Welcome to my new page where it is my hopes to keep you informed as to what is going on with the world of sports and landscape photography!  I will update this page periodically, so please check back often.

 My Stock Library is Now On-Line!

I am pleased to announce that I am now offering my stock library of downloadable landscape high-res images directly from my website. This new process has been in the planning stages for the past four months and is now a reality. New images will be added daily until the entire library is available! I am still keeping my associations with Getty Images and Alamy, and can offer my clients all of my non-Getty images!  To access the images, please click on the Purchase Stock Images tab either here or on my homepage.

New Advertisement in Outdoor Photographer Magazine

I'm proud to announce my affiliation with Nik Software as part of their "Team Nik." This ad is now appearing in the May 2009 edition of Outdoor Photographer Magazine and features an image I made last December at Carmel River State Beach, California. I'd like to thank my friend and colleague Mike Hall for the use of the image he shot of me on a fall color trip in the eastern Sierra.

With my affiliation, I am able to offer a 15% discount off any Nik products. Please use my code DSMITH when ordering. I use Nik's incredible products on all my images. Give them a try and I'll guarantee you will fall in love with their ease and efficiency. On this image, I used Viveza to bring out the red reflection in the wet rocks, DFine to reduce some noise in the sky, and Sharpener Pro as my output sharpener!

2009 / 2010 Workshop Shedule

My 2009 workshop schedule is now on my website 2009 / 2010 Workshops. I also co-teach with Gary Hart on a number of his workshops. Please click this link to see what Gary has to offer Gary Hart Workshops.

Monthly Don Smith Photography Newsletters

There has been so many exciting events happening recently that I have decided to start sharing them with my friends and contacts via a monthly newsletter. I will be featuring a favorite image along with a brief story on how, where and when the image was made. That will be followed by a "News and Notes" page similar to this with important links. Please e-mail me if you would like to be aded to the list!

Who's the Funny Guy in the Lexar Advertisement?

Back in September, Lexar's Director of Marketing, Jeff Cable, asked me if I would be interested in appearing in a Lexar ad - they were apparently looking for a hockey photographer.  Within a couple of weeks, Jeff came to the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, and shot me shooting what appears to be a live game. As you've probably guessed, this was all staged.  The original image was supposed to be me shooting through one of the cutout holes on the glass. The problem was the cutout distorted my face (this was probably a good thing).  So Jeff had me stand, something I would not do during a game, and then took an image of one of our players (who will remain annonymous) who I did shoot in that night's game, and placed him in the foreground to give the sense that an actual game was being played. The player had all marks removed from his jersey, a new number added,  a new nose and mouth added, and a bit of Gaussian Blur to make him unrecognizable.  All the ads on the dasher boards were also removed and the scratches in the plexigalss were cleaned up.  In all, there were over 20 adjustment layers (if I remember correctly) used for the final comp. I'm not sure of all the magazines where this ad is running, but I have seen (or heard) that it has appeared in: Outdoor Photographer Magazine, Digital Photo Pro, Popular Photography and Photo District News. It is running in the United States, Canada and Europe.  By the way, Jeff's not only the head of Marketing for Lexar, but he also finds time to do professional photography - and he does it very well! Check out his site at www.jeffcable.com.

I've Joined the World of Bloggers!

What started out as a one-month experiment has now become a permanent feature on my website. I'm talking about my photoblog which can be accessed from my homepage (and on the column to your left). As you are probably aware, the blog is hosted by Aminus3.com - an independent hosting service. Unfortunately, my web provider, Foliolink, does not offer blogging services. I'm disappointed with this as I feel more and more photographers will turn to blogging as a way to keep content fresh and hopefully get people visiting their sites on a regular basis. I'd love to hear what you think, so please either email me or leave a comment on the blog. I'm trying to post new material at least five days a week.

Individual and Small Group Workshops

I will begin offering individual and small group (a maximum of 4 paticipants) workshops. This will be available when I activate my 2009 Workshop link later this month. I have had enough requests that I decided to make this service available. The workshops will deal primarily with landscape/nature photography, but I will also offer sports photography training, and Photoshop training. The workshops will be individually taylored to meet the student(s) needs.  Check back by the middle of this month for information.

So What's in Your Bag?

I get asked all the time - "what camera do you use and what lenses do you carry?"  I started out with Nikon but made the switch to Canon in the early 90's when their autofocus long lenses first appeared. I was shooting over 100 Major League Baseball games per year back then and immediately made the switch into their EOS system with a 400mm f2.8 and 600mm f4L lenses. I've been with Canon ever since.

When shooting landscapes, I pack my Tamrac Cyberpack 6 backpack with my Canon 1DsMKIII, 100mm macro, 16-35mmL 2.8, 24-70mmL 2.8, and either a 70-200mmL 2.8 (if I'm shooting fine detail) or my 300mm f/4 and if needed, a TC-1.4x converter. I have a couple of Canon remote cords, polarizers for all lenses, (3) 4"x6" Singh-Ray split neutral density filters (+2, +3 and +5 soft-edge), and a 77mm Singh-Ray variable neutral density filter (where I can dial up to 8 stops).

Here is a list of my current equipment:

CAMERAS:  Canon 1DMKII, Canon 1DMKIII, Canon 1DsMKIII

LENSES: (all Canon typeL lenses) 14mm - fisheye, 16-35mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, 24-70mm f2.8, 100mm f2.8 macro, 70-200mm f2.8, 300mm f2.8, 300mmL f4.0, 400mm f2.8, 1.4x converter, 2x converter, EF25 extension tube

ACCESSORIES: (2) 550EX flashes, Canon ST-E2 Speedlight Transmitter, (2) Pocket Wizard multi max transceivers, Gitzo carbon fiber monopod, Gitzo 1325 carbon fiber tripod, Kirk B3 ballhead,  Westcott and Litedisc reflectors and diffusion panels

STUDIO LIGHTS: (6) Elinchrome 500ws mono lights, (2) White Lightning 1200ws mono lights (4) Speedotron 2400ws packs (4) Speedotron quad-heads, stands, softboxes, umbrellas, snoots, grids, gels