The Trip

Join us on a twelve-day Southwest Photography workshop, a  wonder filled trek through the visual wonderlands of southern Utah and northern Arizona. We'll visit Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Betatakin (optional), Monument Valley and end up at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The trip is designed to be a complete immersion in landscape photography and its digital evolution with the pioneer in digital landscape photography.

Both at Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly we will be taking back country tours into Navajo Country to see these magnificent places from a very special perspective. These day long tours are contracted with local guides and 4 wheel drive excursion vehicles. The tours will move at our pace, a photgraphic pace, that gives you time to really look, appreciate and work with the landscape, your camera, and Steve.

From the 2003 Workshop:
Our photography workshop to the American Southwest was enlightening, intense, fun, exhausting, incredibly rewarding and resulted in some fine photographs. The workshop itinerary was an overview of the Southwest’s wonders. The workshop was an innovative and deep photographic learning experience.

"An experience of a lifetime!"

"Superb!"

Previous Workshop PDF

The Workshop

This digital landscape workshop explores these national parks with the new tools of digital photography, including on-site visualization, and technical evaluation. Lectures will include digital exposure, composition, visual distillation, archiving, color management and fine-art printing. We will discuss technical and aesthetic issues, tapping into your emotional response to this landscape, working toward images that are uniquely your own. The emphasis will be improving the composition and technical finesse of the participants, empowering the individual photographers to better pursue their vision, from image-making to print-making. We will hold group critique sessions many evenings, using a digital projector to display selections of the day's work.

Likely Route pdf

Details
Lodging is not provided by the fee, but is arranged and reserved along the way. We have made group discounted reservations at selected motels which we will send on enrollment. Typical mtoel rate is about $110 per night. Camping is also available at most sites. Meals are sometimes together, sometimes on your own. Details and a trip guidebook will be sent after enrollment.

We will rendezvous in Springdale, Utah at 9m September 7 and wind up around 3pm on September 18 in Chinle Arizona..

A full agenda is planned for this workshop, including dawn and dusk sessions. We will be doing a fair amount of walking in the canyons and on trails.

Arches NPS Website
Betatakin NPS Website
Canyonlands NPS Website
Bryce Canyon NPS Website
Zion NPS Website
Canyon de Chelly NPS Website
Capitol Reef NPS Website

The Workshop Program

Individual problem solving has been a high priority in this workshop program all through its 25 year history. Classes are kept small to maximize individual attention. Plan to bring some of your work to demonstrate how you see, what you are happy with, and photographs that indicate problems you are encountering. Some digital cameras will be available to experiment with during the workshop.

Participants are responsible for their own transportation, food, lodging and park entry fees. Carpools can be arranged. We will take care of the Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly tour costs. Suggested places to stay for both camping and motels will be provided. Limited to 12 students.

Photo by Fiona McDonnell

Stephen Johnson

Current projects include With a New Eye, his groundbreaking and historic all digital national parks project, a new book Stephen Johnson On Digital Photography for O'Reilly, ongoing portfolio development and extensive lecturing.

His photographic clients have included the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Friends of Photography. Johnson's photographs have been widely published and collected internationally.

Apple Computer recognized Steve in 1997 with a ColorSync Profiling Excellence Award along with his good friend Bruce Fraser. In 1999, Folio Magazine declared the publication of Johnson's digital photographs in Life Magazine to be one of the Top 15 Critical Events in magazine publishing in the twentieth century. Stephen Johnson was named as a 2003 inductee into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, recognized for his achievements in Art. Canon named Steve as one of their Explorers of Light in 2006. In 2007 X-Rite named Stephen as a founding member of their exclusive Coloratti group of photographers and educators honored for their skills in color management.

In 1997, Life Magazine described Stephen Johnson as an artist that "...applies science to nature and creates art." His images create "...an intimacy that brings subject and viewer close in ways conventional photographs cannot." 

The Photographer’s Gallery wrote in 1998: “Stephen Johnson's photography rides on the "bleeding edge" of photography's transition to a digital media. Schooled in the traditions of fine-art western landscape photography, Johnson has taken his understanding of traditional photographic processes and brought those skills to bear on the emerging technologies and aesthetics of digital photography. He has pushed technology companies to rise to the best of what imagemaking can be, and pushed his own vision of how we see and record light in the natural world. This has led him to conclude that the way we have traditionally captured images with silver-based photography has been a poor and distortive view of the real and rich world before our eyes. His photographs look almost "unphotographic" in their clarity and purity of color. He shows us a world we know, but rarely see on paper. His is a truly remarkable vision.”

To Register
Registration fee must be paid in full (or you may arrange by credit card for 50% payment on registration, 50% in 30 days) to secure a spot in the class. Additional information will be sent upon registration.


To Register by credit card or check, call 650 355-7507

Refunds and Cancellation (note changes)

This workshop is financially dependent on adequate class registration. Where minimum enrollment requirements are not met, the class will be canceled, and a full refund given. You will be notified at least one week in advance if a workshop is not going to take place. Student initiated cancellations received prior to one month before the workshop will receive credit for a future workshop of similar value, a 50% credit will be given for notice received at least 2 weeks immediately prior to the workshop (a full credit less a $50 overhead fee will be given if another student is able to fill the spot from a waiting list). No credit will be given if cancelled less than 2 weeks prior to the workshop. Credits need to be redeemed within one year.