A Portrait of San Miguel de Allende

Remove the lens caps from your eyes, pick up your camera, fully engage your senses, and join Reid Callanan this fall in San Miguel de Allende to discover a true sense of place through the creative photographic process. To capture the magic of this UNESCO World Heritage, we photograph the regions unique light and color, architecture, landscape, culture, moment, and its people. Meandering the streets of San Miguel — a place of color, tradition, mystery, and beauty — 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. Light and moment are the essential elements of well-seen images. 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 reinforce these photographic principles.

Honoring lessons learned from Reid’s previous workshops, Cameras Don’t Take Pictures and Homescapes: A New Paradigm, this upcoming week in October we make the leap from taking pictures to making and creating images that express the way we view and feel about the world in front of us. We explore ways of using our cameras to discover the outside world and expand our creative eye.

San Miguel de Allende is also a perfect place to embark on a personal travel adventure woven with photographic discovery. This artful city possesses more than enough magic and spirit to be a truly inspirational muse. Reid guides you on a week of creativity and exploration, allowing you to embrace seeing a new world through a photographic lens. He has been visiting San Miguel de Allende since 2001, and looks forward to sharing it with you. 

Added Online Component
To extend the benefits of the workshop experience and continue the camaraderie established by the group in San Miguel de Allende, Reid will host a three-session online portfolio development workshop after the in-person workshop ends. This online program will meet once a month for three months and focus on building a personal portfolio of images made in San Miguel or another body of work. This extended online program is optional for workshop participants and there is no additional fee for it.