Beautiful yachts, sunny skies, a historic seaport and  fourteen energetic photographers all came together at the end of last summer to document the annual Classic Yacht Regatta in Newport. This annual regatta is hosted by the Museum of Yachting (www.MOY.org) and the event held in 2007 was the subject of a photography workshop helping pro and semi-pro photographers get better at shooting races, boats and the life-style that surround yachting. The lead instructor for the 8-day workshop was Alison Langley, a well known and respected marine photographer from Rockport, Maine. The workshop was organized by David Lyman, founder of The Maine Photographic Workshops and Director of the new Media Workshops International, both world leading photo workshops.

See a selection of the images from the 2007 Yacht Photography Workshop.
 
Learning how to capture the essence of a yacht in early morning light, the drama of competition and the thrill of the race were the goals for the week. The class spent the first 5 days working on basic marine and boat photography. There were morning lectures on composition, camera and lenses, digital workflow and etiquette. A fternoons were for field work a s photographers shot from on board yachts or from chase boats, while other photographers visited sailing programmes, to document a college race programme, whilst others photographed yacht restoration projects. Everyone, photographers and sailors were preparing for the weekend's race and regatta. As each photographer came in from the field they downloaded their digital images and went into in-depth and often grulingly honest critiques with the faculty. Picture stories began to emerge as the photographers found boats, people and subject matter that interested them. This included photographing the details of yachts at anchor, the rebuilding  of classic yachts and everyone was assigned to capture the essence of Newport.

Alison and David presented lectures in composition and POV, the creative process, race and yacht etiquette, digital work flow, and the business of marine photography. Mark Phlibrook, Editor of Cruising World and Nim March (former Managing Editor of CW) now the Editor of Points East magazine, both dropped by for a visit and chat about publishing, cover photography and how to submit stories and images to their respective magazines.

Marine photographer Billy Black stopped by for a chat over lunch one day, then took students on board his photo boat to photograph the weekend races. Yacht photographer and Marine artist Onne vanderWald joined the group for dinner on Tuesday evening then showed samples of his work and talked about his career. He left the class with one important bit of advice. Practice. Getting the moments right, bringing the composition, the light, the sharpness, and the colour together into a single frame is not easy, as those participating in the workshop soon discovered during the morning reviews and critiques.

During critique sessions Alison pointed out missed moments, the need to get closer to the action, and the need for sharp images. This brought up a discussion of camera handling and the use of long lenses, which led to a discussion of the Zen approach to photography. David pointed out that shooting with a long lens is akin to hunting with a rifle. A small amount of movement at the camera end, creates a great deal of movement out in the field. Body bracing, a steady hand and breathing helps, but it is practice that makes the difference. Sloppy camera handling with telephoto lenses and shutter speeds slower than 1000th of a second lead to unusable images. David kept hammering away at composition, being aware of the edge of the frame, not cutting off bows and sterns. He encouraged the students to shoot more and to shoot vertically as well as horizontally. After the 5 days of working on the water and in critique, the races began and photographers were able to make fewer mistakes, handle their long lenses better and capture the excitement and drama of a large boat race.

The class ended on Monday, with elated students and a smiling faculty over the improvement each photographer made in their image-making. Alison and David made their final critique Monday morning, and sent each photographer on their way with a higher degree of self esteem.