OCTOBER 2023

Autumn Aspen Grove Portrait

“The real voyage of discovery does not consist of seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust

In 1992, I released my first coffee table book: The Art of Nature Reflections on The Grand Design. Since that time, and subsequent eight more coffee table books, this concept and approach to the landscape has been both my artistic identity and my legal trademark. I am very pleased to offer you this workshop in a series of location workshops entitled: Photographing The Art of Nature™. These workshops are designed to help you advance your skills as a photographer and help you discover the essence of your personal vision and its expression, and perhaps, and in doing so, a little more about yourself.

Window Of Color

About this Workshop:

This workshop is presented in one of the most uniquely beautiful areas of Washington State. As its about 20 miles east of the Cascade Mts., it possesses somewhat of a distinct micro-climate and attendant light conditions. One of its most unique features is that, it in a roughly 30 square mile area, it hosts the largest concentration of aspen trees in the entire state. And, in that sense, its “the Colorado of Washington State”

The colors of autumn here are brilliant and exhilarating, and we will find them everywhere we look. At the same time, we will look beyond the obvious and explore a landscape that possesses a rich and complex palette of colors, shapes, textures and patterns that represent the elements of dynamic and stunning imagery, just waiting to be seen and employed in creating your masterpiece.

All of the locations I have chosen are easily accessible by a short walk. As such, we will spend our time photographing, not hiking. Days will be filled with photographing, and evenings will include a group dinner and image review of photographs taken that day. I have limited this workshop to five participants so that I may give the maximum personal attention and guidance to all.

I hope you will consider joining me in this exciting workshop. As are all my workshops, they are intended to guide your imagination and creative vision to a new place, and in doing so, your artistic abilities will manifest in ever more expressive and meaningful imagery that you will be proud to include in your growing photographic collection.

My Teaching Philosophy is Simple:

“Help a photographer take a good picture and they will go home with a good picture. Help the photographer improve their ability to “see”, and they will go home with a creatively substantive picture, and the ever evolving ability to create artistically meaningful pictures for a lifetime. For its not where you go, but what you are able to “see.”

This workshop is all about: “The Art of Seeing” … the ability to perceive and compose visual elements in the landscape to create a compelling photographic image. It is through this creative process that the photographer is able to explore the experiential and personal meaning of their subject, rendered in a visually and emotionally expressive photographic image. Improving one’s ability to see requires the willingness and awareness to slow down, empty our minds of clutter, and allow our attention to be focused on and consumed by that which lay before us. For it is the quiet, mindful eye that is the lens of the heart.

Putting our images to music is also another satisfying way to present our photographic art. Please visit my site to view any of my 15 music videos to see another venue for the display of your art. I have found that in many ways, being a fine art landscape photographer is much like being a screenwriter and director, i.e., how one conceives and executes one’s story. As such, in this workshop I encourage the photographer to think about their photography in terms of a larger body of work that they develop over time. And, in doing so, simultaneously builds that body of work for many uses, but also, serves as both a portrait of their growth as an artist and person, for our art is always a reflection of who we are at that point in our life. This has been my joy in all my years of photography, as it represents the story of my life, and I hope, in this workshop, to help you create your own story.

This workshop is intended for photographers who have a working familiarity with camera operation, f/stops, shutter speeds, depth of field, etc. I will not be instructing on technique as a subject in and of itself. As such, I will only discuss these issues as they arise in specific cases as you are contemplating photographing a particular subject. This workshop is best suited for engaged, practicing amateurs, and aspiring, and/or or professional photographers looking to improve their ability to see and render subject matter. The physical demand are relatively easy, as shooting locations are mostly a short walk from our cars, that will include some climbing over logs or walking on uneven river rocks.