models - The Image Flow

An Action-Packed Weekend of Landscapes & Nudes in Big Sur

During our weekend photography workshop in Big Sur, participants spent all day on Friday shooting professional nude models. Photo © Barbara Hazen.

The Image Flow headed down to Big Sur for an all-inclusive weekend photography workshop shooting nude models and the rugged California coast, not to mention a tour of Ansel Adams’ private darkroom and a behind-the-scenes look at the Edward Weston estate. Stuart Schwartz offers a few words:
This is the first time we’ve held Big Sur Landscapes & Nudes, and you never know how a new workshop is going to go, so there’s always a bit of apprehension. But as soon as we got to the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA, on Thursday, for a presentation of work by instructors Michelle Magdalena and Ken Parker and a motivational talk with Artistic Director Brian Taylor, it was pretty obvious it would a special weekend.

Our Cuban Family: Seven Unforgettable Days & Nights in Havana

On the first morning of the workshop, this man befriended participant Rebecca Keyes, and began telling her his story of deportation from the U.S. back to Cuba. Photo © Ardi Arani.

Stuart Schwartz and Jock McDonald led a group of American photographers to Cuba for a week of shooting. The week started in Miami. Stuart Schwartz and Jock McDonald met their six workshop participants in a hotel the night before the flight to Cuba. The group spanned more than five decades in age and as many shooting styles.
“My chief concern was, are these people going to get along?” says Stuart. “It was a big cross-section of participants, but it was a harmonious group of people, they were a family. It was a family trip.”