Mountaineer Photo Excursions

05/22/2024

Ron with my Canon on his birthday in 2015 at Jenny Wiley State Park. How the world has completely turned upside down in the last 8 months, today you can find me with his Nikon around my neck, with a Canon lens attached to it, of course….wink, wink!

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Ron! You are missed!

01/25/2024

Whether you are using your snowman as your portrait model, shooting winter birds in your yard, wandering out in snow covered landscapes, or reading a good photography book on the couch, what’s your winter photography project?

01/06/2024

It’s a New Year and many of you got new photography equipment for Christmas. So let’s do something fun and talk about BAD gear! What’s the WORST piece of gear that you have ever purchased or was gifted to you?

When we first started out doing photography workshops, Ron had this Opteka 500mm f/6.3 manual focus mirror lens. It looked like a big barrel attached to his camera that he had gotten somewhere cheap. One evening, we were out shooting elk, when two bulls charged each other, locking horns in front of us. At the end of the day, using my Canon 100-400 mm lens, I had sharp pictures of both elk in the heat of battle. Ron had problems manually focusing the lens quickly enough to keep up with all the action. After looking at his pictures, he sold it. In better light with more time to focus it, it might not have been so bad.

With me, the running joke is that I have bought and sold a Canon 100mm macro lens THREE times! Each time I bought one, I thought I was going to get into macro photography, after sitting in my bag for a couple of years I would eventually sell it, only to buy another one a couple years later and sell it again. Then lens wasn’t bad, the intention of the photographer buying it was. I did buy a really BAD piece of gear, a variable density 8 stop neutral density filter. Instead of being “neutral” It had a weird blue cast to it and I had to correct all the pictures I took with it that day. I should have read the reviews and spent an extra $15.00 to get a better brand…..

So, what’s the worst or bad piece of gear that you have gotten and why was it so bad?

01/05/2024

LOCATION CHANGE - January 8th meeting will be at the Church of Christ Annex in South Charleston (1/2 block from the Fire Department on 4th Ave.). It will begin at 6:30pm

Amanda Haddox will present, "Developing a Critical Eye: How to Improve Your Own Photos by Learning to Critique Others".

Come out and join us and discover what you can do to make your photos better!

01/02/2024

Happy New Year! This card was sent to me by Amazon Photos today to share with all my friends, so I did – I shared it with all of YOU!

It’s been a busy last few months! Stay tuned to this page, 2024 is going to be a year of learning! Look for a lot of exciting announcements, offerings and opportunities to improve your photography in the new year ahead!

A “Mountaineer Photo Excursions - Best of 2023” slideshow is currently being built, starring many of you! it will be posted here in the next couple days. Whew! I spent a week going through all the pictures. It’s hard to believe all that we accomplished and all the places that we visited in 2023. Thank you for coming along with us!

My New Years Resolution – Get on this page once a day. If you listen hard, you can hear Ron laughing!

If you haven’t made a New Year’s Resolution yet… Ansel Adams said, “Twelve significant photos in any one year is a good crop”. Resolve to take one significant photo each month. It could be one that’s significance is that its meaningful to you, something new that you tried that worked, something new that you tried that didn’t work, try telling one photo story about an event, a place or a significant person in your life…If enough of you are interested, we can start a thread on the page where you can post your pictures.

Happy 2024! A New Year! New Adventures! New Travels! New Experiences! New Photos!

~Amanda

10/13/2023

As you can tell from the posts, we’ve returned from the Great Alaska Grizzly Adventure and YES, Ron Gaskins was there!

From the weather forecast that for 3 weeks straight showed rain every day, until we boarded our flight, then it ALL went away! The BEST WEATHER according to our pilot in 41 years! YES, we knew YOU were there with us!

To cloud filled days, that miraculously cleared at night so the NORTHERN LIGHTS could shine bright. The same Northern Lights we were NOT supposed to see… YES, we knew YOU were there with us!

Then when the one PHONE CALL that had to get through DID, even though no one had cell service, nor did we for the rest of the time we were there. Yes, we knew YOU were there with us!

We had a week of good weather, three nights of Northern Lights, smooth flights to and from all our locations, and great guides who rafted us through a maze of bears on several days. Oh, and did I mention the bears? Big ones, small ones, mothers and cubs, they were everywhere! YES Ron, we knew YOU were there with us - ALL week long!

A big thanks to Debi Wiedekamp, our lifeline who shuttled us back and forth on land and took care of our group’s every need and to Kellam Harp, our comical chef, who hadn’t forgotten Ron’s special request for lemons on our last trip and kept everyone well fed while we were there. They also knew YOU were there with us!

The biggest thank you goes to everyone who went on the Great Alaskan Grizzly Adventure, Mike Scherer, Diana Carpenter Schieber, Laurinda Bowling, Terry Bowling, Cookie Green, Cyglenda Ramsey Abbott, Marlene Colebank, Mike Colebank, DeeDee Newlon, Cynthia Heiskell, and Norman Co***rd. You made a very difficult trip, easy. I couldn’t have made it through the week without all of you!

09/20/2023

So the journey begins…we’re heading to Columbus this afternoon and staying overnight to catch our early morning flight to Anchorage. Interestingly enough, I received an email earlier this week from Delta Airlines regarding our in-flight entertainment – STAR TREK! Ron’s favorite show – now what’s the likelihood? I took it as a sign that HIS Force Will Be With Us on this trip! Our Next Adventure Awaits – We’re Going to Alaska!

09/01/2023

This is the most difficult post I have ever written, yes, it is true, Ron passed away yesterday afternoon.
Right now, I am completely devastated, he was not only my workshop partner, but he was also my best friend.
As you all know, Ron never met a stranger, the moment anyone met Ron, they instantly became friends. Ron knew everything about everything, there wasn’t anything that you could ask him that he didn’t know the answer to, or if he didn’t, he would find out. He was thoughtful and generous, if you needed it and Ron had it, it was yours without even asking. Ron was the person everyone called, family, neighbors, and friends, if you needed help, Ron was always there to lend a hand. He was the MacGyver of camera gear too, whether it was a Canon or that other brand (Nikon), or any other for that matter, a tripod, a flash, if it was photo related, Ron could fix it. There was not a kinder, gentler soul on this earth.
As workshop partners, we were an unlikely pair and complete opposites. As I always said, Ron was the good one and I was the bad. I shot Canon, he shot Nikon. He was the meticulous planner; I was always looking for spontaneous opportunities. His idea of visiting historical monuments was old forts, where mine was abandoned buildings and cemeteries. Ron was always the instructor, he loved to teach, in the classroom or with your camera in hand, where I liked being in the field, trying to find everyone the perfect shots. And oh, could Ron ever talk! How many times have you heard the story of how this workshop business began on an elk tour in a Kentucky State Park??? How I would give anything right now to hear that story again…..

Thank you for all the messages and texts. Please keep Ron’s family in your prayers.

Obituary information for Ronald "Ron" Gaskins (www.waybrightfuneralhome.com)

Funeral service will be 1 p.m. Tuesday September 5th at Waybright Funeral Home, Ripley with Visitation will be from 11 a.m. until the time of the service. Burial will follow in the Grandview Memorial Park, Dunbar.

Please reply to this post with your favorite pictures of Ron. I’m sure he’ll be monitoring this page from up above, like as he always did!

These are a few of mine….
Amanda

08/22/2023

Amanda and Ron also share their sympathies with the family of Tim Harrison.

Tim Harrison, the longtime publisher (since 1992) of Lighthouse Digest magazine, one of the founders of the American Lighthouse Foundation, and board member of the Maine Lighthouse Museum, passed away on Saturday. He was also, for many years, the co-owner of the "world's largest lighthouse gift shop," Lighthouse Depot in Wells, Maine. Lighthouse Depot sponsored the PBS mini-series "Legendary Lighthouses" and other lighthouse documentaries. Tim was also the author or co-author of several books, including "Lost Lighthouses," "The Golden Age of Lighthouses," "Endangered Lighthouses," and "Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region." Tim had a major impact on the lighthouse preservation community, and we send our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

08/09/2023

While the focus of our "Bridges of Ashtabula County, OH" photo workshop will be the covered bridges, the surrounding landscapes - large and small - will only add to the beauty that we will experience on the Mountaineer Photo Excursions event!

October 20-22 is expected to be the peak of fall color, and we saw stunning color when we scouted for this workshop last fall. We also have some other locations selected in addition to the bridges, so we expect a full and exciting weekend, with many opportunities for photography.

Do you want to improve your photography? Let us take you there!
Contact [email protected] to learn more or to register.