NEW JERSEY | August 15-17, 2008

Mentors | Dave Black

RECAP

This was my first Mentor Series trek, and the three day series exceeded all of my expectations, thanks to the professional photographer Dave Black. For me, the two highlights of the trek were the Lakota Wolf Preserve and the moonlight walk at Duke Farms. Despite having to shoot in a thunderstorm at the wolf preserve, we had many photo ops of wolves literally caressing each other. They were very photographer friendly and seemed to pose just a couple of feet from our group. We would have petted them, had we not been warned ahead of time not to do so. I wish we could have brought some home. This particular shoot resulted in numerous "hangable" photos, which I can't wait to do. For the moonlight walk, Dave Black taught us his specialty, "light painting". We applied this technique in the black of night to statues of goddesses, resulting in some very unique photographs. Most of the students had never seen this approach before, and we were all very excited about learning it. I've continued to light paint at home, so this trek has permanently changed the way I take photographs.

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.

Another favorite stop was the Four Sisters Winery, where we shot acres of grape vines, followed by grape stomping by Erica and one of the students, and a photo shoot in the wine cellar. Dave's technique of using a Nikon Speed Light with a "snoot" was used by several students to enhance the grape scenes as well as the equipment in the cellar. This lighting technique also came into play at the Frelinghuyen Arboretum. We also had an opportunity to practice landscape photography in Clinton, at the Red Mill Museum Village, which is picturesquely located next to a very long waterfall. Finally, we stopped at Unique Photo, where an educator at this photography store gave us a presentation on his photo techniques taught at his in-store university. Several students also took advantage of their discount pricing on photo equipment.

I would also like to mention a very valuable part of the weekend, where Dave Black reviewed some of our photos in a couple of one-on-one sessions with each student. These were very detailed reviews, and he offered many suggestions for improving our photos, both in-camera, and in post processing. The hardest task of all was to select 10 best photos out of the 750 that I took, for the final slide show to the group.

I'll conclude by thanking Dave for sharing so much of his knowledge and techniques with the group. Nikon also made available equipment for us to try, and Mentor Series provided LED flashlights for us to use for light painting. The trek was a complete success.

Lenny Messman