1-2-1 / BESPOKE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS IRELAND

I am a full-time commercial and landscape photographer & filmmaker based in Portrush on the Causeway Coast. Please take the time to explore my range of work on this website.

As well as guidance on landscape photography I can also give valuable insights into film and drone work. I also specialise in motion timelapse which I can impart knowledge on. See my year long timelapse project covering the 4 seasons in our Mourne Mountains below.

View ‘Mourne’ timelapse film here.

Some locations require a short hike of up to 30 minutes. You must be able to walk on uneven ground, beaches and sometimes steep steps & slippery surfaces.

On location tuition

Compositional guidance

Understanding the exposure triangle

Advantages of shooting RAW

Understanding light & reacting to the conditions

Capturing panoramas and focal blending

Using Neutral Density, Graduated Filters and Polariser

Understanding depth of field for maximum sharpness

Choosing the correct shutter speed for various results

The importance of composition, leading lines and texture

Histograms explained

After you complete your booking I’ll email a full packing list. We’ll also set up a workshop WhatsApp group chat where all questions can be answered.

Cancellations with less than 30 days notice will be refunded their fee minus their booking deposit. If I’m able to fill their place the participant will also be refunded their booking deposit.

I had the most fantastic time at my 1-2-1 workshop with Richard. We were able to cover many different photographic techniques in exciting locations. Richard is so personable and easy to understand. He takes the required time to really explain what is needed to get the most out of your photography. I cannot recommend the workshop enough. I’ve come away with a vastly improved knowledge about my equipment, compositions and use of filters. If you are keen to improve your standard, Richard is the guy to see.

"Life-Altering Experience"

If I had to sum up my recent journey to Kyrgyzstan in a few words, I'd go with "life-altering." Before this trip, Kyrgyzstan was just a name I'd never heard before, let alone locate on a map. Yet, I can't express how thrilled I am that I embarked on this adventure with Richard. Planning a trip to a place halfway around the world can be incredibly nerve-wracking, but Richard made it a breeze. All I had to do was get there.

Right from day one, Richard's deep knowledge of the country became evident, and it stayed with us throughout the entire ten-day journey. He had a knack for taking us to the most remote and breathtaking corners of Kyrgyzstan, something that would have been quite challenging to pull off on our own. No need to fret about travel logistics, finding camp spots, or even worrying about our next meal; Richard and the expert guides he had picked had it all covered.

As a professional photographer who usually shies away from photo tours, I can confidently say that I'd jump at the chance to book this tour again without a second thought. It truly was an unforgettable experience that left an indelible mark on my photography journey.

Kyrgyzstan – and Richard Watson’s Kyrgyzstan in particular – is a sight, an experience and an opportunity unlike any this avid traveller and hobbyist photographer has had the pleasure of before.

The country – one only recently opened up with any kind of convenience or real access – still has the remoteness and unfamiliarity that travellers and photographers both crave. “There must be reasons why tourists generally, and particularly those from the West, don’t travel to central Asia, this vast area of the globe”, I remember thinking – in fact it was a main driver of why I wanted to visit. But believe me, I found none. Quite the opposite.

In one day, you can see arid, desert-like canyons and rippled, rocky waves of untouched, folded geometric rock formations that would go on forever were it not for the vast snow-capped mountains that rise to meet the horizon. In the same day, you can be up among those same mountains, with the mood and feeling of the place changing minute by minute as the sun plays with unpredictable beauty on the saw-like edges of the surrounding mountains.

In such a small country and in such a relatively short space of time, experiencing desert, arid rock, alpine, temperate, high mountain and lake-side yurt camps which feel like a brief beach holiday sojourn, is simply remarkable. Some of it is hard work, some of it feels a million miles away from home, and all of it is remarkable.Were it not for Richard’s experience – both as a photographer, his familial connections via his long-term Kyrgyz partner to the country and his many trip there – doing all this in 10 days would be impossible.

Personally, I am not a tour-group kind of traveller. I either go on holidays with friends, with family or ‘travel’ on my own. This has changed my mind. With a group of seven – from six different countries – you expect people pulling in different directions and each with different ideas of what they want. While this inevitably happens, none of it is negative. Each has their own vision, experience and ideas of what they want to see and capture, and Richard was always there – how, I’m still not quite sure – to lend advice and to suggest his idea of the best way of doing things.

The country, tour and set-up is incredible. If you want to see somewhere different, fit in all of the above within 10 days and have the time of your life, I wouldn’t look past this tour. It will change the way you look at photography, central Asia and – quite possibly – the world, and leave you with an insatiable hunger for more. Do it.