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.

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.

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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