Four nights, GBP 1500.

This short Retreat on the English south coast is a bit of a departure for us in terms of duration and location but one that allows you to enjoy an intensive few days of image-make and discussion as we explore this quirky seaside town and the adjacent coastal areas.

We will photograph boats and beaches and, possibly, our breakfast. You will learn about flash, flower photography and fiddling about in Photoshop and Lightroom as we work a variety of seaside subjects. And Charlotte, as always, will feed us with fine, fresh food. Our base is a delightful two-hundred-year-old farm house set in 100 acres of pasture and ancient woodland, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty just outside Hastings. And we’ll be within very easy reach of London.

ENJOY OUR BROCHURE HERE.

Seven nights, GBP 2700.

Over a period of 20 years, we’ve come to know the mountainous region of Torridon in north-west Scotland inside out and can take you to the most striking spots at the best time of day. Our accommodation over-looking Upper Loch Torridon is handy for getting to several of the best locations without a long drive. The combination of imposing mountains, rugged coastline, deep, dark lochs and old boreal woodland makes Torridon an iconic region of Highland Scotland - without the crowds.

ENJOY OUR BROCHURE HERE

Seven nights, GBP 3250

On this Retreat at Ole Martin and Wenche’s Dahle’s place in Flatanger, central Norway, we will photograph not only sea eagles in the fjords but also golden eagles attracted to carcasses laid out for them in the boreal forest. They may be joined occasionally by a sea eagle. There are many other winter forest birds to photograph from the well-insulated hides with a good chance of goshawk.

When you are ready for a change, you can enjoy photographing the beautiful forests and fjords all around, in their winter mantle - and in gorgeous low-angled light.

ENJOY OUR BROCHURE HERE

Seven nights, GBP 2750

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains, straddling the border of Germany and Czechia (part of which is confusingly known as Saxon Switzerland) lie close to Dresden in what was once East Germany.

This region is an oddity amongst the Central European Uplands on account of the divesity of its landscapes in so small an area. It is transected by the Elbe river valley and lies 30 minutes south east of Dresden, extending over the border into Czechia. Between pockets of rolling agricultural land are the tepui-like table mountains, abysmal gorges and lofty rock pillars the area is famed for. These features trace their origins back to the Cretaceous period when the region was submerged and the sediments from which these features emerged were laid down. Eons of erosion have produced the remarkable landscape we see today, a landscape that has been an irresistible a draw to visitors for 200 years. The dense forests that cloak the area can’t mask its strange beauty and indeed, it is that strangeness that appeals to us.

We will visit during the peak week for autumn colours when the night time temperatures drop and we can expect some misty conditions too. Our friend, the respected German photographer, Willi Rolfes, will co-lead this Retreat, and knows this area well.

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Seven nights, GBP 2700

This summer Retreat is based at Oberer Gollmitzer, a lovely Austrian chalet sitting high above the village of Heiligenblut in the southern Alps. Charlotte and her team will look after you and provide you with lovely meals, as well as joining us in the field whenever possible. From here, we have easy access, via the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, to one of the most spectacular mountain landscapes in Europe. There are plenty of interesting spots we know and places to pull in!

Co-leader, well-known German photographer, Willi Rolfes, is very familiar with this area and will help you get close to marmots, ibex and alpine chough We’ll also lead you to our favourite waterfalls and alpine meadows. The Alps is a rapidly changing environment but there is still an opportunity to enjoy the high alpine biome on this Retreat, while reflecting on its fragility.

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Seven nights, GBP 3200

Amongst nature photographers, Ole Martin and Wenche Dahle’s operation at Flatanger, 3 1⁄2 hours north of Trondheim in central Norway, is considered the best place to photograph sea eagles in Europe. For over 20 years, Ole Martin has fed generations of local birds from the back of his boat and he is as familiar with their habits as they are with his. During four sessions - two morning and two evening ones - he will take us to the best places at the best times in the complex of open and shaded fjords to make memorable, action-filled pictures. Better bring a spare card or two...

But Flatanger’s appeal extends beyond these exciting raptors. In the sprawling boreal forest, with spring recently arrived, you will have 3 five-hour sessions of quiet hide (blind) time to photograph red squirrels and a variety of small birds that are attracted to the food provided for them. And to round things off, Niall and Wenche, a rising star on the creative nature photography scene, will share their ideas and insights and show you new pathways to explore.

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE HERE

Seven nights, GBP 2650

We return to our favourite Scottish islands at our favourite time of year, but with a spin this time- an overnight stay on Jura to give us time to explore some remote areas with the help of a local estate. Islay, as usual will serve up its unique blend of magical shore lines and lighthouses, eccentric geology and whisky distilleries- with thousands of barnacle geese thrown into the mix.

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Seven nights, GBP 2000 (introductory offer, normally GBP 2250).

A NEW SORT OF RETREAT WITH FOOD AND PHOTOGRAPHY RETREATS.

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE HERE.

Seven nights, GBP 2000 (introductory offer, normally GBP 2250).

A NEW SORT OF RETREAT WITH FOOD AND PHOTOGRAPHY RETREATS.

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE HERE.

Seven nights, GBP 2000 (introductory offer, normally GBP 2250).

A NEW SORT OF RETREAT WITH FOOD AND PHOTOGRAPHY RETREATS.

The full Retreat experience, but with just two of you, at our place in rural France.

The same care. The same great food. The same helpful tuition. But with your own space, working to your own schedule, with your own photographic focus.

When it comes to the photography part of your holiday, it’s an à la carte menu. If you want to shoot from dawn to dusk, we’ll do that. Or just at dawn and dusk, if you prefer. We can fill all day, every day for you but maybe you’d prefer to spend some time exploring our library of photography (and cookery) books. Or getting some lessons from Niall. Or just walking the quiet lanes through the traditional bocage landscape that surrounds our house and meadow. You, or your travel companion, may even want to pass an hour or two with Charlotte in her kitchen, learning chocolate or patisserie skills - indeed any dish you’d like help to master.

We have two hides (blinds) overlooking well-stocked feeding stations (including one for making white background photographs). Jays, great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches and goldfinches visit regularly, while there more occasional appearances by hawfinch and brambling. Keep your ears open, too, for cranes flying overhead on their way to and from the Loire, just 20 minutes away.

On chilly nights (and we might get snow!) we like to light the fire pit in the meadow and enjoy the very dark skies we have here. If you’ve never photographed the Milky Way properly, you have a good chance of doing so here.

Going a little further afield, we can take you to mediaeval villages, spooky abandoned châteaux, the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Hospice de Beaune and Vezelay and into the enchanting forests our region is known for.

So, the choices are yours. We will have a chat before your visit so that we can create a programme and discuss menus, just as you want them- to make a Retreat to remember.

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Seven nights, GBP 2500

We are excited to be running our first ever Retreat to Coigach and Assynt in the far northwest Highlands of Scotland. We’ve worked in the area many times in the past and regard it as Scotland’s most enchanting mountain landscape, with the extra dimension of a wild coastline. The famous mountains here- Stac Pollaidh, Suilven, Canisp, Quinag, Ben More Coigach and others- rise suddenly and dramatically from the lochan-studded moorlands, stubborn inselbergs of Torridonian Sandstone that have somehow resisted the erosion the rest of the area has been subject to over the last one billion years, erosion that has now reached down to the bedrock of some of the most ancient rocks in the world.

We will be based in a modern, comfortable self-catering house on the outskirts of Lochinver. There will be a maximum of seven guests on this Retreat.

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seven nights, GBP 2300

The Isle of Mull, at the heart of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, has a wonderfully diverse landscape and wild coastline. In recent years, thanks to TV exposure, it has entered the public mind as the home of sea eagles, surrounded by seas bustling with dolphins and larger whales. Indeed, eco-tourism contributes over £8 million to the island’s economy each year. But it is a big island and it’s easy to leave the crowds behind and find your own wild corner to explore and photograph.

Mull has an ancient volcanic backbone rising to over 900 metres. It is also deeply indented by seaweed-strewn sea lochs where otters and herons live by the tides and which are grazed along their margins by Highland cattle. The weather is “Atlantic” and never stays the same for long so the light is often divine.

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This seven day winter Retreat in the Torridon region of north-west Scotland is a perfect escape for landscape photographers who want to get away from the crowds, immerse themselves in a rugged landscape of mountains, lochs and sea shores and return in the evening to a log fire and great food. Niall has worked this area for over 20 years and knows where to take you, and when.

We’re free of the restrictions of hotels and work meal times around photography, rather than vice-versa. We make proper time, too, for reviewing your work and offer informed critique and fresh ideas developed during a 30 year creative career.

Mountains built from Torridonian sandstone, capped by glistening quartzite, seem to fill the sky. While it’s not necessary to climb to gain a good vantage point, doing so can bring its own rewards. The summits conjure with clouds rushing in from the Atlantic to produce squalls then drizzle then brilliant sunshine then hail–all within an hour. On other days it is utterly still and the dark lochs fill with reflections of emergent plants and sombre mountains. It’s as if the whole landscape is holding its breathe: a time to be quiet ourselves and get a sense of the endurance of life here.

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Looking over Upper Loch Torridon towards Beinn Alligin.

We’re delighted to welcome back well-known German photographer and teacher, Willi Rolfes, who will join us as we explore the mountains, native pinewoods and lochs of the Cairngorms National Park, based in the rapidly re-wilding Glen Feshie. Our stay coincides with peak autumn colours in the valleys, always with the possibility of a sprinkling of fresh snow on the mountain tops. There will also be an opportunity to photograph red squirrels at a feeding station in the pinewoods and, weather permitting, the reindeer herd that lives on the open hill.

We will be staying at the very comfortable Ballintean Mountain Lodge, chosen for its secluded location, proximity to several good locations and spaciousness. It’s an ideal place in which to learn and relax, with ensuite rooms for all.

The weather in the Scottish Highlands is, of course, unpredictable but between Willi and Niall, there is a huge storehouse of ideas and strategies to keep you engaged and productive through the whole week. Thanks to Glen Feshie’s distance from the sea it, and other glens in Speyside, often conjures up fog at this time of year and we’ll make sure we’ve got you in the right place if this happens.

6th - 13th November 2021, £2150, includes transfers to and from Inverness airport/railway station, all meals, accommodation, guiding, tuition and transport during the Retreat. No single room supplement. DOWNLOAD THE PDF BROCHURE HERE.

Islay remains our favourite Scottish island, and one we’ve visIited more than 20 times since the mid-1980’s. It’s the mix of cultural landscape and wilderness, of bright green pastures abutted by moorland and a coastline worried ragged by the Atlantic, that make it so enchanting. That, along with huge skeins of barnacle and white fronted geese, seals, goats and choughs, keeps drawing us back. Oh, and there are the distilleries and lighthouses too.

During the Retreat, we’ll visit all of our favourite haunts, at just the right time of day–or night. There is almost no light pollution away from our base near Bridgend in the centre of Islay, providing good conditions for astro-photography, with an old chapel as a foreground to boot. We’ll also do some light painting at dusk as well as visit a tiny bay with some of the most exquisitely patterned rocks in the Hebrides. Weather permitting, we will spend a day on the neighbouring island of Jura to try to photograph the plentiful red deer there.

Islay Estates is providing us with fabulous en-suite accommodation at Ceannloch House and an adjacent property from which is it easy to access all parts of the island within half an hour. For more information, please email us and we’ll set up a call with you.

23rd - 30th October 2021, £2000, includes transfers to and from Port Ellen- Post Askaig, Islay, all meals, accommodation, guiding, tuition and trans- port during the Retreat. No single room supplement. DOWNLOAD THE PDF BROCHURE HERE.

For the first of our new Retreats, we’re looking forward to welcoming you to our very own corner of Burgundy in the southern Morvan, right in the heart of France. This is a rolling, traditional landscape of small fields and dense hedgerows, scattered orange-tiled farm buildings and winding green lanes, white cattle and very sleepy villages. It’s our home and the venue for a deep exploration of a landscape that has largely disappeared elsewhere in Europe . We’re in no hurry.

As the countryside changes from summer to autumn colours, we will visit the spots Niall has discovered for the best views of this landscape and go there when the light is at its most flattering. Since Charlotte works meal times around photography, we have no fear about missing out on the light. Misty mornings, too, are possible and if the day is nice, we can have breakfast on location. Evening meals will be taken at our house, Les Saumais, where you have access to a fabulous library of photography books. If the evening is warm, we will eat outside.

You accommodation is a gite in the village, just 1 km away with great views overlooking the bocage landscape. No guarantees it will be warm enough to use the swimming pool, though! For more information, please email us and we’ll set up a call with you.

25th September - 2nd October 2021, £2200, includes transfers to and from TGV Le Creusot/Montchanin, all meals, accommodation, guiding, tuition and transport during the Retreat. No single room supplement. DOWNLOAD THE PDF BROCHURE HERE.