Travel with our mentors and try out all of the latest equipment from Nikon! Including world class digital SLRs, Nikkor lenses and the Coolpix line of Digital Cameras.

Our tour escort, Tina, speaks six languages including Italian, and presents her native English with the flare of British royalty. She resembles a middle-aged Mary Poppins down to her huge umbrella, which we obediently follow in tourist crowds, but unlike the Disney nanny, she is always with us no matter what the wind, attending to our every whim, making sure every one of her adopted children is safe and happy.

Venice-jubilant and festive in its explosion of color, melancholy and dignified in its decaying beauty-is a photographer's dream. Every nook and cranny is picture-worthy, and as a result this city has had its patina polished off by millions of over-admiring eyes and constantly clicking camera shutters. So while it is initially difficult to get away from postcard clichés, Kevin helps each of us discover our own personal Venice. He explains the importance of storytelling in photography. Upon looking at our photos, viewers should not only picture the city but experience its complex charms-marvel at everything from the deep green of the water in the canals to the kaleidoscopic hues of the crowds in the city's narrow streets.

Crowds in Venice have been the lifeblood of the cityscape for 300 years, and are ubiquitous throughout our photos. But one day we get up at dawn and make our way through deserted streets to the Rialto Bridge. Venice without tourists looks unnatural and lost. It is pale in the hazy morning light, like an aging faded watercolor. We photograph the city's real inhabitants going through their morning chores: vendors washing their shop windows, gondoliers loading their boats, janitor sweeping the bridge. We feel as if we were taken behind the scenes before the curtain rises on the grand performance.

On day three, we head to the Island of Burano, a one hour boat ride away. A wild child lacking its parent's, Burano inherited Venice's colorful festivity then took it to an amazing extreme. The houses' color schemes collide wildly and boggle the eyes. As the boat approaches the peer, we hungrily search for the craziest patterns and combinations, gorging on a photographer's feast, indulging in the technology of digital color photography.

After Venice we are off to Tuscany. Our hotel is strategically located in the middle of the Tuscan countryside, and we make short field trips photographing Tuscan post-card-ready sprawl of rolling yellow hills of wheat, villas surrounded by cypresses, and of course the ever-so-Tuscan sunflowers. Kevin lets us borrow his 500-mm lens so we can capture quilt-like green and yellow patterns of the Tuscan landscape. The leisurely evenings comprise sitting around the pool, sipping wine and sharing our caches of shots.

Our modern hotel, Montaperti, is designed for photographers by a photographer. Instead of windows with Tuscan views we get photographs of windows with Tuscan views. Instead of a staircase railing there is a photograph of a staircase railing, all of which begs the meta-imagistic question, "If I photograph a photograph of a window with the view, what statement would I make?"

Over the next several days we make forays into medieval Tuscan towns with long beautiful names: Montalcino, Monteriggioni, and San Gimignano. Tina teaches us to pronounce them with the proper Italian singing drawl.

Finally we arrive in Florence and maneuver our way through the jostling crowds and steaming heat to the Boboli gardens. The heat makes it hard to concentrate on photography or anything else in fact. Rather than contemplate angels from which to shoot a fountain, one instead considers weighing the cost of sacrificing public propriety to jump into it. To escape the heat and crowds we climb the famous Duomo from where Florence displays its solid balanced architecture. Its firm hold on solid ground contrasts dramatically to Venice's watery foundation.

In keeping with tradition we have our final night's slide show. Several of our party has already departed, leaving those of us remaining an intimate family-like circle. We relive the trip through each other's eyes over and over again. We feel we have realized our goal. Through our photography we have each created our own unique Florences, Venices and Tuscanies, captured frozen memories that will always be ours to cherish and share.

Maria Cochran