Workshop «Winter in Alberta»
January 21 — 26 of 2020.
Start Location — Calgary, Canada
Dates: January 21 — 26 of 2020
Tuition: $ 1900 per participant (limit: 9 participants).
Instructor: Alex Mironyuk
Deposit: $ 700 (payments accepted for the remainder of the balance)
Workshop Highlights
Come explore one of the most unusual, and picturesque winter phenomenon - methane bubbles frozen into ice. A Couple of Alberta's lakes turn to a spectacular winter wonderland that offers beautiful photo ops for an adventurous photographer.
Keep in mind that the ideal weather condition for us to capture the bubbles is about from -10°F to +10°F with some-sort of strong wind. So you have to have heavy duty winter apparel, with thermal under layers.
Don't forget your telephoto lens - we will be in the area where elks, moose, and goats are common.
You will get a chance to photograph the area like you have never seen it before. I will lead you to photograph my favorite places all around the Canadian Rockies.
This workshop is designed to master your photography skills and to also boost your creative process. This entire workshop is hands on and I will be with you every step of the way covering composition, camera settings, chasing the light, and much more.
Physical Difficulty: Easy to Moderate. This Workshop Involves short hikes with all your photo gear on icy and snowy surfaces with minimum elevation loss and gain.
Fitness Level: Like any outdoor nature photography workshop, a reasonable degree of fitness is ideal. We will not be engaging in any strenuous physical activity.
Experience level: No level of experience is necessary for participants of this workshop. Whether you are just beginner or are a seasoned pro, I am happy to help you move forward with your photography.
Transportation: Transportation is included in this workshop.
Lodging: The simple hotel/motel lodging (double occupancy) is included in the tuition. Every room will have two beds and a shower. In case of inclement weather where we need to change the itinerary and cancel our booked hotels and book new ones, we will only be able to get last-minute hotel availability. Under those circumstances we can’t guarantee the quality of the rooms and the amenities.
Itinerary
Day 1. January 21, Tuesday
Our group will meet at the hotel in Calgary, Canada around 7 PM where you can meet everyone and get to know each other. After a short introductory meeting we will go to our very first dinner as a group.
Night in Calgary.
Days 2 — 5. January 21 — 26, Wednesday — Sunday
By 7 AM on January 22 we will head toward the Canadian Rockies.
Our final Itinerary will depend on the weather and lighting conditions, which is very hard to predict so far ahead. We can have an exact itinerary around January 5th.
In general, we will spend 1−2 nights in the small city of Banff in the middle of the Banff National Park where we will take a pictures of frozen lakes and surrounding mountains and glaciers. If weather conditions will be good than we definitely will take pictures of methane bubbles which are frozen into ice in Lake Minnewanka.
2−3 of the nights will be spent out of the Banff National Park in the small town of Nordegg where our main photo-destination will be Lake Abraham with tons of a methane bubbles as well as some waterfalls, lakes, and frozen rivers. We also will consider visiting the Banff and Jasper National Parks.
During our very first photo-session we will have an informal practical workshop. We will teach a variety of photo techniques that will help you improve your skills and your artistic vision, focusing on a number of professional tricks for shooting powerful nature images, such as:
- Working with dramatic light during a sunrise and a sunset
- Using regular midday light to your advantage
- The fundamentals of powerful composition
Every day we will have morning and evening photo-session, during the day time we can rest and improve our skills in photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop.
We will have at least one informal class, where we also teach professional «Digital Darkroom» secrets and the fundamentals of image processing, including but not limited to:
- Raw converting in Lightroom
- Using some Lightroom’s filters
- Working with adjustment layers
- Layer masking and image blending techniques
- Color management and special effects for artistic expression
- Preparing images for optimum web presentation
After our very last sunset photo-session on January 26 by 6 PM we will head back toward Calgary, where our workshop will be officially over. Keep in mind that we will be in Calgary around 9 PM.