There is so much to tell it is hard to know where to begin, but I guess I start at the beginning. First of all, the prize package was just amazing. Here is the total of the things that I received in addition to the trip:

Firewire Drobo

Lensbaby Composer and Lensbaby Optic Kit

One year subscription to lynda.com

Thinktank Rotation 360

A set of Peachpit Press photo-related books

Apple Aperture

Lifetime Pro Membership to Photrade

The trip was a total of four days long. They paid for everything… food, hotel, transportation. There were four winner total: John Harrison, Kimberli Haugen, David Orias, and me. For each of the amateurs there was one pro photographer: Scott Bourne, Steve Simon, Jennifer Wu, and Gary Hamburgh.  In addition to the pros we also had a videographer along to record the event for ANPW (Aperture Nature Photography Workshops), Liana Lehua.

I rented a car and drove up in order to meet everyone by 5 on Wednesday. We had a short orientation and a couple of slide shows from the pros. Their work is beautiful, btw, so click on the links if you get the chance.  We had dinner together and planned to meet at 7:30 the next morning. Needless to say it was quite cold, although not as cold as I expected. We drove into the park and our first stop was Bridalveil Falls. For those of you who have been there you know that this is one of the easiest hikes in the park… a nice, wide, paved path. Well, not in the winter. The road was pretty much solid ice. We made it about halfway, stopped at a bridge over a creek and shot from there. There was no way to make it all the way to the falls themselves. I was more worried about my camera gear breaking than a part of me breaking!

We drove back to the hotel for lunch and for some tutorials on Aperture. We then headed back to the park for the afternoon for more shooting. That was basically the schedule for the entire trip. It was very relaxed with a lot of time to shoot what we wanted and where we wanted.

I think the best part of the entire trip for me, however, had nothing to do with the shooting. Being able to hang out with the pros and just listen to how they do things was invaluable for me. Scott, especially, has such great life experience that his advice went way beyond photography. I wish I would have had a tape recorder because I know I will forget a lot of it, if I haven’t already. This was definitely the experience of a lifetime for me, although hopefully there will be more in my future.