2nd Gulf Photo Plus photography workshops and lectures launch

'The workshops were sold out last year and a number of the popular ones had waitlists. We have increased the number of photographers this year from 4 to 7 and have included more on the topics that people were most interested in last year. We have chosen to go a bit bigger so we do not have too many disappointed people this year, but most importantly we have looked at everything we did at our first event and improved things so we are offering better for 2006,' said Karen Hook, the organiser of the event.

Gulf Photo Plus, to be held at Dubai Knowledge Village, will feature workshops and lectures led by Bryan Peterson (US/France), Jack Davis (US), Robin Nichols (AUS), Michele Curel (US/Spain), Charlie Borland (US) and locally based Souheil Semaan and Paul Thuysbaert.

Bryan Peterson, author of 3 best selling photography books on Amazon and a successful working photographer returns, by popular demand for the third time to Dubai and will hold workshops suitable for beginners on Digital Photography, Macro and Night Photography and a field workshop that will be a lot of fun on People: Any Time Any Where, Any Place.

Bryan will take his workshop group of 16 students to some of the more colourful areas of Dubai and show them how to approach complete strangers to be photographed, give them tips and tricks on how to create great pictures without any fancy equipment and to make money from them.

For the first time Gulf Photo is offering something designed for the professional photographers and graphic designers. Jack Davis, from the ADOBE Hall of Fame and author of the Photoshop WOW series, will be giving lectures on all the 'hot' Photoshop topics. Jack will also be available for a three hour, Question and Answer session for help with specific problems. Jack has been lecturing and writing about digital imaging tools for more than 20 years all over the world but this is his first visit to Dubai.

Amateurs are not left out from. Robin Nichols will hold workshops for beginners in Photoshop, creating Photo Art projects and designing a website for showing off all your photos or launching your career as a photographer.

'One of the reasons that the Gulf Photo event proved to be so popular last year was the unique learning situations we set up that amateur photographers find expensive and difficult to organise themselves, Charlie Borland and Michele Curel will be giving workshops on portraits, interior, industrial, product and action photography. We are providing all the studio lighting equipment, professional models, props and transport to pre-arranged locations.'

Absolute beginners, both English and Arabic speakers, are also being catered to this year. Souheil Semaan will be giving a full day Crash Course in Photography for absolute beginners a week before the event. In this way those people just starting out in photography have a headstart on getting the most from the workshops and lectures. Souheil will also be giving a lecture in Arabic to help beginners come to terms with the basics of photography in their native language.

'The Gulf Photo Plus event started as a labour of love,' says Karen, an amateur photographer herself. 'It started with a visit by Bryan Peterson in March 2004 that was arranged because I wanted to bring a fantastic teacher to other amateur photographers in Dubai. That has snowballed into the Gulf Photo Plus event, a website and monthly newsletter and I am thrilled that we can offer something to support the many people interested in photography at all levels.'

The Gulf Photo Plus event will take place between the 9 - 18th February at Knowledge Village. Workshop and lecture tickets can be purchased directly via the www.gulfphotoplus.com website from the 9th December. Early bird discounts are offered for a limited time only.