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A Portrait of the Coast - A Photography Retreat

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Of all the many landscape genres that photographers enjoy and explore, being at the coast is probably one of the most appealing to many of us. There is often an overwhelming essence of freedom as you walk onto a beach and see the ocean meet the skies and witness the way the clouds modulate the light.

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 in indi­vid­ual coastal envi­ron­ments. 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 the West­er Ross on the North West coast of 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. The three main areas we will be explor­ing at the coast are the beau­ti­ful Loch Gair­loch, Loch Ewe and Gru­inard Bay, beyond all of which we can be seen the moun­tains of the Out­er Hebrides.

Because of their 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.

5 Days

2 Leaders and a maximum of 6 Clients

Easy

Myrtle Bank Hotel

View Accommodation

The price includes extensive one to one tuition during the workshop, accommodation (on a full board basis). No single occupancy supplement. Travel during the workshop. Free transportation can be arranged from Preston, Lancashire, the day before if required. A port­fo­lio of three of your images printed to A2 and a fine art portfolio box. Free access to the online course 'Making the Print'.

Travel to and from Gairloch, Scotland (except by pre-arranged travel from Preston) and personal bills such as bar bills, meals not listed. Travel and camera Insurance.