lean timms

t w o d a y

p h o t o g r a p h y w o r k s h o p

a t g l e n m o r e h o u s e

Two Day Food & Storytelling Photography Workshop | Glenmore House, NSW

with special guests Danielle Alvarez and Mickey Robertson

Come and join us on the beautiful grounds of Glenmore House for an immersive weekend of deliciousness - photography, storytelling and food!

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP DETAILS:

Workshop Dates: Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th November, 2023

Two Day Workshop Tickets: $2800 AUD + GST

Workshop Location: Glenmore House, Dharawal Country, NSW Australia - near Camden, 1 hr drive south west of Sydney or 50 mins drive north west of Bowral

Workshop Time: 10am - 7pm Saturday, 9am - 5pm Sunday. Delicious morning tea, lunch and aperativo cooked by Chef Danielle Alvarez, included.

Suitable For: All photography lovers and levels - including small business owners keen to upskill and create their own content, absolute beginners ready to dive in and learn, photography lovers wanting to step up and into photography as a career and fellow photography professionals, etc.

Workshop Host and Guest Teacher: Mickey Robertson

Workshop Chef and Guest Speaker: Danielle Alvarez

Please Kindly Note: Transportation and accommodation are not included.

Tickets Available From Sunday 1st October, 5pm AEST

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP:

Join us in late spring at beautiful Glenmore House for a fully immersive and fun two days of learning, as I openly share with you everything I know about the art of photography. As an intimate group of students, we will be focusing on the subjects of food and storytelling photography and will be digging deep into the world of of light, composition, editing and so much more. The workshop will be part theory and part practical, with plenty of time to photograph delicious food by Danielle, and explore the magical gardens of Glenmore House, during our weekend together.

After two days, you will go home with an abundance of photography knowledge, the ability to shoot your camera on manual settings, the confidence to approach and capture a scene using natural light, and inspiration to photograph, curate and share your own stories through imagery. Two full days means so much to cover, and I can’t wait to share everything I know and love about photography with you! I am an open book, so bring your questions and I will give you all my answers.

The workshop will be held at Glenmore House, a charming country property nestled in to the Razorback Range of NSW. We will spend our two days learning in The Dairy, with ample opportunity to explore and photograph the gardens, including Mickeys famous kitchen garden, throughout the weekend.

Our guest Chef and speaker for the workshop, the incredible Danielle Alvarez, will be serving up delicious, seasonal and responsibly sourced food (plenty of it direct from Mickeys kitchen garden!). Danielle will be celebrating the launch of her second cookbook, Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking, so not only will we be eating the delicious food from her new book, but Danielle will also be sharing with us the behind the scenes process of writing and developing her new cookbook.

Owner of Glenmore House and our host and guest teacher for the workshop, the ever inspiring Mickey Robertson, will be gifting us with a lesson in storytelling and connection, weaving in her love of landscape, architecture, interiors, gardens and the enduring relationship that links them. Mickey will also be sharing with us the experience of her ‘field to distillation’ process, where Mickey will create her gorgeous botanical water for us to be able to capture as a storytelling assignment with our cameras.

TOPICS WE WILL BE COVERING:

Natural light digital photography 101
We’ll dig into photography and camera basics, and why it’s important that you understand them. You’ll walk away with a thorough understanding of the (magical!) exposure triangle and be able to use your camera’s manual settings - including a suggestion of my favourite go to’s - to help you confidently capture a number of different subjects and styles. For the professionals, I will share lots of my own tips and personal go to settings.

Light
Nothing gets me more excited than reading and embracing natural light. We’ll explore light direction first, it’ll blow your mind. We’ll find light and shadow and all the ways they can both make a photograph sing. We’ll work with harsh light and soft light and learn how to manipulate the outcome of both. I’ll share with you all my tips on light and bright photography along with the contrasting moody chiaroscuro style.

Composition
The way a photograph is framed can completely shift the way a subject is viewed. It’s a really fun game. We will play with lots of different perspectives, angles, and formulas.

Storytelling
No matter the subject, a story is always worth being told. We could spend the whole weekend on storytelling alone. I have a special formula, you’ll love it. And you will be able to apply this formula not only to our weekend at Glenmore House, but any story that you would like to go on to capture and share. I can’t wait to dig into this with you.

Food Photography
With Chef Danielle in the house, we will not only have gorgeous plated food to photograph, but we will also be able to photograph the story of the late spring/early summer produce growing in Mickey’s kitchen garden, being harvested, prepared and served. I will share with you all my food photography tips and tricks, playing with backgrounds, movement, and light in a series of both styled scenes and natural lifestyle scenes to capture this entire food story.

Post Production/Editing
I will step you through my editing flow, both on Lightroom and phone. We will cover basics, explore your style, exporting tricks, and develop your own preset.

Industry Chat
Let’s chat openly. The best type of industry chat. Marketing, pricing, getting published, image licensing, editorial insights, creative inspiration etc, etc.

Q&A’s
We will have plenty of time for questions throughout the workshop, and special allocated time toward the end of our second day.

ABOUT LEAN:

Lean Timms is an Australian travel, lifestyle and food photographer working across editorial, commercial and publishing fields.

Forever exploring and full of curiosity for this world, Lean’s greatest love is to discover and document interesting and inspiring stories of places, spaces and faces. Lean’s approach to photography is driven by natural light, in situ spontaneity, storytelling and capturing a genuine sense of place. 

A once upon a time creative arts high school teacher, Lean loves to teach and share, and has been lucky enough to teach photography at workshops and retreats all around the world.

Lean is currently based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, Canberra Australia.

Select Photography Clients and Publications:

Condé Nast Traveller
QANTAS
Lonely Planet
Vogue Living
ADOBE
Airbnb
Murdoch Books
Gestalten Publishing
Hardie Grant
Tourism Australia

Photos of Lean by Zoe Spaleta and Belinda Monck

ABOUT DANIELLE AVAREZ

Danielle is a Florida raised, Sydney based chef, recipe developer and cookbook author. Feeding people delicious, seasonal, responsibly sourced food and teaching people how to make the same delicious food for themselves is her purpose in life. Danielle learned about the central role that food plays in our lives as a child cooking alongside her mother and grandmother.  They always had a pot on the stove and an extra seat at the table.  

Danielle’s first restaurant job was at famed, 3 Michelin starred, The French Laundry in the Napa Valley of California. Later Danielle moved to San Francisco, working at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, the much revered restaurant led by Alice Waters. Here Danielle learnt about responding to the seasons and trusting her intuition to cook with a menu that changed daily.

Danielle moved to Sydney in 2014, when (after a serendipitous encounter) the Merivale Group asked her to head up and design the kitchen in what was to become the strikingly beautiful Paddington restaurant, Fred’s. The restaurant won fast acclaim – and was quickly rated among the best in the country. 

In 2020, Danielle wrote her first book, Always Add Lemon.  In 2021 and 2022 she co-hosted a TV show, called The Good Food Kitchen with Adam Liaw. In 2022, following six years at the helm of Fred’s, Danielle decided to press pause on restaurant life. She’s now written her second book, Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking, which will be released in Australia just prior to our workshop, on October 31st, 2023.

Photos of Danielle by Shaun Naylor-Clark

ABOUT MICKEY ROBERTSON

Mickey was once a city girl… but that was before Glenmore!  Mickey’s professional Interior Design career began in London over 40 years ago (where she also met and married her husband Larry). On return to Australia Mickey set up her own practice, and Beach, Town, Country soon became her by-line as she worked with clients and their homes in and around Sydney and beyond.

Mickey and her husband Larry purchased Glenmore House in 1988, and through endless hard work converted the house and surrounding property from a ramshackle farm into an exceptionally rich and beautiful property overflowing with life, joy and passion.

Mickey holds a deep and abiding passion for landscape, architecture, interiors, gardens and the enduring relationship that links them.

Mickey now shares the oasis she and Larry have created at Glenmore via open garden days, workshops, events, the In The Kitchen Garden podcast, and her book, The House and Garden at Glenmore.

Photos of Mickey by Luisa Brimble and Daniel Ship

THE LOCATION: Glenmore House, NSW

TESTIMONIALS FOR LEAN’S PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS:

- Lean is magic. Her workshops are packed with detail and yet somehow easily digestible. She makes difficult concepts accessible and so. damn. beautiful. But Lean’s workshops are so much more than just the content: the locations, the food, the styling, her guest teachers - every detail is so considered and beautiful and specially created to inspire. Lean’s genuine, natural and joyful energy is contagious, and she is unfailingly generous with her time, her knowledge, her experience, and her encouragement. The workshop was a significant investment for me at the time, but turned out to be worth every cent - the weekend I spent with Lean, her fabulous co-conspirators and my equally brilliant fellow attendees was an absolute highlight of my year. I think we're all still buzzing, six months later! You're in for a treat! - Jane McCormack @janemccormack

- I did Leans photography workshop earlier this year and it has been one of my favourite investments ever into my photography. I was already a working photographer. And I got so much out of this course. The way Lean uses an image to tell a story. The way the workshop is crafted so everyone, beginners and established photographers and anyone in between get value out of it is a unique skill. Leans words will stick with you for months to come and she pours herself into the two day course. You also get the incredible friendships of likeminded people you meet over the two days. Most of which I still talk to on a weekly basis. If you’re on the fence about this I promise it’s worth it. Every dime. It will change the way you approach photography and help you show the way you see the world. Tess Lehman @tessdoes_

- Where do I start in describing my experience of a Lean Timms workshop... words like generosity, wisdom, creativity, inspiring, absolute care, dedication to her craft and profession... whilst high praise, only touch the surface of the powerhouse that Lean is and the quality of what she presents. I attended her Autumn photography workshop this year (2023), and was so pleasantly surprised by the way she nurtured and held a large group of women to explore and develop in our photographic practice. Next level. Lean catered for a diverse group of skills in such a way that even the most seasoned photographer is humbled by the simplicity and grace in which she works. Whether you are looking to start your journey with photography, deepen your understanding or be inspired by a different perspective, Lean Timms workshops are the bomb! - Jennene Greenall @jennenegreenall_photographer

- This workshop was everything I needed and so much more! Lean was such an incredible teacher catering for all levels of photography and bringing such a wonderful group of people together! I walked away from the workshop feeling inspired, supported and with so much more knowledge. I also left with a new community which feels like family and I’m so grateful for it! After the two days I didn’t want to leave! Now I’m following her to Italy! Kelsey Zafiridis @kelsey_zafiridis

- This course was an indulgent luxury for me, and a significant investment in my current chapter of life. Lean was cognisant of this, creating an experience that felt generous, whilst still understanding her own worth. Perhaps that is just a complicated way of saying I felt like it was good value for money! Lean seamlessly navigated a class of beginners and seasoned professionals - not an easy task by any stretch. Lean’s teaching is gentle and encouraging and she managed to guide without prescribing. The content was comprehensive and informative - I thought the breadth of content was great. But most of all Lean presented in a way that was vibrant and full of humour, which is obviously just a reflection on Lean as an individual - it is invigorating to be around passion, so thank you Lean for sharing this - Hannah Lewis @penguinpantry

Are you keen but not quite sure yet? Do you have some questions for me? Please send me an email and I would love to chat more with you!

CANCELLATION POLICY:

We understand that things change and COVID looms. We would like to be as flexible as possible, so should you need to cancel we will offer up the resale of your ticket. In the event that it sells, we will gladly refund your ticket minus a 3% handling fee. Unfortunately we are unable to refund your ticket if it does not resell. Valid travel insurance is encouraged for your trip to help with last minute changes. Thank you so much for understanding.

It would be a joy to have you join us for this very special workshop at Glenmore House this November.
Please feel free to email with any further questions. I am always so happy to help.
Really hope to see you there!

Lean. X