This is the fourth in my springtime workshop series, and it promises to be every bit as exciting as my others during the past three years: Prague, Tuscany, and France. As a lot of you know, Katka, a woman living in Prague, produced my Prague and Tuscany workshops and as a result, were a huge success.
Katka is back with me and will produce two workshops for me in 2015. My “Springtime in Portugal” workshop beginning May 21st with my traditional meet and greet, and my six-day “Autumn in Provence” workshop starting October 30th.
Portugal is one of the countries in the world I’ve always wanted to share with a workshop and with Katka’s help it will finally come to fruition.
Portugal was named best country to visit in 2014 by the Spanish edition of Condé Nast Traveler magazine and was also selected as the Best Value Destination in 2014 by Rough Guides. The highlights among Portugal’s attractions are: culture, gastronomy and wines, beaches, golf, history, variety of landscapes and above all the hospitality of the Portuguese people, considered to be affable, open and honest by the Spanish.
We’ll be based out of Lisbon, which as most of you know is the capital of Portugal.
Click here for pictures of Lisbon from Google Images.
Lisbon is a remarkably vibrant city filled with history and historic districts not to be missed. According to what I’ve been reading, is Lisbon is known as the white city due to the sunlight that reflects off the River Tagus (Tejo in Portugese). Winner of the Travellers’ Choice title in 2014 on TripAdvisor, for the econd year running, it was also awarded Europe’s Leading City Break Destination 2014 by the World Travel Awards.
Finally, The Huffington Post has rated it one of the top fifty cities to see in your lifetime.
Several of the many locations we’ll be shooting are UNESCO sites such as: Torre de Belem, and Mosteiro dos Jeronimos:
We’ll also have many photo ops not to be missed, in Lisbon’s old town:
The Alfama district in Lisbon is full of narrow streets, filled with all the elements of visual design, as well as color, shops and lots of local flavor; definitely on our bucket list as places to photograph, taking home great images and memories:
For those of you that want to see a different side of Lisbon, Expo Park waits for us for an afternoon shoot:
Part of the week will also be devoted to shooting in areas surrounding Lisbon, including: Obidos, a medieval town just north of Lisbon:
Cabo da Roca, the most western point of Europe with rugged seas and rocks, sporting a wonderful lighthouse:
The incredibly beautiful and picturesque town of Sintra, another UNESCO site:
Within 30 kms of Lisbon lay several incredible beaches for those sun worshipers that might want to take a little time off to walk or lie on the beach while soaking up the sun, the beautiful skies and blue-green water looking out to the Atlantic Ocean:
http://www.cross-pollinate.com/blog/1384/lisbon-beach-guide/
Each day we’ll shoot early in the morning, come back to the hotel for breakfast and relax while downloading your images. During the late morning to early afternoon, we’ll have classroom critiques of your “daily catch”.
Right after the critiques and lunch, we’ll head out to a location that will be determined by Katka and myself after scouting all the locations several days before the start of the workshop. That way we’re guaranteed not to be at the right place at the wrong time. The complete daily schedule will be handed out at the traditional “meet and greet”.
As is always the case, you are free to go anywhere you want any day you want if you’re the type that likes to venture out shoot by yourself. Or, you can just take the morning or afternoon off to just relax, sit at a neighborhood café people watching, exploring the area, or shop.
Katka, and I are in the midst of finding a hotel that is centrally located and in an area that affords walking around. People that have taken my workshops know that it will be a quality star hotel and competitive as far as other hotels in our price range.
As always, you’re free to stay where you want and meet up at designated times for class or for shooting at one of our locations.
Lisbon has a good metro and tram system for getting around, and cabs are very inexpensive. Transportation to locations that are further away will be provided in the cost of the workshop.
The price will be $1395.00, and it includes wine and appetizers during the “meet and greet”, transportation outside the city, and the farewell dinner at a great restaurant, which incidentally has become a tradition.
The workshop will officially end on May 27th at 1:00pm.
The size of the class will be limited, but your spouse or partner is welcome to join you for this fabulous adventure. However, you’ll be responsible for all their expenses including the farewell dinner.
I hope to see many of you that have taken my workshops before, and I welcome all of you that will be shooting with me for the first time on one of my great destination workshops.
Espero ve-lo em breve em Portugal,
Joe
