Focus your creative vision, develop your photographic talents and advance your artistic and career goals with a mentorship.

Your mentorship with Doug begins with a comprehensive discussion, analysis and overview of your skills along with personal and artistic development: where you are, where you’ve been and most importantly, where you want to be. [continue for more information... ]

Invest in your artistic growth and move your career forward with an intensive one-on-one private or small group workshop.

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. You could work on your identity materials, get advice on marketing, review past photo work or projects, have guided studio or field photo sessions with or without models, discuss artistic direction and set specific goals for the future as well as develop an action plan for achieving them. [continue for more information... ]

Vision Quest Photo Workshops announces a new artist’s residency program. Spend three days to one week alone, in a rustic but modern cabin in the woods, devoted to nourishing your artistic spirit at Vision Quest’s Trade River Retreat Center in NW Wisconsin.

For artists and photographers looking for a retreat-like experience to work on their art, reflect on your artistic direction, make new art or photographs, review or edit past projects, plan new career paths, have time away from work/family/life pressure and stress or use in any way useful to move your art or career forward. Or simply use the time away to reflect on where you are and where you are headed. [continue for more information... ]

2012

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. Doug will help you try and unlock barriers to your creativity and remove roadblocks from your old thinking patterns. With a smaller than normal maximum class size, 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 photography is about and how you can use this new information to move your art or career forward. [continue for more information... ]

Presented by the Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, OR, this retreat-style workshop is a unique opportunity to rejuvenate your creative spirit as you explore landscape photography on a deeper level. The weekend will include active photographic and visual exercises to expand the creative growth of workshop participants. You'll work with your own cameras and choice of medium as you learn to explore visual aesthetics and create more personally meaningful and emotionally evocative images. During this time you will focus on your needs and desires for artistic growth, examining all aspects of your creative process. The workshop will include reviews of student work and photographic exploration in the beautiful and dramatic area just west of Mt. Hood. [continue for more information... ]

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. [continue for more information... ]

This is not about making 'pretty' pictures or 'postcard' like records of one's travels. It is about making a deeper, more authentic, connection to 'place' and learning to express that deeper connection in your photography. We will be using the land, water, sky as well as the urban environment to convey an emotional experience into a visual one. We will explore making, not taking, photographs that are less generic and more personal. This will be about the inner journey as well nourishing a deepening connection to one's heart and soul, then bringing that awareness into our image making process. Self-expression and introspection will be encouraged. We will work on giving our photos more simplicity and clarity while adding layers of meaning to make stronger, more powerful and most importantly, more personal images. [continue for more information... ]

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. [continue for more information... ]

Whether you are a very experienced people or figure photographer or you are a complete novice who has never worked with the nude, this is a wonderful opportunity to work with the figure in the landscape in a supportive, non-sexist, non-competitive environment. We meet in Interior, South Dakota (one hour from the Rapid City, SD airport), for this five-day workshop in and around Badlands National Park and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota. This remote, very sacred land 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 models to connect with and integrate this sacred land to our own vision. [continue for more information... ]

Join a small group of Italians, led by photographer Clelia Belgrado, owner of VisionQuest Gallery in Genoa, Italy, for an unforgettable and completely non-tourist adventure in the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, land considered sacred to the Lakota (Sioux) Indians for centuries. Each day will bring us to somewhere new and meaningful, filled with rich photographic opportunities. This will be both a road trip and a spiritual adventure. [continue for more information... ]

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. [continue for more information... ]

This is a special two-day weekend version of Zen & the Art of Photography. Revitalize your photography while exploring your relationship to your subject, your camera and yourself. Through photo exercises, assignments and daily field trips participants will deepen their visual awareness and self-expression while clarifying their approach, making their image making both more personal and more meaningful. [continue for more information... ]

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 images that are both more personal and more meaningful. Your images 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). [continue for more information... ]

This highly personalized workshop is custom designed by Doug, in response to each of those in 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. The focus of the weekend is on creative renewal and expanded vision and sense of photographic purpose. Helping each other to unlock blockages and avoid creative sabotage will be encouraged. We will also 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. [continue for more information... ]

This workshop coincides with the end of the Mayan calendar. We will explore Mayan interpretations as to what this means and what implications it has on our lives. If the world does end, we will be in the perfect place to experience it together! [continue for more information... ]

Other opportunities

Vision Quest’s TRADE RIVER RETREAT CENTER is available for individuals or small groups of up to 6–8 people for an Artist’s Residency, personal retreats or private workshops. Custom Workshops for you or your group can be individually designed by Douglas Beasley. Located 20 miles north of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, the retreat center is a scenic 90-minute drive from the Twin Cities. This beautiful, very private, north woods setting rests on the banks of the Trade River, a designated trout stream and protected waterway. [continue for more information... ]