Beyond A Single Frame

Whilst we all want to make great images of places we vis­it, break­ing a scene up into indi­vid­ual com­po­nents makes the pho­tog­ra­ph­er expe­ri­ence a deep­er com­mu­nion with their sur­round­ings and is char­ac­terised by its abil­i­ty to con­vey indi­vid­ual char­ac­ter­is­tics and per­son­al expe­ri­ences through visu­al imagery. Work­ing in pan­els invites the pho­tog­ra­ph­er to delve deep­er into their sur­round­ings whilst allow­ing com­plete free­dom and expres­sion. It is often said that a pho­tog­ra­ph­er should evolve and make images that are not sim­ply ​‘of’ some­thing but ​‘about’ something. 

We all seek to enjoy new ways of com­mu­ni­cat­ing the expe­ri­ences we have had in par­tic­u­lar envi­ron­ments and some­times a sin­gle pho­to­graph does not con­vey enough of that time. Each land­scape has many dif­fer­ing facets, all of which con­tribute to its char­ac­ter, and often, when care­ful­ly edit­ed and brought togeth­er they tell a wider sto­ry rich in inter­est and cohesion. 

It is easy to become fixed on one par­tic­u­lar ele­ment of your sur­round­ings at a time, but when think­ing of many ele­ments and how they inter­act, the results show a more exten­sive under­stand­ing of your time explor­ing a place. A clos­er connection.

How you will learn

Rather than sim­ply pho­tograph­ing beau­ti­ful loca­tions, this edu­ca­tion­al pho­tog­ra­phy retreat com­bines sev­er­al com­ple­men­tary ways of learning:

Field tuition as we pho­to­graph togeth­er in care­ful­ly cho­sen locations.

Small-group dis­cus­sions explor­ing visu­al lan­guage, intent and interpretation.

Image cri­tique and port­fo­lio reviews to help you recog­nise strengths and oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in your own work.

Edit­ing demon­stra­tions and guid­ed post-pro­cess­ing show­ing how expres­sive deci­sions con­tin­ue beyond capture.

Per­son­al men­tor­ing through­out the week, with two tutors avail­able to sup­port every participant.

What you will learn

Dur­ing our time togeth­er on this Pho­tog­ra­phy Retreat we will dis­cuss these enlight­en­ing skills and how we can make choic­es of per­spec­tive, emo­tion­al input that con­vey a deep­er mean­ing through a visu­al lan­guage. Dur­ing our time in these breath tak­ing sur­round­ings, you will be encour­aged to take your time and relax into the expe­ri­ence of being there and mak­ing pho­tographs that will come togeth­er as a unique port­fo­lio to you. By the end of the retreat, you will:

Under­stand the dif­fer­ence between a sin­gle image and an expres­sive pan­el of land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy and recog­nise when each approach is appropriate.

Recog­nise your own emerg­ing pref­er­ences and pat­terns of seeing.

Devel­op an edit­ing work­flow that sup­ports your intent, using Light­room and Pho­to­shop tech­niques where appro­pri­ate to strength­en atmos­phere, mood and communication.

Begin build­ing a series of image pan­els that feel per­son­al­ly authentic.

Leave with a clear­er sense of direc­tion in your pho­to­graph­ic journey.

Being Inten­tion­al

Work­ing in pho­to­graph­ic pan­els begins with intent. Before think­ing about set­tings or com­po­si­tion, we con­sid­er what the pho­tographs are about and under­stand their rela­tion­ship with each other. 

Once that is clear, every deci­sion (per­spec­tive, focal length, expo­sure, pro­cess­ing) becomes a means of rein­forc­ing that intent.

Our aim

We want to engage in ques­tions, con­ver­sa­tion and intrigue, all the time allow­ing your­self to be as cre­ative as you feel. All approach­es to pho­tog­ra­phy will be wel­comed. We want you to cre­ate a port­fo­lio of pan­els that will nev­er been repeat­ed, pan­els that are derived by a com­mu­nion between you and your cho­sen sub­ject, in what­ev­er way you choose to express your­self. This retreat is designed for you to wan­der freely and make a per­son­al con­nec­tion with how you feel about your sur­round­ings. Through field tuition, dis­cus­sion, cri­tique and care­ful edit­ing, you’ll begin to recog­nise your own visu­al pref­er­ences, make more inten­tion­al cre­ative deci­sions and devel­op a body of work that reflects your own rela­tion­ship with the landscape.

A sup­port­ive and peace­ful environment

We have cho­sen Ull­swaster nes­tled in the tran­quil land­scapes of the Lake Dis­trict in which we can immerse our­selves in a place that is lit­er­al­ly a retreat from the hus­tle and bus­tle of dai­ly life. Dur­ing our time togeth­er you will enjoy the high­est qual­i­ty accom­mo­da­tion, fine meals which are all includ­ed, and we will have our own pri­vate meet­ing room where Paul and Michael will share their experience.

Is this retreat for you?

This retreat is suit­able for pho­tog­ra­phers who are already com­fort­able using their cam­era and want to move beyond tech­ni­cal com­pe­tence towards more per­son­al and expres­sive land­scape photography.

Whether you nor­mal­ly pho­to­graph with a DSLR, mir­ror­less cam­era or phone, in colour or black and white, you’ll receive indi­vid­ual guid­ance through­out the retreat.