Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures

The BCPA tag line is "Seek your own vision, and create great photos." Many of their alumni go on to win awards, get juried into shows, or have solo shows.

Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures

Arnie and Margo's goal is to send photographers home with the tools to continue to grow in their art. The high percentage of returning BCPA alumni, both serious amateurs and working pros, speaks to Margo and Arnie's success.

from Acadia National Park
from Acadia National Park

With a limit of 12 participants for each of the 16+ photo workshops, there is a maximum 6:1 ratio of students to instructors. This allows for different levels of photographers in each group. Arnie and Margo love it when a working pro admires the work of a less-experienced participant. Everyone wins, especially with the daily critiques in which everyone participates. After all, if one can learn to critique the work of others, one can better learn to critique one's own images.

Because Arnie and Margo have traveled so widely, they like to give their participants, new and alumni, a good choice of destinations.

Living in North Carolina, they do two workshops a year on the Outer Banks, a place they love with its wild dunes, classic lighthouses, and changing seas. They always admonish their groups to not make "just another pretty postcard" but to push themselves out of their comfort zones. The next will be Lighthouses of the Outer Banks, but that is not all they photograph.

Every year, there is a BCPA alumni workshop in December that is also open to advanced photographers. This year it will be in Joshua Tree National Park with its fantastical trees, amazing rock formations, and unusual cacti.

Just prior to that, they head to Death Valley National Park, a favorite for its stark landscape, wide range of hues, and varied topography.

Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures
Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures

Margo and Arnie do a series of workshops in the Southwest. In 2013, they will offer Canyon de Chelly & Monument Valley, Colorado Fall Colors, and will return to Santa Fé & Taos, Georgia O'Keeffe Land.

From Overseas

Many of Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures are held overseas. Arnie and Margo are excited to have forged a relationship with one of the older tour groups that have been long-sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasurer to go to Cuba legally. They will be holding two people-to-people, cultural tours there with plenty of time for photography and sharing of experiences and images.

They also head to Europe for three workshops - Taormina, Jewel of Sicily, The Romance of Tuscany, and Paris & la Fête de la Musique. For them, it is fun to introduce their participants to a way of life quite different from their own.

Margo and Arnie's passion is making beautiful images worldwide, and as they say, "We cannot not do photography." They love to instill that same passion and enthusiasm in their students.

Want to Learn more about the Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures WorkShop? Sure you do!

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