Adirondack Park Fall Intensive Photography Workshop
led by Adirondack photographer and guide Johnathan Esper
September 24-26, 2012 $360 last-minute special price! ($480 reg.)
Adirondacks: The Adirondack Park is a large protected region in New York State known for its lakes and wilderness canoeing routes, its rolling forested mountains and hiking trails, and its wild forests and fauna. It is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined. Nearly half of the Park’s 6 million acres are protected to remain as “forever wild” state forest preserve, with a harmonious blend of private and public lands giving the Adirondacks diversity found nowhere else. The Adirondack region boasts over 3,000 lakes, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, and a wide variety of habitats, including globally unique wetland types, old and new growth forests, and alpine vegetated mountains. The Adirondack Park was created in 1892 by the State of New York amid concerns for the water and timber resources of the region.
The Adirondacks are an ancient chain of mountains, with great hiking. Numerous trails lead up small mountains with open tops giving great views over the forested valleys below, and bountiful lakes and rivers provide recreational opportunities. The timing of this photo tour coincides with peak fall foliage season, where bright reds and yellows fill the valleys, and the air is usually crisper and clearer allowing for distant views of the rolling mountains. The autumn season in the Adirondacks is simply sublime, and quite possibly the best time of year to photograph this diverse and wild area.
Experiential Instruction: This 3-day photo tour is all about in-the-field photography and situational instruction working alongside your leader, and there will be no classroom workshops or presentations. Some of the photographic locations will necessitate moderate hiking on trails to get to, as hiking is an integral part of capturing the Adirondack landscape. A maximum group size of 5 photographers ensures you will receive ample personal photographic coaching in the field and maximize the group’s flexibility and ability to shoot more places, more spontaneously based on light and weather. Pro photographer Johnathan Esper will be leading the tour, who has an intimate knowledge of the Adirondacks from growing up in them. He is a recognized and established local Adirondack landscape photographer, and has led highly successful photo workshops in the Adirondacks and internationally. Johnathan specializes in panoramic landscapes, especially of the Adirondack region, and adventure photography, and photographic topics that will be covered while shooting include HDR (High Dynamic Range) imagery, panoramic photography, people in the landscape, and of course classic landscape photography techniques.
Location Highlights: We will photograph several classic Adirondack regions, including the High Peaks Mountains, the Old Forge/Fulton Chain of Lakes area, and the central Adirondacks around Long Lake and Newcomb, and we will tailor our specific shooting locations to the day’s weather. During our 3 days of sunrise-to-sunset photography together, we will do some hikes in the Adirondack High Peaks ranges to create wide panoramas of the surrounding mountains, hike up several smaller mountains for views over the rolling Adirondack hills and the colorful red and yellow autumn forests below, photograph leaf-covered forest streams and cascades, and do one overnight canoe trip and camp on an island on a wilderness lake and hopefully photograph the morning mist coming off the lake and take a sunrise paddle on to glimpse the loon and hear its call.
Trip details: The cost for this tour is $480, and includes all professional photographic instruction and guiding, canoes and paddling equipment, all camping equipment for our one overnight (including sleeping bags), and dinner and breakfast on our one overnight trip. Additionally there will be an extra panoramic tripod head and other camera accessories for participants to try out. Participants must have their own transport to our shooting locations, and accommodation in a local town for all other nights, as our group will part after sunset each evening, and re-convene before sunrise each morning, and provide their own lunches and other meals. The picturesque small town of Long Lake (in the heart of the Adirondacks) and the town of Olympic village of Lake Placid (in the High Peaks region) and will be our main meeting points each day. A $240 non-refundable payment is due at the time of registration, and the remaining balance is due at the start of the tour. This workshop is a confirmed go with a minimum of 2 clients; however, if you are the only person signed up, you can ask Johnathan to still go out and work with you one-on-one all 3 days, for only $120 extra at the discounted rate of $600 ($240 less than his normal one-on-one daily rate). If you have any additional questions, Johnathan would be happy to answer them for you; please use the contact page on this website.
