It’s been about 4 years coming, but I’m finally getting around to doing a photo weekend in Portugal!
The idea? Simple: have a 3 day weekend photography workshop. For every 12 participants, we’ll bring on another leader. Hopefully, over the years this will grow into something bigger and we can start inviting pro photography leaders from all over the world to join.
For now, we’ll start with just me. We’ll see where it goes from there.
The first Photo Weekend will take place in Porto, Portugal in June 2025.
Porto Photo Weekend Info
Dates: June 12-15, 2025
Price: €900 (shared accommodation**) or €1,300 private accommodation
Style: City Break / Workshop
Activity Level: Lots of Walking
Start/End Location: Porto, Portugal
** shared accommodation means you’ll be matched with another participant of the same gender. As roommates, you’ll share a twin room accommodation. If you’re booking as a pair, you don’t need to choose “private accommodation as you’ll already be paired with your partner. If you’d like private accommodation, you’ll need to choose the private option.
Itinerary
June 12th – This is our arrival day. Please try to arrive before 5pm as well have a welcome dinner and go out for an evening photo walk.
June 13th – The day will start with a morning photo walk to one of Porto’s epic photo locations. After breakfast, we’ll have some free time and then there will be a morning workshop. After free time for lunch, there will be an afternoon photography workshop. Finally, after an early dinner, we’ll head out and photograph the city at sunset.
June 14th – Today will go much like the previous day. However, there will be different workshop and photo location options.
June 15th – We’ll get up and photograph one last sunrise. Then, after breakfast, we’ll say our goodbyes.
What’s Included
- Hotel accommodation on the nights of June 12, 13, and 14th
- Breakfast on the 13, 14, and 15th
- Local transport on tour dates
- Photo instruction by Brendan van Son
- Photo Workshops
What’s Not Included
- Lunch or Dinner
- Snacks and Drinks
- Flights to/from Porto
- Airport transfers
Book Now
To join, please book below. If you’re travelling solo and require private accommodation, please choose the private option.
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Porto Photo Weekend (Private)€1.300,00 -
Porto Photo Weekend€900,00
The Porto Photo Weekend payment is refundable up to 90 days before the tour’s start date with a 10% cancellation fee.
Porto Photo Week FAQs
The fun thing about this weekend is there’s no limit. Since this is the first year running this, I don’t expect the number to be much higher than 10 or 12 participants. In the future? Who knows. I’d love for this to grow and turn into a celebration of photography that can bring in 100+ people .
Right now, I’m going with 1 instructor for every 12 participants. So, if the number reaches more than 12 people, we’ll add another. At the moment, we’re still under 12, so I’m the sole leader.
The accommodation will be at least 3-star accommodation – leaning towards 4 star. It will be a hotel.
In the past I allowed participants to book their own accommodation, but it led to logistical nightmares and issues. Thus, at least for now the accommodation will be booked by me – to keep everyone together.
Yes, there is quite a bit of walking. Porto is an awesome city, and to truly experience you have to walk around. This is where the best photos are found and made.
That being said, if you’re not ultra-mobile, we’ll find ways to accommodate for you as well.
We might. There are a couple really cool photo locations just outside of Porto. There’s a chance that we might decide to take the group out of town to one of these spots for sunset.
No. The goal is to change the city every year. This way we can build a little community of alumni and people who join multiple years. It might be in Salzburg, Dublin, London, Paris, Dubai, NYC, or any city that makes sense for a mini-weekend.
If you have any other questions, please send me an email to brendanvanson at gmail dot com.
Add-On Azores!
If you’d like to join my Azores photography workshop after Porto, there’s a deal. If you book both the Azores and Porto mini-weekend, your flights to and from the Azores will be included.
There’s more information on the Azores trip here.
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