MOUNTAIN WORKSHOPS 2007

Getting that excited-but-can't-breathe feeling again as I prepare to embark upon my second hardcore photojournalism camp experience: It's the 2007 MOUNTAIN WORKSHOP!

I've very excited, possibly even concerned; I guess my fear is that this expedition isn't going to have the same warm-fuzzy feeling of the Maine Workshops.

But I'm hoping…

There was some kind of magic in Rockport that absolutely moved me to a level of focus and concentration that I rarely experience. And while, in my heart, I expect the same out of Mountain Workshop and hope that it's not modivated by merciless critiques. I didn't go to art school. I think if I had, I might handle critiques better. But wow, I'm sensitive. I hope I can get over that, regardless.

It's a great workshop, by all accounts. One of the odd things, though, for me is that it's in Danville this year, barely an hour away, which is pretty different from the pilgrimage I made to the Maine Workshops a couple of months ago. Still— people are coming from all over the country, including a few of my heroes from Maine.

Strangely, I also feel like I'm making up for a 25-year-old faux pas: When I was about 14, I got to go to Western Kentucky University's Yearbook and Newspaper camp for high school students. I went as a photographer and was coming from the perspective of being photo editor of both publications several years running at my school. What happened kind of still bothers me; basically, I was cocky as shit. And I was surprised and unnerved to find out that there were better—and younger and more experienced—photographers there than me. Easily. It rattled me and I ended up not paying the kind of attention that I could have and thus not learning too much. As odd as it might sound, I'd like to make up for that at Mountain Workshop. Why Mountain Workshop, you might wonder? Well, because it's put on by … Western Kentucky University.

Maybe I can lay this old demon to rest.