Darran, your enthusiasm in all things photographic is truly inspirational, even after 30 odd years in the profession. Your duty of care is second to none and I have been on many photo tours. The way you look after every guest and handle personalities is most professional. Thank you and I would certainly travel with World Photo Adventures again in the future.
Niall
Hi Pearce, Julia and Darran,
What a fantastic weekend in Melb!! Had an amazing time. Really enjoyed the focus of the weekend, then of course, a great venue with very enjoyable coffee, a great dinner spot and our ‘out in the field’ shooting experiences were sensational. Melb even turned on some beautiful light yesterday morning too. I was ‘exhausted’- learnt SOOOO much. WPA experiences, where ever they are held, always have WOW factors and this one was no exception.
Thanks Pearce, and Mark, also, for all your hard work. I learnt heaps in the amazingly positive atmosphere you created for us all to work in…. I also appreciate all the background planning that goes into a weekend workshop from you all – the evidence is clear, WPA – ‘simply the best’. Have a great day. Thank you all! Pearce, thank you too, for the use of your computer – looking forward to mine arriving reasonably soon.
Fran
Hi Julia,
Just a note to say how much we enjoyed our trip and to thank all of you for the planning and organising that went into making it very memorable. In particular, Pearce did a great job as leader and its very clear that many of our colleagues were part of what we would say was ‘the WPA extended family’. It was great to be welcomed by those travellers as well, particularly those who have been on many trips with WPA previously, they made us feel part of that family! Anne and I are currently thinking about doing something with WPA in 2017 but I will come back to you on that. Pearce did mention that help was a phone call away and I do have a problems with a Lightroom upgrade to my main PC at the moment. Any advice would be appreciated.
Best Regards
Geoff & Anne
Morning Darran,
Just wanted to thank you for the Tanzania trip, it was absolutely awesome, I cannot say a bad word about it, (expect for my freak out of the river crossing lol).
I certainly learnt a lot, and I did find the KIS principle working for me. I really did think my photos looked great.
The small group made it great as well and everyone was really nice oh and toastie was a funny fella.
I definitely will be looking into future events with you.
Jenny
Hi Darran
I just wanted to send you a thank you note. I was on one of your free workshops on June 13th and picked up so much from you. I have been shooting for about 8yrs but in a day you solved some problems that I’ve been having for a while. My husband ran the Gold Coast marathon yesterday, and I know that without your tips and processing tricks I wouldn’t have got half the number of shots that I did. As it is, he prefers the ones I took to the course photographer ones so I’m pretty happy with that!
Thanks again, I can’t wait to come on one of your tours in the future.
Claire
Hi Julia,
It’s taken me many months to make a decision about which photo to print, but I have finally got my first image from Antarctica hanging on the wall. There are so many amazing memories that come back every time I walk past it, so I just want to tell you again that I am extremely grateful for the experience and guidance that you and Pearce gave on the trip. I’m sure I would have lots of happy snaps of the trip if I had been on my own, but thanks to Pearce I have numerous photos that are worthy of being enlarged and framed and that perfectly capture the atmosphere of the incredible places we visited – from the penguins and their chicks and the icicles on the icebergs in Antarctica to the spectacular sunrise at Torres del Paine and walking on a glacier. To have the someone making sure that we were in the right place at the right time and offering ideas and encouragement was invaluable. I cant speak highly enough of Pearce’s patient, encouraging and personal approach. I cant wait for my next trip with World Photo Adventures.
Kindest regards, Leanne
Dear Darran, Julia, Pearce, Frazer and sponsors including Sony and Epson
As the overall winner of the 2014 WPA Travel Adventure Photo Competition I would like to say a massive thank you to you all. Being selected as the winner of this competition was definitely a highlight in my life. The prizes were very generous. The Sony camera and lens, which I admittedly upgraded to a Sony A7, are now a welcome part of my photographic tool kit, especially when I need good quality but lighter equipment for some trips.
The recent trip to South Africa was incredible. I was also lucky enough to be able to observe and meet some of the people who make up South Africa’s divergent population and to travel with interesting companions throughout this incredible journey. Last, but of course not least, was the help, teaching and mentoring I received from you Darran during the whole adventure. Over the past few years since my first trip with you Darran, your KIS method of teaching has helped me improve my photography skills beyond my expectations; who would have thought some years ago that I could win such a competition! Now the task ahead is to review the 6475 photos I took during the trip to find the future competition winners! Once again, thank you to all at WPA and the other sponsors, for providing me with such a wonderful prize and the opportunity to take my photography to the next level.
Kind regards, Judith
Hi Darran and Pearce,
Thank you again for a wonderful time at Lamington. I was particularly interested to see how my photography had improved in the two years since I started WPA workshops (at Lamington 2 years ago). I can ‘see’ the difference in my images when I compare the previous to now, and it’s not all about going to a full frame camera either. So a big thank you to both of you for helping me to finally break through the Lightroom barrier and really understand what I am doing in this software. It hasn’t been easy for me and I do thank you again and again for your patience and help. See you soon at the Book Workshop,
cheers, Lee
Hi Darran,
At last I am getting around to thanking you for the marvellous trip to Africa. Once again I had a great time, saw fabulous things, learned more about photography and got to know new people. I am sorting through my images, still finding things I had forgotten and deleting things which will go no further. I still have them on my external drive though – just in case! So glad I made the effort to go out on the “lion morning”, I got some fabulous images, and am printing a couple to put on the wall. I have downloaded the group images you offered from Dropbox, it is a great way to share images, I will be using it myself to show my images to the family. See you on the next adventure.
Cheers, Kaye
Dear Darran, Julia, Pearce and Frazer,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to travel to Namibia, as the winner of your competition. Namibia is an amazing country and I can think of no better way to experience it than on one of your photo tours.
The giraffe standing next to the runway watching our privately chartered plane land was a great to start to the Etosha experience. Every single day after that delivered unique and unforgettable experiences. Looking a lion in the eye from just a few metres away and being super close to a herd of elephants, including very young calves, are experiences I know I will never forget.
For me, the beauty of the photo tour was that although we were constantly on the move and looking for new photographic opportunities, we also had plenty of time to really absorb each location and appreciate the incredible behaviour of the local wildlife. There were many times when we were at locations where other safari vehicles came, took a few quick iPhone photos and moved on. More often than not, they missed the lion dragging it’s zebra lunch into the shade of the tree, the leopard that came out from it’s hiding spot or the rhino that walked through the herd of zebra to get to the water hole.
The combination of Darran’s skill, experience and know-how as photography guide, working with the incredibly passionate and knowledgeable local guides, ensured we were always in the ideal position at the right time and definitely guaranteed that every single person on the tour (regardless of previous experience) has come home with amazing photos that will be long term reminders of a wonderful experience.
So many people have described this trip to me as “a once in a lifetime experience”. I now like to think that winning the trip was a once in a lifetime gift, but only experiencing one African photo tour is definitely not enough for me!!
I can’t thank you enough or recommend WPA photo tours more highly. From start to finish the entire experience was simply incredible.
Kindest regards,
Leanne Gillies
