Landscape & Travel Photography Course
An educative journey across Bulgaria
April - July 2020
Whilst this is a tutored art class, it is also a creative adventure which will take you to locations that see very few visitors. You can expect many early starts to catch sunrises over charming Bulgarian villages and mountain peaks, and these will be complemented by lectures and thematic workshops on composition and image editing and by critique sessions. We will spend nights under the starry sky with our cameras pointed upwards, and afternoons searching for the best viewpoints over fields of sandstone towers.
The course consists of three practice sessions which include a total of eight days on location (mostly at weekends). It also includes six group meetings for evening lectures after working hours in Sofia. The program spans a three-month period, with plenty of free time between our meetings.
Tutor:
The classes will be tutored by me, Vlado Donkov. You can find a more extensive bio and my portfolio on this website, but in short, I am an outdoor photographer with eighteen years of experience. For most of that time, I was based in the USA, UK, Malta and Norway, working for clients ranging from National Geographic and Hasselblad to Land Rover and publications such as The Telegraph and Outdoor Photography magazine. I did my Master’s degree in photography at Birmingham City University and taught at universities abroad, though I prefer teaching methods that are very different from the academic ones.
My photographic assignments take place mostly in the Arctic, with occasional projects in the Himalayas, Patagonia, and Pakistan – and sometimes even warm places such as Sri Lanka, though the hot climate is seldom my preferred work environment. In the last six years, I have been spending more and more time working on my passion for teaching in the outdoors, guiding groups of photographers for my expedition company in the Polar areas and tutoring courses in Bulgaria since I moved back here in 2015. I am an active Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and often travel to give lectures to organisations and camera clubs across Europe.
Calendar:
06 April – Sofia - 19:00
Introductory dinner
10 April – Sofia - 19:00-21:30
A lecture on composition in photography
11 to 12 April – The Rila Mountains
We will warm up with two days of shooting in the lower areas of the Rila mountains. We will use a cosy guesthouse as a base for exploring and photographing this beautiful, quiet area with the peaks towering over the hills. This is where the real course begins. This time we will be out for just two days – the location is within two hours drive of Sofia.
12 May – Sofia – 19:00-21:30
Demonstration and Q&A session: editing colour images in Adobe Photoshop
14 May – Sofia – 19:00-21:30
Demonstration and Q&A session: editing black & white images in Adobe Photoshop
29 to 31 May – The Rhodope Mountains
This is the practice session where things get serious. We will be travelling around the lakes and dams of the Rhodope mountains, chasing morning fogs and interesting light. We will take our time on location and everyone will have plenty of time to ask questions and experiment with new techniques.
09 June – Sofia – 19:00-21:30
Critique session I – we will be discussing in detail your images from the first two location shoots and will talk about ways to improve your photographs, both while on location and later on in post processing.
19 to 21 June – The Belogradchik Rocks
There is a good reason why Belogradchik was competing for inclusion in New7Wonders of the World! This little town in Northwest Bulgaria is surrounded by enormous sandstone towers formed by erosion. Some of the locations that we will photograph are literally at the edge of the town and are therefore well-known, but over many years I have come to learn some amazing little spots in the area where very few people go.
05 July – Sofia and Vitosha – from 10:00 till dark
On this Sunday morning we will do our critique session II – this time we will be discussing images from the last practice session in Belogradchik in even more detail. If you plan a summer vacation and can’t make it for this meeting, we can arrange a group video call or arrange another meeting in the coming months.
After the discussion we will go for a sunset shoot to the lower parts of the Vitosha mountain (reachable by public transport from the city). We will then finish with a dinner and some drinks to talk about our future photography plans and dreams.
* If work Monday to Friday, the only working days on location in this program are the 29th of May and the 19th of June.
Group size:
6 to 10 participants
Costs and logistics:
Participation fee: 850 BGN
Payable within ten days of enrolling to the class via wire transfer or in cash. (The course can be payed for by your employer if your HR team is kind and loving to you.) If you work Monday to Friday, you will only need to take two days off to take part in the course.
Included:
Eight days of tuition (including individual and group tuition) on location across Bulgaria.
Six sessions (including lectures, workshops and group meetings for a sunset shoot) in Sofia.
Excluded: As this is a practical course rather than a holiday, we try to keep the costs down and not force particular accommodation options or meals and drinks on you. We travel as a group and share the costs.
Accommodation is in guest houses – five nights in the price range of 25 to 40 BGN per night per person in a twin room. Single rooms can be booked on request.
Transport – we usually travel using personal cars, as all the locations are within three hours drive of Sofia, though if the group prefers, we can hire a van and a driver. This will be discussed during our introductory dinner.
Meals and drinks – we usually go to great local restaurants which serve some of the best Balkan food.
You can expect that your total costs will be in the range of 450 to 650 BGN over the three-month period of the course, depending on your food and drink preferences.
Who is this course for?
As long as you have a basic understanding of your camera (which means that terms like aperture, shutter speed and exposure are something you are familiar with) and own a camera with manual controls, this course will be useful to you in upgrading your skills. You can also join with just a phone, though you will take home much more if you bring a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. I teach classes from beginner level to masterclass level, but this one is so diverse in terms of topics and is based on practical sessions, so it usually brings together people who just bought a camera with those who have been chasing great light for years. It works out great to have a range of people in the group, and everyone brings their point of view on the topics we discuss. This course it not really a technical one; we will be covering in more detail the creative process, composition, strategy and psychological ups and downs of travelling with a camera to places far and wide.
If you would like to join the course or ask a question, please fill in the form below or drop me an email at verticalshot@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible! You can also reach me at +359 878 300 517