Last Saturday was an eventful day. At 8:00 a.m. I conducted a workshop at Table Rock State Park which focused on the "Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge." We were fortunate to have really beautiful weather and instead of arriving at the site to the sound of thunder I was greeted with the songs of wood thrushes and black-throated green warblers. I was honored to have photographer and all-around nice guy, Ben Keys in my workshop and he certainly added a lot with his years of experience. The wildflowers around our meeting spot at the hemlock shelter were really showy and I anticipated many more on the trail. However, I brought the group to a spot on the Carrick Creek Trail that was covered with bell-flowers a few days before but turned out to be pretty much barren on Saturday. Fortunately, the group was very happy to photograph other general macro shots to finish out the class. I'm looking foward to my next workshop on June 28 entitled "The Impressionistic Landscape" which will be modeled after the work of such greats as Freeman Patterson, William Neill and Claude Monet.
On Saturday evening I went to the opening of the 29th annual Pickens Co. Museum of Art Juried Show (Press Release) which was jurored by Savannah College of Art and Design Professor, Josh Yu. I was honored to receive a purchase award for my print of a Green Salamander and have it accepted into the gallery's permanent collection. This is a huge honor for me and I must say that it feels really good to see the positive reaction to the sepia series (see post "Serendipity") that I'm currently working on. This is an image that I shot as a color RAW file but converted into sepia to emphasize the ancient lineage of the species. It was quite a day for certain.
