Top Pro Shooters Teach On Location in 19 Cities Around the Country

April 4, 2007, Commack, NY— If you want the straight scoop on what makes Tamron’s Photo Workshops a totally enjoyable learning, picture-taking, and interactive human experience, just ask the people who’ve done it—not just the participants, but the teachers as well. We know you’ll want to read their enthusiastic and insightful comments and impressions below, but before you do, let’s tell you a little more about this amazing series of events scheduled at cities all over the USA.

Tamron Photo Workshops, co-sponsored by Bogen Imaging and Expoimaging, and hosted by leading local photo specialty retailers, are hands-on, in the classroom and in-the-field photo workshops led by esteemed professional photographers including Don Gale, Terry Livingstone, Dave Maynard, Jim Shadle, Roy Toft, and Les Voorhis (you can click on their incredible websites from the workshop schedule posted at www.tamron.com). All of them have long track records not only as seasoned and successful pros, but also as great teachers. Each weekend event, which is limited to 30 participants, includes a Friday evening photo seminar and a full day Saturday workshop in the field, and admission fees and transportation where applicable. In addition you’ll have access to loaner lenses, white balance filters and tripods to enhance your picture-taking experience, and receive exclusive bonus rebates on equipment plus a $20 Gift Card. The modest $179 per person cost includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and/or snacks, and other surprise giveaways in your welcome bag!

To give you a clear picture of the kind of dedicated and committed photographers who lead Tamron Photo Workshops and how they see their role as photographers and teachers, we interviewed two of the top people now leading the 2008 Tamron Workshop series so they can tell you in their own well-chosen words:

Terry Livingstone
A veteran nature, landscape and wildlife photographer whose breathtaking images have graced such leading publications as Audubon magazine, Outdoor Photographer, Outside, Living Planet and The Atlantic Monthly, Terry Livingstone is also a passionately motivational teacher who prides himself on helping aspiring photographers to bring their images to a higher level. “I’ve been working with the Tamron Photo Workshops for four years,” he notes, “and I’m impressed with their in-depth, friendly approach that combines the structure of a real learning experience with the deep sense of enjoyment you can only get when you’re having a real adventure.”

“These events provide a fantastic hands-on shooting experience in the field under the guidance of knowledgeable pros,” says Livingstone. “The workshops are also a lot of fun for me because I get to see new places like Hocking Hills, a State Park in Ohio—a magnificent scenic destination that reminded me of the Smoky Mountains in my home state of Tennessee. Last year I led a workshop in Palo Alto and we got to explore the beautiful surrounding area, the picturesque seaside town of Monterey, as well as nearby Big Sur. I do most of my own shooting with a Nikon D200 and three Tamron lenses. My favorites are the 17-50mm f/2.8, a sharp, versatile normal zoom, the 180mm f/3.5 Macro, which is superb for close-ups of wildflowers and controlled depth of field, and the 200-500mm f/4.5-6.3 zoom which is outstanding for capturing wildlife and landscape details.”

“When you attend a Tamron Photo Workshop, you’re bound to come away with some important knowledge you didn’t have before,” observes Livingstone, “and I can almost guarantee that you’ll have fun doing it. It’s a really good value for the money too, because Tamron is focused on education and building relationships rather than making a profit. One quick piece of advice I give all my students—find a place close to home you can get to easily, adopt if as your own, go there again and again in all seasons and take lots of pictures. That’s the way you’ll get to see past the obvious and establish a real connection with nature.”

Don Gale
“ On the commercial side, I run Gale Studio of L.A. I guess you could say I’m a Jack-of-all-trades, shooting weddings, portraits, and product illustrations. When I put on my workshop instructor hat I turn to my more creative side, where I specialize in nature and landscapes. I’ve been a pro since 1969 and a member of the WPPI, the wedding photographer’s organization, since 1974. However, I now spend most of my time flying around the country doing workshops for Tamron and conducting seminars for major photo retailers. Frankly, it’s a lot of fun taking a group of real photo enthusiasts on an all-day location shoot at a botanical garden or wildlife sanctuary, and everyone, including me, learns a lot in the process.”

“ The things I like most about being involved with the Tamron workshops are the feedback and the enthusiasm. I love what I’m doing because I’m working with people who are all here for one basic reason—a love of photography—so they’re bound to have a good time. I discovered my love of teaching quite by accident. Many years ago in Yellowstone I was shooting a landscape using a long lens and a heavy-duty tripod. Pretty soon a sizeable crowd gathered around me and started firing questions. Before I knew it I was giving an impromptu seminar—and it felt great! In my workshops I strive to develop people’s ability to judge the light and compose pictures on the fly. Oh, I cover the fundamentals like f/stops, shutter speeds, and white balance, but the real joy is in opening peoples’ eyes and getting good feedback. I even showed one group how to get great winter pictures in Yosemite in overcast light when there was no snow cover. Macro photography is another passion of mine, and I’m a big fan of the Tamron 90 and 180mm macro lenses—and also showing my students how to get the most out of them.”

With instructors of this caliber, it’s no wonder that so many Tamron Photo Workshop participants come back again and again! Here, in brief, are the unsolicited comments we received from some of recent attendees:

“I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop at Longwood Gardens. I got some great photographs and learned a lot from the experience.”

“Thanks for organizing such an incredible workshop! I know you said it is part of your job, but it really was wonderful and I enjoyed myself and learned so much. You went above and beyond what I expected!”

“I cannot even begin to thank you and your ‘gang’ enough for the wonderful time we had at your workshop! To have an entire weekend to ‘play’ and enjoy was just fantastic. The knowledge and time that we all shared were beyond what we ever dreamt! The slide show on Friday evening was breathtakingly awesome….each part of the workshop was just terrific!”

Inspired? Then don’t wait. Space is strictly limited, so sign up today by visiting www.tamron.com to register. Details for each individual workshop can be found by clicking on “events, contests and workshops” in the navigation bar.

Check Out Locations Scheduled for 2008

*Note: 2-day workshop pricing not applicable. For more info please go to http://cruiselocators.com

About Tamron
Tamron is a leading manufacturer of lenses for photographic, industrial, laboratory, video, digital and scientific applications. Among its many optical and mechanical innovations since the start of the company in 1950, Tamron's development of mass produced hybrid aspherical elements in 1992 paved the way for high ratio zoom lenses. The technology was incorporated into the ground-breaking 28-200mm and continues with the new 18-250mm developed exclusively for use on digital SLR cameras featuring an unprecedented 13.9X zoom range. Tamron’s latest technology is VC (Vibration Compensation), the first of its kind to feature a 3-coil system. Tamron has won over 45 prestigious awards for its outstanding lenses.

# # #