Boyne Valley B&W Photography Workshop, 6th - 8th Sept. 2019

This year's weekend long B&W Film Photography Workshop in the Boyne Valley region of county Meath is running from 6th to 8th September 2019. The cost of the workshop is €165 per person and the maximum number of participants is six.

Taking you from the initial camera exposure, through development of the film and finishing with the print, this weekend long workshop promises to be an unmissable event.

The workshop is designed to suit both beginners and advanced film photographers and caters for those shooting 35mm, medium format or 4x5 large format. I will be on-hand to assist each participant during the weekend, regardless of what level they are at.

A number of excursions to beautiful locations along the Boyne Valley (such as Trim Castle & Bective Abbey) and to the Megalithic Passage Tombs at Louchcrew will be made during the weekend to practice various exposure techniques at different times of the day, with different lighting conditions. This will cover the following:

Different metering techniques
Long exposures
Multiple exposures
Reciprocity considerations
Using Infrared films

Having exposed our films, we will spend a good deal of time trying various film developing techniques to control contrast and grain through the following:

Optimum Film Development Procedures
Pushing & Pulling Film
Stand Development
Use of Pyro/Staining developers.

Printing techniques to be demonstrated and then practiced by each participant include:

Multigrade Printing
Split Grade Printing
Water-Bath Development
f-stop Printing
Print Flashing

Participants will also get to coat some art papers with photo sensitive liquid emulsion and then make their prints. This has proved to be a very popular part of the workshop with past attendees.

Our Darkroom facilities include a separate film developing room, 8x4 foot sink accessible from all sides, film drying cabinet and quality enlargers catering for all film formats from 35mm to 4x5.

The workshop will start at 10am on the Friday and finish at 6pm on the Sunday. Places are limited to six, so early booking is advised. The workshop fee of €165 is required to secure your place.

So if you are up for some early rises to photograph and some late nights in the Darkroom, this is the workshop for you.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the workshop or if you require accommodation recommendations.

Please note this workshop will only proceed if there is a minimum of three people booked in. If the workshop does not go ahead, full refunds will be made to anyone who has already paid. This decision will be made no later than 23rd August.


TESTIMONIALS:

Here are some comments from a similar workshop I ran in The Burren some years ago.

"I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop, from photographing the beautiful landscape of the Burren to the excellent darkroom facilities we used. I particularly enjoyed the unusual film developing techniques covered over the weekend and also using the Infrared films. Peter's ability to teach in a relaxed and enjoyable manner made the workshop so worth while. Peter was happy to answer any question asked, however basic or advanced it may have been. I'd love to do it again."

Sergey, Wicklow.



"What can I say; I did have my doubts on doing this workshop, mainly because I had never gone near a darkroom and never developed a roll of film, well not true I did one, two nights before ... and oh well not the best ever ... So having all this into account, and looking back I can only say I enjoyed every minute I spent in the darkroom. I learnt a lot from Peter. Peter is very knowledgeable and capable of sharing his experience without being too intrusive ... If you are looking for a trainer that will speak and speak forever with no end then let me tell you ... go somewhere else, but if you prefer the kind that is able to share and teach without being too intrusive then go for it, you are in for good experience.

I enjoyed the outing to the coastline, even if it wasn't the best day for Infrared, it ended up being my best photos from the weekend. Later on, I wasn't ready for what happened, we did Lith printing and let me say, since then I'm hooked on Infrared and Lith printing ... Coming from digital and having done a bit of digital retouching, I wasn't ready for what I felt when I made my first Lith print ... I felt so involved in the process that for once I experienced what maybe an artist feels after finishing his creation."

Epi, Athlone.



"The Burren was always one of those places I had on the list to photograph but never got around to doing so. Fortuitously when made aware of Peter’s B&W landscape photography workshop I found the motivation to plan a trip.

The landscape is spectacular for black and white photography and Peter plans interesting excursions which get you out there in that environment and shooting. Shooting photographs is my favourite part of the process, yes 95% of the magic happens in the dark room but I love that moment when the shutter opens and you either have the shot or you don’t.

My dark room and printing skills are a work in progress but over the course of the workshop there was a multitude of new development and printing techniques available to explore. Everything from grabbing the print out of the lith developer when you consider it to be perfect, to using various emulsions to make your finished work unique.

To me this was less of a workshop and more of a journey where I got to discover more about what I liked, and what I disliked about working with film.

It was worth *every* moment of my time."

Mark, Cork.



"An invaluable course for those that have been working with black and white film for years but also for those digital users who may think that the most enjoyable way of producing a black and white print is by photoshop"

Philip, Dublin.



"I thoroughly enjoyed this course. Having recently set up my own darkroom I found this course an invaluable experience in developing and printing. From the introduction to new printing techniques like Lith printing, using liquid emulsion to print on a canvas to gaining useful tips from Peter's willingness to share his experience and knowledge. This course helped me to iron out my bad habits when printing and developing. It was a hectic fun weekend, I would do this course again.

I especially enjoyed the Lith printing, I am happy with the print I got using the Slavich paper and I'll definitely be trying this again in my own darkroom :)"

Marie, Donegal.



"Thanks again Peter for a great weekend. I would love to do it again next year. The best part for me was using the infrared films and photographing the beautiful locations which you obviously scouted out so well beforehand. That place with the sunken boat was my favorite. I definitely learned a lot from the weekend. I was caught between wanting to spend more time in the darkroom but also didn’t want to waste the good weather we had, a nice dilemma to have.

The Darkroom facilities were fabulous, could not imagine having better. The hotel was nice and very reasonably priced. And of course Peter it was a pleasure to listen to somebody who knows what he is talking about. I am now hooked on Pyro developer."


Alex, Limerick.