The workshop will focus on techniques for improving plant and nature photography while exploring tropical beauty and attaining a deeper understanding of how to relate to plants. The fee is $1300 (double occupancy) and $1600 (single room) that includes six nights accommodation, all meals and airport transfer. Round trip airfare from your originating airport to San Jose Costa Rica (SJO) is additional. To reserve your space email:grupos@fincalunanuevalodge.com.

Finca Luna Nueva Lodge features the best of tropical comfort including an ozonated swimming pool and solar heated Jacuzzi along with spa services. Delightful meals of Costa Rican-Asian fusion cuisine, served three times a day are included with the package. Much of the food is produced on the farm.

Finca Luna Nueva Lodge features well-groomed hiking trails, along with the Sacred Seed SanctuarySemillas Sagradas, an ethnobotanical garden harboring over 250 medicinal herbs. The garden, first established in 1994, has evolved under the guidance of New York Botanical Garden ethnobotanist, Michael Balick, America’s herbalist-in-chief, Jim Duke, and Costa Rican ethnobotanist, Rafael Ocampo.  This extraordinary collection of neotropical medicinal plants is under the care of Steven Farrell, President of Finca Luna Nueva and Biodynamic farmer extraordinaire.  The garden serves as a model for the creation of other Semillas Sagradas ethnomedicinal gardens elsewhere, in an effort to preserve not only local biodiversity, but the indigenous traditions that are keepers of the knowledge.  Rafael Ocampo and Michael Balick co-authored Plants of Semillas Sagradas: An Ethnobotanical Garden in Costa Rica (2009). The book can be downloaded as a pdf file at the Finca Luna Nueva website. And that’s just a taste of the botanical offerings. Turn around at any moment and you could see a three-toed sloth, emerald basilisk lizard, green iguana, red-eyed frog, toucan or morpho butterfly!

Getting great photographs with the equipment you own

Topics Covered:

tOur focus will be on techniques for improving your plant photography. Rather than dry optical theory or studio techniques, we will spend most of our time on techniques for fieldwork.
tYou do not need sophisticated, expensive equipment to take great photographs. It’s more about understanding simple concepts—lighting, being in the right place at the right time, and patience. And like anything worth doing, practice, practice, practice.
tWe will explore working with ambient natural light and making the most of the equipment you have. Just bring your iPhone. That’s all you need for equipment. Nature presents special conditions for photographing in the rainforest environment, and we will highlight getting the best images in varying situations, whether you are taking photographs for your own personal enjoyment or for use in scientific publication.
tAssessing our equipment. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you don’t have thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment. You can get good photographic results with the equipment you own. One key to successfully capturing images is to know and understand your equipment, while learning to keep your photography simple. For plant photography ideally, you may want to have a decent digital camera body, close-up lens (macro lens or a diopter for a fixed lens), and perhaps the single most important piece of equipment – a tripod. A wide-angle lens (28 mm or wider) and a telephoto lens (at least 200 mm, for a 35 mm camera body) will also enhance your enjoyment of taking plant and flower photos. Photographing plants often requires relatively long exposures, so besides the camera itself, a decent sturdy tripod is essential for plant photography in general.  Another piece of equipment that you will want to long exposures is a cable release. And finally, one other very essential piece of equipment is your camera manual. Read, re-read it and read it again until you begin to understand all of the features available to you as well as the camera’s basic operation. If you don’t understand something in the manual, highlight the item or write down a question to bring to the workshop. It really does take reading the manual several times to understand it. Remember —most camera manual are probably written by an engineer with English as a third language. . . .
tOr forget all of that equipment and just bring your iPhone or other pocket digital camera!
tIf you don’t have thousands of dollars of camera equipment, don’t fret. You can take great photographs with whatever camera you own. One professional photographer with over three decades of experience that I admire, music venue/musician photographer David Horwitz, likes to keep it simple. He uses a 1970s vintage Nikon camera with just three basic lenses, a $79 point-and-shoot digital Minolta and on occasion $10 throwaway camera.
tPhotography is not about equipment. Photography is about light. As George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak put it, “Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”
tFinding a subject and knowing what you are shooting. Anyone can take a photograph of a beautiful flower. If you want to find great subjects, especially plants, you have to know what you’re looking for and where to find it.  Finca Luna Nueva offers exciting photographic opportunities simply by walking outside the front door of any building. We will also discuss the ethics of plant conservation and “gardening” to create a more pleasing composition. The key to ethical wildflower photography is “leave no trace.”
tBring some of your own work if you wish and share it with the group. We will also look at images and talk about elements that make them interesting compositions, or a technically good photograph, keeping in mind the words of Ansel Adams, “There are no rules for good photographs. There are only good photographs.”
tWe will cover essentials of you helping to understand photographic concepts such as depth of field, focus, exposure, composition, making the most of ambient light, and macro techniques.
tYou took a great picture. Now what? In this new era of digital photography, snapping the shutter is only the first step. Once you have captured images and downloaded them to your computer, we will explore digital workflows, with information on useful software, file formats, key-wording and metadata, color space, equipment calibration, and other steps necessary for creating the best output for prints, the web, electronic media, and publication.

Directions to Finca Luna Nueva Lodge:
By Bus from San Jose or Alajuela

From San Jose you have two choices to arrive by bus:
1) Take the bus to Ciudad Quesada. From there, transfer to the bus that goes to La Fortuna via Chachagua. Get off in San Isidro de Peñas Blancas. or …
2) Take the bus to San Ramon. Then take the bus to La Fortuna via Chachagua, and get off in San Isidro.

By Bus from La Fortuna: Take either the bus to Ciudad Quesada via Chachagua or the bus to San Ramon via Chachagua and get off in San Isidro de Peñas Blancas.
By Car from San Jose
From San Jose head north to San Ramon via the Pan American highway. At San Ramon, exit Pan American highway by making a right turn. Go straight until the last stop sign, and turn left. Immediate right turn at traffic light. Follow road for about 2 km staying to the left. When you go uphill over a speed bump with small school on right then another speed bump make a left at the y intersection. This is the road to Fortuna. Follow this road north for about an hour when you will arrive at a single lane suspension bridge over the Peñas Blancas river.
About two kilometers after the bridge watch for a church and cemetery on left. 150 meters past the cemetery turn left onto a paved road (you will see the “Luna Nueva” signs on your left). Go 2.3 km west into the jungle. Stay on the paved road  passing a large tin building. 50 meters after the tin building turn right  and pass thru our gate. It has pink columns. Continue driving into the farm to the large two story house.
If lost ask for Finca Luna Nueva or finca de Steven.

From the Beaches in Guanacaste and Liberia Airport
If you are driving from the Liberia International airport or from any of the main beach resorts in the Guanacaste Region, we recommend driving west to Liberia, continuing on to Cañas and Tilarán, and driving the scenic road bordering the Arenal Lake. The drive from the beaches should take between 3 to 4 hours, depending on the point of departure.
From Liberia head east onto the Interamerican Highway, the road to Cañas, Puntarenas and San José. Drive past the town of Bagaces, reaching the city of Cañas. Turn north into town, departing from the Interamerican Highway. Follow signs to Tilarán in the mountains north of town. Tilaran is about 20 minutes from Cañas. When you arrive you must make a hairpin to the left at the top of the hill where a brand new gas station is on your left. Ask if not sure the way to Arenal (lake and volcano Arenal).
Within 10 minutes you will reach a fork on the road. Stay on the left, following signs to Fortuna, and Arenal Volcano.
Stay on the scenic road that takes you around Lake Arenal. Drive for about 90 minutes, passing the town of Nuevo Arenal and the dam that forms the lake. At this point, you will depart from the Lake and continue east towards the volcano and the town of La Fortuna. Stay on this road for approximately 20 minutes, until you arrive in Fortuna.
You will reach a point of the road were you can not continue straight and must turn right. Follow the road to the right, crossing a bridge after one block and leaving town. Signs will say route to Chachagua, La Tigra and San Ramon.
After approximately 20 minutes you will reach Chachagua. You will know Chachagua since there is a road bump right on a curve of the road. You may want to ask several people to be sure.
Passing Chachagua keep looking for a store called CocoLoco. This will be on your left hand side. Once you have passed CocoLoco you will cross a small bridge. After this bridge continue uphill unitl you see a paved road on your right (you will see the “Luna Nueva” signs on your Right). Go 2.3 km west into the jungle. Stay on the paved road passing a large tin building. 50 meters after the tin building turn right and pass thru our gate. It has pink columns. Continue driving into the farm to the large two story house.