Workshops by Focus: Composition
Pastel pinks and blues reflect from the sky at dawn and dusk, painting gypsum dunes that roll elegantly across the landscape. The tapestry of light and shadow, form and texture inspires the creative mind. Yuccas punctuate the landscape, rising in striking graphic isolation against the sand and sky. This is New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument, home of the world’s largest gypsum dune field, covering 275 square miles, set in a high desert basin with a dramatic mountain backdrop. This will be our outdoor classroom for this Vision series workshop, a special program of advanced instruction designed and presented by world-renowned photographers Jack Dykinga and John Shaw. Jack is recognized as one of the greatest practitioners and teachers in the history of landscape photography, and John is a natural photographic educator who is relied upon by some of the most successful photographers in the business to keep them current on digital workflow practices and Photoshop techniques. The combination is a uniquely effective and enjoyable experience.
Our fieldwork during this workshop will emphasize the search for elegant, carefully crafted compositions while anticipating the flow of light over the landscape each morning and evening. Opportunities abound, from classic near-far compositions that use yuccas to anchor foreground design, to abstracts harnessing the tones, curves and colors of the dunes, to broad panoramics and macro subjects.
The creation of a truly great finished photograph is part of a process from initial concept and vision through execution in the field to digital workflow and creation of a high-quality, final master file ready for printing or publication. Vision workshops with John Shaw and Jack Dykinga address the two greatest challenges faced by photographers as they advance. The first of these is the tendency for original creative vision to reach a plateau in development, and the second is a digital workflow in need of streamlining and refinement to make the most of your images.
On Creative Vision:
When we experience images that really move us, we are aware that they have impacted us, though we may not know what it was in the image that made it so powerful. In other words, we know when it works, but can be difficult to quantify. I try to teach the time-honored components of fine photography to build successful compositions…even in ordinary situations. People ask me, “What’s the difference between a pro and an amateur?” My response is, (a) the amateur has better equipment and (b) the professional photographer must create a publishable image every single time. To be successful, the professional must be the practitioner of a disciplined approach to situations that will result in compelling images that inform and move people. This workshop is designed to unleash that creativity in our students. – Jack Dykinga
Jack will focus on advanced seeing and ways to unlock creativity in situations that require conceptual and compositional ingenuity on the part of the photographer. In other words, he’ll answer the questions, “How do I make a great photograph when the subject matter is overwhelming and compositions don’t suggest themselves to me, and how do I avoid photographic clichés when the situation offers up a beautiful composition that is almost too obvious?”
On Workflow:
As photographers have switched to digital, one fact has become apparent: we are drowning in files. We’re shooting more images than ever, and digital file sizes are increasing with each new generation of cameras. Without a smart, logical workflow – and a familiarity with programs such as Lightroom and Photoshop – we will quickly be overwhelmed with data. – John Shaw
John will focus on teaching a logical, effective workflow that ensures the highest quality for your work, as well an image archive that is stable, consistent, and retrievable over the long term, and that ultimately liberates rather than burdens. He will cover step by step the process from shooting RAW files in the field to optimizing the final image in Photoshop.
Workflow topics to be covered include:
• File formats for shooting and for archiving
• Exposing for digital
• Downloading for automatic image organization
• Proper file naming
• Cataloging of images: Lightroom or other software
• Keywording and captioning of images
• The many uses of metadata
• Processing the raw file
• Using the tools in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom’s Develop Module
• Color spaces for the best results in different media
• The many faces of Bridge
• Creating panoramic images
• Color adjustment strategies
• Using Photoshop to finalize the image: dodging and burning, adjustment layers and layer masking, controlling luminosity and contrast, sharpening for output
• Creating a PDF electronic book
• Color-managed workflow from input to output
The workshop includes eight field sessions at various locations around White Sands that we have scouted in advance. Also featured are several projected classroom lectures, and ample hands-on instruction, critiques, single-occupancy lodging (prorated fee available for double-occupancy or for those who do not require lodging), and all meals and drinks. Justin Black of Visionary Wild will be present to serve as assistant instructor and to ensure everything runs smoothly. As always, all three instructors will be present to teach and assist students throughout the workshop.
We will meet at Fairfield Inn in Alamogordo, New Mexico at 1pm on the first day. Photography sessions at White Sands begin that afternoon. Each morning and evening, we’ll be out to photograph first light before breakfast and the evening light before dinner. During mid-day hours, Jack and John will make presentations on advanced seeing, composition and creativity, digital workflow, and maximizing image potential. Critique sessions will follow each day before returning to the field for photography around 3:30pm. Friday morning will be the final field session, followed by critiquing until the final lunch and break up at 2:00 pm. The class size is limited to ten to ensure that everyone gets ample time and attention from the three instructors, both in the field and the classroom.
Any enthusiastic photographer will feel right at home in this workshop. 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.
Please contact us with any questions you may have about this session. We recommend registering promptly to reserve your space as our Vision workshops fill especially quickly. A deposit of 50% is required at time of booking to reserve space, with balance payable 60 days prior to workshop start date.
Zion National Park’s red rock and limestone cliffs and spires tower above sculpted canyons, grottoes, and waterways, forming a unique and awe-inspiring landscape at the convergence of the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin, and the Mojave Desert. Autumn’s arrival brings comfortably cool temperatures and fall colors in the maples and cottonwoods. Zion is quite simply one of the gems of the National Park system, a highlight of the American Southwest, and one of our favorite outdoor photographic “classrooms.”
For three decades, Jack Dykinga has captured the astonishing beauty of light, form, texture, and natural history that make the southwestern American deserts and canyons unique. He knows this landscape and its amazing light better than anyone and enjoys nothing more than sharing his insights and vision with other passionate photographers. Assistant instructor Justin Black has co-led three prior workshops with Jack at Zion and is always struck by the way Zion reveals its secrets like the layers of an onion being peeled back – every visit yields a new discovery and new qualities of light. This all-inclusive workshop will be based at Flanigan’s Inn of Springdale, Utah, just outside the western entrance of Zion National Park, providing excellent access to field locations. Along with eight field sessions, Jack and Justin will present projected lectures on composition, light, exposure control, anticipating and working through changing conditions, and essentials of digital workflow. Three critique sessions will provide essential constructive feedback on images created during the workshop.
This Creative Core workshop deals heavily with developing creativity and visualizing compositions, with a great deal of photography in the field. Creative Core workshops are general outdoor photography workshops designed to expose participants to the full creative toolbox, but the emphasis of individual participants’ work is up to them. Whether they wish to focus on classic landscape, 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. Jack and Justin have decades of experience successfully accommodating a range of experience levels within the context of a workshop.
In advance of the session, we supply materials to get everyone up to speed with fundamentals of digital camera set-up and technique, as well as essential equipment recommendations, recommended packing list, and other guidelines to ensure that everyone is ready to make the most of the experience.
Note: This workshop is operated under National Park Service Commercial Use Authorization.
Exotic Birds – Poison Dart Frogs – Monkeys – Waterfalls – Wild Pacific Beach
All of this and more is to be found in one of the most biologically exciting places on Earth – Coast Rica’s remote Osa Peninsula – and we’d like to share the best of it with you. Envision original primary rainforest rising up a low ridge from a pristine and entirely undeveloped Pacific beach, stretching as far as the eye can see. Native toucans, scarlet macaws, and four species of New World monkeys cruise through the trees, while dramatic waterfalls roar in the jungle. Numerous species of visually striking frogs inhabit the area, including three species of colorful poison dart frogs, red-eyed tree frogs, masked tree frogs, and massive cane toads in their native habitat. Hundreds of exotic bird species abound. In addition to the toucans and macaws, long-tail hermit hummingbirds, trogons, blue-capped manakins, crested caracaras, ibis, various raptors and myriad other species are readily photographed. The forest itself is stunning, with old-growth trees full of character and beautiful graphic compositions just waiting to be discovered.
Instructors Daniel Beltrá and Justin Black will share their creative approaches to photographing rainforest fauna and flora, as well as the dramatic landscape. Hands-on in the field, we will cover long-lens and macro wildlife techniques, control of composition and light, fill-flash, control of focal plane and perspective with tilt-shift lenses, panoramic stitching, and other techniques that can be used to great effect in this amazing place.
CLICK HERE to read Justin Black’s article “Frogs of the Osa” in Outdoor Photographer magazine
Click “read more…” below right for more information and the photo gallery…
Boulder Mountain rises to the west of Capital Reef National Park in the picturesque Aquarius Plateau of South Central Utah. It is the highest timbered plateau in North America, with over 50,000 acres of rolling forests of pine, spruce, fir, and aspen, as well as expansive meadowlands. The area features the dramatic red rock canyons and sculpted formations for which southern Utah is famous, but it is a little known and refreshing alternative to more heavily trafficked southwestern locations.
Situated immediately adjacent to the majestic Grand Staircase descending toward the Grand Canyon and the canyons of the Escalante, this place is a creative photographer’s dream come true.
The author and desert wilderness advocate Edward Abbey once astutely observed:
There are more hills, holes, humps and hollows, reefs, folds, domes, swells and grabens, buttes, benches and mesas, synclines, monoclines, and anticlines than you can ever hope to see and explore in a lifetime.
We’ll add that the quality of light and atmosphere here are superb.
Jack Dykinga has become one of the greatest practitioners and teachers of nature photography, specializing in Southwestern landscape. This workshop combines eight field sessions to an array of locations that Jack knows like the back of his hand. Three critique sessions of participant photographs made during the session will build on Jack’s highly effective projected lectures on composition, qualities of light, and working the scene to distill the essence of the image. Assistant instructor Justin Black will provide support thoughout the workshop and keep the itinerary on track. The class size is limited to fifteen to ensure that everyone gets the time and attention they need, both in the field and the classroom.
Basecamp: Our group will be virtually taking over the Boulder Mountain Lodge, an intimate arrangement of buildings and outdoor common areas located on a 15-acre bird sanctuary at an elevation of 6650ft. In addition to beautiful rooms, the welcoming and comfortable lodge offers an array of amenities. Our meals will be provided by Hell’s Backbone Grill, a highly rated gourmet restaurant featuring southwestern flavors. Our group meals provide an informal setting to socialize and address specific interests that may not be covered during lectures and classroom discussion.
Jack and Justin will share specialized techniques and insights drawn from decades of experience in landscape photography to help you make this sublime landscape sing in your work. This Creative Core workshop deals heavily with composition, working a scene through changing light, exposure control, developing creativity, essential gear and creative tools, fundamentals of digital workflow, an introduction to digital exposure blending and stitching, and a great deal of photography in the field followed by highly constructive group critiques. Creative Core workshops are general outdoor photography workshops and the emphasis of any individual participant’s work is up to them, whether they wish to focus on classic landscape, 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.
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. Breakfast and dinner is served at the renowned Hell’s Backbone Grill each day, and the grill provides box lunches as well.
Please contact us promptly to reserve your space. A deposit of 50% is required at time of booking to reserve space, with balance payable 60 days prior to workshop start date.
Join Daniel Beltrá nd Justin Black for this unique photographic experience in the land of fire and ice.
Storybook waterfalls gushing over volcanic formations… Icebergs on black sand beaches… Orange-billed Atlantic puffins perched on sea cliffs… Deep sapphire hues in ancient glacial ice… steaming geothermal rivers flowing through a multi-colored volcanic landscape…
This is Iceland, land of fire and ice. Astride the Mid Atlantic Ridge, this geologically active island is being ripped in two by the opposing movement of the North American and Eurasian Plates, while magma surges through the Earth’s fractured crust to fill the void of displaced land. The ice cap and glaciers feed pristine rivers, and over 100 volcanoes and countless geothermal springs dot the landscape.
Renowned photographers Daniel Beltrá and Justin Black will lead this twelve-night photo workshop for ten participants, emphasizing photography in the field at amazing locations selected on our prior Icelandic travels. Our small group will travel in comfort in a specially customized bus with room for everyone to have a window seat, complete with Wi-Fi and numerous power outlets to enable us to edit our images while we’re on the road.
Click the “read more” tab below to continue… read more…
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.
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.
What happens when a group of enthusiastic photographers join together for a 10-day raft trip through 226-miles of mind-bending Grand Canyon scenery and 1.75 billion years of geological history?
Here are some impressions that our friends from past trips have shared with one another:
The sand may be gone, but my mind is still in the Canyon. Thanks to you, Jack and Justin, for putting together this amazing experience. The Canyon is past wonder. I am sitting here working on the images and can’t seem to leave the river.
While I think I’ve finally gotten the sand out of all of my clothes, equipment and person, it will most definitely be a long time before I get the Grand Canyon sand out of my soul. I think Jack said it best when he said that the Grand Canyon was a special temple. It is awe-inspiring. I really enjoyed my time with you all, and hope to see all of you again on another Jack and Justin adventure.
About two days into the trip…I realized that I should enjoy the trip because it was just about as good as it gets. It was indeed. At this point, maybe it’s enough to say that I actually miss the sand and I hope we all will continue to keep in touch.
Designed by Jack Dykinga and Justin Black, this trip absolutely maximizes photographic potential and overall quality of experience that can be had during ten days on the Colorado River in the mile-deep Grand Canyon.
* Note: Please click the “read more” tab below right for all the details, the image gallery, and National Park Service concessionaire compliance information.
Applying our experience of numerous Grand Canyon raft trips, and in collaboration with our hand-picked crews from Arizona Raft Adventures (AZRA), we’ve developed an itinerary that takes advantage of favorable spring conditions and sets us up for the best landings for photo excursions and camps along the river. This detailed planning and the expert skill of experienced boat crews we’ve worked with before are critical, because there’s no going back upstream on the Colorado River.
This trip is scheduled for May, when water and wildflowers are in greater abundance, and daytime temperatures are a bit cooler than the rest of the river guiding season. Our itinerary starts in Flagstaff, Arizona, at the Radisson Woodlands hotel. The afternoon before our departure for the river, we will convene to get to know each other (and catch up with returning friends), and Jack will make an introductory presentation to get your creative juices flowing. This will be followed by an orientation by AZRA staff to go over the game plan, safety, answer questions, and distribute dry bags for packing your personal gear. We’ll set off early the following morning for Lee’s Ferry, where our raft and crew will be waiting for us at our launch point.
A little about the raft: We will use a 32-foot-long raft built around a strong aluminum frame with a below-deck cargo hold for important items that tolerate getting wet, like camp chairs and cans of beer. Personal gear and camera bags will be stored in drybags strapped to lockers on deck above the waterline. Two expert AZRA guides will crew our raft, which is equipped with a small, quiet four-stroke Honda motor for steering purposes. The motor is shut off as we drift with the current down the river in stretches of calm water. We will be running a great deal of whitewater, and where you sit in the raft will determine whether you get soaked or stay dry (or dryish). Getting soaked by a big splash is a great way to cool off, as is floating a rapid in your life vest, which the guides offer as an option on occasion and as safety conditions permit.
Once on the Colorado River, we quickly enter Marble Canyon and from there the canyon rim towers higher and higher as we pass through ever more ancient rock strata. From the raft, we’ll take in the stunning mesas and rock formations all around us, watch bighorn sheep just a few meters away at the water’s edge, marvel at condors soaring overhead, and watch the light and shade play across the water and reflect in hues of gold and red on the canyon walls. Each afternoon, we’ll pull into riverside beaches, which will serve as our camps. These are selected in advance for group comfort and excellent photo opportunities close to camp in the evening, and to position us strategically to target the next morning’s photography location.
As we arrive in camp each afternoon, we’ll form a “bag line” as a team to unload personal gear and camp equipment from the raft to the beach. This group bonding experience is not to be underestimated. After that, we each locate our personal piece of Colorado River beach to put down our tarp, sleeping pad, pillow, sheet, and sleeping bag (all provided, as are tents, though no one seems to bother with them after a night or two). Then, while the boat crew prepares a fabulous and well-deserved dinner, Jack and Justin will lead photo sessions in the evening light. Otherwise, choices of camp activities are up to you. We’ll gather the camp chairs in a circle to chat over a beer or glass of wine, have a rinse in the river as conditions permit, or just relax and enjoy the peace, solitude, and crystal clear night skies.
When our time on the river comes to an end, it will be too soon. We will have been away from computers, cell phones, and traffic for ten days. AZRA will pick us up at Diamond Creek for the trip back to the Radisson in Flagstaff, stopping off on old Route 66 at Delgadillos Snow Cap in Seligman for an obligatory milkshake (or two). After a proper shower and calls to loved ones to confirm that we’ve reemerged into civilization, we’ll meet for a final group dinner with our boat crew. After breakfast the next morning, we’ll meet to edit and project images for review and critique. Wrapping up by mid-afternoon, we’ll say “until we meet again,” and our merry band will part company with hard drives full of amazing images, heads full of incredible memories, spirits uplifted by the experience, and hearts just a little heavy that it’s all over.
We hope you’ll join us for this trip of a lifetime, especially if it’s for the second time!
* NOTE: The raft-trip component of this package is operated through Arizona Raft Adventures, a National Park concessionaire. National Park Service rules require that we disclose and distinguish our cost for the AZRA ten-day raft trip itself, which is $2840 per participant. The fee for the photographic workshop, the days prior to and following the AZRA raft trip, is $3,155. This includes instruction, critique, meals (beginning with dinner the night before the raft trip and ending with lunch the day after the raft trip), lodging in Flagstaff the night before and the night after the trip, as well as all taxes and gratuities. The total combined cost for the raft trip and workshop is $5,995 per person.
Visionary Wild is kicking off our program of world-class photography workshops and expeditions with a unique opportunity in British Columbia’s remote and pristine Great Bear Rainforest, based out of the world-class King Pacific Lodge, September 5-12, 2011. This expedition is led by photographers Jack Dykinga and Daniel Beltrá, both of whom became intimately familiar with this threatened coastal ecosystem in September 2010, during a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) organized by the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). Justin Black of Visionary Wild will manage workshop operations and serve as assistant instructor.
There are few places on Earth where pristine temperate rain forest merges with a healthy and thriving marine ecosystem. Jack Dykinga characterizes the place beautifully:
