Heading out with our cameras. Feeling inspired and charged up. Lots to smile about!

Develop Your Creative Vision is a 7-day creative photography workshop encouraging you to approach your image making in a contemplative way with two professional photographers to guide you. This workshop will:

• challenge you to explore various photographic styles to assist you in choosing your unique visual path.
• emphasize moving from documentary to artistic expression.
• review, strengthen and solidify your understanding of visual design and creative techniques.
• provide direct instruction in a group setting as well as in-the-field, individual guidance. Together, we will strengthen your ability to see with ‘photographic eyes’.
• offer inspiration and techniques to help you create story-telling images, as a single image and as a series.

Features of the Photography Workshop

• A series of instructional lectures, illustrated by the work and experiences of Chris and Dennis.
• Daily assignments and review sessions, where leaders and participants freely discuss images from a technical and creative perspective.
• Development of a safe, supportive and collegial environment that encourages risk taking. You are here to experiment!
• Opportunities for individual shooting, processing and reflection balanced by time in our photographic community, with common meals and activities.
• Various projects are worked on and presented throughout the week.
• With each of our locations, we take advantage of the incredibly rich photographic opportunities at hand as well as venture out to our surroundings.

Our Barkerville classroom. Each workshop includes a balance of instruction, shooting, coaching and lots of inspiration.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for intermediate and advanced photographers with a passion to go deeper with their photography, increase their knowledge of effective image design and a willingness to work hard at improving their craft. Our goal is to give you the tools and understanding to help you develop as a photographic artist. A functional understanding of basic camera operation, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. is assumed and expected.  

The Group

The workshop is limited to a maximum of ten participants (12 at Gabriola) to allow for plenty of time for personalized instruction. After registration, you will be asked to complete a confidential online questionnaire, to allow us to be well prepared for your needs.

Shenanigans in the field as we work and play with our cameras. Laughter is never in short supply!

Why Take our Creative Photography Workshop?

Great question! You may have been making photographs successfully for some time in a variety of settings. Your enthusiasm for photography may be waning because you are running out of ideas and feeling like you’re doing the same old thing. Perhaps you’ve looked at the work of others and wondered how they came up with such great ideas that never occur to you.  You’re looking for an injection of creativity.

We’ve got you covered! Here’s what you can expect.

• a set of notes, sent to you before the workshop begins, reviewing compositional techniques that you may or may not be using already. This is intended to bring every one to the same level of understanding.
• daily discussion of creative image-making possibilities on location with examples from the instructors and participants.
• presentations on different aspects of artistic approaches to photography, providing inspiration, examples and an abundance of ideas for you to try right away.
• image review sessions where everyone shares their work in a positive, constructive setting giving you feedback so that you can refine your vision.
• opportunities to work in the field by yourself, with other participants or one-one with an instructor. 
• specific topics and techniques are addressed as situations arise. For example, long exposure photography, night photography, light painting and many other creative tools are taught when the conditions are right.
• the opportunity to break through the barriers which inhibit your creative vision. This happens when you persist with an idea and keep trying with the new tools you acquire. 

I throughly enjoyed this week. Not only have I learned from Chris and Dennis but also from the creativity of all the participants. The pace was good, feedback fantastic and venue spectacular. Wink, 2018

In a few short days, with your help and guidance, my photographic journey changed course and once again it is exciting to pick up my camera. Lynda, 2018

What to Bring

After registration, a detailed list will be provided. The basics include:

• a laptop computer for daily processing of images
• camera body, preferably with multiple exposure capability.
• recommended lenses include wide angle, mid range and telephoto zooms. Specialty lenses such as fisheye and macro are useful. 
• tripod.

A First Hand Account

Really want to know what the workshop is like? Check out this story from our Stories page.

Relaxing at the end of a day of creative photography.