Angkor Photo Workshop, Cambodia, July 11-25, 2011 only 3 spots left!

Angkor Photo Workshop is just over 3 months away and we’ve still got a few spaces available, so I thought I would take this opportunity to blog about it. If you or someone you know might be interested in attending, please have a look and then pass it along. Hope you’re all doing well out there, enjoying your photography

The Angkor Photo Workshop is limited to 15 participants. This small enrollment provides each and every participant plenty of face time with our 4 instructors during the workshop portion of the trip and with 3 instructors during the “road trip” portion of the tour.

Instructors: Each of your instructors are in their own right, successful, well known, experienced, photographers who love to teach and share their passion with other photo enthusiasts. They will challenge you and cheer you on.

Activities: This workshop includes a multitude of activities including lectures, one on one instruction, critiques, assignments, and exploration of all things photographic. During the course of the workshop you will learn new skills and techniques, then apply them in real life situations. Your results will be reviewed and then you will go back out and improve your craft.

Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia, gateway to the ancient, jungle clad, Khmer temples of Angkor. A bustling vibrant, town, Siem Reap has an energy and vigor that makes it the perfect place for intrepid, photographers to practice and hone their craft. It’s the ideal location for you to be able to concentrate on your photography, and the photographic opportunities of the area are unrivaled. Within close proximity one can explore, temples, markets, lakes, rivers, forests, rice paddies, villages and more. But what makes Siem Reap really special is the friendly spirit of the Khmer people, who, after emerging from a tumultuous past, are now beginning to rebuild their country.

We’re staying at the Foreign Correspondents Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap (a sister property of the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh),  The Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh and the Newly opened Bambu Resort in Battambang.

Objectives: To enjoy your photography with a group of like-minded individuals, explore, learn, apply and improve. We will help you push the limits of your ability and imagination, and you will leave this workshop a better photographer.

The workshop focus is to push yourself to the limits of your ability and imagination, to have an outstanding and unusual cultural experience and to enjoy and learn from the company of others. Working comfortably in foreign or new locations, particularly in a developing country, can take years of understanding and experience. We hope to jump start you in your environment to enable you to make the most of your location and for you to be able to concentrate on your photography.

Your instructors will include, yours truly, Marco Ryan, Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough.

Karl Grobl

Karl is one of the world’s most respected and experienced Humanitarian photographers. Specializing in the photographic documentation of relief efforts and development work of NGOs worldwide, Karl has shot for more than 80 different NGOs in over 50 countries. His photographs reveal the human side of issues faced by people across the globe,offering viewers intimate glimpses into the lives of ordinary people in places few will ever visit.  His images have appeared in Newsweek, CNN, Geo, Town and Country magazine and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, but the largest majority of his photos appear in the annual reports, newsletters and communications materials of his clients. Karl’s non-NGO work is represented by Zuma Press, the premier international editorial picture agency and wire service. His 2005 Haiti photo-story “City of God” was nominated for a World Press Photo Award.  In addition to his rigorous international NGO travel schedule, Karl teaches photography workshops and leads international photography tours and he is a regular lecturer on photography and photojournalism. Karl is  on the the advisory board for Focus for Humanity and also serves as a technical consultant for several photographic and photography-related technology companies and was featured in a world wide advertising campaign for SanDisk memory cards.

Marco Ryan

Marco is originally form the UK but moved to live and work in Cairo in 2008. He is a lecturer and author on Digital Media and how businesses need to react to the increasing disruption caused by the web and digital media. He is also a passionate photographer. He founded the popular Cairo Photo School and is the joint owner of the Cairo Photo Studio. His love and passion for travel and humanitarian photography has taken him all around the world, and he has a vast network of Professional photographers, editors and enthusiasts that he regularly keeps in touch with through social media and his blog.
Marco is passionate about helping humanity through photography, and has set up a leading Charitable foundation – Focus for Humanity – to help young photographers establish careers in this demanding field and to work with NGOs. You can find out more from www.focusforhumanity.org. His website can be found at www.marcoryanphotography.com

Matt Brandon

Matt Brandon is a Malaysia based humanitarian and travel photographer, who collaborates with NGOs to tell their stories and to train their field staff to do the same. Well known as a photographer and international workshop instructor, Matt’s images have been used by clients such as Partner Aid International, NeighborWorks, the BBC, Honda Motor Corporation, and Bombadier Transport Corporation, Asian Geographic and others. His photographic pursuits have taken him to India, Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Philippines and Malaysia. Matt also is known for teaching presenters how to present their message in the most effective and memorable way. This makes Matt a great teacher to any workshop or classroom. Matt is also a key member of the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers, he’s on the advisory board for Focus for Humanity and on the design board for Think Tank, a camera bag manufacturer.

Gavin Gough

Gavin Gough is an independent, freelance travel photographer. Originally from England, Gavin is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand, from where he travels extensively, working on assignment, on commission, creating stock images, writing and teaching.

He has been commissioned by a variety of NGOs, humanitarian and charitable institutions and has completed commissions for organisations as varied as Sony, Vanity Fair magazine and the Vietnamese Tourist Board.

Gavin produces stock photographs for Getty and Lonely Planet images. His vibrant stock collection includes images from more than forty countries which have been reproduced in hundreds of newspapers, magazines and books and are regularly featured in publications such as National Geographic, Geo, Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian, and many more. His stock images have appeared on everything from postage stamps to magazine covers and billboards.

Equipment: You’ll need a DSLR, Digital SLR with lenses offering a focal length from wide (24mm or wider) to telephoto (100mm or longer), a laptop or netbook computer running image viewing software such as Breeze Browser, Picasa or Photo Mechanic and an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, or a combintation software program such as Lightroom. You will also need a copy of Soundslides software in order to produce your multimedia project (available here www.soundslides.com for $69.95). Additionally we strongly recommend a back-up device such as an external hard drive.

There will be nightly group dinners with image sharing and on at least 2 of the evenings, an instructional lecture with projection, by one of the workshop leaders. On the last night your final edit will be presented to the group during the image sharing farewell party.

I’ve done quite a lot of work for my NGO clients in Cambodia and there’s so many stories to be told…that’s why I’ve decided to base my workshop here. Most recently I’ve been working on a human trafficking story in Phnom Penh. In the past I shot many different stories including Micro Finance, Healthcare, the sex trade, community development and HIV/AIDS.

As I mentioned earlier, Cambodia has so many stories to be told….it’s the perfect place to learn the art of visual story telling. It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity, in an amazing location, with well known, high enegry, passionate,  instructors.  I hope you’ll consider coming along for this, the first year of Angkor Workshops. It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity to improve your photography.

You can learn more about it or even sign up, on-line by clicking here

I hope you’ll consider coming along for this, the first year of Angkor Workshops. It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity to improve your photography.

You can learn more about it or even sign up, on-line by clicking here