Finally a post about my experiences at the The Mountain Workshops! Well last month from the 16th-23rd I was in Danville, Kentucky participating in the wonderful Mountain Workshops put on by Western Kentucky University. It was a lot different from my only other workshop experience thus far, SportsShooter Academy. We picked photo story ideas out of a hat on the first day and had the remaining days to shoot (600 frames max) a full story from beginning to end. My photo coach was Rick Loomis from the LA Times. I actually was hoping I would get to work with him since he actually interned at The Gazette several years ago and is now a Pulitzer-prize winning photographer and doing big things. We had writing coaches and had to complete a written story and captions as well as shoot the photos. I had a great time. There was an awesome faculty and staff and an incredible amount of resources available at our disposal. Danville was a wonderful place to be and we topped it off with a great party the Sunday night after we closed that didn’t end till about 7am Monday morning. I made lots of contacts and a few good friends out of it. I’ll admit my story wasn’t really a loaded situation and proved to be a bit difficult, but I did my best and learned a ton. On Friday, halfway through our stay in Danville, Loomis came up to me and said, “Hey, you’re gonna go up in a plane?” They arranged for someone to go up in an airplane and shoot some aerial shots of the area and I was who they chose. I was excited to say the least. I quickly went back to the hotel and put in my contacts and headed to the tiny airstrip in town. A young pilot introduced me to the tiny two-seater Cessna that we would be flying in, a prop job with high wings and no wiggle room. Paired with one of the windiest days of the year, it would prove to be quite a ride. Within about 5 minutes of shooting my right contact flew out of my eye and I was forced to shoot with my left eye. It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to conquer more of these workshops soon.