BEWARE: the workshop presentations are not downloadable and are only available for one month after the workshop.

I recently attended a lighting workshop with Joe McNally. You can't go wrong working with Joe in the first place, as he is one of the most talented photographers and gracious instructors you will find. Also, he is very, very passionate about photography in general and passing on his immense wealth of knowledge and wisdom to other photographers. The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops is an outstanding program. It is run about as smoothly and professionally as I have experienced for this type of program or size of an operation. The staff is uniformly friendly, supportive, and professional. The campus is beautiful, and the facility and equipment on hand are all of high quality. And of course Santa Fe is a photographer's playground. There is soooo much to shoot in and around town. And the Workshops has an extremely diverse, attractive, and interesting stable of models that they work with. I can't wait to get back and take another workshop there! read more

This highly regarded workshop attracts photographers from across the globe with their professional staff, contacts, and well known list of very well published photographers. I took a digital class last summer that was a week long and totally reinforced my already reasonable knowledge of digital picture taking, but impressed upon me my lack of knowledge when it comes to printer profiles... It was a hard lesson to learn, but needed. If you enroll, expect rare access to some of the least traveled, yet visually stunning tourist spots in the state of New Mexico. I couldn't give this organization a better review if I tried. read more

This is the first time I took a class at the SFPW. The workshop I signed up for was with Andrew Eccles who is an excellent instructor. I didn't realize it, but there were 3 other workshops going on at the same time, so at orientation, breakfasts and lunches we were able to mingle and network with other students. The caliber of my instructor, the lighting equipment and studio was excellent. The only issue is a small one. They have mostly Nikon equipment in the SFPW store due to the support and equipment contributions by Nikon. I am a Canon user but they had other accessories that can be loaned out that are compatible with Canon. I will definitely be going back again. Top notch instruction. read more

I attended a session there a few years ago. Their programs are quite eclectic. National Geographic conducted the one I attended on digital photography. The program was over 5 days. The sessions were informative and fun. The only pressure that I felt from the photographers who conducted the program came from their encouragement for the participants to achieve their own goals. They have workshops put on by Nikon. There was one on black and white photography. There was one on PhotoShop. When I was there the Workshops utilized the facilities of a Carmelite Mission and a nearby school. It's a very nice atmosphere. Any sort of program held in Santa Fe would probably be fun. read more

Over the past 10 years, Mr MC and I between us have done four classes and one tour/travel class with them. We plan to take classes in the future. Key points from our experiences: - the instructors are first rate, as artists and as instructors. All of them were excellent and worked hard to make their class beneficial to all attendees. The instructors are the best part of the experience. - classes and interactions with staff are usually well organized (with the one exception below). - the Santa Fe facilities are pleasant and atmospheric -- out of the center of town, with a lot of open space nearby. If you stay overnight there (usually offered as an option for out-of-towners, and it's cost-effective), note that it's an old building in a rural area and it gets very, very quiet at night. This can be relaxing or creepy, depending on your mood. My sense is that it's perfectly safe, but if you're a person who gets nervous in old spooky buildings at night, you might want to stay elsewhere. - the worst experience was with a printing-related class. The Workshops staff did a very poor job of maintaining the printers or making sure the class had the correct supplies in sufficient amounts. If I exclude this one class, I'd give them a 4 star rating, but this class was a big bummer. Some of the printers were broken the whole week; all the others (except for one) had intermittent to continual quality problems (smears, blobs, etc.). I didn't get a *single* clean print out of the entire workshop. The instructor was aware of the problems, and tried to help or find staff to fix it, but it was clear they either didn't have the skills or equipment, or the printers were permanently damaged / irreparable. Very frustrating when one of the main things you're paying for, is to use their equipment. Also, when it was time to get hands-on with materials (this was a class that involved using hand-prepped materials along with the photo/print), there weren't anywhere near enough supplies for the attendees. Most class had to sit and wait while a few people used the materials (it took people ~15 minutes per print minimum), then people switched off and the next few people could work. So you just sat around for most of the time, waiting for your turn. The next day, either the instructor or staff had gone shopping and there were enough supplies to go around, but that initial day wasted a lot of time. There's no good excuse for that. - the Havana trip (one of their many Cuba trips) was well organized, managed and led. Our only issue is that it was pretty expensive, well over $5000 per person the year we went (not including the flight to get to Miami, where the tour officially started). It included staying in a top-of-the-line expensive yet generic luxury hotel. Perhaps that was required of them by the Cuban government, but it did make the trip more expensive than it needed to be (to be fair, the price was in line with other US-to-Cuba trips we researched - and, most of their current Cuba trips are in the $4k+ range). read more

I went to Cuba with Santa Fe Photography workshops that were subcontracted by National Geographic to administer, manage the logistics and teach. Basically the entire workshop, although called Nat Geo was really Santa Fe workshops. Not really fair on the part of Nat Geo. 1. I would encourage anyone to take their Cuba trip. The group leader, Kip, is very conscientious about photo locations, lighting, and getting us into places that no other tourist group would manage to see. We were able to photograph a ballet school, a boxing club, a historic mansion with ballet models and lighting, the area where Ernest Hemingway kept his boat, a small rural town, and historic Havana. Kip works very hard to make sure that you end up loving Cuba and its people the way he loves Cuba and his people. So kudos to Kip for really wanting us to photograph the beauty of Cuba and its people they he sees the beauty of the country. Plus, we had a great group of people that bonded together incredibly well. 2. Now the downside, our group leader, Kip, is just a cranky guy. For the money we spent on traveling through Santa Fe/Nat Geo we should have been treated with the kind of customer service you expect from any upscale hotel. The reality is, by Thursday I had flipped him off (really, I flipped him off) and Saturday I was close to tears. Almost 3 of us were close to tears on this trip. Ironically, I don't blame Kip as much as the organization. Santa Fe/Nat Geo. cannot expect one man to be logistics, teacher, organizer and full customer service for 16 people. It is ridiculous. This is sheer management failure. They should let Kip do what he does so well, and have someone else from the organization be the group leader/customer service relations. 3. Our Nat Geo photographer wasn't a staff photographer because if you haven't heard Nat Geo no longer has staff photographers, they have contract photographers. Ira Block is an amazing amazing photographer but he is also an introvert. By the 6th day he was comfortable enough to start approaching us individually. If we asked for help he helped, but if we didn't he left us alone. That left a lot of the group a bit irritated even though we loved him as a person and photographer. So here is the conclusion. You should go to Cuba with Santa Fe Workshops. For all Kip's crankiness, he really does put on a great Cuba show. It is up to Santa Fe to appropriately staff the trip and provide the type of customer service anyone expects from the cost. I am hopeful they will read this review and let Kip do the outstanding logistic work that he does and put in someone else to handle all the customer service pieces. They also need more of an extrovert to handle the photography training. But in the end you will see and photograph Cuba like no other organization will arrange. Go. And I would actually recommend our Nat Geo photographer Ira Block. Just understand that you need to approach him, not the other way around. But he is a lovely person, amazing photographer and helpful when asked. For all the faults. Go to Cuba with Santa Fe. It will be worth it. read more

Just participated in my first SFPW workshop after many years of wanting to do so. Classic Portraiture with Kurt Markus and Norman Mauskopf, 2 very talented and accomplished documentary and portrait photographers with an extensive knowledge of the history of photography, also a great duo both as instructors and people. After too long neglecting my personal work and wanting to return to my first love of documentary photography and portraiture I feel the flame has been rekindled and am inspired anew. Lots of memories of my film days came through strongly, have now got a film body and some Tri-X to use alongside digital. A large part of the pleasure was to spend a few days with a varied group of photographers and also to meet those doing different workshops taking place the same week. The workshop staff are all wonderful, the food was great and the atmosphere inspiring. I can see why people keep coming back there. Would definitely like to do another, they have many interesting ones, but which one? read more