A DREAM CARVED IN STONE

Bring your own way of seeing.

Everyone will tell you what to bring. This is better than that. That other thing is essential. In photography, what goes into someone else’s bag always seems to be everybody’s business.

I would start with you: what you want to say, the images you are looking for, the tools you feel at home with. Heavy equipment tires you out. A slower process takes time. Yet a view camera may give you precisely the image you imagined; a collodion portrait may reward all that preparation with the wonder of the person receiving it. For me, that is worth something.

If your photographic journey revolves around unusual or demanding equipment, talk to us. Tell us what you want to make before deciding that travelling with us could never work for you.

Essential Requirements

Tripod

A sturdy, portable tripod is essential for dawn, sunset, night photography and carefully constructed compositions. Carbon fibre is particularly suitable because it combines stability with lower weight.

Ziplock

Last but not least, two of photography’s greatest secrets: Ziplock & Bongo Ties. Simple resealable food bags to help keep dust and moisture away from your equipment, and elastic ties with a small wooden toggle to secure cables, covers and all those little things that refuse to stay put.

Protecting individual pieces of equipment—preferably with two bags—is a light, practical defence when wind carries sand into every opening.

What we bring for you

There are a few wonders in our bags for you, too. Medium format cameras — yes, including the splendid HASSELBLAD X2D II 100C — to pick up and use. We travel with COLORCHECKER, a complete set of LEE Filters and a matte box, SEKONIC meters and PocketWizard triggers. When the project calls for them, we add PROFOTO and BRONCOLO flash, ARRI continuous lighting, MATTHEWS grip and SUNBOUNCE systems for shaping natural light. Tools that make you want to try again, and see what happens when light finally takes the shape you had in mind.

And then there is Luca, your guide: a true fine art photographer — read: a rather unusual photographer. Do not be surprised if view cameras, ultra-panoramic film cameras and other delightful oddities emerge from his bags. Shh… they are part of the experience, too.

Need a backup camera, a particular lens, a tripod, a head or a monopod? Tell us before departure so we can plan what to bring. Our enthusiasm is considerable. Our carrying capacity has its limits.

Bring your own way of seeing, and we will shape the journey to make room for it.

Over the years, we have developed a welcome package to make your stay as comfortable as possible and help you make the most of your experience. It brings together a thoughtful selection of essentials—things that are easily forgotten or can be difficult to arrange from abroad.

We begin with one of the most important: staying connected.

Your welcome package includes:

Everything is packed in a protective, waterproof expedition dry bag, ready to accompany you throughout the experience.

Cappadocia is reached most conveniently through Kayseri or Nevşehir airports. Participants may share their arrival details with London Photographic Workshop so that collection and transfer options can be coordinated, or receive clear guidance for joining the group independently.

During the workshop, comfortable private road transport will connect the principal valleys, settlements and photographic locations. Daily routes will follow light, weather, site opening conditions and the pace required for careful architectural work.

Some locations involve steps, slopes, uneven rock and short uphill or downhill walks. Underground cities include narrow passages, low ceilings and enclosed spaces; participation in that chapter is never compulsory, and a meaningful surface alternative will be maintained.

Balloon activity depends on wind and aviation decisions and cannot be guaranteed. Access to churches, interiors and protected sites may carry restrictions on tripods, lighting or photography. The final working plan will respect the rules confirmed by each site.

The workshop does not require technical climbing or long hikes. Participants should nevertheless travel with a compact kit and be prepared for cold mornings, strong wind and rapid changes between exterior light and dark interiors.

In Cappadocia, we will travel through light, valleys and landscapes sculpted in rock, with the comfort of VIP vans, such as high-specification Mercedes Sprinters or Vito. Road transfers will bring us closer to our photographic locations where access allows, although some viewpoints and rock-cut sites will still involve walking.

Routes may include uneven ground, steps and uphill and downhill sections: we recommend comfortable footwear with good grip and a carefully chosen kit, leaving you freer to observe. The walking involved will depend on the locations selected and will be detailed in the workshop itinerary. Any visits to underground cities involve stairs and low, narrow passages.

If you have specific mobility needs or feel uncomfortable in enclosed spaces, speak to us before booking so that we can assess which activities are suitable for you.

After leaving Cappadocia, where valleys, carved rooms and ancient stone had made absence visible, the images need the companions who learned to read that shared light together.

I did not include six months of post-workshop contact by chance, nor as a simple service.

Many years ago, I was teaching an online course that could easily have felt impersonal. Instead, when it ended, the group did not want to dissolve. We had never all sat around the same table, yet years later we are still a living community. From that experience came conversations, magazines, books, friendships and shared ways of looking.

It taught me how valuable a small circle of people can be when they have lived and worked through an experience together.

For this reason, every workshop includes six months of continued contact at no additional cost: a private group, image sharing, feedback, and a form of ongoing tuition shaped by cultural prompts — a book, an image, a thought, an exhibition, or an occasion that may open a new direction in the work.

The event ends. The adventure in photography begins.

11–18 April 2027. In Cappadocia, sunrise advances from approximately 06:35 to 06:25 and sunset extends from approximately 19:35 to 19:42. The workshop unfolds within more than thirteen hours of daylight, with generous twilight at both ends.

At dawn, the valleys first appear as volume rather than colour. Oblique light separates cones, ridges and rock-cut façades, while shadow preserves the depth of caves and ancient interiors. If balloons fly, their presence will depend entirely on wind and operational conditions; they are never treated as a guaranteed element.

The moon grows from a waxing crescent through first quarter and towards a brighter gibbous phase. Early nights retain useful darkness; later evenings offer more reflected light across pale stone, allowing the landscape to hold detail beyond sunset.

April in this high continental plateau is changeable. Seasonal temperatures may range roughly from 3 to 17°C, with cold mornings, milder afternoons, passing rain and occasional strong wind. Elevation and exposure can make the air feel colder than the numbers suggest.

The clearest photographic intervals often arrive after weather has moved through: wet stone deepens in colour, clouds create scale and broken sunlight isolates architecture from the surrounding land. Midday can be used for interiors, details and the quieter discipline of reading form.

Here the Light Map follows stone, sky and altitude. It asks not only where the sun falls, but how ancient architecture continues to gather light long after its makers have disappeared.