Ribière retreat - Photography Holidays in France

David runs Ribière Retreat with his wife, Heidi, and their three children. David has been taking photographs since he first picked up a Pentax ME super in 1984. David has had over 15 years’ experience as a professional photographer in the UK shooting for agencies on hundreds of projects involving photographic story-telling. David has also had a successful freelance career as a fashion photographer, shooting fashion editorial and look-books for top brands such as Harvey Nichols, men's brand Steel and Jelly and has worked with numerous models to launch their careers in the fashion industry.   You can see more of David's work here.  David now runs all of our photography holidays in France. 

The Holiday

We offer three holiday options aimed at the serious beginner and intermediate photographers who want to move to the next level. Whether that’s just understanding the processes and taking better pictures or those who want to start in the business. Whatever your level, you will take a lot away with you from the holiday. 

David describes the style as 'Action Learning' - whilst there will be discussion about cameras, equipment, lighting, lenses, the focus will be on YOU doing. The holidays are not designed to show you how good a photographer David is or the style he uses. They are designed to show you the photographic process by doing it for yourself - learning, improving and understanding that you can develop your own style. 

All our holidays run Saturday to Saturday with six days of tutorial and departure on the seventh day.

A Fun way to learn

Our photography holidays offer you the opportunity to get hands on and improve your photographic skills. At the same time, you will be enjoying the beauty of La Ribière- an 80-acre wooded estate with accommodation, outdoor pool, sauna and a 20-acre lake. Stunning scenery and wildlife to enjoy and photograph. 

The Mastering Portraits holiday is designed specifically to help you get to the next level. If you are a beginner or intermediate photographer you will gain something from this and come away with a real sense of how to shoot your own style. It's fun it's challenging but you get to relax at Ribière Retreat. It begins with an exploration of the different types of portraits and styles that you can take. We look at the technical aspects of achieving a certain style - black and white, high key, low key, natural lighting and using outdoor lighting. Each day focuses on a different aspect of portraiture and each day you have a task to complete. Sometimes you have individual challenges and other times you work as a group. The whole aim is to get you doing, understanding how to do it better and giving you an opportunity to put this into practise during your holiday. Each day ends with a review of your work and group/one-to-one feedback. At the end of the week you will exhibit your best four shots. The holiday is based both in our studio and outdoor in our extensive grounds and on location. 

Dates: April 22nd - April 29th 2023.

This holiday is not simply designed for those who want to be in the fashion industry. It’s aimed at demonstrating the tools and techniques used by fashion photographers to get stunning images quickly and under pressure. Again, we look at different styles, different ways to tell stories and the tools and techniques needed to help you be more creative in developing your shots. We use models to shoot both in studio and outdoors on location. The approach adopted is again Action Learning focused with tuition and then guided practise with set challenges for you to achieve. We discuss the whole process from creating the look, make-up and hair, art direction, shot selection and processing. 

Dates: July 8th-15th 2023

Perhaps one of the most difficult styles of photography to master but with an understanding of lighting, mood and purpose you can transform your images into truly stunning shots. This holiday uses life models - male and female - and includes studio and outdoor settings to enable you to get creative. As with all our holidays, it's Action Learning focused with exploration of the different styles, understanding the technical aspects of achieving them and then putting them into practise. Each day you are set a challenge to achieve a certain style or image and at the end of each day there is time for reflection, group discussion and for you to show your best images. Key to your holiday is how you interact with the model and you are given plenty of time to work with them.  

Dates: August 12-19th 2023