How to Set up Photo Safaris in Your Community
Establishing a photo Safari program in your own community is an excellent way for skilled photographers to earn some sideline income, teaching amateur photographers how to use their cameras to improve their travel and portraiture work.
There is a significant demand in most major communities for hands-on photography instruction, especially among people about to embark on a trip who want to learn how to use their camera to best advantage BEFORE they go. For example, Washington Photo Safari began in 1999 with one instructor, and one itinerary and hosted about 6 clients a month that first year.
By 2001 we had grown to 46 clients a month, by 2005 to 169, and now we are hosting over 280 clients a month, offering 100 diverse itineraries given by 9 professional photographers in such diverse specialties as travel, architecture, portraits, flash, macro, nature, nighttime and pet photography, and at locations as far-flung as Yellowstone, Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, New York City and Buenos Aires. We are now ranked No. 1 in Google and other search engines as one of the largest photography training programs in the country. Over 25,600 people have participated in our Safaris since 1999, 7,100 of them as repeat clients..
While the demand is out there, at the present time there are still very few communities in North America that offer regularly scheduled (i.e. 2-3 times every week, all year long) photo training excursions guided by professional photographer-instructors.
A compendium of all the photo workshops available worldwide is available at www.ShawGuides.com. While it shows many workshops periodically scheduled in cities across the country, there are very few permanent, local, regularly scheduled programs that operate in the field, not in a classroom. In addition to the Washington Photo Safari here in DC, there is the Baltimore Photo Safari, Ottawa Photo Safari in Canada and PhotoWalks in Boston. More recent additions developed with the help of Washington Photo Safari are the Chicago Photo Safari, the San Francisco Photo Safari, the Central Pennsylvania Photo Safari, and the Midwest Photo Safari.
A successful photo Safari operation requires that its director be a person who 1) is highly skilled in photography; 2) has good verbal and written communication skills, especially as a teacher or instructor, and 3) has a thorough knowledge of where all the best photo opportunities are in his/her community. A familiarity with several brands and types of cameras (SLR’s AND point and shoots) is a definite plus as well. While it takes a few years for a safari operation to become established and known in a community, it can eventually yield a tidy six-figure income for its director.
Drawing upon our experience over the past 11 years, Washington Photo Safari director E. David Luria has developed a manual for establishing and running a local photo Safari program. It contains useful tips on organization, site selection, communications, marketing, pricing and teaching. It also has an extensive appendix of sample instruction tips and pre-Safari emails given to clients, and record-keeping worksheets. It will be shipped to the address you provide.
Purchase the Safari Manual:
Recent Comments
“The Safari was absolutely outstanding! Melanie is great. She covered a lot of material and in many ways. She told us about the techniques, then helped us to execute them, and then reinforced what we learned by asking questions about how we would handle different situations. She is very good.”
—T.K.
“Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how much I enjoyed your class today. The information you shared today will help me improve my composition and make my scenes tell a story instead of just being a snapshot.”
“I hope to be able to shoot with you again in the future. You provide a very nice service to photographers crossing your path, and I will be sure to recommend your class to others.”
—W.D. (professional photographer)
“Thanks again for two wonderful photo Safaris. Because of you, the quality of my photographs has increased many fold. Perhaps what I enjoyed most about your classes was the great deal of attention you paid to each individual person in our group. Despite the vast range in experience and skill levels represented, you were able to guide us all with a great aura of professionalism.”
—A.B.
“I learned a ton from the Corcoran Gallery Safari. The class covered how to shoot in museums without tripods or flash.
“First, instructor David Luria had us practice how to hold our cameras steady. Then he went over tips for ISO (high), aperture (wide, unless it’s a sculpture where depth of field was important), composition (He used the surrounding paintings as examples), and white balance (depends on the light). He also gave us a tip sheet, checklist style, to take home.
“Then we toured the museum as a group, escorted by museum staff, shooting whatever we wanted. Mr. Luria would give individual assignments every now and then (“Try shooting the statue from here.” “How about that stained glass panel right there?” etc.) He’d also share very specific tips for shots gone wrong (“That statue looks too yellow. Try changing your white balance.” “That’s a little dark. Try a shutter speed of 80.”) If a student had a particularly good technique, he’d say, “Hey look at this.” (For example, one student held his camera way over his head to avoid glare, using the flip screen to compose the shot).
“Mr. Luria’s philosophy, I think, is to try lots of different angles and techniques, because the beauty of digital photography is that you can make lots of mistakes. Also, he insisted that we not let the camera be the boss of us. For example, I overexposed one painting, so he suggested I disobey the camera’s light meter and manually set the exposure much darker —It worked great.
“It was also great to get customized hands-on advice with our particular cameras. For example, Mr. Luria taught me how to change the white balance to really bring out the red in one painting (He showed me how to access these settings several levels down my camera’s menu. I never even knew these settings existed!).
“All in all, super helpful!!”
—Angela N, 8/21/10