Picture Perfect

If you want to take a beautiful picture, you can either hope for some extraordinary fluke of light, timing, subject matter and hardware — or you can sign up for Workshop Asia. Award-winning Australian documentary photographer Jack Picone leads these intensive, one-week courses for dedicated amateurs hoping to take their photography to the next level.

Held two or three times a year in various Asian cities (the next is scheduled for Kathmandu in March 2007), the courses have previously featured guest lecturers such as photojournalist Tom Stoddart and celebrated war photographer Philip Jones Griffiths. There are no more than 12 to 16 participants at a time, and all are thrown in at the deep end — tasked with producing a professional-quality photo essay by the end of the week. To help them, there are robust discussions, sessions of one-on-one tuition and nightly show-and-tells, during which each day’s images are critiqued.

Fees range between $2,400 and $2,700. It isn’t cheap, but accommodation and breakfast are included — and besides, there are hobbyists who spend infinitely more on fancy equipment but still can’t produce an arresting image. Don’t be one of them. For more information, visit workshopasia.org