A few weeks ago, I took part in one of the last Digital Landscape Workshop Series in Wine Country led by Moose Peterson, Joe McNally, Kevin Dobler and an amazing DLWS staff: Sharon Peterson, Jake Peterson, Jeff Leimbach, Drew Gurian, Richard Small and a special appearance by Russell Brown. It has taken me quite a while to post about this workshop because, aside from regaining energy, it has taken a while for me to comprehend the gravity of it all. I still cannot quite comprehend the amount of talent that I was in the same room with.
The workshop started off with staff presentations, which was incredible in and of itself. To hear Joe McNally speak about his Faces of Ground Zero images as he showed them to me and my 23 other newest friends still gives me chills. Drew’s presentation showed us his passion for concert and portrait work, and I think he may be picking up some lighting influence from Joe. Jake showed us his photos, and it was amazing to see that while he shoots right next to his legendary dad, he has a style completely his own. A legend in the making, that kid is! Kevin does quite possibly the coolest thing, he gets up in planes and takes beautiful aerial photos. Right up my alley. Jeff gave us an emotional presentation…his brother was killed in Afghanistan, affecting everything in his daily life which reflects in his photography. Moose ended the evening with amazing images form his body of work. He showed us how an image really can make a huge difference in the world.
They set up some fantastic shoots for us, even though unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us for our shoots. Between shoots were amazing learning sessions packed with information, tips, techniques and images. Here are some of my photos from Bodega Bay:
Our second day had two vintage cars shoots at car restoration garages: Fred Stoke's and Vern Tardel's. Wonderful guys that welcomed us into their shops and let us roam free, allowing for some photos like these:
The above photo was critiqued by Moose and seen by the rest of the DLWS staff (Where else could I ever say that happened?!). He gave some valuable feedback that I have been applying as I shoot—in short I hear Moose’s voice in my head.
On our last day of our workshop, the rain stopped for a bit and gave us a gorgeous day of blue skies and white puffy clouds---perfect for a tour of the family-owned Sausal Winery in Healdsburg. I had some fun with the fisheye (thanks to Jake’s suggestion):
The greens were so vibrant after the rains, it turned out to be the perfect shoot to end the workshop with
For an idea of where in Northern California we went, here is a map i created of the workshop:
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I met some truly wonderful people and learned from them as well as the instructors.
I want to thank the hardworking DLWS staff for putting a great event together, and thank you to my newest friends for lots of laughs and a great week together.
And thank you for stopping by!