Do you think your images lack that “special something?” After all, you understand exposure, composition and light, yet your images still don’t stand out from the crowd.

This is where we come in. With a coach-to-student ratio of approximately 1:6, the Photojournalism Workshop can bring you to a new level of storytelling, one you never thought you could reach. You will form a close bond with your story subject while telling their story; to this end you will immerse yourself in the storytelling process, getting up early and staying out late to capture meaningful moments, as well as receiving feedback about your work from your supportive coaches. Along with your fellow workshop participants, you will ultimately contribute to a memorable and enduring narrative about the community of Paris, Kentucky.

Mountain is all about building relationships and using meaningful photographs to tell a story. If you want to be a photojournalist, your coaches – among the most outstanding visual professionals in the nation – will give you a motivating push in the right direction. To complement your days and nights of shooting and editing, each evening includes inspiring presentations by the coaches, as well as critiques of a selection of images taken that day. If you find any down time, it will be spent soaking up the knowledge of your passionate coaches and perhaps sleeping a little bit.

Each October, a group of visual journalists set up shop in a different community in Kentucky to document life and culture in a unique way. Raw and live, it’s all about the people and their stories, not the institutions. It’s called the Mountain Workshops, and dozens of students and professionals from around the country swoop in for a week every year to garner new skills and fresh inspiration.

It’s a crash course in visual journalism.

Participants can choose from one of three options for the week. Photojournalism, Video Storytelling or Picture Editing. Three workshops held in one location, in one week, with a constant flow of new ideas and one-on-one guidance by the top professionals in their fields, all add up to an intense five days of high-octane education in visual communication and storytelling.