Well, I jumped at the chance to do the NAPP Photo Safari again with Moose Peterson and Joe McNally at Photoshop World. We had the privilege of getting to work with the fine people of the Bonnie Springs Ranch. They are such wonderful people to get to spend time with again. They are willing to do pretty much anything that you ask and are great models. It takes someone special to work in front of dozens of photographers all clicking away at the same time.
Getting to revisit a location is an interesting opportunity that can really push you to shoot new and different things. I know that the first time it was pretty overwhelming the amount of things to photograph at Bonnie Springs. While this year was no different, I wanted to try a new approach. Once I learned where we were going I spent some time going back over the photos I took last time I was there. That way I could focus on shooting something different that before. As Moose and Joe point out, you have to push yourself to trying new things and being willing to see what happens behind the lens. With both of those concepts in mind, I spent some time figuring out what I most noticed on this visit that I didn’t remember last time. What I noticed was the cacti and the bugs. There seemed to be more flies than I remember and the prickly pears were bigger than I remember. So I made sure to spend some time photographing both of those since they were part of my story this year.
For the bug photo you see that was shot with my new macro lens and that was the closest I was able to get without him flying off into the distance. This click of the camera sent him off on a new adventure of his own. I really like the negative space in the image, and the tension in the bugs gesture. As for the cactus photo, I was able to find some cactus against the town church. I was also able to get a little bit of a star burst off the sun, but I was standing in a very awkward position and couldn’t stand up much more than I was. So as a result, didn’t get quit the starburst I wanted. All I could hear in my head was Moose asking me as they pulled me out of the cactus “what the heck were you thinking?”. Lucky for me that was a conversation in my head only.
This is my 3rd or 4th safari and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a ton and have a great time getting to shoot with two of the best instructors out there.
On a side note, there was only one big part of the story that I left out. The heat. Being from Seattle, where we have hit the mid eighties for like a week, the 105 temperatures were hot and about killed me more than once.