Stefan Falke's Eye: 'Digital Photography at the Summit' and My Rental Car

Last October I did something very good for myself: I signed up for a digital photography workshop called 'Photography at the Summit' in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I was at that point already shooting digital, but I did not know much about it. I sensed that the time of using film was coming to an end for this photographer and I wanted the same quality that I was getting from shooting transperancy film (Fuji Provia 100 only for the last 10 years). At that time I was not getting the quality at all, partly due to lousy cameras (This upfront: I bought the Nikon D2X right before the workshop and I am using nothing else ever since. That camera is heaven for me !).
I expected to gain a lot of technical knowledge at the 'Summit'. I did not, because the whole experience was so great and inspirational, that I got more excited about taking pictures for our daily (self-) assignments and getting them ready for the afternoon show and critics by the faculty members. I kind of forgot why I came here in the first place and just had a lot of fun being part of the workshop, mostly because the faculty was an amazing, world class group of talent to be with for the week:
Photographers William Albert Allard, Jim Balog, Dave Black, Tom Mangelsen, Bill Eppridge, Corey Rich, Jim Richardson, American PHOTO's editor-in-chief David Schonauer, National Goegraphic senior editor Ken Geiger and last not least, Rich Clarkson, the organizer of the workshop.
Their images which we got to see and the talks we had with them made the whole trip more than worth while. But don't get me wrong: It is a place where you can learn about all aspects of digital photography, if that is what you want. I happen to be a photographer whose brain stops working when exciting images are to be taken or seen.

That brings me to my (self-) assignment at the Summit: I choose to take landscape images, since I am not good at that at all. Next morning I took my Nissan Altima rental car to the Tetons (well, the place is surrounded by the Tetons) and just half an hour later I got very frustrated, there was no image revealing itself to me. I looked back at my car and thought, hm, the two of us could 'hammer' some unusual pictures out of these mountains. So I worked on 'My Rental car' story for the rest of the week and I am quiet happy with the results, especially because it is a series that I would never have thought of if I had not come here. I love photography for its surprises.
The next 'Spring Photography at the Summit' is April 23-28, 2006 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY, and I highly recommend it !!