WELCOME TO RICHARD MARTIN'S SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER
The summer has fled past so quickly - for those of us in Canada anyway, where the nights are already going down far too close to freezing! So as we bid farewell to the warm days, we welcome the autumn with her vibrant colours and crisp clear light. Often, the fall brings quieter times and the space and freedom to pick up the cameras again after a busy summer. So If you have haven’t spent much quality time with your camera of late, why not participate in one of Richard’s Fall Weekend Workshops. And for those who would like to wander further, we have two exciting tours to Italy to announce.
VENICE (see details)
November 10 – 18 2006
Max 6 participants + Richard
It is said that if you throw a coin into the Trevi fountain you will return to Rome. It also seems that if you photograph Venice’s San Marco square at sunrise, you will also return to Venice. So, like 5 times before, Richard returns to photograph Venice – but this time with a twist! Impressed with the prints made by Venetian photographers at this time of year, Richard has chosen to explore this city of canals in November in order to take advantage of the atmospheric mood and quality of light, which comes with the mist and colder weather of late fall.
Venice is surprisingly compact and most of the sights can be comfortably visited on foot; in fact you can cross the entire city in about an hour. One of the great pleasures of exploring Venice is walking in the absence of traffic, and in November, the absence of the usual crowds of tourists.
Explore the labyrinth of alleys, side canals, courtyards, cloisters and secluded gardens for the many photographic opportunities, which exist behind the scenes. Photograph reflections in the canals and abstract patterns from the countless bridges. Make time exposures at sunset recording the activity of gondolas moving along the Grand Canal from atop one of its three main bridges. Visit Burano, the most colourful of the lagoon islands, with its waterways lined by brightly painted houses. Take a trip to the timeless garden like cemetery on the island of San Michele to photograph angels and other splendid Italian sculpture. Or simply get lost, deep into the residential and working areas of this maze like city to photograph the people at work and play.
Includes 8 nights accommodation based on double occupancy, breakfast each morning and a 7-day vaporetto pass for canal and lagoon Island transportation.
$2700.00 Can. (plus $60.00 G.S.T for Canadian residents)
UMBRIA (see details)
May 16 –24 2007
Max 6 participants + Richard Martin and Elisa Paloschi
Richard’s love for Italy takes us this year to Umbria, which is considered to be Italy’s green heart. Being also Italy’s most rural region and the only province that doesn’t touch the coast, Umbria is Tuscany’s wild cousin with jagged rock formations and snow-capped peaks. The birth place of St. Francis makes this province Italy’s mystical heart as well, which is quickly evident thanks to hundreds of churches and monasteries scattered on the hill tops, grassy valleys and within the confines of the medieval towns.
Elisa Paloschi joins Richard in Umbria to organize and co-ordinate this 10-day tour which will be jam packed filled with photographic opportunities and of course plenty of time to explore the wonderful food, wine, landscape and history of the region. We will stay in Perugia for 4 nights, Orvieto for 3 nights and of course, since we are coming this far how could we miss 2 nights at a farm house in Tuscany’s Val d ’Orcia region.
Includes 9 nights accommodation based on double occupancy, breakfast each morning and ground transportation from Rome.
$3790.00 Can. (plus $80.00 G.S.T for Canadian residents)
POETIC EXPRESSION WEEKEND WORKSHOPS (see details)
Kingston Sept. 15 – 17 2006 (a few places left)
Kingston Oct. 20 – 22 2006
Kingston April 27 – 29 2007
Kingston June 15-17, 2007
Kingston Aug. 24 – 26 2007
Kingston Sept. 14-16, 2007
Kingston Oct.. 12-14, 2007
KINGSTON/1000 ISLANDS - VISION and DISCOVERY WORKSHOP (see details)
July 8 – 14 2007
The Digital Darkroom: Working with images in Photoshop (details)
Topics include: traditional photographic techniques, burning and dodging, tone and contrast control, basic colour correction, using layers and channels, creating black and white images from colour originals, sepia toning, various sharpening techniques, montage processes and impressionistic effects, gradients and many more creative possibilities
Kingston Jan 18 –20 2007
Toronto Mar 28 -30 2007
CUSTOM WORKSHOPS AND TOURS
If you cannot join Richard in a scheduled workshop or tour, please inquire about one to one instruction, a class tailored for a small group held in your area or a tour/workshop in your next travel destination.
PHOTO LIFE MAGAZINE
Richard will contribute to Photo Life's November 2006, 30th Anniversary Issue.His photo essay, At School: The Classroom Experience explores the daily lives of young children engaged in learning. A small elementary school provides the context for this self-assignment, which takes place in a grade four/five classroom. The central aim of the project throughout was to explore and illuminate the child's inner world at school without presuming to explain it. While avoiding stereotypes, Richard was continually striving to encompass the range of classroom experience as it unfolded for me so that, together, the photos made a statement about being a child engaged in the practice of learning.
On the newstand at the end of September.
THIS SUMMER
Richard has been busy this summer with assignments, workshops and magazine work. He recently returned from teaching a five-day workshop for the Niagara School of Imaging at Brock University. He truly enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the students and other professionals in the various programs, exchanging ideas and making contacts with other photographers who share the same passion for the medium.
All of Richard’s workshops this summer were visually and emotionally charged. The new format for his weeklong Thousand Island Vision and Discovery workshop was a great success too. Being based in Kingston rather than Gananoque gave the participants the opportunity to explore the region more thoroughly – and of course helped keep the costs down for the students!
As usual, the participants in Richard’s workshops were very open to learning new ways of seeing the visual world around them. It was a time of inspiration and personal growth for both Richard and his students.
"Thank you Richard for a wonderful workshop this past weekend. I got the opportunity I needed to learn some new techniques, get more reconciled to digital and its possibilities and spend time with an interesting and creative group of people. I must say how ravished I am by your photography and am still carrying the imprint of many of those images in my mind. Thank you so much for sharing your vision and your art." Liz Preiss
