This morning, we met at 6.15am for our sunrise shoot. From the lodge, we walked around the lodge area, and toward Yosemite Falls. For me, this was a chance to play with macro shots on the floor of the forest. I eventually made my way up to the falls, and saw a terrific rainbow in the mist from the falls as the water struck a rock about halfway down the cliff side. It was wonderful, and I hoped for a good image!

After three hours of shooting, we took a break for breakfast, and then returned at 10am for a PhotoShop class with Laurie. She’s a great instructor, and really hands on with her lecture. I’m no Photoshop expert — not by any means! — and I gained a ton of knowledge from the session.

Our high noon session began with Moose and Vincent giving a very detailed Photoshop presentation, along with time to work on our photos from the morning’s shoot. Of course, all the staff were there to help us work through our photos and all gazillions of questions we would have on processing them.

Vincent is a repository of quotable quotes, both his and others. Two that stuck with me: “He who controls color, wins” and “You can’t polish a turd” — both sage pieces of wisdom. He pounded on the message that he and the rest of the folks were there to help us find our voice, and to help us express that voice. That is a huge message to take home.

For our sunset shoot, we left just before 3pm to head for Washburn and Glacier Point. From Glacier Point, we had a great view of Half Dome as the Sun set. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the kind of color from the sunset that Moose was hoping for — just not enough junk in the air to relight Half Dome as the Sun continued to set west of us. Oh well!

We got back around 6pm, ate dinner, and I was off to do my homework: working on my photos!