[302 miles today; 2198 miles so far. A waaaaay circuitous route to Yosemite National Park.]

Today was supposed to be a stress-free, short-drive day. As it ends up, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I was so excited about the session’s commencement today that I could barely sleep. It didn’t help that a boatload of young-uns checked in to the hotel around midnight last night. Oh well. Youth is a good thing, and I should strive to have more! 🙂

So, I leisurely got up around 5.30am, showered, ate breakfast, and checked the road conditions to Yosemite, only to find….. Tioga Pass was closed! This is the primary path into the park from the east, and was going to make my trip a short three hour drive. With Tioga closed, the Park Service site indicated that I was in for an eight hour tour of central California before getting to Yosemite. It was 7am now; that meant getting into Yosemite at 3pm, and an hour late for DLWS.

I hurriedly packed, checked the route, and got in the truck. Anyone who knows me, knows that I really pay attention to the speed limit signs. Today, I threw that out the window. Of course, the fact that the fine citizens of California were trying to run over anyone doing the speed limit didn’t help much! 🙂

I panicked, and swore, and prayed, and arrived at the Yosemite Lodge at 1.40pm. I had twenty minutes to spare! I checked in — yes, my room was luckily available — and I cruised up the the assembly hall at 2pm on the dot. God was truly watching out for me!

I found the room that would be our classroom for the next few days, and dashed in to register. And then I met Moose.

He’s really got a presence — he’s a big guy with a booming voice and a heck of a grip. Everything I was expecting!

The first order of business was color aligning our laptops using a Greytag MacBeth EyeOne. It’s a cool little device that, when hung on the laptop panel, examines a range of preset colors, determines how they need to be adjusted, and then creates a profile that can be used whenever the machine boots. Cool.

Once everyone’s machines were aligned, Moose had us all get seated, and introduced his staff for the week. Vincent Versace is Moose’s partner in crime for the DLWS sessions, and would be one of the lead presenters. The last of the main trio was Ken Sklute, who was the guest shooter for the week. Along with these three were Sharon (Moose’s wife), Laurie (The Equipment Lady), Joe (from Wacom), Annie (from Nikon), and Warren (part of the staff). As you can tell, this was a serious group of folks, with an incredible range of talents and knowledge.

After a CCD cleaning demo, the first presentation began around 4pm, and lasted until late in the night. Just as promised, the windows for sleep are small! 🙂 Tomorrow morning, we are off for a sunrise shoot — our first chance to shoot with the masters!