Every year during the first weekend in July, amateur and professional photographers from all over gather together to share in their love of nature and photography. This is my second year attending and I hope to continue the tradition for all time. Registration for this event begins January 1st and usually sells out within the first couple days. Friday afternoon starts with check in and quickly off to begin photographing this wonderful mountain. Friday evening was spent in the auditorium listening to Tony Sweet discuss “The Art of Interpretation-Thinking Outside the Box”.
Saturday morning photographers scurry off to the trails, mountain top, animal habitat, and points beyond. Photo competition CDs are due to be turned in at 3pm so it doesn’t leave much time to waste.
I spent the morning on Profile Trail, settled down in one spot and shot numerous images of slugs, bugs, snails and trees. My attempts to capture macro shots using flash fell short as they contained too much “flash hot spots”. Little did I know, Mark Cassino would be addressing this very issue later that evening in his presentation “Macro Photography in the Field”.
After spending time on Profile Trail, it was time to get back to the room and decide on which three images I would submit for the contest. After getting input from my fellow photographers I made my picks and headed off to the visitor center with CD in hand.
I spend the rest of the afternoon photographing the animals in habitat.
Buffet dinner was served at 5:30 followed by talks by Mark Cassino and Gregory Georges.
After a good night’s rest it was back to the center to hear Dick Ginkowski and Don McGowan give their presentations. A quick break was taken and the anticipation great as preparation was made to announce the Award winning photographs in various categories. This years submissions were of extremely high quality. I was so pleased to see one of my images win first place in the Scenic Category.
Sadly, the weekend ended all too soon. I can’t wait for next years event but until that time I’m going to work on my flash techniques and hopefully have it perfected this time next year.