Photo workshop

I'm in Palm Springs this week for the Palm Springs Photo Festival. I'll be taking a architectural photography workshop. I figure after taking architectural photos for my parent's business for years, I should pick up some tips for someone that actually knows what they're doing and try to improve.

The class is being taught by Juergen Nogai, a partner of Julius Shulman (considered by some as the greatest living architectural photographer). I talked to Julius today during registration and he said there will be several 4 x 5 Sinar's available to people in the class. Fugi is developing the film for free, overnighted from LA. He poo'ed poo'ed digital quite a bit. I'm curious to learn more about his thoughts on various formats. I know zero about medium/large format photography. We'll be photographing several mid century modern buildings in the Palm Springs area over the next several days.

Today there was a fine prints art walk where about a dozen photographers where selling their work. There were some old timers there showing unbelievable photos from the 60's and 70's Hollywood and Rock & Roll era (Dylan, Neil Young, The Stones, Warhol). The photographer that impressed me most was this woman, Susan Burnstine, who had built her own cameras and lenses. Her photos where definitely abstract but simply stunning. Zero Photoshopping. Apparently, you can do similar type stuff with Lensbabies. But there is no comparison to Susan's work. Looks like her stuff is available in Seattle at the Wall Space gallery. I'll have to go take a closer look sometime.

Canon is a sponsor of the festival. So, there's all sorts of Canon digital cameras available daily to try out during workshops. I'll be taking up Canon's offer to give every attendee a free 17 x 22 ink jet print using a digital file of their choice from one of their new top of line printers. I'm curious to see the quality of the best printers these days.

Every day, after the workshops, there's a symposium on various subjects paneled by a bunch of professional photographers. Then after dinner, various photographers show their work in slide shows. Should be a fun week.