AUTUMN WORKSHOP

The 2023 Autumn Workshop is from October 21st to the 28th. 

Please note: This workshop is now full. 

You will be based in a fabulous hotel in the heart of the Val D’Orcia in the medieval town of San Quirico.

Within a radius of 20 miles or so, pictures literally leap out at you.

You’ll behold hills of gently rolling, soothing shapes that catch and pocket sunlight in their dips and folds, along with fields of vineyards, cypress and olive trees, and farmhouses and chapels perched on hilltops.

There are also historic hilltop towns to discover.

Every day we will be out in the golden hours to capture soft light, early morning mists and beautiful sunsets. From dawn till dusk, we’ll be transporting you to all the photogenic landscapes in this valley, including an iconic cypress copse, the Chapel Vitaleta, the ‘Gladiator Walk’ beneath Pienza, the San Biagio Chapel in Montepulciano and many more glorious vistas.  Furthermore, the fields and hills around are full of vineyards and olive groves. 

When the sun is high in the sky (not conducive to landscape photography), we will take time out to celebrate Italian cuisine and take lunch in one of the many hilltop towns.

This is where you can combine architectural and  street photography.

We also aim to spend at least one evening in Pienza or San Quirico doing night photography.

Tuition is on hand throughout the day and we are happy to spend time - especially after breakfast and in the evening - holding critique sessions.

Finally, you may be pleased to know that, unlike most other photo tours, we don't fly from Heathrow or Gatwick but from Manchester Airport.

PRICE

£1795 per person which includes:

Single room accommodation in the Casanova Hotel, San Quirico plus Breakfast. This is the hotel booked by many other photo tour groups. 

Please note: there is a reduced rate of £1695 per person for couples sharing a room.

Airport transfer from recommended flight.

Transport to all tour locations in people carrier.

Tuition from Ian and Ashley including critique sessions.

NB:  Flights, travel insurance and meals other than breakfast are not included.

SIZE OF GROUP

We will have a maximum of SIX photographers joining us, which we think is perfect for our workshop. It’s small enough so that everyone can get to know each other, and also enable us to give plenty of tuition if required. We also travel together in the one large people carrier.

IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR YOU?

This is a workshop aimed at you if you are keen to pursue your passion for photography, and are looking to maybe improve your skills and technique.  If you are hoping to be inspired and have yet to experience the Val D'Orcia, you will find this workshop very satisfying.  In fact, we believe you will be a better photographer at the end of the week simply because of the photogenic wonders of this landscape, both rural and urban.

You will gain much from this workshop whether you are a beginner or at advanced level.  Although we welcome beginners, note that this is a workshop intended for photographers who use DSLR or mirrorless cameras and who have a good understanding of their camera and its settings.  This workshop is not suitable for users of compact / point & shoot cameras.     

FLIGHTS

We ask you to book the scheduled flight from Manchester to Pisa Airport (and return) so that we all travel together. This will enable us to jump in our people carrier at Pisa Airport and head off to San Quirico. We will inform you of the flight times and flight numbers. However, we will try and make it possible for you to fly from an airport closer to you if we can meet at Pisa Airport at around the same time as the main flight party arrives.  

ON ARRIVAL

As soon as we arrive at the hotel and you’ve freshened up, Ian and Ashley will bring you together in the TV lounge for an introductory ‘meet-and-greet’ session. As well as introducing each other and telling us a little about yourself, we will take you through our schedule, showing you the Val D’Orcia on the Tuscany map and illustrating the talk with photos of some of the places we’ll be taking you to. This will also be an opportunity to answer any questions you might have.

Once that session is over, you will be itching to get out into this glorious landscape!

WEATHER

The weather in the D’Orcia Valley in late October is similar to an English autumn though a good deal warmer.  When Ashley went on a recce of the D’Orcia Valley in autumn, he experienced comfortable temperatures with a lot of sunshine and blue skies. The early mornings and early evenings can feel chilly (see note below about Clothing) but you'll hopefully be warmed by the photos you get!

CAMERA GEAR

As well as bringing a camera (obviously!), you might care to bring a spare camera body. As for lenses, we would recommend you bring a wide angle (e.g. 16-35 mm), a medium zoon (e.g. 24-70 mm) and a long zoom (70-200, 70-300, 100-400).This will cover most eventualities.

Your tripod should preferably be a light but sturdy one that will also fit in your suitcase.  Also, a tripod is essential to get the most out of this trip as it will be needed to best capture the sunrises and sunsets.  You'll find a tripod is useful for landscape shots during the day, too.  

We would also recommend you bring filters – especially graduated neutral density filters - as these can be used to balance scenes, especially during sunrises, where the sky can be a lot brighter than the rest of the image. Using ND filters can give you a truer rendition of the scene you’re photographing.

CLOTHING

Because it's late October, warm clothing is recommended, with a few layers for the sunrise and sunset shoots. A pair of gloves and woolly hat would be advisable.  However, the morning soon warms up and you’ll be glowing anyway if we get a misty sunrise. The evenings can be a bit chilly, though the weather overall can be changeable.  We may even get a shower or two, so a waterproof jacket is advisory.  Let’s hope we do, in fact, get a short shower at least because then, there is even more of a guarantee of a misty dawn. 

FOOTWEAR

Unlike the Lake and Peak District, you don’t need to walk far at all to capture the landscape of the D’Orcia Valley.  Some of the best landscapes can be photographed by the side of the road.  However, some walking may be required so a pair of walking trousers would be good, and certainly a pair of stout shoes, or walking shoes.  Heavy walking boots or wellington boots aren’t necessary.

SCHEDULE

You need to be prepared for early starts - sunrise is at 7.35 am - but you will thank us for this because if we get a misty sunrise - we normally get at least one, hopefully more - you will come away with probably the best shots of the day. 

One of the great plusses about our hotel is that there is a private balcony overlooking the Belvedere Valley which provides the best misty sunrises in the whole of Tuscany. The image on the left was taken from that balcony.

Obviously, you are not obliged to join us for every sunrise but, put it this way: if you decide to sleep in, you could be missing the best shots of the week!  That’s one of the great benefits of being in a group of keen photographers: the incentive to drag yourself out of bed!

After we shoot the dawn, we will take breakfast (all paid for), and then head out to a different landscape.  One of the beauties of the D’Orcia Valley is that most of the great landscapes are within a 20-mile radius, so there won’t be long journeys in the people carrier. 

 

The only long journey will be to Sorano and Pitigliano in Grosseto but you'll thank us when you view these dramatic cliff face towns. Pitigliano is pictured left. 

After a morning shoot, when the sun starts to get higher, this is the ideal time to head for one of the towns in the region: Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino, San Quirico, Pitigliano, Sorano and Siena. On the right is a shot of one of the many ornate ceilings in the Duomo in Siena. 

We will then be ideally placed to have a spot of lunch and also photograph the town in question.  This will help give us a break from photographing the landscape. 

 

Also, the aforementioned towns are very grand and historic, so you can combine architectural photography with street photography as well as obtain some great detail shots (see right). 

As one photographer once told me: ‘I love Italy… I love the fact that they neglect their buildings’.  Yes, there's lots of buildings with  character! 

Following that, we head off to another landscape before going off to capture the evening’s golden hour and a sunset. There are several great sunset locations including the area behind the Chapel Vitaleta and Asciano. An Asciano sunset is pictured left. Following our sunset, we will look to book an evening meal. If we go back to the hotel, there is an excellent restaurant next door but there are equally fine restaurants only a few minutes' walk away in San Quirico.

LAPTOP?

If you would like to have critique sessions, you are advised to bring your laptop so that you can upload your pictures, ready for viewing. Also, we recommend that you set your camera so that you shoot both RAW and J-peg. You can then upload your j-pegs, much quicker than uploading RAW files.