Sunday-

• 3:00- check-in
• 5:00- Your adventure begins Sunday evening at the Lava Lizard Restaurant at Leaves & Lizards. Get to know the instructors and the other participants as the sun sets behind the Arenal Volcano. Rob and John will give a brief slideshow and outline the photography opportunities and objectives for the week. Enrique will discuss the Through-the-Lens Challenge, and give you up-to-the-minute info about the animals at Leaves & Lizards. After a delicious dinner at the Lava Lizard, the instructors will be available to help you with your equipment or answer questions about the schedule.

Monday-

• Start your first full day with a sunrise shoot at Leaves & Lizards, or sleep in and meet for breakfast around 7:00am. You’ll learn tips and techniques for great wildlife photos before heading to the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge for a Jungle River Safari boat tour.. You’ll be able to photograph birds, monkeys and much more during this all-day adventure (lunch included). Specific topics include long lens techniques and flash for wildlife photography. You can shoot the sunset over the Arenal Volcano before Rob’s Lightroom workflow class, then it’s dinner at the Lava Lizard.

Tuesday-

• Enrique will be your guide when you visit a working Tico farm. Specific topics include daylight fill-in flash and visual storytelling. You’ll find out what daily life is life on the farm, while John and Rob will help you tell the story through your photos. Find out more about the Tico farm tour HERE (lunch is included). We’ll spend the afternoon exploring the jungle canopy at the Arenal Hanging Bridges. This amazing facility offers lost of opportunities for wildlife and landscape shooting. You can learn more about the Hanging Bridges HERE. There will be a review and critique session after dinner at the Lava Lizard.
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Wednesday-

• Wednesday morning you will learn and practice techniques for panning with moving subjects. We will be treated to a show by the impressive horses and riders of Leaves & Lizards. The afternoon will find you at the beautiful Rio Celeste in the Tenorio Volcano National Park. You’l hike among natural steam vents to the Rio Celeste waterfall. The Beautiful blue waters of the river (caused by volcanic minerals) will amaze you. Rare birds and other wildlife abound in this serene national park. Specific topics include shutter speed and panning, shooting for HDR, and fine art landscape techniques. There will be a classroom session before dinner at the Lava Lizard.
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Thursday-

• We will have breakfast at Leaves&Lizards before heading south to Villa Blanca. We will be treated to a private tour of the INbio-Villa Blanca research station, and tour their sustainability projects. We will explore the beautiful chapel (a great place to shoot HDR images) and the grounds at Villa Blanca before a guided hike with a local naturalist guide. Along with the rest of the wildlife, the instructors will set up speedlights so you can capture the several species of hummingbirds at Villa Blanca. We will have a classroom session before dinner and a critique session after.

Friday-

• Friday we will explore the Poas Volcano National Park and visit the La Paz Waterfall gardens. The photographic opportunities range from volcanic activity to jungle cats and snakes! We will have a guided tour of both parks and lunch is included with the tour. We will have a final classroom session in the afternoon, and a slideshow of your wonderful images after dinner in Villa Blanca’s movie theater.
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As a student in the Arenal Eco Adventure Photo Workshop in Costa Rica, you will have an opportunity to build an impressivewildlife photography portfolio, and enter your new wildlife photos in the DphotoA/ Leaves & Lizards Through-the-Lens Challenge.

Thanks to Oscar at L&L, we have a list of the birds and other animals that you might see on the L&L property. Each animal has a point value based on how likely you are to see it. The more rare an animal is, the higher it’s point value. The student who has the most points at the end of the week will receive a prize package including a 30”x40” gallery wrap canvas print from Artistic Photo Canvas, and a gift certificate from Outdoor Photo Gear. Winning photos will also be featured on the Leaves & Lizards website and the DphotoA website.

Enrique and Oscar will be teaching you about the local animals throughout the week, and giving you tips on where you can find the more rare animals on the list. The L&L property has lots of trails between the cabins and it should be easy to check off several exotic species by simply taking a walk. You can enter photos you take anywhere during the workshop, and our trip to Proyecto ASIS Wildlife Rescue Center will surely give you a good head start.

Didn’t bring your 400mm lens with you? No problem. As long as the photo is clear and the animal in the photo is identifiable it will count toward your point total. Of course, you should make the best images you can, but don’t be intimidated if other students have equipment you don’t have. The point of the contest is to learn about Costa Rican wildlife and most of all have fun making pictures!

Register for the Arenal Eco Adventure Photo Workshop today to be entered in the Through-the-Lens Challenge. The Through-the-Lens Challenge is brought to you by Artistic Photo Canvas and Outdoor Photo Gear.

The Arenal Eco Adventure workshop is suitable for photographers of all skill levels. The small class size insures that beginners can get the time they need with an instructor, and experienced photographers will have unique shooting opportunities and the chance to fine-tune their work.

A DSLR camera is required, as well as a laptop computer with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Other recommended software includes Adobe Photoshop, Photomatix Pro, Nik Silver Effects Pro and Nik Color Effects Pro. Past students have done well in our workshops with Apple Aperture as well, but please note that the workflow demos will be performed using Lightroom.

The workshop price does not include airfare to Costa Rica or transportation to Monterrey (near Arenal/La Fortuna). It is quick and easy (and cheap!) to get to the Arenal/ La Fortuna airport from San Jose or Liberia via regional airlines such as Nature Air or Sansa. We can arrange transportation to Leaves and Lizards from the airport in La Fortuna.

If you would like to rent a car, it is a beautiful, 3.5 hour drive to La Fortuna from San Jose, and about 4 hours from Liberia. There will be a presentation Sunday night, so please plan to arrive Sunday afternoon. Students will check in Sunday, September 12 and check out Saturday, September 18.

We strongly recommend you purchase comprehensive travel insurance in case of emergencies.