“to go to Italy...is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery—back, back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awaken in us and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of forgetfulness.”
Lake Como: Light of the Italian Lakes is a digital photography workshop led by Special Guest Instructor and master educator George Jardine, Instructor Stuart Duncan Smith and Director Monica Malpezzi Price. Join George, Stuart, and Monica in Varenna, at the spectacular Villa Cipressi nestled in three acres of lush gardens on Lake Como, Europe’s deepest lake, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, where Fox Talbot on his honeymoon in 1833 was inspired by the surrounding beauty to invent photography on paper.
George Jardine, a former Adobe Pro Photography Evangelist and member of the original Lightroom development team, will teach Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4. If you prefer to use Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw, that’s fine too. Stuart, who has taught photography on Lake Como for years, returns as the photography instructor once again. Participants will shoot camera raw files and learn Lightroom’s extensive capabilities for image editing, organization, and image optimization. George, Stuart, and Monica will lead you to explore and photograph a mysterious, hidden Italy: the Lake, its gardens and villas, its luminous rose-gold light, its open markets and surrounding hill towns. You will also immerse yourself for 10 nights and days in authentic Italian life, landscape, and food.
A goal of our workshop is to coach you as you work with this liberating new digital workflow. George and Stuart will enable you to learn both vision and technique in a mix of morning and afternoon sessions that offer demonstrations, shooting assignments, presentations, field trips, and group critiques, all with the goal of expanding the creative abilities and skill levels of each photographer. Lake Como: Light of the Italian Lakes invites you to experience the sweetness of life of an Italy that you could not find on your own or with any other group. Photographers and their guests partake of a welcoming reception and dinner the first night, lunch at the mountain tavern Crotto Pepot--carved into fern-sprouting rocks over a waterfall in the castle village of Vezio--and enjoy a Lake Como banquet on the last night.
You will have plenty of free time to explore Lake Como by boat and by foot and to consult individually with the instructors. You can discover and photograph the unique Lake architecture, the friendly residents of this medieval village, the boat-strewn beaches, sunlit restaurants on the water, outdoor marketplaces with fresh cheeses and produce, as well mountain trails, waterfalls, and gorges. You can easily reach the villas, gardens, villages, and castles of Lake Como by boat and on foot. Or you can choose to linger and photograph in the fragrant gardens of our own Villa Cipressi, with its terraced gardens, fountains, caves, and paths leading to the Lake.
We will stay at the spectacular Villa Cipressi, a completely modernized Renaissance villa on the Lake, in Varenna, one hour north of Milan by train.
See a complete description of lodging choices and prices on our Registration page.
All registered participants will receive Holly's Lake Como: Light of the Italian Lakes © booklet, which contains comprehensive information about the workshop—what to bring, how to get to Varenna and what to expect when you do.
For further information now, please visit our FAQ page.
Holly's ICP Italy Photography Workshops attract a vast range of photographers, from passionate amateurs to working professionals. To read evaluations from alumni, please click here.
(*) If you have less than one-year experience on your computer or your digital camera, a telephone interview with one of our instructors is recommended prior to enrollment.