This trip was a photography seminar and workshop held in Scottsdale, AZ with National Geographic Traveler. During the trip we were accompanied by 2 National Geographic photographers, Susan and Dan, who taught us many things about photography, from the basics of exposure and composition to advanced storytelling, and even shared some of their stories and photographs with us. We were given several classroom presentations throughout the trip and were also taken out into the field twice. During these field trips we were given assignments to photograph and then brought the pictures back into the classroom for an edit-and-critique session with the instructors and the rest of the class. This session included one-on-one discussions with the instructors as well as feedback from the entire class. As with the workshop that I did at Nat Geo Headquarters back in 2017, I had a wonderful time and learned a great deal! At the end of the trip I stayed in Arizona for just a bit longer so that I could drive up to the Grand Canyon for a sunrise/sunset photo shoot. Those photos will be included at the end of the post.
The venue for the trip was The Boulders Resort and Spa in Scottsdale. I arrived a bit early on the first day of the trip (a necessity given the available flights) and once I had picked up my rental car from the airport I headed North for about half an hour to the resort. I was driving through Phoenix in about mid-morning so the traffic was not bad. The resort was quite a bit larger than I expected, with plenty of open space and no shortage of desert scenery to enjoy. The weather was warm but pleasant, and we were lucky to avoid having any storms during the time that we were there.
Once I had checked in to the room my first order of business was to develop some familiarity with the resort and with my rental camera. Since this trip was such an excellent opportunity for a photographer I decided to rent some pro-level equipment for the week. I chose a Nikon D750 (which is definitely a step up from the Nikon D5200 that I normally carry) and a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I had never used either of these items before, and since muscle memory is such a key part of “capturing the moment,” I knew that I would need some extra time before the start of the workshop to develop my skills with this equipment. My early arrival provided exactly that opportunity.
The first thing I did was to get some pictures of the resort. This one provides a nice feel for the overall scenery of the resort. The golf carts were driven by hotel staff, eager to take you wherever you needed to go:
The rooms themselves were built with the appearance of having been made out of Adobe, and are stacked in 2 stories with one room on top of another
Inside, the rooms are spacious and comfortable, with a TV and a mini-bar located just inside the door:
2 chairs and a table face the TV, and there is even a fireplace. A log is provided to each guest, but I did not use mine during the trip. There is also a sliding door which leads to a patio (or a balcony in the upper rooms):
The beds were comfortable, and there was a Southwestern-themed wood inlay hanging on the wall:
The bathroom was large as well, and was made almost entirely of stone:
After getting a few shots of the room I took the rental camera outside on the patio to enjoy the sunshine and the local wildlife. The resort has quite a few animals around, and most of them are accustomed to humans. One of the animals I saw most frequently was this odd-looking species of quail, which has a small plume of feathers jutting out of its forehead:
After about 5 hours of practice with the rental camera it was time to start the workshop. Our first activity was a small meet-and-greet with light snacks and drinks. Here we got to meet the rest of the workshop participants (there were about 30 in total) and our photography instructors, Susan and Dan. We enjoyed swapping stories with each other about how we got started in photography, what sorts of things we liked to photograph, and some of the adventures we had been on. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and diversity of the group. We had participants of all ages, regions, experience levels, and walks of life. As so often happens on these sorts of tours, it is the company that really makes the trip!
After the meet-and-greet session we headed into the classroom for the first of several lectures from our instructors. Tonight Dan and Susan told us stories of how they got started in photography, what sorts of things they look for when photographing an assignment, and how they bring it all together to produce a story of what it is like to visit a specific place. I was struck by how similar their approaches were, and how much they allowed themselves to be guided and taught by the local people no matter where they went.
After the classroom session had ended I took the rental camera back out to practice some low-light photography. I knew that I would be photographing sunrise and sunset shots on both the workshop and on the visit to the Grand Canyon, so I wanted to be sure I had these skills solidly in place before going after shots that really counted. Like the earlier practice session, this one took several hours and resulted in lots of test shots but few keepers. However, here are a few of the better shots of the resort at night:
Once I felt I had built a reasonable understanding of how the camera behaved in low light I headed back to the room and got some sleep. Tomorrow would be a busy day!
Our first full day of the workshop started with a large breakfast buffet on the patio outside the classroom. All of our meals would be served buffet-style on this trip, and all of the food was delicious! After eating we headed back into the classroom for some more lectures from Susan and Dan. Today we went much deeper than we had the night before, starting with some of the basics about both the art and science of photography. As with all of the photography workshops I have done, I was amazed to still be learning new things about the basics even after 2 years. The most interesting part, however, was the storytelling. We learned a mind-bending amount of information about capturing the sense-of-place in any location, and the importance of involving the local people in our storytelling. I took notes furiously, ending with 8 full pages by the end of the day. We also had a in-depth discussion about camera gear, going over the gear that Dan and Susan actually carry on assignments today and what gear they have used previously. With our heads spinning, we broke for lunch a little after 12 o’clock.
Lunch was another buffet, and since I had my camera out by this point I decided to get a few shots of the food. The meal included plenty of soup:
Some grilled cheese sandwiches which looked and tasted like miniature Reubens:
And plenty of dessert including these mini cupcakes:
And these interesting parfaits:
During the lunchbreak I headed down to the nearby pond to get some more practice with my rental camera. What attracted me to this spot was a Great Blue Heron that was frequently moving and flying across the water, but also seemed unafraid of people. This made for a very cooperative subject!
After filling up on a delicious lunch we headed back into the classroom for one more lecture before our first field trip. At this point we went into a lengthy discussion of landscapes, natural light, and photographing people. These would be critical skills for the field trips we were about to embark upon. We asked a lot more questions of Dan and Susan during this session, and they patiently provided us with all of the answers. They also provided us with plenty of example images demonstrating the concepts, themes, and moods that they were trying to teach us about. Once again I took notes furiously, and once again our heads spun by the time the session was over. At this point we were ready to climb onto the bus and head out on our first field trip to practice all that we had just learned.
Our first field trip took us to a small ranch called Bein Performance Horses, where we would photograph 3 different people engaging with their horses in an outdoor setting just before sunset. The instructors divided us into 3 groups, and each group would shoot a different subject before moving on to the next one. This way everyone got to move through the whole rotation and photograph all three subjects.
Many of us did well on this field trip, and some of the photograph that we brought back to the classroom were amazing! Here are a few of my best photos from this assignment:
The sunset that evening was absolutely beautiful, and after wrapping up the assignment we headed back to the hotel for dinner. None of us stayed up very late after dinner, because the next day we had to be up early to photograph our second assignment: sunrise over the desert.
Our second full day of the workshop started early. We all had to be up before sunrise to meet in the hotel lobby for our second assignment. Our instructors had previously scouted out several locations for us to photograph from, and gave us the choice of which location we would like to go to. I decided to follow Dan to the top of the rock pile in order to get a wide, elevated shot of the sun rising over the valley below.
The climb was steep but not too difficult. There were trails leading all the way up to the top of the rock pile, so our way was clearly marked. As we made our way to the top we would occasionally stop so that one or two photographers could get their gear set up and ready to shoot the sunrise, then the rest of us would proceed up the trail. I chose a spot just below the top of the rock pile with a generally clear view of the valley below, but also with just a few rocks in the foreground. Then I set up my tripod, prepared my camera, and waited. Photographing the exact moment of sunrise and sunset is always a game of “hurry up and wait.” But when the sun finally broke over the horizon, the view was absolutely worth the wait, the climb, and the early alarm clock:
We all took our time photographing this sunrise, but eventually it was time to head back down the trail and back to the hotel for breakfast. Along the way we stopped in several places to practice taking portraits of each other. Several of these turned out very well, and I shared them with the other workshop participants.
Once we got back to the hotel there was another full breakfast buffet waiting for us. After all that hiking so early in the morning the buffet was just what we needed! After getting our fill of food and coffee we headed back into the classroom for our edit-and-critique session. During this time we would download all of the photos we had taken on the two field trips onto our laptops, pick out the ones that represented our best work, and then call one of the instructors over to review them with us. The instructor would select 3 shots to share with the rest of the class. They would also provide feedback on things that we were doing well and things that we could do to improve. Coming from experienced National Geographic professionals, this feedback was very valuable!
Having been through the National Geographic Workshop in Washington DC previously, I knew what to expect from the edit-and-critique session and had an efficient workflow already designed, so it did not take me long to narrow my pictures down to about 5 or 6 shots that I was most pleased with. From those, Susan selected the three shots you saw earlier (2 from the ranch and 1 from the sunrise). She also gave me some very helpful feedback on my use of the sliders in Lightroom and showed me some tools that I had never used before. Most photographers will agree: just when you think you know everything about Lightroom, there is always another feature to learn! Being one of the first participants to finish, I took the next hour to enjoy a cold soda on the patio outside in the warm Arizona sun.
Once all of the participants had been given some one-on-one time with the instructors, we put the photos on the projector for the entire class to review and discuss. This was a very helpful process as well, because we got to hear what other people thought of our work and get some inspiration from the shots that other people had taken of the same scene. No matter how experienced we may become we all see the scene a little differently, so it was very interesting and eye-opening to see what details or moments the other participants had captured.
After a farewell banquet by the fountain we headed back to our rooms for the night. Most of us had flights to catch early the next morning. I was heading North to make a brief visit to the Grand Canyon. As we made our way back to the rooms we came upon a wedding party lifting off in a hot air balloon just after sunset. We still had our cameras with us from the sunrise assignment earlier in the day, so we all rushed to find a spot to shoot this beautiful scene! In my haste to get into the perfect spot I had a close encounter with a cactus (which I don’t recommend) but I eventually found myself on the shore of a pond sitting between Susan and Andrea, and came away with this rewarding shot:
The next morning I slept in a little later than normal before packing up and getting into the rental car for the 3 ½ hour drive up to the Grand Canyon. The drive was long but the countryside was beautiful, and I had brought some music along so I didn’t mind. Once I got to the hotel it was nearly sunset, so I had just enough time to check in, drop off my luggage, and grab a quick sandwich before heading to the South Rim for the photo shoot. By the time I got there the visitor center was already closed, so I was not able to talk to any park staff about the best place to photograph the sunset from. After seeing that Mather Point was overcrowded, I got back in the car and headed for Yavapai Point. There was a small geology museum here, as well as clear views of the canyon all around. Smaller crowds and unobstructed views made the photography much easier! Another game of “hurry up and wait” was rewarded with these photos:
As soon as the beautiful evening colors started to fade I got back in the car and headed for the hotel. I would need all the sleep I could get for the next day.
My objective the next morning was to get back to the Grand Canyon to photograph the sunrise. This required me to get up at 4:00 AM to start packing my gear and heading for the South Rim. I went back to Yavapai Point again, but was poorly prepared for the cold desert morning that greeted me there. I had packed a polo, shorts, and a light sweatshirt just in case, but this was definitely not enough. Most of the other photographers who visited the canyon at this early hour were wearing heavy winter coats. A remote-controlled shutter release proved to be indispensable for keeping my hands warm and the camera steady. To make matters worse, the weather was overcast that morning, which prevented the sunrise from hitting the canyon directly. Nevertheless, I stuck it out and managed to come away with these:
By 9:00 it was time for me to pack up and start the long drive down to the airport. I was happy to get back in the car and warm up, but sad to be leaving this beautiful place. Someday I will have to return and spend a little more time here at the Grand Canyon.
I also hope to be able to go on another National Geographic photography workshop again in the future. The company on this trip was wonderful, and several of us have kept in touch via email and social media. We continue to share our work with each other, and I hope that we will be able to join each other again for a workshop soon.
That was the end of my trip! Thank you very much for reading my blog. Check back soon for the pictures from this year’s annual archaeological tour: Berlin, Germany