Meng's Travels: Black & White

My first workshop as a Volunteer Trip Leader (VTL) with Arizona Highways Photo Workshop (AHPW) was called "Seeing the World in Black & White." The workshop was held in Flagstaff, AZ, from August 14-16, 2015 and was taught by Joel Wolfson. Joel is a professional photographer with 25+ years of experience, having works published in Newsweek, Elle, Seventeen, Family Circle, etc.

Almost all professional photographs are taken in RAW format. RAW, as the name implies, means that the camera sensor captures all the light that it sees. This is converted to a viewable format like JPG, TIF, EPS, or PNG using software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, or Nikon ViewNX2, or other software. Taking pictures in RAW format means the file is much bigger, often around 10 MB. Taking casual pictures in JPG or JPEG format don't need to be processed and are usually much smaller in file size.

Pictures are almost always taken in color and can be converted using one of the software mentioned above. We used a Topaz Black and White plug-in for Adobe Lightroom to create the B&W pictures. Lightroom itself has B&W options but Topaz gives more presets and options.

On the first day of the workshop, we met in a conference room at the hotel. There were 15 participants and their experience range from novice to semi-professional. All of them were asked to bring 2 or 3 photographs that they have been taken to be critiqued. Critiquing is an important part of a photography class. The instructor and others in the class give comments about your picture and help you learn what you could've done better. It is meant to be positive. Joel also showed some of his pictures and explain how and why he took them a certain way. This is very helpful as it sets the bar for the participants to try to achieve. He also went into photography techniques and explain about the Zone System.

On Days 2 and 3 we started early (about 5 am) for sunrise shoots. On Day 2 we went to Sunset Crater and on Day 3 we went the San Francisco Peaks area. Both locations offered many excellent photographic opportunities. Participants are encouraged to be creative. We also have photo shoots in the afternoon - a wooded area near Snow Bowl, at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and in downtown Flagstaff. After the photo shoots, each participant submits 2 or 3 pictures to be critiqued.

This is a very affordable class. It costs about $800 for the 3-day workshop, which includes 2 nights hotel and lunches. All participants gave the class very positive remarks in their surveys.