Develop your photography with guidance from Peter Sramek (sramek.ca), longtime OCAD University professor and founding member of Gallery 44 Centre of Photography in Toronto. Whatever your experience with photography, this workshop will meet you with appropriate content as you enjoy a weekend with a group of creative participants.
Photo workshop, September 2025.
This program is designed to support you in your photographic journey, whether primarily visual, conceptual or technical. Field work will explore the farmstead landscapes and the local area, while discussions will address approaches to making images, with focus on participant interests. Engage with the landscape, explore portraiture, create site interactions to photograph. Consider aspects of light, composition and moment. Share your images in creative evening sessions. If you bring an ongoing project, a portfolio discussion will provide feedback.
Preparing image files, Photo workshop, 2025.
Participants will work with digital cameras, but are free to also shoot film for later processing. Technical aspects can be covered if desired. Digital results will be reviewed onsite and those interested may experiment with historical cyanotype printing (blueprinting). Gear is not the focus and a basic camera or phone for making exposures is all that is required.
Self-portrait, Sardar Farrokhi, 2025.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, please register online or contact us at workshops@scff.ca. Participants will stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session.
Practicalities
Participants will arrive in Tamworth on Friday afternoon or evening and may stay an extra night on Sunday to make a long weekend should they desire.
Cost: $590 includes tuition, accommodation and meals; $390 for those who do not require accommodation.
A deposit of $100 will hold your place with full payment due 3 weeks prior to the workshop. A non-refundable fee of $100 will apply if you cancel less than 3 weeks prior.
Ride sharing can be coordinated where possible. Pick-up and drop-off in Napanee is also possible should one wish to take the bus or train from Toronto area or Montreal.
Various workshop programs may be made available, depending on interest, along with book-related ones that may be of interest to photographers. Two examples include the following and you may wish to review the past workshop posts as well.
Natural Inventions – Staging in the landscape
Stone Alignment, Shibagau Creek, Peter Sramek, 2024
We invite photographers and non-photographers alike, to engage with the land in constructing site-specific assemblages using natural materials and then to photograph them. The image remains as a record of what will inevitably change and fade in the landscape. Over the weekend we use alternative printing methods to turn digital images into tangible prints.
Workshop participants with co-instructor Walter Bergmoser, August 2024
Seeing Black and White: The Zone System
Matsudera walk – Temple Garden
This workshop will cover practical aspects of black and white photography, based on the Zone System methods of understanding light and exposure. Addressing both digital and film photography, this approach allows for previsualization of the grey values of the image, resulting in improved negatives and digital files that are closer to what one sees in the mind. Participants may work with digital and/or film processes. Exercises and photography will take place around the farm and digital results will be reviewed onsite. Film work will be processed later on your own time, but may be evaluated through online sharing.
Peter Sramek learned the Zone System when studying at MIT from Minor White, author of the Zone System Manual. He then taught black and white photography for over 40 years at OCAD University in Toronto.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, please contact us at workshops@scff.ca. Participants may arrive on Friday to stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session. Registration will be posted here as workshop dates are announced each year. If you have particular interests, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Do you want to enhance your photography practice, reconnect with nature and enjoy a community of like-minded participants? This summer series is designed for you to feel in flow with your creativity, provide you with tools to develop your awareness and self-reflection, and offer collaborative image-making, discussion and learning, in an easy and collegial environment.
Tamworth Reflection, Jenny Zhang, workshop participant, June 2023.
Workshops are designed for 4-8 people per event, which will allow you to explore your creative vision, whatever your experience with the technology. Learning together will be about reflecting on your inner creative motivations while observing, feeling and experiencing within a natural environment. Exercises and discussions will be about personal creative directions, whatever yours might be. Technique may be discussed as desired. Bring your camera, questions and a collection of images to discuss in the company of like-minded photographers of all levels. Share a farmhouse dormitory arrangement or bring a tent. Spend one or two nights – or stay longer. If you live nearby, arrive for the days’ activities.
Night Interior, Gordon Kong, workshop participant, June 2023.
The barn studio space is available, and the entire farm property allows for forest walks, plant and wildlife observation and quiet contemplation. Nearby there are swimming options and the village with its excellent used bookstore and cafés.
(Farmhouse accommodation is limited, so book early (although tenting is also possible).
Shibagau Creek Forest Farmstead is a 100-acre retreat in a quiet valley with open meadows, forests and marshland. The property has been in the Sramek family for nearly 60 years and much of the land was replanted with trees at that time. The rustic 1900’s off-grid farmhouse overlooks the green valley and has an outdoor summer kitchen, firepit and dormitory loft, solar power, composting toilets and rain barrel shower. Open areas for tenting provide plenty of space for those who wish to camp. Trails lead through the forest down to the creek and to the upper fields with their viewpoints, perfect for silence & contemplation, walking and observing. The centre is actively in the process of development with new trees being planted this spring, the house and barn workshop space improved and forest trails expanded.
The Shibagau Forest Farmstead is situated within the traditional territories of the Mississaugas, Anishinabewaki (ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ) and Wendake-Nionwentsïo peoples who are the original owners and custodians of these lands on which we are honoured to gather. As part of the Upper Canada Land Surrenders, under the Crawford Purchase of 1784, no treaty was ever signed.
Getting Here: Outside Tamworth, Ontario, north of Napanee (Highway 41 exit on 401, or Camden East exit east of Kingston; from Highway 7, head south at Kaladar on Highway 41. Roughly 4 hours from Toronto or Montreal and 3 from Ottawa.
Weekend Schedule: Arrive Friday afternoon/evening or on Saturday morning. Finish on Sunday afternoon (an extra night stay can be arranged without extra cost).
Environment: This is a natural forested location, so bring bug spray and expect to spend time outdoors in various weather conditions.. The kitchen deck, firepit, BBQ and eating area are outdoors (there is a mosquito tent with tables for when bugs are bad). There is a swimming lake 20 minutes drive away, a rain barrel shower onsite and composting toilets.
Meals: Food & non-alcoholic beverages will be provided with shared preparation and clean-up. This is a ‘take your waste, leave no trace’ location.
Charging: Solar power system enables some charging of devices when required. At this point there is only spotty onsite cell service by the house and no WiFi (it is a great place to disconnect). Cell service is at the top of the hill at the entrance to the property, a five-ten minute walk from the house.
Dorm Sleeping: On the second floor, there is an open-concept loft with 6 comfortably spaced out beds. Currently there is one bedroom downstairs with queen bed – more to come as we renovate the extension.
Camping: There is plenty of room for tenting in the fields around the farmhouse and barn.
