WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE
I thought it would be fun, this time around, if I share behind-the-scenes photos, and images taken by the participants so you'd get a real sense of what it's like to come on one of these workshops. Thanks to Erik Kuna who took many of the BTS shots, along with contributors Vito and Rodolfo.
THE NIGHT BEFORE
The night before my workshops, we all get together for a casual dinner, and it's so much fun. We all get a chance to meet, get to know each other, share a great meal, and laugh a lot before we get to work. Well, as soon as knew we were doing a workshop in New York, I knew the place for this 'nigh-before' dinner had to be Carmine's on West 44th (just steps off of Broadway in the heart of Times Square. It's one of my very favorite restaurants anywhere and it is awesome!
The food is served family style – incredible Italian food and lots of wine makes for a great dinner. We had their signature salads, Calamari, Chicken Parm, eggplant parmigiana, rigatoni with meat sauce, spaghetti Aglio E Olio, Chicken Scaloppine over angel-hair pasta, and veggies galore, and we topped it all off with the biggest sundae you've ever seen and lots of Tiramisu. We were there three hours+ sharing stories, laughing, and getting to know everybody.
At the end of dinner I give a briefing for our first morning shoot together (and the bad news that the bus is pulling out at 4:30 am). We go through the gear we'll need, and other important stuff for the day that lies ahead, and we all head back to the hotel and hit the sack – early day tomorrow.
DAY ONE
4:30 am comes early. We've got THREE shoots this morning, and in this case, Erik and I decided to start with some of the classic New York shots, as the weather was great and the sky looked like it would cooperate, so we jumped in our tour bus (with Gloria our driver) and headed across the river to Brooklyn for our first shoot – the classic Manhattan skyline with rows of low pylons in the water that are just begging you to make a long exposure (which they all did).
Before the workshop, Erik and I made a training video just for the group on how to shoot long exposure shots, so everybody could get up to speed on the basics before we got to the first shoot. Erik and I aren't shooting – we're there to make sure everybody else is, so we're helping with everything from settings to composition (and later, the post processing). 30 or 40 minutes later, we're back on the bus heading to location #2 which is not far away.
THE MAGAZINE ASSIGNMENT
There's much more to telling the story of a trip than just what we call "Hero Shots" which are the epic type shots, like a couple of the locations we're shooting at this morning, and so on Day One, the participants get a assignment, which is, on their own, to capture those other storytelling shots that help tell the story of a destination. These are sometimes very simple images, and on their own, they're nothing special, but in the context of the story of your trip, they're really important. To help them really realize the importance of these shots, I create magazine layouts using their images (eight or nine two page spreads and a cover shot) laid out similarly to how a magazine would do it. They are a combination of hero shots and storytelling shots, and together they help tell the story of a destination.
BELOW: Here's one of Paul's spreads below – in this case a "double-truck' magazine spread, and the shot is from our first shoot that morning (see how the pylons play so perfectly into the scene?). It's especially nice when you do a long exposure (he used a 10x ND here). You'll see a lot more of these throughout, but mostly what you'll be seeing are the hero shots, but I'll try and include a few other spreads, too just for context. BTW: I give all the participants all their magazine spreads after I lay them out. When we reveal these in class, it's one of the highlights of the workshops, and a real "Ah ha" moment about the importantance of those other storytelling shots.
NEXT STOP: DUMBO AND THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE SHOT
It was our 2nd shoot that morning – the bus pulled us up right to the location, and at that hour, nobody was there except us (tourists and influencers don't like getting up early, but we do!). As we were leaving, the Instagram influencers (people who make their living posing in the shots on location) came. It's mostly young girls, who show up with a photographer, or a tripod and iPhone, and often a suitcase full of changes of outfits and lots of hats. They pose right in the center of the scene, and they shoot themselves in the same or similar pre-planned poses again and again and again. If you don't get up early, the place will be overrun with them (this location has become very popular with the pro-influencer crowd). An hour from now, the street will be packed!
WE CAN WALK TO THIS NEXT ONE
The next shooting location, which uses the Brooklyn Bridge to create the leading lines, gives us a different view of Manhattan. It was a little chilly that morning, and the wind started picking up along the water, but we stayed there shooting until about 7:30, and then it was back to the hotel for breakfast.
I SHOT A QUICK LITTLE VIDEO FROM THAT LOCATION
Give it a quick look – it's really short, but gives you a real idea of what it's like being there.
HERE'S A FEW MORE SPREADS FROM OUR GROUP:
BACK TO THE CLASSROOM, AND THEN A FOOD SHOOT
When we get in the classroom (which is always right there in the hotel), the first 90-minutes we call "Lab time," which is where the group gets to work on editing their images from the morning shoot and then turn in their best photo from the morning's shoots (so, in this case, anywhere from one to three shots), and once we get them all in, we take a break, and then we do in-class critiques, which are really helpful. We have bottled water and snacks at all the tables (including lots of chocolate), and it's a comfortable working space. It's our working home for four days, so it's important that it's a comfortable working environment. After the critiques (and another short break), we're learning about Lightroom, Photoshop, and travel photography. In the photo below (thanks, Vito!), Mr. Kuna is explaining how to use an app to find out what the cloud situation will be for our sunset shoot, and how to find out exactly where the moon is going to appear in the sky. Kuna is a night photographer ninja.
TIME FOR A QUICK FOOD SHOOT
When they do survey's about why people love to travel, one of the top reasons people mention is that they love trying the food of different regions and countries, and that's probably why great food photos, and photos related to dining and drinking, are so popular in travel magazines. So after a tutorial in the classroom about how to photograph food for travel storytelling, we had a local restaurant prepare a few dishes and then allowed our group to come and practice what they just learned in the classroom.
LUNCH AND A LONG SIESTA
At 1:00 PM, we break for lunch (we were pretty hungry from our food shoot), and everybody is free to have lunch on their own, but nobody eats alone – we are already all pretty much connected with each other, so people wind up nearby in groups of two or four or more at meals. After lunch, we take an extended break – we've been up since 4:00 am, and folks need time to catch up on some sleep, head out shooting their magazine projects, or just relax. So, generally, our break is from around 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm, but that fluctuates some days based on the shoots (for example, today, we had a 12:30 pm food shoot) and what time we need to be in place for sunset.
THE BUS LEAVES FOR OUR SUNSET SHOOT AT 5:30 PM
We meet in the lobby around 5:15 pm, and we head out around 5:30. We don't have far to go tonight because we're heading to the new Summit One Vanderbilt observatory. This place is special because it gives an 1,100+ foot high view of New York that most folks haven't seen before since most of the elevated New York cityscape views come from the Top of the Rock observatory (which is a mob scene full of tourists at sunset), and it's a view we've all seen a thousand times. But Summit 1 offers views of the iconic Chrysler Building (which it towers above) and the Empire State Building that you'd normally only be able to get with a helicopter (but without all the vibration and terrifying door-open scary stuff).
Summit One is really something – I've never seen anything like it – it's more of an attraction than your average observatory – it's three stories once you get up there, and there are all these different experiences along the way. They charge extra to be there at sunset, but all entry tickets for anything we do are included in the workshop, so they were all set. But beyond just getting their tickets (and a drink ticket at the bar on the top), we did something that would help them tremendously in getting killer shots – we bought everyone a special rubber lens hood (you can see us using it in the shot below) that lets you remove all the glare you'd normally get when shooting through glass, and it works like a charm.
CHECK OUT THIS TWO PAGE SPREAD!
Emory took this shot through the glass, but you'd never know – those rubber hoods work wonders (plus, I love his composition here, right after sunset with the lights of the city coming on.
We stayed at Summit One until around 9:30, and then took the bus back to the hotel and then had a late night dinner before hitting the sack, because (you guessed it), the bus leaves the next morning at 4:30 am. Nite, everybody.
DAY TWO STARTS EARLY
We pull out from the hotel at 4:30 AM heading for the Bethesda Terrace in New York's famous Central Park. Erik and I always come in a couple of days early and visit all the locations we'll be taking the group to during the workshop. We do this to ensure there are no obstructions, no construction, and no scaffolding and to find the best access points, shooting locations, and the whole nine yards. When we visited this location, hundreds of tourists were everywhere, Just packed! But we knew that wouldn't happen at sunrise, and sure enough, we were the only ones there and had the whole place to ourselves (well, until a TikTok influencer showed up to shoot a video), but by the time he got there, we're about wrapping up and heading to our 2nd Central Park shoot.
NOTE: If you're wondering, "Scott, aren't you concerned about being in places like Brooklyn and Central Park when it's pitch dark with all that gear? Any concerns about thieves?" Well, yes – I was a little concerned about being in Central Park in the dark – so we hired an off-duty New York City police officer to be with our group, standing watch wherever we went, and he was great. He even rode on the bus with us. He was an imposing presence, and thankfully nothing happened; nobody messed with us, etc. Totally worth it.
HERE ARE SOME OF OUR GROUP'S SHOTS FROM THERE
NEXT STOP: CENTRAL PARK'S BELVEDERE CASTLE
After that, we jumped back in the bus to head for another part of Central Park, about 10 minutes away – it's the park's own Castle (with the towers seen in the movie "Ghostbusters" right behind it (as seen below). Unfortunately, the area right at the water's edge, the one we had location scouted the day before, was closed off for some reason, but we were still able to get the shot (as seen below, in a great image from Stu).
LATE BREAKFAST TODAY BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A SPECIAL SHOOT
Usually, we'd be in the classroom after the morning shoots, but we were able to get special access at this one-time slot to photograph one of the most beautiful cathedrals anywhere – the stunning St. John the Devine –, and we were able to get our group in a full hour before it opened to the public. We were allowed to set up tripods and pretty much shoot anywhere, and it was an awesome experience (and everybody got fantastic shots!).
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SHOT!
This is what I'm talking about when I said our group crushed it. Take a look at this shot inside the cathedral taken by Stu (below).
BACK FOR BREAKFAST, THEN BACK IN THE BUS. ANOTHER SPECIAL SHOOT!
It took over a month and lots of negotiations to get the New York Port Authority to allow our group to set up tripods and shoot photographs inside the world-famous architectural wonder, The Oculus (handhelds are allowed, but not tripods under any circumstances). It's a $4-billion dollar train station designed by one of my heroes of modern architecture, Santiago Calatrava (I was lucky enough to photograph his amazing train station in Lisbon just a few weeks ago). Needless to say, they are VERY strict about taking photos inside the Oculus right near the former site of the World Trade Center and part of the redevelopment of that entire area. It's an incredibly impressive structure, combining a train station, shopping mall, and entertainment experience, and it's like nothing I've ever seen.
See the security guard behind us on the right in the previous shot? He was really friendly, but absolutely could not believe we had permission to do this. Neither did his supervisor or his supervisor's supervisor, but I had the permit printed and in hand. They were pretty freaked out about us but always friendly and professional. They said, "This just doesn't happen," so I think we were even luckier to have the opportunity than we thought.
CLASSROOM TIME AND THEN A SHORT SIESTA
Why the shorter siesta today? It was just an hour shorter, but it was because I was able to rent a daylight photo studio, 22 stories up overlooking the Empire State Building, and a model and fashion stylist. Once I had the studio, my next call was to Lindsay Adler, one of our industry's top fashion photographers (she has some fantastic courses on KelbyOne, and I count myself as one of her biggest fans). She always has the best models, and she recommended Milly, a fantastic model from England now living in the US, and Raytell, a Fashion Stylist in NYC, and they were both great and so much fun to work with (thank you again, Lindsay!).
Most of our class had never shot portraits before, let alone fashion, so it was a new experience for many of them, but they did amazingly well. Here (below) are some behind-the-scenes photos and then some of the groups magazine spreads after.
BACK TO THE CLASSROOM FOR EDITING AND INSTRUCTION
After this shoot, we headed back to the classroom for some editing and some lessons, and then we broke for dinner, and in New York, the choices are endless. Luckily, we can stay up late this night because we skip the dawn shoot on Friday (Day Three). By the third day, we kind of need to skip the third day – we've been going almost non-stop, shooting, editing, classroom time – it's a very busy schedule, so nobody argues about sleeping in.
DAY THREE; WE START IN THE CLASSROOM
Breakfast in the hotel at 8:30-ish, and then we're in the classroom at 9:00 am, all rested and ready. We're working straight through with editing, image critiques, and more classroom stuff because we've got a busy afternoon and sunset shoot scheduled.
ON LOCATION TAXI CAB SHOOT
In the afternoon, we jump in the bus again and head out to a street near Wall Street where we've hired a 1960s Checker Taxi Cab, and we found the perfect street to stage this "old New York" shoot – in fact, once it was all set up, it looked like a movie set. Weirdest thing: not a single car turned down that street the entire hour-long shoot. Not a one. In New York City. Come on, that's crazy! (Crazy awesome!).
BACK IN THE BUS – WE'RE HEADING FOR NEW JERSEY. NEW JERSEY?
Some of the best views of Manhattan are from across the water in New Jersey, so that's where we went, and Mr. Kuna used the app PhotoPills to calculate precisely when and where the moon would rise (he said it would come up literally right above Summit One, and near the Empire State building, and if the clouds would just cooperate, we'd be in the perfect location. So, off to New Jersey, we go!
AS USUAL, MR. KUNA WAS RIGHT
It didn't look like it would happen because of the cloud cover, but sure enough, it happened just like he said it would, and the full moon came right above Summit One (that's it right below the moon). But it wasn't just the moon – the sunset light on the skyline was nothing short of spectacular, and everybody was really excited.
LATE NIGHT EDITING PIZZA PARTY
After we got back from our sunset shoot (it was pretty late), we did a late-night "Photo Editing Pizza Party" (it was totally optional), and we brought in some delicious New York pizzas; Bill brought some bottles of Vino, and we stayed up late editing our images, Erik and I worked on the final magazine layouts, and we were up later than we should have, but we had a blast.
DAY FOUR: GETTIN' UP EARLY
It was time for another sunrise shoot – back in the bus at 4:30 AM and over to a location Mr. Kuna scoped out. We had traveled over there during our scouting trips, and we realized that while you could get a decent shot of the Statue of Liberty with the Empire State Building and skyline behind it at 200mm, at 400mm, it was dramatically better and at 600mm, it was just beautiful. However, I don't think anybody in our group brought that long of a lens, so Erik contacted our friends at B&H Photo, and they contacted Sigma. The awesome folks at Sigma delivered a large case of 150-600mm zoom lenses to our hotel for our group, and B&H provided both Nikon and Canon adapters so they could be used in mirrorless bodies (we didn't have any Sony shooters in the group this time, which is pretty rare).
It was our last morning shoot, and the magazine layouts were already done, so I didn't get the opportunity to put anyone's shots into the magazine. Sorry 'bout that.
BACK FOR BREAKFAST AND CLASSROOM TIME
After our morning shoot in New Jersey, we're back to the hotel, breakfast, and lab time. At the end of lab time and critiques, we presented the magazine spreads, which is so much fun. It's such a treat for Erik and me to see how great our group did – how they nailed the hero shots, embraced the photo storytelling photos on their own, and how fantastic their spreads came together. They are all different, and they are all awesome. It's really a highlight, and everybody digs it.
After the magazine spread reveals, now everybody had to pick their single best image of the week and we all voted (it's a blind vote) for what we think is the single best image of the week and that person won a beautiful award (seen below). As I mentioned, Michael won for his awesome image of The Oculus. :)
OFF TO THE MORGAN LIBRARY
Our last shoot came that afternoon, after classroom editing, critiques, magazines, and the best photo award. Luckily, it was a short walk from our hotel, and if you've never been – the place is spectacular. It's the personal office and library of J.P. Morgan, and it's truly a hidden gem. We shot there for around an hour, and then it was time for our farewell luncheon at the rooftop of a great local restaurant, Tavern 29. We had excellent service and great food; it was a perfect way to wind down the workshop. Lots of laughs, and stories, and we're all still talking about how incredible the moon over Manhattan sunset shoot was the night before.
WRAPPING UP WITH SOME MISC SHOTS FROM THE WEEK
As great as all these photos are and as hard as we worked, one thing that always amazes me is how quickly we come together as a group. Everybody is supporting everybody and helping each other out. Laughing. Sharing meals. Stories. Camera Settings. Riding together on the bus – staying up late, getting up early- starts at that opening dinner and carries through the whole workshop. It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it, but it's uncanny how you make friends at these workshops. I guess it's not surprising – You take a bunch of like-minded folks, all with a passion for photography and travel, and something extraordinary happens. I feel very blessed even to be a part of it.
Thanks for letting me share this workshop with you. Erik and I had a great group of photographers with us, and we know what a difference that makes in the whole experience, and we're very grateful indeed. I hope one day, maybe I'll be shooting with you at one in the future.
Until next time. Ciao, ciao!