November 6-10, 2019
Check out our new website at www.gsmphotosummit.com!
Only 2 months and a few days until the start of the 4th Great Smoky Mountains Photography Summit! Honestly, I think it is neck and neck about who is more excited about this event this year...the instructors or the participants! This is the first of several newsletters that you will be receiving in the next couple of months with IMPORTANT information about Summit activities and things you need to SIGN UP FOR in advance. So, please pay close attention and read all the way to the end. I will apologize in advance for my wordiness (my high school English teacher tried her best to break me of this, but alas, with no luck), but I just want to make sure that you get all of the info that you need!
Field Sessions

These are the sessions we will have you sign up for so that we can send small groups out into the field with an instructor each morning except for Sunday. You will actually sign up for the field session by the location that you would like to visit, not by the instructor. All the instructors are fabulous, so no need to worry there! Each participant may register for up to THREE field sessions. That means that there is one morning that you will not be committed to a particular field session group and you may go out to shoot on your own or with others not in a field session. Or, you can choose to sleep in that morning, we don't judge, really! In the next newsletter, you will receive a list of all the field session location options. You will have about a week to review those and think about what you might like to sign up for and then on Thursday, September 12th, you will receive an email that will allow you to register for field sessions. These are first come, first serve, so that is why I will tell you precisely when the email is going to arrive and give you time to think about locations ahead of time. If you are planning to register for field sessions with other people, be sure to do it as early as possible because there is a chance you might not all make it into the same groups. If this happens, don't worry, just look at it as an opportunity to make new friends! Because we are going out into various areas of the Park together, we have to limit the groups to 10-15 people so that we will have enough room to park everyone and so that everyone can have the proper attention from the instructor. So, stay tuned for a field session list later this week!

Pre-Conference Session at Cataloochee Photographing Elk

For those of you who have registered for the pre-conference session to photograph the Elk in Cataloochee with Brett Wells, you will be receiving a separate email regarding this matter as well, but we wanted to let everyone know that the Park Service has just announced that they will be closing the main road into Cataloochee on November 1st so that they can repair parts of the road that have been damaged. There is another way into Cataloochee that will be open, but it is a long one lane gravel road that is not particularly safe to drive in the dark and it will add about an hour and a half to the trip meaning there is no way to make it there at first light unless we were to have you leave Townsend at 2:30-3:00am. So, we have decided to not take the group to Cataloochee this year. We are working on an alternative plan and will send this information to all of the people currently registered first to see if they are still interested in going. If there are spots that come available due to anyone choosing not to go to the new location, we will open it back up to everyone else to fill in those spaces if they are interested. Anyone currently registered is welcome to decline the new plan (when we release what that is going to be) and receive a full refund. We are so sorry that the Cataloochee trip is not going to be an option this year!

Food Options During the Summit

We will be offering box lunches from McAlister's Deli that you can order AHEAD of time for Wednesday-Saturday for anyone that is interested in having those available to you at Tremont Lodge. You do not have to choose to order a boxed lunch, it is merely a convenient option. There are several restaurants nearby if you would rather go out for lunch or you are welcome to bring your own food as well. There is an IGA grocery store just a couple of miles down the street where you can stock up on needed items and there is a microwave, refrigerator, and coffee maker in each room at Tremont. Sometime in the second week of October, we will send out an email with options to order box lunches if you choose. You will have 2-3 weeks to make those orders. We will also have a buffet dinner from Salsaritas (fajitas!) on Wednesday evening for anyone who would like to attend. Significant others, traveling partners, anyone who is with you but not participating in the Summit is more than welcome to attend this as well. We will offer tickets for sale for the Wednesday night dinner in the same email with the box lunches. It is a great time for everyone to get together and get to know each other a little better at the start of the event.

Lodging

If there is anyone who is looking for a roommate for the Summit, please send me an email to [email protected] and let me know if you have already booked a room, what gender roommate you need, how you would like to be contacted, and if you have any other requirements. I will try to match you up with other people seeking roommates that meet your requirements and get you in touch with one another!

Print Competition

The Summit Print Competition is now open! You can start submitting images anytime. For all the details and how to actually enter the print competition, please visit the website here: print competition. There is lots of specific information on the print competition page, but it is all very important, so please take time to read through it.