Well, my friends, sometimes I stop to smell the roses and sometimes I don't. Now is one of those "no time to smell the roses" kind of times. My regular readers are going to laugh out loud or shake their heads in disbelief when I tell you what I'll be doing early tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Can you believe I'll be getting in my wheelchair accessible van, settling myself behind the wheel, stopping to pick up my dear friend Pat Kolon, and heading east...640 miles/1030 km east to be exact. Brooklyn, New York, to be even more exact. And how long will we stay there? Until Sunday morning when we turn around and head back home! Yes, I'm driving from Detroit to Brooklyn for the weekend.

But what a weekend it will be! My primary reason for going is to attend Friday night's Slideshow/Fiesta that marks the end of David Alan Harvey's second invitational loft workshop of the fall. These slideshows are famous for the high caliber of work completed by twelve photographers in one week's time. CLICK HERE to see the slideshow from DAH's first loft workshop of the autumn. When you get to David's home page, click on "movies" and then select "Loft Workshop 2008." Be sure to turn up your sound as different pieces of music accompany each photographer's work.

This Slideshow/Fiesta is an opportunity for David's students to show their work to the elite in New York's photographic circles, especially other Magnum photogs, magazine & book photo editors, gallery owners, etc. In addition to showing slides of his workshop students, David, a member of Magnum himself, brings in two well-known Magnum photographers to show slides and discuss their own work. This Friday Alessandra Sanguinetti and Paul Fusco will present their work. As if this isn't enough, the whole thing is followed by a party that goes into the wee hours. David Alan Harvey is famous, not just for his photographs & mentoring, but for his parties!

Now, for me there is even another draw: it will be an opportunity to meet some of my favorite participants on David's blog, "ROAD TRIPS. Panos is coming from Los Angeles, Bob Black & his photographer wife Marina from Toronto, Lee from Hawaii by way of Arkansas, Kyunghee from Korea (a workshop participant), Paola from Brazil (also in the workshop), and lots of NYC members of our blog family like Erica, Mike, Andrew and Anna Maria. Oh my, it is going to be amazing!!!

So I'll see you next week. Have a great weekend yourself!