There’s limited space in our upcoming workshops.

Reserve Your Space Today!

.

TBA, 2026 – Antarctica Crossing The Circle

.

If the adventure you want is SOLD OUT or TBA …

Email seth@digitalphotodestinations.com

The post Limited Space Available first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

12 Things We Learned From Each Other

Antarctica Two Visions

Bucket List

You’ll find them educational and inspirational !

The post Get 3 eBooks Free ! first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

Get your copy now !

–

Explore enchanting Antarctica in this beautiful ebook.

Two masters of photography shoot side-by-side for ten voyages and share their very different visions.

Essays include amazing facts about this region of global importance and personal responses to place.

It’s inspiring!

56 images

86 pages

4 essays

The post Free eBook – Antarctica / Two Visions first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

Get your copy now !

Two master photographers John Paul Caponigro and Seth Resnick each share six things they learned from each other by working side-by-side.

These valuable lessons will help you take your photography to the next level too.

No matter what your level, we can all learn from each other.

It’s inspiring and educational!

12 images

32 pages

The post Free eBook – 12 Things We Learned From Each Other first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

The post Free PDF – Bucket List Destinations first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

As a fine artist, I advance my career with personal projects. Personal projects also create a clearer direction for and develop greater meaning in my life. My life would be unfulfilled without them.

You don’t need to have a fine art career to benefit from personal projects. Many commercial photographers find that personal projects re-energize them, add purpose to their lives and quite often lead to new assignments or whole new streams of income. Many amateurs, making images purely for the love of doing it, find greater satisfaction and personal growth through personal projects.

As an artist who mentors other artists in workshops and seminars, I’ve often been called to speak about the importance of personal projects; how to find them, start them, develop them, complete them, present them, and promote them.

Here’s an overview of what I share.

Define a personal project.

Defining a project is one of the single best ways to develop your body of work. When you define a project you focus, set goals, set quotas, set timelines, create a useful structure for your images, collect accompanying materials, and polish the presentation of your efforts so that they will be well received.

Focusing your efforts into a project will help you produce a useful product. A project gives your work a definite, presentable structure. A finished project makes work more useful and accessible. Once your project is done, your work will have a significantly greater likelihood of seeing the light of day. Who knows, public acclaim may follow. Come what may, your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Create a mission and set goals.

Define the purpose of your project and what you’d like to achieve through it. Many times, people adopt the mission and goals of others without first checking if those goals are personally beneficial. Some have professional aspirations, others don’t. Your goals will help you determine projects and timelines that are appropriate for you. The few moments (or hours) you spend clarifying why you’re doing what you’re doing and what you’d like to see come of it will save you hours, months, even years by ensuring that you’re going in the right direction – a direction of your own choosing. When you take control of your personal projects, you also take control of your life.

Make a plan to achieve your goals.

A plan will help make your project a reality. A simple action plan is all you need to get started. Action plans define the steps that are required to achieve completion. Action plans should be clear and practical. Action plans should be flexible; odds are, things will not go exactly according to plan and you’ll need to modify your plan to accommodate surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. Reality happens. Grace happens too. Having defined what you need to accomplish, your unconscious will go to work on the task, generating many ideas. You’ll find yourself ready to make the most of unexpected opportunities as they arise.

Set a timeline.

A timeline can be used to combat procrastination and/or distraction and encourage you to produce work. Set realistic timelines. Unrealistic timelines simply produce frustration.

Identify where and when you’ll need and who will help you.

While many artists define and produce projects themselves, some artists engage a curator, gallery director, publisher, editor, agent, writer, or designer to help them realize a project, in part or in whole. Finding the right collaborator(s) can improve any project. Above all, seek feedback. Seek feedback from people with diverse perspectives whose opinions you value and trust. One thing you can always use, that you can never provide for yourself, is an outside perspective. People with different perspectives may identify ways to improve, expand, or extend the reach of your project. Remember, feedback is food for thought, not gospel. In the end, all final decisions are your decisions; it’s your project.

Stay focused and follow through.

You can work on multiple projects at a time. Be careful that you don’t get scattered. Starting projects is easy. Finishing them is hard. Make sure you’re working on the best project. List all your possible projects and identify the ones that are most important and the ones that are easiest to finish. If you’re lucky enough that the same project fits both criteria, focus all of your efforts there. Otherwise, you’ll have to strike a balance between what’s practical and what’s most important to you. Only you can decide this and the balance is likely to shift as time passes and circumstances develop. Look for a common theme among projects. Often your projects will be related. Focus your efforts in related areas. It’s very likely those areas have greater relevance for you than others. Your work will be perceived as stronger and more cohesive if your projects relate to one another, implying evolution.

What’s your project?

A project is a wonderful thing. It gives direction. It brings clarity. It increases productivity. It produces tangible results. It brings personal growth. It presents your work in the very best light. You and your work deserve this. Pick your projects well. They define not only how other people see you but also what you become. You are what you do. Take the first step today; make a commitment to create a personal project. (Write something right now – put your words somewhere where you’ll constantly be reminded of them and can continue refining them!)

Now, let me speak in more specific and personal terms, as a way of sharing a few more of the insights I’ve found over the many years I’ve developed personal projects.

Plan to plan.

Many people refuse to plan, especially in creative fields where discovery is desired. They say, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Everyone needs a plan. Often, when you start a project, knowing you need to learn more as you go forward, you feel like you don’t have enough of the pieces to make a plan or you don’t have all of the pieces to make a complete plan. My recommendation is to start with a rough plan and continue to refine it as you go.

Stay flexible.

The best plans aren’t written in stone. The best plans remain flexible. Flexible plans allow you to make course corrections along the way as you learn more about your subject, your medium, yourself, and your audience. Expect to update your plan. I find that, if I don’t update my plan during the development of a project, this a clear indicator that I haven’t found the insight(s) necessary to complete it. I expect to be changed, for the better, by the projects I engage in. I expect to grow.

It helps to have a mission.

You have so many options before you, and so many more will soon present themselves to you, that you’ll find it challenging to choose which project(s) to move forward on or which path(s) to choose during project development. Defining a mission for your creative efforts, in general, will help ensure that you stay on track. I don’t take on a project unless it contributes to my mission (what’s achieved), reinforces my brand (how it’s communicated), or makes a lot of money (how it’s supported).

My mission is to “encourage conscientious creative interaction with our environment.”

The first time I went to Antarctica in 2005, I planned to make altered images. I was surprised that I had enough finished images by the end of the trip to exhibit a small body of images, that were comparatively unaltered. This represented a significant challenge to my brand. I found the challenge created to the public perception of my work was useful; rather than creating confusion, it clarified many things about my vision and my purpose, especially how I create images that are unaltered and altered in parallel with one another.

Be prepared to be surprised.

You don’t have to know all the answers before you begin to work. You just have to know the most important questions. Creating is a matter of solving mysteries, of finding answers. You don’t have to solve a mystery completely; you just have to find a few answers that you can stand by. If you’re lucky, you’ll find new questions and new mysteries along the way.

The second time I went to Antarctica in 2007, I had a lot of questions about how to complete an unaltered body of work. How journalistic or cinematic should I be? Should I photograph everything I saw? Ultimately, I found a balance between my personal concerns and passions. I focused on climate. I returned with enough material to produce a book.

Find your groove. Find your message.

Doing things consciously, repeatedly, and consistently brings mastery. Repeat your successes … and find meaningful variations on them. When you do this you give your work a theme and style, which communicate a message. When does a groove become a rut? Don’t worry about the rut too soon, most people don’t stick with one thing long enough to find a groove. They go off road, traveling anywhere and everywhere, by any and all means, and ultimately don’t end up anywhere in particular, much less a place to return to, a place they can call their own.

The third time I went to Antarctica in 2009, I expanded my body of work further adding relevant variety to the material. I searched the work I had produced to date and listed the missing pieces, as well as the ones I wanted to reinforce. Each voyage was significantly more productive than the previous one. I created a website to support and extend the project, which includes blog posts made live during the voyage and details my creative process.

Past projects lead to new projects.

Often the seeds of future work lie in present work. Themes that were unclear or latent, at the beginning of a personal project, once developed, lead to new lines of inquiry and more work. A creative life is never truly over. The best creative lives evolve; growing deeper, more complex and more sophisticated.

Now as I plan to return to Antarctica, I’m developing my original idea of producing a body of altered images from a new perspective. As I recently sketched out this plan, once again, I realized much of the work is already done. I’ve been producing altered images with material from the region all along, but not presenting them in this way. Now my challenge is to develop them in a way that makes this collection cohesive and contrasts the collection of unaltered images in a useful way – or to move in an entirely new direction.

Having developed an Antarctic body of work, I’ve also been developing an Arctic body of work, to create a useful comparison and contrast. I’d have gone to these regions sooner, but the opportunities came later. I learned I had to make the opportunity rather than wait for it – and that took another kind of planning, so did getting there at the right times of year. Now, like Antarctica, my Iceland and Greenland photography workshops are semi-annual traditions for me.

Find a way to monetize your project.

Projects take time. Time is money. Don’t fall prey to the cliche that art and commerce are and should remain separate. If artists can’t make money with the fruits of their labors, then they need grants or patrons. Projects need funding. You often can’t do the work unless you can afford to do it. There are many expenses to consider – equipment, travel, production, collaboration, presentation, promotion, etc. You need to think about these things early in the development of a personal project or you may later find yourself without the necessary resources to finish it. So empower yourself with good business practices. You can be just as creative in business as you are in other areas.

Prepare to make your work effective.

Even the best images will go unnoticed if they’re not presented and promoted properly. If you’ve spent a significant amount of time and resources to develop a personal project, you owe it to yourself to see it presented well. This may be as simple as presenting your images well to yourself or as complex as promoting a publication and or exhibit, physically and/or virtually.

I’ve created my own exhibition/publication workflow. Framed exhibits are ready to ship with supporting biographies, statements, and press releases online. Complete bodies of work are supported by a portfolio of matted prints, also ready to ship, and a print-on-demand catalog. This makes producing, shipping, and promoting exhibits much easier, so I can readily respond to new opportunities at a moment’s notice.

Make visible touchstones to guide your progress.

If you’ve got a personal project you want to complete, make a visible touchstone and keep it in one or more places where you can see it frequently. By doing this, you’ll be directing your conscious mind to focus on it and suggesting to your unconscious mind that this is a matter of importance – both will start to work on the challenge, even when you’re unaware of it. You will literally be sleeping on it. Many of the best ideas come during this period of gestation and incubation.

I print covers of unfinished book projects for developing series and display them in my studio.

Projects take time.

It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to finish a project in a day. Projects can take weeks, months, or even years to complete. Some projects are ongoing and never end, producing many milestones along the way (publications, exhibitions, commissions, etc). Some projects lie dormant for a period of time and then suddenly come to life again. Projects have a life of their own. Personal projects require commitment, but the depth of your commitment will be reflected in both you and your work and in the achievements you make with it.

I can’t recommend more highly that you start your own personal project – now.

Start with something simple. Then see how it grows over time.

The post The Importance Of Developing Personal Projects first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

Before and after sketches made in the field.

The virtual contact sheet the above images were selected from.

Seth Resnick

When I’m on location, I shoot lots of material. I cull my work constantly and feel relieved every time I delete another hundred or so images. Some people are amazed that I delete anything, and almost everyone is amazed at just how much I delete.

“…I find that the editing process really helps, and by deleting, I am able to analyze my shoot and create the necessary contact sheets…”

Back in the days of film, I was notorious for shooting large amounts of Kodachrome. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for me to shoot 50 rolls of film on an assignment. Afterward, I would place the transparencies on a light table and, with a Sharpie, I would put one dot on the ones I liked, narrow it down to several hundred images, and then go back and put two dots and eventually three or four dots on my best images.

For the client, the selected images would go into slide pages, which typically numbered around four pages of images, and probably about eight of the selects had three or four dots. Clients loved this, and I was no different than most other photographers. I certainly would never send in 50 boxes of slides, unless I wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t work again. What’s really interesting is that four pages of slides amounted to 80 to 100 selects.

In the digital age, I find that people simply can’t edit. Ask someone to get the selection down to a hundred, and the typical answer is “No way, I shot 1,000 frames.” Why is digital content so tough for folks to edit? I find that the editing process really helps, and by deleting, I am able to analyze my shoot and create the necessary contact sheets or sketches so I can eventually find my exhibition images.

My goal in the field is to create what I call “working contact sheets.” I rate my work with two, three, four, and five stars. An image with two stars signifies a good idea but simply doesn’t work. An image with three was done well but doesn’t elicit much of a feeling from within, and I know that I can do better. A four is something that really works well, and I am proud of it. A five would be a lasting portfolio image. The longer you shoot, the higher the bar gets raised, and the more difficult it becomes to truly get four- and five-star images. Sometimes I get frustrated, and I instinctively think about a song from Sesame Street entitled Counting to Four. It makes me laugh when I see how easy it is to get a three, and how difficult it can be to get to the number four.

In the field, I make very basic adjustments. I take the three-star and four-star images and put them in a collection. They are a collection of the best of what I shot, but not necessarily portfolio images. From these sketches, I eventually select a few of the best and, after some additional work, those become portfolio images for galleries and prints.

These sketches are a critical step in my creative process. I need to live with the body of work for a while before I can even get to point of really selecting the finals for galleries and exhibitions. I also find that I need to get over the initial “wow” factor of being on location. It’s funny how some images that totally sizzle in your mind when you click the shutter begin to fizzle out when you look at them a week or so later.

View sketches from my most recent adventures here.

Read about John Paul Caponigro’s Contact Sheets.

The post Creating Sketches in the Field first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

A Virtual Contact Sheet from Morocco. Nice images, but this is not a direction I choose to pursue. 

Virtual Contact Sheet from Morocco. There are one or two keepers here, as is. But there are many useful images that will work well for composites.

A before-and-after sketch made in the field. Side-by-side comparison confirms that this is a direction I want to pursue. Creating a meaningful comparison and contrast to my previous portfolios of dune images will be one key to bringing this to a successful resolution.

A three-star image from The Skeleton Coast, Namibia, that sets the standard by which to measure future dune images―accept this level or better, not less.

A five-star image from Sossusvlei, Namibia, that represents my best efforts to date—a level to aim for or exceed in the future.

John Paul Caponigro

Using Smart Collections in Lightroom speeds up the process of gathering and revisiting these images. I use Smart Collections―1 Star, 2 Stars, 3 Stars, 4 Stars, 5 Stars, and 3+ Stars. These Smart Collections are critical for focusing and accelerating my visual thought process, helping me to make the most of a location in a short amount of time. I can see what’s working and what’s not, correct mistakes, figure out what it’s going to take to up my game, identify missing shots, and seek out the ones that will bring a set of images together. Smart Collections serve as a chronology of all the ranked images I’ve made. They create a unique kind of journal. Most importantly, they start the process of assembling bodies of work.

I use Collections for assembling like images to develop projects, typically grouping selected images by location or theme. Unlike Smart Collections, I find Collections’ support for a manual sort order essential. Manual sort orders enable me to create image pairs and sequences, continuities that bind groups of images together into bodies of work. (For more on Continuity, Bodies of Work, and Developing Personal Projects.

Unlike Smart Collections, I find Collections’ support for a manual sort order essential. Manual sort orders enable me to create image pairs and sequences, continuities that bind groups of images together into bodies of work. Unlike when I used film, where I had to make physical contact sheets to select images, I rarely print my virtual contact sheets. It’s curious to call them by the traditional name “contact sheets,” because they’re not made by contacting film to paper. But, they’re no less essential to my creative process; if anything, they’re more important. Virtual Contact Sheets allow me to edit images at higher levels of thinking. I even use them to select and sequence images for slideshows, exhibits, and books.

I save virtual contact sheets, and sometimes I even save different states of a single contact sheet. I take screenshots of Lightroom’s display of my curated Collections. So many people requested to see them that I started sharing them on my blog. Putting my visual thought process about my virtual contact sheets helped me obtain an even better understanding of my vision, goal, and results.

Read about Seth Resnick’s Contact Sheets.

The post Making Virtual Contact Sheets first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

There are photo tours and there are photography workshops.

Find out why we’re the Harvard of photography workshops here.

.

The post Why Are We The Harvard Of Photography Workshops ? first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.

Stop taking pictures and start making images.

Our dedication to craft is extreme and we place it in the service of vision. We teach much more than technique. We offer proven ways of developing your creative life.

Our goal is not just to take you to Bucket List Destinations, it’s to help you discover your destination.

We’re committed to helping you discover your story, your vision, your voice and achieve your creative goals.

Anyone can take pictures but creating a series of related images with a clear purpose, subject, theme, and style is a much different process – and it’s more fulfilling. The personal discoveries you make along the way will make your images more meaningful, powerful, and effective. We can help you do this. This is what differentiates us from all others.

Have you ever photographed a sand dune? What interests you most about that subject – color, texture, line, form? Once you identify that essential element, what are qualities that you associate with that subject – flowing, organic, sensual, abstract?  Answer these and other questions like them and you’ll be well on your way to making more authentic and personally meaningful images. Our workshops can help you ask and answer the questions that are the keys to setting your vision free.

Defining your vision is something that most artists have a hard time doing. Finding the words you resonate with can not only significantly improve your images but also help you find your next step.

Our alumni’s successes are proof that what we share works. Our alumni often join us many times in many locations, not only to travel to great locations, with friends both old and new, but also to pursue personal development. They create a community that eagerly welcomes new members. You can become an alumni too and enjoy all of the benefits we collectively offer.

Read more about our Alumni Success Stories here.

Read John Paul’s personal vision statement here.

Read Seth’s personal vision statement here.

The post Our Vision Your Vision first appeared on Digital Photo Destinations, John Paul Caponigro, Seth Resnick, Antarctica Digital Photography Workshops, Patagonia Digital Photography Workshops, Greenland Digital Photography Workshops.