Vermont Wrap-Up

I survived multiple delayed flights (which culminated in the airline losing my luggage) and I'm finally back home (here's another shot taken from the last day's morning shoot). Now for my trip wrap-up report: I had an absolute blast from top to bottom. Sure, the weather stunk, but I have to hand it to the folks at DLWS (the Digital Landscape Workshop Series), because they took lemons (rainy cold weather for four days straight) and turned it into lemonade (a learning experience that had the students totally energized from beginning to end).

I've been to a number of DLWS workshops, all in nearly ideal weather, but this is the workshop where I learned the most. First off, the planned, and impromptu, flash lighting sessions from Joe McNally were brilliant, not to mention what I learned from Anne Cahill from Nikon (AKA: The Flash Queen) who was so incredibly helpful and knowledgable. Moose Peterson showed us how to shoot in the reality of bad weather, and helped us "work" the scene even when the elements were stacked up against us. It really made you think more about composition, more about light in challenging situations, and more about communicating with photography. If you can shoot in weather like this, imagine how you'll do on a beautiful sunlit morning. I learned some cool new masking tricks (and a retouching trick) from Vincent Versace, and Laurie Excell not only taught some great Photoshop techniques, her photography was really stunning. Every instructor really shared their passion, their humor, their good spirits, and their inspirational images, and everyone left feeling they had been through something very special (which is why I guess their workshops are sold out in advance).

Their next stop is Yosmite on Feb. 25-28, 2007, and if you haven't signed up, go to their site and snag a space now before it's too late. You'll leave a better photographer, a better Photoshop user, and you'll get some shots, no matter what the weather. My personal thanks to the entire DLWS staff for putting their heart and soul into every workshop. I can't wait for my next one!