THIS WORKSHOP IS CANCELLED!
Arrive January 18 and depart January 25, 2016.
To make this workshop tour affordable, we are organizing it to include only instruction, on-the-hoof, coaching, feedback and photo review sessions, bi-lingual tour guide and all transportation. It does not include lodging or meals.
Cost is $1,295 per person. We need 6 people to hold this workshop. Bring a friend and you both get a 10% discount.
There are many wonderful places to stay in San Cristobal — our base. They range from luxurious to budget. We can recommend a few, including La Joya Hotel, Bela’s B&B, Posada del Abuelito and Na Bolom. You can find them on Trip Advisor.
The historic 16th Century colonial mountain town, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, is our base for making great photographs. Here in southern Mexico close to the Guatemala border, the Maya people hold on to a strong, proud and ancient past. Many on-going rituals and celebrations combine Spanish Catholicism with pre-conquest indigenous mysticism. Traditional hand-woven and embroidered Maya dress is still daily street wear. Before too long, you, too can name villages that people call home by the traje they wear.
During the week we will take part in village festivals that happen only this time of year, meet indigenous Maya families who are back strap loom weavers and embroiderers, visit historic sites, markets, folk healers and mystics. We offer you an amazing ethnographic travel photography experience that is centered in this compact, magical town where wide avenues are for pedestrians only. Our out-of-town travels take us to San Lorenzo Zinacantan, Chiapa de Corso for the Parachicos Festival and San Juan Chamula.
We are on location with photographer/instructor Matt Nager to create powerful photographs. You are welcome to use any camera you are comfortable with: basic point-and-shoot, mirrorless, iPhone or DSLR. Our emphasis is on the photographer-subject relationship and good composition, finding the best subject and knowing how to interact with them, capturing a sense of place with interest and an innovative eye. We also cover some DSLR camera basics, how to use manual settings, and offer optional coaching on photo editing using Lightroom.
Who should attend? The workshop is for all levels of photographers including beginners. We strip down often overly complicated conditions to bring the photographer face-to-face with the subject. We practice both impromptu street photography and classic pre-arranged portrait sessions. We will also cover landscape, architecture and general travel photography.
The Workshop Covers:
- Using natural light and responding to different lighting situations
- Moving from automatic to manual settings (for DSLR cameras)
- Directing your subject through varying body positions
- Identifying your own photographic style
- Finding and executing photographs “on the fly”
- Night photography and using a tripod
- Capturing a scene or historical site
- Learning more with one-on-one coaching sessions with Matt
Each day we will discuss different techniques and review best of day images. There will be plenty of time for discussion, feedback, and sharing. We will address topics such as: How do you stay inspired? How and when do you ask permission to take a stranger’s photograph? How do you get people to relax, be natural, and not be afraid of the camera? How do you transform the mundane into an interesting photo?
At the end of our week together, we will select our best photographs of the week and hold a group show followed by a celebratory supper, included in the fee.
About Your Instructor Matt Nager
Matt Nager is a Denver, Colorado, based portrait and editorial photographer. We invited him back to teach this workshop after rave reviews for teaching the People of Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop.
This is going to be a fantastic workshop and I encourage any level photographer to sign up. I recently had a class with Matt Nager and he is an excellent teacher and a fun person. You will not get a class this good for twice the price! –Barbara Szombatfalvy, Durham, NC
His love for nature and the outdoors, as well as his interest in people and culture, is central to his photography. Before starting his own photography business, Matt worked with the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.
In addition to photography, Matt also regularly shoots video and recently completed his first documentary titled: Campania In-Felix (Unhappy Country) which looks into the rise of health issues in Southern Italy as a result of illegal waste disposal.
His clients include: DISCOVER Magazine, Fast Company Magazine, Mother Jones Magazine, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal.
Matt speaks English and Spanish, and is learning Italian. His work is at: www.mattnager.com
Equipment: Please bring your camera, your computer or tablet, a cable to connect your camera to your device to upload and edit your photos, a jump drive, extra batteries, battery charger, memory cards, optional tripod for night photography. If you use a DSLR camera, you may wish to bring a portrait lens (50mm) and a longer zoom lens. We will send a complete list of “what to bring” after you register!
Preliminary Itinerary (subject to change)
Mon. Jan. 18 – Arrive and check-in to your hotel/hostal. (D on your own)
Tues. Jan. 19 – We will meet in a historic center location. Our workshop starts with a learning session, welcome and orientation. We’ll go on a town walkabout, market stroll, capture photos on the fly, and end with a portrait session with well-known humanitarian folk healer. We will have lunch and dinner together as a group, at your own expense.
Wed. Jan. 20 – Learning session and photo review. Depart for Zinacantan for Dia de San Sebastian. This is the most important celebration for this community, with rituals, ceremonies, a horse race, masses, traditional native dances and processions. We have arranged a private portrait session with Zinacantan family. We will have lunch together as a group, at your own expense. (Dinner on your own.)
Thurs. Jan. 21 – Learning session and photo review. Portrait session with women’s weaving cooperative who come from their village wearing traditional Maya dress. We’ll have an exposition of their textiles, too. We will have lunch and together as a group, at your own expense. (Dinner on your own.)
Fri. Jan. 22 – Learning session and photo review. Today it’s all about food. We go to the local food market to meet and photograph vendors and see all the locally grown food. Then we meet one of San Cristobal’s great chefs for a photo shoot in the restaurant kitchen followed by lunch. We will have lunch together as a group, at your own expense. (Dinner on your own.)
Sat. Jan. 23 – Learning session and photo review. Parachicos of Chiapa de Corzo, The Great Feast celebration that honors the patron saints Our Lord of Esquipulas, Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sebastian includes fabulous masked dancers, rattles, parades, a carnival, and opportunity for night photography. We will have lunch and dinner together as a group, at your own expense.
Sun. Jan. 24 – On our last day, we will visit the church at San Juan Chamula, then prepare for the last presentation and Best of Week Show. We will have lunch and celebratory group dinner together. Lunch will be at your own expense. Dinner is included in your workshop fee.
Jan. 25 – Depart
You are welcome to come early and stay later. You might want to go on to Tonina, Palenque, Bonampak or Yaxchilan to explore Maya archeology, or go further and cross the border into Guatemala or Villahermosa, Tabasco. We can recommend archeologist-led tour guides who can help facilitate customized travel plans at your own expense. We can also recommend where you can enroll in a San Cristobal de Las Casas cooking class that features local indigenous meals.
The workshop includes all instruction and personal coaching, transportation to three villages, cultural guide services and celebratory buffet supper at the end of our Best of Week Show. Plus you receive a comprehensive packet of information about our location, shopping, restaurants, and itinerary sent by email before the workshop begins.
The workshop does not include airfare, lodging, meals, admission to museums and archeological sites, alcoholic beverages, tips, travel insurance, optional transportation and incidentals.
Accommodations: You can check TripAdvisor and BookingDotCom or other online resources for best prices and levels of accommodations. All reservations for lodging will be made and paid for by you directly with the lodging provider. You are free to choose any accommodation you prefer, from luxury to basic hostel.
Reservations and Cancellations: A 50% deposit will reserve your space. The final payment for the balance due shall be made on or before November 1, 2015. We accept PayPal for payment only. We will send you an invoice for your deposit to reserve when you tell us by email that you are ready to register.
If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email. After November 1, 2015, no refunds are possible. However, we will make every effort to fill your reserved space or you may send a substitute. If you cancel before November 1, 2015, we will refund 50% of your deposit.
About Travel to San Cristobal de Las Casas: The Tuxtla Gutierrez (TGZ) airport is the gateway city, about one-hour from San Cris. You can fly there from Mexico City on Aeromexico or Interjet. From the USA, Delta Airlines has a codeshare with Aeromexico. Both airlines are located in Mexico City Terminal 2. United Airlines flies between Houston and Oaxaca and does not serve TGZ. UA is located in Mexico City Terminal 1. There is taxi and shuttle van service from TGZ airport to San Cris starting at about 700 pesos. You can also take an ADO overnight bus from Oaxaca to San Cristobal. If you book your stay at La Joya Hotel, we will arrange taxi airport pick-up and delivery for you at your own expense.
International Travel Insurance Required. We require that you purchase trip cancellation, baggage loss and at least $50,000 of emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip. We will ask for documentation. We know unforeseen circumstances are possible.
To register, email us at oaxacaculture@me.com We accept payment with PayPal only. Thank you.
All Night Party Called Las Cuevitas
Seven years ago I wrote one of my first blog posts called Sunset at Las Cuevitas. Las Cuevitas is an annual Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico tradition that draws the entire pueblo to the caves up in the grassy, nopal cactus dotted hills beyond the village. Festivities start on the night of December 31 and continue through November 3.
Sunset at Las Cuevitas 2014
This is a rocky, sacred pre-Hispanic ritual site now holds a small chapel. Three three niches form altars where offerings are made and prayers are whispered. Families come to sleep in the open air or under tarps held high by poles or pitch tents. Others come for the day and stay well into the night, bringing chairs, blankets and picnic baskets. Vendors sell all types of snacks and food lest you come or get hungry: sugar wafers, just made French fries drizzled with chili salsa, tamales, even donuts.
As the sun begins to set, the warm afternoon turns to chill. Women wrap themselves in wool shawls or put on sweaters and bundle up their children. Men wear jackets and baseball caps. The line to enter the grotto snakes down the dusty path lined with sellers of hand-embroidered tortilla covers, copper bracelets for good health, and quesadillas made on wood-fired comals.
The mood is festive. At five in the afternoon an outdoor mass begins at the grotto. Then the band plays. We sit on the hillside and watch pre-teen boys strike matches to light sparklers and fire balls, while others construct rock houses and make roofs of twigs and dried grass. Everyone is eating something.
Today the new president begins his three-year term, a voluntary and elected position. The newly initiated volunteer police force that starts their one-year service term today are present to keep the peace, more symbol than necessity.
On the hillsides, campfires burn, rockets shoot skyward, balloons and papel picado separate earth from sky.
As we approach the grotto to add our candles, prayers, and offerings, I see that we are in the perfect spot for the upcoming fireworks display, a perfect ending to my perfect day in southern Mexico. The celebration will continue through the night, all day and night on January 2, and end on January 3. Good things come in three’s here.
NOW FOR THE FIREWORKS
I was so close, I had to stay out of the raining hot cinders. The cracking sounds were deafening. It was an amazing spectacle to see a man dancing, holding a cow above his head spewing circles of light. TheN two men followed holding female figures high as the fireworks circled and the crowd was mesmerized. The band played on.
Next? That brings us up to Day of the Three Kings, January 6, when we will find the markets filled with round holiday breads infused with candied fruits and several little plastic baby Jesus figures. The bread is called rosca de reyes, and Mexican children will receive their Christmas gifts on this day. Whoever gets the baby Jesus is obligated to host a tamale party on February 2, Dia de la Candelaria, the last event associated with Christmas.
May the party continue!
MORE SUNSETS ANYONE?
There were fewer than ten extranjeros (foreigners) in the crowd. Most of us who were there are connected to local families and live on their land or rent from them. Las Cuevitas is probably the closest thing I can think of to July 4th as a family day of picnicking, partying, and enjoying life.
And, don’t you agree, Omar’s smile is like a brilliant sunset!
Like this:
5 Comments
Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Travel & Tourism
Tagged celebrations, culture, festivals, las cuevitas, Mexico, Oaxaca, Teotitlan del Valle