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Travel adventures in 2023 took a different turn. My most recent trip to Kenya (my 10th<\/sup> time there and definitely a comfort zone for me) was January 2021. In 2022, I planned a road trip to the western U.S. The total drive was 4,406 miles. A driving trip, stopping and enjoying many areas, was more to my husband\u2019s liking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I began to think about what I might want to consider for 2023. Flights to Kenya were more expensive because everyone is back in the travel mode. It was impossible to use flyer miles for an international flight. Then I ran across a tour company that offered photography workshops in many parts of the world. Although their pricing was pretty upper level for me, they were offering a nice discount at the end of November, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photography workshops are different than photo tours. Workshops are designed to teach you new techniques in the field, meet like minded photographers, have lots of photo opportunities, and learn how to make great images. Photo tours take you to beautiful places and give you the opportunities to take pictures if you desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had never been to Alaksa. This photo workshop offered by Muench Workshops emphasized personal instruction and an all-inclusive experience so you can focus on your photography. They collaborate with experienced pro photographers and the number of participants is small. This peaked my interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trip was rated as \u201ceasy\u201d stating if you can live on a yacht for a week, get in and out of zodiacs onto shore and take short walks, you\u2019re good. I could handle that. They gave a basic outline for the trip which began and ended in Juneau. The itinerary was traveling through the fjords and Glacier Bay National Park with lots of opportunities to see wildlife and great scenery. One has to understand that on these trips, itineraries are weather dependent and there is no controlling wildlife. I\u2019ve leaned that from traveling to Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stated goal of the workshop as posted in the description was \u201cyou will learn and hone wildlife photography skills, capturing fast and slow-moving animals with ease. We will work with you on making truly compelling compositions of the wildlife and the landscape it inhabits. Each day you\u2019ll have image review time and learn new post-processing techniques in Lightroom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to admit, I was a bit anxious about this trip. I consider myself a good photographer, and I had what the pro photographer Richard told me during our on line meet-up, were the lenses needed to capture good images. They had mentioned taking \u201cshort walks\u201d which can be subjective. My brother would say a short walk would be 2-3 miles. I was also concerned because several months prior to the trip, I had been diagnosed with a couple of small tears in my rotator cuff. I invested in a better backpack (Mindshift<\/a>) to carry all my photo gear when on land, to keep the weight off my shoulder. As it turned out, we only took 2 very short walks and I didn\u2019t need to carry the backpack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I flew into Juneau a day prior to the trip because flights into Juneau were so limited. I was glad I did because I was able to take a Blue Bus tour out to Mendenhall Glacier (which I really enjoyed), as well walk around town, enjoy some shopping, and adjust to the 4 hour time difference from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going into the trip, I knew I might face a dietary challenge. I don\u2019t eat any seafood. I know, this is Alaska. When I filled in my registration questionnaire for the trip, they asked about food concerns. Luckily our entire time on the yacht, Chef Ryan prepared wonderful non-seafood items for me. His cooking skills were amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their registration questionnaire was very thorough. It asked if there were any health concerns to note, how well do you know your cameras, and since they said they taught post-processing techniques in Lightroom Classic, they asked how well did I know the program. I was honest and said I had no experience with LRC, but had some familiarity with a previous version, Lightroom 5.\u00a0 If I had any disappointments with the trip, it revolved around \u201clearn new post-processing techniques in Lightroom.\u201d\u00a0 Our pro photographer Richard was always available to answer any questions we had, and we did have image critiquing.\u00a0 However, Lightroom post-processing techniques were never taught.\u00a0 If you have no experience with the program, it is very difficult (basically impossible) to ask someone who knows the program well, any questions.\u00a0 After the trip, they requested feedback and I provided my concerns on this. One of the company owners said it would be very challenging to teach LRC from beginning to end, in such a short time.\u00a0 However, Muench does offer Lightroom Essentials, Process Like a Pro, course with video training, handouts and lifetime access.\u00a0 With a 20% discount, it is $317.\u00a0 I offered my suggestion of what I thought they might do during the trip, i.e., possibly take a photo that we submitted for critiquing and then show us in LRC, how we might use some of the program features to improve it. The other suggestion was, if post-processing techniques in Lightroom were not going to be taught, then they need to change their trip description wording.\u00a0 I opted to learn Lightroom Classic via Lightroom Queen<\/a>.\u00a0 Victoria provides very helpful tips and they have a lot of tutorials and guides.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned a lot in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trip offered a lot of positives.\u00a0 The Alaskan Story yacht was impressive. The 4 crew members Mariah, Ryan, Catherine and Salar were amazing. They were always pleasant, helpful and absolutely nothing was too much trouble.\u00a0 During our travels on the water, there were lots of photographic opportunities.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always been interested in aquatic mammals, and being able to watch and photograph Humpbacks bubble netting, was truly an amazing experience.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never had much success photographing birds in action but with Richard\u2019s suggestions, I was able to get some fantastic photos of Horned Puffins. Seeing the variety of glaciers was certainly a new experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Challenging ourselves is always good.\u00a0 Would I take this type of trip again?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 My primary interest in wildlife, is being able to watch, learn and photograph their behaviors.\u00a0 For me, Africa provides a better match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About the Trip Travel adventures in 2023 took a different turn. My most recent trip to Kenya (my 10th time there and definitely a comfort zone for me) was January 2021. In 2022, I planned a road trip to the western U.S. The total drive was 4,406 miles. A driving trip, stopping and enjoying many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11495"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11502,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495\/revisions\/11502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Favorite Photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n
Other Photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"