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.

On Friday, February 25, 2005 thirty-two trekkers assembled at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Tucson. John Reddy and Reed Hoffmann, our mentors for the weekend, first wowed us with a digital presentation of their work then met with us individually to review our photos. After lunch we headed to Old Tucson Studios to photograph costumed characters walking around frontier sets where former movies such as The Wild, Wild West were shot. Participants had a blast shooting gunfights and hangings that occurred as actors hammed up western melodramas. Dancers, horses, stagecoaches, trains, buildings and a cemetery were other subjects.  Late that afternoon we drove to a select spot in the desert, and spread out to find that perfect saguaro as the foreground for our sunset pictures. Shadowy mountains compressed with our zoom lenses made a great backdrop to skies turning amber-orange. Back at the hotel, Reed illustrated how to use layering among other techniques in his informative, detailed lecture on PhotoShop.

Saturday we drove 70 miles southeast to Tombstone, the "town too tough to die," where the wicked wild west is epitomized like no other. Retired actors and locals dressed in western attire strolled the dusty streets where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday once fought the cattle rustlin’ Clanton gang in the notorious 30 second gunfight at the OK Corral. Capturing impromptu re-enactments, zany animal performers, and historical buildings became secondary as American Photo had hired two models for us to shoot. A woman of the night, scantily clothed in red and white, posed provocatively at the bar while a cowboy, reflective and mellow, sat on the porch chewing his cigar. Our next stop was Bisbee, another 25 miles south, to an old mining town just six miles from the Mexican border. We had an hour to wander the hilly streets photographing architectural details, sculptures, mining equipment and whatever else caught our eye in this historical town turned artsy. A bus ride took us back to the far west side of Tucson to the AZ Sonoran Desert Museum where we roamed among 300 animals and 1200 desert plants. Participants could disperse over the 21 acre complex on their own or follow the mentors, who welcomed questions and, even better, volunteered their perspectives on what they look for when photographing, offering ideas on lighting, lens choices, f-stops and specific angles. We stopped for another sunset photo, many hiking up to a lofty vantage point for dual views of the cactus-studded mountain range. Mentors critiqued our shots later that night at the hotel.

Early Sunday morning, we arrived before dawn to watch the rising sun bathe the White Dove of the Desert in soft pink light. Scaffolding around one of the two bell towers marred our view of what’s considered the finest example of mission architecture in the Southwest. But despite it’s cocoon, there was plenty to photograph–elegant arches, domes, portals, crosses and figures that were built by Franciscan missionaries between 1783 and 1797. The back parking area was reportedly a favorite spot for Ansel Adams, who enjoyed photographing the white arches against the backdrop of distant mountains. A mix of Moorish, Byzantine and Mexican Renaissance styles on the adobe exterior gave way to Mexican baroque art inside the curved mesquite door, where murals, frescoes, wooden statues and religious icons decorated the interior, recently restored after being vandalized in the 1990s. By 7:30am residents of the San Xavier Indian Reservation were arriving to attend Sunday morning mass. As the wooden pews filled, we ducked out with tripods in tow, thankful for the few glorious moments to admire the art and scalloped windows on the ceiling where shafts of light illuminated a shepherd fresco.
Back at the hotel, we warmed numb fingers with hot coffee and devoured Radisson’s breakfast buffet before walking to the adjacent LaPlacita Plaza. In stark contrast to muted desert shades, the contemporary adobe buildings shouted with color–yellow, lime green, orange, purple and fuchsia pink. Sharp angles and reflected images were fun to photograph, the abstract art a new subject for many. After lunch, we gathered one last time to view a digital presentation that Michelle put together, a sampling of our group’s efforts in this region rich in saguaros and wild west history.