2024 Fall Colors of Colorado

Join photographer Alex Armitage for an intimate photography workshop in the majestic San Juan mountains of Colorado exploring epic scenery, making memories, and gaining new tools for your photography journey.

SESSION 1: September 30th - October 4th

The fall color change in the San Juan mountains of Colorado is unlike anywhere else in the world. From the sights of epic mountain vistas covered in golden trees to the sounds of quaking aspen leaves; this area is absolutely breathtaking. During this 5 day autumn workshop we will traverse famous drives, trek in beautiful aspen groves, and explore a few less frequented spots in the area. The San Juans provide unique scenes no matter the conditions and while we will have a general itinerary that you can find below; we’ll always capture sunrise, sunset, and anything in between based on what nature presents to us. When we aren’t out in the field we will spend time reviewing images, exploring new editing techniques, and hopefully breathing inspiration into both your new and older images. You should walk away from this workshop with many new skills both in the field and behind the edit, but also with genuine and lasting experiences with new lifelong memories.

Itinerary | Lodging / Transportation | What You’ll Experience | Recommended Gear / Attire | Cancellation Policy / Legal

• Cost: $2400 Per Person (5 Total Participants)

• Lodging: Included. We’ll be staying in a beautiful mountain home together. See details below!

• Transportation & Food: Not Provided

• Deposit: 50% due upfront to secure a spot, final payment due 60 days before the workshop.

We’ll start by meeting late afternoon at our beautiful mountain home to drop off luggage and a brief introduction. Quickly after we’ll go and shoot sunset together to get our feet wet for the area. For the next four days we’ll be leaving early (5am) to catch sunrise at a plethora of different locations. Depending on the conditions we will continue shooting through the morning or head back to our mountain retreat. Typically we’ll be spending the afternoon recharging, eating, and exchanging stories. We’ll also take this time to breakout into editing and post-processing sessions using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

We’ll spend each evening capturing breathtaking sunsets, detailed aspen shots, or unique compositions. We won’t have a set itinerary with selected locations every day as it will always be dictated by weather, which is highly important for this area because many spots flourish in different conditions. What you can expect is very early mornings and late evenings so you’ll need to make sure you’re getting some rest in during the day!

The majority of the locations we will be exploring won’t require much hiking or strenuous activity. Keep in mind that the base elevation for the area is roughly 7,000 feet thus depending on where you’re coming from, you might have a harder time catching your breath. I recommend everyone be in good health regardless and depending on the group’s ambition we might find ourselves exploring some spots more off the beaten path!

This will be a very unique workshop experience in that we will all be staying in a beautiful mountain home together located right outside Ridgway, Colorado. This will give us a chance to get to know one another better, exchange stories, and hopefully create genuine lasting connections. It also means editing sessions or outside of the field discussions are not only more frequent but simply more comfortable. I’ve hosted a workshop here before and the location is unbeatable. One of the best shots I’ve ever gotten in the area was taken from the back yard. If you’d like to bring a significant other to accompany you and experience this beautiful location please just let me know as it shouldn’t be an issue!

The closest and more affordable spot to fly into is Grand Junction (GJT). Durango (DRO) is also an option but a bit further.

Transportation throughout the entire workshop is not provided. I do recommend an SUV or Crossover style vehicle. We won’t be doing any crazy off-roading but many of the roads we’ll be taking are rough and a little extra vehicle clearance will go a long way. If participants want to coordinate renting together we can discuss that in the discord group.

Food is not provided but there are two kitchens at the property and Ridgway is right around the corner. We’ll likely find ourselves eating together for certain meals and snacking throughout the day!

This workshop will be inclusive to all levels of photographer. Before the workshop I’ll send out a short questionnaire to get a better idea of where you are at in your journey and if there is anything specific you’d like to learn during this adventure. Below are a few concepts you can expect to learn throughout the workshop but these don’t describe everything we will cover. I am an open book in both technique and life, you’ll have full access to ask me anything and everything.

In The Field - There is so much that goes into creating memorable images and it all starts in the field.

• Finding compositions in scenes of chaos. You can feel overwhelmed in aspen forests and knowing which way to turn your camera isn’t easy. We’ll talk about using light and your surroundings to help guide your eye when you feel a bit lost on what to shoot.

• Using foreground objects to help ground your images. This might require us to take images to focus stack or perspective blended images, or just learning what we can get away with using small apertures to create larger ranges of depth of field.

• Selecting what lens is best for any given situation. This will depend on everything from location to conditions.

• Operating your camera so that it stops getting in the way of your creative process. Shooting in manual mode, working with the histogram, deciding if you need to bracket your images, or anything in between.

• Drone photography if any participants have interest! This entire area is mostly drone friendly and there are some breathtaking vantage points to be found in certain areas as well.

Lightroom Processing - To start things off we’ll use Lightroom to process most of our images. This will depend on how adept you are in your editing journey but you’ll learn very quickly how powerful just Lightroom can be for your images.

• File organization and metadata. From importing to categorizing your images we’ll cover it all, especially different systems I use to rank my images for editing and my own portfolio.

• Understanding the foundation of the basics tab, what color profiles are and how they effect your images, or how to handle settings such as clarity, vibrance, and dehaze.

• When and why to use HSL sliders, how much sharpening your images should have, and most importantly - what’s the best crop for your image?

• More advanced tools such as Lightroom masking, color/luminance selection, and filters.

Photoshop Processing - Any heavy edits will be done with a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop, with Photoshop housing the most advanced topics.

• Using content-aware fill, healing brush, and all around image cleanup for possible objects in your images. Discussing when these tools work well and when to avoid them.

• Warping and transforming images to compensate for lens distortion or panoramic shifts.

• Deep diving into masking and luminosity blending your images. We’ll do a full walkthrough of techniques like this from taking the images in the field all the way to processing them through Photoshop.

• Combining focus stacked images manually or using programs such as Helicon focus.

Portfolio and Image Review - Editing isn’t everything and there is so much to learn by opening discourse about our past and present work. We’ll take the time to review your own images and dissect what makes images stand out within your own portfolio.

• We’ll review images taken during the workshop. This can be eye opening to see the differences people capture and expand our horizons to hopefully see things in different ways.

• I’ll be requesting you bring 5-10 of your favorite images you’ve taken that we can all discuss and talk about. This can be pre and post edit, you can ask for feedback on different images, or simply open up to anything you might want to know!

Discord Discussion and Critique - Before and after the workshop there will be a discord channel created for all of those participating within the workshop to coordinate the event. We’ll also use this space to share images between each other both before and after the workshop. This will give you time to get home and edit your images how you want, share them in your leisure and receive critique from me or your peers.

Legal:

Participating in this workshop, you agree to hold Alex Armitage irresponsible for any possible personal injury, damaged equipment, or loss that may occur throughout the workshop. You are responsible for your own safety throughout the workshop and should never push yourself past your own boundaries.

Cancellation Policy:

Alex Armitage reserves the right to cancel the workshop if the minimum (4) number of participants are not met or in the event of an emergency. In the event I do have to cancel the workshop you’ll be given a full refund.

I understand that life happens, and in the event you need to cancel your spot in the workshop, as long as it is prior to 60 days from the first day of the workshop AND the space can be filled by another participant you will receive your full deposit back. If you need to cancel within the 60 days before the workshop, you will not receive your deposit back as it’s very difficult to fill those spots on short notice. I will always try to work with you and do whatever I can in the event you do have to cancel.

I am not responsible for travel disruptions and highly recommend travel insurance for this reason!