Why I Can't Wait For My Crossing The Antarctic Circle 2013 Workshop

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People keep asking Seth Resnick and I why we keep returning to Antarctica.
We’ve made four trips and every trip was different. We visit new locations; there are over 40 locations cruises land at and with each visit we get to visit an average of 12. The ice conditions are always different; one month can make a big difference. Surprisingly, the thing that we’ve found makes the biggest difference is the weather, which affects the light dramatically. We saw riotous colors during four hour long sunsets on our 2005 Peninsula trip and “nights” where the sun only skims the horizon but never truly sets south of the Antarctic circle in 2009. Every time we go, we keep wondering how much more could there be to see and how different could the conditions be and every time we’re surprised that we discover so much more and that locations we know look so different. Each voyage has had an entirely unique character.
The two most sublime landscape experiences I’ve ever had were at Sossusvlei, Namibia and in Antarctica’s The Gullet. The Gullet was the remotest, purest, whitest experience I’ve ever had. It felt like being in a frozen heaven. Quietly cruising on mirror calm waters through the dramatic mountains of Crystal Bay to find the narrow channel through The Gullet (like seeing clouds cascade off high peaks to touch the water and be frozen in place) and through to Margueritte Bay lit up by endless hours of midnight color was one of the most beautiful 24 hours of my life. Many of us didn’t sleep that ‘night’ because we didn’t want to miss anything. We knew while we were there that few people on earth had ever had an experience similar to the one we were having.”
See more images from Antarctica’s The Gullet here.
There are still a few spaces available in our Antarctica 2013 workshop.
Email me at jpc@digitalphotodestinations if you’d like to join us.

How Lightroom Impacted My Antarctica Project

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(This piece first appeared on Adobe Stories. Find other Adobe Stories here.)
Having developed an international reputation for creating altered photographs with ecological concerns, in Antarctica I became interested in creating an editorial (relatively unaltered) body of work to compare and contrast these two modes of perception and expression. In particular, I was interested in seeing which mode of expression could be most effective for environmental advocacy, if this varies with the context they are presented in, and if they can strengthen each other.
A simple project initially, it continues to grow. A single exhibit and book has become multiple exhibits and books, lectures, a website and Antarctic workshop program.
I started using Photoshop 1 as an artist in residence at Kodak’s Center for Creative Imaging. I beta-tested Lightroom 1. I’ve used every version of Photoshop and Lightroom since their initial release. (Lightroom 1 was released during my second voyage to Antarctica.)
Compared to Photoshop’s capabilities, Lightroom’s capabilities are limited. Because the nature of my first Antarctica project was editorial, I was interested in working within stricter limits and Lightroom’s limits fit those. Lightroom also offered the promise of greater organizational capabilities and productivity, which was very useful while handling a high volume of images made on an extended voyage. Lightroom delivered.
Lightroom not only streamlined up my workflow and accelerated my productivity, it also helped me develop my projects conceptually by making it easier to find and organize patterns of thought and create continuities for their presentation. Collecting, comparing, selecting and sequencing images becomes much easier, and this in turn aids more sophisticated storytelling.
Lightroom helps me see my images better. It offers four ways to view your images: Loupe, Compare, Survey and Grid. Moving in and out of these views helps you see your images better both solo and in relationship to each other. Lightroom’s Collections are equally essential for seeing, creating, and refining relationships between images. With Collections I can easily group like images from multiple folders and hard drives, assessing relative strengths and weaknesses, identifying patterns of thought, and creating sequences to advance a story fluidly. Changing how you see your images changes what you see in your images. How you see your images is important. I can think of few things that are as important.
My Antarctica project and Lightroom brought me back to basics. This shift in focus encouraged me to further strengthen both my camera skills and my storytelling practices, and consequently my vision as a whole. This opened new avenues of discovery encouraging me to think about still images even more cinematically.
You can learn more about my Antarctica project – view images in galleries and slideshows, preview books, download screensavers, find facts about the region, read blog entries made live on site, and much more at www.johnpaulcaponigro/antarctica.com.
Sign up for my Antarctica digital photography workshops here.
Sign up for my Antarctica 2013 digital photography workshop by emailing jpc@johnpaulcaponigro.com.

Monhegan Photographic Workshop – June 17-19

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Lobster boats, rocky shores, cathedral woods, cape houses, blooming wildflowers, hiking trails and fairy huts.  Ocean sunrises and sunsets. It’s quintessential small town Maine life all on one tiny island 12 miles out to sea.
Monhegan.
Join me for a 4 night 3 day all inclusive, semi private (limited to 6), boutique photographic workshop on this extraordinary island.
Maine photography doesn’t get better than this.
Register here for this inspiring workshop
 

Only 2 Spaces Left In My Point Lobos Boutique Workshop

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Just days ago I offered a new really intimate workshop format for only 4 people – semi-private. For 3 intense days, we’ll move as one – staying in the same location, sharing all meals, traveling, photographing, and making images together. I’m centering the location at Point Lobos, California (and the nearby coastline down to Big Sur), an area made famous by so many photographers (including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston), which I’ve know very well since I was a child. Great local accommodations, photography galleries, photographers, food and wine will make the experience even richer. (The price is all inclusive.)
The first session sold out in 2 hours, so I scheduled a second, in which there are only 2 spaces left.
Find out more about this special digital photography workshop here.

What It's Like To Be On Location With Me At Arches & Canyonlands National Park

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Watch this video and you’ll get the sense of what it’s like to be on location with me during my Arches digital photography workshop. Plus you’ll hear two tips; one on light (search the boundaries between light and shadow) and another on composition (use frames within frames).
Find out more about my Arches Digital Photography workshop here.
Learn more about my digital photography workshops here.

Torres Del Paine, Chile

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(The landscape surrounding Torres Del Paine reminded me so much of the New Mexican landscape I was raised in that I found myself revisiting themes typical of New Mexico in the images I made in Chile.)
During the second part of our Antarctica extension in the famous Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile.
Dirt roads get you into the remote Torres Del Paine National Park (Chile) and to and from its five main regions. The three horns of Torres Del Paine mountains are the most impressive feature of the region, giving the entire range a surreal air. You’ll need a long lens to fill a frame with these key features or to do some serious trekking, which is the best way to experience this park but requires time, equipment, and physical fitness. The landscape surrounding these impressive mountains is arid, dotted with large and small lakes that attract the local fauna – puma, guanaco (one of south america’s five llama species), and a variety of raptors including condor and caracara. Early and late light and weather (fantastic lenticular clouds are common) makes or breaks landscapes here, so plan a visit at the best times of year and plan to spend a little extra time in case you have to wait for conditions to change.
There are five hotels in the park. We stayed at Hosteria Pehoe, charming though a touch run down, this tiny island retreat offers stunning views of the Torres just paces from your room.
A good guide will help you make the most of your visit.

View more maps here,

Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina

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The highlight of our Patagonia workshop was walking on the glacier Perito Moreno in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina. Viewing the glacier from a boat is a touristy affair offering limited mobility; if you’re lucky you’ll see a calving. Viewing the glacier from the extensive park observation decks allows you to control your angle of view at your own pace; you can see both the north and south faces. Viewing the glacier while you’re on it offers the best interactivity; there are an unlimited number of angles of view from which you can make images with any focal length, from wide angle surveys, to telephoto excerpts, to intimate macro details. Walking into this frozen wonderland is thrilling! The only thing that could put a damper on a visit like this is heavy rain. You can’t spend enough time there. If you visit the Perito Moreno glacier, my recommendation is to plan for a full day of ice trekking – or more.
The guides for the expedition company HieloYAventura are excellent: they set a warm casual tone; they’re vigilant about safety; they’re all accomplished ice trekkers. HieloYAventura offers three services; Safari Nautico (cruise); Mini-Trekking; and Big Ice, plus customized excursions.
(One other thing, our hotel Posada De Los Alamos was excellent.)

Cartooning Our Way Through Iceland

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We have a lot of fun in my workshops. Often, we use our iPhones to stimulate creativity. We try all sorts of creative experiments. This trip, one of the experiments I tried was creating cartoons of participants as superheroes or supervillains. It all started when our guide Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson put a luggage label on his chest with a fragile icon. I made a not sign on it with a Sharpee pen and he became Captain Unbreakable. Then I made an ironic cartoon of him with my iPhone. (Apps used are Toon Paint, Pic Grunger, and Label Box.) Everyone was laughing. Everyone wanted to play. We laughed our way through Iceland.
Because we were playing this game, we thought frequently about what text could/would accompany our images – titles, captions, essays and more. Frequently, a little levity can lead to useful creative insights.
Here are some of the images from these ongoing hijinks.
Find out about my 2012 Iceland digital photography workshop here.
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Track Your Influences

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Frequently, old ideas and feelings surface in the midst of our creative process. Tracking our own fixations and chains of association can be both revealing and rewarding.
The paintings of Morris Graves made a big impression on me at an early age. Ever since, I been interested in photographs of dead animals, particularly birds. I even made some of my own.
I stumbled into this territory, once again, by chance, while photographing on the side of the road in Iceland. I quickly made this sketch with my iPhone. I knew what was happening while I was doing it, because I’d already done a lot of observation of my creative process and soul searching. I recommend you do the same for yourself. You’ll be richly rewarded with highly personal insights.
Find out about my 2012 Iceland digital photography workshop here.
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New Images – Workshop Participants – Iceland 2011

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We do lightning fast reviews of participant’s images in my digital photography workshops. We discuss what works and why and what doesn’t and why not. It’s wonderful to see how different the images are, made by individuals in the same situations using the same tools. A lot of learning happens by simply sharing images and spontaneous responses to them.
Here’s a sampling from participants in my 2011 Iceland workshop.
Find out about my 2012 Iceland digital photography workshop here.
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