Last month I attended the Firefly Institute’s photo camp for women at the gorgeous Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma. It was my second time attending this wonderful event….well third if you count the pop-up event that took place in the fall. In any case, it was an amazing 5 days spent with kindred spirits where we connected and created through our shared love of photography.
Westerbeke Ranch once again, provided the perfect backdrop for this inspiring event which offered a variety of classes from teachers who are experts in their fields. Teachers like the incredible Annie Griffiths who is one of the first women to work for National Geographic, Laurie Klein a fine art photographer who trained with Ansel Adams and Julieanne Kost a principal Evangelist at Adobe Systems.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the classes, what I loved just as much if not more was meeting and connecting with my fellow campers. The women ranged in age from 20-70 years young and were all so friendly and kind. It truly was a magical experience.
Below are just a few photos from our time together. If this is something you might be interested in, mark your calendar for October 2019 which will be when this amazing photographic experience takes place again. I hope I’ll see you there!
And after you have checked out my photos, please click through our blog circle starting with my friend Kris. Kris always has beautiful photos and she is a photographer that I met at another photo retreat through Shutter Sisters (the connections you make at camps like this really do continue beyond the camp).
I tried to make this my mantra for the 5 days…..live in the moment. Actually this is something I need to remember to do every day.
Westerbeke Ranch is so gorgeous and our group had the whole place to ourselves. Together we enjoyed delicious farm-to-table meals (I swear I would attend camp just for the food) and the lovely grounds. Everywhere you turned was a photo-op.
I was part of the red cabin group. We were the largest cluster of cabins and we had a great time together. Of course we had to get a group shot. Oh and check out my Instagram to see our hilarious Boomerang.
No camp experience is complete without a skit night. My group had to act out “Lucy’s Emotive Photo Booth.”
The amazing, sweet and incredibly talented Brook Shaden shared her fine art photography compositing techniques and let us all witness her creativity in action. She actually went into this swampy pond for the sake of her art.
The fabulous women of Firefly Institute 2018. I was asked to take this photo moments before we gathered for the group shot. Thank goodness I was not asked to do this earlier in the week because I would have been so anxious thinking about it.
