In the book The Living Wild, Art wrote, “After all, an animal without habitat is simply a curiosity biding time to its extinction. But an animal with its habitat is a vibrant representation of natural selection.” It is within this book that Art highlights the environment and the wildlife in a symbiotic relationship and travels beyond the more common seen portrait of wildlife. There are many places throughout the world that highlight this type of diversity, but Americans need to travel no farther than the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. With the reintroduction of wolves in the 90s’, this 11 million acre reserve of land has become one of the most intact temperate ecosystems on the planet. If you count the bird, mammal, fish, insect, amphibian, plant and reptile species, you walk away with thousands of potential photography subjects. Due to the stunningly beautiful land surrounding the creatures, this place offers the opportunity to capture imagery very similar to the visions Art has created in The Living Wild. Moose, bear, antelope, elk and countless others can be composed with the backdrop of the Tetons at sunrise and sunset. If you are wondering how, now is your chance to learn.
Visit Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming the first weekend in October with Art Wolfe and Gavriel Jecan for a four-day workshop being held in the heart of one of America’s most scenic locations.
I can agree with my fellow traveler Mark McInnis about our trip to the Katmai National Park area in Alaska “…this trip has been amazing. Just amazing.”
He continues on: “Jerry, Art, Becky and I were shooting aerials yesterday when I spotted a White Wolf. We landed on the beach and Art thought that he [the wolf] had probably left because of the noise. But we snuck around the corner and he was still there just napping on the beach! We started clicking photos, but he heard our cameras and promptly got up to leave. Haha, This next part still just cracks me up. Art started howling. Like a wolf. And the wolf stopped, turned sideways, and looked DIRECTLY at us. And of course his shot is twice what mine is, but it doesn’t matter. That memory will stick with me forever. My jaw might have hit the floor. It was amazing and one of the most memorable and comedic moments of my life. Art is such a legend. I love him to death and have only known him for 4 days. Talk about a gifted, talented and honest human. Really love the guy.”
Recently I spent the most remarkable two weeks with several fellow photographers in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Ranging everywhere on land and in river were the huge coastal brown bears and all the waterways were chock full of spawning sockeye salmon. As a result of last year’s mild winter, there were many sows and cubs feasting on the protein-rich and oily fish.
I am scheduling another trip July 24-29, 2016. Get on the notification list now!
Some of you who get my newsletter may have noticed that I am doing a photo tour to Cuba in March 2016. It filled quickly and I am starting a waiting list for Gavriel Jecan’s tour that is happening right after mine.
Gavriel Jecan is one of my recommended guides. He leads many photography tours and will be visiting all of the same locations and will be utilizing the same Cuban photography guides.
When running a workshop it is critical never to be absolutely locked into a schedule. Before heading up to Mount Rainier last week, we looked at the weather forecast; there was a possibility of rain on the weekend so we changed around our shooting schedule and did our sunrise shoot at Reflection Lake first thing on Friday. Even then we were concerned that the mountain would be concealed by the surrounding mist but we were pleasantly surprised when the fog lifted for a moment and the golden rays of the sun burst through.
Escaping the heat in Seattle, we had a great workshop last weekend with a group in Palouse, Washington. The views from Steptoe and Kamiak Buttes are spectacular and I particularly love the graceful lines created by the rolling hills covered in wheat accentuated by the subtle shadows cast by passing clouds. In the small town of Palouse we were able to work on abstracts, photographing old window screens, glass blocks, and rusted metal.
Three spots remaining for the Palouse Workshop with me, Libby Pfeiffer, and Gavriel Jecan.
Bring your sun hat and join us in the photographic exploration of this wondrous landscape!
Recently I had the opportunity to shoot with with the new 50.6MP 5Ds while I was teaching a workshop in Olympic National Park. The 5Ds offers much more clarity in the shadow and highlight details while maintaining the convenience of its lighter weight body. This a game changer for packing in a camera with this resolution capability to remote locations where gear weight is an issue.
Thousands have been touched by Art Wolfe’s presentations and workshops.
This Father’s Day consider giving Dad a jolt of inspiration and an experience he will never forget, whether it’s a one day seminar or a two week expedition at the ends of the earth. Art offers photographic learning at all levels of expertise and energy.
“I attended your lecture in Chicago…and want you to know that it was one of the most coherent, well organized, and inspiring talks I have ever heard. I am a physician in an academic medical center and lecture often. I try to inspire and add humor to my talks. You achieved these goals in a masterful way. You made learning seem effortless. In addition, your work is absolutely stunning and I would venture to say that you are a contemporary master of the medium.”—David E.
“I attended his lecture on The Art of Composition at the Colorado History Museum last year and I thought it was one of the best presentations I have ever attended. My original expectation was that it would be a technical discussion of how Art captures those magical photographs. It was much, much better than that, a thoughtful discussion of what it means to be an artist who happens to use a camera as his medium for expressing his views about nature and the world we live in.”—Richard N.
All of my Washington State workshops this summer are very nearly full. The Olympic Peninsula and Rainier workshops filled quickly, and there is one spot left on the Lake Quinault photo retreat in May.
If you can’t make that, I urge you to consider the Palouse workshop in July. What’s the Palouse you ask? I call it the Tuscany of the Northwest—a rich agricultural region of undulating wheat fields, bordered on the west by world class viticulture. It is also a classic western American landscape, with tidy farms, small towns, and many opportunities to work on your eye for abstract imagery.
