Thoughts on Joseph Van Os tours

I am considering taking a photo workshop with Joseph Van Os Photo

Safaris. Has anyone had any experience with this group? It appears

that Joe Van Os will be the leader of the particular workshop that I

am interested in. I have never been on a location workshop before,

and would appreciate any thoughts or feedback!

I've not personally, but Joe came once to speak at a nature photography club I belong to...he had a great sense of humor and his expertise in travel photography was obvious. The images he shared from his own personal collection (I thought) were excellent. He has a long history of organizing excursions with John Shaw as host/co-host which says a lot.

If you are looking for the "workshop" to take you to the right place at the right time, then it is a good fit. If you are looking for much instructions (as in a classroom) in addition to shooting, then it may not be.

 

In my experience with PhotoSafaris and Friends-of-Arizona-Highways tours, they mainly concentrate on taking the participants to the "right" places. I believe this is what most expect from such tours. However, the leaders do offer help when asked. Depending on the situation and the leader(s), sometimes there can be discussions in a formal or semiformal manner. For example, John Shaw initiated an impromptu Q&A session one afternoon on an Alaska tour, and helped some participants with Photoshop in the evenings. David Muench (FAH) typically holds an evening session to show some of his slides and to critique the participants'. I have not had Joe VanOs as the tour leader, so I am not sure if he would conduct his "workshops" any differently.

 

Attached is an image shot in Denali which won NECCC's Slide-of-the-Year award and an FIAP honor award last year. I saw this shot and stayed to "work it" on my way hiking up to a higher level where John Shaw and all the others were at the "Ansel Adams Look Out". The image seems to look more dramatic when projected on screen.

 

Mary<div></div>

I recently went to Namibia on one of his photo tours for the first time. He was not the

leader in this tour. The trip was good overall; well organized and the lodgings were

excellent. The places we visited were magnificent!!, but my only complaint was that we

always seemed to be in a hurry trying to catch up with a pre-determined scheduled, and

many times we missed wonderful photo opportunities and the best light conditions just to

meet a time schedule. Many times during the trip I was rather dissapointed and "angry"

and even commented to the tour leader that the trip was supposed to be about

"photography" and not about getting back in time for lunch or dinner. He explained that

because there were some members in the tour that wanted to have dinner "on time", we

were all expected to be there...everyday regardless. Even the drivers were very unwilling to

stop at good photo opportunities while driving around. Many members that have been in

other African photo tours noticed that and were very dissapointed as well!!!

I have been in other tours in Africa in which the main goal is photography and we always

took our meals with us in the jeeps and only returned to base camp "after" sunset.

I can not say that all tours in JVO Photo Safaris would be the same, but certainly this first

experience for me was not the best "from the photographer standpoint". Now, if you are

not "that" serious about photography and you would be OK by getting the standard

shoots, compositions and light conditions, etc. then, these tours would possibly be very

good since they are very well organized and usually select some of the best lodgings

available, food, transport, etc.

Also, do not expect much couching at all during shooting in the field. Some tour leaders

may enjoy teaching some PS, photo critique, etc, or simply none of the above. These tours

are not designed as "teaching" workshops, but more like photo safaries.

 

Hope you have a great time.

Regards,

 

Cesar.

I have participated in 3 Joe Van Os trips in the last 4 years: 2002 Australia, 2003 Svalbard (Norweigen Arctic) and 2005 Madagascar. Joe Van Os himself led the Savlbard trip while Candadian wildlife photographer Wayne Lynch was in all 3 trips. I believe Lynch also led the Namibia trip mentioned above.

 

The Svalbard trip is a cruise. I can tell you that Joe Van Os himself worked very hard with the crew to position the ship for some polar bear photo opportunities. Among the 50 passengers there, we had at least 15 500mm or 600mm/f4 type lenses. In other words, there were a lot of serious photographers there and their primary objective is to get good images. Most participants are repeat customers; clearly, they are happy with their trips.

 

The main down side is that their trip are on the expensive side. You can certainly find less expensive trips, but overall, I think they do a very good job.

I've been on quite a number of the Van Os trips and I have to say they've all been very good. The longest (and most expensive by far) was an Antarctica trip that was 28 days long. There is no way I could have made as many images traveling with another company or taken the time necessary to get the shots we got on that trip. Most of Van Os trips are not workshops so you are presumed to know something about your gear and fundamentals of photography. Although I am retired, I have not slowed up and the pace of the shooting on these trips was usually very active an we were usually out before dawn and back after sunset. My wife ( a non shooter) has been on three of the cruises with me and she likes them because of how much shore time or wildlife contact there tends to be. Some of the leaders are a little behind on digital technology, but when I last talked to Joe most had switched from film and were getting tips from John Shaw and Darrell Gulin and were catching up pretty fast. I'd recommend these trips, good quality but not cheap.