Why are the ‘Masters Program’ Landscape Photography Workshops and ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshops the next photography workshops you should take? Because by understanding the ‘Language of Landscape Art’ the closer you will be to mastering the art of landscape photography! Acquiring this new language and the basic skills necessary to take your camera off “auto” could be the two most important steps you will ever take in developing your own individual artistic visual voice.  

Writers are said to talk of the subjects they write about in the language of words. Photographers are said to speak of the subjects they photograph in the language of images.  Both art forms use their own specialized vocabularies. The impact of your photography will increase dramatically when your images “speak” through the universally understood ‘Language of Landscape Art’. 

The ‘Masters Program’ curriculum will show you, hiding in plain sight, the principles of image design and landscape art that are just waiting for today’s photographers to recognize and apply to their work. Landscape images have been the subject of many different styles of art for centuries.  During that time every successful landscape painter and photographer has used these very same artistic principals and effects to successfully represent the natural world in their work. 

Over the years lighting and compositional structure have been refined in untold numbers of landscape images. As photographers and landscape artists today, we are the beneficiaries of all the effort that has come before us. In the ‘Masters Program’ Landscape Photography Workshops and ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshops, Tom Gamache and Van Webster have compiled decades of their research and writing into a comprehensive curriculum of artistic principles and techniques that photographers can use to immediately improve the quality of their work.  Tom and Van offer a enjoyable, unique and stimulating learning experience while doubling the teaching resource for more individualized participant attention.

In the ‘Masters Program’ Photography Workshops and ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshops, Tom Gamache and Van Webster have compiled decades of their research and writing into a comprehensive curriculum of artistic principles and techniques that photographers can use to immediately improve the quality of their own work.  Working from examples of the finest in landscape art, especially over the past 500 years, participants gain a real world understanding of how light falls, how shape and shadow are rendered and how to compose images that intrigue and motivate the eye into increased notice and extended viewing.

‘Masters Program’ participants will learn:
           
    Different types of audiences and how they react to photographic images
    What is it that attracts a viewer to their favorite landscape art      
    Three fundamental types of natural lighting and what types of subjects are best 
    rendered by each.
     How to creating real looking landscapes (depth) in images using composition & lighting
    How to maintain focus or the appearance of focus throughout an image
   The principles of theatrical staging that add depth & interest to your images
  
 How to “See as the camera sees.”
    How the rule of thirds is but a starting point for advanced composition
    The difference between chiaroscuro and local color
    The two most important horizontal lines in a landscape image
    How to composing images for large prints
    The most difficult space in your mind to fill … the space between looking, seeing & thinking
    And much more …

In each day’s session, new ideas will be introduced and demonstrated with many examples from the history of landscape art. Participants will then have the opportunity to apply what they have learned to their own work with photographic forays into the natural landscape. All field exercises are instructor directed and specific with each participant having the opportunity to see the landscape anew and capture it in their own way. 

The ‘Masters Program’ Photography Workshop will change the way you see the world. 

Your post ‘Masters Program’ photographic work will have a foundation for lifelong development and expansion.  These workshops are more than a trip to a scenic location. These workshops will make the images you create at each and every location you visit after more beautiful and compelling.

‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshopsare an opportunity for landscape photographers of all experience levels to challenge their vision and practice their artistic skills in some of the most picturesque scenic locations in the West. Acompanied by ‘Masters Program’ Workshop instructors at your side, Tom and Van work with you to capture the photographic potential of the light and location.

A ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshopis all about travel to and working in many of the West’s iconic landscape locations. Constructive reviews and the sharing of the day’s work with fellow
photographers are the hallmark of our field workshops.

The ‘Masters Program’ Photography Workshops and ‘Wandering Around Outdoors’ Field Workshops are specifically designed to help photographers make better landscape art by employing specific visual, compositional and lighting techniques that produce images of “eye catching” power and lasting interest.

Digital Photography Boot Camp (DPBC)

Digital photography is a technical process that of necessity uses tools.  An artist who has a thorough understanding of how to use the tools of his/her art will have a significant advantage in realizing their artistic vision.  DPBC is an organized series of exercises that will help photographers understand the operation of their digital camera with the goal of improving the rendering of their own artistic vision.

Digital camera manufacturers have taken two different tacks in designing their products. The first is the principle of “convenience over quality”.  Consumers have consistently shown a preference for products that are simple to use and easy to carry over products that deliver superior results. The point and shoot snap-shot camera is the resulting product of this line of thinking in digital photography. Small, light weight, fully automatic and often built into other personal electronic appliances such as cell phones, point and shoot snap-shot cameras are now the ‘lingua franca’ of family parties, tourist visits and social media.  All photographic control has been surrendered.

The opposite tack in digital camera design is one of increasing complexity using the principle of “if we can make it – we will put it in the camera whether you want it or not”. This school of camera design, influenced more by software engineers than by photographers, assumes that the photographer wants to be able to control everything.  This design direction has lead to cameras with a plethora of buttons, applications and layers of menus deeper than King Solomon’s Mines.  Facing such a daunting mountain of poorly organized information and controls, the frustrated photographer sets the camera on “Auto” and shoots away hoping for the best.

DPBC is structured around mastering those settings and adjustments that landscape photographers will actually use in order to make informed landscape photographs.  DPBC participants will learn:

   What ISO number is best in different lighting conditions and how to set the correct value
    How and when to select aperture and shutter priority modes.
    Auto and manual focusing. Why and when to use each.
    Controlling depth of field
    Hyper-focal focusing
    Lens options and why zoom lenses may be the most convenient but not be the best choice
    Setups for Panorama and High Dynamic Range (HDR) images 
    The PhotoShop techniques that are the easiest and simplest for landscape images.
    File management, tools and organizing strategies
    The added work load of digital photography over film photography
    Why and how film continues to be a superior tool for some types of images
    Making large print images
    and much more

Many of today’s photographers can be intimidated and overwhelmed by current digital camera technology.  ‘DPBC’ is divided into short (approximately) one hour segments. The information is addressed in a highly organized manner with many opportunities for participants to ask questions, test techniques, interact and get feedback from the instructors and other participants. 

The objective of ‘DPBC’ is to help digital landscape photographers master the technology in their hands and make better landscape art photographs through increased knowledge and practical exercises.

Workshop Registration Information.