I have just completed my first Mentor Series Trek and I must tell you, I had a blast! I really enjoyed myself, making new friends, laughing and sharing stores.

The evening prior to the trek the staff met for dinner to go over the details of the trek. It was here that I met the other two mentors and trek organizers from Popular Photography. The other mentors, Bill Durrence and John Reddy are terrific guys and excellent teachers. Our organizers for the trek, Erica Johnson and Vanessa Vazquez from Popular Photography are sweethearts.

The organization of the trek was fantastic, thank you Erica and Vanessa for all your hard work, you are true professionals. I can see why so many of the trekker's where returning to do their second, and in some cases their 4th and 10th trek. The Mentor Series provides wonderful travel locations, fantastic photographic opportunities and experienced instructors to teach photographic techniques and answer questions.

I had the opportunity to provide two light demos using the Nikon CLS method as well as a bit of light painting while on location with my group one morning. This old dog learned a few new tricks from my fellow mentors on the trip. Wow, I just can't say enough.

This is a photo of Kate, one of my trekkers from day two. We did a quick 2 light set-up. Below is a photo of Trever after an evening of image reviews. This also was a two light set-up, SB-800 shot through an umbrella for the key and another SB-800 with a CTO on the back wall.

Shown below is the light painting I did of several photographer setting up for sunrise at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley. The exposure was around 30 seconds or so.

The Mentor Series of Treks are fantastic, they have several new destinations to choose from. For more information regarding their treks, click HERE. Up coming treks include: Alaska, Mexico, Chicago, Nashville and many others.

Here are more images for the trek.