found out about them from me. Also, if you would like to get one of my elephant photos in this string art, email me and let me know.

If watched the unveiling video, you may have noticed the other elephant image on my wall. This was created by a good friend of mine in the Chicago area. Jason has a unique technique where he takes his images (and mine) and prints on a special "rice paper" and then wets and dries the paper into a 3 dimensional image.

This is equally cool and I have numerous images from Jason proudly hung in my house.

Hopefully you can see the way that the elephants are raised on the paper. It is truly beautiful.

If you are interested in these one-of-a-kind pieces, you can click HERE.

If you are a photographer like me, you probably get tired of seeing your own work, so it is really fun to see the same images created in new ways. Both the Wirestyle art and the images that Jason creates are totally unique. I love that they are conversation pieces hung up at the house. People are drawn to the unique creations and want to know more about them.

Let me know what you think!

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Tuesday, October 14, 2025

A BRAND NEW photo tour to photograph bears and more with myself and Bob Davis!

Bob Davis (Canon Explorer or Light) and I are excited to announce our first ever joint wildlife photography workshop in Orr, Minnesota, May 21–27, 2026. Bob has done this trip numerous times, but never with the two of us teaching.

For six unforgettable days, you’ll photograph:

🌊 Vermilion River Falls — landscapes & waterfalls
🦢 Clementson Wayside Park — pelicans fishing in the rapids
🐻 Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary — 3 days of incredible black bear encounters

Along the way, we’ll share hands-on instruction in the field, daily critiques, and professional guidance to take your photography to the next level.

The trip is from May 21- 27 of next year and we are limiting the trip to 10 guests. That means you have 5 guests to an instructor. The cost is $5850 per person and includes hotels and all meals. All you have to do is get yourself to Orr, MN.

I posted this on my website and offered the trip to returning guests over the weekend . 5 spots remain!!

You can see everything on the tour website HERE!

First-Ever Wildlife Workshop Co-Hosted by Jeff Cable & Bob Davis

We are thrilled to announce our first-ever wildlife photography workshop collaboration, bringing together two seasoned photographers and educators: Jeff Cable, Olympic Team Photographer, and Bob Davis, Canon Explorer of Light. Both Jeff and Bob will be leading a group of just 10 guests to photograph endless bears, waterfalls and majestic landscapes along the border of Minnesota and Canada. In this photo tour, the guests will not only be able to capture Pelicons and waterfalls, they will have 3 full days to photograph Black bears in a unique environment. See adult bears and their cubs up-close and in many different settings.

This one-of-a-kind workshop will blend Jeff’s 20+ years of global sports and travel photography experience with Bob’s 20+ years of photojournalism and storytelling expertise, creating an unforgettable opportunity for photographers to learn, grow, and capture extraordinary images in the wild. This small group will have a lot of time with each of the instructors, learning photo techniques, how to cull efficiently, and top-notch retouching instruction.

About Bob Davis

For more than 20 years, Bob Davis worked as a photojournalist, telling stories through his lens at the Chicago Sun-Times. His career has taken him from the sidelines of Michael Jordan’s entire career with the Chicago Bulls, to covering presidential elections, to documenting faiths, traditions, and human interest stories around the world in places like El Salvador, Kenya, Taiwan, Romania, and Eastern Europe.

After moving on from newspapers, Bob built a career photographing milestone celebrations, including the weddings of Eva Longoria & Tony Parker, Salma Hayek & François-Henri Pinault, Tracey Edmonds & Eddie Murphy, La La Vazquez & Carmelo Anthony, The Bachelorette’s Ashley Herbert & J.P. Rosenbaum, and many events for Oprah Winfrey.

As a Canon Explorer of Light, Westcott Top Pro, and SanDisk Extreme Team member, Bob has become known for his passion for teaching, sharing lighting techniques, and helping photographers elevate their craft. He is the author of Lights, Camera, Capture: Creative Lighting Techniques for Digital Photographers and a sought-after speaker worldwide.

Why This Workshop is Different

This collaboration brings together two very different but complementary perspectives:

Jeff’s fast-action Olympic precision and travel photography expertise
Bob’s award-winning photojournalism background and mastery of lighting and storytelling

Together, Jeff and Bob will guide a small group of photographers through immersive field sessions, critiques, and personal mentorship in a setting rich with wildlife and natural beauty.

They have worked with the local hotels and restaurants to make sure that everything is covered. All you have to do is get yourself to the location in Minnesota and Jeff and Bob will include the hotels and all meals.

This is the first time these two acclaimed photographers have joined forces — and space will be limited.

Want a spot? Email me at: jcable@jeffcable.com

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Galapagos - The final days of this photo tour

Our last couple of days in the Galapagos Islands were just as exciting as our first days there. We had endless subjects to photograph, and just like all the previous days, the landscape and animals were very different as we visited new locations. One other thing...the newer technology in our mirrorless cameras helped us capture something really hard to photograph in the past. Heck, let's start with that.

In the last blog post, I mentioned that we were able to watch the Water iguanas as they fed underwater. On this morning, we were able to walk around and watch the iguanas licking the salt off the rocks.

They were not bothered by us at all, so we could get down low and pretty close to capture images like this.

There were endless iguana in sight, so it was not hard to find one to photograph. As we were watching these iguana sunning themselves, our guide pointed out that they would periodically "sneeze" out the excess salt from their noses. Everyone then tried to get a photo of that, but it was very hard to predict. One guy walked by us and said "I have been trying to get that shot for 8 years and still don't have one." It was at that point that I remembered that we had Canon's Pre-continuous shooting ability in our cameras, and we could go back half a second.

I showed everyone how to set this up in their cameras, and then we could wait for the iguana to expel the salt and hit the shutter button. And voila, it worked like a champ. You can see the middle iguana "sneezing" in this photo.

I then captured this sequence of another iguana. I was using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens at 350mm and had my Canon R5 Mark II camera set to ISO 640, f/7.1, 1/400th sec. This shutter speed freezes the action just enough but also shows the motion of the spray.

We all had a great time using the pre-capture feature of the cameras.

What would have been SO difficult in the past, was easily repeatable with the new cameras.

While walking around, we came across these two adorable baby Sea lions

Mom was nearby and yawning in the evening light.

I was sitting down and relaxing (just taking it all in) when I looked next to me and saw this Lava lizard hanging out right next to me. I loved the orange color along it's neck and had to get a shot of that.

The next day we were cruising along the coastline of Santiago Island when we came across this rock formation. They call this the Praying Monk and we could definitely see why they call it that.

We saw an abundance of birds on the last couple of days, including these Galapagos Brown Pelicans

This beautiful Tern was flying right towards us.

It was really fun to capture images of the Red-billed tropicbird as they flew by us, with their long flowing tails.

This was the first time that we were able to see the Red-footed booby. Just like most of the other birds in Galapagos, we could get very close to them for photos without them being bothered. This allowed me to get this tight shot (using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens at 500mm) showing the colors in the face of the bird.

The baby Red-footed boobies were so darned cute. Little fluff-balls of white.

This is a tight shot of a Frigate bird. I really liked this frame, showing the face of the bird off-center, with the curve of the beak leading off to the left.

We watched them as they guarded their nests...

...and watched over the young birds.

This little Frigate bird had walked away from the nest and was in danger. Our guide gently picked it up and moved it back to it's mother.

Then it was feeding time. We all got down low to get photos of this little one being fed. This baby went all the way into the adult's mouth to get food.

I saw this one Red-footed booby hanging out in a tree and I loved the way that it was perfectly framed by the dark green leaves. I encouraged all my guests to get a shot of this. I also love the expression on the face of this bird.

We even had some appearances by the Blue-footed boobies on this island.

Our big finale for the trip was the chance to photograph the male Frigate birds with their large inflatable red throats. They do this the attract the females. This was our first sighting (and my safety shot in case we did not see any more).

We ended up seeing plenty more of these amazing birds on our walk. We had an abundance of photos of the birds on the nests or in the tress, and I challenged everyone to try and get a shot of these birds in the air.

This was my first aerial photo, and what I thought would be my only one.

Right as we were about to get into our Zodiac to head back to our boat, I saw this Frigate bird flying past us. I quickly raised the Canon R5 Mark II and fired off a bunch of frames. It was the perfect ending to a magical week in the Galapagos.

For those who want to join me in the Galapagos, I have added a 2027 trip on my website and have 6 spots available. Feel free to reach out so I can hold a spot for you! And remember, you can borrow almost any Canon camera or lens you want at no charge for the trip. Not that you have to be a Canon user to join my trips, but...

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