Holiday Safaris

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.

“David Luria does a superb range of 1/2 day photo Safari shoots around DC, and his knowledge of the area is just second to none.He knows all the sites, all the angles, times of day etc etc. If anyone is going to DC with their camera, it’s the best photo tour you could have.”
—Chris Dodkin, UK

“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

“David, You are a born, patient, teacher, a kind person, and your tour was most instructive, and most important, fun.  I thank you and look forward to more photo tours.”
—Mary Ann Gardner

“Just a note to say that the Virginia Beach Photography Club wants to thank you for a memorable and exciting photo experience in the nation’s capital. Our members present on the Safari found it to be a great opportunity to grow as friends as well as photographers.”
—J.M.