Richard Young has designed this retreat to offer you the ultimate progression in your nature and landscape photography. The goal of the retreat is to refine a collection of your best photographs—or a series of work—into a polished portfolio set containing twelve fine art prints displayed in an elegant portfolio box. Investing in this program will provide you with honed tools to refine your message (and voice) and you will leave with a portfolio to showcase your photography.
At sunset and sunrise each day, you’ll create new work as you explore the winter landscape at Mt White Station. Throughout the rest of the day, you’ll be engaged in a programme of keynote talks on advanced processing, portfolio development and fine art printing.
The group is limited to only 6 photographers in two 4WD vehicles. All meals at the lodge are included, along with a single room with shared facilities (no single upgrade required) and transport from Christchurch Airport is included. Once you have been picked up we will take care of everything else!
One of the most significant challenges faced by photographers is to create a portfolio; to cultivate a series of photographs that exist cohesively together as a meaningful collection of work. During the retreat, you will be free from the distractions of the outside world to focus on your own personal development as a photographer. Each day your tutors will lead a dedicated session to help you critique, curate, and edit your work to be printed as a set of twelve 13×19″ fine art prints to be showcased in your portfolio box.
On the retreat, you’ll learn advanced editing skills guided by intent to change your approach from “post-processing” to “expressive processing”. We will look at how to apply the use of expressive colour, the art tonal relationships and flow techniques within your photographs. You will leave the retreat not only with advanced processing skills but also a method of how to apply these skills to refine your portfolio collection as a cohesive body of work.
Immerse yourself over 7-days in the stunning high country landscapes of Mt White Station in the middle of winter. This is an exciting landscape to explore in our 4WD vehicles, providing access to some exclusive winter locations. The retreat has been timed to offer the best chance of hoar frosts and snow-covered winter landscapes in the high country.
Richard Young is a Fine Art Printing Ambassador for Epson New Zealand and has 19 years of experience producing and selling fine art prints over his career as a professional photographer. He has also managed two art galleries and worked alongside established artists to digitise, print and showcase their work. He brings to this experience a refined portfolio-building process, experience selling photographic prints, and a love for exploring a more expressive approach to landscape and nature photography.
Matthias H. Risse interest and passion for fine-art photographic prints, began in the darkroom of the historical Zeiss Optics building in Germany, when he printed his first analog print. Following this he studied photography and software technology in Biefeld, Dresden and London. Working with some of the best minds in art and documentary photography for over 20 years has taught him the tremendous value of integrating fine-art printing with an iterative and honest editing process to grow one’s artistic position and body of work.
This workshop is designed for photographers interested in learning advanced processing techniques to produce artistic photographs and build a strong portfolio to showcase yourself as a photographer. You will also be sent selection exercises before the workshop, you will need to bring with you a collection of your best work. During the workshop, we will be working to refine all of your existing images down to 12 strong images that showcase you as a photographer, or a project you have been working on.
You will need to bring your Laptop/MacBook to this workshop and are required to be competent in the use of Lightroom (or chosen editing software) before the workshop, as we will be focusing on advanced tools and techniques.
As a prerequisite for this program, you will be provided free access to our Online Lightroom Course, which is essential to complete prior to the retreat.
We will have two Epson SC-P906 printers setup on-site to you the opportunity to produce test prints and evaluate your images each day, working towards building your final portfolio. You will learn how to select the right Epson Signature Worthy Fine Art Paper for your work and refine edits for your final twelve portfolio images.
No previous printing experience is required.
To offer a creative environment, limited to a group of 6 photographers to have the time and support to develop your photography skills and to fully explore each beautiful location and push creative limits.
A reasonable level of fitness is required for this workshop to make sure you can access all the locations. Most locations we shoot will require some walking of 30 minutes one way, sometimes uphill or on rough trails carrying your gear and possibly in snowy or icy conditions.
The workshop is based at Mt White Station. We will pick the whole group up from Christchurch on the first morning of the workshop. On the last day, we will drop you back at Christchurch City/Airport to connect with late afternoon flights.
Start time on day 1: The whole group will be picked up from Christchurch at around 8 am, and we will drive to Mt White Station. If flying into Christchurch, you will need to fly in the day before the workshop.
Finish time on day 4: The workshop finishes at midday at Mt White station and returns to Christchurch to connect with late afternoon flights after 4 pm.
A non-refundable deposit of NZD$800.00 is required to reserve your space for the workshop. The remaining balance is due 30 days prior to the start of the workshop. You may pay in full at the time of booking, the balance (minus the deposit) will remain fully refundable until 30 days before the workshop.
Booking and Cancellation Policy: Please click here for our booking and cancellation policy.
I had a brilliant experience recently on the 7 day Portfolio & Processing Retreat. Both Richard & Glen were outstanding tutors, guides and mentors, both are extremely passionate, talented & professional photographers. Both ensured that we all left the retreat with a greater skills set and knowledge of creating and developing a portfolio. In fact it changed the way I look at my photographic style and why I take pictures. I could not recommend this course any higher to anyone who wants to hone and improve their portfolios and improve their skill set in post.
Amazing retreat at Mt White Station where we developed a portfolio of work. Learnt a great deal on how to process for a set to sit nicely together along with some amazing locations for sunrise and sunset, totally recommend.
What a fabulous week spent at Mt White Station, with some great like minded, avid and very talented photographers. It was everything I wanted and more. Be prepared for loads of work, amazing shooting locations and massive amounts of fabulous food. Mt White Station is the perfect location to immerse yourself in your photography. No interruptions, and WOW spectacular scenery!
Our 2 very talented and experienced photography leaders for the workshop, were incredibly helpful and assisted with each and every portfolio, no matter your individual capabilities. I went there to learn new skills and that’s exactly what I came home with.
I look forward to travelling back to NZ again one day soon & I would certainly consider another workshop with this group.