Cortona Center of Photography Workshop Schedule - Tuscany, Italy
Course Description

The Cortona Center of Photography’s seven day Italy workshops are designed to stimulate creative thinking while expanding technical knowledge for beginners, amateurs, and professional photographers. The program is also designed so that students enjoy their time with us, explore the surrounding countryside, the nearby hill towns, and visit some of the Art of Italy.

To achieve the necessarily flexible program structure the instructor works with each student one on one, setting practical, achievable, but progressive goals based on the individual student’s level of proficiency and aesthetic direction.

Thus the novice will benefit from inclusion with advanced participants while the more expert student is able to go forward at his or her own pace.

Course Structure

The Cortona Center of Photography Workshop is a combination of lectures, demonstrations, critiques, group field trips, and individual field work, all in a relaxed and fun filled, supportive small group environment.

While our instructors are professional, working photographers who can explain the nuances of your equipment, in-camera and post processing techniques, and methods for achieving proper exposure, the course is based on creative exploration and investigation, leading you to your own personal development as a photographer.

Photographic Intent & Instruction

The intent of the workshop is to involve each participant in the creative process by advancing visual concepts and technical skills in a balance that will enable self expression. You will be encouraged to find a personal way of working and exploring our uniquely diverse subject matter, the dramatic landscape, Etruscan relics, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance architecture, and the wonderful and photogenic people of Tuscany.

To achieve this we will help you attain a mental integration of camera mechanics, focus, depth of field, establishing correct exposure, etc., paired with the aesthetic elements of image making such as composition, light, value, mass, and scale. This done self expression becomes possible and the challenging philosophies of image making may be better understood and put to personal use, as you create your own unique visual language.

Our Goal
Is that the student’s realization of a personal method of working and self expression within the creative process will provide a long term motive to produce original, inspired photography and thus pursue mastery.
Day Schedule

Since our historic and beautiful location offers us a wide variety of subjects and events, a weather flexible schedule is planned each day. We also visit other nearby Hilltowns and countryside views.

While we work primarily in and around Cortona, one of Tuscany’s most spectacular locations, the program also provides several field trips to nearby cities such as Montepulciano. Depending on the season, we may photograph a winery, the grape harvest, olive pickers, street scenes in Orvieto or the dramatic rolling landscape beyond Pienza.

2014 Photography Workshop Dinner in Cortona, Italy - Tuscany

A Photography Workshop Dinner
in Cortona, Italy – Tuscany

An example of a day’s schedule in Cortona is: students make photographs in early morning light; breakfast together and discuss the day; visit Cortona’s fortress Medici or the monastery le Celle. View work for our daily critique; lunch and break; an afternoon demo by a teacher or work, sometimes on your own, in or around Cortona until sunset; scheduled one-on-one sessions with your instructor; dinner together in a favorite local restaurant; end of day evening stroll with the locals. The critique is often changed to the afternoon in order to demo or make photographs together immediately after breakfast, or to accommodate the best atmospheric conditions or in town events. As you will want to take advantage of the daylight hours, classroom time is kept to a minimum by working together on location. On field trip days, we make photographs all day; skip the day’s critique doubling up the next day.

By designating our time, your instructor will be available for individual sessions to address aesthetic or technical concerns, conduct personal demonstrations in the field, or provide guidance and encouragement on an individual basis.

Excluding field trip days, we will review student work everyday and discuss related subjects. We will, for example, discuss light metering techniques as they relate to  exposure and in-camera control for dramatic effects. These sessions will help you attain a mental integration of camera mechanics like focus and establishing a correct exposure, with the creative elements of image making such as composition, light, value, mass, and scale.

In our small group, emphasis on individual instruction will resolve technical problems and aesthetic questions enabling you to find a personal way to work within and concentrate on the creative process.

We do not offer a discount rate for non-photographer traveling companions, but we do invite others to join this experience and have enjoyed having our friends, spouses, fellow artists, painters, poets and writers accompany us on our adventures as a full participant.

Refund Policy

Should you need to cancel, notify us 45 days prior to the start of the Italy Photography Workshop and we will refund your tuition less $300.00 cancellation fee. If Cortona Center of Photography must cancel a workshop, tuition will be returned in full. We are not responsible for non-refundable airline tickets or forfeited hotel deposits. Trip insurance is recommended.

How To Sign Up

To reserve your place in the Italy Photography Workshop, payment of full tuition is required. Payment should be made with a personal or bank check, or via wire transfer. Use the button below to contact us through the online form or give Robin a call at (404) 876 6341 (USA Eastern Standard Time).

USA Photography Workshops

The Third Eye Photo

Photographic Adventures & Workshops

Here's what our wonderful students have to say about us!

© 1999-2017 Cortona Center of Photography, all rights reserved.
Website design by Robin Davis
Privacy Policy