A Portrait of the Coast - A Photography Retreat

The expe­ri­ence of walk­ing in the winds, hear­ing the sound of the waves crash­ing onto the shore­line and look­ing out toward the hori­zon, evokes emo­tions many oth­er land­scape sur­round­ings cannot.

Dur­ing this retreat we will be encour­ag­ing you to take your time and con­nect with your sur­round­ings. We will not be sprint­ing from loca­tion to loca­tion, but spend­ing long peri­ods of time on the coast­lines of West­er Ross in the north west High­lands of Scot­land. The coast here is a place of solace and soli­tude were few peo­ple vis­it were the sands are pris­tine and the waters are gin-clear and turquoise. Like our oth­er retreats, as well as being out with our cam­eras, we will ded­i­cate valu­able time back our hotel engag­ing in con­ver­sa­tion about how we ​‘see’ the places we have vis­it­ed and gain an under­stand­ing of how we can see though oth­er eyes.

We want you to expe­ri­ence a sense of com­mu­nion with the coast that we vis­it, all of which will con­vey sub­tle dif­fer­ences. Some will be vast open expans­es of sand sur­round­ed by tall mar­ram grass­es and dunes, whilst oth­ers will be rocky shore­lines upon which crest­ing waves crash and retreat back to the open sea. We want you to breath in the ener­gy of the coast and make a port­fo­lio that is unique to you. Rather than images that are tech­ni­cal­ly accu­rate with safe his­tograms and pin sharp focus, this retreat is about orig­i­nal­i­ty and authenticity. 

All approach­es to pho­tog­ra­phy will be wel­come and you will be encour­aged to explore how you want to rep­re­sent the beach­es we vis­it in an entire­ly non-judge­men­tal way. 

We have specif­i­cal­ly cho­sen the beau­ti­ful and peace­ful sur­round­ings of Gair­loch in Scot­land. We have been vis­it­ing West­er Ross for many years and it is quite a unique loca­tion. This is a coast­line that offers a life­time of pho­to­graph­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties from the rocky wave-cut geo­log­i­cal out­crops, to pris­tine open sandy beaches. 

Because of its loca­tion in Scot­land, these coast­lines are often des­o­late allow­ing you the time to soak up the envi­ron­ment and work in peace, always hav­ing Paul and Michael close by to offer their advice and help.

We will active­ly encour­age you to be as cre­ative as you choose and put away the desire to get tro­phy images des­tined for social media. There will be lec­tures from your lead­ers Paul Gal­lagher and Michael Pilk­ing­ton, and as always, they will be on hand to talk over your ideas, approach and any image edit­ing help you may need. What­ev­er your lev­el of expe­ri­ence, they will be there to encour­age and inspire you on this retreat to one of the most calm­ing places on the Scot­tish mainland.

Each pho­tog­ra­ph­er will return home with a port­fo­lio of three A2 prints made on a paper of their choice and pre­sent­ed in a fine art port­fo­lio box. You will also have free access to our online course​‘Mak­ing The Print’ so you can con­tin­ue your jour­ney after the workshop.

We have cho­sen the won­der­ful Myr­tle Bank Hotel over­look­ing Loch Gair­loch where 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 a pri­vate meet­ing space where Paul and Michael will share their experience.