My Annual Trip to Rancho La Puerta

I just got back from yet another blissful week at Rancho La Puerta - this is the best "working vacation" I take all year. While the format is the same each year that I go - I give a presentation on "Self Expression Through Photography", teach "Digital 101" and "Photographing People in Nature", and lead a photo walk with demonstrations, I seem to feel obligated to shake things up each time. I constantly recreate the self expression talk, based on what I've been experiencing and thinking about over the past year, and this year I included samples from the HATCH mentors we had last April, Sylvia Plachy and Gerald Slota, as well as work and a video by JR, the photographer/graffiti artist who has "pasted" his huge images in various unlikely settings all over the world. If you have the time, I highly recommend that you watch this video about JR on the TED page, which shows a talk that JR gave about his acceptance of the TED prize - $100,000 to make the world a better place. Lofty goal, huh? I first read about JR in the NY Times last year, and I find his work to be immensely inspiring.

I had more students than in years past, and really enjoyed working with them all. I love it when people run up to me at dinner and show me the photos they took, using the tips I had given them in class - what a kick! I was talking to my liason at the Ranch, Victoria, about creating a "photo week" at the Ranch when I go next July that is more photo intensive, forming our own group for a sunset photo hike, private dinner, slide show of student work, photo contest, etc. The Ranch will help me promote it, and in turn I will try to get a group of people together that want not only a wonderful relaxing vacation, but that want to learn how to take better photos too. Best of all, we will be able to get special discounts as a group. So, if you are interested in staying informed on this, please sign up to follow my blog and I will post any info I have about it here.

This year my trip felt busier than usual, and I had to "schedule" down time to just relax and read my book (fantastic one by the way - "Cutting for Stone") in one of many beautiful resting places - the gazebo, the hammock, the pool...you get the picture. I enjoy hiking most mornings up the mountain through the desert terraine, among wild horses, cows and wildflowers, followed by a delicious organic breakfast and various classes such as yoga and body sculpting. My friend and author, Kathleen Flinn, was the guest chef at the Cocina Que Canta, the cooking school at the Ranch, and I was able to take her cooking class, in which we made all kinds of wonderful things, including whole wheat artisan bread, homemade pasta, fruit tart with whole wheat crust, and other yummy dishes. We also made time to take some headshots of Kat for her upcoming book. Hopefully she will come to Asheville's Malaprops Books to promote it next fall.

Here are a few scenes from our hikes and around the Ranch.