What to Expect

Each ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Photographic Workshop and Tour is unique.  The beauty of the natural landscape, the dynamics of the weather influence where, when and what type of work we do.  Unique to the workshops are the instructional presentations by Tom and Van that will inspire and challenge your artistic vision.

The Masters Program Photography Workshop including ‘Digital Photography Boot Camp’  usually begins on Thursday with our exclusive “Digital Photography Boot Camp” offering detailed instruction and hands-on experience in mastering the tools of digital photography.  This program is designed to help you get to know and understand your digital camera well enough so that taking it off “auto” becomes the norm rather than the exception. For many photographers the range of choices offered by today’s digital camera’s can be overwhelming.  Understanding the technological possibilities and mastering them can be a challenge.  This Thursday afternoon and Friday morning segment focuses on hands-on digital photography techniques as each skill is demonstrated and applied in a practical situation.

The Friday morning segment of ‘Digital Photography Boot Camp’ is focused on Photoshop techniques specifically aimed at the needs of landscape photographers. We focus on the tools and techniques that you will use most often and demonstrate how those skills can be applied to other image software and storage applications. In this component of the program, we will cover numerous techniques like cleaning up and spotting images, layers and compositing, correct exposure and color correction.  You will learn specific techniques for stitching together images into a panorama and creating HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographic composites of high contrast subjects.   

Friday afternoon opens with the ‘Masters Programs’ component of the workshop’ viewing detailed presentations on the history of landscape art from the Greeks and Romans through the Renaissance to the present with hundreds of examples both painted and photographed. It is a rich source of artistic inspiration setting the tone for the remainder of the weekend. The visualization devices through which artists have observed nature and used in their art are described in detail. Many artistic compositional techniques as well as professional photography secrets are shared throughout the weekend.

The ‘Masters Program’ curriculum explains in detail the guidelines to artful composition as well as how to use today’s digital photographic technologies to create your own “eye catching” art. By asking and answering the question "What am I making a picture of?" students are guided to a more serious consideration of all aspects of their photographic efforts. The arrangement of the elements of a scene into a composition that expresses the artist's emotions, thoughts and vision is demonstrated graphically and in the field. 

A typical ‘Digital Photography Boot Camp’ and ‘Masters Program’ Workshop weekend schedule is much like the following:

Thursday

 12:00 – 1:00pm - Check in / Meet

   1:00 -  2:30pm – ‘Digital Photography Boot Camp’  Digital camera mysteries…taking your camera off “auto” and other unknowns explained.

   2:30 – 2:45pm - Break

   2:45 – 5:00pm – ‘Takin’ it to the field’. Mastering your camera without the owner’s manual

   5:00 – 6:30pm – Dinner

   6:30 – 8:30pm - Review the days work and constructive critique  

Friday

  6:30 – 8:00am - Morning Field Session

  8:00 – 9:00am - Breakfast

  9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Digital Photography Boot Camp (continued)
                 Photoshop and other necessities for Landscape Photographers.

Photographers shooting with digital equipment will have an opportunity to download copies of their field session work to a workshop computer for display to the group on Sunday.  Students should bring three or four examples of their previous work to share with the group as introduction and for evaluation and review.