WHERE
Bali is a photographer's dream fulfilled: a tropical island paradise, with a traditional spiritual culture, whose people are warm, happy, and welcoming. They have a long tradition of everyone making articles of beauty as offerings - which leads to the highest concentration of artists in any society. They put considerable focus and effort on frequent, elaborate, and joyous public ceremonies to honor their gods. Ubud is a very small town, in the cool highlands, surrounded by rice paddies - the cultural and artistic center of the island.
WHY
This is an opportunity to make countless stunning, memorable images, and to improve your image-making skills - from storytelling, to portraits, to journalistic response to rapidly-unfolding events. You will receive cultural understanding from Beata and technical guidance from George. After the workshop, your 10 best images will be posted on this website.
WHY TEN DAYS
To fully experience Bali, both in intimate, one-on-one contact with artists and families, as well as by attending public events, and to visit some iconic locations across the island - ten days are not enough!
HOW
We schedule one or two photo shoots each day, with informal yet insightful guidance. We allow for some free time as well, for personal exploration or relaxation. When possible, we hold evening or early morning meetings to review images, and give individual direction. This is where an efficient digital workflow allows for a rapid and thorough evaluation of one's progress. We'll spend the first week in Ubud, then travel to the Eastern coastline, visiting other locations on the island, ending at the Southern-most beach, to facilitate departure from the airport.
GETTING THERE
Air travel is the participant's responsibility. Please be careful in the dates and times of the flights - most flights to Asia depart very late in the evening (but after midnight, the date changes!) Because you'll be crossing the International Date Line, you'll arrive in Asia two days later, but on your return, you'll arrive the same date you departed. Most Asian carriers fly to Bali, including Singapore, Cathay, Japan, China, Malaysia, Korean, Thai, Quantas, etc.
As you'll be traveling in the high season, we encourage you to book as early as possible! Be sure to arrange to arrive in Bali on Tuesday, August 11, and depart on Friday, August 21.
You will need your passport, valid for at least six additional months, and $25 in cash for the entry visa, valid for 30 days. No inoculations are required or suggested.
ONCE THERE
You'll be staying in a modern hotel, with air conditioning and a private bath. Full breakfast is included, but your local lunches and dinners are up to you, to allow for maximum flexibility (we will introduce you to a few of the better local restaurants, and we'll frequently eat together, but these costs, as well as incidental personal expenses, not included). We will treat you to a welcome dinner, lunches while traveling, and an extraordinary seafood dinner, on the beach at sunset, on the last evening of the trip. We will cover the cost of all transportation, all admissions, and all guides.
Bali's bank infrastructure is modern, and you can bring cash (but only in new, unwrinkled $100 bills), traveler's checks, or ATM cards. We suggest simply using ATMs as your most convenient and economical source of cash. You'll probably be purchasing souvenirs and making some optional presents to our servers - as local prices are extremely low, you'll be hard-pressed to spend more than a few hundred dollars.
Bring simple, loose, light-colored clothing, of natural fibers - you'll sweat during the day (mid to high 80s), but might be cool at night (mid to high 60s), when a simple sweatshirt or windbreaker will suffice. Rain is unlikely, but do be prepared with some simple rain gear (it'll be very warm). We'll be walking or standing most of the day, so do bring sneakers and sandals with cushioned heels. Do bring your swimsuit, sunglasses, sun hat, and sunblock. You'll be required to buy a locally-made sarong and sash, to have on hand, for attending any festival or celebration, as well as a traditional headband for men. To respect local mores, women will want to cover their legs and upper arms in most situations, with light, loose clothing. There's no opportunity to dress up - you'll be wearing T-shirts, jeans or shorts, and sneakers all of the time - and you'll want to buy lots of the beautiful and stunningly inexpensive local clothes to take back home (so bring only one half-filled suitcase). The hotel will provide a basic laundry service.
Please bring all your necessary photo gear, not forgetting additional memory cards, batteries, and chargers! Bring your laptop computer, and a trusted means of backing up your images, either by burning CDs or DVDs, or, better, to an external bus-powered hard drive. Have a reliable image-editing application ready - you'll want to review and select from the thousands of photos you'll capture each day - but leave the Photoshop for when you get back home. Local current is 220V, so check that your chargers are ready for it (most computers and camera chargers are multi-voltage).
You can stay in touch with home via phone calls from local "phone centers", or by internet from the numerous internet cafes. If you want to connect by laptop, some local establishments (including some restaurants) offer Wi-Fi, but don't expect the bandwidth you have in the US. The hotel will not be a good resource for either sending or receiving calls and messages.
Bali doesn't present any health threat - you won't need to worry about malaria, etc - and all restaurant food is perfectly safe. Do drink lots and lots of bottled water (remember, it's the tropics), and do bring your favorite preventive medicines for possible stomach upsets... but most visitors return without any illness at all. Do bring your sun-block and insect repellant (unnecessary in town or in the temples, only for some optional hiking).
Should your non-photographer spouse or friend join you, they'll be welcomed to join us in our experiences, or they'll be plenty busy wondering around Ubud on their own - we'll be glad to connect them with numerous other activities, such as Yoga, cooking, or art classes, or nature walks. We assume that they will travel with us, during the later part of the workshop, when we'll explore other parts of the island, and its beaches.
Participants will be emailed a full itinerary, that'll outline our daily activities. We'll keep the schedule open to change, as opportunities arise to attend festivals or cremations.
REGISTRATION
As enrollment is limited to 10 people maximum, we encourage you to apply early. Contact us for an application and liability waiver. Your non-photographer spouse/friend can join you, with all activities included, for a reduced cost. Members of the Advertising Photographers of America must contact us directly, to receive a 10% discount. For expediency, we accept PayPal.
We strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance, to protect yourself from unforeseen circumstances that might prevent your attendance - do ask for a plan that covers medical emergencies, lost baggage, missed flights, and trip cancellation due to an illness. Our workshop is not responsible for the consequences of any such personal misfortunes.