July 23 to August 5: Holland, Michigan

We came down to Holland to attended the SWMCCC conference -- that's something like Southwest Michigan Camera Club Conference. About 285 people attended a number of classes and photo opportunities. We both really enjoyed the conference even though we found the classes to be uneven in quality (volunteers provide the programs). Ron had fun at a birds of prey photo shoot and Joyce learned a lot about ProShow Gold software. We enjoyed all the people we met, too. Here's a little bit from the Outdoor Discovery Center from Ron:



Joyce enjoyed a workshop about setting up things to take pictures of:

This is behind glass.

This set-up includes an artfully broken window.

Ron worked on this shiloutte.

After the conference was over, we (wait for it) decided to stay for another week to visit some of the wonderful things we heard about but couldn't see because we were in classes. We visited the Outdoor Discovery Center and Holland State Park with great views of Big Red, the lighthouse in Holland. Now we are experiencing record high temperatures which is limited our interest in making some of the other visits we had planned. But we always have fun (as long as the air conditioning holds out at any rate).

This is Big Red just after sunset.

These people are walking back from a small light at the end of the pier.