Perspectives

Travel Portraits

with Nevada Wier

Online registration for this program has closed. To check availability, find about about future dates, or if you would like further information, please call 505-983-1400 ext. 111. Also, get the SFW E-Newsletter for updates!

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Course Description

Travel photographer Nevada Wier is well known for her intimate approach to photographing people during her travels. However, it did not come easy to her when she began photographing. Travel photography requires the combination of technical expertise, culture competence, intuitive awareness, curiosity, and a dash of panache to create fresh, personal images that reveal the spirit of a place and its people. Like many people, Nevada was unsure how to best approach people in different cultures – not speaking the local language. Over many years she overcame her reluctance and now considers photographing the people she meets along the way the most rewarding part of her travels.

In this two-session program, Nevada imparts lessons and tips for how she approaches the technical, practical, creative, and social aspects to create natural, respectful, and unique portraits. She discusses approaching people honestly and directly, working with short lenses, how to create an environmental portrait with natural light, flash, or reflectors. She brings you into people’s homes, as well as joining them in a variety of outdoor environments.

In Session One, Nevada discusses how to overcome shyness in approaching people during your travels, techniques for building rapport, and how to integrate nonverbal communication into your body language. She discusses what lenses to use in different situations and how to creatively frame your image. She analyses what makes a powerful close-up portrait, and more importantly how to integrate the environment into a portrait.

In Session Two, Nevada discusses the power of a spontaneous moment and the times when it is important to know how to choreograph a situation authentically. She discusses how she approaches being at crowded markets and fast-paced festivals. And, lastly, she illuminates how she works quickly with on-camera flash, a reflector, or LED lights.

Join Nevada for four evening hours in early February that gives you the skills and confidence to engage and interact with people during your travels, as well as elevate your aesthetic vision to create portraits that not only express the inner spirit of your subject, but also of yourself.

Additional Information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Open to anyone interested in this special program.

Policies:

View Withdrawal and Transfer Policies for online programs.

For the convenience of participants, recordings of each class session are posted privately for one month after the end of each session. Santa Fe Workshops takes the recordings down after one month to protect the intellectual property of our instructors.

Categories
Portraiture, Travel Photography
about
Nevada Wier

Nevada Wier is a multiple award-winning photographer specializing in documenting the remote corners and cultures of the world. She is recognized for her creative and intimate approach to people.

Nevada has been published in numerous national and international publications, including National Geographic, Geo, National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Outdoor Photographer, Outside, and Smithsonian. Her fine-art prints are featured in numerous public and private collections; she is represented by the Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

Nevada is a well-known keynote speaker, workshop, and seminar instructor. Photo District News named Nevada one of America’s best photography workshop teachers (2010). She is a Fellow of The Explorer’s Club and a member of the Women’s Geographic Society.

A popular workshop instructor, Nevada is also part of our Mentorship Program »

Get to know Nevada in our Inspiration Series video »

Website: nevadawier.com

Instagram: @nevadawier

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