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Daintree Photography Workshop

1 to 8 September 2024

Daintree 2024 is an eight-day contemporary photography workshop for anyone who is wondering ‘how do I get to the next level’? That is, how do I progress beyond merely beautiful images and prints, beyond the mastery of camera craft and production skills, workflows, clients, and competitions to develop and infuse my work with more meaning, significance and purpose?  This is no easy task, and there are many prerequisites: we need time and space away from the hurly-burly distractions of everyday life. We need an unbelievably beautiful and inspiring location that only asks the best of us. We need state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities that won’t let us down. And we need incredibly experienced teachers and mentors who not only work ‘at that next level’, but also possess the empathy, compassion, understanding and intellectual frameworks needed to facilitate your journey ‘to the other side’. These are rarely found qualities, but at Daintree 2024, we supply them in abundance.

My co-presenters are my dear friend and ND5 collaborator Peter Eastway, my son, business partner and RMIT School of Art lecturer Andrey Walkling, and Nth Queensland landscape photographer and conservationist Steven Nowakowski.

The Venue

The venue is James Cook University’s world class Daintree Rainforest Observatory (DRO) education and research centre at Cape Tribulation in far North Queensland. It is adjacent to Australia’s World Heritage listed wet tropics lowland rainforests which are home to a substantial proportion of Australia’s biodiversity. This is also one of the few areas in the world where the ‘reef meets the rainforest’ and the only place where two World Heritage Areas sit side by side.

Modern dormitory style accommodation

The modern teaching and conference facilities are designed with student-centred learning and inquiry-focused practice in mind. The open design and flexible spaces create many vistas where one can look up to rainforest-clad mountains or down over sweeping views to the Coral Sea. With brand new accommodation and catering infrastructure, well-equipped laboratories and a tower crane providing canopy access to nearly 1 hectare of rainforest, the DRO provides an unforgettable hands-on experience in a unique and inspirational environment.

The Syllabus

The workshop begins with a thorough analysis of your individual workflow which we then refine and polish from capture to print. This ensures your workflow is ‘working’ so well that you are not distracted by it. We can then focus on ’what comes next’ – and how to take your photography there.

DRO Education Centre Interior

Guidance, inspiration and support will flow from the history of photography, painting, sculpture, music, literature and philosophy, as we form a deeper understanding of how pictures capture ‘hearts and minds’ while trading in ‘secrets and mysteries’ beyond our immediate understanding. We will learn from other artists and their production methods, artist statements, finished works of art, historical circumstances and what is required in order to convey significant and lasting impressions, not just through your pictures, but also to your artistic confidence.

Facilitation

You will photograph in pristine environments, process and edit your files with fully colour managed professional workflows, and make prints of the highest quality with the most beautiful papers and profiles available. Our chefs and support staff will take care of everything else, so all you have to work on is refining and extending your photography, and thereby change not only your relationship to your ‘hardware and software’, but even more significantly, take your pictures and yourself to that ‘next level and beyond’.

Highlights of the workshop include formal presentations, small group tutorials, extensive one to one consultations and opportunities to practice and consolidate what you learn in a supportive and supervised environment.

This is an ambitious workshop that I couldn’t imagine presenting without my 30 years’ experience of doing this day in and day out for generations of undergraduate and postgraduate fine art and media arts students. I also couldn’t imagine doing this without over a decade’s experience running our annual Orpheus Island residential workshop. And I certainly couldn’t imagine doing this without the incredible talent and support of our co-presenters, tutors, organisers, sponsors and friends who have encouraged me to dedicate a workshop to ‘going to the next level and beyond’. And this is that workshop.

The Cost: AUS $5400

The cost includes share accommodation and all meals at the DRO, all photographic materials, plus coach transport to and from Cairns. The only additional costs are travel to Cairns and possible overnight accommodation in Cairns depending on your flight times and /or other travel arrangements. There is also a small fee if you wish to use the DRO crane to access the rainforest canopy with sweeping views over the Daintree National Park, Mt Sorrow, Cape Tribulation and the Coral Sea.

Private off-site accommodation in a beach house or hotel/resort is available for those not wishing to stay in the DRO’s dormitory style accommodation. Price per off-site room for 7 nights is $1650. For an in-depth account of the workshop, please download our Detailed Overview.

So at Daintree we get time away from the distractions of everyday life, in an unbelievably beautiful and inspiring location, with state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, the latest equipment from our sponsors and incredibly experienced teachers and tutors.

For Bookings click here!

Choosing Your Exposure For Impact

Inner Kaikoura Range, Middlehurst, NZ
Fujifilm X-H2, XF150-600mm f5.6-8 R LM OIS WR, f9 @ 1/80 second, ISO 125.

Automatic cameras are great, but what would they do with a photo like this? The original exposure was 'good' because it retained tone throughout. It held a touch of tone in the highlights and there were some grey tones in the shadows, but in the end, it was a bit of nothing.

As long as you keep an eye on your histogram, chances are all the information you need is in the raw file. In fact, when I'm shooting, I like to think I'm just collecting pixels. It might have been Les Walkling who first talked about this concept with me, I've been thinking this way for so long I can no longer attribute the idea. But once you've captured the pixels, you take the file into Lightroom or Capture One where you make some decisions. Now, I could have used masking to carefully select the three areas - the sky, the snow and the mountain - and ensured all areas contained some detail, but was this what I wanted to show?

What I love about fresh snow is the perfectly smooth surface, the way it blankets the land form below, filling in the gaps and accentuating some bumps. An average exposure was going to kill this image, so I simply darkened it down. Is the foreground too dark? What do you mean by too dark? It is black! I like it black - I don't need tone in every area of every photograph and by having a fully black mountain, I am forcing the viewer to marvel at that fresh snow.

And while we know snow is white, in this photo it's lots of shades of very light grey - and to my eye it makes me happy! There is plenty of detail and the eye is given time to linger. I hope!

Also making me very happy are the two books on Middlehurst we received from Momento Pro last week. Participants in our Middlehurst workshops contribute half a dozen images they took around the property from which we design a beautiful art book. The pages are thick 'album style' and the resulting publication is lavish and impressive!

Of course, while we'd love you to come to Middlehurst, you can also make your own book with Momento Pro. In fact, I have some aerials that need printing given all the air time I've had this year - a Christmas project!

If you'd like access to our Better Photography discount page for Momento Pro, try this link for Australia - momentopro.com.au/eastway - and in New Zealand -  momentopro.co.nz/eastway.  These pages have all the information you need!

Clowns In Bhutan?

Atsara posing for the camera, Bhutan
Fujifilm X-H2, Fujinon XF 56mm f1.2 R, f1.2 @ 1/1800 second, ISO 125

David Oliver says the only clown in Bhutan is me, but I'm used to his poor and ill-founded attempts at humour. However, in some ways he's correct, because the costumed monks you see wandering around the festivals with masks on their heads and large wooden phalluses in their hands are called atsaras, even though they look like clowns!

Buddhism is fascinating in that it can be engaged with at many different levels. The festivals in Bhutan are generally put on for the local people who, in earlier years, would have had limited education. How do the monks instruct them? The dances are one approach, telling stories that they might not be able to read. The atsaras are another approach to teaching, breaking down the deeply spiritual world into a more accessible and profane flavour.  No one is beyond the reach of the atsaras, even the head monks! Wandering around the festival, the atsaras are often making collections for the temple and tapping people on their heads with bright red phalluses. No donation, more taps on the head!

Of course, this is just what we observe when we're there (and yes, I do make donations to the temple). Behind what westerners see as unusual behaviour is a deeply considered approach to communicating the various Buddhist messages.

As with festivals around the world, when everyone is having fun, their guards are down. Photographers these days are very common and nearly everyone in Bhutan has a mobile phone, so taking pictures is commonplace. And while there aren't a lot of western tourists, the monks know that one with a camera is worth cultivating for a generous donation.

At one particular festival just outside Bumthang, access to the changing courtyard behind the festival quadrangle is allowed. At many festivals in the dzongs (fortified monasteries), the monks are getting changed inside where photographers are not welcome, but this courtyard is large enough to entertain a few extra visitors and so it was just a matter of sitting in the corner and wandering out when things looked interesting. I spent three or four hours there and found it far more interesting than the actual dances and presentations themselves.

While it's hard to tell when they are in costume, all the dancers and atsaras are young men and they're having fun. For this photo, a group of them were having a chat as I walked up. My subject happily looked directly at me and you can see his mate give me the victory sign (I am hoping) in the background. A little post-production has added in suitable extra atmosphere - but the costumes and masks are the real deal.

What Are Our Workshops Like? Check Out These Videos!

Svalbard - Ten Perfect Days
Svalbard - Ten Perfect Days
Narooma NSW
Narooma NSW
What's It Really Like In Antarctica?
What's It Really Like In Antarctica?
What's It Like In Bhutan?
What's It Like In Bhutan?
Photos from Middlehurst Workshops
Photos from Middlehurst Workshops
Late Season Antarctica
Late Season Antarctica
Bolivia
Bolivia
Bhutan - Myth
Bhutan - Myth
Peter and Tony Talk Middlehurst
Peter and Tony Talk Middlehurst
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Svalbard - Ten Perfect Days
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Narooma NSW
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What's It Really Like In Antarctica?
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What's It Like In Bhutan?
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Photos from Middlehurst Workshops
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Late Season Antarctica
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Bolivia
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Bhutan - Myth
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Peter and Tony Talk Middlehurst
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