Monday, May 9, 2011

I Almost Went Home Early...

   But I didn't.  I knew I would have a very hard time explaining to my wife exactly why I had spent three hundred dollars for a weekend workshop, and had only stayed for three hours and one meal; not to mention having driven one hundred and seventy miles, only to turn around and drive home.  With gas at over four bucks a gallon, it seemed like a wise choice to avoid each of those discussions.

   So I stayed at a workshop I had no interest in. See -- I consider myself a Landscape Photographer,  and I have no interest in wildflowers. I had no interest in looking at them, in shooting them, or in framing and ultimately trying to sell prints of them.  Waste of time.  Give me mountain vistas, huge storm clouds, frost and morning mist and old barns.

   I ended up learning more this weekend than I have in the last year.  The instructor, Tom barnes, has a number of books published, all focussing on outdoor and nature in Kentucky. 

   So thanks to Tom and the rest of the group, I now adore shooting flowers and other small bits of nature.  I enjoy the technical aspect of capturing them, and the colors -- the way they seem to saturate the image. 

   The students were an eclectic group: hobbyists, pros and wannabe semipros like myself.   We hiked all over the top of Pine Mountain and Big Black Mountain.  We took pictures.  We looked at each other's setups.  We critiqued and we networked.  I got back Sunday afternoon and was exhausted. 

   Today I looked through the files, and I think I got four keepers out of the ones I shot; not a bad average at this stage of the game.  I will get them up on the website in the next couple of days.

Lessons Learned:

1. Keep an open mind when somebody suggests a new direction for your art. 
2. No picture is wasted.  Even the bad ones can tell me something about where I am in my learning process.
3. Have a good time.  If it isn't fun, find something to do that is fun.

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