General Information
There's something magical about being among mountain peaks. Being up in the mountains is both awe-inspiring and inspiring, and it almost feels like the essence of landscape photography.
The Dolomites are among the most stunning mountains anywhere, and we've been photographing them and leading workshops here for almost a decade. So, come and join Terra Photography Expeditions and Andy Mumford to explore and photograph these wonderful mountains. From jagged peaks to alpine lakes with perfect reflections, the Dolomites offer an abundance of photographic potential. Every time I visit, I discover something new.
For 2024, we wanted to differentiate our two annual Dolomites workshops a bit by focusing more on hiking for one of them. We believe that the best way to capture the essence of the mountains is to be up among the peaks. To truly experience the mountains, you have to venture deeper into the trails. While both Dolomites workshops involve hiking, this one emphasizes delving deeper into the mountains and exploring less-traveled paths. Therefore, this workshop is more suited for photographers with hiking experience who are comfortable carrying their packs along trails with elevation gains. You can find more information in the "How Challenging?" section below.
Late September is the best time to visit the Dolomites, with sunny days and crisp nights. The peak of the tourist season is over, resulting in fewer people on the trails and quieter, more peaceful locations. As you look through the forests, you'll notice some trees starting to turn a beautiful gold color, enhancing their potential in images. Yet, there's still a sense of life and lushness in the countryside. We may also be fortunate enough to witness cloud inversions from the peaks as we gaze down from above at the cloud-filled valleys below.
This tour is limited to only six participants, and like all our workshops, it's designed to ensure you can focus on photography while we take care of everything else. We provide ideally located and comfortable accommodation, great food, and, of course, a tour structured to maximize your opportunities for capturing outstanding images while enhancing your photography skills.
Guides
Jonas Paurell
Creative Guide & Expedition Leader
Jonas is the founder of Terra Photography Expeditions. He has been a photographer for well over 20 years. He is a certified International Mountain Leader (UIMLA) that has spent a lifetime exploring the world's wild areas. Jonas will be leading the expedition.
Jonas loves working with developing photographers to strengthen their technical foundation and support them to unleach their inner creativity. Jonas achieves this through engaging lectures, educative assignments and hands-on teaching in the field.
More info here.
Andy Mumford
Creative Guide
Andy is a Lisbon based professional landscape and travel photographer. He is also a passionate teacher of photography and has been leading groups and one-to-one workshops for over five years, while his images and photography writing have featured in magazines and publications worldwide. As well as workshops and travelling he also produce regular videos about photography and film-making on his Youtube channel.
Andy's YouTube & Website
Itinerary
We visit the Dolomites by basing ourselves at three locations. We stay first at Cortina, then Tre Cime and finally Alpe di Siusi. Our time within those dates is flexible so we can decide which locations to visit while we’re there depending on the local weather and conditions. We will however ensure that we visit all of the locations in each area. Over the years we’ve been running workshops in the Dolomites we’ve refined our daily itinerary to give plenty of recovery time. We understand that over the course of a workshop fatigue can accumulate leaving people with less energy at the end of the trip, so we ensure that we have some downtime during which we can either rest, upload images to computers or have a walk around the local area (our hotels are located in some beautiful spots). At this time of year the sunrise is around 7h and sunset around 19h.
DAY 1 - 3 ⎪ CORTINA D’AMPEZZO
Our time here is flexible and can vary depending on weather and light, but we’ll make sure we shoot all of the locations in the area:
Lago Federa and the Croda da Lago
Passo Giau
Lago di Landro
Laghetto di Baste
You’ll be picked up from Venice Marco Polo Airport at 12h30 and transfered to our first base in the lovely town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, and after settling into our rooms we’ll head out for our first sunset shoot on the first evening.
This are is one of the most beautiful parts in all the Dolomites, we’re surrounded by the massive peaks of Tofana and Cristallo, and close to the high passes of Passo Giau and Falzarego. This is great hiking country and while we’re here we’ll head up to Passo Giau for a sunset shoot, which gives us the wide angle panorama of Ra Gusela or more telephoto images of the western Dolomite peaks or towards Cinque Torri. From here we’ll also hike up to Laghetto di Baste which mirrors the peak of Monte Pelmo perfectly in it’s waters.
We’ll also head up to Lago Federa where the waters are deep and sheltered by trees and the towering cliffs of Croda da Lago, and so are almost always perfectly still. Access here by road is limited but we’re able to get there with an 4x4 alpine taxi to give us plenty of time to be in the best position for the first light of the day rising above the trees. Another nearby location is Lago di Landro, which reflects the peaks of Monte Cristallo at sunrise.
During our stay here we will make time to give some talks on compositional theory and image quality to give participants food for thought for the rest of the workshop.
DAY 3 - 5 ⎪ TRE CIME NATURAL PARK
For our time here we aim to stay in mountain huts, giving us direct access to the peaks of the Natural Park. However, as bookings for the mountain hut rooms only opens in January, and as we can’t guarantee that we’ll be allocated enough rooms, we’ve also secured back-up accommodation next to Lago Misurina, just outside the park from where we’ll be able to drive up to the trail head and start our hikes.
The mountain hut offers comfortable cozy accommodation right in the middle of the mountains, with great food and the capacity to shoot and hike pretty much from our door.
Our time here is flexible and can vary depending on weather and light, but we’ll make sure we shoot all of the locations in the area:
Tre Cime di Lavarado
Cadina di Misurina
Forcella di Laveredo
Locatelli
The iconic peaks of the Tre Cime Natural Park are one of the highlights of the Dolomites. Wherever you walk in the park there are stunning views and so we’ve arranged this part of the workshop to get the absolute best out of this incredible area. It’s a wonderful place to hike with some stunning trails and we’ll make the most of this with some long hikes through the park seeking out great spots for sunset. Hiking south of Rifugio Auronzo brings you to a viewpoint with uninterrupted views of the stunning peaks of Cadina di Misurina as well as views of the Tre Cime towers themselves, lit from the side as the sun sets. We’ll also hike around the southern side of the peaks and up the saddle to the Forcella di Laveredo ridge, which gives the iconic view facing west towards the Tre Cime peaks with the setting sun behind. We’ll head deeper into the park to Rifugio Locatelli, which gives views of both the Tre Cime peaks but also the spires of Monte Paterno alongside, and we’ll hike around the west side of the peaks for a completely different view at sunset.
There really is so much to see in the Tre Cime natural park that we can make multiple hikes here, at both sunrise and sunset, and each time shoot a completely different view from another location.
During our stay here we’ll make try to fit in at least one post-processing session. These will be tailored to suit the differing levels and requirements of our clients and can range from Lightroom basics through to Photoshop Luminosity Masks and more advanced techniques. Because we have such small groups most of the post-processing sessions can be carried out on a one-to-one basis or in pairs, and the sessions will be recorded to give everyone access to them later.
DAY 5 - 7 ⎪ ALPE DI SIUSI
Once again, our time here is flexible and can vary depending on weather and light, but we’ll make sure we shoot all of the locations in the area:
Alpe di Siusi sunrise and sunset
Sciliar mountain
Chiesa di San Valentino
After breakfast on the Day 5 we’ll pack our stuff, check out of the hotel and make the journey to the Western Dolomites and arrive at our next base in Alpe di Siusi, a large alpine meadow covered with wooden huts and pine trees that overlooks the almost vertical peaks of Sassalungo and Sassopiato.
The plain itself feels almost like it comes from a picture book with the wooden huts scattered across the rolling hills beneath the two jagged peaks. The location is magical at sunrise and if we’re lucky we may get a layer of mist in the morning which makes for wonderful telephoto abstracts of the huts and trees. We’ll have plenty of time to explore this area and will spend some time hiking amongst the meadows to find different viewpoints from which to capture the peaks of Sassalungo and Sassopiato, as well as the spire of Sciliar to the west at sunset.
Our stay here will be in a 4 star hotel located on the Alpe di Siusi, and we’ll eat our meals at the hotel, which serves really spectacular food. Finally, during our time here we’ll have a critique session looking at the images we’ve captured on the trip.
DAY 7 ⎪ DEPARTURE DAY
We’ll have and early breakfast and say our goodbyes, then you’ll be taken back to Venice airport for your flight home. Do not arrange for flights earlier than 3PM!
Curriculum
All Terra Photography Expeditions follow a proven curriculum that aims to teach the theory behind photography in a dynamic way that directly translates into easily actionable processes in the field. As we move through nature we also go through an introduction to the skills and knowledge required to be safe in the great outdoors.
Photography Techniques Covered on the Expedition
Storytelling - Telling stories and evoking emotions within the context of landscape photography
Composition - A comprehensive introduction to the theory of composition, including the elements of art and principles of design
Process - Learning and implementing a process to achieve consistent quality in landscape photography
Focusing - A science-based method for focusing to make your images sharp
Long exposure and filters - Long exposure and the use of Neutral Density (ND) filters, especially related to moving water and clouds
Astro photography - Explore the nighttime skies and landscapes to show the world at a different time
Panorama photography - exposing and merging multiple images
Multiple exposures and graduate filters - Achieving correctly exposed images in challenging conditions using graduated filters and multiple exposures (exposure bracketing)
Finding locations - Using maps, weather services and other tools to identify potential photography locations and times.
Processing Techniques:
Using Lightroom to apply contrast
Using local adjustments to shape and sculpt the light
Using Photoshop layers to build up image adjustments
Using luminosity masks in Photoshop
Different techniques for blending multiple exposures of the same image
Using Nik Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex, Adobe Camera RAW on
Photoshop layers
Using CaptureOne for RAW conversion
Stitching multiple panoramas together
Sharpening images
Accommodation
We have carefully selected your accommodations to ensure a comfortable and unique experience at each step of your journey. During this tour you’ll be staying in three different hotels/huts, all selected to offer the best access to photography locations.
Enjoy the modern amenities of a 4-star hotel in Cortina before heading to an authentic mountain hut in the heart of nature in Tre Cime di Lavaredo. In Alpe di Suisi we will enjoy the comforts of a 4-star hotel with panoramic views and the serene beauty of the surroundings.
Additional Information
We have a passion for the outdoors, a passion for photography and a passion for teaching. We believe that good photography comes out of great experiences in nature and so our aim is to take you to beautiful inspiring places, and then arm you with the techniques and skills to make images that capture that experience and those feelings of being there. With this in mind we limit the number of participants on our workshop to just six which gives us plenty of time with everyone in the field and from the beginning of your time with us we can identify your photographic level and what you’d like to focus on. We can then tailor the sessions to your precise needs and provide each participant with plenty of one-to-one tuition both in the field, and having two shooting sessions a day means that participants get into a shooting rhythm and can quickly put into practice new skills as they are learned.
Andy has been photographing the Dolomites and leading workshops there for almost a decade and will all his knowledge of the locations and local conditions to the workshop to help you get the best out of your trip. Jonas Paurell is a seasoned photographer and certified and experienced UIMLA International Mountain Leader and we put primary importance on safety on the trails and in the mountains so you can feel completely comfortable in the knowledge that you’re hiking trails with an experienced guide who is certified to lead groups into the mountains.
This attention extends to the theory sessions we include in the workshops. During the middle of the day we will give presentation on different aspects of photography from compositional theory to maximising image quality, as well as having critique sessions on the images taken throughout the tour to help you see where you can improve your technique. We believe that editing is an integral part of getting the absolute best out of an image but we understand that the range of participant’s skill levels and familiarity with post processing techniques varies greatly. Because of this we make the most of having small groups to provide 1-to-1 editing sessions in the morning that are tailored to each participant's skill levels, and which can potentially range from the basics of editing a RAW files in programs like Lightroom to more complex techniques like using layers and luminosity masks in Photoshop. We also do screen recordings of our editing sessions, which are then shared with all the group so you go home with a record of all the post processing techniques we used, and if we don’t have much time during the workshop to focus on editing we’ll set up a Zoom session after the workshop has ended to go over some of the techniques Andy uses to edit his images from the workshop.
Finally, we want to share with you our passion for nature and landscape photography in this incredible place. Travelling in such small groups means we can quickly build a great learning environment where people feel comfortable together and at ease with asking questions and making the absolute most of the trip. We aim to make your experience here in the beautiful landscape of the Dolomites a memorable one and a trip from which, as well as getting some great images from amazing locations, you’ll also go home having had a true adventure with great company in a very special place.
Getting There and Back Out Again
The tour starts at Venice Marco Polo Airport. Flights to Venice Marco Polo Airport is not included.
Food
All breakfasts and dinners are included. Kindly be in touch with any dietary restrictions.
Leave No Trace Policy
Terra Photography Expeditions has a strict leave no trace policy. This policy is also applied to how we share information about fragile ecosystems that we gently and respectfully visit. This means that we have withheld exact locations from the itinerary. This is because we do not want to contribute to large scale tourism. You are welcome to get in touch if you'd like to discuss the itinerary before applying to join. Thank you for your understanding.
How Challenging?
This tour has a Moderate Mountain Workshop level. This is a trekking workshop where we can expect to be very active most days. Expect days where we may have climbs and descents of approximately 400-700 meters in height and 4-8 hours of daily movement. More info about effort levels here.
Price & Details
Included:
Landscape photography and shooting in unforgettable mountain locations
Two professional photographers & guides who know the area
Guided treks by qualified International Mountain Leader
Local transportation to and from the locations
Alpine taxis to reach lesser known and harder to access locations
All park entrance fees
Post-processing workshops in Lightroom and Photoshop, with screen recordings which the participants can keep.
All accommodation in 4 star hotels
All breakfast and dinners
Airport transfer to/from Venice Marco Polo
Excluded:
Photo equipment
Outdoor clothing and equipment
Lunches, snacks or alcoholic drinks
Flights to and from Italy
Insurance. All participants are required to have their own insurance appropriate for hiking in the mountains, such as health, accident, mountain rescue, repatriation, cancellation, personal liability, etc.
Price: 5290 EUR
30% deposit due to secure your reservation, remaining 70% due 60 days before the start of the tour. Price includes single occupancy.
Status
Confirmed
Participants: Minimum 4 - Maximum 6
Start: Venice Marco Polo, 18 Sep 2023, 12:30 PM Pick-Up
End: Venice Marco Polo, 24 Oct 2023, around 2PM (do not book flights departing before 3 PM)
We reserve the right to change the itinerary without previous notice due to weather conditions, and unforeseeable circumstances.
This tour is governed by the Terms and Conditions