Visionary Wild, LLC • 2200 19th St. NW, Ste 806, Washington, DC 20009

E-mail: info@visionarywild.com    •    Tel: 1-202-558-9596 (9am to 6pm, EST).    •    Justin Black’s iPhone: 1-202-302-9030

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

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Limit 15 spaces | $2,495* Closed
Creative Core March 26 - 30, 2012 | View other workshops

Point Reyes and Marin Coast with Jerry Dodrill and Justin Black

Point Reyes National Seashore and the Marin Coast are truly a photographer's playground, rich with diverse subject matter – landscape, seascape, flora and fauna –  with ever-changing light and the beautiful interplay of sun and marine fog. It's the perfect setting for a workshop focused on developing creativity and honing skills. The talented team of Jerry Dodrill and Justin Black will teach you to take control of the finer points of composition, exposure and tonal control, and specialized techniques for approaching this sublime coastal landscape.

Click the "read more..." tab below right for more information and to see the photo gallery!

Point Reyes and Marin Coast
Map via Google
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Scheduled during the spring wildflowers season and during mid-week to avoid weekend crowds, we will spend our morning and evening field time at locations along the Marin County coast as far north as Tomales Point and as far south as Marin Headlands. Old-growth redwood forest, the blooming flanks of Mt. Tamalpais overlooking the Pacific, seastacks and cliffs, wild beaches, headlands, tule elk, seals, sea birds, and more make this place very special indeed.

My good friend and colleague, Jerry Dodrill, and I started our photographic exploration of this astonishing landscape when we worked with the late Galen Rowell, leading workshop groups to the Marin coast from Galen's gallery in Emeryville. Jerry has chosen to spend the last eleven years here, chasing storms and photographing along edges of land and sea, earth and sky, fog and light. As Galen pointed out in his book Bay Area Wild, this piece of coastline is a spectacular natural treasure, despite being within easy day-trip range of a major metropolitan area. Those who live nearby just might begin to take its wonders for granted, but it is amazing what you can find here when you approach it with eyes wide open. –Justin Black

This four-day, four night Creative Core workshop deals heavily with composition, working with changing light, exposure control, essential gear and creative tools, fundamentals of digital workflow, and introduction to digital exposure blending and stitching, and an intense schedule of photography in the field followed by constructive group critiques. Creative Core workshops are generalist outdoor photography workshops and the emphasis of any individual participant's work is up to them, whether they wish to focus on landscape, macro, wildlife (as the opportunity presents itself), abstraction, color, black and white, HDR, panoramics, multiple exposures, or all of the above. Any enthusiastic photographer will feel right at home in this workshop. In our experience, most participants will be solid intermediates with a couple relative beginners and a handful of advanced photographers. Jerry and Justin each have over a decade of experience successfully accommodating a range of experience levels at workshops.

Very often, we are amazed by the way in which the beginners teach the advanced students a thing or two about unrestrained creative openness and serendipity, while the expertise of the advanced students can be a welcome resource for the rest of the class. We supply materials in advance of the session to get newcomers up to speed with basics having to do with digital camera set-up and techniques, essential equipment recommendations, and other guidelines to ensure that everyone is ready to make the most of the experience.

Lodging, all meals, and beverages are included in the package.

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Focus: Composition, Constructive Critiques, Creativity, Essential Digital Workflow, Exposure Control, Fill Flash, Filters, Landscape, Lighting Control, Macro, Panoramic, Sense of Place,

Jerry Dodrill

Jerry Dodrill is an award-winning landscape and adventure photographer who was a protégé of legendary photographer Galen Rowell. Jerry's dedication, immense talent, and creative eye have been well recognized through international awards and exhibition in fine galleries, such as the Ansel Adams in Yosemite, Mountain Light, Mumm Napa Valley, and the Banff Center for Mountain Culture. His clients include The North Face, Vanity Fair, Sunset, Men's Journal, Outside, Alpinist, Rock & Ice, and Climbing magazines.

His work has been featured in many ad campaigns, books, and publications and is represented by Aurora Photos. He was also recently recruited as a design consultant for Think Tank Photo, makers of pro camera bag systems. After running his own gallery on California's North Coast for five years, he now resides in the Sonoma County town of Sebastopol, California, focusing on commercial and editorial assignment photography, exhibitions of his work, and sharing his vision and expertise with others, as a highly regarded instructor for leading photo workshop programs and at the college level.

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An unrelenting passion for photography and outdoor adventures made it clear that Jerry was not destined for a desk job – the successful photography career he has built fosters a lifestyle that the average person might call unconventional. An avid climber for twenty years, he feels equally at home in a rocky bivouac or a soft bed. In college, his pre-med classes gave way to studies in fine art and weekends spent scaling Yosemite's granite walls. Photography was at first a byproduct of many adventures but quickly became his artistic medium of choice as he captured each experience with a concise aesthetic and quality of light revealing his inspiration.

Jerry's adventures have led him around the globe. He has climbed all the major walls in Yosemite Valley, at crags across the West, close to a hundred summits in the Sierra, and peaks in Bolivia, Argentina, and China. His full embrace of the many disciplines of climbing have led to many adventures and tales best told late at night around a raging campfire.
Jerry holds degrees in fine art and photography from Pacific Union College (Napa Valley), which led to work for acclaimed photographer Galen Rowell at Mountain Light in Berkeley. There, we managed Galen's gallery space and workshops, an amazing experience (akin to a photographer's bootcamp). In 2000, he left Mountain Light to pursue his own adventures and photography career.

Visit Jerry's website

Visit Jerry's blog

Jerry Dodrill portrait: © Grant Ordelheide.

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Justin Black

One of my great joys is to witness a workshop participant's "Eureka!" moment – when the veil of obscurity gives way to clear vision and inspiration.

Justin Black is a professional landscape and nature photographer, and an affiliate member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). Through both Visionary Wild and Galen Rowell's Mountain Light Photography (1999 – 2009) he has created inspiring and effective educational photographic experiences for over a thousand passionate photographers. He is widely recognized as one of the world's leading photo workshops organizers.

A professional photographer since 1995, before founding Visionary Wild he served the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) as Executive Director, and for seven years was General Manager and Curator of Galen Rowell's Mountain Light Photography.
Justin's photographs have been published by magazines such as National Geographic Adventure, Sierra, Sunset, American Photo, Outdoor Photographer, Rock & Ice, and Nature Conservancy.

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The Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Land Trust Alliance, Earth Justice, The Wilderness Society, Conservation International, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Wild Foundation are among conservation NGOs that have used his photographs in their campaigns, publications, and annual reports.

Justin has also served as an editor and contributor to numerous award-winning photo book projects, including Galen Rowell: A Retrospective; Freshwater: The Essence of Life; The Wealth of Nature: Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity, and Human Well-Being; Our National Parks: America's Natural Heritage; as well as Flying South: A Pilot's Inner Journey by Barbara Rowell. He is represented by the G2 Gallery in Venice, California, and Mountain Light Photography in Bishop, California.

An early career as a travel photographer and image licensing specialist led him to Mountain Light, the company founded by world-renowned National Geographic photographer, author, and mountaineer Galen Rowell and his wife, Barbara, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Beginning in 1999, Justin managed marketing of the Rowell image collection, assisted Galen on assignments and in his workshop program, and taught seminars on nature photography. In April 2002, Galen and Barbara invited Justin to relocate with them as Mountain Light's General Manager at the present location in California's scenic Owens Valley. Justin agreed and eagerly embraced the sublime Eastern Sierra Nevada landscape as his new home.

Four months later, Galen and Barbara perished in the crash of a chartered plane, leaving behind a tremendous creative and visionary vacuum. Justin went to work, building on the impressive Rowell legacy to reinvigorate Mountain Light by establishing a seasonal series of guest photographer exhibitions, expanding the image collection, and relaunching the highly acclaimed photo workshop program through collaboration with Galen's leading professional peers, including Frans Lanting, Pat O'Hara, Jack Dykinga, John Shaw, and David Muench. In May 2008, Justin's successful efforts were recognized by both Sunset and American Photo magazines, as each magazine featured editorial recommendations of his workshop program at Mountain Light. As of February 2013, the Mountain Light website continues to display positive client testimonials contributed exclusively under Justin's watch.

After ten years at Mountain Light, Justin was recruited for the position of Executive Director of ILCP, a non-profit association of the best photographers worldwide working in the field of nature conservation. At ILCP, Justin oversaw an explosion of productivity in expeditions, publishing, multimedia production, and the achievement of successful conservation outcomes. He contributed photographic coverage to ILCP conservation photography initiatives called RAVEs – Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions – including Flathead (Canada, 2009), Yucatán (Mexico, 2009), and Chesapeake (USA, 2010), as well as a solo project documenting the Dragon Run watershed on Virginia's Middle Peninsula for The Nature Conservancy. One of Justin's photographs of the Flathead River appeared as a section opener in the Vancouver Sun newspaper – the first time the Flathead watershed conservation issue had any prominent coverage in that regionally critical media outlet.  The photograph was later selected by the U.S. Senate for display in the Capitol Building.

Justin left his position at ILCP in late 2010 to establish Visionary Wild, building on his successful leadership of the Mountain Light workshop program and applying expertise gained at ILCP to provide superlative workshops and expeditions for passionate photographers seeking to advance to the next level of creativity, quality, purpose, and meaning in their work. His own work continues to evolve in new directions, driven by the ongoing search for extraordinary qualities in our world's dynamic landscapes.

Justin lives in Washington, DC, with his brilliant wife, Lena (Visionary Wild's Director of Operations), and their son Philippe.

Justin Black's limited editions portfolio

Justin's Outdoor Photographer Profile

Bringing focus and meaning to your photography

The Top 40 Nature Photos Project

Justin’s Camera Bag

After using an array of 35mm, medium format, and 4x5 film cameras for most of his career, Justin has switched fully to Nikon digital SLRs and Nikkor lenses. His current gear includes:

Camera Bodies (Nikon)
D800E
D7100

Lenses (all Nikkor)
18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 G AF-S ED
24-70mm f/2.8 G AF-S ED
70-200mm f/4.0 G AF-S ED VR
24mm f/3.5 PC-E tilt-shift
35mm f/2.8 PC shift
45mm f/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift
85mm f/2.8 PC-E tilt-shift
85mm f/1.8 AF-D
105mm f/1.8 AI-S
200mm f/4 AF-D Micro-Nikkor
500mm f/4 AF-S VR
TC-14EII teleconverter
TC-20EII teleconverter

Flash
Nikon SB-900 x2
Assorted Nikon TTL flash cables
Lumiquest soft boxes
Rogue Flashbender
Rosco gels

Filters
Singh-Ray LB Circular Polarizer
Singh-Ray Vari-ND
Singh-Ray Galen Rowell graduated neutral density (1 to 4 stops, hard and soft)
Hoya 7-stop ND

Tripods
Gitzo 1348CF with Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead
Really Right Stuff TVC-24L with RRS BH-40LR ballhead
Gitzo 1028 with RRS BH-25 ballhead

Photo Packs
MindShift Rotation 180 Pro
Think Tank Photo (TTP) Streetwalker Harddrive
TTP Streetwalker Pro
TTP Airport Addicted V2.0
TTP Airport Acceleration
TTP Airport Antidote V2.0
TTP Urban Disguise 50 V2.0
TTP Speed Racer V2.0

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Highlights

  • Prime time for wildflowers
  • Eight field photography sessions, morning and evening, at Point Reyes National Seashore, along the Marin County coast, and on Mount Tamalpais
  • Composition
  • Working the scene through changing conditions and light
  • Understanding and using various qualities of light to best effect
  • Exposure and tonal control
  • Essentials of digital workflow
  • Three projected group critique sessions
  • Packaged with single-occupancy lodging, all meals and beverages

Accommodations & Travel

Package includes single-occupancy lodging, all meals, and adult beverages with dinner. Prorated fees are available for double occupancy and for those who do not require lodging.

Point Reyes Seashore Lodge in Olema, California, will be our basecamp and indoor classroom. Situated at the entrance to Point Reyes Peninsula on scenic Coastal Highway One, it offers excellent access to all of our field locations. A variety of excellent area restaurants serve great California cuisine, local seafood, and fine wines from Napa and Sonoma.

*Pro-rated package rates are available for double occupancy at $2175 per person, or without lodging at $1850. These options are available during online registration via the "Register" button toward the top of this page.

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For those arriving by air, Oakland (OAK), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and Sonoma/Santa Rosa (STS) Airports are all about 50 miles away (1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on traffic) Field sessions on Point Reyes and along the Marin Coast will be by group carpool, to locations up to an hour from the lodge. We will access field locations via relatively short, easy walks. Late March average highs on the Marin County coast are around 67ºF, with average lows around 45ºF before sunrise. The weather is a mix of sun and fog, with the possibility of rain. March historically marks the transition between the rainy winter and dry summer seasons.

Expectations

Participants in this workshop should expect effective, enthusiastic, generous instruction from Jerry and Justin, both in the classroom and hands-on in the field. Early morning and afternoon/evening field sessions will make the most of our familiarity with the phenomenal locations available in the area. Three constructive group critique sessions will do wonders to refine your composition and techniques in the field, while allowing you to learn from the unique eye of each of your fellow participants. Most of all, this will be a fun, positive, and inspiring workshop that will exceed your expectations, provide new understanding and the keys to continue your development, and will leave you wanting more.