Top Photograph: Barnbaum - Utah Layers Upon Layers

Layer Cake Country Exploratory

Workshop Instructors: Don Rommes and Bruce Barnbaum

Southern Utah’s geology can be likened to a layer cake with many layers, sometimes folded and convoluted, creating an elegant mess of a landscape. Erosion has further created a cornucopia of bizarre spires, buttes, cliffs and canyons found nowhere else on earth. High mountain elevations feature aspen and conifer forests. The variety is astounding. We’ll photograph this land, the most unique on this planet.

But we’ll do much, much more. Two experienced, dedicated instructors, working closely with students, will guide you beyond your photographic goals to powerful imagery you didn’t think you could achieve, whether you work digitally or traditionally, in color or black-and-white. We work instructor-to-student, student-to-student- student-to-instructor for mutual benefit. In a week of wonderful support and camaraderie you’ll learn about light, about relating lines, forms, colors and contrasts to create stronger compositions, and about gaining deeper insights into how you truly feel about your chosen subject matter so you can better express yourself through your photography.

The workshop begins Sunday morning, April 27, 2025 at 9 a.m., shortly after breakfast as we meet indoors for orientation, discussion of photographic issues, and information about the week’s locations and activities. We invite all participants to arrive the evening before (Saturday, April 26) for an informal dinner, meeting all the participants and instructors, relaxing and getting a good night’s sleep before the start of the workshop. Outdoor field sessions will include visits to the Caineville Buttes (including Factory Butte…a strange name; a remarkable formation, and its adjacent wonders), the Bentonite Hills, Tarantula Mesa, Boulder Mountain and many more. Indoor sessions include review of everyone’s imagery—students and instructors—in a set of wonderfully supportive, educational get-togethers throughout the week. The workshop will end about noon, May 3, 2025.

As we visit one eye-popping field location after another during the workshop, we will work together to see how to make visual sense of what you’re looking at so that others will be drawn to your imagery. Because we foster an atmosphere of enjoyment and mutual support, you’ll find your fellow students to be of great assistance, as well. We all help and encourage one another. It always works out that way!

We’ll go to remarkable overlooks like this, seeing landscapes that boggle the mind. It will be a week featuring one surprise after another.

Beyond exceptional landscapes, are you primarily into portraiture, abstracts, architecture? If so, during our time together in both the field and indoors we’ll share our thoughts on all types of subject matter, where the emphasis is always on understanding light and creating wonderful compositions, making it an all-encompassing educational outing. Take advantage of the opportunities. Our photography instruction applies to all aspects of photography, not just to the dramatic landscape we’re in. Do you want to know more about the geology or human history of the region? We can supply lots of expertise on those subject, as well. Yes, it will be a week in a fabulous landscape, but it’s so much more.

Whether you’re shooting digitally or traditionally (using film), working in color or black and white, we’re there to help. Photographers Bruce Barnbaum and Don Rommes cover the entire spectrum, and they’ll answer your questions, lay out new ideas for you to pursue, and help you both technically and artistically in every way.

We do all this from our base in the charming little town of Torrey, Utah. Located close to nothing but magnificent landscapes. This workshop offers a complete break from daily life, replacing it with full immersion into creative endeavors. We’ll stay at the rustic Rim Rock Inn, at the edge of Capitol Reef National Park. It will be a week of lively fun and education for everyone of any background who is enthusiastic and intent on making meaningful photographs.

If you have any questions, please contact Bruce Barnbaum at his email address of barnbaum@aol.com or his home phone at (360-691-4105).

For additional information about co-instructor Don Rommes and the areas we will visit during the workshop, visit his website at     https://www.rommesarts.com/capitol-reef-and-vicinity.

To register for this workshop via the website, please return to the top of the page, and click on the button Add to Cart. Fill out the information, including your choice of a deposit ($250) or full payment ($2025) for the workshop. Payment can be made using your Visa or Mastercard credit card (sorry, no other credit cards). If you register with a deposit, the full payment will be due 6 weeks prior to the workshop. You will receive an email response to your application shortly. (If you are applying for more than one workshop, please do this for each workshop you wish to attend. If any workshop is cancelled due to the continuing Covid 19 pandemic, all money will be refunded, including the deposit.)

If you do not use Visa or MasterCard, or prefer to not use credit cards as payment method, we accept registration with a check (deposit or full amount) and an application. Please download and fill out the the application (Workshop-application.doc or Workshop-application.PDF). Specify whether you will pay the deposit or full payment, and make the check payable to Bruce Barnbaum. Mail the check with filled out application to the address below. We will notify you by email to confirm your registration.

Bruce Barnbaum Workshops

P.O. Box 1791

Granite Falls, WA 98252

If you have specific questions, please contact Bruce by phone at (360) 691-4105 or by email: barnbaum@aol.com.