Photography Holiday

hot to trot

I would love to get away somewhere for a few days , preferably with a view to indulging in taking photos and hopefully improving with practice.
Many of the courses advertised on line seem ridiculously expensive , moreso if you are single like me .
Does anyone know of affordable ones or should i just bite the bullet and book ANYWHERE , and just go shoot.

How about the UK/London? I remember a thread on here before singing the praises of someone over there (a woman I believe) who holds photo tours for tourists, where they wander about to different places and view them from different viewpoints or such (and she also helps with how to take the photos and such).

I've never done it myself, and can't remember any names or anything (though I'm sure someone will be able to remember the thread).

Plus London for a weekend wouldn't be too expensive either (relatively).

Just an idea.

zt-OctaviaN

Ive seen trips that are 5k for a couple of days.
Having gotten into photography only in October Im looking at going for a 6 day trip to Iceland and have another mate and his girlfriend interested aswell.
Heres a breakdown of the trip Im planning and the total cost can be split between a group.


With Tony Prower
http://icelandaurora.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7SIvPlS6Cc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

$2900 for 6 days
$3400 for 7 days.
That's dollars. = €2190. And €2568 respectively.
All divided by 3 of us or more If we share the trip!

BREAKDOWN
So €720 each for the 6 day trip.

Flights total - €371
€278
Icelandair Outbound london htrw March 25th return April 1st into London htrw
€93 Dublin to heathrow return.

Accommodation
No price yet but I'll hazard maybe 350-400 budget for it
So were looking at about €1400 each... roughly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7SIvPlS6Cc&feature=player_embedded

hot to trot

That looks absolutely awesome.

rain on

Not exactly the same thing but I'm doing a one-day course in London at the end of the month on urban portraits and flash photography, heading over by myself for the weekend and staying for two nights. The course is about €150, I got flights for less than €50 and accomodation will be about €150, I think it'll be a nice little weekend away for not much money.

PCPhoto

the reason why photography holidays are so expensive is that the organiser also includes photography lessons/tutorage as well as locations scout for various different options to photograph - not all landscapes, local flora and fauna etc.

I do think they are grossly overpriced but if someone wants to learn in a classroom style setting - they have to pay for the luxury.

However, if you have the time and motivation there's nothing stopping you from travelling wherever you want and exploring the hidden parts of the country - off the beaten track....just make sure you know how to get to and away from the photo spot.

in 2010 I went to USA with the girlfriend and I wanted to get a sunrise pic of the Golden Gate bridge while we were passing through San Francisco .... so I set alarms and got out of bed an hour before sunrise, jumped in a taxi and up to the Golden Gate bridge .... hundreds of people turned up to do the same, only problem is .... after the sun rose and everyone got their pic - they all left, there was no busses for another couple of hours - don't remember why and my taxi had left..... I had to sweet-talk a tour bus driver to giving me a lift with her tour group so I could get back into San Fran (sunrise was 6ish I got back to the hotel around 11am).... took me 30mins to get to the bridge but over 4 hours to get back !!

EDIT: for inspiration google images various areas which you intend travelling to, or browse flickr for some ideas on what you can do in various places.

Nebezpeci Mys

You could also try some photography magazines - they usually have a section where a pro photographer tutors a nominated individual. Generally, these tutors also run their own courses, etc. and their details are available in the article/magazine. The only thing is that majority of them are based in the UK.

CabanSail

You could also join your local camera club. Annual Membership should be <€100/yr.

Most clubs organise a few trips away each year. These will normally cost you your own accommodation/meals etc. You then get to learn from the more experienced members for free.

hot to trot

Great idea to help me on the right track.

Local area is starting a camera club. Word is that they will meet once a month. I hope to join up with that.

Also need to set up flicker account and learn how to put images up etc and gawk through other peoples for ideas;)

LeoB

Last year I went to Edinburgh for 2 nights and the lot including Flights and hotel cost me just under €180. Only downside is weather was not great. Going solo was enjoyable. I hope to go back to North West scotland and Cairngorms this year and a few friends are interested.

Our plan is to price the following
1) Flight, car hire and accom, fly to Glasgow or Inverness/Aberdeen
2) Drive to Belfast and get Ferry to Stranraer or Cairnryan and drive up
If we have 4 going car hire and accom is split and same the other way. We think we can do 3 nights for less that €250 all in.

I have spoke to one person who done this and they said the most important thing was to have a plan and stick to it. List what you want to do and make A time for Ben Nevis, then a drive through Cairngorms, Glencoe, Isle of Skye etc. They also suggested to wait until March April when there is more light as the days will be getting slightly longer.

As stated earlier London has plenty to do and can be done quite cheaply. There are plenty of affordable hotels close enough to Central London and a trip on tube or bus will get you about fairly quickly. Well worth keeping an eye on Ryanair and Aer Lingus to see where they have seat sales to as you can get a return flight to UK from €20.

The camera club could be the way to go. Best of luck and keep us posted.