This was an amazing trip and was well planned out. It was also very affordable. The Bisti area is special, and it seems almost unknown!

This trip was a mixed bag for us. And that is unfortunate. First, the workshop leaders. Erica and Armando were wonderful. They were responsive to questions when we were out for the shoots and were a wealth of information, especially regarding lenses And they are both very nice people, so nice, in fact, that it created a problem during the shoots. As with any group, there were a couple of people who thought they were the only ones on the trip. So, when it came time to share photo time with the others, they refused. As one example, we were taken to a spot to get a shot of the sun setting. The picture was to be taken through one of the rock formations and the result, hopefully, would be a starburst. Erica said that we should all take no more than one or two minutes so that everyone could get the shot. After all, the sun wasn't waiting. One of the group decided that five or six or seven minutes was more his style and refused to move. Neither Erica nor Armando did anything about it. It took another member of the group to physically push this person away. This type of incident happened a few times, with another time when one participant was in other people's pictures and refused to move. The leaders should have been more forceful, especially given the time sensitivity which was, after all, the reason for our being at the workshop in the first place. Another disappointment had to do with the Tamron lenses. Erica and Armando brought four cases of lenses with them. Fabulous, right? Unfortunately, though, the two lenses I borrowed did not work on the Z mount even though they were supposed to be made for the Z mount. Clearly, I would not buy them. But the problem, of course, was that I wasted time using those lenses (or trying to) and missed many shots because of it. While these issues may have had to do with our group, the next two don't. And they were unacceptable. First, the hotel. Tamron advertised this workshop and gave a choice of single occupancy or double occupancy for the room. This type of trip, however, is not honeymoon couples. In fact, only grown men were on this trip. And yet, there was no room in this hotel that had two queen or double beds. Yes, you read that right. The Hampton Inn a few blocks away had two queens. The Fairfield In a few blocks away had two queens. And I would guess that every other hotel in town had rooms with two queens. Yet, at this hotel, every room had a single bed plus a pull out sofa. That is unacceptable. And unnecessary. It's not like the hotel ever had rooms with two queens. Every room has the same bedding. So, if that's the case, either don't say there are rooms for two adults or change hotels. But this does not work. Second was the food. Again, we didn't go on this trip for the food. BUT . . . . Before the excursion on the second night, Erica ordered food for all of us. The group I was with ordered a BLT, a turkey sandwich and a grilled cheese with tomato I mean, how bad could these classic sandwiches be? Well, the BLT was inedible, the turkey sandwich didn't have turkey and the grilled cheese with tomato had everything except -- wait for it -- cheese or tomato. In fact, when we opened the sandwich, there was nothing inside. Just two pieces of bread slapped together. And this was supposed to be our dinner! So we went to Fireside Subs in town and got food so we wouldn't pass out during the 8 hours we were on the reservation. Finally, there were the excursions themselves. The first night, we were out from about 5pm to 1:30am. The second night, we were out from about 5:30pm to 1:15am. Then we met at 4:30am, three hours later, for the morning excursion. This was absolutely exhausting. And it would have been exhausting even if we had not been carrying our camera bags and tripods. We hiked between 2 1/2 and 5 miles each night, much of it in the dark. So by the time the morning session came around, most of the group was simply wiped out. Whoever planned this did not think it through. The timing was very poor and should be changed if Tamron expects to continue this type of workshop. In all, I doubt I would go on another workshop with Tamron. Their focus on detail was unimpressive and the negatives were very, very important and upsetting, overshadowing whatever positives I may have taken away from the workshop itself.

The logistics of the trip were executed exactly as expected. We were fortunate to have great weather, and when combined with the coaching from the Tamron staff we were able capture some great images. The location guides selected by Team Tamron were also very very good. Tamron was generous with loaner lenses for experimentation - my favorite was their 35-150 f2/2.8, which is in a class to itself and is going on my "must buy" list. Zero complaints and lots of praise for this adventure!