Join Image Quest on a foray to the east side of the massive Sierra Nevada Mountains. Turn your creative eye on Bodie, the greatest ghost town in the West, with over 500 structures still standing. We'll look for - and even learn how to create - autumn color in the mountains. We will also visit spectacular vantage points over eerie Mono Lake. During this pleasant time of year,  we can expect to find our various locations with relatively few other people. The sun, low in the autumnal heavens, will allow us hours of good light each day that will give us a sense of texture, shape and pattern, in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Dates: Thursday through Sunday, October 20-23, 2011.

Cost: $410 (does not include accommodations, see below)

Trip difficulty: None; conducted at a photographer's pace. There will be some walking, including through the ghost town of Bodie, and at Mono Lake. Participants should be able to walk at least a mile over the course of a couple hours (although we will walk less than that distance at any one stop).

Transportation: Via private vehicle; trip leader will help make carpooling arrangements between those who need rides and those who can offer rides. 

Carpooling: We encourage everyone to carpool when and where possible. We'll send around, with your permission, a list of participants as the trip date nears, for those who want to carpool. We also want to carpool once we're in our accommodations in Bridgeport.

Weather: Expect cool morning and evening temperatures, and mild to warm days. Rain and even snow are possible, but not likely.

Who is this trip for? We sometimes have people who join us who don't bother bringing a camera, or bring a very basic camera; they might be artists who will work at home on a canvas, or they know our pace will be leisurely, unlike more frenetic, non-photography tours. That said, no matter what level of knowledge we have, all participants should have a love of photography, and a desire to make photographs throughout the course of a few days, from dawn to sunset.

Our purpose will be to visually explore the natural world around us, with an additional benefit: we will explore who we are, too, in relation to that natural world, expressed through the creative artistry we will learn to bring to our photographs. And we'll have a chance to explore the relatively recent past history, at the ghost town of Bodie, where human events played out in harsh surroundigs.

Trip leaders have conducted this outing over the course of many years, and they will do their best to insure that we balance the need to spend enough time enjoy a location, but not at such length as to bore our group.

Our group, from participants to instructors, will act as force multipliers, as we learn from each other, looking through viewfinders and LCDs, talking about what we're looking at.

What the Trip Isn't: This isn't an out where the instructors will give lectures during the hours we can be out making photographs; it's isn't a trip that will spend indoor-time teaching Photoshop.  This will be a hands-on photography tour.


- Dave Wyman - his photographs of Bodie have appeared Outdoor Photographer, Cross-Country Skier, the California State Parks Guidebook and his book, Backroads of Northern California. He is the author and photographer of two other pictorial guidebooks (Backroads of Southern California and Yosemite in Photographs). Dave has conducted photography tours since 1982, for the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Sierra Club, the University of Southern California, the Yosemite Association, and the Los Angeles Zoo. His unbridled passion for travel and photography have led him and the groups he conducts to locations throughout California, the Southwest, Oregon, and Yellowstone. Dave takes his camera up onto high mountains summits, down to rugged coastlines, and along remote roads in the western U.S, both by car and on a bicycle.

- Ken Rockwell is known internationally for his website, kenrockwell.com. He is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about photography and cameras. He can answer any question about any point-and-shoot digicam, film cameras, and the latest digital cameras. He is particularly well versed in the use of Nikon, Canon and Leica equipment. His loyal readers - who number in the many thousands each day - enjoy his often iconoclastic and sometimes controversial essays, as well as his detailed reviews of camera gear. A Southern California resident much of his life, Ken has explored  California and the Southwest with his, including explorations of Death Valley,  New Mexico, and stretches of historic Route 66. Visit Ken at kenrockwell.com.

 

Accommodations: Stay in the little town of Bridgeport, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Trip leaders will stay at the quaint and comfortable  Redwood Motel, as we have for several years past, and participants are invited to stay there, too. Limited space is available; however, there are several places to say in town, all within a stone's throw of each other. For those who wish to stay with Ken and Dave, it's first come, first served. Mention to the innkeeper that you're on the photo tour that weekend. Meals: There will be a group dinner the first night. We'll always be near places to purchase food at other meal times, including the amazing "gourmet" fast food restaurant, the "Whoa Nellie Deli" in Lee Vining. Participants may bring their own food and there are local markets as well as a variety of restaurants from which to choose. Itinerary: on Thursday, arrive by 3 p.m. on the grounds of the Bridgeport Motel, and we'll head out on a drive east of town to photograph some of the landscape. We'll have presentation by Ken, after our group dinner. On Friday we'll meet  dawn above Mono Lake, photograph sunrise over the Sierra, and explore groves of aspen along the famed June Lake Loop and in Lee Vining Canyon. On Saturday, we'll photograph at the ghost town of Bodie, and in the afternoon drive into the mountains to photograph the high country and look for more fall color; we'll finish the day at a hot spring. On Sunday we'll depart Bridgeport for a final sunrise session near town, and the workshop will officially end after breakfast. What you need to Bring: - A sense of adventure - Clothes for cool and warm conditions, including rain gear, and a ski cap for cool mornings and evenings - Mittens (or gloves - an extra pair of socks will work, too) - Shoes (tennis shoes or boots or any comfortable walking shoes; consider bringing along an extra pair of shoes, just in case) - Money for for meals not provided (there are restaurants and markets in Bridgeport and nearby Lee Vining) and entry fees (approximately    $5 for the ghost town of Bodie, $5 for Mono Lake*) - Camera gear (see below)

- Optional: If you would like to share some of your images with the group, bring along up to a dozen digital images, scanned onto a CD, on a thumb drive, or in your laptop; and/or bring up to a dozen prints.   

What is Provided by Image Quest:
- Trip leaders
- Group dinner
- Guided walking tours
- Photographic instruction
- Help with accommodations in Bridgeport, CA (participants are invited to stay with the instructors, see above)

Camera Equipment: a basic digital or 35mm camera will work well. Don't feel the need to purchase special equipment. However, for those with more gear, bring it along - this is the time to use it. A good accessory: a tripod (along with a remote or wired shutter release) will allow photography early and late in the day. Good filters, particularly for those with film, would include an 81B (to warm up images made in the shade) and a graduated neutral density filter. All photographers might want to bring along a polarizing filter. Medium format photographers are welcome, too. The instructors will probably bring along both film and digital cameras; digital images - from the instructor and participants - will be shown during the workshop during the evenings, if time and stamina permits. For print (negative) film, Fuji's basic Fujicolor films are excellent. A good ISO/ASA film speed rating for print film is 200 to 400. For transparencies (slides), the instructors prefer Fujichrome's stable of slide films, and the Kodak Ektachromes work well, too. Memory and power: Bring enough CF or SD cards to contain several hundred photographs. Cameras will be working all day, so sufficient battery power is important. Don't forget a battery charger. Consider an extra battery if you bring a film camera.

To register: Send payment to Image Quest, 1164 Alvira Street, Los Angeles, California, 90035. Or use paypal.com and a credit card (check with Dave first, and let him know if you would like help using paypal).

We'll send back a receipt and any additional documentation, including directions to our accommodations, that you need. Cancellation fee: $100.  No refund for cancellations less than two weeks prior to the start date of the outing unless another particpant takes your place. Remember, if you do join us, and you want to stay with Dave and Ken, make a reservation at the Redwood Motel, in Bridgeport, California.

* As of August 30, 2011, Mono Lake State Park is scheduled for closure to the public sometime in September. We will substitue another location for Mono Lake; it's possible the park will not close. We'll do our best to post the latest information.