Lumaria Workshops is the partnership of Andréa Johnson and Bob Holmes — two working photographers and filmmakers who have spent decades creating stories on assignment around the world, and who believe the best teaching is a rare mix of craft, vision, and generosity.
Bob began leading workshops in 1979. Andréa joined him in 2007, and together we’ve been guiding photographers ever since.
We created Lumaria for people who want more than a checklist of views. Our workshops are for travelers and photographers who want to slow down, see more deeply, and come home with photographs that feel like something — images with clarity, story, and emotional resonance.
What we believe
• The best camera is the one that’s with you. DSLR, mirrorless, or iPhone — what matters is how you see.
• Craft matters, but voice matters more. We teach technique in service of storytelling.
• Great images come from presence. We build in time for return visits, changing light, and real encounters.
• Small groups create the best work. We keep tours intentionally intimate for flexibility, attention, and a supportive creative atmosphere.
What are Lumaria Photography Workshops?
Lumaria Workshops are built around creativity and meaningful image-making. We offer experiences throughout the year — from individual coaching to small-group classes — with an emphasis on the nuts and bolts of location photography and the deeper philosophy behind it: how to develop your eye, refine composition, work with light, and tell a story through a sequence of images.
Our international photo tours
Each year we offer a small number of international journeys to destinations that personally resonate with us — places rich in culture, visual texture, and authentic daily life. Tours are deliberately kept small (typically 8–12 participants), creating one of the strongest participant-to-instructor ratios in the field.
Our goal is simple: for you to come home with the best photographs you’ve ever made — and a deeper understanding of the places you’ve witnessed.
A photo tour is also a rare chance to experience life “on assignment,” but without the pressure of having to produce a certain kind of photograph. That freedom often leads to the strongest work.
Andréa Johnson
Andréa Johnson is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker serving the adventure sports, travel, and food & wine industries. After graduating from Northwestern University with a BA in communications & concentration in film, art, and journalism, she worked as a photo producer and marketing director for various sports companies & travel publications. She lasted 5 years behind a desk before her wanderlust nature inspired her to begin a freelance career with a 14-month independent around the world trip.
Her diverse experience includes photographing grizzly bears in Alaska, a month-long Himalayan trek to Mt. Everest, and extensive forays into wineries & food markets throughout Asia, Australia & New Zealand, Africa, France and North America. She has received the prestigious Gold Award by the Society American Travel Writers (2008, 2014, 2017) three times for photo essays in Vietnam, Canadian Mountain Holidays, and Cuba judged by National Geographic editors and based on her storytelling ability in a photo essay.
Her work regularly appears in the top food, wine and travel magazines and major newspapers, including hundreds of photographs and two dozen feature stories for Wine Spectator magazine. She has also photographed four wine books: Passion for Pinot (2009), Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest, (2010), Spectacular Washington Wineries (2012) & Spectacular Oregon Wineries (2014).
She is an Oregon native, resides in Portland and is always ready for a photo adventure anywhere on the globe.
Robert Holmes
Bob’s remarkable career started in his native Britain in 1975 when he covered the successful British Everest Expedition for Paris Match and the London Daily Mail. The following year he visited California for the first time at the invitation of Ansel Adams and in 1979 he moved to Marin County, California where he still lives.
Bob has traveled extensively in Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America for the world’s major travel magazines. His assignments have taken him searching for snow leopards in the remote valleys of western Nepal for National Geographic Magazine, journeying into the rain forests of Borneo with Penan tribesmen for Islands magazine and crossing the Great Indian Desert on camel for Departures.
Willie Landels, former editor of both Departures and Harpers and Queen, called Holmes “one of the most intelligent photographers I have worked with, who also has a wonderful sense of color and design.”
Bob has illustrated over 50 books, written 5 and he has regularly been one of the elite group of photojournalists invited to participate in the acclaimed “Day in the Life” series of books. He has won many awards and the Society of American Travel Writers named him Travel Photographer of the Year in 1990,1992, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017. He has been elected a Fellow of both the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and has won the international Wine Photographer of the year award from Errazuriz and Marks & Spencer.
Bob is also a gifted and enthusiastic teacher who truly enjoys sharing his experiences and expertise. Bob has led workshops and tours for many organizations including Geographic Expeditions, Wilderness Travel, the California Academy of Sciences, and UC Berkeley
In 2024, Andréa Johnson and Bob Holmes met Aziz Abu Sarah, founder of MEJDI Tours at a journalism conference in Istanbul. It quickly became clear that our values and missions were deeply aligned, and from that meeting a new partnership was formed.
Together, Lumaria Workshops and MEJDI Tours create photography journeys rooted in socially conscious travel, with a focus on the human element of place — the diversity of people, their lived experiences, and the stories that shape a destination from within.
MEJDI’s team handles logistics from start to finish, allowing us to focus fully on photography instruction, creative mentorship, and crafting an experience that is thoughtful, safe, and well-supported — both for our participants and the communities we visit.
MEJDI Tours is a certified B Corporation, committed to using travel as a force for good. Rather than following the traditional model of consumer tourism , often highly commercialized and extractive. MEJDI works with local partners to support community-based travel that prioritizes cultural understanding, financial responsibility, and environmental sustainability.
As MEJDI’s guiding philosophy states:
“Travel is one of the most powerful tools for creating a better planet.”