I had a fantastic time at Michael and Eric’s Death Valley workshop! I came in aiming to grow artistically/creatively, gain/refine technical skills, explore new types of landscapes, and come away with photos I was proud of. Michael and Eric certainly helped do all of those while enjoying the company of a fun, light-hearted group! Creatively, abstracts (dunes, mud cracks, badlands colors) pushed me the most so it was really helpful having them provide a range of potential inspiration ideas to discover what we resonated with while also giving feedback (both the what and why) on specific compositions to help iterate on and improve them. The mid-day classroom sessions helped by (1) showing a wide range of Death Valley landscape photos to draw inspiration from, and (2) seeing how Michael/Eric approached editing our photos was a great combination of critique/showing what editing could draw out of RAWs. Watching their two different styles across Lightroom and Photoshop in real time was also very helpful in getting a sense for their artistic process as well as picking up some technical tricks. Their deep knowledge of the area was apparent, and locations were thoughtfully chosen to make best use of weather conditions. All combined, I learned/grew a lot, had a great time with the group, and brought back photos I love. I look forward to future adventures!