Your mentorship with Doug begins with a three-day intensive private workshop (time and place to be determined together). During this time you will focus on your needs and desires for artistic growth, examining all aspects of your creative process. The mentor relationship continues throughout the year via individual in-person, phone, email or video chat sessions every one to two weeks, providing the creative and business support you need to achieve your personal and professional goals. This mentorship is certain to provide forward momentum for your photographic path.

You and Doug will custom design your workshop together around your needs and desires for growth based on a holistic approach, examining all aspects of your creative process. It can be held at Doug's office/studio in Saint Paul, MN or at the Trade River Retreat Center, or a combination of the two locations. Full amenities, including gourmet healthy meals, private lodging, and all transportation during the workshop, are provided. The workshop can also be held at a location of your choice (such as the Badlands of South Dakota or your own studio), with airfare and lodging provided by you. Also includes follow-up meeting (in person, phone or video chat) scheduled one month later. This intensive, custom tailored workshop is certain to provide forward momentum for your photographic path.

2010

This is not about making ‘pretty’ pictures or ‘postcard’ like records of nature. It is about making a deeper, more authentic, connection to the land and water, then learning to express that connection in our photography. We will be using the confluences of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St Croix Rivers and the adjacent shores, bridges and riverbanks as our locations for daily photo field trips. We will learn to use the water and adjacent land as metaphor for our inner selves to convey an emotional experience into a visual one. This will be about making, not taking, photographs that go below the surface by nourishing a deepening connection to one’s own path and bringing that awareness into our photo making process. We will work on giving our photos more layers of meaning to make stronger, more powerful images.

Revitalize your photography while exploring your relationship to your subject, your camera and yourself. This will be a unique opportunity to rethink our expectations of what it means to 'see'. We will work on cultivating simplicity and making more insightful photographs, supporting the notion that a photograph is not 'taken' but 'made'. We learn to become better photographers by becoming more in touch with our inner selves and then use that awareness to clarify our approach and connection with our subject; whether it's a person, place, or thing. We will also learn about natural light, composition, depth-of-field and exposure issues. Much practical advise will be given but more importantly you will practice how to use this information to make more powerful images.

How do we expand the boundaries of our vision? How do we find the unique in the commonplace? How to acknowledge a sense of familiarity and connection in the unfamiliar? "Zen and the Art of Photography" provides a unique opportunity to rethink our expectations of what it means to 'see'.

Revitalize your photography while exploring your relationship to your subject, your camera and yourself. Through photo exercises, assignments and daily field trips, participants will learn to deepen their visual awareness while clarifying their approach, making image that are both more personal and more meaningful. Your photography will become more powerful by cultivating simplicity and developing the power of intuition fueled by the proper balance of contemplation and decisiveness (be mindful/act now).

The inaugural workshop for Atkinson-Porter Photography Workshops will be “The Emotional Landscape” led by nationally and internationally acclaimed professionals Douglas Beasley and Steffanie O’Hanlon, August 27–29, 2010. Douglas’s photographs are widely collected and as a highly respected educator, he has a unique talent for helping others to find their creative voice. As Steffanie presses a camera to her face, the words and keenly observed moments of human experience are transformed into images and writing which inform her own work as well as the knowledge and caring she shares in her teaching. She practices as a photographer and clinical social worker and her work can be seen on her website. Both Douglas and Steffanie will include some active photographic and visual exercises to expand the creative growth of workshop participants.

This workshop provides a unique opportunity to rethink expectations of what it means to ‘see’. Students revitalize their imagery by exploring relationships between the subject, the camera and oneself. Participants work on cultivating simplicity and making more powerful photographs, supporting the notion that a photograph is not ‘taken’ but ‘made’. Students learn to become stronger visually by becoming more in touch with their inner selves and then use that awareness to deepen the connection with subjects; whether it’s a person, place, or thing.

Revitalize your photography while exploring your relationship to your subject, your camera and yourself. Through photo exercises, assignments and daily field trips participants will learn to deepen their visual awareness while clarifying their approach, making their image making both more personal and more meaningful.

This highly personalized workshop is custom designed by Doug, in response to each of those chosen for this very small group. It is a unique opportunity to look closely at your own creative process, develop ways to deepen your vision and find new paths for creative growth. Helping each other to unlock creative sabotage will be encouraged. We will explore the notion of what it means to be lost or stuck and how this fertile ground can be used to explore who you are as an artist, what your artwork is about and how you can use this new information to move your career or artistic direction forward in a more direct or intentional way.

2011

Integrate your spiritual practice with your artistic or photo practice. This workshop is about continuing the experience of awareness and consciousness into our photography. Through photo exercises and assignments we will learn to deepen our visual awareness while clarifying our approach, making image making both more personal and more meaningful. This workshop provides a unique opportunity to rethink your expectations of what it means to 'see'. We will work on cultivating simplicity and making more powerful photographs, supporting the notion that a photograph is not 'taken' but made. We become stronger visually by becoming more in touch with our inner selves and then use that awareness to deepen our connection with our subject, whether person, place, or thing. The power of intuition fueled by the balance of contemplation and decisiveness (be mindful/act now) will be explored. Much practical advice will be given but more importantly you will practice using this information to make more powerful and meaningful images.

This workshop is a unique opportunity to look closely at your own creativity, develop ways to deepen your vision and find new paths or creative outlets for your photography. With a smaller than normal maximum class size (8) we will explore the notion of what it means to be lost, directionless or stuck, and how this fertile ground can be used to explore who you are as an artist and reawaken what your artwork is about and how you can use the new information to move your art or career forward.

Photography is the art of both recognizing and honoring life in a single moment. That encapsulated moment becomes transcendental — a frozen still image made in the blink of an eye. Immediately, this photo becomes the past, forever holding a memory in time. The world moves and changes so swiftly, that these instances wash away as if the paint had never dried on what’s right in front you. China embodies this revolution.

But the canvas has never really faded. Only painted over, like a hundred flowers covered by snow. Allow us to show you the layer beneath China. Journey with us to a place where the photo is still vibrant, and the romantic China lives on. Join us where the past does not wash away and a moment is never fleeting.

This is not your parents Hawaii. This is an incredible journey to the old authentic and indigenous Hawaii and not the pre-packaged tourist version. Even if you've been to Honolulu and Waikiki on the Island of Oahu please join us because you have not seen or experienced anything close to this Hawaii. Some of the highlights will be a trip to the lava flow on the island's active volcano, shoots on black sand beaches, spectacular waterfalls, Akiko's sense of humor and infectious laugh, wandering through old plantation villages, Buddhist temples, ancient stone spiritual grounds and meeting and hanging out with with some of the islands many artists and photographers. But the best of all are the people of Big Island, who still embrace and live the "Aloha Spirit" of old Hawaii. This is a trip you will not forget and will exceed all expectations of what Hawaii is really like.

We know that one photograph can change the world. What if an image you made brought clean water to a region that formerly had none or even helped to bring a few dollars to an organization that is improving the lives of a hundred children? This unique Vision Quest workshop is your chance to grow as a photographic storyteller and positively impact an amazing corner of the world.

We will meet in Interior, South Dakota, for this five-day workshop in and around the Badlands National Park and near Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota. This remote, sacred region with its sculpted soil, sweeping vistas, unpredictable weather and extraordinary light is an ideal dramatic background for figurative image making. We will work collaboratively with our male and female models to connect this sacred land to our own individual vision. Each morning and afternoon we will move to a new location, as there are many spectacular and emotionally rich places to photograph. We will also work on maximizing light potential, using exposure as a creative control and how to use available light more effectively to create more powerful images with mood and personal style.

We invite you to the mysterious, exotic Mayan world of Guatemala, a land where the indigenous live as they have for centuries. The colonial city of Antigua, the artistic center of Guatemala, will be our home base and a lovely, cultural introduction to outdoor markets, music, food, local villages and friends. We'll spend a few days exploring small towns around majestic Lake Atitlan, near Panajachel, which Lonely Planet hails as “the most beautiful lake in the world”.

Join us on this unique trip to the amazing and contrasting cities of Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. Tokyo is one of the world's most modern cities yet centuries old temples await around the corner from the most futuristic settings. We will photograph both the old and the new as well as visiting places like the amazing Tsukiji Fish Market. After 3 days we take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, the ancient capital, is where old Japan is still alive. We will wander through through the old streets and mysterious alleys, visit Zen gardens, while making images in Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines that reflect a surreal world of inner calm and peace. Our accomodations will be the perfect resting place to relax, edit or review the day's shoot, gather with the group to share a meal, get feedback on work in progress and prepare for another day's journey.

Other opportunities

Custom workshops for individuals or small groups can be created and held at Vision Quest’s TRADE RIVER RETREAT CENTER located 20 miles north of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, a scenic and relaxing 90 minute drive from the Twin Cities. This beautiful, very private, north woods setting rests on the banks of the Trade River, a designated protected waterway.

See some student photography from Vision Quest Photo Workshops.

Read Douglas’ blog.

Visit Douglas’ website.