This workshop is currently full. If you would like to be notified if and when a spot opens up — or for our 2025 Scotland workshops — join the waitlist via email.
Total workshop fee: $6,995, lodging-included. A $2,000 deposit secures your place. The balance will be due 90 days before the start of workshop; see the Fees and Payment Terms section below for complete information..
Download the workshop PDF for a complete description of the workshop, including full itinerary, specific gear recommendations, lodging and travel information and more.
The Scottish Highlands are incredible year-round, but in the fall, they are amazing: the low angle of the sun, intense cloud patterns and vivid color make the area particularly photogenic. Rugged coastlines, jagged peaks, countless waterfalls, colorful woods, fishing villages, castles, ruins, distilleries, and farms with highland cattle and sheep blend in a rich tapestry where the human element seems woven into the natural landscape itself. Scottish culture is warm and welcoming and the cuisine is diverse and delicious.
The Highlands have long been at the top of our photo workshop locations list, and we are excited to share this photo adventure for 2024. It’s going to be a very special trip.
In this small, 10-person, lodging-inclusive workshop, we’ll spend ten days exploring and photographing this compositional playground. Starting and ending in the historic and vibrant city of Glasgow, we’ll spend time photographing Glencoe’s unique high-valley landscape, before heading to the Isle of Skye.
The bulk of our time will be spent on the breathtakingly beautiful Skye. With the charming fishing village of Portree as our home base, we will explore nearby iconic locations like the Quiraing (pronounced ‘key-RANG’), castle Eileen Donan, and the Old Man of Storr. This island is one of those very special locations where you can stop at nearly any pullout and create beautiful images. And the village of Portree is a perfect place for us to stay, entirely walkable with wonderful food of all kinds, great coffee and plenty of shops.
I’ll be joined on this adventure by my good friend Rick LePage. Rick is my workshop coordinator, and a great teacher and photographer in his own right. His presence will give us a 5:1 student-teacher ratio, ensuring that you’ll have plenty of opportunity to get the help and direction that you need throughout the workshop.
Tentative Course Schedule
We will arrive in Glasgow on October 12, and spend a second full day exploring Glasgow (and to help deal with the effects of jet lag). From there, we’ll move on to Glencoe for a day of shooting in the area, and then on to Portree for the bulk of our stay, ending up back in Glasgow on the 21st, so people can fly home — or continue to explore the beauty of Scotland on their own — on the 22nd.
We will do our best to have regular image reviews and post-processing discussions during the workshop, but our focus will be on helping everyone capture beautiful and interesting photos in the field.
The schedule below should give you a good idea of the scope of the workshop; as always with us, we’ll go where the light and the land take us.
Day 1: Saturday, October 12 (travel day)
Arrival in Glasgow at our hotel. Meet and greet over dinner.
Day 2: Sunday, October 13 (Glasgow)
After breakfast, we’ll meet up at our hotel to discuss the workshop itinerary; talk about local customs and things to know about Scotland; look at a weather forecast; and have a general Q&A about trip. We’ll also have portfolio reviews that morning.
After lunch, we’ll walk around the central area of Glasgow, doing some street photography and getting to know one another as a group. We will make sure that we break early enough so that people can get a decent night’s sleep.
Day 3: Monday, October 14 (Glasgow to Glencoe)
We’ll leave Glasgow very early in the morning and make our way to Glencoe. The drive will give you a beautiful introduction to the Highlands, lush valleys with tall mountains and waterfalls galore. We’ll spend much of the day wandering the area, landing that night in the town of Fort William, where we’ll stay in town and have a relaxing dinner.
Day 5: Tuesday, October 15 (Fort William to Portree)
We’ll move on to the Isle of Skye today, stopping along the way to scout the famous Eileen Donan castle and look for sunrise spots later in the week. Once on Skye, we’ll stop along the way to shoot where the light and scenery take us.
Near the end of the day, we’ll check into our hotels in Portree. We’ll walk around the town and find something to eat, and head to bed early enough for our first sunrise shoot on Skye.
Days 6-10: Tuesday–Sunday, October 15-20 (Portree)
The schedule throughout our stay on Skye will be flexible, depending upon the group’s interest and the weather. We will have both sunrise and sunset shoots throughout the week, exploring much of what Skye and the Highlands have to offer.
Locations include:
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The Old Man of Storr, one of Scotland’s most famous landmarks, and one that is absolutely stunning when seen up close. The hike to the top is strenuous and is voluntary; Hudson will lead a group up for a dawn shoot.
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Quiraing, a vast landslip 1700 feet in elevation on the northern side of Skye, with plenty of paths and expansive vistas to the Outer Hebrides. We’ll spend the end of one day on the Quiraing, and for those not up to the Storr hike, we’ll head to the Quiraing for a dawn shoot of our own.
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Neist Point, Skye’s westernmost spot, set on a plateau filled with green pastures, and surrounding cliffs with unbelievable views. To be honest, the lighthouse on Neist Point isn’t terribly photogenic, but the surrounding scenery is all that and more, with plenty of grazing sheep, sea birds and gorgeous views of Moonen Bay to the east.
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Talisker Bay. Home to one of Scotland’s premier whiskies (as the Scots say), it is also the location of a gorgeous secluded beach, which includes an easy level hike through private land. We’ll stop at the distillery for a tour, and then spend a sunset out on the beach.
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The Fairy Pools of Skye, a magical set of waterfalls with turquoise-colored pools at the foot of the Black Cuillin mountains.
While based out of Portree, we’ll also have excursions off Skye, including:
- The Applecross, an amazingly scenic drive through one of the most remote parts of Wester Ross. It has some of the most breathtaking views in Scotland.
- Sunrise shoot overlooking Castle Eileen Donan, one of Scotland’s landmark castles.
Throughout our days on Skye, we’ll explore the island, stopping wherever we find beauty or interesting things: you’ll find there is so much to see and experience in this corner of the globe.
Day 11: Monday, October 21 (Travel day to Glasgow)
We’ll leave Portree early in the morning for our drive back to Glasgow, stopping along the way to photograph whatever takes our fancy. We’ll aim to be at our hotel by late afternoon, for a short rest, followed by a farewell dinner with the group.
Logistics
As noted, you’ll want to be in Glasgow on October 12, and we have booked a group of rooms for the participants that evening. If you want to come in a day or two early, let us know; we can book a room for you in our hotel for the extra nights. At the time we wrote this, we were finalizing hotels for the Glasgow portion; once we have picked one, we’ll let everyone know.
During the workshop, we will utilize two vans to help us get around and hold our gear. Due to the nature of this special workshop, especially while we’re on Skye, we can only accommodate workshop participants.
Fees and Payment Terms
The Scotland workshop is priced at $6,995, which includes eight full days of photo instruction and 10 nights of single-occupancy hotel accommodation (breakfasts included for most of them). You can secure your place with a $2,000 deposit. An invoice for the remaining balance will be sent approximately 120 days prior to the workshop. The balance must be paid in full 90 days prior to the workshop.
Workshop payments are fully refundable less a 10% fee up to 90 days prior to the first day of the workshop. If you cancel anywhere from 89 to 60 days prior to the workshop, we will make every effort to find a replacement. If we can fill your spot, 90% of the workshop fee will be refunded; if we cannot find a replacement, we will refund 50% of the fee. Any cancellation within 60 days is non-refundable.
Download the workshop PDF for a complete description of the workshop, including suggested gear info and more.
