Santa Fe Photo Workshop

By Philip Douglis - Digital photography may still be in its infancy, but in just a few short years it has already become a major factor in travel photography. More and more travelers now carry compact digital cameras and are finding them incredibly useful in documenting and interpreting their journeys. Not only is electronic film "free" for life, allowing us to shoot as many pictures as we wish without guilt, but these cameras also allow us to actually see what our pictures are going to look like both before and after each shot. We can keep shooting until we get exactly the picture we want, pictures that can be incredibly clear, sharp, and brilliant. Later we can share our images with others via email or on websites such as this one; we can print our pictures on our desktops, no darkroom needed; and we can even take them to photo-finishers, ordering only the pictures we want to print and saving hundreds of dollars a year in film costs and trashed prints. All of this comes at a price, however. These cameras cost more initially, although film and processing savings can eventually make up this expense. However there is another cost involved: the learning curve in digital photography is steep. It takes time, practice and knowledge to get the most out of any digital camera.

One of the best places to get such knowledge is at a digital photography workshop, but the major photography workshop centers have ignored the phenomenal success of the compact digital camera. They offer extensive training to film photographers and to those willing to spend thousands of dollars on digital single lens reflex cameras, but until now they have overlooked the training needs of travel photographers who carry compact digicams.

In September 2003, the Santa Fe Workshops, one of the world's major centers for education in creative imaging, offered the first workshop ever designed specifically for travel photographers carrying compact digital cameras. Nevada Wier, one of the world's leading travel photographers, taught the six-day course. I was one of thirteen travel photographers participating in this landmark workshop.

It was my third visit to the Santa Fe Workshops. In 2002 I spent a week there learning Adobe Photoshop, the complex but amazing computer program that instantly improves the colors, contrast, and exposure of our digital photographs. In March of 2003, I spent another week in Santa Fe learning the ins and outs of digital camera technology from George Schaub, editor of Shutterbug Magazine. Nevada Wier's workshop completed the digital training cycle for me in Santa Fe, and offered many insights into the creative use of compact digital cameras in travel situations that I can put to use in my own pictures, as well as pass on to those who will learn about digital photography from me in tutorials at my Phoenix home.

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