Mountain Workshops 2009

After 8 days away for the Mountain Workshops, I'm finally back in Bowling Green. It was a great experience. I've known about MWS since high school. I used to eat up the books and websites and couldn't wait to shoot it. To my dismay last year I found out you had to be higher up in the program to shoot, however I could be a labbie. So this year I spent the workshop unloading/loading the Uhaul, hooking up computer networks, taking out the trash, and getting coffee for the coaches. On top of those general duties, I was assigned to be gallery labbie since I'm gallery manager back at WKU. I spent most of my time going through about 20,000 photos from the workshop participants trying to find the best 47 to print and frame for the gallery. In my downtime I got to get portfolio reviews from former students working in the field now, some of which are Pulitzer prize winners. Every night I saw presentation by the coaches about their experiences as photojournalists. I met photographers from across the US and got to know my own classmates better.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot:

• Be careful using wide angle lenses as they distort towards the edges of a frame. Bleh.
• The best critiques are usually the ones that make you nervous. Case point: Cheryl Diaz Meyer. Tough, blunt, but ultimately right. She gave me the most helpful critique.
  
• Watching Jed Conklin tone photos is going to drastically change how I process my photos. Who knew levels could do that much?
• Going through other people's shoots and competing in a 50 frame shootout has made me realize the importance of taking time to compose a photo rather than just shooting everything. I need to think more while shooting.
• Working relationships are not the same as personal friendships.
• Jim Bye is awesome. He drove back to Bowling Green from Murray, a two and a half hour trip, halfway through workshop to pick up faster computers to make the network run more smoothly. We had a Jim Bye Appreciation Day when he came back complete with masks, a card, and a plate of brownies. I think he enjoyed getting recognition for his hard work, something he rarely sees.
  
• Liz O. Baylen's multimedia piece gave me a different outlook on video as a creative medium. I have some ideas brewing. I might ask for the 5D Mark II for Christmas.
• Photojournalists are a very weird and tight knit bunch. Everybody seems to know everybody else.
  
• Workshop has been helpful in clarifying my goals for photography and where I want to take it, something I've struggled with for a long time.Even after all the time with the professionals, looking at good work, and even getting some ideas for future projects, I don't feel the overwhelming passion that I would need to be a photographer. I still love it, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to be a hobbie on the side rather than a full fledged career.
  

Go check out the Mountain Workshops website for work from this year and years past.