What is the easy way to find a Photo Guide or workshop?

rmp

Hi, Moderator, If this is a bad idea, delete this question.

I like the NR Users map. It lets me see where members are located. But it also begs the questions: "Which members will contract as a guide" and "Which ones conduct local workshops?" Is there, or could there be, a convenient way to answer these questions? I do not want to be rude and barge in where I am not wanted.

I like to travel and take photos. Most of my family cannot travel as freely as I do. Therefore, I end up traveling alone or joining "workshops." When I travel alone, I do not like to waste time looking for the right spot and I never have time to go back at another time. So, a local "photo guide" becomes a valuable time saver.

For example: I would like to see Macho Picchu, fish for salmon in Scotland, or travel the rivers of Spain but the many "photo workshops" I see are too expensive or are actually travel tours and are not focused on photography. I think what I want is to find and contact a NR Forum member that

A: Lived in that area, (This should cut the travel cost of the workshop leader.)
B: Would act as a photo-guide (paid of course), and
C: Could help schedule a "workshop" or photo-tour -- well in advance of -- the event.

This could be sort of like a Forum annual meeting or get together but some sort of fee would be required.

spraynpray

A valid request @rmp. I would have thought that a straightforward posting asking for whatever help is needed in a particular area at a particular time would cover it really? The user map thing was OK, but it was open to misuse.

What do others think?

paulr

Local Camera Clubs can be very useful for all kinds of information, and they are happy to give it freely and without any bias sales commission.

heartyfisher

A post on NR seems to have helped a few members ...

Otherwise, around Australia Meetup.com works for me :-)

sevencrossing

I had not look at this thread I misunderstood the question
If you or any NR member is visiting Bristol UK and want to meet. feel free to PM me

Msmoto

Maybe if someone is headed to a specific venue to primarily shoot photos, they could simply start a thread asking for others to join them, or asking fro specific guidance. And, if someone is familiar with an area, they may know of a "guide" who could be hired.....

Some of our members are willing to offer significant compensation for expertise in a geographic area.

Another possibility is to Google "photography tours in the USA" and this will give many results. Then, using the specific name of the tour, Google it along with the word "reviews" and one gets great feedback....

rmp

Thanks all. I like all the suggestions. I have tried Meetup.com and searches for photo tours and workshops unfortunately my results have not been acceptable. I think I will try a combination of Msmoto's, heartyfisher's and sevencrossing's suggestions for an upcoming "gathering." Before I start a NRF posting, I will look for a salmon fishing guide in Scotland and make sure that piece of the puzzle is in place. I am thinking about the salmon season in 2016 or 2017. In addition to the day or two of fishing and photographing the fishing, I want to add a day or two of photographing the Scottish landscape, a day of cityscape photography and at least a night of photographing Scottish nightlife. So, it is a big puzzle to put together for as short a trip as practical. Thanks again.

Vipmediastar_JZ

Meetup but FB photography groups have helped me get more into stuff.

Gjesdal

A sticky named "I'm traveling to .." where people can ask for advice and possible meetups would be a good idea, imho. Think this would be best suited when traveling to lesser traveled places, like for myself I'm contemplating switching from traveling to Latvia to shoot models and visiting Ukraine and finding locations would an issue for me for instance. This would naturally be most helpful when one travels to a country where English isn't the primary language spoken as FB photography groups etc rarely post in English (and very seldom in Norwegian :-) )