PHOTO IMAGE INN WORKSHOP
CREATIVITY
Frederic your Guide
LANDSCAPE
WHY? WHEN? WHERE? WHAT? HOW?
STUDIO PORTRAITS
CREATIVITY
We believe creating is a joyous and celebratory process that is about identifying what you love and helping it to come into being.
Participants work in black and white, and in colour in any camera format. Everyone is encouraged to bring a sense of humour and a sense of purpose. Wise-asses, hotdogs, and burn-outs are welcome. As photographers, it is only when we see where we have been and where we are now that we begin to find direction in our work. Amid the daily flood of photographic images we are all exposed to, the ones that stand out and pass the test of time are those with personal perspective and vision.
We explore utilizing your dreams to produce an abundant source of energy resulting in creative growth. This is a multidisciplinary workshop that includes painting, poetry, acting, short-story writing, journaling, and, of course, photography. Participants are encouraged to stretch outside their comfort zones. Through role playing, psychodrama, visualizations, improvisations, and think-tank techniques, we look inside our hearts to find the source of our ideas. portfolios that represent where we are going rather than where we have been
Participants explore to trust their instincts while acting with the tools to press beyond first impressions, the process of building an expressive photograph, to amplify each participant’s visual voice.
In the words of Marcel Proust, "The real voyage of discovery does not consist of seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
By exploring the narrative, aesthetic, and emotional aspects of image making, emphasizing simplicity, the use of natural light, we explore, listen, and then understand what our photographic voice has to tell us. This workshop is for all photographers aspiring to discover that voice.
We begin by exploring the challenges of the creative process—understanding our medium, discovering meaningful content, and developing a personal style of expression.
We learn to create fearless images that emerge from our hearts and are crafted in our mind’s eye. We recognize that the creative process is both immensely challenging and demanding while at the same time a source of true satisfaction.
How do we expand the boundaries of our vision and learn to find the unique in the commonplace? How do we integrate our spiritual life with our visual life? We can become better photographers by first being more in touch with our inner self.
Frederic your Guide
Successful colour landscape photography demands imagination and graphic skills as well as camera technique. Fred uses her 35mm cameras with the same care and attention usually reserved only for large-format view cameras. He focuses strongly on the underlying architecture of photographs, the compositional underpinning that makes certain photographs seem not just memorable but inevitable. Fred is a passionate accompanist, committed to helping participants create powerful and personal images.
His vast knowledge of Provence and its environs brings an insider’s perspective to sacred sites such as archaeological ruins, missions, adobe churches, and Mas in majestic natural settings
LANDSCAPE
Bring your camera, tripod, walking shoes, an open mind, and something to say!
WHY? WHEN? WHERE? WHAT? HOW?
WHY?
The key to photographing the natural world is to focus less on the camera and more on developing your natural eye. It comes from spending time in one spot with open eyes and an open heart, rather than jumping out of the car with tripod extended and shutter finger poised.
For an intense week based on the premise that at the heart of any good photograph is a passion for the subject. Participants spend as much time changing their perspectives, sharpening their senses, and immersing themselves in nature as they do in developing new photographic skills.
Close your eyes and think about a place you know well. Perhaps it’s your own neighbourhood, with its busy storefronts, the aroma of fresh bread wafting out the bakery, the chatter of children running by on their way to school, the streets wet after a rainstorm. Maybe it’s a northern pond, where the morning fog hangs heavy and loons drift in and out of the mist, while the first rays of sunshine pierce through.
As photographers, we often get trapped into thinking we should make a traditional, straightforward record of a place. But when we shift our photographic eye to the perspective of capturing what that place means to us, our personal experience of it, new images appear. It is not surprising that many photographers, painters, poets, and musicians have created their most enduring work in a landscape they have committed themselves to over time. Likewise, it is small wonder that when we spend only a token vacation day in a village or town, our pictures may look nice to friends and family but fall far short of the gems we envisioned.
At the heart of any good photograph is both the passion for the subject and your ability to uniquely capture it on film.
This workshop strives to develop your natural eye.
During the week, outdoor experiences in diverse natural areas take you through key steps to enriching your photographs of the natural world as you find yourself focused less on objects and things, and more on the magic of moments and the essence of places.
learn to enjoy the fine art of wandering
You experiment that if you hear more and touch more, you will photograph with more sensitivity. You are rewarded by the skills of patience, solitude, and emptying.
The voices we hear from other cultures have in common the notion that humankind and the land leave indelible marks on one another.
We consider the notions of "beauty" in photography, natural versus man-altered landscapes, making personal statements, style, and developing a point of view.
WHEN?
Summer, autumn, day, night, inside, outside..
For an intense week of looking at the natural world with fresh new eyes.
The field trips explore both the surreal and exquisite landscape of Provence area, but with a twist. For example, on an evening trip, we photograph in ambient light as well as light created or altered by artificial sources such as strobes, floodlights, and automobile headlights.
WHERE? WHAT?
Fred has spent over 15 years photographing in and around the Luberon’s lovely top hill villages and has found that not a day goes by in those charming streets without something to delight the eye, tantalize the senses, or expand the consciousness. Provence is the perfect catalyst for creating expressive portraits, landscapes, still life, or architectural images, our field trips explore some of his favorite "hidden" locations,
Magenta bougainvillea, and so many different flowers cascades down lime-green walls, freshly washed cobblestone streets turn lovely hues of yellow and blue in the early morning light, and bright red Laurier hang against azure skies. Provence is an explosion of color, and Luberon is a perfect place to explore photography and color.
September in the Provence is a time of dynamic change. The last few flowers are blooming in wonderful canyon, while the aspens that travel the spine of the mountains are beginning their blazing show of gold.
Provence is a magical place of light, color, and sky
Autumn is the perfect time to come to Provence, and the fall foliage is often at its peak during the first week in October Visit Provence and discover why so many artists continue to be drawn to the "Land of the Sky." A landscape that resonates with myth, magic, and metaphor has drawn artists and photographers to Provence for centuries.
The combination of countryside, light, and culture makes this corner of the world unique and uncommonly inspirational. There’s no better time than peak fall foliage season to embark on a journey of personal discovery, challenging yourself creatively and transcending your current limits as a photographer. Explore the rich and diverse cultures of Provence and its the ever-changing light.
The main focus is on investigating light and color while working to establish your particular “visual fingerprint.”
Working in a foreign country can be an exhilarating, even life-changing experience
The Provence is dotted with wildflowers, plateau and canyon are flowing, and the canyon displays its wild palette of purples and greens, oranges and chalky whites.
The end-of-day light has been a magnet for photographers, painters, and writers for centuries. Focuses on all aspects of contemporary landscape photography: the beautiful, the classical, the man-altered, and the cultural.
Most landscape photographs simply record the way we already look at the land, but a strong landscape image challenges the way we look at nature. And the very best landscape images actually change the way we perceive the world around us and our place in it. This is what changes landscape photography from a pastime into a lifelong passion, as we make the transition from looking to seeing.
How can the photographer rise to this challenge, go beyond the obvious, the picture-post-card pretty, into a deeper, more personal interpretation of landscape
HOW?
The challenge is knowing when to run and when to sit still. We work to make exposures second nature so that we can focus on capturing the moment, not letting it fly by without any images.
The use of lighting in the landscape is complicated, for there are so many ways to bend, stretch, and tweak sunlight. Working in the early morning and late evening hours increases the chances of finding good light, but that is just the beginning. The sun reflects off every subject differently, creating odd casts and bold or soft shadows. The approach we choose can make the difference between a truly striking image and just another recording of nature.
All you really need is an open mind.
We take suggestions from a variety of traditions, setting fire to our imaginations and evoking a greater sense of communion with our environment.
We spend a substantial portion of each day exploring and shooting in various landscape locations in and around Provence.
intensive workshop in outdoor and travel photography is a lively blend of lectures, discussions, emotions.
STUDIO PORTRAITS
A memorable portrait is provocative and powerful and raises more questions than it answers. It shows us something complex that is both recognizable and surprising at the same time. What makes a portrait memorable is its ability to reveal, challenge, amuse, and enlighten.
Express yourselph in black and white. Very few people can be read like open books; most portrait subjects are enigmatic, cryptic, ambiguous, mysterious, and baffling. How do you capture all of these attributes on film? Sometimes it’s possible to get the inner light of a person in a single frame. And sometimes the deeper you go, the more interesting things become.
posing, street shooting, and how to "get inside."
This week we take time out from our normal lives to play, experiment, contemplate, and develop new ways to express ourselves through our black-and-white images. Our goal is to find our individual voice and make our images sing. We practice looking at people, places, and things from a more creative perspective.
What are some creative concerns? What else is possible?
Our emphasis is on developing rapport with the subject in a collaborative atmosphere that results in spontaneous, intuitive, and inventive portraits.
We exeriment to take chances, act on our impulses, work quickly, and use our senses as well as our minds to produce portraits with a personal point of view. Various elements of portraiture are investigated, such as gesture, pose, facial expression, props, lighting (natural and artificial). We use dance, theatre young, fat, old models and each other, we make formal and informal portraits daily in a studio location, on the street, and in the countryside around.
The nude is a subject that has always both fascinated and offended people. Artists in particular have been inspired by the beauty of the human body, with its paradoxical simplicity and complexity.
Looking at the nude in many different ways we explore and experiment models (both male and female), working exclusively in black and white. The nude is an excellent subject for exploring surrealism, beauty, spirituality, and psychology.
Personal portraits can be both mirrors and windows. The best ones capture the subject’s essence, while at the same time conveying the unique qualities of the image maker. Meaningful and poignant portraits are created from personal relationships. Photography is rooted in the real world, yet memory, mystery, and magic are often present in our images, explores the relationships between ourselves, our subjects, and our photographs
To identify a project or group of portraits that is personally meaningful and that, upon completion of the workshop, can serve as a starting point or theme for a larger body of work. The aesthetic and emotional concerns of contemporary portrait-making are at the core of all discussions.
