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.

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.

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.

Since our historic and beautiful location offers us a wide variety of subjects and events, a weather flexible schedule is planned for each day. We also offer two field trip days, traveling to 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 Siena, Orvieto, or 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.

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.