Sensational SkomerJoin us for a workshop like no other, photographing puffins as an overnight guest on sensational Skomer Island. During your stay you will not only have unparalleled access to the islands wildlife but also receive tuition from two professional photographers who, between them, have over 250 days experience on the island. This enables them to show you exactly where to go based on the conditions, for what types of photos, throughout the day. Located just off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, 3 miles from Martin's Haven, Skomer offers 750 acres of habitat for wildlife to thrive, including Razorbills, Guillemots, Seals, Short Eared Owls, Manx Shearwater and of course the star attraction, Puffins. Below is a brief summary of what to expect on your Skomer Island workshop, if you would like to know more, please request the full workshop brochure using the form at the bottom of the page.
We are the only Skomer photo workshop to offer a small group of 6, paired with 2 professional, full time photographers. This allows us to offer you an unrivalled level of help during your stay. We will be on hand 24/7 to offer tuition and advice as and when required. No question is too big or small and we will endeavour to ensure you come away from the experience with photos you are delighted with. We aim to give you an improved understanding of how to make the most of your camera, regardless of your current level of knowledge.
We generally plan our Skomer workshops around the weekends. This offers 3 full days and nights on the island for maximum photographic opportunity. Alongside this, the real advantage of a weekend stay is that on Monday, there are no day trippers to Skomer. So we get the island almost entirely to ourselves.
We welcome and encourage all experience levels on our Skomer workshop. From the very beginner to the advanced photographer. All levels of ability are, and have been, catered for. Be it your first wildlife workshop or a veteran of the island, we've got you covered.
There can be a lot of walking on relatively easy paths across the island, which can all be taken at your own pace. It's not uncommon to walk between 5-8 miles per day. There are also 80+ steep steps to ascend, alongside a small uphill section when we arrive on the island. So carrying only the essentials is recommended.
Our base for this Skomer Island photo workshop is a converted farmhouse at the heart of the island. It features dormitory style rooms, solar power and kitchen facilities.
For your convenience, we load up all your bags as a group and drop them down to the waterfront ahead of departure. When we return to mainland, we will then load them up and take them back to the carpark. This makes walking between the carpark and dock far more relaxed, allowing you to enjoy the beautiful coastal views.
We supply breakfast, lunch, dinner and limited snacks. This frees up your bag, so you pack a little lighter and still bring all the essentials.
This trip is sold out for 2024. Please see options at the bottom of the page for notification of 2025 dates.
Richard Peters is a Nikon Ambassador alumni and Swarovski Optik and Datacolor partner. He has a style that is well known for capturing dramatic light, alongside having a friendly and down to earth manner. His work has been internationally acclaimed, including as a category winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and is one of the only British photographers to be named European Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Richard has been a judge for many competitions including the above EWPY, plus the British Wildlife Photography Awards. He is also an author and been a keynote speaker to many industry events, from close to home in the UK to as far afield as Australia.
Drew Buckley has won mulitiple awards for his work including in competitions such as the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year. He is a Lee Filters & F-Stop Ambassador, works with Canon UK and grew up and has extensive knowledge of the beautiful Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. He works with the BBC Natural History unit to provide content for documentaries, including the recent A Wild Year Pembrokeshire and, living local to Skomer, Drew spends many days each year there. As such he has published books on both puffins and Wales.
During downtime, we will be offering tips and advice on Lightroom and photo editing. With the ability to load up some of your images to work on, this means you'll come away from your Skomer Island photography workshop with even more knowledge than ever before. A laptop isn't essential, as we'll have our own, meaning you can make the most of this opportunity whilst still keeping your luggage light. Our Lightroom Classic and digital workflow session will cover everything from efficient photo and catalogue management to best practices for editing.
Day 1, Saturday: We meet at Westhook Farm to park our cars. We will load all of your luggage into Drew’s vehicle and transport it down to the dock. Whilst we do that you can walk the scenic and beautiful coastal path down to the dock. We will then all transport over to the island by boat. After a briefing from both the island staff and Richard and Drew, the photography begins. We know the island very well, so will base where to go depending on the weather conditions each day.
Day 2, Sunday: Weather conditions permitting we will head out for sunrise before heading back to the farm house for a well earned breakfast. We will always aim to get out and shoot before the day trippers arrive around 1030am. During the main bulk of the day there is opportunity to rest, review images or explore the island. We will then all gather for dinner before setting out as a group for the evenings shoot.
Day 3, Monday: Much the same as Sunday but with one exception. There are no days visitors on Monday’s, meaning we have the island to ourselves to fully enjoy our surroundings.
Day 4, Tuesday: A final sunrise shoot before breakfast and getting our bags ready for an 8am luggage drop back to the landing spot. The boat will then collect us around 9am to ferry us back to the mainland. We will then transfer your bags back up to the farm before we set off homeward bound.
2 night workshops: Two night workshops follow much the same pattern, with the exception we go Thursday to Saturday, meaning we don’t have the advantage of a day tripper-free Monday.
Deposit
£399
2 Nights
May 23rd - 25th FULL
June 6th - 8th FULL
3 Nights
May 11th - 14th FULL
June 1st - 4th FULL
June 14th - June 18th FULL
2025 SEE BELOW
If you would like to read the full, detailed, brochure for our Skomer Island workshop, please use the form provided.
We will have 2025 dates available in October 2024, once we have secured them from National Trust Wales. The trust does not offer dates until then. We wait until we have them guaranteed, before taking bookings. This is a very popular workshop and newsletter subscribers get advanced notification of those dates. Typically, subscribers book all spaces before we can publicly announce them. So if you would like to be among the first to receive notification for 2025, please sign up to the free newsletter.
TESTIMONIALS
As a fan of Richard Peters’ work I was delighted when my wife booked a 6 hour one-to-one workshop for my birthday. I have enjoyed taking wildlife photographs for a long time, gradually improving but realised I was taking the same old photographs. It was time for a new approach, good advice and a fresh pair of eyes. Upon arrival to our workshop, Richard bought me a coffee and we sat down to a short portfolio review. Richard looked at how I had composed, cropped and processed my images using Lightroom and suggested options and alternatives. It was a fantastic eye opener to have professional opinion and critique and Richard shared his technical skills and passion for photography, along with some methods of using light creatively. This Lightroom overview helped me learn some great shortcuts, which have since made a big improvement to my workflow. A run through of important camera settings, lots of questions from me and lots of great answers from Richard and we set off with our cameras to put the theory into practice. We soon spotted a very co-operative heron in some great light, I snapped away listening to Richards tips and it was great to see my shot then the next shot with Richards suggestions incorporated (you could really see the difference). The afternoon ended with an amazing sunset and, taking Richards advice, I waited until the sun had dropped low enough to experiment with backlighting. The 6 hours flew by and it was a fantastic day, with advice and encouragement from Richard throughout, and some great shots on the camera. Richard’s knowledge, and ability to pass it on in easy to understand ways, made this a valuable experience for me to push my photograph forward and help turn the same old photos into something new. Thank you!
As a relative newcomer to the world of photography, I booked a one-to-one with Richard with only 4 months experience of using a DSLR camera.
My aim was to improve my overall understanding of the different settings, including manual, with an overall objective to improve my wildlife photography (off the auto setting!) prior to my impending holiday to Africa. One of the specific issues I had been finding tricky was focusing on moving subjects, Richard soon put me on the right track and resolved this.
Richard also provided me with lots of well explained advice around different camera settings and image composition, which we put into practice throughout the day. I opted for the image review at the start of the session, I found this particularly useful as it helped highlight any areas that needed development during the session and also increased my confidence through the constructive feedback. Overall the workshop was really beneficial in terms of improving my knowledge and understanding, but it was also a really enjoyable day.
I would highly recommend a one-to-one to anyone wishing to develop their skills.
Having seen Richard’s incredible work I was naturally a little intimidated when I initially booked my one-to-one with him. However he immediately made me feel at ease with his humour and friendly nature and our workshop had a great flow and was well thought out.
What I loved the most is that it was informative yet open and relaxed. Richard is a humble and passionate photographer who was very willing to share his tips and tricks and as a result of only a few hours together, I now have a much better understanding of where I am as a photographer and the areas I need to concentrate on to improve my photographic skills.
I wasn't sure going in how much benefit I would get from my workshop but it exceeded my expectations, everything was explained with great clarity and it inspired me to be more creative and confident.
Richard's knowledge and demeanour left me eager to push my photography further and once I’ve hit my next set of challenges, I’ll look forward to booking in again to learn more! Richard, thank you for such a wonderful experience.
PARTNERS
