June 24 - 28, 2008

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Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers, a non-profit organization, is proud to offer an outstanding opportunity for people wishing to improve their skills in scenic and wildlife photography. Your classroom is the spectacular Rocky Mountain National Park, at Estes Park, Colorado, where vivid scenery and abundant wildlife provide memorable photographic opportunities. Award-winning pros reveal their secrets for obtaining exciting photos under all conditions.

The 2008 Scenic and Wildlife Photography Workshop will be June 24-28 and is open to those with either digital or film cameras with manual adjustment. Cost for the 5-day workshop is $795. This includes all instruction, daily transportation, park admission fees, plus one year's membership in Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers.

Nowhere else will you find the opportunity to improve your outdoor photography skills with great instructions, at a spectacular location, and at a great price. The early summer workshop is perfect for photographing flowers, wildlife, and unbelievable scenery. Best of all, enrollment for each workshop is strictly limited to no more than 15 students...assuring you the finest in personalized instruction regardless of your skill level. For more information, email Nic Showalter, workshop coordinator.

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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

The five day workshop is a combination of classroom information and in the field experience. Participants can expect to spend 90% of their time in Rocky Mountain National Park photographing in small groups. Field trips are supplemented each day with instructional classroom time where Tom Ulrich and Jack Olson share their knowledge and experience in developing photographic skills. Classroom topics reflect directly to our in the field subjects photographed during the workshop. Each day, participants will be encouraged to share their images during a session where Tom and Jack offer positive and helpful reviews/critiques. This has become a popular time that everyone enjoys and learns from other participant’s images and photographic perspectives.

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Jack Olson leads our daily scenic field trips that include lakes, vistas, streams, wildflowers and mountain backdrops. Come and join our sunrise field trip to Sprague Lake that allows the participants a wonderful opportunity to capture unbelievable reflections on the calm early morning lake as the sun lights and advances down mountains. Another scenic highlight is our trip to the Alluvial Fan where the Roaring River tumbles down the mountainside creating numerous opportunities for waterfall images.

Wildlife abounds in the park. As leader of our wildlife field trips, Tom Ulrich will set the participants on pre-spotted nests for a variety of frame-filling images of bird life like blue birds, humming birds, and woodpeckers. Large herds of elk roam the park and are frequent subjects for our wildlife photographers. In addition to the elk, marmots, deer, ptarmigans, muskrats, and big horn sheep are also likely photo opportunities.

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Each day is packed with outstanding exciting scenic and wildlife opportunities. With each field trip, you have the choice of joining Jack for scenics or Tom for wildlife opportunities. As shown on our schedule, the field trips are generally 2-3 hours and then we return to the nearby headquarters at the YMCA of the Rockies for a meal. We do plan at least one extended trip as we drive up Trail Ridge Road to the summit (12,183’) photographing mountain top scenics and the many alpine flowers. The alpine flowers offer a great opportunity to capture macro images as well as scenic vistas. This is also prime area for big horn sheep, elk and the marmots.

Although not required, participants generally stay at the YMCA of the Rockies where the room rate includes 3 meals each day making this location very popular while visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. We usually have our meals together which creates a great time of getting to know each other as we swap stories of other photographing experiences, ask questions of the instructors and share lots of laughter. We have designed this workshop to allow you to capture unbelievable Rocky Mountain images but without the effort of hours of hiking.

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Most of our photographing locations are within a few hundred feet of the vehicles. Our leaders will put you on the spots to capture outstanding Rocky Mountain scenic and wildlife photographs.

For more information, email Nic Showalter, workshop coordinator.

 

 

"This is an ideal course for wildlife professionals to better document wildlife resources with their state."
Chris Chadwick, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. 

"The diversity of instructors was great! I learned so much."
Lynn Witzen, Stillwater, Oklahoma

"While I learned a lot at the workshop in '97, I returned in '98 and '99 to learn more. And I did!"
Georgette Sotos, Alexandria, Virginia