Phil Hawkins: Patience And Persistence
Phil Hawkins is a multifaceted, modern-day professional photographer, working the local area for all it’s worth while producing his own fine-art nature imagery
By Dave Willis, Photography By Phil Hawkins
Hawkins throws out a metaphor to sum it all up. “Landscape and nature photography is a lot like fishing,” he muses. “You prepare for the best and position yourself for the best possible results. Sometimes the fish just aren’t biting, but in any case, I still enjoyed a day in the woods. I simply sat in a place and watched Mother Nature at work, especially in Yosemite, or the central Sierra where some of the most spectacular scenery in the world exists.”
To see more of Phil Hawkins’ photography, visit his website at www.philhawkinsphoto.com.
Nature Workshops
Prints aren’t the only way to make money from fine-art photography
Phil Hawkins’ nature images are world-renowned, and he has found more ways than one to capitalize on his passions. In 2008, Hawkins was invited to participate in a workshop via a Canadian company, and he enjoyed it so immensely that he decided to add workshops to his stable of interests by going it alone. His workshop website, www.yosemitephotoworkshops.com, now offers nearly 20 scheduled workshops, with plans from Hawkins to expand to shooting locations in Austria, Great Britain, North Carolina, Antarctica and Italy.
Workshops have been beneficial to his nature photography, both financially and aesthetically. They offer him extra revenue for time he would have spent shooting anyway, and he also gets to hone his skills further through teaching students. He finds it incredibly rewarding to see the “reactions of budding photographers who are able to discover that they can make really amazing images.”
Hawkins currently has a full schedule of Yosemite and Sequoia sessions through 2010, and being out in the field on these expeditions also affords him the time to fully explore his panoramas, which he composes with no less than 10 overlapping, properly exposed images. (One image Hawkins took of the San Francisco skyline at night is stitched together from 25 image captures, resulting in a finished image that’s 85 inches wide and 11 inches tall.)
Hawkins is ramping up marketing of these still-shot panoramas to retail print buyers, airport-display ad companies, chambers of commerce and other companies who utilize large-print, full-sized banner ads. He also includes QuickTime VR (QTVR) panoramas as one of his many talents, a service that’s popular with many of his business clients for its sweeping live view of a location. He uses a Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod head and a combination of Photoshop, PTGui and Pano2VR software in producing both styles of panoramas.
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| Hawkin's Gear |
Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Canon EOS 20D
Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash
White Lightning X800 flash units
Adobe Photoshop CS3/CS4 |
Adobe Lightroom 2.1
Capture One RAW conversion
PTGui and Pano2VR software
Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod ballhead |
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