Not at all what I had hoped for

To say that this workshop experience in Santa Fe with the DLWS group has been a disappointment would be an understatement. I had some concerns going in...there were supposed to be 32 students...and that is what occurred. I rationalized that this would be OK because there were to be 4 lead instructors, 2 assistants and 1-2 photography oriented sponsors who would be there to help out with the students. As you will see - these folks only made the group size problem worse.

As it turned out, each of the staff actually planned to be shooting right along side all of the students rather than guiding them. They had professed that they would be glad to look through your viewfinder and give you suggestions - they left out the part about as long as you bring your viewfinder to where they were! Sometimes that was difficult to achieve when they were halfway up a goat trail taking pictures of a fabulous rock formation. My car mate (who was three months post-open heart surgery...and doing awesome!) and I nearly had a heart attack trying to get to "where all the staff was going to be" for that one. We figured our health was more important than any damned picture that we might take with them and we cut our trek short at a manageable level.

Then there was the planning. Theoretically there were to be 6 shooting sessions. When we got to the opening session to get our schedule, there were only 5 sessions identified, with one TBD. The weather started to turn, so there was understandably some concern, but we were assured that this group shot in all kinds of weather. That would not be the case.

Anticipation

About 4 years ago I started getting somewhat serious about this photography thing. I had just completed my first workshop, and I came away with a much greater understanding of my camera and my own vision. I had created some good work, but I was still having to do a lot of things after I pressed the shutter in order to turn what I thought I had captured into what I had actually seen.

Over the next couple of years I took a few more photography centric trips on my own to see what I could learn and what I could generate. More surprises occurred, and most of them were very positive. I knew that I would want to continue my education with professionals who were going to not only open my eyes behind the shutter, but also who would show me how to take a wonderful capture from "wow" to "Oh My Gawd!" by finessing my post processing skills.

So I did what I usually do...I researched. I love the internet...you can cast out as large a net as you want to on a given topic and then slowly whittle it down until you have found the right solution to the problem you are trying to solve. About three years ago I began looking for that next workshop that I could take that was going to give me the opportunity to take my photography to the next level. I came across a group run by Moose Peterson called the Digital Landscape Workshop Series.