An Italian Travel Photography Workshop with a Difference

All Photos Copyright Carla Coulson

Dear Peeps,

This year is going to be the best year of our lives. I hope it is shaping up that way for you.

I am so excited to share a big part of the adventure with the folks who have signed up for the Intrepid Naples Workshop in September in Italy.

I still have 4 places available on this 5 day travel photography workshop so if you want to break out of your routine, travel somewhere unique maybe you wouldn’t dare to on your own with a like-minded group and take your travel photography skills to new and exciting heights, I’d love you to join us.

Many people have asked me why Naples?

It would have been easier for me to go to a place like Venice but Naples makes my heart beat harder and in all things photography I have always followed my heart.

I feel like you could draw a circle around Naples and it could be it’s own country. In ways it’s very Italian but in other ways it’s a whole new world, like Asia had a train crash with Italy! Each time I arrive in Naples I have the same feeling of awe as the first time I visited, there are so many contrasts and so much that still exists that has already disappeared from other parts of Italy. Their street food culture is like none other in Italy, their markets and shops are overflowing with products, the architecture is grand and regal but with that ‘Cuban’ faded patina and whole families glide around the streets on vespas. And there is a rich daily life that is a photographer’s dream.

What can the participants expect?

First of all the unexpected, it’s Italy on steroids! Five days of feeling truly alive, Naples is full of surprises. Along with another photographer I plan to impart the most important things that will improve your travel photography with a heavy focus on emotions and movement. This city is fast, full of action and Neapolitans are very easy and open with their emotions and it makes it a joy to capture their passion for life, love, faith, family and music and this can be a real challenge for photographers.

I hope to drill-down into specific techniques to capture this and also to help each photographer understand what emotions they want to express in their images.

We will spend up to 3 hours a day in a classroom situation, explaining theories and new techniques and reviewing your photos so that you walk away after 5 days with a whole new understanding and a new level of photography.

One of the key events we will shoot is La Festa di San Gennaro, the most heart-felt event of the year when Naples waits with it’s heart in it’s throat to see if their favourite saint’s blood will liquefy and their city will be saved. Oh and their will be pizza, arancini, limoncello and more!

What every photographer should know about Naples?

There is so much to learn from Neapolitans, they have a great sense of humour, l’art d’arrangarsi (the art of getting by) which makes them extraordinarily creative when the chips are down and you will see all kinds of ‘self appointed jobs’ like the parking guy who has decided to look after a street of cars but the one great life lesson we all could learn from Neapolitans is to live for the day.

I have never seen a population take these words and truly live them. I have been told over and over again in Naples ‘that tomorrow can wait’. I think this is a beautiful way to live as you get the most out of today without the anxiety of thinking about the future.

What’s nearby?

Possibly the most beautiful coastline in the world, the Amalfi Coast. An hour train ride from Naples is Positano and all the small villages that make up the Amalfi Coast so if you plan on having a holiday after the workshop this is a beautiful place. The islands of Capri and Ischia and just a ferry ride away!

If you would like to join me in Naples click here for full details.

“There were times, especially when I was traveling for ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ when, I swear to God, I would feel this weight of my female ancestors, all those Swedish farmwives from beyond the grave who were like, ‘Go! Go to Naples! Eat more pizza! Go to India, ride an elephant! Do it! Swim in the Indian Ocean. Read those books. Learn a language.” Elizabeth Gilbert