Following the success Duane and I had with a few star trails trips, we went again in December 2010 with Mark Comon of Paul's Photo to seriously examine the feasibility of putting together a Paul's Photo Star Trails Photo Adventure.  Having determined it was, in fact, feasible, Mark put the trip together and 25 of us went to Joshua Tree for a night of star trails and light painting photography on March 3, 2011.

In April 2010, a bunch of us joined Mark Comon for another photo adventure, this time to San Francisco.  I have been to San Francisco many times but have never taken the time to seriously photograph much of anything.  This was an exercise in shooting several things--street photography, the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown and Alcatraz, with a few other goodies here and there.

On November 22, 2009, a bunch of us joined Mark Comon from Paul's Photo on a full day Amtrak trip to photograph the San Juan Capistrano Mission and the USS Midway.

When Mark Comon at Paul’s Photo announced that he would be putting together a trip to Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, I registered immediately because (1) I had never been to either place, (2) the photographs I had seen of both places were beautiful, (3) Ansel Adams’ photograph of the White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly has always been one of my favorite photographs, and (4) Robert Hitchman’s excellent newsletter Photograph America covered both in issue #27 (updated in July 2008) and it was inspiring.

Those of you who follow my site know that I'm an amateur photographer, that I've been taking lessons from Mark Comon at Paul's Photo for years and that I've been on numerous photo adventures with Mark.  You would also know that I'm primarily a landscape guy who also photographs animals and, at social functions, people--as well as my grandchildren, of course--and dabbles in portraiture with my son-in-law with our small studio setup.  It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I signed up for Mark's nude photography workshop at the home of Kim and Gina Weston in Carmel.  Kim is the grandson of Edward Weston, arguably one of the most famous photographers in American history, and Kim is an excellent and well known photographer in his own right.  Yikes.

Anyone who has taken digital photographs has used (or tried to use) some kind of software to do something with it.  The more you fool around with digital photography, the more you fool around with the software that can help you.  Here's my current opinion, based on my limited experience.