A fan favorite workshop with an updated curriculum & new hybrid format with the addition of beginner photo editing and separation of product/still life and portrait tracks!
Upgrade your photography skills by learning and improving upon basic photography skills, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, composition, lighting, and more whether you are taking photos with a camera or using your phone as your camera to visually tell better stories in your photos. Whether you are interested in improving your photography skills for professional development — such as taking photos for your business or organization’s website or social media as part of your job — or for personal enjoyment — such as improving your photo skills to take better summer family vacation photos — this workshop will help you take your photography skills to the next level!
Topics included in the workshop focus on understanding the basics of photography & ways to use these basic photography skills to visually tell stories.
The Product/Food & Beverage track focuses on applying what we learn to taking photos of products and food & beverage. For the in person product / still life sessions, products and objects to go with the products will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own products and objects to photograph. The in person session will focus on table top product/still life set ups, the number of different set ups will depend on how many workshop participants there are for those sessions.
The Portrait track focuses on applying what we learn to to taking better photos of people, including taking photos of a model (1 model per 4-5 workshop participants for the in person sessions) & self-portraits.
It will be possible to sign up for and do multiple or all the tracks / sessions in the workshop if you so desire. For example, doing both the Product/Still Life & Portrait tracks, camera & phone tracks for Portraits, etc.
| Tues 9/2/2025 | Tues 9/9/2025 | Weds 9/10/2025 | Friday 9/12/2025 | Rain/Inclement weather makeup date if needed for in person session |
| Pre-recorded videos released at 8 AM | 1 hour Virtual and Q&A Session | 2 Hour In Person Session | 1 hour Virtual and Q&A Session – Editing | Tuesday 9/16 |
| to be watched on your own time before the virtual live session on Tues 9/9 & editing video(s) to be watched before the virtual live session on Fri 9/12 | Select which session to attend based on learning track (Portraits or Products/Still Life) & device (Camera = DSLR, Mirrorless, etc.) or Phone (using phone camera as camera) | Location: Pen Park in Charlottesville, VA | Select which session to attend based on learning track (Portraits or Products/Still Life) | Only if one or both of the Weds 9/10 sessions has to be cancelled due to inclement weather conditions (heavy rain, a thunderstorm, hurricane, etc.) |
| Videos will remain available until Tues 9/16 at 7 PM | 10 AM – 11 AM – Products/Still Life – Camera | Select which session(s) to attend based on learning track (Portraits or Products/Food & Beverage) | 9 – 10 AM – Editing Products/Food & Beverage | (Rain date) 9-11 AM: Products/Food & Beverage |
| 11:15 – 12:15 PM – Portraits – Camera | 9 – 11 AM: Products/Food & Beverage | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM – Editing Portraits | (Rain date) 4:30 – 6:30 PM: Portraits | |
| 5-6 PM – Products/Still Life – Phone | Possible overflow session 11 AM – 1 PM for Products/Food & Beverage if the first session fills up. | |||
| 6-7 PM – Portraits – Phone | 3-5 PM: Portraits | |||
| Possible overflow session at 5-7 PM for Portraits if the first session fills up. |