Various points:
The single supplement seems reasonable and necessary to me. Each lodge/hotel room occupied has only one person instead of two, so there is twice the cost per person, times the number of nights stayed. People who don't want to pay the supplement can ask, at least, to share a double. I personally need my "me time" alone during trips, so the extra cost seems worth it.
The distinction between a "tour" and a "workshop" is fuzzy and in real life, hard to pin down. Most of the leaders I have traveled with make themselves available for in-the-field tutoring/help, but will stand aside if one indicates, however mildly, that help is not wanted. On one of Glenn Bartley's trips (to Costa Rica), his second leader (will remain nameless) was too aggressive in my opinion about offering his "advice," and I had to tell him outright that I did not want any help. That was unusual.
I will add that there are levels of help. I rarely ask leaders for assistance, but the best ones are good at the little things like advising the group where to line up our tripods to get the best angle and lighting. Also, of course, the good leaders know the birds and animals and are good at locating and spotting them. OTOH, on one of my trips to Santa Clara Ranch, the tour leader (not Hector Astorga, who was out of the country) did not know the birds, yet she also refused to have Hector's fill-in (a woman whose name I can't remember) accompany us to the blinds. This could have been disastrous, but one of the participants was a birder, and he identified the birds for the group. Oh, that was me
Some leaders do "instructional sessions" in the evening or midday when shooting conditions are suboptimal. I usually enjoy these, and usually I learn a new trick or two. I had one leader (nameless, of course), who not only herded us into evening sessions, she force-fed us Lightroom whether or not that was our interest, and she
made us submit photos for critique. Her critiques were (mostly) reasonable, but it felt like high school. This kind of thing should not be mandatory, in my opinion.
My upcoming trip to Churchill with Glenn in June seems to feature a small group of photographers who already are quite accomplished. I will call myself semi-accomplished. But my older son is coming along, and he is one of those people who likes to go out (with Dad) on trips and take bird photos, but the activity is not his passion. I will be really glad to have Glenn tutor him in the field.
Doug Greenberg
