Well, another Grandfather Mountain Nature Photography Weekend (NPW) has come and gone. Once again I had the privelege of meeting some PDML people face to face and once again a great time was had by all. I drove home on Monday (over 12 hours) and I'm still not quite recovered, even after getting my first good night's sleep in nearly a week: I was up at 5:00 every morning and on the trails with a full load of camera gear by 5:30. Then I *planned* to get to sleep early every night but always stayed up later than I intended because the company proved so enjoyable. Still, I did miss the belly dancing demo one night.
I arrived in the Blue Ridge region on Tuesday and spent a few days shooting near my friend's place in Ashe county as well as the Grandfather Mountain area. I had some fabulous light Wednesday morning. On Thursday night the NPW people started arriving. Bill Owens brought his new super deluxe tent/trailer/camper thing (what are those things officially called?) that served as the PDML social headquarters for the weekend. And even though Doug the list operator is the one named "Brewer", Bill was the one who made his own beer and ale for the occasion. (The Owens-brand ale proved a real time-saver as it enabled you to make your legs wobbly after much fewer servings than commercially available products.) We also had Tom "TV" Van Veen and John DeLoach present and Cesar "Snakeskin" Matamoros filling in for the missing-in-action Jeepgirl. The Friday night presentation by Bill Bake was excellent. I really like his approach of finding empty-looking areas on maps and hiking into them to get photos. Can't argue with the results as he showed some great images. On Saturday night we had the weekend's main attraction Bill Fortney showing photos from his new book "America from 500 Feet" and what amazing images they were. He's also a thoroughly entertaining speaker. His large prints of photos from his book were stunning but his new photos were even more amazing: He's just made the switch from Nikon 35mm to Pentax 645 and the big prints from the 645 were breathtaking. He's become a Pentax 645 zealot and was raving about it at the PDML lunch gathering on Saturday. Seems like he wants to have as little as possible to do with 35mm from now on. After seeing his work I can understand why. On Sunday I did my digital imaging presentation and Doug Brewer did the photo contest. Then we had the annual PDML group photo. The whole weekend was once again a tremendous experience. For those who've considered coming I highly recommend it. The price will probably go up next year (the event sold out - a week in advance - for the first time ever this year) but I expect it'll still be a bargain. Consider: you get admission to Grandfather Mountain for up to 3 days, a roll of slide film and processing, camping on site Friday and Saturday and dinner on Saturday. Even without getting to hear and see the work of people like Bill Fortney that would be worth the $50.00 registration fee. I expect I'll be going to the Grandfather Mountain Camera Clinic weekend in August (17th and 18th) and since I'll be moved to Pittsburgh by then it'll be a lot shorter drive for me. The redoubtable Mike Johnston will be speaking and I expect a few PDML people will be present as well. Hope to see some more faces from the list then. -- Mark Roberts www.robertstech.com - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
