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• Featured Participant/Volunteer Images
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Featured Participant/Volunteer Images
Denali and the Grizzlies of Hallo Bay Workshop
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Featured Partner
Arizona Highways magazine
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The November issue of Arizona Highways features Diners & Drive-Ins.
Arizona Highways Photo Workshops is proud to partner with the magazine again this year to present the Second Annual Arizona Highways Online Photo Contest. The Grand Prize is an Arizona-based Photo Workshop.
For more information and to enter the contest, visit arizonahighways.com.
Would your organization consider being a partner? Please call us toll free at 1.888.790.7042.
What Our Participants Say About...
Slot Canyons Workshop
with LeRoy DeJolie, September 2009
“Highly recommended for photographers of all skill levels. Learning from a professional at spectacular locations just can’t be beat. I had a blast!”
— Susan Anderson
“Full of activities from start to finish.”
— Alan Meehan
“This was an outstanding workshop with a knowledgeable, informative instructor and skilled and extremely helpful trip leaders. All participants were impressed, learned new skills and came away happy.”
— Louis Glass
“This workshop absolutely exceeded my expectations.”
— Mike Ferrell
“This workshop far exceeded my expectations. The genuine interest the expert photographer to each participant on an individual basis was much appreciated.”
— John Gallagher
“Awesome! The organization was perfect, the teaching superb, and the scenery inspiring. Another photo around every corner or as the light changed. Yes, I would recommend this workshop to my photography friends.”
— Lois Settlemeyer
“Learned more in one day than in all my other workshops combined. The thing I learned that I will remember always is the Navajo word for DeJolie is Histogram.”
— David Potts
Fall Color of the Grand Tetons
with Henry Holdsworth, September 2009
“During our Fall Colors Tetons workshop, Henry Holdsworth would not be deterred by the three forest fires that were burning in Jackson Hole. He worked around them and used them to help us create unusual and beautiful images. Kudos Henry!”
— Herb Fixler
“Dedicated, focused people coming together to preserve the goal of great photographic images.”
— Frank McQuade
Arches of the Southwest
with Chuck Lawsen, October 2009
“This workshop was everything I hoped it would be. Chuck Lawsen is a great photographer and teacher and Suzanne Mathia was very organized and a great photographer also.”
— Gene Burch
“This was a wonderful experience that I could not have done on my own. We were guided to the best spots at the best times.”
— Robert H. Diefenbacher
“Both the photographer and trip leader took care of all our needs, allowing us to take great pictures.”
— Mike Meyer
The Phoenix Zoo Workshop
with Dick George, October 2009
“Incredible experience! I noticed an immediate improvement in just a few hours.”
— Ruth Mower
Visit our Calendar page for a complete list of 2010 workshops.
Request a Brochure
For a free printed color brochure or to have one sent to a friend, visit our Web site to fill out a mailing form. Our brochure is published annually. Please visit our Web site for the most current information available about each workshop.
Download a PDF brochure...
(File size: 4.2 MB. Copyrighted material for reference only. All rights reserved. Cover photo © Suzanne Mathia.)
Use our online registration site!
For your convenience, we now offer a secure way to register for and purchase workhop spaces online.
- Clicking the registration button for any 3 Or More Day Workshop will direct you to a page where you must first select a deposit amount before continuing the registration and checkout process.
- For Shorter Workshops not requiring a deposit, clicking the registration button will add the desired quantity directly to your cart to begin the registration process.
Please contact us with your feedback about the registration site or if you experience any technical problems.
Featured Workshops: Our 2010 Calendar is Now Available!
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Death Valley
with Kerrick James
March 1-6, 2010; Cost $2,195
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Death Valley is alive with photographic potential, and few locales on the globe can rival its diverse, serene and wondrous landscape. While perhaps most often conjured are the area's pristine and gently rolling sand dunes in early morning light, this is also a land of colorfully striated canyons and salt flats which sit at the feet of gigantic, snow-capped mountains.
On this six-day trip, Kerrick James will share his favorite locations: From the fantastically eroded forms of Zabriskie Point to wind-sculpted dunes and salt flats of Death Valley, and then to arches of granite in the Alabama Hills, towers of tufa, and views of the snow-clad Sierras from Owens Valley and Mono Lake. Stops at Bodie and Rhyolite are also planned.
Join Kerrick to experience this realm of startling contrasts! Register now to reserve your space.
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Portraits of Tombstone
with J. Peter Mortimer
and Steve Burger
March
15-18, 2010; Cost: $1,295
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Come with us as we perfect the available-light environmental portrait in the “town too tough to die,” Tombstone, Arizona. During this unique workshop, each day will be spent with award-winning portrait photographer J. Peter Mortimer and Photoshop expert Steve Burger. Prearranged and spontaneous portrait opportunities will precede hands-on Photoshop sessions where images will be corrected and made technically accurate to your creative vision.
Wild West backdrops including the original Bird Cage Theatre and the O.K. Corral will lend authenticity to your classic portraits of local “period personalities” and townspeople. Radiant window light in the historic saloons offers a mood that you will learn to capture. We’ll work on the interactive challenges of photographing people, and also how to take control of “found” situations.
Don't miss out on this chance to capture classic Old West images! Register now!
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Slot Canyons (Spring)
with Jerry Sieve
April 24-28, 2010; Cost: $1,950
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Arizona’s Slot Canyons are on every photographers “must see” list. Carved by wind and water through layers of sandstone, the remnants of ancient ocean floors form what are known as slot canyons, where unexpected beams of light and fanciful whorls of color give us the opportunity to make striking and memorable photographs.
Be there at the time of day when its walls glow in vibrant purples, reds, oranges and yellows. The Slot stretches through a series of small chambers, large amphitheaters and precipitous drops, where every turn of the canyon offers new and exciting arches and keyhole formations scenes to photograph.
The area around Lake Powell also offers remarkable opportunities. The breathtaking view from the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, the Vermilion Cliffs, the Paria Bluffs and the "hoodoos" are a photographic treat!
Register now to immerse youself in this inspirational environment!
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Shorter Workshops: New & Exciting Additions for 2010!
Winterscapes at the Grand Canyon
with Peter Ensenberger
January 16-18; Cost: $625
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Come along as we experience Grand Canyon National Park in the off-season. Winter is the perfect season to catch the Canyon at its dramatic best. The cool, crisp air provides crystalline light, perfect for photography. Shorter daylight hours means no early wake-up calls to be in position for sunrise shooting, but the lower angle of the sun provides longer hours of the sweet light that photographers crave.
And, if we’re lucky, Mother Nature will bless us with a mantle of new-fallen snow while we’re there. We’ll also have opportunities to photograph the national park’s menagerie of wildlife. We may get up close and personal with the tourist-friendly deer, squirrels along the rim and the precocious scrub jays. This time of year, there’s even the chance for encounters with reclusive desert bighorn sheep and California condors.
Register now for your chance to experience the beauty of the Grand Canyon in winter!
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Watson Lake
with Colleen Miniuk-Sperry
January 30-31, 2010; Cost: $380
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Join photographer Colleen Miniuk-Sperry on an exciting weekend workshop, as she guides you around the sparkling blue waters and impressive jumbled granite rocks of Watson Lake near Prescott, Arizona. The rounded rocks cast magnificent reflections into the still waters of the lake, and catch fire with an unearthly glow at sunrise and sunset, making for some incredibly picturesque scenes. Colleen will reveal her favorite locations around Watson Lake and the Granite Dells during this two-day workshop, teaching you special tips and techniques for capturing stunning nature photographs.
Join us for a chance to capture dramatic compositions of this unique landscape! Register now.
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Making Money with Your Camera
with J. Peter Mortimer
December 5, 2009; Cost $85
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Photography is expensive, so why not let your camera pay its way? Former Arizona Highways picture editor J. Peter Mortimer can tell you how. Peter has been buying and selling photographs for over 25 years. In addition to having over 300 pictures published in Arizona Highways, he's shot everything from weddings and family portraits to news assignments for publications like Time, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.
Register now to put your creative ideas to work!
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Photography Made Simple (Field Session)
with J. Peter Mortimer
December 11-12, 2009; Cost: $135
Find out more about this workshop and view itinerary...
Take creative control of your photography by learning how to make your camera do what you want it to do. This workshop combines the best of both worlds: a condensed but informative class in the fundamentals of photography, and the opportunity to go into the field to use your newly-acquired skills.
After this one session, you'll see improvement in your pictures, and your camera manual will actually make sense! Register now!
Photography Tip
Excerpted from
Arizona Highways Photography Guide: How & Where to Make Great Photographs
 Place and Wait: The photographer placed a feeder close to this flower and waited for a hummingbird to visit. Shooting with a 600mm lens and an extension tube allowed the photographer to shoot from 15 feet away. The image was made at f/11, allowing both the flower and hummingbird to remain in focus. |
Photographing Wildlife: Practicing Patience
by Tom Vezo
Birds and Flight
Photographing birds in flight is challenging, and so much fun that it can be addictive. A great place to hone your skills is Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley and White Water Draw in Sulphur Springs Valley near Willcox, Arizona. Thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese winter in these two areas, and the shooting is fast and furious.
In both places I use a variety of lenses. If I want to capture flying birds up close and personal, I use my 600mm with and without the 1.4x teleconverter. I like to use my Wimberley tripod head because it gives me greater control and more precise movement. With the light behind me, I watch the flocks as they fly by, trying to pick out one or two birds long before they get to my parallel position. Then I lock my autofocus onto them. This gives me the opportunity to position them for good composition before they get to the point where I’m ready to press the shutter. I track them in my viewfinder and as soon as I like what I see, I press and hold the shutter for bursts of three or four frames per second. This gives me multiple chances of getting their wings in the “up” position, which I like best. I can’t react fast enough to get my preferred composition if I shoot only one frame at a time.
If I’m using film, I use Fuji Provia (ISO 100) pushed one stop to ISO 200. If I’m shooting digital, I set my ISO at 320 or 400. These settings allow me the fast shutter speeds I need to stop wing movement and make them appear sharp. Some photographers use ISOs over 400, but I think image quality starts to erode in that zone.
Exploring Arizona’s environments to photograph wildlife is an amazing hobby, a hunt with a camera that can take you to wonderful places and preserve spectacular memories through the images you capture. There is still so much we don’t know about the lives of these wonderful animals, which is what keeps me going back to maybe document behavior that has never been seen before. But even if I don’t get the shots I dream of, just being out there teaches me more and deepens my respect, appreciation, and sense of wonder.
For more photography tips and ideas, order your copy of Arizona Highways Photography Guide: How & Where to make Great Photographs at arizonahighways.com.
© 2009 Friends of Arizona Highways Magazine Foundation. All rights reserved.
All images copyrighted by photographer. Copy or transfer of any image without permission is strictly prohibited.