We wanted to take some time to look at our 5th year of operations for Visual Wilderness and wish you all a very happy holidays. Here are some of the highlights from this past year.
More About Our Contributing Photographers
In spite of their best efforts to portray themselves as super heroes on social media, all our contributing landscape photographers are humans that have lives beyond photography. Some of them more than others. ;) Here are interesting tidbits from our contributors:
Joshua Snow – I built a camper van, spent 220+ nights on the road, was able to travel a few times internationally, and forgot how to take photos in the process.
Christine Hauber – I competed in the National Senior Olympics and I am not even old! A few years ago they dropped the “senior” age to 50. Although I did not win any of my swimming events, I was happy that I did not come in last.
Kate Silvia – I started learning to paint! I never knew I could do this and it’s kinda blowing me away. Just goes to show… try new things… all the time! You never know what you might be capable of!
Artwork by Landscape Photographer Kate Silvia
Pro Landscape Photographer Christine Hauber participating in National Senior Olympics
Landscape photographer’s ultimate transportation by Joshua Snow
Chrissy Donadi – I had a baby in January so this has been the first year of my adult life with absolutely no travel. I remained in the same state for 365 days and have been a stay-at-home parent. After more sleep deprivation than photographing in Iceland during the months of almost 24 hours daylight, my husband and I are considering our first year as parents of a mini human somewhat successful.
Varina Patel – In 2019, I discovered that I had MS… and named it Grover. Bad Grover!! Go away Grover. So I decided to add water colors to keep my fingers active and combat the effects of MS.
How MS effected Varina Patel – Click to Play
Gaurav Mittal – 2019 was very challenging for me health-wise. Facing a very serious cervical spondylosis issue, I have been through multiple surgeries and numerous nerve block procedures. While I did not do anything outside of photography this year, I did learn something new about myself… a steel-like determination to not give up.
Lace Andersen – I became a full time photographer, got laid off, and started photographing people, weddings, and families etc. Outside of photography… I have been avidly going to yoga 4-5 days a week in hopes of touching my toes one day soon. Until then, there will be no yoga selfies.
Jay Patel – This year I decided to stop running and take up long-distance biking. Why? So I can make sure my knees don’t need replacing when I grow up. Which by the way, I don’t plan on doing as soon as I figure out how to stop time.
Bear, the super-sidekick guard dog watching over Chrissy Donadi’d tripod & camera.
Landscape photographer Jay Patel testing out new Shimoda Bag in Iceland
Travel photography from Japan by Ugo Cei
Ugo Cei – This year I started shooting film again with a large format view camera and learned how to develop it at home. I also started studying Japanese and was able to use what I learned during my first trip to Japan. I will keep studying the language in preparation for my upcoming fall colors tour of 2020. Finally, I learned how to dance… no, really!!
Most Popular Blog Posts
Oh yes… and our contributing photographers continued to create some fantastic blog posts. Below are some of the most popular with landscape photographers from all over the world in 2019 (in no particular order).
This was the second full year of a landscape photography streaming service offering for our customers. We have an excellent subscriber retention rate and continue to provide new content throughout the year. In addition, we introduced several new nature photography video tutorials that were available for free for streaming subscribers. Here are is what the customers are saying about our video tutorials:
Thank you Varina for explaining hyper focal distance
I am thrilled that this weekend I got to put to use what I have learned so far. Thank you Varina for explaining hyper focal distance, it even worked with my little Olympus OMD M5 with
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I am thrilled that this weekend I got to put to use what I have learned so far. Thank you Varina for explaining hyper focal distance, it even worked with my little Olympus OMD M5 with the kit 12-50mm lens. Thank you both for explaining how to use layers.
Visual Wilderness Streaming Service is the one service that I subscribe to that I truly would be heartbroken to lose!!! I have learned so much from the videos and love that I can go back and
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Visual Wilderness Streaming Service is the one service that I subscribe to that I truly would be heartbroken to lose!!! I have learned so much from the videos and love that I can go back and re-watch them to refresh myself whenever I want. I knew the videos were outstanding, but I’m in awe at how amazing your customer service is.
I am looking forward to completing the Creating Impact Course. You and Varina do an excellent job of teaching key photographing techniques. Watching your video’s is like having my own personalRead more “Having my own personal instructor!”
Bill Higgins
Michigan, USA
Alan is a master of color & light
Alan has always been a favorite of mine. Having him share his technique on Visual Wilderness has been fabulous. Alan, is a master of color & light, and a fabulousRead more “Alan is a master of color & light”
Jeri Mearns
Kiawah Island, South Carolina
I am having so much fun
You have both brought my learning forward big time with your Histogram Exposed Course. I only got my first dslr 2 weeks ago. You have given me the skills to get results straight away. I am
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You have both brought my learning forward big time with your Histogram Exposed Course. I only got my first dslr 2 weeks ago. You have given me the skills to get results straight away. I am having so much fun experimenting in manual mode. Something I didn’t think was possible so early in my journey.
The information is easy to understand and to the point
I bought several of your Video Courses and I just love them. They are enthusiastic, the information is easy to understand and to the point. It makes me want to run out and try all your
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I bought several of your Video Courses and I just love them. They are enthusiastic, the information is easy to understand and to the point. It makes me want to run out and try all your tips . Best of all the photography from all over the world is just fantastic! Great work! Will be watching for more!
I congratulate Jay and Varina on an excellent course!
I congratulate Jay and Varina on an excellent course. Naturally the most important element is the human and I am enjoying your philosophy, meticulous attention to detail, and words of wisdom learned sometimes the hard way.
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I congratulate Jay and Varina on an excellent course. Naturally the most important element is the human and I am enjoying your philosophy, meticulous attention to detail, and words of wisdom learned sometimes the hard way. You are giving us wonderful and very effective advice and recommendations for equipment use and photographic technique. (Ultimate Landscape Photography Course)
I highly recommend Visual Wilderness as training platform
Creative Still Life Photography with Alan Shapiro was very well done presentation. Students of all skill levels able to benefit and immediately improve their results in still life photography. I highly recommend Visual Wilderness as training
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Creative Still Life Photography with Alan Shapiro was very well done presentation. Students of all skill levels able to benefit and immediately improve their results in still life photography. I highly recommend Visual Wilderness as training platform and this instructor.
In 2019, we expanded our video tutorial offering by becoming a multi-vendor marketplace for nature photographers. We now offer video courses from several contributing photographers on all aspects of landscape photography. Here are some of the most popular video courses from this past year...
Our latest video courses were based on fine-tuning your start-to-finish workflow for some of the most important aspects of photography. These video courses, with a razor-sharp focus on different aspects of landscape and nature photography and are sold in over 70 countries around the world.
Newsletter and Web App Notifications
We have over 46,000 subscribers for our InFocus newsletter and over 18,000 subscribers get educational content via notifications from Visual Wilderness on their mobile and desktop devices. Not surprisingly, both of these free resources have superb engagement and a worldwide audience. Here is what some of the readers have to say...
I thoroughly enjoy each Newsletter
I thoroughly enjoy each Newsletter (InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter). They have all been interesting and informative. I love the photos I’ve seen and the text describing how the shot was made. I’ve
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I thoroughly enjoy each Newsletter (InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter). They have all been interesting and informative. I love the photos I’ve seen and the text describing how the shot was made. I’ve especially enjoyed seeing and reading how the light has changed the photo, or how the different approach of Jay and Varina to the same location will result in photos that can be dramatically different.
Having Visual Wilderness Nature Photography Newsletter on my PC at my finger tips is a great help and if need be I can quickly check for tips whilst out in the field
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Having Visual Wilderness Nature Photography Newsletter on my PC at my finger tips is a great help and if need be I can quickly check for tips whilst out in the field shooting.
InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter is a wonderful inspiration and resource for me, I’m on a limited budget live away from large towns, I am a carer and thoroughly enjoy photography. It is
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InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter is a wonderful inspiration and resource for me, I’m on a limited budget live away from large towns, I am a carer and thoroughly enjoy photography. It is truly a fantastic thing to be able to learn and be inspired by your InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter. All I can say is I love it and thank you.
There’s always something included in InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter that I can use to improve my photographic creativity. There’s a lot to learn from reading your experiences, both good and bad. This
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There’s always something included in InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter that I can use to improve my photographic creativity. There’s a lot to learn from reading your experiences, both good and bad. This magazine comes to me in an ‘awkward’ format, but I still love the sharing which is written like as though it was made within a family structure.
Absolutely love the honesty and integrity that shines through whenever I hear Jay or Varina speak. There isn’t any of the obvious marketing of products with InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter that is
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Absolutely love the honesty and integrity that shines through whenever I hear Jay or Varina speak. There isn’t any of the obvious marketing of products with InFocus Nature Photography Newsletter that is so pervasive in other instructional websites and magazines. You are excellent instructors, motivators and inspire me to try new things in better ways. Keep up the good work and thanks for all your efforts.
Throughout this coming year, we plan to create more in-depth video courses on several aspects of landscape photography. In addition, producing more on-location video courses that feature workshop-style lessons is also part of our 2020 plan.
I could startoff like this – “Seeds of Jay Patel’s appreciation for beautiful places were planted early in his childhood….” but it would get boring really fast. I will just sum it up and say that I am a Landscape and Wilderness Photographer who loves to capture dramatic light. My photographs have been published in various magazines, calendars and advertising materials throughout the world. Patience is a virtue...unless you are chasing your dreams
Wonderful that you have put this personal touch out there. May your holidays be all you want them to be and may the new year bring healing for those in need and continued enthusiasm for all the great work you do.
keith fey says:
May all of you at Visual Wilderness continue capturing the light of our wonderful World for all of us to see and dream about. May you share your knowledge with an ever widening enthralled community of like minded photographers. May you inspire the next generation to carry photography’s colors, may you return everything you have in your power to do so… to the pool of life … these wide open spaces which become rare because of their beauty and wildness…. and may you.. one and all have a very special blessed Christmas and prosperous new year… Thank you for the year gone by… too fast.. Kind regards.. Keith Fey.
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Wonderful that you have put this personal touch out there. May your holidays be all you want them to be and may the new year bring healing for those in need and continued enthusiasm for all the great work you do.
May all of you at Visual Wilderness continue capturing the light of our wonderful World for all of us to see and dream about. May you share your knowledge with an ever widening enthralled community of like minded photographers. May you inspire the next generation to carry photography’s colors, may you return everything you have in your power to do so… to the pool of life … these wide open spaces which become rare because of their beauty and wildness…. and may you.. one and all have a very special blessed Christmas and prosperous new year… Thank you for the year gone by… too fast.. Kind regards.. Keith Fey.