After meeting with all the participants – it’s time to take the car and start our not-so-long drive (1h30m) to the Val d’Orcia, the area where we will spend the entire next week! This valley lies between three historical villages: Pienza, San Quirico d’Orcia and Montalcino. We will stay in the first one, which in our very honest opinion is also the prettiest of them all. You could shoot the street of Pienza for way more than a week, they are just fabulous!
After arriving in Pienza and settling in at the hotel, we’ll make a first attempt at capturing the golden light of the sunset! We will probably visit the “Cipressi di San Quirico d’Orcia”, one of the most scenic locations of the area and one that we like to call “the photographer’s playground” because of the endless possible compositions you can get there.
After we’ve finished shooting the last light of the day, it’s time to head for dinner back in Pienza and then finally some good rest!
Time for our first sunrise together! Sunrise is the moment when the light gives its best in Tuscany, and the best possible condition to find is when there’s the low fog around the hills. On this first sunrise, we’ll visit the shot that probably everyone that visits Tuscany wants to capture: the Podere Belvedere! We can shoot this countryhouse from multiple perspectives, but this morning we’ll opt for the more classic one.
After a small breakfast break, later in the morning we’ll make a visit to the beautiful Montalcino, and that’s also where we will have lunch. We’ll take our cameras with us to shoot the typical street views of this historical villages.
In the afternoon we will leave from Pienza again – at this time to shoot the Podere Baccoleno, another fantastic location and also the farthest from our base Pienza – as we will have to engage on a scenic drive of 40 minutes to reach this spot. That winding road with the cypress trees seems to be made for photographers!
After sunset, we’ll go “hunt” for a warm dinner back in Pienza.
Time for another sunrise! Another wake up early, and at this time we visit the splendid Poggio Covili, with its “signature” straight road of cypress trees leading all the way to the countryhouse. We will shoot it from an elevated perspective with our mid-telephoto lenses to enhance the geometries of the location as well as hoping for some low fog around the hills that completes the scene!
During the day then we will visit another iconic village of the area, called Montepulciano, where we’ll have the chance to have lunch in a winery.
In the evening then, we’ll visit one of the most famous locations of the area – due to the fact that Scott Ridley picked it for its movie “The Gladiator” – the lovely Podere Terrapille!
As always, after the last light of the day is gone, it’s time to return back to our base and sit down to have a lovely meal.
Third early wake up call, as this morning we’ll visit another location that offers plenty of different perspectives: the most obvious subject will be the small chapel of Madonna di Vitaleta sitting on top of a near-by hill (to shoot with a telephoto lens), but there are also lonely trees, distant houses and layers upon layers created by the rolling hills.
Later in the morning we will visit Siena, the “capital” city of this area and the biggest city we explore in the workshop: for those of you that love cityscapes, things can’t get much better than this! Plenty of street photography opportunities right there.
Later in the evening we’ll make our way back to Pienza, and at sunset we will shoot this hilltop town from the distance to enhance its “presence” even more!
After sunset we will make our way back downtown to enjoy our last meal of the day with some good wine.
On our 4th sunrise, we will return back to the fabulous Podere Belvedere – but this time we will capture it from another perspective! The subject might be the same, but as the angle changes so does the light hitting the house and the hills, completely changing the outcome images. Your biggest issue will be to choose which one is your favorite from the two different takes!
As usual, later in the morning we will pay a visit to a different town: this time is the turn of San Gimignano, with its high towers and its unique streets – definitely an unmissable location during any Tuscany visit!
Later in the evening we’ll go explore Bagno Vignoni, a tiny village famous for its thermal baths, the same that the Romans back in the days were using too! This small town is a fantastic place to shoot sunset through its small streets and it’s even more magical when the city lights are turned on!
When we are done shooting Bagno Vignoni, we will ride back to Pienza to have our warm dinner.
Last full day of the workshop! This morning we will visit a less known location, an elevated point from where we have a fantastic view all over the valley – with plenty of subjects to shoot of course! Make sure to bring your telephoto lens because in situations like this one will be fundamental to have a focal length long enough to capture all the intimate views that the landscape has to offer.
During the day we will visit our last town of the workshop – San Quirico d’Orcia! It’s a very close drive from Pienza, and the thing we love the most is that it’s not as busy as all the other towns in the area being a bit less known – this will allow us to shoot it without the crowds.
In the evening, we will do one last sunset at the Vitaleta Chapel, but this time we will get up close with it and possibly shoot it with a wide angle lens. In spring it’s quite common to get some wildflowers around the church, which they would be great to use as foreground.
Unfortunately, our workshop almost came to an end. For those who want to get a last glimpse of Tuscany it’s possible to do one last sunrise over the rolling hills – for those who instead want to have time to pack things up and prepare before the trip back home it’s possible to just stay in the hotel.
Around 9:30/10AM we will start our drive back to Florence (1h30m), where you will be left off either at the airport or at the train station downtown.