Smith Island
Welcome to the Smith Island- FirstLight Workshop
Two Sessions: Oct 11 – Oct 16, or Oct 17 – Oct 22
Few times in your life will you have the opportunity to experience a place like Smith Island on the eastern shore of Maryland. A step back into time, a place that time seems to have forgotten. Or, as author Tom Horton calls his book about Smith Island, “An Island Out of Time”.
4 full days will be spent photographing not only the Watermen, but the fabric of this community as well as the natural and stunning beauty of the area. A new aspect of FirstLight, you’ll also record the sounds of this place; the stories and anecdotes of the community, the sounds of the bay, the wildlife, finalizing this with a multimedia show of your work. Writer Tom Horton will be providing seminars on the process of the interview.
Daily edit sessions will heighten your awareness and ability to “see photographically”, empowering your photography and story telling. 4 instructors and a low number of participants provide an unrivalled ratio of instructor to student. You’ll go back into the field after the edit session with an excitement and understanding of this process, taking your photography to new heights. This is critical anytime you put the camera to your eye and press the shutter, whether a story for a national publication, or photographing your own life, you will come out of this workshop with a far greater understanding of how to tell that story. Learning to capture sound will provide another component that will make your final body of work that much more appealing, and informative, for your audience
FirstLight photographers and our guests will also enjoy a projection session of the week’s “best of” work. Held at the photographer’s headquarters where you will enjoy wine and cheese along with the company of friends and the locals that you spent the week photographing. The entire process comes to life with the unveiling of our own Firstlight Smith Island magazine. Your copy of the Firstlight Smith Island magazine will arrive at your home after the completion of the workshop.
FirstLight will provide accommodations in the small towns, staying in B&B’s and guest homes..this is a real location, NOT a tourist destination.
Bring your own equipment, or use one of the Olympus E system digital SLR outfits, which will be available for your use at the workshop. Let us know before the workshop if you need a loaner kit, one will await you on Smith Island.
Space is extremely limited; so don’t delay in signing up for this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Your Instructors
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Jay Dickman -FirstLight Founder
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Jay Kinghorn – RGB Imaging
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Dave Harp – Professional Photographer
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Tom Horton – Author
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What you will do when you are there
October 11, or the second session, October 17: Travel/Arrival Day, and opening-night wine and cheese party where you will meet your fellow participants and instructors.
October 12, or the second session, Ocober 18: FirstLight Smith Island you’ll meet at the workshop HQ, where you’ll meet the instructors, listen to an overview of the Island from Tom Horton, and discuss the available assignments. A short lecture will occur prior to your heading out on your shoot, discussing how professional photographers approach an assignment and how we make the “entre” into our subjects lives.
Daily, you’ll come back to the workshop HQ mid-morning to download your images and have your work critiqued. Either prior to or immediately after to you head off to lunch, we’ll have a group projection and critique session. These are great, as you’ll get a reaction to your work and provide your insights to other’s work. After lunch, we’ll provide a seminar on shooting, editing and/or Soundslides, our software for blending the images and sounds captured.
We’ll host an instructor’s show, where we’ll also invite the public. We heavily encourage our students to bring in digital files of their own work, 5-10 images, to share with the group at this time.
After that you’ll head back out on your assignments, utilizing the “golden hour” light.
October 15, or second session, October 21, FirstLight will host a wine and cheese party for our group, followed by the final evenings’ projection sessions of the multimedia shows, where our photographic subjects and the town will be invited in to view our students work.
The entire process comes to life with our own FirstLight Smith Island; we will develop, design and complete the magazine, each student will receive a printed version which will arrive at your home after the workshop.
Workshop Cost
Cost for the Smith Island workshop is $2600.00.
Your FirstLight Smith Island Workshop fees include: 5 nights accommodations, workshop fees and instruction from our 4 experts, access to Olympus E-system state-of-the-art digital cameras and lenses, Opening Night Reception and all breakfasts’ and dinners, a 16×20” print-which will be sent to you after the workshop, of your best photo and a copy of FirstLight Smith Island Magazine which will arrive at your home after the workshop (please note, the development of the magazine takes a considerable amount of time).
Please call our offices Toll Free 1 877 448 0411 to register with a $250.00 USD deposit, fully refundable before July 15, 2009. After July 15th, the deposit is non-refundable. The balance of the fee is due by August 10, 2009 and there are no refunds for cancellations on or after August 10, 2009. FirstLight Workshops has the right to cancel the workshop up to and including July 15, 2009 and any and all monies received will be fully refunded. Please note, this workshop will fill up quickly, so register soon as this is a first-come, first-reserved offer.
After July 15, no refunds will be made!! Cancellations after July 15 and up to and including August 15 will forfeit the $250.00 deposit
Checks should be payable to: Firstlight Workshop LLC
Send checks to: FirstLight Workshops P.O. Box 582 Littleton, CO 80160-0582
FirstLight Workshops is also proud to announce that we accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express as payment for your Smith Island experience!
What is not included:
1. Airfare
2. Transportation UNLESS you purchase the round-trip transportation package, which includes pickup from the Baltimore Airport at a pre-designated time and delivery to the ferry in Crisfield, as well as ferry fees. This package is an additional $125.00. if you are interested, this has to be paid for by August 10
3. Lunches
4. Liquor/drinks/amenities
5. Incidentals: You are responsible to pay for any and all additional charges to your room when you depart: phone calls, business services, laundry, etc.
What you must bring:
1. For this workshop you MUST bring a laptop on which you will work. We will primarily be working in Adobe Lightroom, if you don’t own this software, you can download a 30-day trial version from Adobe.
2. Digital SLR camera and knowledge of how to work the equipment. If interested, we can provide an Olympus DLSR and lenses, but we MUST know your needs prior to the workshop
3. We will also, in a later email, let you know what sound software we will be using. There should also be a trial version of this software to download. This info will be contained in an email
If you have any additional questions, or for more information, call us Toll Free 1-877-448-0411, email us or write to us at the address above.
Please fill out the form below as completely as possible and a FirstLight Workshops representative will follow up with you regarding your registration. Please note that all fields marked with an * are required, but the more information you give us, the better we will be able to answer any questions you may have.
How to get there
The most convenient airports are Washington Dulles (IAD), or Baltimore Washington International (BWI)–BWI is the preferred airport for those taking advantage of the transportation package (see below). Many airlines have direct flights to Dulles or Baltimore, including United Airlines, American Airlines, Northwest and Delta..
FirstLight will provide, at additional cost, a transportation package that will pick you up at a designated time and location in the Baltimore Airport. Please contact us if interested. If you want to rent a car, it will sit at the ferry terminal for the days of the workshop, as NO cars are allowed on Smith Island. NOTE: Some workshop attendees are arriving by boat, others are renting cars as they will continue on from the workshop, so the transportation package will include the pickup fee at the airport as well as the ferry ticket, both roundtrip. The cost for this package is an additional $125.00 and MUST be arranged prior to the workshop!! If you don’t partake of this package, you will have to pay a $40.00 roundtrip ferry fee in Crisfield, where you’ll find the ferry terminal, as well as arranging your own transportation to the ferry.
Thank you to our sponsors
FirstLight Workshops are made possible largely by the generosity of Olympus, Adobe, HP and the following sponsors :
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