Tours Abroad

Photo Workshops with Tours Abroad

We offer high value photo workshops to China, and to a few nearby countries – Mongolia and Vietnam – that historically were heavily influenced by China.

Why China?

China is what we know best, and China offers such richness in its variety of landscapes, peoples, architecture, and destinations that the photo opportunities are very nearly endless.

What sets Tours Abroad apart…..

Unique destinations in China – Building on our extensive knowledge of China, we offer an unmatched variety of destinations and themes. We currently offer our Guest Artists a list of several dozen destinations or themes to pick and choose from, and from these we select a handful to offer to the public each year. And each year we add additional itineraries to our master list.

Our philosophy is to focus on relatively small areas, and to more fully explore the communities and landscapes within those areas, rather than doing a multi-city overview of China. This allows us to return to a shooting location for a different perspective, or time of day, or more optimal weather or atmospheric conditions. We even have time to scout locations midday when shooting conditions may be less than optimal.

Optional extensions – we offer optional extensions to Beijing, Shanghai, and other destinations following the end of each workshop. For some of us, a trip to China is simply not complete without seeing the Great Wall outside of Beijing or window shopping along Nanjing Road in Shanghai. If that’s important to you, signing up for an extension will provide you with those opportunities.

Guest Artists – Each of our photo workshops is led by a talented and accomplished professional photographer. As you look at our tours, you will see the Guest Artist who is leading each tour, and more information is to be found by clicking through to the Guest Artist’s page.

Mentor program – We offer two months of post-workshop one-on-one mentoring with the Guest Artist. This is included in the price of the workshop, and while optional, workshop participants are encouraged to take advantage of the mentoring program.

Our tours are primarily about capturing great images while in China. On a field workshop, we really want to minimize time spent in a classroom setting, and instead spend as much time as possible out and about taking photos. And that is our emphasis on these trips.

However, we also know that the post-capture editing and processing of images is equally important. It’s great to capture that wonderful shot, but how best to work up the image file for sharing with friends and family? That’s what the mentoring program is all about.

Private rooms & good food – Each of our photographers is provided with a private room. This, by the way, allows us to offer non-photographer companions a real price break, because the room is already paid for.

Generally we stay in 4-star hotels, unless we are in a remote location where this level of accommodation is not available, in which case we stay in the best that is available.

We also opt out of the typical tour dining packages, which favor quantity over quality. Instead, we will be eating in local restaurants, which tend to offer better selections, and certainly a more authentic dining experience.

We offer full board throughout our tours, breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day.

Companion programs – We encourage photographers to bring along a companion. For many of our guests, a trip to China may well be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We cater to companions by offering a separate slate of daily activities for companions, including their own guide and vehicle. Whereas the photography group may be up before dawn to capture the early morning light, the companion group may opt to sleep in, have a more leisurely breakfast, and then head out to the local markets, a cooking school, or to visit a temple or elementary school. The two groups are together for the evening meal, to compare notes and to catch up on each other’s activities.

Occasionally the two groups may be in the same area, depending on circumstances and what’s available for companions to see and do. It should be said that although we offer a rich program to companions, our emphasis is to provide the photographers with a great workshop experience. At times there simply is not a great deal to offer the companion group if we are in a remote area to cater to the wishes of the photographers. However, with their own guide and vehicle, the companion group usually has plenty of other optional activities to pursue.

We like to think that we offer both a high quality workshop experience for photographers, coupled with a high quality tour experience for companions.

Inclusive prices – The price of our workshops are inclusive, meaning that (with the exception of personal or souvenir purchases) we cover pretty much everything while you are with us.

Our Team

Creating great products starts with people. Our primary team for planning each of our workshops consists of Mark and Ian.

Mark Anderson first studied Mandarin while in college, and received his degree in East Asian Studies. He then spent three years in Taiwan teaching English at a private girls’ school, and further refining his language studies. Mark bought his first serious camera – a Pentax Spotmatic SLR – while in Taiwan, and many cameras since, is still an avid amateur photographer.

When Mark came up with the idea of offering photo tours to China, it combined the two great interests of his life:  photography and a fascination with China, the Chinese people, and the Chinese language.

Ian Ford has lived in China for the last decade, and worked in the international tourist industry even before that, first as an employee for a major UK-based tour company, and more recently as the owner of his own UK tour operator company. Ian and his team of agents throughout China make sure that Mark’s ideas are actually doable, and that we can in fact deliver a great product in a selected destination.

Ian is married to Zhang Wei Fei (Faye), has two young boys, and lives in Yangshuo in the south of China.