Lesvos

LESVOS ISLAND ODOIPORIKON-WHERE CURIOSITY MEETS THE IMAGE

ODOIPORIKON means a constant journey, discovering a world of five senses flooded with light.

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, the well-known photographer and travel writer, invites you on a Photography Odoiporikon. This journey takes you through the island of Lesvos 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.

Lesvos 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.

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou is also the author of a 950 pages travel guide to Lesvos in Greek and an English guide titled “A girl's guide to Lesbos”

 

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

PRICES AND TERMS OF USE

Each workshop will differ, depending on the weather conditions and group’s photographic impulse of the moment. But we can promise to offer a week of photographic expeditions across the grand vistas and secret paths of majestic Lesvos.

Note: tailored itineraries can be offered for groups of five or more that register. For further information contact [email protected]

We would be thrilled for you to join us at the spring ODOIPORIKON in Lesvos. Contact us for more information at [email protected]and register at http://odoiporikon.com/

Maximum amount of participants 7 persons.Please book early to avoid disapointment

Price includes:

      7 nights at carefully selected family run hotels, 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 Lesvos – 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 Lesvos

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.

STARTING FROM MOLYVOS

1st day  

Arrival day. Free welcome dinner in a traditional taverna near the hotel and short briefing.

2nd day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

10.00-13.00 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.

16.30-19.00 walking around the small fishing port of Molyvos and the little paved streets of the traditional village, just for a little taste of the Greek light. We focus on color composition, traditions and details and we start understanding the twilight.

20.00 Dinner in a traditional fish taverna in front of the sea.

3d day                    

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.30-13.30 We spend the day in the beautiful Molyvos, with the very interesting architecture and the exceptional colors, enjoying an ouzo with meze on the house at one of the cafes with amazing panorama. We photograph the local life, the traditional elements and the architecture of the old buildings, focusing on the details that make the difference, the interiors and everything that can help us transform our sentiments for the place into images.13.30 Lunch in a nice taverna in front of the sea.

Afternoon free for testing our talent in photography alone.

4th day  

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.30-12.00 We present our photographs and answer the questions that will make our life as photographers easier.

16.00 In the afternoon we visit the mineral springs of Eftalou, enjoying the most relaxing hot bath in the healing waters and than jumping into the cold sea water. In case we have an underwater camera, we play with our friends’ bodies in the water, using the opportunity to discover our more artistic side.

20.00 Dinner at a beautiful taverna in Eftalou, with real Lesbian home-made food.

5th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.00 till late afternoon We leave for Skala Sykamnias, the beautiful traditional port full of old fishing boats, with the white chapel of Panagia Gorgona on a rock. We spend some time learning how to frame the dark from the sun faces of the fishermen, and most of all learning how to communicate with cultures different than ours using the camera. For cat lovers, we are going to have hundreds of beautiful models that are waiting their meal from the fishermen who are fixing their fishing nets on their caiques.(all kinds of portraits)

Lunch at a fish taverna at the port.

We continue to Sykamia village and spend some time walking through the little streets with the old buildings and the beautiful stone houses with the colorful windows, where we can photograph the local life. We come back to Molyvos from the inland road, passing from the villages of Lepetymnos and Vafeios, enjoying the breathtaking panorama and trying to capture the open skies in our photos. (landscapes-architecture)

Free evening.

6th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

Free morning

16.00-19.00 In the afternoon we present the photographs we took during this Odoiporikon, we discuss them and answer any questions.

Free evening

7th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.00 till late afternoon We leave for Stipsi and Ipsilometopo where we focus on using the details or different lens in presenting the architecture of the old, stone houses, the walls and the paved streets. Once more we have the chance to compose with the architectural details, to play with the landscapes, to test the interior light of the cafes and the little shops, to record the characteristics of the locals that live their lives away from tourism.

Lunch at Petri where we’ll enjoy tasty home-made food and a wonderful panorama and we say farewell till our next meeting…

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

8th day

Departure day

STARTING FROM MYTILENE

1st day  

Arrival day. Free welcome dinner in a traditional taverna near the hotel and short briefing.

2nd day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

10.00-13.00 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.

16.30-19.00 walking around the small fishing villages of Skala Loutron and Koundouridia, Loutra, the port and the cultivated land of the area next to the hotel just for a little taste of the Greek light. We focus on local life, traditions and details.

20.00 Dinner in a traditional fish taverna in front of the sea.

3d day                    

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.30 We spend the day in the beautiful capital of Lesvos, Mytilene, with the most interesting architecture and the vibrant market place, enjoying an ouzo with meze on the house at the old market place. We photograph the local life, the traditional elements and the architecture of the old buildings, focusing on the details that make the difference, the interiors and everything that can help us transform our sentiments for the place into images.

20.00 We call it a day with a delicious dinner at a taverna in Kagiani with the best local food and an amazing view over the city and the suburbs.

4th day  

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.30-12.00 We present our photographs and answer the questions that will make our life as photographers easier.

16.00 In the afternoon we visit the mineral springs of Gera, enjoying the most relaxing hot bath in the healing waters. In case we have an underwater camera, we play with our friends’ bodies in the water, using the opportunity to discover our more artistic side.

20.00 Dinner at a beautiful taverna by the sea, with real Lesbian home-made food.

5th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.00 till late afternoon We embark on a “caique”(wooden fisherman’s boat) and we set sail for the formerly thriving industrial area of Perama (1880-1950), continuing to the renovated Olive Press and Olive Museum at the village of Papados, spend some time walking through the little streets with the old buildings and the beautiful colourful houses. If we have time we can continue to the other villages of the area of Gera: Skopelos, Plakados, Mesagros andMihou, with the small houses, gardens full of flowers, lot’s of kafeneia and friendly people. We photograph the industrial architecture and the ruined buildings in Perama, the traditional life in the villages, we learn to compose using the colours and the light in the villages of Gera, we test the interiors light in the Olive Museum, we experience the afternoon light on the sea. We end our day with a little trip with caique in the fascinating gulf of Gera, visiting authentic fishing villages and meeting “real” people.

Lunch at a traditional taverna by the sea.

6th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

Free morning

16.00-19.00 In the afternoon we present the photographs we took during this Odoiporikon, we discuss them and answer any questions.

Free evening

7th day

07.00-09.00 Breakfast is served in your hotel

09.00 till late afternoon We leave for the colourful Sikounda, continuing to the green oasis of Agii Anargiri and from there to the traditional Asomatos, arriving at the end to Agiasos, a very special village on mount Olympos, rich in everything: nature, local characters, life, architecture, colours, tradition, and the Panagia with the famous icon, very well known in the Christian world for it’s miracles. Once more we have the chance to compose with the architectural details, to play with the landscapes, to test the interior light of the cafes and the little shops, to record the characteristics of the locals that live their lives away from tourism.

Lunch in Agiasos where we say farewell till our next meeting…

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

8th day

Departure day

STARTING FROM KALLONI

In Lesvos, we also organize a Photography Odoiporikon with Kalloni the center of the island as our base, exploring the north-west part, visiting the colourful, famous Molyvos, Petra, Eftalou with the hot baths, Agia Paraskevi with the special characters in the kafeneia and the impressive architecture of the buildings, the archaeological sites of the area, we climb on the mountain of Profitis Ilias to reach the rare yellow rhododendron and the peonies, we go around the gulf of Kalloni, we eat in small tavernas by the sea, we walk around the streets of Vassilika, Polihnitos and Vrissa, we drink coffee with the locals and we live the way the local people do.

STARTING FROM ERESSOS

With Eressos as our base, in the volcanic valley of the not so green area of Lesvos. We visit the Petrified Forest and the museum at Sigri, we walk in the small streets of the almost deserted villages of Hidira, Rema and Fterounda, we swim in beautiful beaches of Chrousos, Ancient  Antissa and Podaras, we eat at little establishments by the sea at Skala Skalohoriou, we discover the harmony of colours on the houses of Vatoussa, we “talk” with the locals, we buy local products from Women’s Cooperatives in Agra and Parakoila, we walk to the waterfalls in the middle of the volcanic rocks, we dive into the clear, cold waters and we abandon ourselves in the irresistible energy of the fire…

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.elesvos.gr