Next Leica Akademie USA Workshop: "The Winter Landscape," Feb 10th-19th, 2022

We are proud to announce another installment of the Leica Akademie virtual workshop, "The Winter Landscape," currently scheduled for February 10th-19th, 2022. This event was offered in both January and February 2021, and both events sold out. It is limited to 8 participants, and the content has to do with, as the title suggests, outdoor winter photography. This has been one of my favorite workshops to offer, simply because it is about one of my favorite subjects. Winter casts a spell like no other season, and I adore capturing it in photographs. Consider joining us for this special and insightful event showcasing this special time of the year.

The program may be viewed on the Leica Akademie USA's events page at https://leicaakademieusa.com/.../the-winter-landscape.../

Leica Akademie USA offers many different programs throughout the year, having to do with many different genres, and with big-name photographers at that, offering behind the scenes looks into workflows, styles and expressions, many of which are not available anywhere else. Check out their other amazing programs at https://leicaakademieusa.com .

Thanks all to who attended and supported the recent workshop: Black & White - A Processing and Conversion Workshop with Philip Blair last month, in October. The content was driven by a discussion of the various tools available today for photo processing, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One Pro. Also included was some lively discussion on the direction of the technology, software and cameras alike, in the near future.

Plans are in the works for another installment of The Winter Landscape by Philip Blair in the Jan/Feb 2022 timeframe, so stay tuned.

Black & White - A Processing and Conversion Workshop with Philip Blair (Image: Mt. Rainier, Washington, July 2018)

Next Workshop Scheduled: Oct 27 - Nov 5, 2021

The last workshop in January, The Winter Landscape, was virtual, and so there were no new pictures to share. As a result, I never said how it went. So, here’s the report: it sold out quickly, and so another set of dates was added for late Feb, 2021. The second event sold out as well.

Virtual events are, well, facsimiles of the real thing, right? This is what I thought. I quickly discovered the benefits, mainly in that people from anywhere can attend, and desktop & workspace can be shared out for realtime demo. In this sense, I found the venue to be more effective and efficient with regard to direct and hands-on instruction. But missing the full in-person third dimension and experience, of course.

We were going to try an in-person workshop for this fall, but it appears we are not quite out of the pandemic woods yet, so we punted to 2022. In the meantime, a new virtual workshop has been put together and posted. This event will focus specifically on the tools and workflows involved in various approaches to digital black and white processing.

While I would like to spend more time out travelling and shooting, the reality is that a significant investment of my time in photography is spent at the computer. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless I’m floundering around and wondering if I’m “doing it right.” My own workflow is constantly evolving and growing. The workshop will therefore offer views on image processing in general as well as provide a hard look at the broad selection of available tools, with a mind toward growing confidence in one’s selected software and workflow.

Thanks for support go to Leica Akademie USA, LHSA - The International Leica Society and those special folks in my network, you know who you are :)

Leica Akademie Event, January 2021: The Winter Landscape with Philip Blair

With 2020 drawing to a close, we enter fall and winter with the hopes that the strains of the year will wane and pass sooner than later. I have always found the winter season to be a special time of renewal and re-invention, due to the quiet repose and personal space of contemplation it creates. With a program related to these themes, we have posted the next event in the Leica in the Landscape workshop series, by Leica Akademie USA, to take place January 29th - February 6th, 2021. I’ll be leading 8 participants in a variety of discussion topics related to winter landscape photography. The biggest difference from previous workshops is that this one will be purely virtual, due to the restrictions and conditions forced by COVID-19 this year. The event is posted here and includes the registration link. As a virtual event, the workshop may be attended from anywhere, and no travel is required.

LEICA AKADEMIE EVENT OCTOBER, 2019: ALPINE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH PHILIP BLAIR

The event in October 2019, “Alpine Photography with Philip Blair,” of the Leica Akademie workshop series, was a success. We had a full house of 12 participants, plus myself and Nathan Kellum from Leica Store Bellevue. The format followed a combination of indoor lecture, discussion and instruction, plus one day of shooting up at Mt. Rainier National Park.

The indoor instruction was held on Friday and Sunday, at the Hyatt Bellevue. Saturday’s shoot was spectacular, with mostly clear skies and dramatic clouds. Thank you to everyone who joined and also thanks to the folks at Leica Store Bellevue for their support.

The color cover photo of Mt. Rainier was shot with the Leica SL and the Super-Vario-Elmar-SL 16-35mm f/3.5-4.5 ASPH lens. The black and white landscape shots also posted here were all shot by me as well, with the 24MP APS-C Leica CL camera.

Leica Akademie Workshop: October 11, 12 and 13th, 2019

January 2019 our Leica Akademie workshop at Deception Pass, WA was a sold-out success. A new upcoming event of a similar format has been announced, and will take place October 11, 12 and 13th, 2019; this time featuring Mt. Rainier, WA. The workshop will combine instruction indoors and outdoors for 12 participants. Details on the upcoming event can be found on the Leica Akademie USA homepage.

Events like this are really cool opportunities to meet folks, gain new ideas, progress one's skills and overall have a neat-o and memorable time with other photographers of similar interests. If you ever get the opportunity to attend an event such as this, I highly recommend it :). Check out the other events scheduled and hosted in conjunction with accomplished photographer-instructors at Leica Akademie USA and at Leica Store Bellevue .

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Source: https://leicaakademieusa.com/leica-at-mt-r...

Deception Pass, Washington, January 2019

Here are the images I made from Deception Pass State Park, Washington, Dec 2018/January 2019. Some of these images were created as part of the Leica Akademie USA: Monochrom Landscape with Philip Blair workshop, in conjunction with Leica Store Bellevue. This was a 2 1/2 day event, sold out with 12 participants, with the first and third day being meeting room instruction indoors, with the second day shooting in the field at Deception Pass State Park, about an hour and a half north of Seattle. Others of the image series I shot on two separate outings in Dec 2018.

Expecting varied weather at best, we were instead stunned with 60 degree, sunny weather. In January, no less. Sure enough, February would bring heavy snowstorms throughout the area. December 2017 brought sever windstorms. But January? Sunny and clear springlike conditions for the workshop event, surprise surprise.

Be sure to look up other events with Leica Akademie USA and Leica Store Bellevue. They’ve got something for everyone :) Thanks, guys, at the Store and Akademie USA, for the support and promotion of the event.

This gallery can also be found on Facebook here.