Dates: May 19 - 23, 2010
Leader: Rod Barbee
Location: El Portal, CA
Cost: $995
About the Workshop
Yosemite and Ansel Adams; you can’t think of one without thinking of the other. Adams made many of his most famous images right here and by doing so, made Yosemite a premium destination for all the outdoor and nature photographers to follow.
Mid May is a great time to be in Yosemite to photograph the waterfalls, reflec- tions, and flowering dogwood. And with any luck we’ll have a bit of fog in the valley in the mornings for some of those dramatically moody shots from Tunnel View. Spring is also the time for the classic photograph of the flowering dogwoods along the Merced River.
We’ll hit all the classic places like Swinging Bridge, Cathedral Beach, Cathedral Rocks, Tunnel View, Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove(roads permitting). We’ll find great views of El Capitan and Half Dome, Yosemite and Bridal Falls as well as the intimate scenes to be found at Fern Spring (my personal favorite) and around the blossoming dogwood trees.
Since this is “Grand Landscape Country” we’ll spend a lot of time working on landscape techniques like choosing foregrounds, hyperfocal focusing, working with reflections, graduated neutral density filters, panoramas, and more. There will also be ample opportunity for close ups and intimate landscapes.
My goal is to help you create photographs that are uniquely your own and to help you develop your own style. To that end, I’ll be encouraging you to stretch beyond what you’re used to doing and to look for perspectives, angles and compositions that are expressions of your own view of the world.
Since there are so many opportunities and so many great scenes with easy access, this workshop won’t involve much hiking. But never fear, I’ll employ other means to exhaust you. Mid day we’ll gather in our classroom for critiques, questions, teaching demonstrations, along with Photoshop and digital asset management discussions and demonstrations.
Gallery
Included in the Workshop
The workshop fee includes individualized field instruction, classroom instruction, honest critiques, ample teasing.
Needless to say, your fees include the professional instruction of a PAW leader. All workshops have leaders, however a PAW leader is an expert on the location and has proven skills as a workshop instructor. Our instructors are there to help you make better images and fill your portfolios, not theirs. PAW leaders don’t photograph on our workshops; they teach.
There probably won’t be much hiking involved. We may take the one-mile walk to the Tuolumne Grove of giant sequoias. This is actually a road, not a trail, but it must be walked. It’s downhill all the way. Except for the trip back... We may also hike to Vernal Falls.
Since many of us have found that the level of exertion is usually inversely proportional to the quality of the photography, we’ll try to keep the hikes short and reasonable.
You will also be responsible for all transportation to the workshop and travel during the workshop.
The workshop will allow a maximum of 12 participants and requires a minimum of 6 participants.
PAW workshops: the best leaders, locations, and instruction.
Transportation and Lodging
Airports
Fresno/Yosemite International (FYI)
It’s about 100 miles to El Portal with a drive time of approximately 2 1⁄2 to 3 hours. There are only two hotels in El Portal. The first is the Cedar Lodge. The next one, at the far side of El Portal, is The Yosemite View Lodge, where we’ll be staying.
Lodging
Yosemite View Lodge
11136 Highway 140
El Portal, CA 95318
888-742-4371
Schedule
Plan on meeting at the River Restaurant meeting room adjacent to the hotel at 6:00PM on May 19th. The workshop is over May 23rd after the morning shoot and before hotel checkout.
Equipment and Gear
You’ll definitely want your wide angle lens here. We’ll be so close to those high cliffs that you’ll be disappointed if you don’t have a lens that can take it all in. For digital cameras with an APS, or “cropped”, sensor (Nikon D90, D200, D300, etc, Canon 40D, etc) that means something in the 10-22 or 12-24 range. For 35mm film and full-frame digital camera users, think along the lines of 17-35mm.
Feel free to contact Rod if you have specific questions or concerns about what to bring.
The Leader
Rod has co-led several workshops to Yosemite, including one with the legendary David Muench. Rod is, himself, an accomplished landscape photographer and is well versed in hyperfocal focusing and graduated neutral density filters--two of his favorite subjects to teach. You won’t be able to get him to shut up. Seriously.
For the past nine years, Rod has been leading and co-leading photo workshops across the country teaching photographic as well as Photoshop skills. He’s taught with such notable photographers as David Middleton, David Muench, Bill Fortney, and Jack Dykinga. He also teams up several times a year with his good friend Don Mammoser.
A skilled and enthusiastic instructor, he likes nothing more than sharing his knowledge, ideas, and occasional sarcastic observations.
Rod is the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Puget Sound and Northwest Washington and co-author of The Photographer’s Guide to the Oregon Coast (with David Middleton). His images have been used in calendars, magazines, cards, websites, and books. He’s also been a regular contributor to Outdoor Photographer magazine.
Rod lives on Washington’s Olympic peninsula with his wife Tracy and their dog Bailey. He enjoys walking one and hanging out with the other.
Contact:
Rod Barbee
Email:
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Website: www.rodbarbee.com
Skype: paworkshops
General Info: 877.384.PAWS(7297)
Cell Phone: 360.774.6341
Phone: 360.437.1124
People are talking about Rod:
“Again a big THANK YOU for a great workshop. I really enjoyed meeting you and sharing ideas for my photography. I will definitely be back on another workshop- you have some ideal places listed for where I would love to go.”
---Chris Almerini
Final Thoughts
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