Dates: Sunday, June 11th - Sunday, June 18th 2023
Presented and Guided by: Jake Kielbus Photography
Location: Sweet Grass Ranch (The Crazy Mountains, Montana)
Hosted by: Sweet Grass Dude Ranch
Price: $2,900.00 US Dollars (Subject to Accomodations)
Max. Number of People: 8
Price includes: Accommodations, All Meals, Use of Horses for Photographing Purposes which include 2-3 riding experiences (optional), Personal Guide, Cook, Post-Processing Instruction & Tutorials, Transportation (for Workshop locations).
Not included: Flights, Travel Insurance, Camera Gear, Adobe Lightroom CC Subscription, Personal Laptop, Good Hiking Shoes/Boots, Transportation to-and-from Airport (available at an additional charge through Sweet Grass Ranch – please email Page Dringman for inquiries)
Come join Jake next summer during his Annual 1-Week Adventure Photography Workshop in Montana. Get ready to capture MAJESTIC MOUNTAINS, FREE-SPIRITED HORSES, AMAZING WILDLIFE, STUNNING WILDFLOWERS, BEAUTIFUL SUNRISES & SUNSETS, and some of the most SPECTACULAR LANDSCAPES that NORTH AMERICA has to offer! This tour takes place during the 2nd week of JUNE at a Historic DUDE RANCH tucked away in the heart of the CRAZY MOUNTAINS. During this time you will EXPERIENCE beautiful green pastures and majestic snow capped mountains. As a SPECIAL WEEK, which ends with a NEW MOON, you will also bear witness to the DARKEST SKIES in all of North America! The Milky Way will be clear and visible to the naked eye as you set out to observe SHOOTING STARS dance across the sky!
Every great photograph needs to tell a story where the viewer feels emotionally invested, connected, and inspired. And in order for this to have precedent, every Artist must create from their own vision. During this Adventure Tour and Workshop, you will learn how to track down and discover light; capture any single subject while maximizing great effective composition; all while creating flow, layers, & movement from any still image. You will practice utilizing low-lighting techniques; combat “negative space” with precision frame work; create enormous scale and depth-of-field in your photos to truly bring out any landscape and small subject; and discover leading lines to create superb composition. As a highlight, we will also work on long-exposure photography at night as well as applying more creative principles to make your pictures stunning and worthy of a fabulous physical print.
This pristine wilderness of Montana is teeming with raw beauty. You will be hosted by Sweet Grass Ranch at the base of the 10,000 foot Crazy Mountains. You will have full lodging, all meals provided, and an experienced guide in Jake on the premises at all times. During the workshop you will stay in a small cabin or room in the Historic Main House of the Ranch. All your meals will be provided including; breakfast, lunch and dinner by a staffed cook. The secluded ranch that you will be residing at during your stay is owned and operated by Sweet Grass Guest Ranch. If you have serious dietary restrictions, please inform us when booking your reservation. Please refer to the Sweet Grass website www.sweetgrassranch.com for an introduction to the culture and landscapes of the Ranch as well as the Crazy Mountains.
Jake will be leading moderate walks from one photography location to another throughout the week. These walking locations will be located within 1-2 hours walking distance from Sweet Grass Ranch, unless there is a truck ride planned where more distance will be covered by using vehicles. For one of the more ADVENTUROUS NIGHTS, you will be transported by vehicle to a small photogenic white Church to shoot the NIGHT SKY and witness the core of the Milky Way in all its glory!
Moderate walking throughout the foothills of the mountains is a main part of the Workshop. In order to photograph the most STUNNING LANDSCAPES and to have the best chance for WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS, walking up and down a big beautiful valley, into a canyon and out, and walking slightly off-trail around the ranch quarters will be required. Nothing will be too strenuous and we will always move at a slow and steady pace. These great photographic opportunities will result in better images and active days; which will also include very early mornings and some late nights. Photography is all about chasing the best light to capture the best shadows, highlights, and colors, which occurs when the Sun is closest to the horizon.
The required walking/ hiking will take place during most days. We are always trying to seek out the best lighting, especially an hour before sunrise and an hour after sunset (if on the schedule), which is known as the GOLDEN HOUR/BLUE HOUR in the photography world. These walks, which will involve little walking before and after the Sun arrives and departs, will be on known trails and fields and all led by Jake. Jake is extremely experienced and has performed these hikes and photo shoots in these locations numerous times.
A component of this Photography Workshop will involve instruction for post-processing of images. We will use the latest version of Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud for in-class workshops on how to transform your photos into a beautifully stunning piece of art. This introductory course to Adobe Lightroom will take place 3 days during the week, in the Main house at Sweet Grass Dude Ranch where we will have high speed internet (as well as an indoor film screen projector for processing and color grading our photos). It is not necessary, but highly recommended, that all participants bring with them a laptop with the latest version of Adobe Lightroom Create Cloud installed. To subscribe to this latest technology in post-processing, Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud can be purchased on the internet for only $9.99 per month! The daily workshops will involve selecting and editing pictures of your liking from the previous day and/or night time photography session. I will teach you great workflow, color coding, how to establish Presets, profile proofing, and how to attack a RAW file from start to finish. In this course you will learn to DO IT YOURSELF and MASTER basic and intermediate post-processing techniques such as composition, lighting, color, selective details, shadowing, highlighting, and effects. Also, we will discuss how to properly save, organize, and polish your work for different types of printing. These editing workshops will last for 1 to 3 hours. You will depart the Adventure Workshop with skilled post-processing techniques in Lightroom giving you a much more polished photography portfolio to produce Fine Art Prints.
Your accommodations will be held at Sweet Grass Ranch, which will be fully operational. You will be sharing the Ranch grounds and dining hall with normal scheduled weekly guests. Your accommodations can be referred to as both warm and rustic. Many of the private cabins will have a wood stove and all your comforting amenities. This Workshop is a great opportunity to make long term friends, perfect for those who are passionate about photography while getting to know the other artists they will be spending their photo shoots with for an entire week.
Please contact me at alphawolfphotos@gmail.com for more details on accommodations. Please let me know if you have any questions in regards to accommodations, we want everyone to be happy with choosing this Photography Workshop.
*Also please note at Sweet Grass Ranch as discussed below, you will have full access to internet through Fiber Optics.
*Please note that upon arrival to the Adventure Photography Tour the following itinerary may fluctuate and be subject to change, accordingly, based on weather conditions.
You will fly into either Bozeman Airport or Billings International Airport in Montana. You have an option to rent a vehicle, but if need be, Sweet Grass Ranch will provide transportation to the Ranch for an additional charge of $180 US dollars per person roundtrip. Your accommodations will be held at Sweet Grass Ranch upon arrival between 2-5 p.m. on Sunday. You will then have time to relax and enjoy the beautiful pastures and horses. If you are feeling super ambitious, you can capture photos of the breathtaking landscape before a short briefing of the weekly schedule, just make sure that you aren’t late by taking too many photos on the way in along the breathtaking drive .
At 5:00 p.m., everyone will meet in the Living Room of the main house with Jake for a brief introduction. We will break down the itinerary, discuss each day in full and answer any questions you may have. We will disperse at 5:45 p.m. where you have the freedom to explore until Dinner.
Dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. in the Dining Hall prepared by Sweet Grass’ cook. If you are out in one of the pastures, do not worry, you will hear the loud bell from the porch alerting you to come eat. This is the perfect opportunity to meet the staff and other fellow travelers who will be working/ visiting with you all week to give you the most memorable experience. After drinks, dessert, and socializing around a large fire pit, feel free to make your way to bed after a long day of traveling to your accommodation for much needed sleep. The next 6 days will be filled with EPIC ADVENTURES with your camera in an Unforgettable Landscape!
• 7:30 p.m. – Hang out by the campfire after a very long 24 hrs. as we complete our first full day!!!
• 11:00 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. INTRODUCTION TO NIGHT TIME PHOTOGRAPHY (Meet on the porch of the Main House. This area of the country has a Bortle scale rating of 1 (the highest level of brightness in the night sky), so prepare yourself for a SPECTACULAR EVENT!
• 6:30 p.m. – Dinner
DAY 7 (Sunday, June 18th) Departures:
Jake is a self-taught photographer with a love for wild places. Initially a backpacker and hiker, it was only in search of beautiful landscapes and adventure that he picked up a camera. Once he realized he could best communicate the World’s natural beauty through digital photography, he was hooked.
Always fascinated by the subtle line between perception and reality (Surrealism), Jake is neither a realist nor surrealist, but searches for a connection between both the physical and the spiritual nature of experience; capturing a subject’s place within a larger esoteric order. He hopes that people will see his photography for more than the aesthetics of the photograph, but for the transcending connection his subject has with its simplistic natural environment, which he calls “A Spiritual Epiphany”.
This is Jake's 3rd workshop in the Crazy Mountains after the success of the last 2 years. Previously, Jake has worked for Sweet Grass Ranch for 9 years wrangling, guiding, care-taking, and entertaining guests from all over the world with his fascinating traveling Adventure stories. During this time, he has used Sweet Grass Ranch and the Crazy Mountains as a home base to develop his passion, creativity and love for Digital Photography. You can always find him with his camera while he takes his time to seek out the next “EPIC SHOT”, as he would say. He has travelled to over 14 different countries within the past 9 years, honing in on his photography skills, developing his portfolio and website, selling his work to clients as Fine Art Prints, and submitting his work to magazines. He is striving to own his own photography studio, advance his career in commercial photography and is currently working on NFT's, so that he can live a life of inspiration reporting to the world through his pictures. He has a concentration on capturing remote wild places and mainly focuses on Minimalism, Wildlife, Landscape, Astro Photography and Portraiture in Wild Places using Natural Light.
Some of the most impressive places he has photographed include; the Amazon Jungle, the Southern Alps, the Okavango Delta, the Namib Dessert, the Serengeti, Chilean Patagonia, the Mountains of the Moon, the Rocky Mountains, and the New Forest of England. Amongst all these beautiful destinations, the Crazy Mountains contend for supremacy due to its unparalleled beauty; A place he calls Home.
Rate: $2,900 US Dollars. Does not include the State of Montana accomodations tax, gratuity, or transportation to and from the airport fee if needed.
Deposit: A $1,400 US Dollar deposit is required to reserve your spot when booking.
Full Payment: Required by April 15th.
Refund Policy:
Please contact Jake Kielbus at alphawolfphotos@gmail.com or at +44 7851611423. It’s also very easy to contact me through Facebook Messenger at Jake Kielbus Photography for inquiries regarding the ADVENTURE PHOTOGRPAHY Workshop. You can also find out more about Jake’s work on his website at www.jakephotos.net.
Please contact Page Dringman at sweetgrass@mtintouch.net or (406) 930-5441 to reserve your spot and for any questions regarding accommodations. If Page is unreachable please contact Jake.