Outdoor Photography At It's Best
South Carolina
April 2010
We scoured the internet back in October looking for potential Spring workshops and came across one with Exploritas. For those who may not recognize the name, Exploritas used to be called Elderhostel. (Note: as of June 2010, they went back to the Elderhostel name) Originally, at least one member of a participating party had to be 55 or older but the policy was changed this year to allow anyone over 21 to participate. Hence the name change.
Anyway, getting back to the workshop. A couple years ago we did one of their photography workshops in North Carolina and learned a lot on how to interpret their activity level information. The North Carolina workshop was an activity level 1 and focused on photography “beginners” so we were, you might say, over qualified. Much of the time was in a classroom setting but we preferred to be out and about with our cameras.
This workshop billed as “Outdoor Photography at It’s Best” was a level 4 which means “Participants must be able to climb a few flights of stairs and walk on uneven surfaces up to two miles at a 2.0 mph pace over the course of the day.”. Level 4 coupled with the word “Outdoor” in the title told us this would be for us. We signed up and waited for the day to arrive.
This was a 5 night workshop which, besides a photographer/instructor, included lodging, meals, and transportation to various photo op venues. The cost was about what we have paid for a weekend workshop so having the lodging, food, transport and additional days included made this a real bargain. We were out every day, except the first morning, taking pictures which was exactly what we were looking for. None of the time was during the “golden hour” around sunrise and sunset which was OK because part of the learning here was to do the best you can during those less than ideal times of the day. After all, that is what we typically encounter when traveling.
Home base for this workshop was Clemson University’s “Youth Learning Institute” in Pickens SC. Everything about the facility was in a word, great. Lodging was clean and comfortable, meals were good, meeting rooms were well equipped, and the staff met all of our needs during our stay.
Our photographer/instructor for the workshop was Luis Pita who was assisted by his wife Beatriz. Luis hails from Atlanta and, besides being a very competent photographer, had a very entertaining presentation style. He came to us with a background of adult training in industry and, recently, teaching photography to seniors. Luis did a great job of reading the skill level of the group and kept everything practical and down to earth. We totally enjoyed working with him during this workshop.
Photo op venues covered during the week were Stumphouse Tunnel, Issaquena Falls, Cha ram Park, Lake Jocassee, Upper Whitewater Falls, Table Rock State Park, SC Botanical Gardens, Greenville Zoo, Hagood Mill, and Pendleton’s historic district. We were on the go which was exactly what we were looking for.
Evenings were utilized for instruction on composition, use of Picassa 3 (free) for photo editing, available light macro photography practice, and image reviews. The last evening was spent reviewing 3 best images from each participant. We chose to submit some collages we assembled using Picassa and offer them here. A word on Picassa, we use Photoshop Elements which is far more powerful than Picassa but often times the capabilities of Picassa is all we need.
Clicking on these images will get you to a larger view on flickr. Camera data was lost because we assembled collages so, for the record, Kathy was shooting with a Nikon D60 and I was using my Nikon D300. The infrared images were taken with a converted Nikon CP5400.
A click on any of these images will get you a larger view. Then clicking on "all sizes" will get you an even bigger view...
~ The workshop took us to a number of photo op venues everyone of which had waterfalls and flowers. The fisheye lens came in handy during the boat ride as I tried to capture as many participants as possible. I couldn't resist bringing out the infrared camera which works best during the harsh mid-day light. Our stop at the Stumphouse Tunnel gave me an opportunity to capture some images with remote off camera flash......
~ The evening before our trip to the SC Botanical Gardens was spent taking macros. What made this exercise unique was doing all of this under led flashlight and candle light. We felt that everyone got a lot out of the exercise......
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