Kythera

KYTHERA ISLAND ODOIPORIKON-WHERE CURIOSITY MEETS THE IMAGE

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, the well-known photographer and travel writer, invites you on a Photography Odoiporikon. This journey takes you through the island of Kythera and on a personal artistic, spiritual journal as well. The relationship of the soul and the light will reflect in your photographs.

This travel photography workshop provides a platform for those who seek to know a place – it’s history, people, tradition and culture – through the lens of a camera. Rather than being a laboratory for learning the latest techniques in digital photography, participants will endeavor to capture the atmosphere of a foreign country. We’ll learn how to “see” and how to compose an image in our minds before taking a picture. We will get to know a place by learning how to capture and see the light on a face, a landscape or an object, and how to connect this place with ourselves through photography.

Kythera will offer us opportunities to photograph landscapes, seascapes, villages, architecture, interiors, people and their traditional way of life - but most of all, you will experience how to see and capture the amazing Greek light. You will learn to frame light and composition to capture richer, more inspiring images. And your classroom will be one of the world’s most beautiful natural landscapes.

The workshop is appropriate for photographers of all experience levels and specialties. Digital and film cameras are welcome equally.Each workshop will differ, depending on the weather conditions and group’s photographic impulse of the moment.

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou is also the author of an extend travel guide to Kythera in Greek, that is going to be launched in English by summer 2012, titled “Traveling to Kythera & Antikythera”.

For more detailed information, please contact Tzeli Hadjidimitriou on [email protected]

Price includes:

      7 nights at carefully selected family run hotels, like Windmill suites in Livadi, including full breakfast of fresh local products and one meal, dinner or lunch- depending on our photography schedule.

     Airport transfers in the hotel you stay in Kythera – provided you arrive and depart on the set dates.

     Automobile Transport for daytrip excursions (as required)

    All entrance fees where necessary.

    Ouzo with meze on the house in some locations.

    And of course, all excursions guided by Tzeli Hadjidimitriou:

     http://odoiporikon.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=220

N.B. : Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from Kythera

We welcome all questions at [email protected]

ITINERARY 

True creativity arises from a union with the divine, with the mystical and the unknowable. Technique, expertise and knowledge are tools; the key is to abandon oneself to the energy that fuels the birth of all things.

Friday, Arrival day. Free welcome dinner in a traditional taverna and short briefing.

Saturday 1^st day       

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

10.00-12.00 Introduction to Travel Photography-How we can translate our sentiments into photographic images. Our priority is to learn how the camera sees, to start recognizing the light, discover the endless possibilities of synthesis and finally learn how to really enjoy by taking pictures, making the camera our best friend in the happy, or less happy moments of our lives.

15.30-19.00 We Visit the little church of Agii Akindini on the top of the mountain with an astonishing view over Hora, the castle and  the sea and we walk from Spilies to Kapsali, following the old English path, just fora little taste of the Greek light, the smells and the air. (We will focus on photographing open skies)

20.00 Dinner in a taverna in front of the sea

Sunday 2^nd day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

09.30 We leave for Potamos where we spend the whole morning photographing the local open air bazaar, the locals in the cafes and Maneas’ shop. (Tradition, portraits, street life, composition)We drink a “tsipoura”-stronger than ouzo, with some food and continue on to Karavas and to Amir Ali Springs and from there we walk down the valley with the ruins of the old settlements, the fertile orchards, the springs and we arrive at Platia Ammos, where we stop for late lunch-early dinner, enjoying our fish in front of the Aegean Sea and Cape Maleas.(Nature, macro photography)

Monday 3^d day                    

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

09.30-12.00 We meet in our hotel to view and analyze the photographs we took over the last two days.

Tuesday 4^th day                  

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

09.30 We leave for Fratsia and then on to Viaradika. We stop at the little village, photographing the old, deserted houses, and the new ones. (We will focus on architecture and how we can describe a building using different lenses, points of view, details, interiors and exteriors) We pass through Mitata (again landscapes and architecture) and proceed for lunch at the restaurant “Skandia”, where Evanthia will give us a taste of her delicious Greek food.

We continue our afternoon on the beautiful beach of Paliopoli, passing from the ancient graves of the 5^th century B.C. discovering some more details of the history of the magic island of Venus. At Avlemonas we study the changes of the light just before the darkness of the night. (Introduction to night photography)

Return to our hotel and have free evening

Wensday 5^th  day               

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

09.30 We leave for Mylopotamos, and from there we walk down the waterfalls, enjoying the wild nature of the place. We continue to the Venetian fortress of Kato Hora with the deserted houses and the old churches.

Lunch at Mylopotamos  and in the afternoon we visit the Lady of Kythera, the monastery of Panagia Myrtidiotissa, finishing our day looking out over the always rough sea and the sunset from Agios Nikolaos Krassas.(Nature, macro photography, composition, architecture, details)

Thursday 6^th day                

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

09.30 We leave for Aroniadika, a traditional settlement with fabulous architecture, proceeding to Aloizianika, Kipriotianika and from there we go to the byzantine capital of the island, Paliohora, that was destroyed completely by Barbarossa in the 15^th century a.C. The landscape is impossible to be described with words, so you’ll try to do it with your photographs!

17.00-19.00 In the afternoon we go to Kapsali and we stay till early night learning how to capture the twilight.

20.00 We have dinner in a taverna in front of the sea.

Friday 7^th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel.

Free morning

16.00 In the afternoon we present the photographs we took during this Odoiporikon, we discuss them and then we say goodbye till the next meeting…

Goodbye dinner at a traditional taverna in Mitata

At the end of the Odoiporikon, every participant receives a souvenir certificate, to remind them of the photography itinerary in Kythera.

Saturday 8^th day

Departure day

(Transport from hotel to your departure flight or ferry is included as well).

 All the excursions will be guided by Tzeli Hadjidimitriou who will also be there for any possible questions you want to ask about photography, the history of the place, local life etc. You can find more information about the island on the websites www.odoiporikon.com and www.visitkythera.gr

For more detailed information, please contact Tzeli Hadjidimitriou on [email protected]