Italy landscape photography workshop 2022
APENNINE MOUNTAINS - ABRUZZO
Workshop run by Paul Thomson, Matt Bishop and Luigi Nespeca
I took part in a workshop trip to the Abruzzo region, which is approximately a beautiful two hour drive east from Rome to Rocca Calascio which is nestled between the Adriatic Coast and Apennine Mountains. I know Landscape photographer Paul Thomson well as we meet regularly but I knew very little of Matt or Luigi before the trip and nothing of the two other participants.
I had seen Paul’s video from his scouting trip and he was very excited by what he’d seen so why not go to somewhere new and also a region that is not overrun with photographers yet…
Three legends and two Pentax shooters 🤣
Day One ( Travel to Rome )
2nd October 2022
I flew from Manchester airport to Rome which is a straightforward and Matt welcomed me at the airport and gave me a lift to the hotel for the first night.
That night I took the opportunity to organise my camera bag, electronics etc as certain items cannot be placed in the hold etc and not therefore in the right place for days of photography.
I paid for 20kg of hold luggage as I was unsure of a large tripod on a plane and also I did not want to carry tons through the airport
I decided to take my camera cube out of my backpack as its large and collapses slim and fit easily in my suitcase and also meant I could just take a wheelie suitcase on the plane that fit my cube perfectly and also gave me swift passage through security as the cube was just put on a tray and security were happy with this rather than having a bag with multiple layers to annoy x ray machines
Day Two ( Travel from Rome to Rocca Calascio )
First of two main locations we would make home in during the trip
3rd October 2022
After a good nights sleep in a lovely quaint hotel on the outskirts of Rome we had breakfast, some lovely coffee and then jumped on the road for a 2 hour trip to Rocca Calascio through some beautiful towns and a nice chance to get to know each other better.
We stopped off for a nice lunch and I should’ve taken the chance to stock up on some pain killers / headache tablets and some hydration water tablets as the altitude made for the need for hydration and water.
We arrived at Rocca Calascio and the old village was nothing short of beautiful. Rustic, characterful and something out of a movie springs to mind
We put our gear in the room which was comfortable but basic, all I need to be honest is a bed, access to power for the gear and a nice warm shower and this had all that covered. The lady who ran the accommodation was welcoming and we had a walk to the castle and church at the top of the hill to experience the place with no cameras which was lovely and allowed us to just enjoy the place
We went on a drive out to Castle de Monte and had our first taste of photography and shot a beautiful tree with absolutely radiant colours in a famous location for old western movies.
A beautiful first image of the trip and a taste of what was to come…
With the evening coming fast we had to make a decision as to where to go and we voted for the Church and castle ruins as the forecast and sky was looking favourable. We drove the hour back and hiked the steep hill to be rewarded / welcomed by fog…. lots of fog! We all had a superb shoot and then on a high from the conditions we went back to the rooms, charged batteries and backed up images and headed for dinner.
Images from the first evening…. Talk about luck. Clouds around us on day ONE!
As you can imagine after that kind of first sunset we were all pretty ecstatic and then we had dinner at the restaurant down the hill in the village, I am not really a food connoseur but the food was absolutely amazing, they brought out what seemed like endless courses of locally sourced food and the staff were genuinely happy that we enjoyed the food! The wine flowed and the laughter began, five relative strangers started to become friends, sharing stories, experiences and laughter which didn’t stop for the entire trip.
If this was a sign of what was to come then it was going to be epic!
Day Three- L’Aquilla
4th October 2022
A 5.30am start for the five minute walk to the castle ruin from our accommodation for sunrise was a delightful way to start our first full day of photography, the fog in all honestly wans’t as epic but to be fair that would of asked for too much. We all got some lovely images and then headed back for showers and breakfast before heading out for the day.
After a lovely breakfast we headed out to L’Aquilla stopped for a lovely outdoor bbq style lunch with beautiful meat on a stick and later stopped at emperors field for a surprisingly great espresso from a vending machine… Italians do take their coffee very seriously!
We then headed out to Lago Pietranzoni O Lagone which is a lovely scene with water creating a beautiful foreground and local cows creating some interesting moments. Having a telephoto also came In handy as the far away detail shots turned out as some of my favourite images.
We then headed to our sunset location at Carapelle Calvisio which was just beautiful, the colour just came and lasted for ages! another super shoot.
It was a strange location at first right by a road in a valley but it gave us a near 360 degrees field of view and so many compositions that we were like kids in a candy store. The colours look fake but believe it or not they have been toned down.
I can imagine this in spring / summer would be incredible as the foreground flowers would make for some beautiful compositions
We headed back to base at Rocca Calascio which was approximately a 45 minute drive all excited to see our images from that epic sunset on our laptops.
We downloaded our images, popped our batteries on charge and then headed off for yet another incredible dinner with the ingredients locally sourced and just ate what the chef chose which was strangely liberating.
Day FOUR- Santo Stefano Di Sessanio
5th October 2022
Next we headed off to a beautiful ancient old town of Santo Stefano Di Sessanio in the province of L'Aquilla which is being slowly restored after a devastating earthquake.
We had a lovely few hours wandering around taking in the town which was a nice change of pace and a bit of a reset which was needed, as sometimes you just get caught up in images on a trip and forget to take in other aspects.
In the afternoon we went to Carapelle Calvisio overlooking Mount Camica and Gran Sasso.
With blue skies and a vast landscape it was for me too wide and so I concentrated on more intimate shots with most becoming black and white as for my taste the blue sky was overpowering.
We then headed to Santo Stefano di Sessanio and walked in a dryed up river bed or Glacial run off and even though I did not get any images while in the valley I got a nice one from above after the walk out
The B&W image that came out best from the “Simpsons” blue sky and clouds
The Stefano location image with beautiful light kissing the grass
After this we decided on heading back to Rocca Calascio for sunset as we had a decision to make and luckily for us we made the right one. A quick hustle up the hill got us there in time for another colourful and stunning moment to savour.
Day Five- Santo Stefano Di Sessanio
6th October 2022
Sunrise shoot at the Castle and Church was the chosen way to start the day followed by showers and another lovely breakfast from the host.
This was our last day at Rocca Calascio location as a base as we headed over to the Gran Sasso side near to Pietracamela for our next stay.
Click images below to see them large!
We got settled at the second accommodation after the drive over and then headed out for another amazing lunch and then headed to the woods for the afternoon and this is where we met up with Luigi Nespeca who was kind of guest workshop leader, he brought so much local knowledge and seems like he’s also the most famous person in Italy. Literally everyone paused and said “Luigi..?” and then they got a picture with him. It was all very Hollywood.
Gran Sasso for sunset and little did we know just how epic this sunset would be…
Yes these are all from one NIGHT!!
Day six- Pietracamela
7th October 2022
Day seven we skipped sunrise as the forecast wasn’t great and we had along hike today so we set off on the two hour walk to a beautiful waterfall through woods, valley and a delightful waterfall to greet us at the end
We headed back to Gran Sasso for sunset and was met by wild horses
For our last sunset we were treated to the best light of the trip which is saying something! Colour, clouds, mountain shadows and all to ourselves!
A Timelapse compilation from the workshop
Day seven- Return Travel
7th October 2022
Day seven was just a day of travel back home, for me I had a long wait at the airport but filled the time to start the editing process and the last of the Italian coffee!
Photography Gear taken
Camera cube fit perfectly into a small wheelie case and fit in overhead storage on the plane
Fujifilm GFX 100s Camera
20-35mm lens
32-64mm lens
100-200mm lens
1.4 teleconverter
Camera bag
Tripod & head
Lens filters ( magnetic type )
Camera cleaning items
Nodal rail ( For Panoramic images )
Shower caps for rainy days ( for camera not me )
Head Torch
Spare batteries ( I took 4 in total )
Go Pro and small tripod for timelapses
Laptop & Charger
External hard drive
Daily Sd Cards ( 12 in total )
Hotel kept Sd card holder
Battery Bank
Charging Cables
Some thoughts on the trip…
I knew Paul Thomson before the trip but obviously I was apprehensive meeting and essentially living with three other people for a week on a trip to a new location.
Matt Bishop and Paul made the trip special, you can tell straight away they are passionate about photography but also making sure everyone is happy.
Matt & Paul both bring different attitudes which compliment so well and hardly overlap.
I’m happy being solitary but I have to say that it was a truly epic trip, not just the locations, the light etc but most of all the coffee and the food!
Only joking, the people on the trip made it special. So many laughs and stories that money cannot buy.
Would I do it again in hindsight? well YES, I have actually booked to go this June 2023 as I liked it so much and wanted to see it all in a different season
Gear Mistakes Made:
If I was to do the trip again I would do the following
Take a second camera body not just for backup but also as I missed shots transferring to a different lens when if I had a second body I could have the wide lens on one body and telephoto on the other which was a great tip by Matt.
I would take a longer lens giving me a full frame equivalent of 400mm
External Hard Dive, I took a high end external ssd but it turned out to be faulty and caused some panic for me. Luckily my old backup saved me but I have now learned my lesson.
I shoot two cards internally with both storage the same images daily so I have two copies
I change them daily.
I then backup / download them every night to my ssd / computer storage, so that makes three copies
I then leave one sd card in my hotel bag & the other in my camera bag
The Laptop is then hidden
Giving me three copies spread over two locations and therefore piece of mind
Workshop details and who was there etc:
Book for next one here:
https://www.paulthomsonphotography.co.uk/italy-photography-workshops
Workshop Leaders and participants
Matt Bishop
Website: https://www.mattbishopphotography.com
Paul Thomson
Website: https://www.paulthomsonphotography.co.uk
Luigi Nespeca
Website: http://www.luiginespecafotografia.it
Josh Mainka
Website: https://www.joshmainkaphotography.com
Theo “Tex”
Vero Details: https://vero.co/texan