Seeing Light

Photographers, novices and professionals alike sometimes take light for granted and neglect its subtleties. Tony O’Brien shares his decades of experience to help participants heighten their awareness and truly see what it is your photograph and how to express that vision.

During this five-day workshop, while we are photographing during the day and at night, we are deepening our awareness by using only natural light. Rather than focusing on technical aspects, this week with Tony is about expanding our willingness to take risks and trust ourselves.

Keeping an open mind is essential in order to meet this challenge and resist the temptation to alter the light artificially. The streets of Santa Fe and villages of Northern New Mexico is our playground. Whether our focus is on portraits, still life, landscapes, we learn to think about what it is we want to say through our photographs as we experiment with light.

Our schedule includes time alone photographing, as well as time spent together discussing our work and what it reveals. Daily image reviews and assignments fill our days, as we perceive, frame, and translate light into photographs that reveal so much more than the sum of their individual elements.