What’s Happening Now? 

Last month, my blog entry was “What’s Ahead in 2020?”  (yes, I’m actually writing two months in a row!)  I talked about what we had cancelled and rescheduled, and how we were getting started on some online classes.  Basically, from our perspective of leading travel-based photo workshops, things had come to a halt. 

This month, I’d like to talk about what is happening now.  Of course, from the perspective of the corona-virus, we’re pretty much unchanged;  the virus is still among us;  we’re still hoping for a vaccine to be developed, and in the meantime, many of us are wearing masks, keeping a healthy distance from others, and trying to find our way through these difficult days. 

I suppose I’m thinking about finding our way today.  As I shared in an earlier blog (and also have posted on our “About Us” page on the website), many of our workshop and classroom participants become our personal friends, and we also look forward to meeting new folks!  We don’t want any of you to become ill or even worse.  That’s why we shut down all our activities after February. 

During that time, we put a lot of thought into how we could and should move forward.  This is a business, and if it’s going to survive in the future, we must operate somehow.  At the same time, Mountaineer Photo Excursions isn’t solving world hunger, so it’s not absolutely imperative that we are “out there” in full force.  The risk to others, ourselves and our families just isn’t worth it.  So, we investigated different options, new things we could do, new ways to do our favorite things, and we are starting to put those ideas into practice. 

We’ve been offering some online classes.  If you’ve taken one of our Beginner Bootcamp or Road Scholar workshops, some of these classes may be familiar.  We’ve also developed a few new ones and are continuing to do so.  We’ve also put together a fun and local workshop at Babcock State Park here in West Virginia.  We had a smaller group, wore our masks when necessary, and had a successful weekend event.  During this past weekend, we also ran a “new & improved” version of our Beginner Bootcamp at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, WV. 

Amanda Haddox and I also recently returned from the Great State of Maine, where we scouted amazing locations such as Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Schoodic Peninsula, Cadillac Mountain, Winter Harbor, and Moosehead Lake.  This will be our summer 2021 workshop destination.  We’ve been working on next year’s schedule, and have a great lineup planned.  We’ll be opening registration soon for our first workshop of next year at Sanibel Island in Florida.  2021 will be our TENTH year offering photo workshops, and it’s going to exciting! 

We haven’t been sitting around staring out the windows, just wishing we were doing something…we’ve been doing something!  So, stay in touch, watch our schedule, and we hope to see you during our travels!  Do you want to improve your photography?  Let us take you there! 

Ron Gaskins

Mountaineer Photo Excursions

August 11, 2020