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 The
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in
Southern Utah is a rugged landscape of deep gorges and hidden
canyons. America's newest national monument was formed by a
Presidential Proclamation that preserved thousands of acres of
sandstone and rock formations carved over eons. Join professional photographer
Charlie Borland for an
incredible photo experience exploring this remote and vast area
of red rock and sandstone.
The name Grand Staircase-Escalante came from early geologists
who noticed the staircase layers of geologic rock formations
that extended from the Grand Canyon on up to Bryce Canyon. The
Escalante River flows through the heart of the National Monument
and continues carving its way through the layered sandstone on
its way to the Colorado River. This natural event has created
slot canyons and alcoves with hanging gardens and hidden
treasures that await our cameras. The region was home to the
earliest inhabitants, the Anasazi, and remains of their early
presence are found throughout the monument.
We will
spend our days exploring this vast area and our tentative
schedule includes visits to Lower Calf Creek Falls (5 mile
roundtrip) Devils Garden, Egypt, Peek-a-boo slot canyon, Harris
Wash, and anything else that catches our photo eyes.
Open to photographers of any skill level, this workshop will be
a relaxing wilderness experience with plenty of time for
personal photographic exploration. The program is informal with
more shooting and less classroom and will emphasize landscape
and nature photography.
By combining this beautiful location with excellent instruction,
we’ll help you come away with the kind of images you seek. This
workshop is founded on the idea that you will learn more by
doing photography in the field than simple classroom
instruction.
 Our
casual lectures will cover such subjects as:
Controlling depth of field
Controlling exposure and contrast
The best filters to use and when
Why you cannot always trust your exposure meter
Making stronger compositions
Using flash in the field
Check out the GSENM Gallery
Our base will be the small town of Escalante, Utah where we will
stay at the Prospector Inn.
Workshop Agenda.
 The
dates are Wednesday October 8th through Sunday October 12th.
The workshop will begin at 4:00pm on the 8th with a casual gathering followed by an evening slide show.
Thursday through Sunday we will arise early for a drive to our destination for sunrise
photography. We will return mid morning to the lodge for
personal time to eat, download images, rest up, clean up, and relax. Mid
afternoon we will meet again (except Sunday) to return to the monument for our
evening shoot. Depending on weather, we may make one day an all
day trip into the monument in order to reach some of the
farthest reaches along Hole-in-the-rock road. Following
our Sunday morning shoot, we will return to the meeting room for a group slide
show and present participant images from the digital
photographers. Workshop wraps up around noon.
 Color Printing Supplemental
Workshop
Aspen Workshops has teamed up with Tracy Hassett of
Gallery Escalante to offer a 2-day digital darkroom and printing
workshop in their state of the art digital lab. Students have
the option of signing up for this program as an add-on workshop
following our 5 day field course, Please note: there is a 4 person limit for this
printing workshop and it will be first come first serve. The
field workshop ends on Sunday October 12th. The first Digital
Darkroom is the 13th and 14th. The second Digital Darkroom is
the 15th and 16th. Again, this is first come first serve basis,
so if you are interested in this supplemental workshop please
reserve your dates now.
Gallery Escalante's digital darkroom is outfitted with computer
graphics workstations with pen pad and course workbook provided
for each client Day 1. What you will learn is: (1) Setting
Preferences for Photoshop and Bridge to optimize performance. (
2 ) Establish workflow for file management based on each
individuals thought process. ( 3 ) Working with a pen pad,
including setup, features and advantages. ( 4 ) Basic tool usage
overview (brushes, selection, move, crop, etc.) ( 5 ) Working
with Layers, the heart of non destructive image mastering. ( 6 )
Masking for selective image adjustment ( 7 ) Two methods for non
destructive Burn and Dodge to selectively darken and lighten
image areas. Day 2 The day will begin with a brief refresher and
discussion of camera basics ( 8 ) Evaluating image quality,
including Composition, Cropping, Sharpness and using Histogram
information. ( 9 ) Select an image and establish an adjustment
strategy to create your vision. ( 10 ) Global and selective
color adjustment methods. ( 11 ) Master your image (crop, burn,
dodge and selectively enhance) for printing. ( 12 ) Output a
wall print up to 20" x 30" or equivalent depending on sharpness
and or your needs.
 Additional information:
Photo Equipment
The Landscape Workshop is for digital and film photographers and
proper equipment is crucial to your successful workshop
experience. You can use 35 mm SLR’s, 2 ¼, or 4x5 format. The variety
of lenses is up to you, but a wide angle through telephoto
lenses are good choices, such as 28mm up to 200mm. If you have
wider angles and longer telephoto lenses, they will get plenty
of use. Digital photographers should not forget to bring plenty
of flash cards and the means to download them. A sturdy tripod
is mandatory for landscape photographers and you should have one
in your equipment. Digital photographers may wish to bring a
laptop and work on image processing between shooting.
Getting There
Escalante is in south central Utah and is approximately 200
miles south of Salt Lake City and approximately 300 miles north
of Phoenix, AZ and 175 north of Flagstaff, AZ. Please note that Aspen Photo Workshops cannot provide any
transportation to, from, or during the workshop. The roads in
GSENM can be rough and although we will not be using roads that
require 4 wheel drive vehicles, we recommend that you rent an
SUV or a vehicle with good clearance. We will also strongly
encourage carpooling and if you would like to make pre-workshop
contact with other workshop participants to make vehicle
arrangements to share costs, please let us know upon
registration.
 Registration
1)
The workshop is limited to 8 participants and cost is
$725.00 per person for
workshop only. To
register for Red Rock and
Sandstone: Grand Staircase-Escalante NM
you can use our
online registration (PayPal).
If you wish to not use Paypal then you can provide us your credit
card information which we will run through Quicken Merchant
Services. Click on this
link
and follow the steps. Or
you can download our registration form and pay by check or money order.
2) The 2-day Digital Darkroom supplemental workshop is
$300 per person. You can use our
online registration (PayPal) or
you can download our registration form and pay by check or money order.
BE SURE YOU SELECT THE DATES YOU WISH.
3)
Next, contact The Prospector Inn at
1-435-826-4653 and make your room
reservations. They are offering rates $50.00 per night for workshop
participants. You are not required to stay here, but we strongly encourage
it. This is the best way for you to receive all information regarding the
next day’s events. If the weather changes and we decide to move to a
different location, we want you to know about it.
4)
Next, open and read the
Registration and General Info pages. There is important
information essential to a successful workshop experience.
5)
This workshop also requires a liability
waiver for participation in this workshop. Please click
on this link Liability
Waiver, print it out, complete the form, and mail to the
address on the form.
Please Note
Grand Staircase-Escalante NM is one of the jewels in our
system of national parks and monuments. Fortunately it has not
been developed like many other beautiful natural areas.
The monument near the town of Escalante only has one main road,
the Hole-in-the-rock Road and it leads to all the locations we
will visit during the workshop. The road is rough and washboard
and all the side roads we take are rough as well. Many of
the locations we visit will require short , easy to moderate
hikes. Some of the spectacular locations we will photograph are
20-30 miles on washboard roads. GSENM is a spectacular location
with innumerable photographic opportunities that leave you
inspired and rewarded.
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 60 days prior to workshop start date and
receive a refund, minus a $50 processing fee. Less than 30 days
there is no refund unless your space has been filled from a
waiting list.
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You'll never
know.....if you never go!
