By Garren Shipley — Daily Staff Writer

BLUEMONT — Photographers often find new perspectives through the viewfinders of their cameras.

It's not often that they get to find that new outlook with the help of photographers from National Geographic magazine.

That is how a group of Clarke County High School students spent much of the past week, working with photographers and other instructors at the Bear's Den Trail Center on the Appalachian Trail.

National Geographic Photo Camp is a four-day workshop where students learn how to tell a story with photographs. The session on the Clarke-Loudoun county line is one of six such photo events in the U.S. each year, along with two international camps.

Past sites include Baltimore, Erie, Pa., and Oaxaca, Mexico.

Amy Toensing, of New York, a freelance photographer and National Geographic contributor, was one of the instructors at the camp.

"The theme this year is about the environment, the planet and how it's being affected by humans. So we've been trying to talk to them about capturing that with their imagery," Toensing said. "The Appalachian Trail is a great place to do that."

Spending four days with teenagers in a cabin, cut off almost entirely from the rest of the world, would be a daunting task for some.

"Working with kids this age is so exciting," Toensing said.

"They're completely open. They're raw, their senses are very acute so they can go into this environment and unlike us adults that have all this baggage" of everyday life, she said.

Looking at the trail through the viewfinder is a window into a new perspective, said LeAnn Albert, 16, of Berryville.

"It will like focus on one little thing, and it blurs the background, so it makes it a lot more clear so you can see more details," said Albert.

Objects that would ordinarily slip away into the background can suddenly become the center of their attention, she said, recalling an earlier hike.

"I was just taking a picture of a little leaf, and I saw this kind of berry thing on the same stick, and I would never have noticed it before," Albert said.

Young people have an easier time taking on a new perspective because they have an easier time letting go of the old, added Toensing.

"I really think they're able to come out here and absorb all the sounds and smells and the way the grass feels and the way the trail is, and really tune into people," she said.

While part of the job is artistic, part of it is technical. And there's no better way to learn to do both sides than by picking up a camera, a computer and heading out.

"It's like on the job training," Toensing said. "This is a story that National Geographic would do. How is the Appalachian Trail fairing in the context of all the development going on?"

"This is a real story and they're getting to work on it," she said. "There's nothing better than doing the real thing."

But "the most important thing is their perception of the world, and their ability to take it in and create something," she said. "They're great at that."

*Contact Garren Shipley at gshipley@nvdaily.com