Tuscany Photography Workshop & Holiday: Autumn 2022

Our workshop is for you if…

• You’re an amateur photographer of any ability who wants to improve your technical and creative skills
• You’re an advanced or Pro photographer looking to expand your portfolio with new and different images
• You’re a competitive camera club member and looking to create amazing winning images
• You want to spend a week with like minded photographers
• Love Italian food and wine!

What makes this such a great photography trip?

Autumn is a fantastic season to photograph the magnificence of the Tuscan landscape. The days are normally still warm and dry, but the cool nights bring morning mist in the valleys. The sunrises and sunsets that spread out across the wide expanse of sky above the patch work fields, avenues of Cypress trees and mottled sunlight racing across the undulating landscape can be breath taking and create beautiful images ripe for our cameras.

From our base we’ll explore in all directions and discover some of the most beautiful scenes in Tuscany – rolling green hills, ploughed, shaped and textured fields, sculptured cypress trees, winding roads, crumbling urbex farmhouses, and magnificent villas (including the villa in the closing scenes of the Gladiator film). Most of our activities will be a Val d’Orcia photography tour and the surounding area of picturesque villages and historic towns such as Montepulciano. We’ll also travel further afield to the medieval hill towns of Pitigliano and Sorano.

Our days can be long and full, often starting before sunrise and ending after sunset so we can take full advantage of the best light of the day. There isn’t a fixed daily itinerary for this photography tour as we take each day as it comes in terms of the weather and light and choose locations accordingly. We may visit the same locations several times.

Astro Photography

Tuscany has very little light pollution and what is there is often shielded by the hills. The cool nights can bring clear skies, making astrophotography fairly easy. To be clear, I’m not an astro expert and this is not an astro workshop, but those that are interested, this is a perfect compliment to the daytime landscapes.

Tuscany Photo Locations – Workshop Approach

Before getting our cameras out, we will look at how the landscape presents itself, how the light sits and where it may move and change. Then we’ll consider the best framing and how to experiment with different ideas and view points, picking out different elements of the landscape and using them to best effect. We are on hand at all times to offer help and advice about composition and technique to help you get the very best from every location.

There will be occasional downtime during the day with the flexibility to either do your own thing, or discuss image critique, editing and feedback.

Our trips are structured for people of all photo abilities; For those that are beginners or want additional help, we provide assistance, evaluation and guidance throughout from an experienced landscape and travel photographer. For experienced photographers, you have the benefit of joining a photo workshop with a guide with excellent local knowledge. We want photographers of all abilities to leave the workshop with an amazing array of quality images to be proud of.

Transport during the workshop is in a comfortable air-conditioned car or minibus/people carrier.

End of workshop photo review & followup

On the last afternoon or evening of the trip we will have a photo review. Everyone brings around 4 or 5 edited images to show the group. We can then offer joint feed back and editing advice. I appreciate not everyone may bring laptops for editing, so SOOC images are also fine. I also offer an online follow-up after the workshop to help you with image selection and editing.

Access to Private Members Facebook group

We also have a private Facebook group where members can join and post images for feedback and I answer questions and give help and advice.

Our exclusive 4 star villa accommodation in Tuscany

Our villa is located close to the beautiful town of San Quirico d’Orcia. With comfortable en-suite rooms, many with amazing views across the valley. Continental breakfast is included. The villa also has an outdoor swimming pool, although it is not heated in October. A big advantage of using a villa is we are not bound by hotel breakfast times and can bring in our own food and drink, keeping our costs down. Day and evening food is not included. Breakfast will be a self service continental breakfast in the villa.

Single occupancy of a double room £1690

Non-photographer sharing double room with full paying photographer, extra £185

2 photographers sharing a double-bed room £3060

2 photographers sharing a twin room £3060 (only one twin available)

Please contact me before booking anything other than a single occupancy room as I need to go through the booking manually.

Tuscan vineyard tour and wine tasting

We will also visit the vineyard at Catina di Montalcino where you can sample several of their wines plus some local foods, immersing yourself in the flavors of Montalcino. The cost of the wine tasting and tour is included in the trip cost. The surrounding area is also a beautiful landscape of rolling hills covered with over 500 hectars of vines.

Images from our previous Tuscany Visits

Full logistical details, assistance with booking transport will be provided (if needed) after booking is complete.