Upde Designs

Happy Saturday!

The odyssey has finally begun.  As you can tell from the image above this isn’t Kansas Dorothy.  So the news that I’ve been hinting about for sometime is finally here.  As I write this blog I am sitting at a breakfast counter drinking a cup of Hazel Nut coffee in Nashville Tennessee.

The reason I’m here is to attend a 5 day photography class instructed by Bill Fortney a professional photographer that I have followed for years.  Additionally among other instructors the great Joe McNally will be teaching one day.  The class is limited to 14 students and runs from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. so there will be little time for much of anything else.  My hope is to keep the blog up during the experience.

Thursday evening Jeanne an I attend a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.  The temperature was 98 degrees with a heat index of 110 – 115 degrees.  I cannot remember being as hot and miserable at any one time as I was that evening.  We finally left the stadium at the top of the 8th inning and walked across the street to our hotel.  We sat in heavenly air conditioning with wine and food and watched the last two innings of the game.  Which the Cardinals won by the way.  🙂

Friday morning we took long walk around the Arch (much of surrounding area is under construction)  We were still able to get up close and personal with it. When the construction is completed it will be a wonderful addition.

Last night after arriving in Nashville we had a great dinner at an outdoor bar and grill.  It was fun watching all the interesting night life of the city.  I saw a “pedal bar” for the first time.  Several party buses (open air variety) stopped by the outdoor bar so it was a fun evening.

I have an open day today and then class starts tomorrow afternoon.  It promises to be an exciting week culminating in doing a concert shoot  Thursday evening during the Ricky Skaggs performance.  Ricky is an accomplished photographer as well as being a 14 Grammy award winner.  He will also teach a couple of the sessions.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Stay cool and be careful.