Experiencing days of education and friendship

Last week my wife, Garnet, and I traveled to Bend, OR to attend the 2012 Annual Northwest Outdoor Writers' Association Conference. We are both members. The drive was between six and seven hours in length, a long time on the road for us.

The conference was held at the Bend Shilo Inn. We were on the ground floor with the Deschutes River less than 10 feet from the sliding door. Three mallards and about 10 Canada Geese were regular visitors to our part of the river, walking up the bank to within five feet of the glass at times. This was a suitable setting for our stay, as this was an outdoor writers' conference, after all.

Approximately 90 plus people attend the conference. Being a professional in the outdoor media, such as writing, photography and broadcasting, is required for membership. An apprenticeship program is available, so if a reader is interested in joining, let me know.

The conference begins with a wine tasting party on Thursday evening, where members are asked to bring a bottle of wine from their region of the organization's coverage area. NOWA covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

The next day is devoted to our supporting members; Companies involved in the commerce of outdoor products and services. This includes firms such as Coleman, Yakima Bait, Plano Molding, Bushnell Sports Optics, Camp Chef, Shakespeare Fishing Tackle Remington, Hells Canyon Visitor Association and many more.

In the morning each supporting member is allowed a few minutes to discuss new aspects of their company. In the afternoon, we traveled to a local shooting range, where our members were allowed to participate in various aspects of the sport of Cowboy Shooting.

The Friday evening meal was sponsored by our host, Visit Bend, and was held at the High Desert Museum.

The next day, Saturday, workshops were conducted to advance the education of our members. An interesting example was the change of our members from film to digital photography.

Some of our members excel at taking photos for magazines and books. The normal facet of this large format photography in the past was transparencies, also known as slides. These members would pay big money for the expensive type of slide film magazine and book publishers were expecting.

After the film was exposed, it was sent off to a processor and was reviewed when it returned, perhaps a week later. The best slides were sent off to the magazine.

The change from film to digital was a struggle for some photographers to embrace. One well-known member could be heard saying, "I'll never switch to digital. All of my publishers want transparencies not little digital thumbnails."

This went on for several years, with digital photography improving as the years rolled along. Technology finally improved to the point publishers wanted digital photos, not slides. This particular person is now a died-in-the-wool digital photographer and proud because of the status.

Other workshops this year included information about Print on Demand Books, How to Shoot Outdoor Video and Making your Website work for you.

Saturday evening is devoted to the Annual Awards Banquet, where awards for best column, best magazine hunting article, best photograph and a host of other categories are presented.

Each year, I present the Fred L. Peterson award. It was created as a memorial to the man who was outdoor editor of the Spokesman Review for 10 years, editor of the Fishing & Hunting News for seven years and publisher of The Outdoor Press for 30 years. Fred died in 1995 and was a charter member of NOWA.

This award is presented each year to a supporting member that has demonstrated support for the outdoor media, contributed to the outdoor education of the public, especially our youth and represents ideals and ethical principles of outdoor recreation and journalism. A plaque is presented to the recipient.

Part of my presentation included: "This year's recipient has been a decade-long supporting member of NOWA. This company has advanced the education of outdoor-minded people through in-person demonstrations around the country and videos on the Internet.

"Yet representatives of this company will not hesitate to inform outdoor writers about how one of their products or another of their products will improve the outdoor experience of the readers of our columns and listeners of our radio shows.

"The demonstrations and videos are easily understood by our youth, such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other youth organizations. This company understands educating our youth will provide the foundation for a lifetime of enjoying the Great Outdoors.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, help me welcome this year's recipient of the Fred L. Peterson Award to the podium; Camp Chef."

Sunday morning the general membership meeting is conducted and we finish the conference with the fund-raising raffle.

We decided to stay at The Dalles Shilo on Sunday evening instead of driving the entire distance home in one day, starting the trip at around noon. It was a smart and rewarding decision.

Gary Lewis, a member from Bend, told us about several Native American historical objects right on the Shilo grounds.

"The Hole in the Rock stone is visible from the lobby and there are several buildings from the Lone Pine Village right on the Shilo grounds," he said.

Indeed not only was the rock close at hand, but the buildings, including one attributed to the Indian Shaker Church was within 30 yards of the Inn.

The history of the area was close at hand as geese flew in to graze on the tender green shoots of grass throughout the area. The thunder of water flowing over The Dalles Dam was not considered noise, but calming and comforting as it lulled us to sleep.