Quick Details
Washington Photo Safari is pleased to announce an exciting new 2-day photo adventure for its clients: a weekend in Lexington, VA that includes photographing hot air balloons by day and by night, the architecture of Lexington, a visit to the famous Natural Bridge State Park, and a chance to feed and photograph animals up close and personal at the Virginia Safari Park. All photography instruction will be provided by professional architectural photographer and WPS Director E. David Luria.
Thanks to the cooperation of our host and one of our most enthusiastic clients, Percita Ellis, MD, FAAP (who is not only a very busy pediatrician at the Rockbridge Area Health Center in Lexington, VA, but is also a board member of the Hot Air Balloons Over Rockbridge organization) we will arrive Friday evening, June 30, at our Wingate by Wyndham Hotel in Lexington for a brief orientation at 9 pm, and then be ready to photograph the colorful Hot Air Balloon Festival launches at (ugh!) 6:30 am on Saturday, July 1.
(The hotel is located just a few minutes away from the festival. If it rains on Saturday, we will photograph the balloon launches Sunday morning.)
After the balloon launch, Dr. Ellis is treating us to a complimentary breakfast on Saturday morning with the balloon pilots and their crews at a nearby IHop!
We then drive in our own cars to nearby Natural Bridge State Park to photograph that famous architectural wonder of nature, have lunch, and then drive to Staunton to the Camera Heritage Museum.
There is also a $20 option on Saturday afternoon to do a tethered ride in a hot air balloon!
After a bit of rest time, we go back to the balloon launch area to photograph the illuminated balloons glowing at night.
On Sunday morning we will drive our own cars, get out, and then travel by group van through the nearby 180–acre Virginia Safari Park, where we can see, feed, and photograph animals such as zebras, llamas, elk, camels, deer, and anteaters up close and personal, and have a goodbye picnic lunch, thus giving us time to return home for the July 4th holiday. (Lexington is about 200 miles southwest of Washington DC.)
This will be a spectacular photo adventure, and you are most welcome to bring spouses, companions, and children to join in the fun.
The fee of only $435/photographer and $60/non-photographer companion and $40/child includes:
The fee does NOT include
(A block of 14 rooms has been reserved at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel under the name Washington Photo Safari. Room rates include complimentary breakfast. Call 540-464-8100 to make reservations.)
Registration will be limited to the first 12 clients who register, and many of those spaces are already booked, so don’t wait to book your space!
Suggested equipment: camera body, all lenses from wide to long focal lengths, circular polarizing filter, a Hoodman Loupe (to examine photos in bright sunlight), a tripod, a flashlight to see camera controls at night. Late-model smartphone cameras are perfectly acceptable.
Wingate by Wyndham Hotel, 1100 North Lee Highway, Lexington, VA, VA 24450
E. David Luria is founder and director of the Washington Photo Safari, which has trained 39,000 amateur photographers – an average of 5 people every day, 365 days a year, since it was founded in 1999. Trained in Paris by a protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mr. Luria is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers and the Society of Photographic Educators and has had his images of DC appear in over 100 publications, calendars, and postcards and on 30 magazine covers.