Expressive Woodland Photography

Wood­lands and forests are envi­ron­ments that we are all very famil­iar with and are places that evoke very dif­fer­ent emo­tions in peo­ple. We have all at some time walked through a wood­land on a day when the winds are fierce as the branch­es sway and creak and feel the raw ener­gy of nature sur­round­ing us. To walk through a wood­land with­out a breath of a breeze when the morn­ing mists descend or as the evening approach­es and the light is dying is an alto­geth­er dif­fer­ent experience.

As spring arrives there is an excite­ment in the air with the promise of sum­mer ahead and the car­pet on blue­bells sig­nalling the tran­si­tion of sea­sons and the end of the win­ter, and beyond the sum­mer, the colours of autumn are a spec­ta­cle peo­ple and pho­tog­ra­phers trav­el to see. For all these rea­sons, wood­lands are an envi­ron­ment where we are stim­u­lat­ed, inspired and love to photograph.

With us expe­ri­enc­ing such an emo­tion­al response to wood­land, to be able to har­ness and express this in our pho­tog­ra­phy is incred­i­bly impor­tant and should be a vital part of our jour­ney. To be expres­sive in our pho­tog­ra­phy is to embrace the abil­i­ty to con­vey moods and emo­tions through our work enabling the view­er to be as close to what we have expe­ri­enced our­selves. It is impor­tant to have a mes­sage in our pho­tographs that say some­thing ​‘about’ the wood­land as opposed to being images ​‘of’ woodland. 

Dur­ing this retreat we will share thoughts on how we see wood­lands through a per­son­al per­spec­tive and how this can, and should, influ­ence how we edit images to con­vey a deep­er con­nec­tion. Some­times pho­tographs are pre­sent­ed in a way that goes way beyond record­ing a moment in time, but they con­vey dra­ma or solace with the con­sid­ered appli­ca­tion of colour palette, light and shad­ow and cer­tain­ly com­po­si­tion. We want to show you how to cre­ate pho­tographs that res­onate emo­tion­al­ly and also tell com­pelling stories.

Pho­tog­ra­phers some­times use ambi­gu­i­ty, colours or the won­der­ful tones of grey in a mono­chrome image to craft their visu­al lan­guage. 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.

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 that will nev­er been repeat­ed, one that is 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.

We have cho­sen Lythe Hill Hotel & Spa nes­tled in the rolling hills of Suffolk/​Sussex 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 our own pri­vate meet­ing room where Paul and Michael will share their expe­ri­ence and knowledge.