Photo credit Michel E. Gordon

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is a desert wonderland of immense scale, beauty and power. Its 3.3 million acres, the vast majority of which are roadless wilderness, encompass a staggering array of landscapes, unique geologic formations and colorful vistas. The largest National Park in the contiguous United States, Death Valley is both beautiful to behold and rich in history, mood and mystique. Its towering sand dunes, seasonally snow-capped mountains, warm springs and vast empty valleys offer endless opportunity for exploration and ample subject matter for the creative artist. There’s no place on Earth quite like it.



Internationally acclaimed landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon, has carefully selected some of the park’s most unique locations for this workshop, combining outstanding photography with inspirational, creative, and technical discussions. Michael will work with individual participants to address technical concerns, assist with compositions, and offer inspiration, and will provide a beneficial review and critique session of participant images made during the workshop. This will be an intensive workshop! Expect pre-dawn starts, late finishes, outstanding locations,  and great fun and camaraderie.

Workshop dates
We will meet for orientation in the afternoon of Thursday, March 22, 2012, in Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley. Our first full workshop day is Friday, March 23, and we will conclude in the afternoon on Sunday, March 25, 2012.

Number of participants
Limited to eight only.

Workshop tuition
$695 per person. This fee includes all instruction and location guiding, as well as park entrance fees.

Who is this workshop designed for?
This workshop is designed to accommodate all camera formats and all skill levels. Our goal is to both introduce you to the beauty of Death Valley and to help you advance your photography through creative and personal expression.

Requirements/Prerequisites
Participants must provide their own transportation and camera gear. A recommended gear list will be provided upon registration. Participants should be in good physical condition and should be capable of walking 3+ miles each day. An SUV or other rugged high-clearance vehicle is recommended (we will be driving dirt and gravel roads) and carpooling to our locations within the Park is required and will be orchestrated daily by Michael.

What is Included
  Your workshop fees include instruction and location guiding. Upon receipt of your Deposit, we will send you a trip checklist to assist with preparations. The workshop is provided under a Commercial Use Authorization from Death Valley National Park.

What is Not Included   
Airfare, car rentals, camping gear (if camping), camera gear, and meals are not included, nor are any items of a personal nature. Participants will be required to transport themselves to and from our meeting location at Stovepipe Wells, California (in Death Valley National Park).

Weather & Clothing
Spring can be quite pleasant in Death Valley National Park. While the floor or Death Valley may see daytime temperatures in the mid to high 80’s, higher elevations are 15-20 degrees cooler (such as the famous Racetrack, which this tour will be visiting). Sunny skies are the norm in Death Valley, but rare Spring storms can bring cloud cover and rain. Wind is common in the desert, especially in the spring, and dust storms can suddenly blow up with approaching cold fronts.

Layered clothing is recommended to more easily adapt to the temperature extremes we may encounter. Good outdoor walking shoes are required, and please bring a range of outdoor-worthy clothing that will keep you comfortable in temperatures of low 40’s to mid-80’s. Be sure to bring a good hat with wide brim and lots of sunscreen!

Lodging
Lodging is available at Stovepipe Wells Village or Furnace Creek Ranch (http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/lodging.htm). You may also wish to secure a room for the night of our tour end, depending upon your inbound and outbound travel plans. Camping is available for those who prefer this option.

Travel
Anticipate a 5-6 hour travel time (about 250 miles) to Stovepipe Wells from the greater Los Angeles area.

Meals
You are responsible for all your own meals/snacks during the trip. A recommended food and gear list will be provided to all workshop participants. Due to the remoteness of the Park and lack of standard dining facilities, expect meals on-the-go or eating foods easily prepared in your room. Stovepipe Wells has a small General Store with food, beverages, and gasoline available, and Stovepipe Wells Tollroad Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

If you have any questions about this tour, please contact Michael Gordon by email – info@michael-gordon.com – or telephone (562) 201-0856.

To Enroll
Please click HERE. You may choose to pay in full – $695 – or hold your space with a $50 deposit. (Balance is due one month prior to the start date.)

Photo credit Lorne Resnick

August 15-19, 2012

Monument Valley provides perhaps the most enduring and definitive images of the American West. The isolated red mesas, red rock buttes and spires rising hundreds of feet into a boundless blue sky surrounded by empty, sandy desert have been filmed and photographed countless times over the years. The landscape appears just as it does in the countless movies, photographs and television commercials. As a result, Monument Valley has become an icon of the Old West.

It’s no wonder that the valley is one of the West’s most photographed natural wonders. This land of red sandstone can take a visitor’s – and moviegoer’s – breath away. The towers, with names like the West Mitten, Gray Whiskers, Elephant and Three Sisters, drew the attention of director John Ford, who featured them in the several John Wayne westerns. They also have played a part in the more recent movies, including Forrest Gump.

Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon are small but exquisitely beautiful geological formations in Northern Arizona. The sandstone bedrock has been intricately carved by the infrequent but often violent flow of water. It is sculpted into beautiful undulating curves and hollows that vary from one to three meters wide by up to fifty meters deep. The sunlight filtering down from above produces a myriad of soft colors and shadows. The effect is exquisitely beautiful.

Participants arrive in Page, Arizona in the morning (or previous evening). We will begin after lunch with the first group meeting and workshop orientation, detailing the shooting locations. We then depart to head to our first location, Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River, for a late afternoon/sunset shoot. From the parking lot there is a 1/2 mile hike to the edge of the 1,000 feet cliffs that form Horseshoe Bend.

After an early breakfast we will head off to photograph both Lower and Upper Antelope Canyon. We will spend several hours in each canyon and then spend the night in Page.

On day 3 we head out for the two hour drive to Monument Valley, a Navajo National Park where we will spend the rest of the trip shooting. Throughout our time in Monument Valley we will be using Navajo guides. A visit in the company of a Navajo guide offers great flexibility and allows us to go to restricted areas in the Valley that we could not visit on our own. A guided tour will take us around Thunderbird Mesa, the mesa just south of Rain God Mesa. This will allow us to see various arches and get very close to the Totem and Yei-bi-chei, so we can photograph them with the dunes in the foreground. This is otherwise impossible from the scenic turnoffs of Totem Pole and Sand Springs where the dunes are almost invisible. Our guide can also take us behind Mitten and Merrick Buttes allowing us to vary the angles and lighting effects.

Some of the other potential sites that we will see in the Valley include John Ford’s Point, which offers an excellent view of the Three Sisters group. The scenic turnoffs of Totem Pole and Sand Springs lead to two remarkable views of the Totem, Yei-bi-chei and the dunes. Artist’s Point has a fantastic panorama of the Valley. Finally, the stop at North Windows offers a superb view of the Mittens that you can frame in the “window” that opens in front of you.

Our final day begins with another sunrise shoot of the Valley, breakfast and then portfolio reviews. The workshop will conclude after a farewell lunch, after which we will head back towards Page to depart for home.

Option: Dependant on availability and weather conditions, we will also have the option of taking part in a hot air balloon flight from the Valley floor. This is truly a spectacular experience. The cost of the flight is $395 per person. We can fly on Day 4, Saturday and/or day 5 Sunday. Twelve people, the entire workshop, can fit into the balloon at one time. Balloons fly when the sun first hits the earth in the early morning. That is when the winds are the calmest. We meet before sunrise and travel into the Valley. Your time in the air is approximately one hour and you need to allow about three hours for the entire adventure.

Tour highlights:
• Round-trip transportation from the Holiday Inn in Kayenta, Arizona, Gouldings Lodge in Utah, or The View Hotel in Monument Valley
• A Navajo guide who will explain the legends, history, and way of life of the Navajo people
• Several stops while enroute to our launch site to capture some of the most incredible photography during the early morning twilight
• Inflation of the balloon (which is spectacular in itself!)
• Approximate one-hour balloon flight
• Continental post-flight breakfast at the landing site

Tour Leader/Instructor: Lorne Resnick (pictured below with elephant!)

Lorne Resnick

To receive complete pricing information and itinerary please fill out the form below and a representative will contact you.

Photo credit Martin Herrera

2012

Information to come!

Greek theaters, family vineyards and farms, culture, small towns and villages, churches, cemeteries, castles, Greek Mythology, Roman ruins, food, wine and family.

5 world heritage sites:  Noto, Siracusa, Aeolian Islands, Piazza Armerina, and Agrigento. (availability may be affected due to weather or restorations)

Explore Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe.

Attend Festa Di Sant Agata.  (The August Sant Agata festival is considerably smaller than the February festival, but equally moving.)

Includes most meals, admission fees to parks and/or museums visited by group on tour, lodging and transportation in Catania Sicily.

Detailed itinerary made available upon request.

Spaces are limited

Tour Leader/Instructor: Astor Morgan (pictured below)

To receive complete pricing information and itinerary please fill out the form below and a representative will contact you.

Photo credit Lorne Resnick

March 20-31, 2012 (Havana & Trinidad) 12 Days

May 6-13, 2012 (Havana) 7 Days

July 20-August 1, 2012 (Santiago de Cuba & Havana) 13 Days

December 10-21, 2012 (Havana & Trinidad) 12 Days

Defying all logic, the world’s 105th-largest country is also one of its most instantly recognizable. Think psychedelic Che Guevara murals and antediluvian American Buicks; dudes with bongos and old men slapping down dominoes; queues outside ration shops and communist cadres smoking chunky Montecristos. Cuba has a way of going against the grain. It’s all part of its historical make-up, part of its dynamism, part of its intrinsic beauty.

Sitting pretty as the Caribbean’s largest and most vivacious city, Havana’s romantic atmosphere and infectious energy are the stuff of legend. Amid the warm crystalline waters of the sparkling Caribbean, over 500 years of roller-coaster history have conspired to create one of Latin America’s most electric and culturally unique societies. The stomping ground for swashbuckling pirates, a heavily fortified slave port for the Spanish and a lucrative gambling capital for the North American Mafia, Havana has survived everything that has been thrown at it and still found time to innovate. At the forefront of modern Latino culture, Havana has spawned salsa and mambo, Havana Club rum and Cohiba cigars, mural painting and Che Guevara iconography. Nowhere else but in the streets of Havana is Spanish colonial architecture so abundant. Everywhere you look there is an unique image waiting to be recorded.

Whether by bustling, colorful day or sultry, salsa-filled night, so much of Havana’s daily life is acted out in its streets and squares- and the best way to encounter it is on foot. We’ll hit the streets of all the captivating neighborhoods, with their brilliant natural lighting at any time of day, to discover the essence of the city itself.

Old Havana contains the core of the original city of Havana. It is one of the oldest settlements in the Americas, full of charming, weather worn buildings and narrow, intriguing roadways. Old Havana is one of the most unique, atmospheric places on the planet. Between the people, the buildings, the music, the history and the food- walking the streets of Old Havana will sweep even the most unsentimental of travelers off their feet.

Tour Leader/Instructor: Lorne Resnick (pictured below with elephant!)

Lorne Resnick

To receive complete pricing information and itinerary please fill out the form below and a representative will contact you.