People sign up for photography workshops for different reasons. Some want to learn their camera settings properly. Some want access to locations they couldn’t find on their own. Some have the technical knowledge but want to develop their eye. A few just want an excuse to be in the Tasmanian wilderness with someone who knows it well.
All of those are good reasons. Here’s what a workshop with me actually looks like.
Small groups, real locations
I run workshops through Tasmanian Photography Tours with a maximum of six participants. That’s not a marketing point – it’s a practical limit. More than six people and you can’t give everyone meaningful attention, you can’t move quietly through the landscape, and you end up with a tour rather than a workshop.
The locations are real. We go where the photography actually is, which means pre-dawn starts, weather that doesn’t always cooperate, and terrain that requires some effort. Tasmania’s best light doesn’t happen in the car park.
What we cover
Every workshop is different because every group is different. But the core of what I teach comes down to a few things that matter more than anything else.
Seeing before shooting. Most people raise the camera too quickly. The best shots come from spending time with a subject – walking around it, observing how the light falls, noticing what’s in the foreground and background, waiting for the right moment. We spend a lot of time not shooting, and that’s intentional.
Understanding light. Camera settings matter less than most people think. Light matters more than almost anything else. Learning to read light – to understand when it’s worth shooting and when it isn’t, what direction it’s coming from, how it’s going to change – is the single biggest improvement most photographers can make.
Camera settings that serve the image. I’ll make sure you understand aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and how they interact. But we cover this in the field while making actual images, not in a classroom with a PowerPoint presentation.
Composition. Not rules – principles. There’s a difference. Rules tell you what to do. Principles help you understand why something works, which means you can break the rules when breaking them makes a better image.
What a typical day looks like
We meet before dawn at a pre-arranged location. This is non-negotiable – the best landscape light is in the first and last hour of the day, and missing it to sleep in is missing the point of being in Tasmania.
The first session runs through sunrise. We work the location – different compositions, different focal lengths, responding to how the light changes. I’ll be alongside each person in the group, looking at what they’re seeing and offering specific feedback rather than general advice.
After sunrise we debrief over breakfast – reviewing images, talking through what worked and what didn’t, answering questions that came up during the shoot. This is often the most useful part of the day.
The afternoon session depends on the workshop. Some workshops include a second location. Macro or fungi workshops spend the afternoon on the forest floor. Astrophotography workshops rest in the afternoon and work from dusk through to midnight.
Who it’s for
Anyone who is serious about improving their photography. That includes complete beginners with a new camera they don’t fully understand, intermediate photographers who have hit a plateau, and experienced photographers who want to shoot locations they haven’t been to before.
It’s not for people who want to take the same shot everyone else takes. If you want the classic Wineglass Bay lookout shot from the car park, you don’t need a workshop for that. If you want to find the frame nobody else found, that’s what we work on.
Current workshops
I run several different workshops through the year, timed to the seasons that make Tasmania extraordinary:
- Fungi and Fagus at Mount Field – April/May, timed to peak autumn colour and fungi season simultaneously
- Astrophotography and Aurora – autumn and winter, when the nights are longest and aurora activity is highest
- Tasmanian Wilderness – multi-day workshops in the southwest and alpine zones
- Macro and Forest Floor – focused on close-up photography in Tasmania’s rainforests
Current availability and bookings are through Tasmanian Photography Tours. Places are limited and the seasonal workshops fill quickly.
Images from workshop locations are available in the Galleries. Fine art prints available through the store.