I made it! I took my first official photography workshop last month out in Crested Butte, Colorado, led by J Smilanic of wncphototours. The participants were myself and two other ladies, Lynne and JoAnn, and though we’d never met we were getting on pretty famously almost right away. (That makes things easier for sure!) Our home base was a fancy log cabin AirBnB outside of Gunnison and it was a pretty amazing place to stay when we weren’t out riding the rough roads in J’s tricked-out Ford Bronco or traipsing through meadows looking for The Shot.
Just an ordinary view from the car. :)
Although J had end-goal spots in mind each day we still hopped out if there was a scene worth capturing, plus - hello - this was a wildflowers tour and they were everywhere, so we had to make time to get those ‘on film’ as well.
Colorado Blue Columbines kept showing up along the way. Because I’d zoomed in so far on the flowers, I was able to bring down the darks in the background in post-processing to achieve this painting effect.
At our evening destination the first day, the hills were literally alive with the sound of music.
I was learning a new technique here + being stubborn (terrible combination) so yes, the horizon is mangled.
Also fun fact, I’d bought my first macro lens to bring with me on the trip. You all know how I love what my 100-400mm is capable of with flowers (see lupine above), but I just had this gnawing feeling in my gut that I’d be super sad and bummed if I went on the trip without a dedicated macro lens. Of course I ended up barely using it and forgetting I had it half the time, but the best is yet to come I’m sure.
The above was taken in the wild and free backyard of our log cabin, on what was actually a pretty windy morning (and I know, J was looking at me askance, like ‘you get all kinds at these things!’). But for real, you just increase the shutter speed to freeze the motion, and then bring up the exposure in post-processing which is what I did here. So neener.
We spent a lot of time looking for meese (plural of moose) on our drives into and through Crested Butte and all the various gulches, and unfortunately never saw one. But our hunt took us past an aspen forest where we spent a hasty half hour or so being awed by the trees and imagining how the leaves would be golden in just another month or so. The below is one of my favorite photos of the trip, followed by some cute lil flowers seen along the path.
That evening we did a real mountain hike (ok it was a healthy mile) to our destination, and it was pretty fun to finally not be alone on a hike (I’ve been going solo since 2018). We even had to cross a rushing creek on a fallen tree limb (although I made it going, I opted to not chance my non-athletic luck twice and just walked through the water on the way back, haha). It is here I should note that we had Fox with us - the best goodest boy I ever did meet. He’s J’s dog, a chorkie mix, and besides being unapologetically adorable, he was our branded safety officer. And he did his job! He never had to wear a leash (I said he was a good boy) and the one time J had to go looking for him, he was about to get into it with an actual fox. Ahh the good times. So, in all of my adventuring, imagine an amazing little dog trotting along beside us the whole time being the best. I miss him.
Our destination was a mountain lake area where we would spend sunset and then wait for it to get dark so we could try some astrophotography. It was very sunny most of our workshop so we didn’t get blazing sunsets unfortunately, but I’m used to that so I apologize to my friends for bring Missouri sky energy. It was also ok - I sat on a hillside surrounded by flowers, with mountains on my left and the sound of a waterfall to my right, and though it was chilly I was layered up and found ways to get comfortable. It was so serene; really one of those times that sneaks up on you and then you remember forever.
I’ll say one thing, if we’d had cloudy conditions for a blazing sunset, we wouldn’t have had clear skies for the Milky Way. Take your pick! I had done some astrophotography back in 2020, at a park south of St. Louis, but out in the middle of nowhere Colorado? Absolutely jaw-dropping. We could see the Milky Way with the naked eye, first of all, and with J’s help even the images I was capturing in-camera looked semi-processed. And to top it all off, we saw a big ol’ shooting star. I can honestly say I’m glad to have shared that moment with people I now consider my friends. :)
The next day I had a life-changing pesto panini at a deli called Jermaine’s, so if you’re ever in downtown Gunnison - eat at Jermaine’s.
Our final sunset destination was Rustler’s Gulch (yay, I remembered a name) and we made extended time there plus did more astrophotography.
This is a close-up of the flowers that make up the tall stalks in the previous photo. I believe they’re called alpine lilies.
On this night the tint of the sky kept coming through the camera as blue-green, and I liked it so much I kept it. I did modify it to black temporarily in post just to see if it was worth being ‘honest,’ but no LOL.
So there you have it. A successful workshop in the books. I lament that we only had three full days to get everything in, but that’s probably just because I enjoyed the company. I’ll definitely take another of J’s workshops, probably in North Carolina so I can see it through someone else’s eyes, and who knows? Maybe even this October is in the cards. I’ve still got a lot to learn and a camera that does a whole lot of things I know nothing about, so I’d rather get serious and see what’s possible. It’s worth a shot!
Tall bluebells and a pink dogwood.
