Join photographers Freya Fennwood and Josh Cripps in one of the world’s premier paddling destinations—August 20–24, 2015. Explore unique island landscapes by sea kayak for 5 days, and hone your adventure and landscape photography skills. Moondance Kayak Adventures will outfit the journey, including catered food and guiding by head guide Kristi Kucera. Pygmy Boats will be providing a few of their beautiful wooden kayaks to grace your images and Adventure Kayak magazine will be publishing the best images from the trip on our blog with a chance to be published in the print magazine!
The Trip: Kayak guide Kristi Kucera and expert paddler/photographer Freya Fennwood will lead the exploration of the San Juan Islands. Exact destinations will depend on wind and weather. With optimal conditions, we will start from Orcas Island and paddle over to Sucia and Matia Islands. Throughout the trip you will be photographing amazing natural landscapes, exotic wildlife, and action sports. Our pro photographers will be actively helping you understand your camera, improve your composition, and fine tune your approach so that you are able to capture some truly memorable images on the water and land. Sucia and Matia are small islands situated near the Washington/Canada border on the northern edge of the San Juan Islands. Isolated and wild, with no public ferry access and drop-dead-gorgeous scenery, sea kayaking around Sucia Island has long been one of the most coveted experiences among kayakers coming to the San Juan Islands. Sucia Island is peppered with submerged reefs, making navigation by larger boats a treacherous activity, but it provides an amazing playground for sea kayakers and photographers. We can get right up against the shoreline to photograph the crazy rock formations that make Sucia Island so famous. Sucia Island’s proximity to the wildlife-rich Strait of Georgia almost guarantees great views of seals, porpoises, eagles, and occasionally resident Orca whales.
No previous paddling experience is necessary. Paddlers from novice to experienced are welcome and there will be something for everyone, but you will need to be in good physical shape and be able to sit in a boat for long periods of time.
Photography:
Our group will be capped at a ratio of 8 participants to 2 teachers so you will get great one-on-one time to get all your photography questions answered.
We will be covering topics specific to capturing sea kayak photography in addition to broader photography rules:
• How to keep your gear dry. Dry bags, underwater housings, dry cases, dry suits.
• Packing light for adventure photography.
• Shooting action with a kayak-rolling demo by Freya Fennwood.
• Shooting on the water.
• Gaining a unique perspective.
• Capturing the decisive moment.
• Capturing people – tricks for great adventure portraits.
Photography Basics:
• Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO – their relationship and when best to change one over the other.
• Metering and getting a correct exposure.
• Histograms: how to read them, and how to fine-tune exposure.
• Creative depth-of-field effects using aperture control.
• White balance, when to change when to leave alone.
• Composing to control your viewer’s attention in your photos.
• Composition: Balance, Tension, and Visual Flow.
• How to use filters to capture dramatic light or create long-exposure effects.
• Low-light and night photography.
• How to capture stars.
• Light-painting experiments.
• Shoot planning and how to be at the right place at the right time.
About the Teachers:
Freya Fennwood has been making a name for herself as a commercial and editorial Adventure and Lifestyle photographer with much of her work appearing in the water sports industry, including grabbing the August cover of Adventure Kayak Magazine in 2014 and a feature article about paddling in New Zealand. She has written about photographing water sports for Adventure Kayak Magazine, Speak Adventure Sports Magazine, and Pygmy Boats. As the daughter of kayak designer John Lockwood, Freya grew up in the cockpit of a sea kayak and she has over 20 years of paddling experience. Freya was named one of skiing’s top photographers by the 2014 Backcountry Magazine photo annual.
Freya pays the bills by being paid to play outside with great people in the world’s most stunning locations while creating commercial imagery for clients like Title Nine, Cascade Designs, Outdoor Research, First Ascent/Eddie Bauer, Therm-a-Rest, Pack Towel, Nuu-Muu, NRS, Pygmy Boats, and Sawyer Paddles, to name a few.
Josh Cripps is a California-based professional landscape photographer. An official Nikon photographer, Josh just shot the signature image for the new Nikon D750 campaign seen around the world. In addition, his work has been featured in magazines like Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography, and hangs on walls across the United States. Josh has been teaching photography for over four years and loves helping photographers have those “aha!” moments that take their photos to the next level. With his company, Sea to Summit Workshops, Josh leads photography on-location nature photography workshops in some of the most beautiful places on the planet, like New Zealand and Yosemite. He is extremely excited about his latest project, Professional Photography Tips, a YouTube channel where over 50,000 photographers a month come to improve their skills. When not busy traveling or teaching Josh can be found hiking the hills of California, seeking great light. Click here to see his work!
Reservations must be made by April 15th, 2015.
Contact Freya Fennwood at [email protected] to reserve your spot! ONLY 8 SPOTS AVAILABLE. WE EXPECT TO FILL UP QUICKLY! $2,499 per person. Visit http://www.fennwoodphotography.com/Workshop.html for equipment lists, detailed trip outline and more information.
