If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably noticed the dearth of photos. Well, today I’ve fixed that, and now have the dailies filed appropriately.

One thing to note — I’ve just upgraded to a new version of JAlbum, and it looks like there are some quirks with some of the generated pages. I think this stems from having some non-JPG files in the directories (like PSDs, etc.), so if the navigation seems quirky sometimes, it is. 🙂 I’m working to fix it, but it may not happen until I get back from The Mountain next week.

Enjoy!

This morning’s shoot started around Tenaya Creek. We started with a loooong walk — probably better than three miles — and wound up at the creek.

The walk was terrific, and there were all kinds of downed trees, dry stream beds and other cool things to shoot. Very nice. I liked the creek the best though. After my success yesterday with the flowing water, I’m really starting to enjoy shooting long shoots of moving water. I guess I’ve always liked those shots, but I’ve never spent the time to really do it right!

During high noon, we worked on our images, and I did some additional printing, this time on lustre paper (low-gloss). I printed some of the same images that I did yesterday with matte paper, and really found I liked the results of the lustre paper. I’m surprised. I really had been turned off of the look of gloss prints, but for some reason, these really appealed to me. Perhaps that’s because the subject material wasn’t as good! 🙂

We dashed from high noon to our first location of the sunset shoot — a meadow in view of El Capitan. Once again, I kinda drew a blank, but shot a few things of interest. We then moved to the Tunnel View overlook, and I found some nice views of El Cap and Half Dome. The lighting was a little better tonight than from Glacier Point on Monday night, but still wasn’t as electric as it could’ve been. Oh well!

We broke up, went to dinner, and returned for our closing session. Moose really praised us on how far we’d come, and Vincent talked to us for an hour about all things philosophical and photographical. We sipped on wine and beer, had some munchies, and then the participant slideshow began. And right there, first up in the show were my photos, on the big screen for all to enjoy. I gasped at seeing my work in such a huge format. And then… I heard folks in the audience oooh and aaah at them. I elicited response from folks with my work — what a rush!!!!!

And, after the slideshow, we said our goodbyes, with Moose handing each of us a class photo, signed by him, Vincent and Ken. That was a cool.

So, DLWS is over for me. I can’t believe I got to go, can’t believe I went through it all, and am just dumbfounded at how much better my process is than it was. It was so definitely worth the investment of time and money! Now, I’m inspired, have a fire lit, and am really hot to get some of work printed properly and (hopefully) sold.

This morning, we were off early to Bridalveil Falls. From here, there were great views of El Capitan. I wandered up the trail toward the falls, and found all kinds of things to photograph. By far, this was my best shoot of the session so far.

I had some trouble getting started though. Usually, I find something that interests me, and then I photograph that. Here though, we were placed in a location, and were to begin shooting. While that’s probably the best idea — that way all the instructors and staff can be close for questions — it’s tough for me to shoot like that.

However, I found a little stream rolling over the rocks, with a bunch of fall leaves gently circling in an eddy formed by the flow. This was a popular topic among the class, but I think I really nailed it. Long exposure, brilliant color, and tack sharp focus — can’t ask for more!

High noon was more Photoshop hints and tips, and the first lessons on getting printing right. For me, this was a key, key piece of this session. I had no idea how much more there could be beyond File|Print! As it ends up, every photo I’ve printed on my own has really, really lacked, and I had no idea. So we worked and worked on our images, getting them ready for printing later in the night.

The sunset shoot started at the stables, and really afforded some great views of Half Dome and El Capitan. For me, though, there wasn’t much that really tripped my trigger for subjects, so… I got a lot of photos of the Big Rocks.

The rest of the night was spent with Printing and a Movie — Robots was the movie, although I didn’t get to see much of it. I spent a lot of time getting some favorite images ready, and printing some on the matte printers. We’re using Epson Stylus Photo R2400 printers, and they absolutely rock. Of course, for $850 it should! Boy, I really liked it, and liked the results. It’s an eight-color printer, and the cartridges are surprisingly affordable, especially compared to regular printers. I’ll be real curious to use some of my left over print paper on my HP 8450 printer at home (also eight color), and see what my prints look like — same image, same paper, just a different printer.

So, I made my prints…. and was totally breathless. I thought they looked good on the screen, but on paper, they were really amazing. I still cannot believe that those images came from my camera, and look like they do!

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!

[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!