Mentor Series - Worldwide Photo Treks!








Smoky Mountains  | 2006

Never having been to Tennessee, I was very excited to be attending the Smokey Mt. Trek.  The thought of rising each morning by 4 a.m. was a little intimidating, but I figured I could do it for the sake of getting some great sunrise images. 

A friend of mine lives in Knoxville, so I visited her for a few days before the trek.  On Friday morning we had to get up early to make the trip to Gatlinburg. Saturday morning I was up and wide awake in plenty of time. After a great day of shooting, learning and being critiqued by our mentors (John Reddy and Adam Jones), I found myself fading pretty fast by evening.  In spite of that, I got some great images when we went out to shoot the sunset.


Travel with our mentors and try out all of the latest equipment from Nikon! Including world class digital SLRs, Nikkor lenses and the Coolpix line of Digital Cameras.

So, off to my room on Saturday night where I checked the alarm to make sure it was set for the correct time, got all my gear and clothes ready to run out the door in the morning, reviewed my images from the sunset shoot, and finally, laid my head down (way too late) for a short "nap", since 4 a.m. would arrive way too soon. The alarm sounded, I sat up wide awake, turned the alarm off and thought, okay, just one more minute of my head on this very comfortable pillow, and voila! when I opened my eyes it was 5 a.m.  I seriously considered jumping into my clothes and rushing down to the lobby, just in case the bus was running late.  But logic prevailed as I remembered how consistently on-time everything had been so far. 

So in order to redeem the time I thought I'd go out and shoot around town.  By 6 a.m. I was on the street, found a great little shopping village, and spent the next two hours making images of the architecture and ambiance of "The Village" with nary a soul to get in the way.  I got some images that I'm very happy with.  My over-sleeping turned into a very happy experience.

The Smokey Mountain Trek was awesome.  I learned some new things, and re-learned some others.  It was very helpful to learn a technique and then have plenty of time to practice it in the field. The mentors were great and the Popular Photography folks proved to be just like the rest of us--people who love to be with other photographers and photograph the world around them.  I'm definitely planning on attending future treks...

Thank you to all the people who worked so hard to make this trek possible and to all the attendees who participated and helped make this such a learning/sharing experience.
Linda Buckman

Smoky Mt. Testimonials

Michelle
 Had a great time and both of your mentors where very knowledgeable and patient with me.  I learned a lot and met some great people that made the Seminar OUTSTANDING!!!
Bob Fechte

Michelle
Thanks so much for all the stuff you did for us to make the trip better. It was a great experience and I am glad that I selected this for my first Trek. Hope to see you down the road when I venture out again. Take care.
Mark Beers

Michelle
 It truly was a pleasure to meet you, Adam & John this weekend.  I had an amazing time and look forward to joining on future treks.  I am anxiously anticipating the group photo and I actually kept a little journal while on the trip. Thanks again for putting together such a great weekend.
I look forward to seeing you again!
Dana Moss