 |
ASHLEY FRANKLIN
Ashley has been a professional photographer since 2003 - the year he first visited the Val D'Orcia. In many ways, that trip kick-started his career. His images were published in a double-page Portfolio in Photography Monthly, winning him a 70-200 Sigma lens; and three of his images helped him win a greetings card deal from the Art File.
In 2008, Ashley joined the Society of Professional Imagemakers and, in his very first year, he was shortlisted in the Society's Landscape Photographer of the Year for a Val D'Orcia image.
He was shortlisted again in 2009, when he returned to Tuscany, and it was the image opposite - taken on that 2009 trip - that finally won him the Societies' Landscape Photographer of the Year award in 2011.
Ashley's visits to the D'Orcia Valley in 2016 and - on his first workshop with Wayne - in 2018 have seen him win 3 Gold and 6 Highly Commended awards in the Society's monthly Landscape and Travel competitions. Ashley came second in the Society's Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018 and again in 2020.
Ashley's landscapes have also won major awards in the Trees, Woods & Forests category of International Garden Photographer of the Year in 2019 and 2020.
Ashley presents a popular talk to camera clubs about his visits to Val D'Orcia - Under Tuscan Skies - which was so well received in its initial year that Ashley approached fellow landscape photographer Wayne Brittle about setting up a tour for photographers.
Also, as a camera club competition judge, Ashley has earned wide praise for his helpful, insightful and constructive critiques of photographers' images, which he brings to these Tuscany trips.
As a pro photographer, Ashley has made an especial mark in the commercial world, becoming official photographer for the Derby Cathedral Quarter, Arkwright Society, Mercia Marina and Milford Care. Other clients include Derbyshire County Council, South Yorkshire Industrial Heritage plus business centres, hotels, pubs, nurseries, restaurants and a major industrial estate. Ashley was also a chief writer/photographer for Derbyshire Life magazine for 15 years (2004-2019) and has just completed a photo book of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Centre where he has lived for 45 years. His Val D'Orcia images have also appeared on the walls of a local Italian restaurant, the award-winning Angelo's of Milford, Derbyshire.
WAYNE BRITTLE
Wayne has around 45 years experience behind the lens, and has a passion for landscape photography. Through the seasons, Wayne will often rise well before the dawn and travel miles to capture the sheer beauty of the landscape.
Wayne has run landscape workshops for over 15 years, specialising in small groups and one-to-one tutorials. Advice Wayne always passes on to aspiring landscape photographers is 'the importance of getting it right at the picture-taking stage and not relying on digital editing too heavily.' Wayne enjoys using Photoshop but, as he adds, 'this comes second to just being out there on location with your camera and tripod, hoping to recreate the essence of the scene in front of you.'
Wayne is also a keen advocate of the use of filters and was selected in 2016 to be an ambassador for NiSi Filters, the best quality filters available for photographers. He now works alongside the other ambassadors to promote their use in the photographic field. Wayne has delivered talks on Nisi at The Photo Show at the NEC and other photographic trade shows, and has also conducted a workshop with the Royal Photographic Society. He is also in demand from photographic clubs for his talk Another Time - Another Place.
Wayne's landscape images have been published in some of the UK's leading photographic magazines (for which he has also written articles) including: Outdoor Photography, Digital SLR User, Photography Monthly, Practical Photography, Digital Photo, Amateur Photographer, What Digital Camera, Photo Plus, F.P.M.E (Freelance Photography Made Easy), Digital Photography Techniques, Country Life, Derbyshire Life, Staffordshire Life and The Derbyshire Magazine.
Wayne's work has also appeared in highly regarded books, such as Charlie Waite's Take A View Landscape Photographer of the Year and Developing Vision & Style (A Landscape Photographers Masterclass).
Further work also has been published in national calendars, book covers, CD covers, IOS & android apps, newspapers, catalogues, brochures and cards.
ASHLEY & WAYNE - YOUR HOSTS
Ashley & Wayne have been friends for over 18 years and it's a friendship built up over a love of landscape photography. It was Ashley who invited Wayne to join him on a photo trip to the Val D'Orcia in 2009. As Ashley recalls: 'Wayne fell in love with Tuscany on that trip. I also learnt much from him about landscape photography, especially about the use of filters. Wayne also has the extraordinary ability to anticipate the light. Many is the time we were in a location where I was ready to pack up until Wayne would say something like: "see those clouds over there? I reckon they're drifting this way." Sure enough, minutes later - even if it was 30 minutes - the sky would improve markedly and we would all come away with the images we were hoping for.'
On our Tuscany tour, Wayne will bring all his wide experience of landscape photography to bear including his ability to adapt his tuition in order to help everyone from raw beginners to experienced practitioners. Ashley brings 40 years' experience in the art of seeing and finding the picture. 'I am at one with the great Charlie Waite' says Ashley, 'when he says "I look for simplicity - the graphic lines, shapes and forms in the landscape.' This is one reason Ashley will especially look forward to the workshop's critique sessions: 'It will be an opportunity to inspire each other so that come the next day, we will hopefully go out into the landscape together on the following day as better photographers.'
Furthermore, you will find Ashley and Wayne very good company. As a former radio broadcaster and long-time public speaker, Ashley has engaged with audiences for most of his life, while Wayne's long experience of being amongst photographers for over 40 years has brought him a special connection with them. As our testimonials show, the photographers on our workshops thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie that develops in our week together. It means that the social side of our trip - our travels in the people carrier, our lunches together or the moments where we stood in the landscape waiting for the light to appear - helped make the whole experience so pleasurable.