Escape the blustery winter months for a time and join myself and Gavriel Jecan for an intimate and exotic tour to Myanmar this December! From visiting the still-standing colonial downtown of Yangon, to a hot air balloon tour over historical Bagan, this tour of an exotic location is the opportunity of a lifetime for those seeking adventure in a unique and infrequently visited location. Myanmar is a location lost in time, and this is an exciting opportunity to witness the evolution of a country.
Time is running out to sign up for the few spots remaining for this small scale tour! Sign up now, and leave those wintry December blues behind and travel with me in search of sunshine and adventure in the east!
This past week I made my way to Africa and my first stop was Mount Nyirangongo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The flight up the side of the volcano was hair-raising, with high winds jostling our rise to the mountain top as well as clouds that significantly hampered visibility. Our pilot had never made this trip before. Thankfully, he was an obvious professional, as we made it safely through the precarious trip.
The top of the mountain was chillier than anticipated at an elevation of 11,380 feet regardless of the roiling lava-filled caldera below us. I got the shots I wanted, with fortuitous timing as a vent began spewing lava just before dark and ran its course about the time we settled in to sleep.
I now head back to Tanzania for the second time in recent months, this time to visit Katavi National Park. Stay tuned for more photos from the next leg of my trip! I love the adventure of these exotic locales, but I’m also looking forward to being state-side and seeing those of you who’ve signed up for my Photography As Art seminars in L.A., Denver, New York, and Indianapolis in the coming month or so! Each trip I take brings a new wrinkle of discussions to add to my presentations, and there is still time to sign up for the remaining 2016 dates.
There are also still spots available in my Mystical Myanmar workshop in December for those of you anxious to avoid yet another cold winter in the states. Trade in some of those dark wintry days for the exotic allure and warm weather of eastern Asia!
Our helicopter pilot perches precariously on the edge of Nyirangongo crater, balancing the craft with the skids only half on solid ground.
The National Park Service turns 100 today, and everyone can take part in the celebration! The centennial will kick off a second century of stewardship of America’s national parks and engaging communities through recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs.
The National Park Service will be offering free admission to all 412 National Parks for their birthday weekend,Thursday August 25th through Sunday the 28th!
Find your park and discover the parks and programs in your own backyard!
A few spots still remain for our Palouse workshop coming up August 25th through the 28th! Capture the rolling landscapes and the old-world feel of this beautiful location. Wheat-topped hills and sporadic old barns compose a landscape seemingly frozen in time. The purity of the landscape, untouched by the modern irrigation systems that generally detract from otherwise beautiful farmland vistas, will allow you to capture truly unique images you won’t find anywhere else.
Visit the events page for more information, and to sign up for this visit to the Palouse!
Oregon is home to one of the most scenic and beautiful coastlines in America. Two spots remain to travel with Art, where you will not only explore the location but also your creativity as he describes new ways to visualize and compose your images from a conceptual perspective that will make your captures unique and personal. On top of experiencing this stunning locale, you will take away techniques that will enhance and personalize your photographic endeavors to come.
I started doing workshops in Glacier Bay back in the 1980s and this remains one of my favorite trips of the year. The small boat experience in the midst of a wilderness wonderland cannot be beaten. We saw more orcas than I have in a long time and I even added a new species to my list, the endangered marbled murrelet.
If you are interested in taking workshops & want first notification when they are posted, please sign up for my newsletter.
My recent trip to Tanzania included a visit to Lake Natron, where I hoped to capture the colonies of lesser and greater flamingos who rely on the area as one of its few consistent breeding grounds in East Africa. As you’ll see from the slide show, our subjects did not disappoint! The salt water lake is home to organisms that manage to thrive in the high salinity and ultimately give the water the rich and varied hues, providing a beautiful backdrop for our shoot.
Pelicans and other birds also made an appearance, and zebras kicked up dust as they traveled through the same region. As mentioned in my previous post – this trip was short but satisfyingly productive and well worth the aggressive travel schedule. I feel this is my strongest work yet in this region, and I hope you enjoy these images!
I have just returned from a short, but very productive, trip to Tanzania. First up: photos from Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest inactive caldera covering an area of 100 square miles. The crater is a highly productive grassland, home to thousands of large animals, including wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, rhinos, lions, servals, and hyenas.
1) Check the Olympic National Park off your bucket list. Do you have a National Parks passport? Maybe it’s time to get one and start visiting the sites of “America’s Best Idea.” The park system is marking its 100th anniversary this year.
2) Check a workshop with Art Wolfe off your bucket list. A UNESCO world heritage site combined with a world renowned photographer, who also happens to be a great teacher and inspiration? Check!
3) The trees. The temperate rainforest has a living standing biomass which may be the highest anywhere in the world. And it is stunningly gorgeous.
4) The coast. The rocky headlands, beaches, tidepools nurturing a living rainbow of colors and textures, offshore sea stacks of the park’s 73-mile wilderness coastline is a rare treasure.
5) Assistants. I am accompanied by terrific assistants to assure that your photographic experience is as rich as your surroundings. The Quinault retreat is manned by my workshop coordinator Libby as well as two experts in Leica cameras, who will have equipment on hand for you to use; Libby, Bill, Yuri, and Anthony will be working the Olympic Peninsula workshop.
6) Friendship. I don’t know how many friendships have formed as a result of these workshops in particular.
7) Vampires. They’re sexy.
8) Water. Water defines Olympic National Park. There’s a reason why the trees are massive and the moss lush; why the rivers are highways of life; why the glaciers are there to sculpt the massive peaks.
9) Wildlife. We may get lucky and see the huge Roosevelt elk that make the Olympics home.
10) Adventuresome learning. I work hard to make sure everyone comes away from these multiday workshops feeling better about and more enriched by their photography skills.
