Cape Cod Landscapes: The Art of Seeing Creatively

Instructor: Mark Bowie

Days: Thursday, May 28 (starts 6pm) – Sunday, May 31 (ends noon), 2020

Cost: Members $330 | Non-Members $400

Maximum of 10 participants

Program Description

Photographically, what makes Cape Cod landscapes so special, is how light interacts with this convergence of land and sea.  Learning to see the possibilities and then translate them into images can elevate our picture-taking from the commonplace to the artistic.  Professional landscape photographer and night shooting expert Mark Bowie will lead this power-packed workshop to explore the Cape from pre-dawn to deep night, visiting some of its finest scenery: the ocean, beaches, dunes, coastal waterways, lighthouses and fishing villages.  He’ll cover in-depth the fine art of seeing, offering innovative strategies, tips and techniques for looking deeper, refining your personal vision to creative images with feeling, that come from the heart.

We will typically shoot for several hours around sunrise and sunset each day, and other times as favorable lighting conditions present themselves. We’ll also photograph the moody blues of twilight and the Cape’s magnificent night sky.  The landscape, so varied and photogenic in daylight, becomes ever-more mysterious and enchanting at night.  Our schedule and selection of shooting locations will remain flexible to take best advantage of the weather and lighting conditions.

In the field and in the digital darkroom Mark will cover:

The Art of Seeing Creatively

Seeing the possibilities: reading weather and shooting the light

The quality, direction and color of light

Shooting at sunrise, sunset, twilight and at night

Photographing the night landscape in relation to the celestial skies

Designing and fine-tuning powerful compositions using the principles of visual flow, dynamic tension, balance, leading lines, shapes and patterns

Shooting from interesting vantage points

Using exposure to control mood and atmosphere

Determining exposure at night

Achieving critical focus day and night

Using Live View to compose and focus

Using the LCD screen and histogram to refine compositions, check exposures and confirm focus

Working creatively with your full suite of lenses

Varying shutter speed for artistic effect

Targeting color and tonal palettes

The artistry of long exposures

Creating expressionistic abstracts

Shooting and blending multiple exposures as layer masks, HDR’s, panoramas, focus stacks
, star trails and time-lapse sequences

Image optimization in Lightroom, Camera Raw & Photoshop CC

Mark will also lead group critiquing sessions of participants’ images designed to enhance the creative process.

Indoor instructional sessions will be at Cape Cod Art Center in Barnstable.

Informative and inspiring, this workshop is geared for both amateur and advanced photographers.  Learn to envision the image-making potential of a variety of landscapes and translate it into your own compelling imagery.

Join Mark to see deeper, go deeper!

Logistics

Locations visited during the workshop are easily accessible and do not require strenuous hiking or climbing.  However, to access the beaches, participants should be in good physical shape and able to ascend and descend moderate slopes.