Again, it was another fine production, with a good showing of the PDML. Doug, Bill, Steve, Mark, Graywolf and a few lurkers showed up to hear some excellent presentations and drink a beer or 12.
Thanks to the folks who organize it every year, and to the Owens for operating an excellent pub. BTW, the main speaker was Patrick Schnieder, who got busted recently for manipulating his images: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/6537195.htm He showed a load of his images, which were fantastic, and then spent an hour talking about his predicament and answering questions. It was really quite interesting...basically, he was suspended for 3 days from the Charlotte Observer and had a few awards rescinded for burning in backgrounds to the point they were black. Most people seemed to think he was getting screwed. Another speaker was Bernie Boston, photographer for the late Washington Star and LA Times covering politics. He was the guy who shot the image at Kent state of the hippie placing a flower in a gaurdsman's rifle. Came in 2nd for the Pulitzer. I think everyone is excited about next year's Nature Photography Weekend, it's shaping up to be the PDML World Summit. Pencil in the date: June 4-6, 2004 See you then! tv -- Thomas Van Veen Photography www.bigdayphoto.com 301-758-3085

