I'm up at 5:00 today, but am almost late and I don't have a clue where the extra time went.
This morning we're headed to Norris Dam, about 1/2 hour drive from our location in Oak Ridge. Our hopes of taking shots of the dam are pretty much shot by the dense fog surrounding the late formed by the dam and the Clinch River. At our first stop, we can't even see the dam, even though it only a short distance from where we are standing. Off to our alternate plan. It's a nature trail that runs along the river below the damn, about 500 feet above the water. Our hope is to find some wildflowers to shoot.
We never find those flowers. In fact, we kid the theme of the day is green. Everything we encounter is green. No flowers, lots of ferns and moss and poison ivy, but no flowers. We manage a few shots anyway, and after about an hour of hiking and shooting, head back to the trailhead. On the way back to town, we stop and shoot at an old grist mill for about 20 minutes. The good news is the fog has kept the temperature cooler, but as soon as it burns off, the sweat starts running with great abandon. It will be hot today.
We will be inside for most of the rest of the day. What will we learn today? Non-Photoshop. How to do panoramas. I'm glad to learn. Bill and I inessence saw the same shot today, but he got it because he knows how to do panoramas. We learn how to put text on and in photos. Then we break for lunch. I'm back to the room to make reservations for Townsend and check email and do a couple of other things. I grab a quick burrito on the way back to the Gallery.
After lunch, we work on a method to create a ragged border to pictures, a technique you see in the POTD (Picture of the Day) today. Less than perfect,but something to try anyway.
Then the question comes. What do you want to do with your photography? In essence Bill is signalling us that he's taught us all he intended to teach for the week, except printing, and wants to know what we want to study. This leads to a conversation about our goals, or vision, setting oneself apart by unique creativity, and the art of photography. Bill is excited, pulling pictures off the gallery wall to make his points. I am inspired to try some new things. Some may not work, some may. We're in to filters. Photoshop filters and how we can use them to our advantage. It's a fun hour or so of discussion and something that gets me pumped about doing some new and different things with photography.
At the supper break, I'm off to Big Ed's Pizza for supper. It's a well known place to eat evidently and I should try out. The menu: Pizza, coke, and/or beer. That's it. I order a small and watch the patrons of this place. It's an interesting place. Pizza is good but not great. It's just one of those things you must do.
Afte supper Bill loans me his new 'brush' for the Wacom tablet to try out. And then there is silence for about an hour as we work on our individual projects. That hasn't happened all week. I start tearing down my gear a few minutes before 9:00. But as our custom has developed, we continue to talk and I leave again about 9:45.
But we sleep in tomorrow morning. We'll begin at 8:00, do class for about an hour, then head to the marina to shoot the rowers. It's the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships this weekend.
But I am tired, so enough for today. I'm off to bed.
