Known affectionately as “The Rock,” and loaded with history that pre-dates Columbus’ discovery of the New World, Newfoundland is the piece of the North American continent that sees the first light of each day.
The Avalon coast extends south from St. Johns, and it is jagged with inlets and harbors that support small friendly communities. The land is rugged and the people are gentle. It is some of the most scenic land anywhere, and it is perhaps the least crowded seacoast anywhere in America.
Our tour will be a week of exploration along the Avalon coast. The primary purpose may be photography, but we’ll also sample the culture and the Irish flavor of the food, music and pastimes. You will come home with new words in your vocabulary, and you will even have learned how to play Auction – (don’t ask; it’s too difficult to explain). Best of all you will come home with a treasure chest of fine photographs and the memories that will give them magic.
Tour Features
The week on the East coast of Newfoundland will be spent discovering with the camera. We’ll hike to the top of the “Gaze”, for a panoramic view of the coastline north and south. And we’ll hike along a portion of the East Coast Trail. That will bring us to places of unlimited photographic opportunity.
We will spend a day photographing at the lighthouse, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Mid-day, we’ll enjoy a catered picnic lunch. Point your camera in any direction from this spot, and you’ll find a reason to click the shutter. The whales may be feeding in the bay. Puffins will certainly be skimming across the surface of the water. And Arctic Terns will be gliding in the updrafts along the cliffs.
One day will be spent on a cruise aboard a crab boat. Hopefully we’ll see whales up close; but even if the whales aren’t in, we’ll see coastline that we couldn’t see any other way.
In the town of Ferryland the Colony of Avalon archaeological site and museum will stretch our imaginations back 400 years to the time when Lord Baltimore walked on the downs. Our schedule will be open and relaxed enough to allow everyone ample time for personal exploration.
We’ll end up the week in St. John’s, spending Friday afternoon and evening photographing around the city and around the harbor. Those with later flights will be able to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, and photograph daybreak behind Signal Hill—the spot where Marconi received the first radio signals from Europe.
Lodging
Our lodging will be at a Bed and Breakfast, a converted nunnery, that is adjacent to Holy Trinity Church. That’s where we’ll take our main meals and where we’ll have the “indoor” part of the photographic instruction. The rooms are comfortable, some singles, some doubles, some with, and some without private bath. When you reserve your spot on the tour, you can make a request for the type of room you’d like. Rooms will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
Instruction
Photographic instruction will be a major part of our activities. We will hold group sessions to introduce upcoming activities and to discuss photographic techniques. These sessions will be done with the aid of a digital projector and computer. For those with digital equipment we will be able to download images to computers for projection and discussion by the group. Film photographers will be a bit more limited, because we will not have facilities available for film processing during the week.
In the field, the instruction will take the form of coaching, to help everyone visualize the photographic possibilities in the scenes before us. Experts and beginners alike will find this useful.
There will also be scheduled times for individual instruction, and review of images. We want everyone to come home with wonderful photographs, and we’ll work hard to make that happen.
Newfoundland Guides
The guides for the week, aside from the photography instruction, will be Art and Sheila Barlow. Sheila was born at Calvert, just one inlet north of Ferryland; she is a true native. Art is one of the great storytellers of all time, and he has made Newfoundland a personal study over the past 35 years. With these two wonderful people at your disposal throughout the week, you’ll come home with enough knowledge to write your own tour book
$2500
dates to be announced, 2006
