Yoga & Photography (non-residential) Weekend Retreats
with Helen McCabe & Paul Barton
New dates coming soon
About the Retreats
In these weekend retreats, Helen and Paul will share their passion for yoga and photography, and their many years of experience in both fields, as simple tools that can be used to cultivate a deeper connection with ourselves and relationship with our surroundings. We will start each morning with a guided gentle, breath and movement practice with Helen, so that you can begin to sit quietly and observe your breath and body, and allow time to simply ‘be still’. From this place of stillness, Paul with then share his love of photography as you explore a range of simple tools and techniques that will enable you to understand how to really observe and connect with a subject. Through this approach to the art of photography as a meditation practice, you will have all the tools you need to produce beautiful images.
Through a combination of talks, discussion and practical exercises over the course of the two days, Paul will show you how to observe a subject and how to work with it so that you cultivate an ability to see it from different perspectives. Everything from where you position yourself, camera angle, scale, light and movement will effect composition and we will explore all of these elements, and their interconnectedness, over the course of the weekend.
As you learn to work with all the elements of composition, and how to observe and play with the different qualities of light and time, you begin to bring an integrity of understanding to your images. You will learn to use the camera lens to cultivate a deeper sense of inquiry into the nature of the self and our beautiful landscape.
The retreat will start properly on the Saturday morning but there will also be a welcome session early on the Friday evening, with refreshments, during which Paul will to go through some simple practical techniques and principles for taking photographs, for anyone who is completely new to photography. There will also be the opportunity on the Friday evening for everyone to talk to Paul and Helen individually and ask any questions before the weekend workshops.
We will come together at the end of each day for a short guided relaxation and on the Sunday afternoon there will be an opportunity for the group to share the images that they have produced over the weekend.
*You don’t have to own a fancy SLR camera to join this retreat, an iPhone or smart phone will be just fine, and there will be an opportunity to explore using an SLR camera and various lenses during the weekend.
**You don’t need to have any previous experience of photography or yoga to join us as we will be able to support everyone individually, whatever your level of experience, but do let us know when you book if you are a compete beginner to photography and / or yoga.
***For anyone coming who would like to attend the Ashtanga self practice class, you would also be welcome to join the early class with Helen each morning before the retreat too (this would be included in the cost of the retreat).
This weekend is limited to a maximum of 8 people to that we can work closely with everyone and provide plenty of individual support and tuition.
Bring an open heart and mind and be prepared to question, explore, be creative and really observe.
Investment:
Retreat Cost: £250
*Early Bird Price and Payment schedules available. Please contact us for details
What’s included:
Morning yoga each day – a guided gentle breath and movement class suitable for all levels of practitioner
& guided relaxation each day
Photography tuition, workshops and practical exercises
A delicious vegetarian or vegan picnic lunch on Saturday and Sunday
Teas, coffee, water & fruit will also be available
What’s Not Included:
Overnight accommodation – please contact us if you would like us to recommend local accommodation options.
Transport to / from the Yoga Space
One to one yoga or photography sessions which can be booked separately with Helen or Paul either side of the retreat weekend, subject to availability.
What to bring:
You will need to bring something to take photographs with e.g. a camera or smart phone. There will be an opportunity to use an SLR camera and lenses during the weekend if you don’t have one of your own.
Booking Details
To book this retreat or for more information, including payment schedule options, terms and conditions for booking and cancellation policy, please contact us by email
More about Helen
Helen McCabe is a practitioner and teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, based in the beautiful Dorset countryside(UK), where she lives with her family. She founded and directs ‘Yoga at the Space’. There she runs the weekly assisted self-practice programme as well as teaching beginners’ courses, mentoring new teachers and teaching pre-natal Yoga. She runs regular retreats and workshops both in her studio and internationally.
She started practicing yoga in 1991 when she was working in the film industry and had just had her first daughter. It has played a major part in her life ever since. Helen has studied for many years with John Scott and is a JSY senior teacher as well as a registered Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals. She has also had the privilege of studying with a number of fantastic teachers including Lucy Crawford, David Keil and Dena Kingsberg amongst others and continues to be a student of this amazing practice.
Helen teaches with a gentle, inclusive and incredibly encouraging approach and is passionate about supporting students to connect to the energetic and meditative aspects of the practice of yoga so that they can cultivate a healing and resourcing self practice.
Our Location and the Yoga Space
The Space is a beautiful yoga space in a very special part of Dorset. Studland. We are situated on the Jurassic coast in the beautiful seaside village of Studland, surrounded by stunning countryside and just minutes from the beach. This former Wesleyan Chapel has been renovated to create a light, bright and warm practice space, with underfloor heating and a wood-burning stove to keep it cosy on Winter mornings.
The yoga space is fully equipped with mats, blankets, props etc so there is no need to bring anything unless you would prefer to use your own mat. We have a bathroom with shower facilities and a little garden to the front.
More about Paul
Since leaving the London College of Printing, where he studied for a Degree in photography, Paul has worked non-stop in the world of stills, film and television.
Over the years, his work has enabled him to travel extensively, to experience many diverse locations and to observe the inner workings of cultural and natural systems, but above all, to meet and work with some pretty wonderful people. He has just completed filming a feature length documentary which has taken him to locations as varied as the Mongolian desert, the Amazon rainforest and the mountain tops of Taiwan. He and Helen also led a photography and yoga retreat in the remote Himalayan region of the Anapurna mountains at the end of 2018. He absolutely loves this work and the people he gets to collaborate with,
perhaps more than anything because it enables him to work so closely with light, both natural and ʻdesignedʼ. Light, in all its manifestations, is at the very heart and structure of life and the universe we live in. Understanding how to work with it will always produce the most stunning images.