Long Exposure Workshop

After more than two intense months of almost daily workshops and masterclasses, this chapter is finally drawing to a close. Tomorrow is the last big push. A split workshop in Venice, sunset and night on one side, then back out again at 3am for twilight, blue hour and sunrise. The sort of schedule that sounds completely mad until you see the city waking up around you. Looking back, it has been quite a journey. From one-to-one mentoring sessions to small groups of four photographers. From Venice to Budapest, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Transylvania, Prague, and the landscapes of Bohemia. Thousands of kilometres, countless conversations, early mornings, late nights, and many memorable photographs. Every location has left something behind, but I have to admit that lovely Istria still has a special place in my heart. Thanks to my amazing partners at @istr__a_more For the first time in months, my calendar is beginning to open up. Apart from a couple of workshops, I will not be running any major masterclasses until mid to late September. That means it is time to return to some of the projects I have neglected. More writing. More articles on Substack. More work on The Red Pen. A couple of exhibitions. New podcast episodes. I am also keen to experiment with live online sessions and a few other ideas that have been quietly waiting in the background while I have been on the road. If you would like to follow that journey, now is probably a good time to join me on Substack. And for those I have met along the way this season, thank you. It has been a privilege to spend time photographing, teaching, learning and exploring together. As for the workshops, we will do it all again in September. And judging by what is already in the diary, the next season may be even crazier.

Chioggia today, during the street masterclass. One of the things I always tell people is this: good street photography is often about recognising visual absurdity before everyone else walks past it. A narrow Venetian fishing town suddenly draped in enormous Brazilian flags, tourists moving underneath them like it is the most ordinary thing in the world, colour everywhere, heat bouncing off the stones. Street photography is rarely about hunting ‘perfect moments’. It is about noticing when reality briefly becomes stranger, louder, or more cinematic than fiction. 📷

Venice wakes up long before the tourists do. Delivery carts. Echoes under the arcades. The sound of wheels on stone. For a brief moment, the city belongs to the people who actually keep it alive. Leica, black and white, early Monday morning in Venice during a photograhy workshop! Exactly where this city makes the most sense to me. #Venice #Leica #LeicaPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #StreetPhotography #VeniceItaly #LeicaM #Monochrome #VisualStorytelling

Some cities wake up slowly. Venice wakes up in silence. Before the crowds, before the noise, before the performance of tourism begins again, there is this moment. A man, a broom, wet stones, and a square that briefly belongs to itself again. This is the Venice most people never see. #venice #blackandwhitephotography #streetphotography #venezia #bnwphotography #monochrome #veniceitaly #streetphoto_bw #italy #documentaryphotography #fineartphotography #moodygrams #visualstorytelling #leica #travelphotography #throughthelens

Some places become louder when they are empty. Venice at dawn has a strange honesty to it. No crowds. No noise. Just light, stone, silence… and one man standing still beneath the lamps, as if listening to the city breathe before the day begins. Most people photograph Venice full. I’ve always been more interested in what it says when nobody is there. #Venice #BlackAndWhitePhotography #StreetPhotography #VeniceItaly #Monochrome #Leica #FineArtPhotography #TravelPhotography #VisualStorytelling #PhotographyWorkshop #MoodyGrams #BnwPhotography #SanMarco #Italy #ThroughTheLens #MinimalMood #PhotoOfTheDay #ArchitecturePhotography #StorytellingPhotography #VeniceAtDawn

Some places do not try to impress you immediately. They wait quietly behind a bend in the road, under a changing sky, surrounded by cypress trees and spring green so intense it almost feels painted. That was my feeling arriving in Oprtalj today. A hilltop town in inland Istria where time moves a little slower, the stone still carries centuries of stories, and even the silence seems to belong to the landscape. I stopped for this frame just as the light softened before evening rain, with the colours of the village glowing against the stormy sky. One of those moments where you instinctively raise the camera before your brain has fully caught up. Captured with my Leica, somewhere between wandering and getting lost, which is usually where the best photographs happen. A huge thank you to @istramore for the inspiration and the road suggestions, and to @visit_oprtalj for preserving the quiet beauty of places like this. Istria continues to surprise me every single time. #istria #photography #leica #workshop @visitistria #luxury #exclusive