Dear Fellow Shutterbug,

I’m just catching my breath following another busy fall with workshops in Washington DC, Texas, Connecticut, Chicago and Florida, capped off with a month in South America, focused on a fascinating visit to Peru.

And in just two days I’m off for my South India Photography Adventure. It promises to be a very exciting travel photography workshop and I’ll let you know more about it when I’m back in early February.

This is the latest of my new initiative: foreign trips built around my photo workshops. The first one, which ran last April, was “Storybook Holland,” which was so successful that I will be offering it again this spring. We will visit Holland’s magnificent gardens and delightful countryside at the peak of the annual bloom of tulips and other Dutch bulbs. Be sure to save the date and register early. I am also planning a workshop to France next July to photograph the magnificent chateau gardens of the Loire Valley, plus time at Monet’s famous garden at Giverny. I’ll have more details on this travel photography workshop soon.

In the meantime, I’ve put together a schedule of lectures and workshops for the next few months and I hope some of them will entice you. Please see the listings below for details and tell your friends. Whether you are a returning student or a new participant, I hope to see you at one or more of these workshops to learn, have fun together and renew or build our connections.

With the coming of a new year, I want to wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013.

All the best and hope to see you soon,

Allen Rokach

• January 8-25: South India Photography Adventure, a travel photography workshop to India’s exotic temple cities
• February 11: Lecture and Audio-Visual Presentation on How I Look at Gardens near Kissimmee, Florida. For details, click here.
• February 13-17: Key West Color and Light, a long weekend workshop at the Studios of Key West. For details, click here.
• March 24: Orchids Galore! a one-day workshop at the New York Botanical Garden during its annual orchid show, sponsored by Adorama Workshops. For details, click here.
• April 5-7: Savannah in Bloom: A Digital Photography Workshop sponsored by Harmon School of Photography. For details, click here.
• April 11-14: The Wildflowers of Texas, a long-weekend workshop sponsored by the Dallas Arboretum. For details, click here.
• April 21-May 1: Storybook Holland: A Digital Travel Photography Workshop during the peak of the tulip bloom. For details, click here.

On the Drawing Board:

• June 14-15: The Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco
• July 19-30: The Great Gardens of France: Chateau Gardens of the Loire Valley and Giverny

Green Thumbs Club in Solivita Florida, near Kissimmee

I’ll be offering this public lecture and audio-visual presentation for Solivita’s garden, photography and birders club. The program will focus on my personal perspective on some of the great private gardens I have visited, seen and photographed around the United States — and the amazing people who have created them. For more information and register, contact Retha Sellers at sellersrj@verizon.net.

Studios of Key West,
Key West, Florida

Following up on last year’s sell-out workshop, this intensive digital photography seminar will take us to the most iconic locations around Key West, Florida, as well as some little-known gems to put together a rich portfolio of images of this charming, picturesque and spectacular island. We’ll be out in the field at sunrise and sunset to get the best light. In between, we’ll have time for instruction in techniques you can apply immediately as well as critique sessions that focus on problem-solving and helping you hone your individual skills. For details and to register, contact Lauren McAloon at Lauren@tskw.org.

The New York Botanical Garden

This full day of instruction sponsored by the Workshops@Adorama will focus on creative digital camera techniques for capturing the beauty of the wide range of orchids on display during this annual exhibition. The emphasis will be on close-up techniques, composition, creating effective backdrops, working with natural and supplementary light sources. For details and to register, click here.

Sponsored by the Harmon School of Photography

This weekend workshop will take us to one of the South’s most unique and charming cities at a time when its gardens are at their peak. We will focus on capturing a sense of place using the city’s architecture, grillwork and floral displays to create memorable and evocative images. Instruction will emphasize the use of natural light, composition and digital camera techniques.

Sponsored by the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden

I’ll be returning to the Brenham area of Texas for this 4-day digital photography workshop, which explores this prime spring wildflowers destination. We will go to several locations, including private ranches, to find the best places for photographing this eye-popping array of bluebonnets, coreopsis, Indian paintbrush, Texas winecups and other colorful specimens which blanket wide swatches of the landscape here. We’ll be photographing at sunrise and late afternoon to sunset with time in between for instruction on the finer points of digital photography, including after-capture techniques; review sessions; and personal exploration of the local towns. This workshop sold out last year so register early. For details and to register, click here.

Following on last year’s very successful trip, this foreign travel digital photography workshop will focus on Holland’s amazing extravaganza of tulips and other bulbs at prime locations in the charming and colorful Dutch countryside, as well as visit and explore Holland’s charming villages. For details and to register, contact arokach@me.com.