≠

Your Own Personalized Photography Workshop
When: As arranged
Where: Santu Lussurgiu, Sardinia, Italy
Instructor: William Woolf

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

Program Description:

Come to Santu Lussurgiu and explore a photographic paradise in a small intimate setting. Work one-on-one with Bill 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 workhop 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.
top


Workshop Structure & Topics

This workshop is put together based on your interests and needs. Photography topics covered in this workshop can include:

  • 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 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
top


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. Classroom time, if desired, 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.

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 PhotoShop and advanced workflow tips. You should also have Adobe PhotoShop CS2 or CS3 installed, if possible. (You are able to download a fully functional free 30-day trial of Adobe CS3 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 also recommends you use Adobe LightRoom, 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.
top


About Santu Lussurgiu

Santu Lussurgiu is a village 503 meters above sea level situated in the crater of a massive volcano mountain, extinct for millions of years, called Montiferru (Iron Mountain) in the province of Oristano. It is located in center-western Sardinia, and is one of the best-preserved historical villages on the island. Forests of Oak and Chestnut trees encircle the village and its mountainous location. The village developed around the small rustic church of Holy Cross (built in 1185 A.D.) and has the characteristic structure of an amphitheater, with ancient stone houses built in concentric configuration along winding and steep narrow cobbled lanes that exist to this day.

The particular geologic conformation of Montiferru makes it and the surrounding area a perfect location for landscape photography. From the rock outcroppings and the diverse flora and fauna on the mountain, to one of the many beautiful beaches in the area, the landscape changes dramatically in just a matter of a few miles.  In every season it is possible to see in the surrounding pastures, sheep, and herds of bue rosso, a special breed of red beef cattle typical to this area of Sardinia, as well as horses of Anglo-Arab-Sardinian lineage.

At a distance of 15 miles is the environmental interesting ecosystem of salt marsh ponds of the Sinis peninsula with their populations of herons and flamingos. The territory around Santu Lussurgiu accommodates many different forms of wildlife from the mountain wild boar, ermines, and several different kinds of hawks, Thrush, and a special Sardinian woodcock. As well as endangered species like the Grifone (a native vulture), the Peregrine Falcon, Mouflon (a unique species of Ungulate), the Sardinian red deer, the Sardinian hare and Sardinian wild cats.

Santu Lussurgiu is also located within the heart of the richest archaeological zone of Sardinia. From the impressive Nuraghe Losa to the sacred well of Saint Cristina, the territory around Santu Lussurgiu is rich with small caves dug into the cliff's sides, going back to Neolithic period, called domus de janas, or the "houses of the fairies". There are also more imposing burial monuments of the nuraghic period (1800-1238 b.c.) called "tombs of the giants".
top


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 resturant 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.

top


Workshop Price & Registration:
€2,000.00 (Euros) per person

Workshop Price Includes:

  • Housing.
  • Daily traditional breakfast and dinner.
  • 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

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.

The cost for a non-photographer guest is €1850.00.

To Register:

  • Please email Italy to start your registration process.
  • Once you have registered you will receive a registration confirmation and additional relevant information about your workshop, including a more 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 Personalized Photography Workshop are quoted in Euros, not US Dollars. To reserve a spot in a workshop, we require a €250.00 non-refundable deposit. If a participant wishes to cancel, he or she must send written notification to William James Woolf more than 45 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 a €250.00 non-refundable deposit. When cancellations occur within 45 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 James Woolf makes every effort to hold workshops at scheduled times and locations. If William James Woolf 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 James Woolf will refund all participants' advance payments, including deposits, to you in full. William James Woolf 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.

top

Contact IPhW


  • About William Woolf

    BillI have been taking photographs and teaching digital photography courses and workshops in Italy since 2000. I 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 I bought a home in Santu Lussurgiu so I could return on semester breaks and for all the summer. I moved to Santu Lussurgiu full-time in 2005.



  • I love this landscape, its culture, and its people. I know the land, its nuances, and the effect of seasonal changes on it. My affection and intimate knowledge of this area of Sardinia makes a difference in the photography workshops I lead here, including knowing both the secret and the not so secret locations for photographing this unique area.

    I 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. I was the Dean of Students of an art institute in Florence, Italy before moving to Sardinia.

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