A Portrait of San Miguel de Allende

with Reid Callanan

October 13 – 17, 2025

Package Price $2395.00

International Deposit $1500.00

Course Description

San Miguel de Allende is the perfect place to embark on a travel adventure woven with personal photographic discoveries. This artful city offers a vibrant cultural environment with more than enough magic and spirit to be a truly inspirational muse. Pick up a camera with eyes wide open, fully engage your senses, and join Reid Callanan this fall in his favorite city in the world to discover a true sense of place through the creative photographic process.

To capture the magic of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, we photograph the regions unique light and color, architecture, landscape, culture, moment, and its gracious people. Meandering the streets of San Miguel—a place of beauty, tradition, and mystery—to create photographs that capture the essence of the city is one of the joys of this program.

Early mornings and late afternoons are devoted to exploring and photographing San Miguel de Allende, both on your own and on group excursions. In the classroom, we investigate the foundations of making strong photographs. We learn to see the many nuances of light and then develop the ability to capture the illusive, decisive moments that highlight our days as still photographers. In addition, we explore the graphic building blocks of successful composition, paying particular attention to foreground/background, framing, layering, perspective, and point of view. Daily group image reviews of new work led by Reid reinforce these photographic principles.

Borrowing lessons learned from his previous workshops, Cameras Don’t Take Pictures, Homescapes, and The Way of the Traveler, Reid helps you make the leap from taking pictures to creating photographs that express the way you view and feel about the world and your place in it. We explore the many ways of using our cameras to discover the outside world and expand our inner creative eye. Over the course of the week, we make our own unique portraits of this city and its inhabitants.

Reid has been visiting San Miguel de Allende since 2001 and looks forward to sharing this special place with you. Photographers at all levels and technical ability (even iPhone users) are welcome.

Additional Information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Amateurs, Advanced Amateurs

What You Should Know:

Working knowledge of digital workflow and manual mode on your digital SLR or mirrorless camera. Apple iPhone users with digital workflow knowledge are also welcome.

Activity Level:

To get the most from your workshop experience, participants should be in good physical (mobility, stamina) and mental health. Come prepared for the high elevation of San Miguel de Allende, long days, and seasonal weather. You must be able to carry your own photographic and personal gear at all times, both on campus and on location. You are responsible for being open and honest about your physical fitness, and we reserve the right to remove you from the workshop if we find your fitness to be less than that which you have described.

Participants should be able to engage in moderate outdoor exercise for up to an hour or more at a time including walking on uneven terrain such as cobblestone walkways and roads, dirt, and loose rock.

Policies:

View Payment, Refund, Withdrawal, and Transfer Policies for this International Program.

Accommodations:

We encourage participants to stay on campus at Hotel Posada de la Aldea for ease of proximity to retreat activities and well-priced rooms. Double accommodations (for couples or friends taking workshops together) are $415 per person for 6 nights (approximately $70 per person, per night), Sunday through Friday, or $830 per person, single accommodations for 6 nights (approximately $140 per night), Sunday through Friday. Additional nights at the hotel can be arranged for participants; please discuss needs with the Administration Office in Santa Fe.

Package Price INFO:

$2,395 (USD) includes tuition, breakfast Monday through Saturday, lunch Monday through Friday, final dinner on Friday, and model/location/materials fees if applicable to the class. Hotel accommodations are not included in the package price; see details above.

about

Reid Callanan

Reid Callanan is Founder and Director of the Santa Fe Workshops. In addition to his responsibilities leading The Workshops for the past 32 years, Reid is also an accomplished photographer who welcomes the opportunity to teach workshops whenever he can.

Reid started photographing in 1974 during a semester abroad at Richmond College in London and has been making images ever since using a variety of photographic processes including silver halide, Polaroid imagery, and now digital capture. His photographic projects include a personal diary of images called HOMESCAPES, black-and-white portraits made in Cuba and Mexico, and most recently iPhone travel images posted to Instagram.

In 1994 Reid founded the non-profit Santa Fe Center for Photography, now known as CENTER, and is currently Vice- President of its Board of Directors. He serves on the President’s Council of the Texas Photographic Society; on the Board for American Society of Media Photographers Foundation; and on the Advisory Board for Bertha Crosley Ball Center for Compassion.

Website: reidcallanan.com