It’s Monday night. I am sitting in my usual chair and thought I'd put up one last post about this week-long photographic journey I just finished, and give those here for travel info a bit of what to avoid when you visit Copenhagen.

Let’s start with the last day. After an early-morning shoot on Friday (see photos below in the gallery and the panorama above), we had a three-hour processing session, then turned in our best shots so the class could vote on them. With 14 photographers, each with a different level of expertise, it was a hard choice. We were all done by 1:00 pm, and Scott and Mimo took us to a final lunch. I had Moules Frites (which appears to be the Belgian national seafood dish, on the right). For the uninitiated, Moules frites is a classic Belgian and Northern French dish made with fresh, briny mussels steamed in a flavorful broth, served alongside crispy French fries and mayonnaise (but thankfully, you can get ketchup).

After lunch, that was it. We were done. All that was left was to get out of town. I should say that some of the 14 were already gone. George and Sandra left early that day to deal with a family situation back home in England (they only had to drive to the Dover ferry and then home to the Cotswolds—I love that I know someone who lives there). Katey and Lauren were wiped out and spent the day trying to recuperate from the Brussels/Antwerp trip. Others left that afternoon, and the rest stayed one or two nights before flying out. Part of the workshop fees covered our hotel stay on Friday night, and by the time we were done, it was too late for me to fly home, so I was one of that group.

In fact, I couldn’t even go home on Saturday. When I had originally purchased my airfare, it was one price if I flew back from Copenhagen to Seattle on Saturday and quite a bit less expensive (like $3,000 less) if I flew home on Sunday. So I decided to save that money and book a much cheaper hotel room for one night.

This is where I have to admit that Mr. Travel screwed up. I found an airport hotel online that looked really good on its website. Two or three different websites I had used for hotel recommendations recommended it. When I arrived in a taxi from the airport, the folks at the front desk were very nice. The lobby was nice. Everything was great. Then I got to the room. Wait, it wasn’t a room. It was a cell. It stunk. It had a single bed with a single blanket and a small pillow.

It was hot, and the only ventilation was a window that opened onto the parking lot, where engines were running. With the windows closed, it was not only hot but also stank.

When I opened the bathroom door, there was a toilet and a sink, but no tub or shower. A shower head hung from the wall, and a drain sat in the middle of the bathroom floor. It turns out you go into the bathroom, sit on the toilet or stand at the sink, and turn on the shower, which gets the entire room soaking wet…I imagine. I don’t know because I turned right around, jumped on the web and found a slightly more expensive room at another nearby hotel where they had actual showers.

Found a decent hotel, got an Uber over there, ate a nice dinner in their restaurant and went to bed. I had originally planned to go into the city on the tram, but my back was still killing me from carrying my backpack all over Belgium. So I stayed in, FaceTimed with Kathleen, watched some YouTube videos and fell asleep in a fairly comfortable bed. In the morning, it was back to the airport, where I spent a very nice three hours in the SAS lounge (one of the nicest I have ever been in) and then my nine-plus-hour flight home, which was just about as good as the one going out.

I got back to Seattle, got right through Customs (it pays to carry on your luggage and Nexus), jumped on the light rail, and was back in Redmond in what seemed like no time. Kathleen picked me up, and my long week was over.

Kathleen realized I was writing my final post for this trip, and she said, “You should tell them how much you liked the workshop and what you learned.” She is right. So here’s what I learned:

1. I am my own kind of photographer. And that’s OK.
2. I like to shoot my photos with my camera set to manual. I think part of that is because when I first started taking pictures, all SLR cameras were manual. Manual focus, light settings, and more. On some of those original cameras, we had to use a separate light meter.
3. Photo gurus (like Scott and Mimo) aren’t always right. They don’t like to shoot in manual mode. They shoot in Aperture mode. That’s OK for them. Not for me, but they were nice enough to acknowledge that it was okay for me.
4. I will probably never be a tripod kind of guy. I finally (on the second-to-last day) got the hang of putting it all together, and I understand why I want to do it, but I just don’t see myself lugging that tripod around, no matter how light it is.
5. I did like shooting on the tripod once I figured it out. I should have practiced with it more. Most of the other people could have theirs set up in less than three minutes. The first time it took me about 15. By the last day, I was down to about five.
6. I found out I like post-processing more than actually taking the photos. I find it to be more creative. But I am not a fan of AI. I believe that you should only do edits if you could have done them in a non-digital darkroom.
7. I enjoyed being around other good photographers. They had super ideas and were willing to share them.
8. I enjoyed using the ND filter once I got the hang of it. It does make water look different. I am not going to say better…or worse, just different. And I want to thank Mimo for being so patient while I tried it out.
9. I enjoyed shooting a model. It was very different from any photography I had ever done before. Getting the lighting right and not losing the warmth was interesting.
10. I learned the best white balance setting. I had never tried it, but it warms up my photos almost perfectly every time. Not too much and not too little.

The biggest takeaway was that I like photos that tell a story. The architecture shots didn’t do much for me, except to teach me techniques. I like my photos to be full of life. My favorite photos tend to include people or animals.

For the non-photographers out there, sorry I got so technical. I did enjoy the workshop, even on the really long days. Not sure I would do it again unless it involved less flying for such a short time. I really want to try and get Scott to do a workshop in Seattle. Or Portland. Or San Francisco.

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”  —Elliott Erwitt