I’m a little late on the game with this one (what can I say, I’ve got a lot of other projects), but I’ve started a Phoot Camp twitter account.

Phootcamp will be a resource for discovering new work from the talented people who attended Phoot Camp. I’ll also be tweeting over there about plans for next year’s camp as they develop.

Many thanks to Phoot Camp attendee Cody Austin who will be helping me keep this account up to date.

I told them to be “low key”. But I’m sure glad they weren’t.

Scuba equipment, fog machines, ladders, two-story-high monopods, vans full of lighting gear, nudity, homebrew, wardrobe, backdrops, projectors, models, strobes, tiny dinosaurs, and about $100,000 worth of photo and camera equipment.

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE WEREN’T KICKED OUT OF THE STATE PARK CAMPGROUND?

Which is not to say we didn’t come close. We definitely had a run-in with a very unamused park ranger. “You guys can’t be here. It’s past quiet hours and you’ve got all this crazy lighting equipment that I’m pretty damn sure you don’t have a permit for.” (We didn’t.) “We can see your camera flashes through the whole forest. You have to pack up and go back to your own campsite and go to sleep.”

This was not the first or last time Ryan Schude would have to charm an authority figure. “Oh! Is it after quiet hours? We thought it was right before. This isn’t a commercial shoot, it’s just a personal art project. Do you think we could just get one shot before we pack up? It’s all TOTALLY ready to go, and man, my back is KILLING me from dragging these lights over the hill.”

He said no. But then he said, “I’m not going to babysit you, just get back to your campsite ASAP.” Which was unanimously translated to “Oh why not, just get the damn shot.”

That’s not all. Earlier that day Dan Busta had taken over a room of the mini-museum at the historic China Camp fishing village ruins and snapped some amazing shots of a model in the midst of a cloud of artificial fog. And got away with it.

Even as we were just sitting around the campfire, drinking beer and toasting s’mores, there was a constant audible clicking of the camera shutter: time lapse this, flashlight portraits that. Steph Goralnick named the sound “phoot crickets”.

What can I say? I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of effort, enthusiasm, talent, and straight-up lunacy that this group brought to the table. And what I’ve seen on the back of camera LCD screens tells me that these images are way better than anything I had hoped for.

Check back the last week of October when we’ll be releasing the photos from the event along with bio info on each of the participants.

Heading up to the campsite in a bit, to begin what promises to be an entertaining weekend.

Ryan Schude, whose gorgeous cinematic images once graced 12 consecutive pages of JPG, is bringing his lighting and wants to get a group shot of all of us in our pajamas pretending to run away from a bear. (!!)

Chad Nicholson, the official photographer of Improv Everywhere, really knocked my socks off with the following paragraph: “As far as the underwater photography goes, I have housing for a lil’ G10 (mine may be broken, we’ll see if it might be the battery) but I also have SCUBA equipment. If there are some other interested parties (with certification) I’d be willing to pick up an extra tank or two, just for some shallow fooling around. I don’t know what the water temperatures are there but I have a dry suit and a wet suit. I don’t have underwater strobes but I do have waterproof lights. I will be anyone’s guinea pig… I have always wanted to do a night underwater shoot if that interests anyone…” (!!!)

I have the feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. More after the weekend, folks.

Aha! The first attendees are starting to get their assignment and upload the results.

Yep, I sent an invite to each camper with another camper’s face on it.

Many thanks to phooter Steph Goralnick who designed an awesome t-shirt for us. Also want to thank Michael O’Neal for helping out with getting them produced.

Here’s Michael in the shirt:

Just sent out a postcard to my attendees with their first assignment, to be completed before camp. I’ll post the results here as they come in! (And yes, those are some international stamps you see.)

I can hardly wait.

A week from Friday, people will be arriving from England, Austria, New York, Chicago, Texas, California (other parts of California!) and other far off locales.

I’ve been getting ridiculously fun emails. “I thought this camping trip would be the perfect place to exemplify our modern photo geek revolution.” Yes, yes it will.

More soon.

Inspired by Foo Camp, I’m going to host an invite-only camping trip this fall for dozens of top emerging photographers.

I must be crazy. I just invited way more photo nerds than I can count on all my fingers and toes to come camp out in the woods with me.

It all started when I was putting together this interview with Paul Octavious Cribb. While editing it together, I thought, “Man, Paul is so creative. I bet he would really get along well with Steph Goralnick. I would about pee my pants to hang out with both of them at the same time.” And then I realized they would probably about pee their pants to hang out with each other, and the many other amazing photographers I know. Why not get a group together? I was pretty sure magic would occur, or at the very least bushels of fun.

So I floated the idea out to Paul and Steph, and Kevin “Lomokev” Meredith and Cody Austin (who deserves a special shout-out for his help), too. It’s a real testament to each of them how enthusiastic and supportive they’ve been of the idea. As I write this, Kevin has booked his flight from Brighton, England (and is planning a book signing and course while here, check it out!), Cody has booked his flight from Houston, Steph has booked her flight from Brooklyn, Paul has committed to being here, and I’ve booked the campground. And, I’ve started hearing back from the big group I emailed today: “Ummm… yeah this sounds amazing. 100% in!”

The campout isn’t until October, but keep an eye out afterwards for the results of the photo sessions, photo scavenger hunts, brainstorming sessions, and s’more-making contests that occur. We’ll definitely put together an online showing of the results.

NOTE: Didn’t get an invite? Don’t feel bad. Most people didn’t — I even turned down some of my closest friends! There’s a good chance this could become an annual event, so drop me a line if you’d really like to be considered for next year.

ANOTHER NOTE: This isn’t my big project, but expect to hear an update on that very soon. You can also sign up to be notified when it’s launched here.