2009 Spring Workshop:
A Little Italian, Some Wonderful Food, and a LOT of Photography
When: May 16 - 23, 2009
Where: Santu Lussurgiu, Sardinia, Italy
Instructors: William Woolf and Mary Circelli

Program Description
Workshop Structure & Topics
Supplies & Materials
About Santu Lussurgiu
Accommodations
Workshop Price & Registration
Instructors
Download Our PDF Brochure
Contact IPhW

Program Description:

Come to a photography workshop in an extinct volcano in one of the best-preserved historical villages on the island of Sardinia. The village of Santu Lussurgiu with its ancient stone houses built in a concentric configuration along winding and steep narrow cobbled lanes that exist to this day has the characteristic structure of an amphitheater.

Come to Santu Lussurgiu and explore a photographic paradise in a small intimate setting. Work with Bill and Mary improving your photographic skills while discovering a unique part of Italy and Sardinia. Photograph a little known place and the people living there. The focus of this workshop depends on the interests and desires as agreed to during the registration process. This personalized workshop is for one person up to a group size of four individuals with related interests.

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Workshop Structure & Topics

• Photographing landscapes, mountains, seascapes, street scenes, and architecture
• Black and white, and color photography
• Effects of atmosphere and time-of-day on light and color
• Framing and composing for photo documentation
• Shooting in low light and at night
• How to develop a picture essay / story that captures the essence of your experience in Sardinia.

PhotoShop/Lightroom topics covered in this workshop can include:
(Topics covered are based on questionnaire completed by participants after registration and before the workshop begins.)

• Digital Capture / Camera Raw / Histograms
• Navigating PhotoShop, Adobe Bridge and Adobe LightRoom
• Color Management and Correction
• Layers Adjustments, Masks, Dodging and Burning
• Sharpening and digital noise issues
• Blending bracketed exposures
• Merging photos and blending photos
• Creating panoramas
• HDR Images (High Dynamic Range)
• Creating a master file for printing and publishing
• Creating slide shows and Acrobat PDF presentations
• Creating html pages for the web
• Using Actions to automate tasks
• Use Channels to convert color to black and white
• Filing systems and archival storage
• Essential 3rd party software and other imaging-editing software besides PhotoShop (including open-source software)
• Sharpening techniques
• How to create postcards, posters, gallery prints

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Supplies & Materials

You'll need to bring your own digital camera, know how to operate it, and some means of downloading and storing your images out of the camera. The minimum size needed for your camera is 3 Megapixels. Camera types can vary from DSLR to point and shoot digital cameras. Bill and Mary will both be using DSLR (Bill shoots with Nikon, Mary with Canon) and point and shoot cameras (Mary shoots with both a Nikon CoolPix and a Sony, Bill shoots with a Sanyo Xacti) in the workshop for demonstrations and every day image making so you can see what can be done with both types of cameras and images. Classroom time will normally be in the late morning or early afternoon, after your early morning independent shooting. Further photography will take place in the late afternoon with a review of the day’s images occurring together in the evening. We will also be doing some sunrise and sunset shoots for what most consider that perfect photographic light, and some nighttime village scenes. Individual sessions will be scheduled with Bill and Mary several times during the workshop with all workshop participants to discuss their images in more detail.

It is recommended that you bring a laptop computer and memory card reader for downloading, reviewing, and working with your own images as we discuss Photo shop and advanced workflow tips. You should also have Adobe PhotoShop CS3, CS4, or Lightroom2 installed. (You are able to download a fully functional free 30-day trial of Adobe CS4 or Lightroom2 from www.adobe.com. By downloading it two weeks before the workshop and getting to know its basics before arriving this workshop gives you a chance to explore its usefulness for the digital images you take.) Bill will also be discussing and demonstrating Adobe LightRoom2, specifically made for use with RAW images. Be sure to bring a notebook and pen so you can expand on the handouts provided. Photographers of any level will be inspired and grow in this fertile setting.

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About Santu Lussurgiu

Workshop participants stay at a wonderful “albergo diffuso,” the Antica Dimora del Gruccione, in Santu Lussurgiu, whose main focal point centers around the large and magnificent renovated 18th century Spanish mansion built in stone with arcades, heavy beam-layers, and antique wrought-iron balconies, or in several other renovated traditional houses near by, sharing double rooms with private bathrooms (for an additional cost a single room can be requested). Each bedroom is different, beautiful, and well-furnished.

In Santu Lussurgiu there is an excellent culinary tradition based on the local production of wine, cheese, olive oil, meat, honey and herbs. The restaurant at the Antica Dimora del Gruccione uses only the highest quality products from the Montiferru area, including a choice of best products from the wider region, with the menu changing daily. The several-course menu is based on traditional Sardinian cuisine and the Slow Food concept. (Slow Food, dedicated to the preservation of cooking with high-quality local products, was originally an Italian non-profit-society, and is now worldwide.) A vegetarian menu is also available if requested at the time of workshop registration.

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Accommodations

Usually for your Personalized Workshop you will be housed in a renovated 18th Century stone house in a shared double room if more than one individual. Final accommodations will be decided with participants input during the registration process.

In Santu Lussurgiu there is an excellent culinary tradition based on the local production of wine, cheese, olive oil, meat, honey and herbs. All participants will eat breakfast and dinner at the restaurant in the Antica Dimora del Gruccione which uses only the highest quality products from the Montiferru area, including a choice of best products from the wider region, with the menu changing daily. The several-course menu is based on traditional Sardinian cuisine and the Slow Food concept. (Slow Food, dedicated to the preservation of cooking with high-quality local products, was originally an Italian non-profit-society, and is now worldwide.) A vegetarian menu is also available if requested at the time of workshop registration.

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Workshop Price & Registration:
$2,075.00 (US Dollars) per person

Workshop Price Includes:

• Shared double room in “albergo diffuso” (there is an additional charge of $350.00 for a single supplement)
• Daily traditional breakfast and dinner (dinner includes a 1/4 carafe of local wine)
• Transportation for daily photographic excursions
• Transfer from Cagliari airport to Santu Lussurgiu on first day
• Transfer from Santu Lussurgiu to Cagliari airport on final day

Workshop Price Does Not Include:

• Airfare to Sardinia
• Lunch
• Camera supplies
• Local bus transportation
• Independent meals and sight-seeing

To reserve a spot in this workshop you need to send a $500.00 registration deposit of which $325.00 is non-refundable. The balance due is to be paid 120 days before the workshop begins. Please email to start your registration process.

Non-Photographer Guests:

Non-photographer Guests are welcome and encouraged to come. While the Photographer is photographing, Guests may enjoy a choice of site seeing programs and cooking lessons in Santu Lussurgiu for a small additional cost.

The cost for a non-photographer guest is $1,875.00.

To Register:

• Please email to start your registration process.
• Once you have registered you will receive a registration confirmation and additional relevant information about your workshop, including a detailed list of recommended supplies and materials, travel to Italy, and arrival information.
• Or call us at 800-430-6414 or +39.0783.550.494 to register by phone.

Cancellations & Refunds

All fees for the A little Italian, Some Wonderful Food, and a LOT of Photography Workshop are quoted in US Dollars. To reserve a spot in a workshop, we require a $500.00 deposit of which $325.00 is non-refundable. If a participant wishes to cancel, he or she must send written notification to Italy Photo Workshop more than 60 days prior to the workshop. Confirmation of your cancellation will be followed by email. At the time we receive your notification, a refund check will be mailed to you minus the $325.00 non-refundable deposit. When cancellations occur within 60 days or less of the event, the full tuition is non-refundable. However, fifty percent of the tuition may be applied to a future workshop within the following calendar year.

William Woolf, Mary Circelli, and Italy Photo Workshop makes every effort to hold workshops at scheduled times and locations. If William Woolf, Mary Circelli, and Italy Photo Workshop is forced to cancel or alter workshops as scheduled, we will notify registered participants of these changes as soon as possible; this change or cancellation can be the result of illness, insufficient participant registration to make the workshop event feasible, unavailability of planned location(s), or other reasons beyond our control. If a cancellation by us should prove necessary, William Woolf, Mary Circelli, and Italy Photo Workshop will refund all participants' advance payments, including deposits, to you in full. William Woolf, Mary Circelli, and Italy Photo workshop is not responsible for any other costs which participants may have incurred, including but not limited to travel, car rental, lodging, insurance, photographic purchases or rentals.

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Contact IPhW

About William Woolf

Bill have been taking photographs and teaching digital photography courses and workshops in Italy since 2000. He first discovered Santu Lussurgiu and the Montiferru area of Sardinia in 2002, while still living and teaching in Florence, Italy. The Montiferru landscape was such perfect location to photograph that he and his wife bought a home in Santu Lussurgiu so they could return on semester breaks and for all the summer. They moved to Santu Lussurgiu full-time in 2005.

Bill loves this landscape, its culture, and its people. He know the land, its nuances, and the effect of seasonal changes on it. His affection and intimate knowledge of this area of Sardinia makes a difference in the photography workshops he leads here, including knowing both the secret and the not so secret locations for photographing this unique area.

Bill studied photography and art at The Ohio State University, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving an M.F.A. in Studio Art from Florida State University. He was the Dean of Students of an art institute in Florence, Italy before moving to Sardinia.

For more information please visit his web site or contact me at .

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Mary Circelli

Mary has been a photojournalist for more than 25 years at The Columbus Dispatch one of Ohio's major newspapers. She has won numerous awards for her news, food, feature, and Polaroid photography. At a turning point in her career, she has chosen to become more artful with her images.  Her work has been hung in many exhibits and galleries throughout Ohio. Mary has traveled extensively in Italy and has many ideas to share with you, for example, learn the secrets of developing a photo story from this unique photographer. While Mary's main camera is a Canon DSLR, she loves her little digital point and shoot. This camera goes everywhere with her and she will share stories about how these images can be every bit as good as those from her DSLR camera. In fact, she has put together a book using point and shoot images. She is also an author of a self-published book called "Saturdays At 3". A book of images created in a yearlong project.

Mary is a self-taught photographer and has spent 40 years working with some of the most gifted photographers around.  She will teach you her tricks and secrets of photography and how to train your eye to capture the perfect image.

For more information please visit her web site or contact her at .