Open Shutter Workshops

Come, join us...

...for a ten day photographic workshop in one of the world’s most beautiful spots - Tuscany. We’ll stay in a 15th century Villa just outside Florence, located in the center of a large farming estate. You’ll improve your photography skills in a true Renaissance setting - surrounded by olive groves, vineyards, cooling gardens, and authentic architecture. There will be plenty of time for wine tasting and relaxation, right at the Villa. If you like, you can sit in the giardino and look across the hills to the Duomo in Florence.

From the time we pick you up at the airport, you’ll be living your Italian dream. Open Shutter Workshops will provide lodging, food - breakfast and evening meal, transportation, photography instruction, maybe even Italian language instruction.

Italy is more than just beautiful sights and exciting places to stay. There’s also food and wine, and there’s the beautiful language. This sojourn in Tuscany will bring you directly into the center of Italian everyday life. We’ll go shopping; we’ll take trains; we’ll go into the mountains to visit the same marble quarries where Michelangelo selected the stone for his work; and we’ll learn the secrets of Tuscan cooking from Elena Mattei, working alongside her to create a wonderful five-course meal.

Your photography instructor, Paul Boyer,will make sure you bring home a treasure chest filled with great images- from the rolling hills of Chianti, to the unspoiled charm of the Cinque Terre in neighboring Liguria, to the animated street activity of Florence.

There will be ample time to address the needs of beginning and expert photographers. Workshop size will be limited to 12 people. Paul has over 20 years’ experience teaching photography workshops, and five years’ experience with digital photography. Plus, he speaks fluent Italian.

The workshops will be based at an authentic Renaissance villa, an agricultural community with olive groves and grape vineyards, a place that
produces its own olive oil and wine. Your stay at the villa will be a step back in time, except that you’ll have the advantage of modern conveniences.

The castello is the perfect meeting place for a group like ours. There are meeting places for class and individual instruction. And there are ample opportunities for photography in the neighboring hills.