The Workshops Campus
Our home is La Posada de la Aldea, a charming hotel complex in the heart of San Miguel de Allende. Located just blocks from el Jardín, the central plaza, la Aldea offers comfortable hotel rooms, a restaurant and bar, classrooms, and administration offices. Its extensive grounds, featuring beautiful gardens, fountains, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and secluded courtyards, provide a stimulating, private, and serene backdrop for photographing and enjoying the creative workshop process. The staff at la Aldea offers excellent customer service and attention to detail.

Our meals together in Mexico foster the important group sharing and networking experience; they also provide convenience and a variety of great foods. We begin with a Sunday evening welcome dinner on campus at la Aldea’s restaurant, followed by an orientation session. A breakfast buffet is served on campus, Monday through Saturday, and a continental breakfast is provided on Sunday. Lunches are served buffet style on campus. Mid-week join your classmates and instructor for a dinner together. At the end of the week we celebrate the week and its achievements with a dinner in town, followed by the popular “Week in Review” and class image shows. Beverage service and snacks are available daily on campus. The Workshops will do its best to accommodate vegetarians and participants with special dietary needs. Please indicate these requests when registering.

Digital Capture:
All workshops in our Mexico program are for digital SLR camera users only. Do not buy a new camera or computer right before the workshop and expect to learn how to use it during the workshop. Please be aware that you will need to be technically self-sufficient:

• You must know how to download images from your camera to your computer.
• You should be familiar with your image editing application (see below) so that you can quickly and efficiently edit and select your digital images.
• If you shoot in Raw format, you should know how to process your files into JPEGs quickly and efficiently.
• You need to know how to safely eject any drives inserted into your USB ports (card readers, jump drives, etc.)

You also must bring the following equipment with you:
• Your own laptop computer with CD burner—PC or Mac. Please have at least 15-20 GB of open hard drive space and at least 1 GB of Ram. It does not matter which platform you are using—Mac or PC—but it is important that your Operating System is up-to-date. If you are attached to OS9 or any Windows prior to XP, it’s time to upgrade.  (Please note: The classroom computer workstation and LCD digital projector are for staff facilitation of critique and projection. They are not for participant use.)
• The current version of an image editing application installed on your laptop such as Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements, or Aperture from Apple. Trial versions of these applications are available from the manufacturer’s Web sites.
• Digital memory cards with reader. Three or four cards of 512MB or more.
• Power adapters and cables for laptop and digital camera.
• Camera manual.
• Batteries and charger for rechargeable batteries.
• Blank CDs or DVDs, a jumpdrive, or an external hardrive
for storing images.

Participants will be given image presentation guidelines to follow while at The Workshops. These guidelines are designed to simplify daily presentations and critiques.

Weekly Schedule (subject to change)
Our workshop week in San Miguel follows a well-organized structure, with enough flexibility to enjoy the varied pleasures of daily life in Mexico. Each workshop has its own schedule, designed by the instructor. This is the basic schedule for weekly events. Your day may begin before sunrise and end late in the evening.

Sunday – ¡Bienvenidos! Arrive by 2:30PM at León airport, travel by shuttle to The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops’ campus in San Miguel de Allende. Registration starting at 6PM, welcome dinner at 6PM, followed by orientation and meeting with instructors.

Monday – Breakfast at 8AM and initial workshop meetings, lunch at 12PM, afternoon photographic sessions, evening image presentations by instructors at 7:30PM, dinner on your own.

Tuesday – Early morning photographing, breakfast at 8AM, classroom time, lunch at 12PM, afternoon photographic sessions, dinner together with your class or on your own.

Wednesday – Early morning photographing, breakfast at 8AM, classroom time, lunch at 12PM, afternoon photographic sessions.

Thursday – Early morning photographing, breakfast at 8AM, classroom time, lunch at 12PM, afternoon photographic sessions, dinner together with your class or on your own.

Friday – Early morning photographing, breakfast at 8AM, classroom time, lunch at 12PM, afternoon photographing sessions, end-of-week celebration dinner at 7:00PM, slide show presentations from each workshop.

Saturday – Breakfast, final class meetings end at noon; afternoon is free to shop, sleep, photograph, eat, swim (yes, there is a pool!)—relax and reflect on the week; dinner on your own, and get a good night’s sleep.

Sunday – Continental breakfast at the hotel; depart for the airport. ¡Adiós!