The night before, we took a consensus of where people wanted to go for their last shoot. Traditionally, we visit one location twice, either to see it at a different time of day or to continue to find more photographs where we ran out of time in the previous session at the location.
They wanted to return to our canyon of yesterday morning.
This time, because time was of the essence, Arnie and I led. We didn’t want them to miss what we felt were the really good stops.
And because the territory was now familiar, as soon as everyone got out of the cars, they scattered to the four compass points.
In fact, it was hard for Arnie and me to find them to see if they wanted help or to gather them up for the next stop along the way.
At our first stop, I was on a hill top with two of our group. We all noticed and remarked how the scene above had a really pronounced zig-zag pattern, accented by where the sun hit or by the different colors ranging from cream to chocolate to russet. We all did our own versions of the mountainside.
Those two moved off to another location, and as I waited for another of our group to reach the summit, I saw this view with the light streaking low across the shapes, highlighting the rims and creating a gentle palette.
I pointed it out to our participant as she reached the top, and she had a lot of fun making her own image from this spot.
We photographed at several more places along the road, but this was our last day, and we had to head back. Some had long drives and had to leave sooner than normal but didn’t want to miss the final critique.
The work our alumni group produced was excellent, and we were very proud of them. We are always pushing them, not letting them get lazy, reminding them to pay attention to the details.
They did, indeed, seek their own vision, because the images, while sometimes somewhat similar, were often markedly different. I think some of the alumni are already looking forward to the 2012 alumni workshop.
First, however, we will be seeing some of them in Costa Rica.
Another great group. More great images. Arnie and I are content, as we know they head home with yet more tools at their disposal to continue to grow as photographers.
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Although I have not commented much lately, I have religiously followed the travels and photos. Thanks for some great photographs and descriptions of Death Valley. As always, missed being there physically, but was there in spirit.
John,
Good to hear from you. I was wondering to where you had disappeared! 😎
It was and is an amazing place. I was last in Death Valley more than 20 years ago. It hasn’t changed much! A few more buildings here and there in Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells, a few more paved roads, some loos that never existed previously, but the flavor of this harsh-but-beautiful landscape has not changed at all.
You’ll have to put Joshua Tree on the docket for next year.
Take care,
TBC