Food and Photography Retreats Ltd
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Kitchen and Forest A two strand Retreat for foodies & photographers the Cairngorms national park, Scotland, 7th - 11th December 2018 Food and TM Photography = Retreats = with the Benvies contents The Retreat What’s on offer Skills Creating collages | Tempering and moulding chocolate Post-production for mood | Mastering macarons Colour Transects | Creating hand rolled truffles Advanced composition | Seasonal baking The Cairngorms, Speyside and our venue General information and price Sample menus All contents copyright Food and Photography Retreats Ltd. / Niall and Charlotte Benvie 2018 The Retreat ood and Photography Retreats are for people who enjoy a house- Fparty style holiday in a lovely setting where they can immerse themselves totally in photography - and eat very well too. The concept of a Photo Retreat is a little different from a tour or workshop. The Retreat has elements of both but the tuition is more structured, the outcomes are more focused and a lot of emphasis is put on creating a relaxing atmosphere in which conversation can flow and ideas emerge. This particular Retreat has a special twist: we have designed it for couples or friends in which one is the photographer while the other is more interested in creating delicious food. That’s not to say that singles of either persuasion aren’t just as welcome! Either way, you’ll come away from the Retreat with new ideas and skills you can use long after the Retreat is over as well as enough hand-made chocolates and macarons to see you through the festive season. We think it’s a perfect Christmas gift for each other - or for yourself. During the Retreat we will have exclusive use of the Ballintean Mountain Lodge set in the pinewoods of Glenfeshie in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. Each room has its own facilities and there is open wifi. What’s on offer he mountains and forests of the Cairngorms and Speyside provide Tphotographers with the raw material for their creative work during the Retreat. Their time is divided between the field and studio, to take advantage of the best light but also to allow time to practice newfound production skills as well as assessment and discussion. The cooks will use the Lodge’s kitchen and dining room as their creative and learning space. During the Retreat, photographers will learn: • How to process images to re-enforce a particular mood or feeling, including split-toning; • How to create Colour Transects; • Advanced composition techniques; • How to shoot and assemble “Chocolate Bar” collages. Foodies, in the meantime, will be comfortably ensconced in the kitchen: • Baking macarons then mixing a variety of mouth-watering fillings; • Creating hand rolled, cream ganache truffles; • Learning how to temper, handle and mould chocolate; • Doing seasonal baking, including Charlotte’s special sweet and savoury Christmas morning cruffins and Christmas mince pie pops. As well as providing tuition, Charlotte and her assistant will also be producing lovely meals for you to enjoy throughout your stay. Skills: photography Post-production for mood and feeling he right post-production is essential for projecting the mood you are Taiming for in your work and is standard practice in commercial work. So, we’ll go beyond simple image development and explore the tools available to create an image more personal to you. It will help if you are already familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop, even at a basic level. You’ll also be introduced to AlienSkin Exposure X - arguably the leading software for this kind of work. Skills: photography Colour Transects iall started to create this style of image in 2017 and they have been Nwidely published since. A “Colour Transect” consists of a photograph and colour swatches presented as a single piece of work. The 27 swatches are sampled from the photograph, sometimes highlighting the diversity of colours in the image, sometimes the variety of different hues of the one colour. The object is to simplify and clarify the image’s colour content for the viewer. The concept of the transect is borrowed from ecological sampling. A line is defined through a habitat and samples taken or records made at regular intervals along that line. The exercise can be repeated at different times on the same transect to introduce consistency to the sampling process. In a Colour Transect, lines are drawn across the image at the post production stage and colours sampled to create the swatches. 58.380° N colour transect #40 Skills: photography Advanced composition On one level, composition is simply about organising elements in space. But there is another facet of composition that is rarely discussed outside of art colleges: “significant placement”. This is concerned with how the meaning and influence of elements changes as they occupy different parts or proportions of the frame. Often the photographer can more clearly communicate his or her ideas about the subject by upsetting aesthetic conventions and expectations. With this understanding, you’ll greatly expand your compositional repertoire. Skills: photography Shoot and assemble “Chocolate Bar” collages hese images are all about diversity where people expect there to be Tuniformity. It’s a highly versatile technique that is effective in holding the viewer’s attention and encouraging closer examination of the subject. You can learn and practise this technique with a wide variety of subjects, from decaying buildings, mosses and lichens to bark, stones, pebbles and water reflections. We have no shortage of subjects close to our base. Photoshop, Lightroom or Indesign: we show you “how-to” assemble in each programme. Skills: kitchen work Baking and filling macarons Seasonal baking hristmas is Charlotte’s favourite time of year, not least because Cit provides the excuse to make all sorts of indulgent, seasonal delicacies, for eating and giving. Amongst her favourites are macarons - not just for their delicate texture but for the scope to create imaginative fillings. The ones in this picture have raspberry and passion fruit curd; coffee cream - that really taste like coffee; and dulce de leche and mascarpone fillings. Charlotte also enjoys putting a fresh twist on old favourites - such as mince pie pops. In addition, she will teach core kitchen skills including: improvisation; substitution; waste avoidance; preparation; and the art of presentation. You can take a break and some fresh air in the woods around the Lodge when you need one. Skills: kitchen work Tempering and moulding chocolate Creating hand-rolled cream ganache truffles harlotte is a trained chocolatiere and will help guests to create a Cvariety of delicious chocolates using fine Belgian couverture. You’ll learn the art of tempering to get that perfect snap and shine; make moulded shapes decorated with cocoa butter transfers; and go through the long process of making Charlotte’s celebrated hand-rolled, ganache filled truffles. Creation, of course, is just one part of the process: Charlotte will also show you how to present and package your work to make gifts to be proud of. cairngorms and our venue Cairngorms National Park and Speyside cotland’s first National Park, the Cairngorms is the UK’s most Sextensive mountain environment. The Spey valley retains some of the largest tracts of the pine forest that covered large parts of the Highlands after the last Ice Age. Its distance from the sea means that the area’s numerous lochs and marshes are often wreathed in early morning mist. Snow is less predictable than in the past but if there is going to be any in Scotland, it will fall here first. Our venue e are based at the Ballintean Mountain Lodge in Glenfeshie for Wthis Retreat, about 17 miles south of Aviemore. Surrounded by pine woods that are home to crested tits, red squirrels and pine martens, the spacious Lodge is an ideal space for learning and relaxing in. We have sole occupancy of it during our stay and make it our own. All the bedrooms are ensuite and there are spacious public areas for holding demonstrations and discussions. In this setting, we enjoy the sort of freedom to set our own timetable that is simply impossible in hotels. Meals Good food is at the heart of our Retreats, from breakfast through to after-dinner chocolates, all made by Charlotte and her assistant. You can see some sample menus at the end of this document. She uses local ingredients, when they are available, in meals that are delicious and imaginative without being fussy. And that goes for her vegetarian dishes too. Food allergies and intolerances are catered for sensitively when notified in advance on the booking form. Expect to eat well, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And in between times too. General information Retreat Price: £950 per person. Daily routine What is included in the price of the Retreat? Photographers: the aim is to teach a variety of skills in the Transfers to and from Aviemore railway station or Inverness field and in the studio afterwards. At this time of year in the (airport and railway station); accommodation during the Highlands the days are short so we will spend most of the Retreat at the Ballintean Mountain Lodge; all meals during daylight hours on location (we’ll take out a picnic lunch) and the Retreat from lunch on Friday 7th December until breakfast use the long nights to do our studio work. We will visit a variety on Tuesday 11th December 2018; tuition from Niall; tuition from of mountain, loch and forest locations in Strathspey and the Charlotte; kitchen ingredients and packaging; transport during Cairngorms to gather the “raw material” for our work. Once we the Retreat know the composition and interest of the group, the itinerary will be tailored accordingly. The prevailing weather conditions What is not included in the price of the Retreat? will play a large role in Niall’s decisions about where to take Travel between your home and Inverness / Aviemore; alcoholic the photographers with regards to photographic opportunities drinks; insurance for you and your possessions during the and safety.