Links Mentioned in today’s show: Episode Sponsor: https://polarprofilters.com Use this link AND the code "latitude15" the next time you need to rent gear. I'll get a small percentage and you'll get 15% off. Lensrentals.com affiliate link: https://www.gopjn.com/t/SENJRktJT01DR09OS0lLQ0dLT0tGTg Need to carry your gear in style? Treat yourself to a ThinkTank Photo bag with this link and get a free gift at checkout: http://bit.ly/2IMRhOT The Big Announcement I’ve finally got plans lined up for the release of my newest adventure, that is, Latitude Photography School. Right now you can go to the website, https://latitudephotographyschool.com and all that you’ll see is a sign up form. I’m busy working on my next course offerings and other tutorial items. I’ll also have an associated YouTube channel to go along with this new service. The two courses I’m crafting have to do with beginning photography and an intermediate course on creativity in photography. With each course there will be associated assignments or projects. You’ll be able to post the assignment results in the private facebook group and you’ll get some feedback from myself and other students. I will also have smaller items that are more tutorial based. Topics will cover everything from understanding the camera to being out in the field to doing things right in post-production. It will take some time to produce all these items, but one thing I need to make sure you’re aware of, you’ll be able to purchase access to the courses individually as you want, or you can have a membership option and you can have access to the courses for as long as you’re a member. So head on over to the site if you’re interested and sign up to be notified when the doors are open for business.  I have closed the cart on my online print course as well for the time being but you can still purchase the shoot-n-print workshop in the Palouse in May or June, direct links are in the show notes. Winter Day Hikes I love backpacking, but there’s nothing like a good day hike either. You go out for the day and come back to a hopefully cozy bed to get a good night’s rest. If you’re traveling you may also be eating out in restaurants, or maybe cooking in your room or Airbnb. Either way, your experience is way less rugged than if you’re full-on backpacking. I should insert here that the advice I’m giving is not intended to be thorough nor does it address all situations or skill levels. Please be aware of your own abilities and if you have a doubt about something, don’t do it. I’ll be looking at ways to get properly prepared for such an outing. As you know, I’m heading to Unalaska Island in a couple weeks. I do have a podcast listener coming along so that’s certainly good. And that takes us to item number 1. Hiking buddy It’s always good to have a hiking buddy along if safety is in any way a concern. There’s so many times where I love going out alone and just being there in God’s big beautiful creation with just my cameras. But when I called up to the visitor’s office in Dutch Harbor and I got some information on the weather in mid December I knew it’d be best to have a hiking buddy. Not only to share costs with, but simply for safety. They also require registrations for hikers, so they know someone is out there, which is good, but there’s nothing like having someone with you when you’re out there on a trail, several miles from town and hundreds of miles out in the middle of the ocean.  Notifications Jared Yoder posted a great question in the Master Photography Podcast group about this idea of getting prepared for a day hike. And I’m glad he did. And then David Patton gave some very good advice right away. And one of those items was to be sure you tell someone where you’ll be going and when you plan to return. This is especially important if you head out of cell phone range. If they don’t hear from you they can at east give the local rescue and law enforcement authorities a