Wildcat Studio Nude Workshop

North America, US :: Pacific

Upcoming Fine Art Processes

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Wildcat Studio Nude Workshop

Since photography’s birth, the prominence of the nude subject has played a significant role in distinguishing the work as fine art. Photographs depicting the nude have long-since held the power of authentically expressing the very essence of humanity, telling the most intriguing of stories, and often eliciting the most vulnerable of emotions. For four generations, though the subject matter and artistic voices of photographers in the Weston family may have evolved, the mastery of fine art photography that began with Edward Weston has been preserved in its entirety.

For nearly 20 years, Kim Weston has taught nude photography workshops on Wildcat Hill, his grandfather’s former home and now his. The Wildcat Studio Nude Workshop, hosted 2-3 times a year by Gina and Kim Weston, is a fine art nude photography intensive. This three day workshop presents a unique opportunity, suited for both novice and experienced photographers, to explore nude photography while immersed in the Weston family’s historic contributions to American photography.

The Location: Edward Weston’s Wildcat Hill

Wildcat Hill is located on California’s infamous Highway 1 between the charming coastal village, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Big Sur, known for its seaside cliffs and views of the often-misty coastline. For more than seventy years, photographers, artists, writers, poets, and their admirers have come to Wildcat Hill. Names like Ansel Adams, Ruth Bernhardt, Imogen Cunningham, Minor White, and Beaumont Newhall have admired its beauty and connection to the Weston family for nearly a century.

Weston Workshop participants are invited to photograph in multiple areas on the property including Kim Weston’s studio, Bodie House, and the main house where Edward lived with his last wife, Charis Wilson. Participants may also photograph outdoors as weather permits.

Models

The professional fine-art models at Wildcat Nude Photography Workshops are respected colleagues with whom Kim and Gina have worked for many years. The photographer to model ratio in each group is 3:1 allowing for maximum time, privacy, and freedom in each location.

Kim and Gina greatly value the relationships they have maintained with their models and will cover the importance of mutually respectful interactions to all workshop participants.

Instruction & Critique

Kim Weston will be your private instructor during this workshop and will work with each photographer in the group on things like lighting, composition, working with models, developing one’s voice as an artist, and much more. In addition, we will hold an anonymous critique of each photographer’s work from the first day’s shoot in which Kim will offer feedback before you head into your second session of the weekend. You will also be given the opportunity to show your past work on the first night of the workshop; though it is not required, we highly encourage our students to prepare a collection of their favorite images to give us a better idea of their photographic style.

Itinerary

Friday Night 5-7:30pm – Meet and Greet, bring your photographs to share with the group, view 4 Generations of Weston Photography.

Saturday 9am-4pm – 2 photography sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.(Lunch break, participants bring their own lunch). At 4pm, break for 2 hours before returning for dinner. Saturday Night 6pm-9pm – Intimate home cooked meal prepared by Kim & Gina Weston, fireside discussion of photography, local guest photographers show work. Saturday night homework: Students will be asked to bring 5 images from Saturday’s photo shoot to view on Sunday morning.

Sunday 9:00am-5pm – In the morning we gather in Kim’s gallery for a print critique of the previous days work on the computer (digital capture only), photograph, lunch, photograph.

Payment
Full payment is due when you register for class.

Withdrawal, Workshop Cancellation and Refunds
If you need to withdraw from a workshop, you must inform us no later than 30 days prior to the first day of your workshop, and we will refund your deposit or full tuition, which ever is applicable, less a $100.00 registration fee. After the cutoff date a refund will only be made if a qualified replacement is found. If it is necessary for us to cancel a workshop, all registered participants will be notified at once, and you will receive a full refund of deposits and fees. Notification of cancellation due to low enrollment will be made at least 14 days prior to the beginning of class. For this reason we encourage you to purchase refundable airline tickets and consider purchasing trip cancellation insurance. The workshop will not be responsible for any loss on airline tickets or any other loss at all.

Waiver of Liability
The Weston Workshops shall have no responsibility or liability for personal injury to any participant or damage to any participant’s property, or for personal injuries or damage to the property of any other person resulting from the participant’s involvement in the workshop. The Weston Workshops has the right to cancel any workshop and to alter the time, context, or format of any workshop in the event circumstances require. In the event a workshop is cancelled, for any reason the extent of the Workshops’ liability is limited to the return of all fees and deposits paid.

More Information
One month prior to the workshop date each registrant will receive a letter describing further workshop information. This includes an itinerary and a map.

CAMERA:

You may bring a digital or film (any format) camera with which you are fairly to extremely familiar.

A TRIPOD:

We encourage all Weston Workshop participants to bring a tripod if they have access to one. A tripod can be extremely helpful when photographing in low light and it will free up your hands, allowing you to concentrate on your subject.

FILM:
If you are shooting with a film camera, please be sure to bring plenty of film. If you are concerned about traveling with it, please feel free to ship it to Wildcat prior to the workshop (just let us know if you plan to do so at least 1 week before the workshop begins).

MEMORY CARDS:
Bring several high capacity memory cards so you can change cards without disturbing your flow while you are working. It's always a bummer to have to stop mid-photoshoot to erase images in an effort to free up space on your card.

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT:
If you will be photographing with a digital camera, please bring a laptop and a USB thumb drive for the critique on the second day of all Wildcat Studio Nude Workshops.

PROPS:
Though Wildcat Hill is equipped with a bounty of interesting and dynamic props, you are more than welcome to bring some of your own.

LIGHTS:
Because Kim prefers to shoot with natural light, we do not provide studio lights or flashes; however, if you think you will need them, you are welcome to bring them along.

REFLECTORS:
We have a few reflectors but bring yours along if you have one handy.

CLOTHING:
Wear layered clothing, as we live very close to the ocean and the weather can change quite quickly. Its best to wear sturdy shoes to work around our property. Preferably flat soles as we have small pebbles along our walkways.