Local Business Spotlight: On these safaris, you shoot local landmarks (with your cell phone or SLR camera, of course)

Washington Photo Safari founder E. David Luria (background) with a student. (photo by Janis S. Stone)

E. David Luria and his Forest Hills-based business have taught thousands of people how to make the most of their cameras, whether they are fancy SLRs with all the bells and whistles, or the cameras on their phones. And that business is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Luria, a longtime resident of the Brandywine Apartments, founded Washington Photo Safari in 1999, and served 72 clients that year. Twenty-five years later, WPS has served 46,000 customers and has eleven professional photographers on the staff.

“Washington, DC is one of the most beautiful and photogenic cities in the world,” Luria said. “so I am very proud, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary, that we have helped tens of thousands of people from all over the world experience the joy of photography right here, in the nation’s capital.”

(WPS Photo taken with a $40 point-and-shoot camera, demonstrating that good – or bad – pictures can be taken with any camera or phone)

WPS clients have come from all 50 U.S. states, plus the District, Guam and Puerto Rico, and 71 countries. And DC isn’t the only focus. Its photo safaris have visited 186 different venues in 30 cities in eleven states and eight countries, including photo cruises along the Rhine and Seine Rivers. WPS instructors lead safaris and classes on topics including architectural, travel, nighttime, sunrises, moonrises, nature and wildlife, flower and street photography, fireworks, events, festivals, real estate, portraiture, and hot air balloons.

“So our approach to teaching photography is very much hands-on, in the field, not in a classroom,” Luria said. The professional instructors guide clients “while they are taking the pictures. That is why our motto is ‘See. Click. Learn.'”

Sometimes, his own neighborhood is the classroom. WPS has conducted safaris at the Hillwood Museum, for example. With Forest Hills Park as the backdrop, Luria has taught parents and grandparents how to take better photos of their kids and grandkids. And since the pandemic, he has organized and promoted food photography safaris to aid local restaurants. Recent benefit safaris have also raised money for local Main Street organizations and Ukraine aid.

We did it! We raised $5,000 for the work of World Central Kitchen in Ukraine w/ our benefit safari on Sunday 3/20! Father George Kokhno, of St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America, is with WPS Director E. David Luria, giving thanks. Photo by Alain Gutierrez pic.twitter.com/yxwRhBEyJq

— Wash. Photo Safari (@WashPhotoSafari) March 21, 2022

As we reported in 2013, Luria was a toddler when his family fled Nazi Germany in 1938. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army and attend Amherst College. Luria then spent decades working for several non-profit international organizations, including CARE, Inc. After a layoff in 1995, Luria turned what had been a hobby into a second career in architectural photography. And within a few years, he was taking groups out on photo safaris to show them the ropes.

Here are a few more numbers about Washington Photo Safari’s first quarter century: