Garden photography workshops are a great excuse to get serious about your photography and hang out with a pro.

You are in a beautiful setting.

Alan Mandell at PhotoBotanic Workshop

You have permission slow down and study nature.

Student with camera at PhotoBotanic workshop, University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden

And most likely the pro will be having as much fun as you.  For the pro, a workshop is a chance to hang out too, with other garden photographers who love what they love.  There is nothing quite so satisfying as teaching those who want to learn.

Garden photographers, pro and amateur, want others to see the beauty of gardens – we want to share.  We want others to appreciate gardens.  We want others to have success.

in a good workshop there is no sense of competition, we all see differently.  There is no workshop where at least one student’s vision will not astound the instructor.

A workshop can take many forms.  Usually the photographer will arrange with a public garden for a program that involves shooting around some theme or another, followed by a group critique.  The critique is where the real learning happens.

The group looks at each others’ photos, all taken under the same conditions and, with the observations of the pro, learns the many ways to see the same thing, to tell different stories.

Some workshops are an opportunity to be in a special location with a pro, a destination event, where there may be little time for critique and you attend just to have access to a special location.

Some workshops may be an intensive time with multiple photographers, as Photobotanic has done with David Perry and Allan Mandell.

David Perry at a PhotoBotanic workshop

A workshop may be a one-on-one private lesson. Whatever the style, for you the student, it should be an opportunity not to be wasted.

Know how your camera works.  Even if it is a beginners workshop, don’t bring a new camera expecting the instructor to know how to use it.  You may or may not need a tripod. You may or may not need a laptop to download files.  You may or may not need to bring lunch.  Pay attention the course description.

Arrive on time.  Get good sleep the night before.  Come with a fresh mind.

But most of all, just go do it.

As the great photographer Jay Maisel said: “If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.” and as Ansel Adams said: “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

Our workshop page has just listed new workshops for Saxon Holt. New classes are being created all the time so join the mailing list. Make it happen.

Between workshops, or if there are none in your neighborhood, the next best thing is one of our award winning Garden Photography Workshop ebooks and studying the lessons in the Living Books section.

PhotoBotanic Garden Photography Workshop Ebooks