We all have those year-end chores. Mine involve registering the final images of the year with eCO (electronic Copyright Office), purging unneeded documents, giving the computer a thorough cleaning, tying up 2010 books, completing arrangements for 2011 workshops, etc. You all have your versions of these tasks. Added to mine is the fact that I am getting a new computer, so I’m trying to prepare my current one for Arnie, removing programs that he doesn’t use and making sure it is problem free, at least for the nonce. None too soon, I think, because his computer is really misbehaving and he badly needs an upgrade.

Arnie and I feel very lucky. We had a great year in an interesting economic climate. We met some incredible people, welcomed back old friends, some for the 4th and 5th time. We laugh and say they keep coming back for more abuse. I dare say it is because we challenge them and because we have so much fun in our workshops.

It has been about a month since we shared good-bye hugs with our alumni participants and “spousal units” (affectionate term) after our final workshop of the season. This was an experiment. Some of our alumni kept asking for an alumni-only workshop, and so, we went to Yosemite National Park for our first of this kind. It was a grand success. Some people knew each other, but most alumni did not … at least at the onset. Our imaging and critique sessions, the evening ones held in the bar over wine and beer, quickly changed that. In fact, most of our alumni said we should have all our imaging sessions in the bar!

The consistently high caliber of work challenged everyone. The critiques were thoughtful and well articulated. And of course, there was no competition amongst the participants! Arnie and I gave them assignments, some group, some individual, not allowing them to get lazy, pushing them beyond their comfort zones, encouraging them to experiment, and tactfully telling them when they occasionally presented a photograph that was not what we have come to expect from these alumni. We firmly believe that this approach is a good part of why our student galleries are so strong.

For this Same Place — Different View, we picked four scenarios, giving a small potpourri of what makes photographing in Yosemite so wonderful. The weather at first glance did not start out nicely … rain, lots of it, fog, etc. The first morning, we headed for Yosemite Falls, a short walk away from our lodge. Everyone donned ponchos and rain gear, put on their snow cleats (fabulous on ice and snow), fashioned protection for their cameras, and in some cases, brought out umbrellas. They were game and ended up with some dynamic shots.

Gary worked hard to compose a tight shot that showed the power of the river while allowing enough space for the river to create a pleasing path through his photograph.

While attracted to the same scene, Dave R. composed a much broader view from nearly the same spot, picking up an equally effective but quite different zig-zag pattern.

The next two photographs were done from nearby locations. Because of the times of day, they present totally different effects. One of them was made by someone new to us. A seasoned photographer, he was introduced to us by one of our attending alumni. We won’t say which one of these is his.

Kanwal, did his photograph of these falls on a misty morning and composed carefully to give a really soft but old-world, classic, and dramatic feel to the scene.

A couple of days later, Nat returned to the same location for after-dark photography with a tighter composition to celebrate the night sky with a markedly different result.

One late afternoon, we headed down to a spot along the Merced River with a grand view of the valley that included the 3,000-foot-tall granite face, El Capitan, a favorite amongst rock climbers. Even in December, we saw hardy climbers up on the impressive face. We picked the location because of the element of water that our participants could weave into their photographic composition. We had a glorious sunset, and the light on El Cap, as it is often called, was stunning.

While there was still quite a bit of light, Chuck found a good spot at the river’s edge and used the fog and smoothed out the water’s surface to give his photograph a soft, ethereal look.

Arnie B. waited until the light was more dramatic, composed a broader scene, and used the deep reflections in the river and the gentle fog in the meadow to make his photograph.

On our last morning, we didn’t want to go too far afield, so we headed into a nearby meadow for some final photographs. There was the typical morning rainbow on the falls, but Arnie and I encouraged our participants to look around, to see what was in the snow at their feet. Pretty quickly, everyone was looking down, crouching down, sitting down, and finding neat patterns to photograph, in this case … leaves.

Chris searched until she found these colorful leaves and worked hard to create a deceptively simple, undeniably elegant photograph. The image near the beginning of this blog is hers, too.

On the other hand, Dave S. found some leaves with really subdued colors, and made an equally simple and effective photograph but not at all like the one above.

It was so much for Arnie and me to see not only how well they did but watch them push themselves, take chances, and go to the next level. That’s, after all, what any good photographer wants to do, “amateur” or pro—continue to grow in his or her art form.

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