What would you give to sit down and have lunch with a top photographer?
To spend breakfast with a great shooter, or even just have a coffee with them?
To sit with the Guru at the top of the mountain and ask any question you liked, and not just one question, but all the questions you liked.
The chance exists and it's easier than you might think.
Each fall some of the top landscape photographers in the world get together in the High Sierra Mountains in California to swap notes, renew old friendships and make new friends. Many of these photographers teach hi-end landscapes workshops themselves, but take this time together in Ansel's country to refresh and "sharpen the saw"?
It's not a workshop really but a "Gathering" of photographers, and it's open to everyone. Now most of the photographers shoot large format cameras and you're sure to see really large cameras, like 8x20 12x20.... but some of the guys shoot with medium format or 35mm... and once in a while someone has a digital.
The gathering is organized by Per Volquartz and this is the Seventh Running of the "Owens Valley Get-together" during the week of Oct. 5-9th.
This is prime time in the mountains, the colours are ablaze, the crowds have left, the trout are biting. Most of the photographers either stay at local hotels, or camp in the high mountains. There will be more than one campfire night, great meals together and evening lectures once the light is over.
I grabbed this shot of Per with his Leica years ago at a ghost town in Utah
It's a great way to meet some fabulous people, talk photography for days on end, travel to some of the greatest photo spots in the world and ask a guru a question or two. Plus the coffee gets better every year.
And what is the charge for this non-workshop workshop? $95 for the five days plus you might want to eat while you're there, or stay in a hotel. I think it's still free to camp in the high mountains but it might be $5 a night, if you can find someone to pay.
Find out more at http://pervolquartz.com/workshops.html
Follow the APUG.org thread at
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum162/65155-owens-valley-calling-again.html
I took this picture two years ago at the gathering when we traveled to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. Shot with an Ebony 8x10 on Ilford Delta 100 and printed on Kentmere Bromide Paper. The silver print is 20x24, matted and framed for $800.www.thepicturedesk.ca
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