Trees in Fall
Phase One P45 on Hasselblad V with 150 Zeiss lens.
Camera intentionally moved during exposure
Master File included on the upcoming Alain's Master Files CD-3

Latest News:

November 18th
We are now back from the Bryce Canyon Fine Art Summit. The Summit was excellent and I will post photograhs taken during the event shortly.

In the meantime this page now features one of the photographs I created during the Summit. This is an image taken with my Phase One P45 digital back on Hasselblad V with 150 Zeiss lens. What makes it different is that the camera was intentionally moved during the exposure to give the image a very unique effect and quality.

I will have more images created with this technique in the coming days. The Master file for this image will be included on my upcoming Tutorial, the Alain Master Files CD-3. A pre-announcement list for Alain's Master Files CD-3 is open. Joining this list is simple. All you have to do is send an email to alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Master Files CD3 in the subject line. There is no obligation to purchase, you will simply be first informed when this new and exciting tutorial is first released and you will be able to take advantage of a special offer with a lower price below the regular price.


November 4th
The print of the month was announced today. You can see which image I selected at this link.

The May Antelope Canyon workshop is now sold out. Thank you to all who registered for this workshop. Natalie and I look forward to meeting you all.

We still have a few seats for the Spring 2009 Death Valley Workshop. You can read a detailed description of this exciting workshop at this link.

October 31st
The audio version of Finding the Personal in Art is now available on my Podcast. You can access it directly through my feed or through iTunes. The iTunes link is available from the Podcast page or you can do a search for Alain Briot to locate my Podcast on iTunes

October 30th
A new essay titled Finding the Personal in Art is published today in the Thoughts and Photographs series.

This essay follows my Spirit of the Senses presentation yesterday evening. In a departure from my previous essays, which address only the artist, this essay focuses on both artist and audience.

For those who could not attend you will be pleased to know that I recorded my presentation and that the audio version of this essay will be available shortly on my podcast. The audio version is different from the essay because I expanded on it and found new ideas as I spoke. Stay tuned.

October 28th
The upcoming Alain's Master Files CD-3 will feature Master Files from P45 images as well as Lightroom Presets and all the adjustment layers featured in Photoshop. It will also feature a tutorial movie detailing how I use Lightroom. A detailed description of this upcoming tutorial is available at this link.

A pre-announcement list for Alain's Master Files CD-3 is open. Joining this list is simple. All you have to do is send an email to alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Master Files CD3 in the subject line. There is no obligation to purchase, you will simply be first informed when this new and exciting tutorial is first released and you will be able to take advantage of a special offer with a lower price below the regular price.

An RSS Feed for Latest News is now available:

October 20th
A new essay is available in the context of the Thoughts and Photographs series. Titled Image Enhancements this essay is written by Ronny Nilsen and focuses on Ronny's approach to image enhancements and optimization prior to printing.

October 16th
Due to cancellations we have 1 seat available for the Death Valley Winter Workshop this December. Detailed information for this workshop is available on the workshop page. If you are interested in attending this workshop please act quickly since we expect these openings to fill out fast.

If you have not looked at the upcoming Master Files CD-3, please know that a description page for the new Master Files CD-3 is now available. The Master Files CD-3 will show you exactly how I work my way from a Raw file to a Master Print file, including all the Lightroom presets and Photoshop adjustment layers created for each individual image file. 12 Complete Master Files will be included on this new tutorial. All the details are on this page.

Also know that you can join the pre-announcement list for the new Master Files CD-3 simply by emailing me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Master Files CD3 in the subject line. There is no obligation to purchase, you will simply be first informed when this new and exciting tutorial is first released and you will be able to take advantage of a special offer with a lower price below the regular price.


October 9th
We had some problems with our email server yesterday. If you emailed us yesterday, or in the past few days, and either did not receive an answer or had your email bounced back to you, simply email back. These issues have now been fixed and we are receiving emails normally again. My email is alain@beautiful-landscape.com

My essay on limited editions --The Numbering Affair-- has been revised. The new version is now online.


October 8th
A new Essay titled From Good to Real Good is now available in the Thoughts and Photographs essay series. This essay was written by Bob Cook and details his experience as a Navajoland Workshop participant.

October 3rd
I will be giving a presentation in Phoenix, Arizona on October 29th. Titled The Personal in Art this presentation will explore ways of finding inspiration and of developing a personal style. This presentation focuses on the artistic and personal sides of photography, not on the technical aspects of photography.

This presentation is offered by Spirit of the Senses who organizes salons on various topics related to the arts. Here is their October calendar. Scroll down to see my October 29th presentation.

If you live in Arizona, or if you are in the Phoenix area on the 29th, Natalie and I look forward to seeing you at this event.

October 2nd
The October 2008 Print of the Month is now available. Visit this link to see the image I selected for this month and to place your order.

September 30th
New photographs were added to the Workshop Participant Photographs page.

A description page for the upcoming Master Files CD-3 is now available. The Master Files CD-3 will show you exactly how I work my way from a Raw file to a Master Print file, including all the Lightroom presets and Photoshop adjustment layers created for each individual image file. 12 Complete Master Files will be included on this new tutorial. All the details are on this page.

September 19th
A new Antelope Canyon workshop is now available. Scheduled for May 2009, this is a 5 day workshop in which we will be exploring several slot canyons as well as many of the most photogenic areas in the Southwest. This workshop was announced to members of the pre-announcement list so it is already partially full. At this time we have 5 seats still available. We expect it to fill out quickly now that it is announced publicly. You can read the detailed description, as well as how to sign up, at this link:
New Antelope Canyon Workshop -- May 2009

September 19th
The Master Files CD 3 will be published this fall. This will be my third Master Files Tutorial. As with the 2 previous Master Files tutorials, it will feature 12 Master Files plus a tutorial on a specific aspect of image processing.

The Master Files CD1 featured a tutorial on image selection and optimization. The Master Files CD2 featured a tutorial on HDR.

The Master Files CD3 will feature a tutorial on Lightroom, focusing on how I use Lightroom in my work. I have now included Lightroom in my workflow and I will describe, in video format, the work that I do in Lighhtroom and compare it to the work that I do in Photoshop.

In addition, I will also describe how my workflow changed when I started working with the Phase One P45 back instead of the Canon 1DsMk2. In this new tutorial I will talk about the differences between the two approaches in terms of conversion and optimization.

At this time a pre-announcement list for the Master Files CD-3 is available. To join this list simply email to alain@beautiful-landscape.com There is no obligation to place an order, you will simply be first notified when this new Tutorial is announced.

Having access to my Master Files shows you the exact adjustments I made to each image, from the Raw file to the final print file. It shows you all the layers, adjustments, changes, modifications, etc. in both Lightroom and Photoshop. There is no better way to learn how to go from Raw to Print. It is the closest thing to being there watching me work on a new image.

The Master File and Lightroom processing details for the image featured today --Canyonlands Sunrise-- will be included on the new Master Files CD-3

September 16th
My essay on Setting up a Home Gallery is now available. If you are considering having your own gallery, at home or in a shop, or if you are simply curious to learn what this process entails, this essay is a must read.

A new RSS Feed is also availale for our Latest News Section. This RSS feed is different from our Podcast Feed.

We now have 2 different RSS Feeds:


1-Podcast:


2-Latest News:

September 12th
I just published a new essay titled The Numbering Affair. If you have debated numbering your prints or not, you do not want to miss reading it.

September 10th
We just returned from our Extended Antelope Canyon workshop. This was the most extensive workshop to the land of slot canyons we have offered so far. We had great light and wonderful participants, which combined to make it both a fun and inspiring photographic expedition. Natalie and I want to take this opportunity to say "thank you" to all of you who attended and who made this event a success.

I will have photographs from this workshop shortly, together with new work from this summer. In the meantime, today I am publishing part 3 of Steve's Pope ongoing essay The Reluctant Artist. In this essay Steve talks about how he made some of his first print sales, and discusses how you can go about doing so yourself.

If you have not read parts1 and 2 of Steve's essays, you can find them, together with many more free essays, at this link.


September 3rd
Knowledge is important. But what kind of knowledge? In my new essay, titled Photographic Knowledge, I address this important question looking at both artistic and technical knowledge in photography.

September 2nd
The September 2008 Print of the Month is being announced today. Click here to see which image I selected for September and to place your order.

Our Spring 2009 Navajoland Workshop is now sold out. We have only 1 workshop open for 2008 and that is the Fine Art Summit which is held in Bryce Canyon, one of the most photogenic locations anywhere. We only have a few seats available and just 2 seats left for the field workshops after the Summit. Here is the Workshops page where you can find all the important details.

Keep in mind that you can add your name to the wailtlist for any of our sold out workshops. Doing so is easy: simply email us at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with waitlist + the name of the workshop you want to attend in the subject line. There is no obligation to register, you will simply be first notified if a cancellation occurs.

Sold out workshops:

Antelope - September 08 Death Valley - December 08 Mono Lake and Eastern Sierra Antelope - April 09 Navajoland May 09

August 29th
Today we are announcing a new Death Valley Workshop. Scheduled in May 2009, this workshop takes you to the beautiful and very photogenic areas of Death Valley at the finest time of the year. Cool weather, wildflowers, wonderful sunrises and sunsets, Death Valley will not disappoint you.

Our focus will be a study of light and composition with an emphasis on developing your personal style. A print review of your work is included, as in all our workshops. The detailed description is at this link.

August 22nd
A new Thoughts and Photographs essay is available. Titled Setting up a Home Studio this essay describes the process we follow to go from a raw file to a matted and framed (and packed if it will be shipped) fine art piece.

The focus of this essay is the physical set up that we use rather than the actual techniques that are involved. Artists rarely talk about the physical setup in which they create their work, and yet this set up is important because having the proper setup helps greately in achieving excellence.

August 20th
We are proud to annouce that Kolor joined us as sponsor for the Bryce Canyon Summit this fall. Kolor is the company behind the panorama creation software Autopano Pro. Creating stitched panoramas with a variety of cameras and software is one of the subjects we will be focusing on during the Summit. Our chosen location for this year, Bryce Canyon, is one of the best in the world for creating panoramas due to its vast expanse which is extremely challenging to capture in a single photograph, no matter how wide your camera format might be.

If you plan to attend and have not registered yet, please know that 7 seats remain available for the Summit of which only 3 remain open for the field workshop to the Escalante Grand-Staircase after the Summit. A detailed description of the Summit, together with a comprehensive list of our presentations and sponsors, is available on the 2008 Fine Art Printing Summit Page.

Uwe Steinmueller, Tony Sweet and myself look forward to seeing you at Bryce Canyon, Utah, this November.

August 12th
To celebrate our move to our new Home Studio we are announcing a special offer for in-studio, one on consulting. We also take this opportunity to announce changes to our in-studio print purchases and visits. All the details are at this link. Please note that this special offer is limited to only 10 appointments.

August 11th
We moved! Our new home is much larger and will allow us to offer you new and better services and artwork. These will include a special offer for a new in-studio consulting program, new opportunities to view and purchase my work, open studio days, and more.

Please note that our phone number has changed. Our new phone is 928-252-2466. Our toll free number, fax number, business mailing address and email addresses remain the same. We are still in Arizona, and still North of Phoenix. We now live in Vistancia, near Lake Pleasant.

One of the most exciting aspects of our new home is the addition of a Home Gallery. The gallery is not fully furnished yet, but I took a photograph of it this morning to show you what it looks like now.

I will have more information on all this in the coming days. In the meantime, if you want to be notified about our upcoming In-Studio Consulting special offer (which will be announced shortly), simply email me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com. We look forward to hearing from you and to have you visit us in our new location.

August 1st
The August Print of the Month is available. As with all the images in the Print of the Month collection, it is available at a special offer price until September 1st. You can discover which image I selected for August at this link.

You can see the entire Print of the Month Collection here

July 20th
A new podcast episode is available. Titled Rediscovering Composition, this episode takes you beyond the rules of composition by introducing you to my personal approach to composition. In a nutshell, composition is much more than organizing element within a frame. Click here to listen to my entire description.

July 16th
Only 1 seat remains available for the April 2009 Extended Antelope Canyon Workshop. If this workshop has your name on it (as they say), then you need to sign up now or you'll miss it. This is a fantastic workshop that takes you to little known extremely photogenic places and during which we focus on studying light and composition.

Updates were posted to the Update Page for the Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD. The link to this page, together with the username and password, was emailed to you when you placed your order. If you did not receive it, or if you need me to resend it, just holler -- electronically that is: alain@beautiful-landscape.com

July 14th
Today we received our first Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD testimonial:

I have completed the first 5 of the 32 steps in the Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD and I amextremely pleased and impressed with the material. Having purchased and looked through hundreds of books, and after taking a few online courses I can say with certainty that I have not found this information anywhere else,especially in this detail. This workshop on DVD is everything I had hoped for, and I've barely scratched the surface. I particularly like the multi media approach that covers the same material in written form as well as audio andvisual. The three approaches together insure retention of the material. Thank you for producing such a high quality product! I will update you in afew weeks as I delve deeper. Glenn Gilchrist Southern Pines, NC

The special introductory offer for the new Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD is ongoing. You can discover how you benefit from this offer, as well as read a detailed description of the DVD, by clicking here now.

July 1st
We have two news of importance today:

1 - The July Print of the Month
The July print of the month is being announced today. I selected Sand Waves, which was created with my P45 digital back on a Hasselblad V with a Biogon 38mm lens, for this month's print. You can place your order and see this image at this link.


2 - The Composition DVD is available
This is the news that you have been waiting to hear for a long time. The new Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD is my latest tutorial on DVD which you can study anywhere, as many times as you wish and at your leisure.

It is comparable to attending my Composition Mastery Seminar except you do not need to travel.

A limited time special offer is available. You can discover how you benefit from this offer, as well as read a detailed description of the DVD, by clicking here now.

June 27th
1 - Composition DVD
The Composition Mastery DVD was announced to members of the pre-announcement list. If you did not receive my email, or if you were not on this list but would like to receive this announcement and benefit from the special offer that comes with it, simply email me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line. The special offer is ongoing and it is not too late to place your order

2 - New essay by Steve Pope
Steve provides us with a second installment to his series: The Reluctant Artist. This time Steve talks about rejection and the challenges of creating new images. You can read Steve's second essay here. Steve's first essay is available here.


June 15th
Composition DVD to be released this coming week

The best news of all this month is that the Composition Mastery DVD is now complete and undergoing final review as I write. Unless something unexpected happens, the DVD will be released next week. 
If you asked us to add your name to the pre-announcement list you will receive an email when the DVD is available.

If you have not yet asked us to add your name to the list, or if you are not sure you already did, simply email us at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line. We will immediately add you to the list and you will receive an email as soon as the DVD is released (next week if all goes as planned). You will also be able to take advantage of the special offer made available for the first who order the Composition DVD.

Exciting Details about the Composition Mastery DVD contents
The composition DVD took me over a year to research and nearly 6 months to produce (I started in late January 08). It is my most ambitious tutorial project to date. I am very pleased that it is now complete as I felt at times that I would never get it finished. What happened is I kept finding more material to add, and I kept having new ideas for things to include. As it stands it has to be the most complete tutorial for photographic composition that I know of, and I have researched the subject in depth. 

This very unique tutorial is based on the concept that composition is way more than the rules of composition (the traditional rules that we have all been taught such as the rule of thirds, the golden rule, leading lines, and so on). 

Instead of being just about these rules (that many photographers find limiting and restrictive), I believe that composition is about everything that has an effect on the visual contents of your photographs. This means that, in this tutorial, I look at how light, color, contrast, black and white, personal style, inspiration, cropping, framing, image borders, edges, vision, your audience, the location, your knowledge of astronomical events (sun and moon movement and location in the sky at a given time of day and year), stitching, lenses, exposure, print reviews, and much more have an effect on composition.

I also provide you with a checklist for print reviews in which I offer cures for what I call the most common "print maladies." I also look at what consists a fine print and to the qualities that a print has to have to be considered world-class.

This is just a short-short summary of the contents of this new Tutorial and course on Composition. I will have a fully detailed list of all the contents when the DVD is officially announced.

If this is of interest to you make sure to email back with "composition DVD" in the subject line so that you are the first to be notified next week. There are a lot of people waiting for this release, and that way you will be able to order this course at the best price it will ever be offered and have your order shipped to you right away.

Until next week, Natalie and I wish you the very best and thank you for your interest in our work,

June 12th
Composition DVD Update
I completed the editing and the first beta version of the DVD today. We will now be testing the DVD, and if all goes well it may be available as early as next week. We are getting to the end of a very long road and I am excited at the prospect of announcing the availability of this new course in the very near future!

If you asked to be on the pre-announcement list you will be notified personally over email when the DVD is available.

If you are not on the Pre announcement list, joining the list is simple: just email me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line and I will add your name to the pre-announcement list. When the DVD is released you will be notified ahead of everyone else and you will benefit from a special offer.


June 4th
June print of the month
I received several requests for a larger print size of the June print of the month so I added a 24x30 matted version. This is one of 2 prints of the months offered in this larger size. Click here to see which image I selected for June.

Workshops update:
We have 1 opening left for the following workshops this fall:

Mono Lake - October 08

Death-Valley-December 08

June 3rd
The June print of the month is now available. Click here to see which image I selected for June.

June 2nd
An Interview of Tony Sweet is being published today. Tony is our guest presenter and teacher for the Digital Printing Summit this year. You can find a detailed description of the Summit at this link.

The June print of the month will be announced this week. In the meantime the May print of the Month is still available at the initial print of the month price, the lowest price this print will ever be offered. Check out which image I selected for May at this link.

May 29th
We have only 1 seat left for the Death Valley Workshop this fall. If you have been considering attending this is your chance to take the last seat for this workshop.

A new essay titled Panorma Stitching with DxO is now available in the context of the Thoughts and Photographs essay series.

May 22nd
A new essay about selling photographs is now available. Written by Leo Ridano, this essay discusses how to sell photographs in Patagonia, Argentina.

Incidentally, we have only 3 seats left for our Death Valley Winter workshop. If you have been considering attending, this is a good time to register before the workshop sells out.

May 20th
A new image gallery is available. Titled Death Valley Spring 2008 Portfolio, it features images created earlier this year.

May 16th
A new essay is now available in the Thoughts and Photographs Series. Titled The Reluctant Artist it is written by Steve Pope and details Steve's experience so far in regards to finding his own personal photographic style. Not to be missed if you are interested in learning how to find solutions to the unique challenges presented by photography.

May 14th
Our 11 years in Business Special Offer just got better! You can now win $1000 worth of the ink and paper of your choice. Read all the details at this link. This is our best special offer ever.

May 12th
The May Print of the Month is now available. You can see which image I selected for May at this link. This photograph was created with my new Phase one P45 digital back.

May 6th
An update to the Composition Mastery DVD preview page was posted today. It details my progress on this major (and very time consuming) project. I continue finding more material of importance to add to the DVD, hence the delay in its release (that plus my very busy schedule with several ongoing advertising projects, workshops, consulting, printing, and more.

Win $1000 worth of ink and paper Any printer, any manufacturer

May 5th
A new essay in the Thoughts and Photographs series is now available. Titled P45 Collages, this essay focuses on the reason behind creating collages using 39mp files from a Phase One P45 digital back.

The second news of importance is the announcement of our 11 years in business Special offer. 11 years ago, in May 1997, we started Beaux Arts Photography. A lot of things happened in these 11 years which saw us go from nothing to a very successful photography business. We thank you all for helping us stay in business successfully for this long, and we offer you this celebratory offer as our way of saying thank you. We look forward to many years delivering the finest photographs and helping you with your photography.

2008 is a great year (there wasn't any bad ones, really) with a number of exciting annoucements coming up later on, starting with the upcoming publication of my latest tutorial, the Composition Mastery DVD. In regards to the DVD, if you haven't done so already, you can sign up for the waitlist now simply by emailing me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line, I will immediately add your name to the pre-announcement list and when the DVD is released you will be notified ahead of everyone else and you will benefit from a special offer. There is no obligation to buy.

You can check on the progress of the Composition Mastery DVD by clicking here

April 25th
Due to a cancellation, we have 1 opening available for the May Antelope Canyon workshop. You can find all the details at this link.

I have also posted an update to the Composition DVD updates page. The DVD is moving right along and you can find the latest news on this page.

A pre-announcement list is available for this upcoming DVD. Joining this list is simple: just email me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line and I will add your name to the pre-announcement list. When the DVD is released you will be notified ahead of everyone else and you will benefit from a special offer.

Coming soon: The Composition Mastery DVD A new DVD tutorial will be published soon. This new DVD will focus on the art of composing a photograph. It will be the most complete Composition tutorial I have ever offered, going far beyond the information that my current Composition CD tutorial features. At this time a pre-release announcement list is open. Joining this list is simple: simply email me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com with Composition DVD in the subject line and I will add your name to the pre-announcement list. A special pre-announcement price will be offered to members of the pre-announcement list. There is no obligation to purchase once you are on that list. You will simply be first notified and you will have a chance to take advantage of the special offer.

April 23rd
3 new workshops are being announced today: a new Antelope Canyon workshop, a new Navajoland workshop and a new Mastery Seminar. You can read a detailed description of all of them on the Workshop Page.

The Home page photograph was changed and now features a photograph taken along the Mediteranean coast in Southern France.

April 17th
The Home page now features a photograph from Bryce Canyon, the location of the 2008 Fine Art Printing Summit. Now in it's 6th year, the 2008 Summit is open for registration. This year's Summit takes place in Bryce Canyon National Park, with field workshops afterwards in the Escalante-Grand Staircase area.

You can read a detailed description of the Summit by clicking here.

You can read an essay about what makes the Summit unique here.

April 3rd
March 22nd
A new essay is being published today. Titled Western Brocade it is written by Brian Pawlowski and features Brian's work. The introduction is by myself and helps set the stage for Brian's images.

A new photograph is now featured on this page and on the opening page of this site. It was taken yesterday with a Phase One P45 on a Hasselblad V camera. The detail is incredible and the file large enough to make a 40"x50" print. I just acquired this new digital back in part for an upcoming commercial assignment and in part for my own landscape work. My next Briot's View essay will be an experience report on the P45.

March 17th
A second photograph created during our Death Valley workshop is now featured on this page. The Death Valley area is one of the most photogenic locations anywhere. Spring and winter are the best times for photography. Summer is unbearable, and fall stays warm until late November (Death Valley is below sea level). Our next workshop is in early December of this year. You can find all the details by clicking here.

A new essay titled Why am I Taking these Photographs is now online. Written by Steve Zigler, this essay describes Steve's quest for answers about his motivation to photograph the Tremont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

March 13th
We returned from our Death Valley workshop yesterday. The workshop was excellent and we want to thank all the participants for making it such a success. We had excellent light during the workshop and the Panamint Daisies are truly extraordinary this year.

This page now features one of the images created during the workshop. More will follow in the coming weeks and months.

The link to the Printing Mastery CS3 updates was not working on the home page. This is now fixed - - you can click here to access the correct link. I am extending this special offer a couple days longer to remedy this issue.

The Mono Lake workshop is now sold out. The Death Valley Winter workshop still has opening available. If you are considering attending now is a good time to sign up.

March 5th
Today we are announcing the 2008 Fine Art Summit. This year's Summit takes place in Bryce Canyon, Utah. Our guest speaker and teacher is Tony Sweet. You can find all the details and register by visiting the 2008 Summit page. This is the 6th year that we are offering the Summit. We expect this year's event to be the best one ever :-)