At the beginning of the year I applied for Sports Shooter Academy IV; I wasn’t accepted but instead was place on a waiting list in case anyone dropped out before the workshop started. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get accepted but was determined that it wouldn’t happen again next year. Hope was fading and it seemed like there was no way that I could participate in the Sports Shooter Academy, until my teacher Joe Gosen posted on FaceBook that Dave Honl was picking up the tab for students to come participate in the Luau Junior the first day of the academy.
So, on 25 April 2012, I woke up at 5am to down to Irvine determine to convince the founder of Sports Shooter Robert “Bert” Hanashiro to allow me to participate in the workshop. My mind set was that regardless if I was allowed to attend the entire Sports Shooter Academy, I was going to make the most of the Luau Junior speaker seminar. I had the pleasure of listening and learning from very successful photographers; Dave Black, David Honl, and the emmy award winning videographer Myung Chun. On three separate occasion throughout the day I asked Bert, “if there was anyway I could attend the academy,” each time he told me to come see him at a later about it. Finally, it was the end of the night (11pm) and it was the moment I had been waiting for; I cornered Bert (joking) and he finally answered me, he said that there was no way I would be able to participate Thursday or Friday but they would be able to allow me to join in on Friday and Sunday.
I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to be surround by so many like-minded and talented people. I learned many lessons during those two days that I will apply to my photography from here on out; my motivation and determination have never been higher. Below is a slideshow of some of the images I made.
