I just returned from Peter's workshop in Cuba this past Friday. It was an amazing experience. Right now, Cuba seems to be
the place to photograph. Our group had 13 photographers and 3 companions. There were 3 full time and 2 part time working photographers. I heard from someone in our group that there were 8 people on the waiting list if anyone canceled.
Some comments on the workshop -
What I figured out after the first review session, where Peter critiques everyone's work, is that Peter conducts workshops on doing photojournalism. He is not trying to improve the type of photography someone may typically do. It is making pictures of people, in a context/environment that is visually and emotionally compelling. If you take a picture of a car, the car is part of the context, but at least one person should be a key element. Equipment is about as simple as it gets: a camera with controls that you know how to work and 35mm FOV lens. If all you have is a zoom, he will suggest taping the zoom to fix it to one focal length. This is HCB
f8 and be there photography. He wants to see faces and eyes. When framing a picture it is critical to not cut off parts of the main subjects/elements like fingers, feet, elbows, etc. Framing should be loose enough to show the environment, but not so far as to lose contact with the subjects.
Peter plans out places to go and events to see and photograph. A bus is used for this. There is a guide on the bus that gives a very good narrative on what we pass and its history. Peter uses 2 excellent local photographers to act as guides for when the group breaks into smaller groups. For this trip, Peter was trying to get a few more images for a book on Cuba that will come out in November. If one wanted to see how Peter worked, they could tag along with him, but he wasn't paying much attention to anything other than his photography. Pretty much, no one was watching us photograph and stepping in to makes suggestions, or give hints. The education part comes in the reviews. There are a number of pictures in my Flickr album that I like, but wouldn't submit for review, because they weren't what Peter was looking for. The days can be long, the photography is intense and you will get out as much from the workshop as you put into it.
Gear notes (this is a internet photography forum) -
I think only 5 people had DSLRs, 3 people had Leicas, 3 of us had Olympus OM-Ds, several people had Fujis XT-1s, one person had a Sony RX1 and there were a couple of other cameras. 3 or 4 people had Panasonic LX100s as second/walk around cameras. FWIW, Peter used a Leica and some Nikon pro FX body with a 24-70/2.8 zoom. Cuba can be really hot and muggy. No one was carrying around large camera bags stuffed with gear, because the size and weight is just a liability. I used a the small Mirrorless Mover 20 bag with generally an E-M1, 12-40/2.8, 17/1.8 and sometimes a 3rd lens, and it worked very well.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/b_rubenstein/sets/72157649998736993/