Picon Punch, Barbara Van Clevend and the Winnemucca Wind

Tuesday last week, Sister Cindy got away from work early,  a storm was

coming in and we wanted to get over Donner pass, if it was going o snow.

Quick stop in Reno for gas, cheese, salami and crackers for lunch and 

across the sagebrush sea we headed.

Rolled into Winnemucca at dinner time, checked into the Winners Hotel,

drug all our stuff up two flights of stairs

  (this would become a running joke for the week)  to our room. 

 Took a tour of main street and settled  on "The Pig"

Pulled pork sandwich, that we split for dinner... Mmmmmm ... Good Stuff!

It was here, the conversation about splitting meals and portion control accrued. 

No sleeping in on this trip, up early for breakfast and our 8 am class, Our First Day.

Craig Moore was our instructor for "Understanding Your Digital Camera"

Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, Light ?!?!? I have to confess it's still a little Greek,

but at least I'm not shooting in automatic anymore.  I'm out of neutral.

The class was out by lunch and our new hobby had soon become trying out

different restaurants.  Our new favorite Mexican place was now  "Chihuahua's"

Dinner plates the size of serving platters ( this was just lunch.)

We were as piggy as the Carnitas on our plate.

Did someone mention portion control ?

That afternoon we drove around the outskirts of town, taking pictures.

It was fun stopping alongside the road, taking shots of what ever caught our eye.

As we got back to town we did what all good ranch/farm girls do, we check 

out the feed and western stores.  They had vet supplies we can no longer get in CA.

After much discussion and a few jokes about CA "Bug Stations" at the boarder.

Cindy insisted I was not aloud to smuggle Scarlet Oil over the state line.

~Kill Joy~

In pursuing our new hobby, we were invited to join some of the staff form

 Shooting The West for Chinese food.  The company was lively and the 

first of many stories about Picon Punch was revealed.

Thursday!!!!!  Our big full day with Barbara Van Cleve 

"We were acting like two teenage off to see Elvis

She told us about growing up in Montana, a ranchers daughter.

Her life as the Dean of Women at DePaul University in Chicago  Ill.

and in 1980 moved to Santa Fe to concentrate on photography full time

and her first trip to Shooing The West and Picon Punch at the 

Winnemucca Hotel.

Her morning class, she talked about angels, subject and using
 what equipment you have.  As she shoots a lot of her photos from
 horse back.  No Tripods.  The one thing that really stuck with
 me from her class.  Like what your photographing.

This became more apparent when we started seeing works of other
 photographers.   Not everyone is going to  like your pictures, just as you 
are not going to like all that you see.  You have to like your own work,
other wise ...Why are you taking pictures?

Lunch break....... no restauraint this time, we grabbed the ice chest and headed

 out to take pictures.  We only had and hour and the class was going to meet at the 

museum for some one-on-one with Barbara.    We wanted cow pictures,

" It's How We Roll"

Dirt Road, water hole, corrals, cows and the "Winnemucca Wind"

We got our shot.

At the museum, several photo groups had gathered,  We wondered around taking

 varies picture of this and that.  Barbara would give us ideas of angels and settings.

"Look around the edges of you view finder, before you take the pictures"

She kept stressing to us that our editing, should be done in the camera before we take 

 the picture, not cropping on the computer.

The last two hours of the day our group returned to the class room setting where we

 had started that morning.  We would show the group our photos and Barbara would 

"talk about them"   It was at this point I was feeling a little ill.

After it was all over, Cindy and I Joked that it didn't hurt as much as we though it would

and  we didn't need to go home and sell off all our camera equipment. 

"WOW!!!! WHAT A DAY"

Fajitas and Margaritas at Chihuahuas to celebrate. 

I think they added a few steps to those stairs.