Focus On Nature – Iceland Journey 2008

Destination - Iceland, Workshop  Comment
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“Excuse me sir. Could you help me get lost in Iceland?”
And we loved every minute of it.
If you want to get lost in Iceland, go with the pros; go with Focus On Nature.
We covered some territory and put in some long hours. And yet we feel we’ve only just begun to experience Iceland. Columnar basalt seashores, geothermal hotsprings, volcanic craters, lava beds, glaciers, glacial lagoons, black beaches strewn with ice, waterfalls, wide river deltas, lush river valleys, high deserts … but wait there’s more! But we’re out of time. We’ll have to wait – until next year.
Focus On Nature has been a great experience. Fantastic landscape! Great people!
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Get Local Information – Part 4 – Gudmundur Ingolfsson

Destination - Iceland, Workshop  Comment
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Focus On Nature’s creator Einar Erlandson enlisted professional photographer Gudmundur Ingolfsson to help guide us on location in Iceland. Gudmundur is a veteran photographer. His passion for photography started when he was a young boy. He started learning English by reading photographic magazines. So what do you talk about for two 16 hour days while driving through the stunningly varied and complex landscape of Iceland? Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes. Eliot Porter, and Joel Sternfield. View cameras and CCDs. Climate change and vulcanology. Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kourismaki. Vivaldi and Dave Brubeck. You know light conversation. The funny thing is we were always laughing. Gudmundur’s drove us in his modified desert exploration vehicle, an old orange rig high enough to go across rivers and rugged enough to go over volcano beds lying between glaciers. We never would have gone to the places we went without his able guidance. When local’s share their experiences you learn, experience and share more. My advice? Get to know the locals. And have fun doing it! You might make great friends.
Find out about Gudmundur Ingolfsson here.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

3 Keys for Artistic Growth – Look, Speak, Listen

Creativity, Workshop  Comment
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How do you help people make more authentic work? The most important thing to do is to find out where they are now and what they need most. How do you find this out? Look at their work. Listen to them speak. Watch them work. You can do the same for someone else.
You can do all of this for yourself. Look, speak, listen. Look at yourself looking. Listen to yourself speaking. Listen to yourself listening. Make notes. Do this without judgement. Just become more aware of yourself and your process. Simply becoming more aware of your process, both external and internal, helps you make more authentic work. You discover your voice. Make time and space for your voice. It’s extremely rewarding.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.

Make Time to Review Your Work

Alumni, Workshop  Comment
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Images (left to right, top to bottom) – Jim Graham, Andree Laliberte, Ginette Vachon, Barbara Myriam.
This week’s workshop participants are all longtime alumni of my workshops. It’s a small intimate group – Ginette Vachon (Swiss based veteran world travel photographer), Andree Laliberte (Canadian installation artist), Barbara DeAngelu (Columbian mystic and Photoshop beta tester), and Jim Graham (Maryland based Pulitzer nominated photojournalist). They know each other before they arrived, either directly or from online exchanges.
After two days of being overstimulated by dramatic environments (continental rifts, volcanic coastlines, geothermal lagoons, steam vents, and paint pots, moss covered valleys) and working in challenging weather (wind and rain) this group had the wisdom to slow down. Recharge, Regroup. And focus. We reviewed (shared images and feedback) each other’s work. We reviewed the work we’ve done so far in Iceland. We identified what’s working and what’s not. We made an action plan for the coming days with a list of things to watch, things to try, and specific work to concentrate on to ensure that the images we come away with are not only technically good but also advance our individual visions and bodies of work. Now that’s focus. That’s time well spent. In a stimulating environment, few have the discipline to take this time. But taking this time helps you make quantum leaps.
At the end of the day, we went back to one of the first locations more informed and more focussed.
Find out more about Focus on Nature here.
Get Priority Status for all 2009 workshops now by emailing einar@focusonnature.is.