I officially began my retirement on Thursday, and not much time elapsed before I hit the road on my first adventure. On Friday, I headed down to LA to attend a two day photography workshop focusing on glamour photography, run by the noted photographer and video director, Holly Randall. Holly is the daughter of the trailblazing erotic photographer Suze Randall, who I got to meet in passing, as the shoots were held on Holly’s parents’ sprawling ranch in the Santa Monica mountains. The trip down went quite smoothly, but I needed to take more frequent breaks than in my younger days.
The Workshop
The workshop was built around doing three different “looks” for the model each day, with the goal and setup were described by Holly, followed by her doing some shooting and observing her directing the model. In addition to Holly and the model, there were more crew including a lighting grip, a makeup artist, as well as some other helpers. It gave you what it felt like to be working with a professional crew. After Holly went through her example, each of the students had 6-7 minutes to shoot, with any needed guidance being given by Holly. We had one model for the entire workshop, the very lovely Deanna Greene, who was very skilled and was easygoing and easy to work with. Deanna is an experienced glamour model who has been in Playboy, and was a Playboy cyber girl of the month. My only gripe was that the 6 minute shooting window seemed kind of pressured so I couldn’t take as much time as I’d like, but I can’t think of a better solution that would enable all the students to have a chance to shoot. 
Holly’s parents’ ranch where we were shooting had some great locations. I managed to get some really nice images, and learned some things as well. I enjoyed the experience very much. Day 2 was structured just like day one, but some of the students were different for both days.
The Return
The workshop ended around 5:00 on Sunday, and my original plan was to drive back home Sunday night. Then I decided to use my first discretionary retirement move after recognizing I didn’t have anywhere to be at a particular time. So instead of the I-5 trek, I decided to take a more leisurely scenic route and head to Santa Barbara for the night. I got a great view of sunset along the coast, and didn’t have such a long drive. Then on Monday, I headed on home taking the more scenic 101 route, passing through San Louis Obisbo. All-in-all a great way to start my retirement.