This installment will cover the remaining months, September through December. Outside of two excursions, I didn’t have the chance to do much photography. Those two excursions were fantastic, though.

In September, I signed up for a photography workshop in the Badlands, conducted by the incomparable Tony Sweet. I have been wanting to attend one of his workshop for many years, so I did not pass up this chance. I had been to the Badlands a few times, first, when I was a kid on a family vacation, and then, in July 2005. This workshop was the most in depth exploration of the park I had been involved with. I drove out South Dakota on Sunday, September 4. The workshop officially started Monday evening, so I had the chance to explore the park on my own Monday during the day. The workshop kicked off with photographing sunset at the Hay Butte Overlook. The rest of the week, we were up well before dawn, on the road, and heading to a different spot in the park for sunrise. We would shoot until mid-morning, get something to eat, do some editing back at our hotel rooms, reconvene for a critique session in the afternoon, and then head back to the park for sunset.

The weather gods smiled upon us that whole week. Monday, before the workshop, there was a dense fog in the morning, which eventually lifted to a low cloud cover. The landscape is dramatic all on its own, this cloud cover just added to it. We then were treated to magnificent sunrises and sunsets the rest of the week. We explored parts of the park I had never been to. We went to a part active, part abandoned town just outside of the park.  It was a week I will never forget. And I honestly have still not edited anywhere near all of the photos I took that week.

The other excursion was to New York City in October, for the first Out of New York Photography Conference. My role with the group is to help coordinate the photowalks, which is one of the defining features of the conferences. It was the first time I spent an extended amount of time in NYC, I had just driven through it previously. I spent the days at the conference center making sure the photowalks went out without a hitch. But, I did have the opportunity to lead one photowalk to Grand Central Terminal, and another to the 9/11 Memorial, both at night. The last day, I assisted the amazing Steve Simon for a street photography workshop. He took us to several different spots- the High Line, the corner of 57th Street and 5th Ave (Bill Cunningham’s Corner), Washington Square Park and finally, Chinatown. I fell in love with NYC, and I will be back for further exploration.

There were a couple of outings I attended locally in November and December. I think I just realized that I still had so many photos to sift through from the rest of the year, so I didn’t shoot as much for the last couple of months.

That concludes my look back to 2016. I will be posting a Top Ten, my Ten favorite photos of the year. That will be posted tomorrow. 2017 looks to have some more adventures, I can’t wait to get out and start shooting again!