A big part of my work life this past decade (at least pre-COVID) has been leading photography workshops. If you’ve attended one, you know I try to keep them fun and filled with lots of places to make good pictures, as well as opportunities to learn and grow as a photographer. What most people don’t see, of course, is the work that goes into making a trip run that way. So let me explain that now. 

To begin, I would never lead a workshop to a place I hadn’t been before, unless working with someone who already knew the locations. Going in blind would be a disservice to my clients. Part of what they pay for is my knowledge of where we’re going. That means that I build trips from either places I’ve been on my own, places I’ve led workshops run by other folks (I taught workshops for Popular Photography for over fifteen years), places my partners at Pack Paddle Ski have previously been (mostly international) or places that I go and scout ahead of time. The most recent example of this last one is a trip I took to Georgia a few weeks ago.

I first met Michael Schwarz when we worked together at a newspaper in New York in the early eighties. We stayed in touch after he left for a job in Atlanta a few years later and then built a successful freelance business there. When I was tasked with putting together a group of photographers to start teaching a digital Nikon School in 2002, Michael was one of the first I called. Smart, fun, curious, an early-adopter and easy to be around, he was a natural teacher. So not surprisingly, as I began running my own workshops in the U.S. the last few years, I asked Michael (who also had taught workshops) to join me in creating one in the south.

Michael and me covering a Rochester Red Wings (AAA baseball) game in the early 80s for the Rochester, NY newspapers.

The next step was up to him, which was to choose an area. In his thirty-plus years working there, he’s found the northern part of Georgia, with its mountains (the Appalachian Trail starts there), an area of natural beauty that few photographers outside have discovered. After that, he compiled a list of about thirty possible locations – some places he’d been, others he’d heard good things about – narrowed that down a bit and sent them along to me. Then it was my turn.

New Echota is a reproduction of a Cherokee town from the early 1800s. The native Americans were later forced from their lands and many died during the Trail of Tears. The town is in a beautiful area, and brings both local history along with interesting architecture to the workshop. Nikon Z 6 infrared, Aperture Priority, Preset white balance, ISO 200, 1/320 at f/13 in Matrix metering, +1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

We suffered so you don’t have to. Michael (below) and I did the 600 steps down to Hemlock waterfall at Cloudland Canyon. It was NOT worth the trip. But we found another waterfall nearby with fewer steps that was (see next photo).

Cherokee waterfall, on the other hand, was well worth the steps to get to it. Nikon Z 6, Aperture Priority, Natural auto white balance, ISO 100, 1/30 at f/13 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

The internet, of course, has made trip planning much easier than it used to be. Over a few hours, I researched those locations and narrowed them down to about twenty that I thought might be good photo stops. What criteria was I looking for? Not just places where we could make nice photos, but also ease of access, uniqueness, some with natural beauty, some man-made and some with history.  I’ve found that most successful multi-day workshops have a good variety of photo opportunities. In other words, we could spend several days just photographing the many waterfalls and creeks in that area, but those photos would all start to look the same.

Now the ball was back in Michael’s court, for him to start looking at how we could possibly visit all those places in just a couple of days. When I scout for a workshop, the goal is to visit about twice as many locations as I expect to take people to. I’m not there on vacation or to do photography, but to see the most in the shortest amount of time. The more I see, the better I can choose which ones will be best worth the group’s time. Again, the goal is to scout, to find the best of those places for the workshop. Of course, I also hope to make at least a few good pictures to use in promoting the trip. With all of that done, it was time to make a quick trip to Atlanta and put our homework to the test.

Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens is full of weird and wonderful stuff, so we’ll definitely plan on spending a good chunk of time exploring it with our group. Nikon Z 6, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/320 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

Berry College, just outside of Rome, GA, offers a beautiful campus and classic architecture. That’s a great combination for infrared (like this) OR normal photography. Nikon Z 6 converted to IR, Aperture Priority, Preset white balance, ISO 100, 1/125 at f/8 in Matrix metering, +2.0 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

Perched on a hill overlooking the city of Rome, Myrtle Cemetery offers some classic scenes from years gone by as well as an old military section. Nikon Z 6 II, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 640, 1/25 at f/6.3 in Matrix metering, -0.3 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 86mm.

Over two-and-a-half full days and 741 miles (in the car – on foot we’d walk up to eight miles a day), we narrowed the list down to a manageable group that would give us the variety we were looking for. Of the five waterfalls we scouted, only two made the final list. We also determined that some locations were best mornings, some afternoons, some best in sunshine and others that would be good regardless the weather. With that data in hand, we could then work out an itinerary with a few options for uncooperative weather. And, we settled on one location to base out of for most of the workshop, to minimize drive time and maximize shoot time, plus lessen the amount of packing and unpacking to change hotels.

Gibbs Gardens offers acres and acres of beautiful landscape and close-up opportunities. Nikon Z 6, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/50 at f/6.3 in Matrix metering, -1.7 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 15mm.

Old Car City began as an auto salvage yard in 1931, but the original owners’ son has since turned it into a photographer’s “must visit” location. In our two hours there, Michael and I just scratched the surface, so we’ll allocate more time when we return with our group. Nikon Z 6, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 125, 1/250 at f/8 in Matrix metering, -1.3 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

The Manchester Mill Ruins, dating to the Civil War and on the outskirts of Atlanta, will make a great stop for our group as we leave Atlanta the first day on our way north. Nikon Z 6, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 100, 1/100 at f/8 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

The final piece of the puzzle involved timing, picking a week that worked for the weather we’re hoping to have and that fits into our schedules. That’s going to be April 19-24, 2022, springtime, to take advantage of running water and avoid the heat of summer. All that’s left now is to wait until this fall to reserve blocks of rooms at the hotels, book my airfare and local transportation, put together a PDF and web advertising and start promoting it.

Now that the Georgia workshop is planned, I’m moving on to the next one. Which means that in a week I’ll be driving up to the Badlands of South Dakota. I led a short workshop there years ago for Popular Photography and was impressed with what we saw. But I want to develop a deeper knowledge of the area and its unique environment to plan my own, longer workshop. Again, the more I know as a trip leader, the better the trip. And that’s always my goal – to offer a great trip with lots of good photo opportunities. Good planning, and often a scouting trip, is the key to that.

– Interested in joining me and Michael in Georgia next spring? Drop me an email and I’ll add you to the “early notify” list for when we’re ready to take registrations –

(If you like this story, please share it with your friends and let them know about the links on photography that I post on my business Facebook page. I’m also on Instagram and Twitter, @reedhoffmann. And if you’re curious about the workshops I teach, you can find them here. And, you can subscribe to this blog on my home page.)