Bruce Barnbaum Photographs Above: Upper Left: Elegant Dune, Death Valley; Lower Left: Boulders of the Alabama Hills and Mt. Lone Pine, Sunrise; Lower Right: Doors and Reflections, Bodie.

First, for something completely different, some comments from former students:

I would like to share with you that I won an award at a regional art show in May.   Thanks to the workshop, I am taking a new look at black and white, and also thanks to the workshop that I believe I won the award. It's also a fairly respected art show with a lot of good artists, so I felt honored and thrilled. --LindaNix, Biloxi, MS, 2006

It was an altogether different and more rewarding experience photographing after your workshop...like the difference between speaking a few words of Spanish and being able to carry on something of a conversation. I was able, I believe, to think photographically for the first time. --Jeff Vaughn, Coalinga, CA, 2004

Seeing, interpreting, and conveying a mood are the most important apects of photography. This workshop, taught by three masters of photography who do their work in both traditional and digital methods, will concentrate on personal vision, and carrying that vision through to your final image. Pulitzer Prize winning Jack Dykinga does digital color work; Jay Dusard does traditional and digital b&w work; Bruce Barnbaum does traditional b&w and color work. They'll teach you a lot about traditional and digital methods, and about b&w and color. They'll teach you a lot about seeing, and about personal interpretation. And they'll do it in some of the most fantastic locations you can ever imagine.

It’s not possible to find Western landscapes that are more beautiful, bizarre and breathtaking than the ones we’ll see this week. We'll travel through magnificent country led by three internationally recognized instructors who are intimately familiar with the region, and we'll do it at a time of year chosen to maximize photographic opportunities. We start in Death Valley, where we’ll photograph the colorfully eroded badlands of Zabriskie Point and 20-Mule Team Canyon, visit the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere (Badwater, -289'), and the sensuous Death Valley Dunes. Then we move westward to the astonishing boulder fields of the Alabama Hills beneath the sheer eastern summit of Mt. Whitney (towering above us at +14,495’). We again move, this time northward—up the Owens Valley and along the awesome 2-mile high escarpment of the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Roads and weather permitting, we may get to either the ghost town of Bodie or the anciet Bristlecone pines of the White Mountains. From the lowest point of the western hemisphere to views of the highest point in the contiguous 48 states you’ll encounter spectacular scenery made all the more impressive by the low angle of light and the snow on the mountains in the early spring. Working with this light—at times from dawn to dusk—and learning how light performs magic on the landscape, you’ll understand how to best utilize it for your own personal expression.

All of our workshops feature thorough, constructive reviews of student work, and this one is no exception. The instructors are unrivalled at imparting ideas to you about your photography, including very insightful and constructive suggestions for bringing your photographic thinking, philosophy and techniques to a newer, higher level. Everyone participates in the critique sessions—not just the instructors—so you'll get valuable feedback from everyone in the group. You'll come away with new ideas about your own work, your direction, and the best means of getting there.

In addition, instructors will present their own photography, and will answer all technical, expressive, and aesthetic questions, plus all questions about methods, materials, and the thinking behind the imagery. They’ll be completely open, honest, and accessible about their own work, and completely supportive of your work and your goals. You’ll enjoy working with them because they enjoy working with you.

Please note that the workshop begins the morning of the announced session, making the first day a full day of instruction. We ask all participants to arrive the evening before the workshop begins, to join us for dinner and meet your fellow students and instructors informally. We'll get started with the workshop the next morning.

Instructors:
Jack Dykinga, of Tucson, Arizona, is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, and author of a host of color wilderness advocacy books, including Frog Mountain Blues, The Secret Forest, The Sierra Pinacate, The Sonoran Desert, Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau, and Desert: The Mojave and Death Valley. He authored and photographed Large Format Nature Photography, a "how to" guide to color landscape photography. Jack Dykinga's ARIZONA released in 2004 by Westcliffe Publishers, is a compellation of his best Arizona images along with his personal wilderness experiences. He is a regular contributor to Arizona Highways Magazine. Jack is an expert in both traditional and digital photographic processes, for his shoots with traditional color transparency film, scans them, manipulates them when necesary, and outputs his magnificent prints via ink-jet printing.

He has collaborated with Mexico's Agrupacion Sierra Madre to help produce their latest book on the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, printed in both Spanish and English.

Currently, he serves on the board of The Sonoran National Park Project in an effort to create a new Bi-National Park on the Arizona/Sonora, Mexico border. His continuing work along the U.S./Mexican border is currently focusing on the biological richness and diversity of the protected areas along the Rio Grande River corridor for the National Geographic.

Jack Dykinga Images Above:
Left: Coyote Buttes
Right: A Sea of Cracked Mud

Jay Dusard, of Douglas, Arizona, was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981, leading to his classical and widely acclaimed first book: The North American Cowboy: A Portrait. He subsequently published La Frontera (a collaboration with writer, Alan Weisman), Beyond the Rangeland Conflict: Toward a West that Works (a collaboration with writer Dan Daggett), Open Country, and most recently, Horses. Jay's passion for photography—mostly ranching themes and Western landscapes—is matched only by his passion for participating in ranch work and playing jazz cornet.

Jay has as quick and funny a mind as anyone you'll ever meet, and his outrageous and contagious sense of humor will help make the week uncommonly enjoyable. Yet he is a deep thinker, and one whose insights into your own work will consistently surprise you, providing food for thought for months and years to come.

Jay Dusard Images Above:
Left: Don King, Saddlemaker, Wyoming
Right: Justin Fields, Fields Cattle Co., California

Bruce Barnbaum is a recipient of the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Photography and Conservation, author of three monographs (Visual Symphony, Tone Poems -- Book 1, and Tone Poems ~ Book 2, the latter two a collaboration with pianist, Judith Cohen) and a photography textbook (The Art of Photography, An Approach to Personal Expression), and a featured writer in Photo Techniques Magazine, with "The Master Printing Class."

Bruce was the founder and director of the Owens Valley Photography Workshops from 1975 through 1990, and the founder and director of Photographic Arts Workshops since 1991.

There's a lot of experience behind the photography and teaching of these three photographer/instructors. You'll recognize that experience as they help you work out your own photographic goals and your own photographic vision. We don't think you'll find a better, or more experienced, combination of instructors anywhere.

Accommodations:
We have reserved accommodations at good motels at each of our three locations: the Stove Pipe Wells Inn at Death Valley, the Best Western Frontier Motel in Lone Pine, and the Rodeway Inn in Bishop. There are nearby campgrounds at each location for those preferring to camp. So you'll not only enjoy the photographic stimulation and outstanding scenery for the week, but also the accommodations and good food along the way.