Digital Photography Evening Classes

Thursday evenings: 6 - 9 PM, 5 classes : Fee $300

Includes Workbook, Talent Fee, and a copy of my first book,
Lighting Essentials: A Subject Centric Approach to Light for Digital Photographers
(Available from Amazon, published by Amherst Media)

I have taught workshops from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, Seattle to New York, Tampa to Singapore, and San Diego to Bermuda. The workshops have been some of the most highly rated in the business, leading to my receiving a Photo District News readers poll for ond of the top 13 Best Workshop Teachers in the World.

I am taking a bit of a breather as I work on my fourth book for Amherst Media. This makes my travel schedule less hectic and allows me to teach some in my hometown of Phoenix.

This digital photography class is unlike most you will encounter. It is created by me to present you with the skills you need to take your work to the next level... in fact, we will breeze right through a couple of levels and get to the point where you will be making images that are well exposed, composed, lit and edited. We start at the basics, and provide a very strong level of understanding the digital photography format.

Enroll for the class HERE:

This class is perfect for beginners and hobbyists who are not familiar with photography from film days, and have only started with their digital SLR's.

Basic Equipment needed for Class:
DSLR
Lens
Strobe
Stand, Umbrella, and mount.
Trigger for firing flash or 8 Cable (Nikon CLS is good as well as Canon's RF System. Any way of firing the flash off camera is fine.)
A basic understanding of the controls of your camera: Setting apertures/shutter speeds/ ISO
Laptop with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements running.

You will receive an email and Pre-Workshop manual from me when you sign up. I look forward to meeting and working with you.

Session One:
Understanding Exposure
Working in Manual
Firing Flash Off Camera
Making First Test

Session Two
Composition and Light
Using Aperture for Image Control (Depth of Field)
How to use ISO for Best Results

Session Three
Composition in the Portrait
Lighting a Simple Portrait
Working with a subject
Shooting Portraits with Subject

Session Four
Review Portrait Images
Basic Portrait Editing
Skin Retouch and Image Enhancement

Session Five
Choosing the Best Light for a Subject
Using light as a compositional element
Class review

Enroll for the class HERE:

I believe that lighting is the key. It is the basis for great photography.

I have shot for major publications, minor publications, advertising agencies, corporations, modeling agencies and even taught photography during a particularly interesting interlude of life. 35mm, 6x6, 6x7, 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 cameras. Still have everything but the 6x6 (lookin' for a great deal on a Hassie...) I love film. I love digital. I jussst picked up a Mamiya Press Camera - 6x9 - and I can't wait to take it out and shoot a few rolls. I have shot still-life, product, big studio sets, fashion and beauty. I love to photograph people now and mostly do what I love.

In 1995 I recognized that the web was a major tool to be harnessed. I started a little company with a guy who ended up being a back-stabbing-cheating-little-bastard... but I digress... ahem, and it grew like crazy to be one of the fastest growing tech/media companies in the region. As creative director, I was actually hiring photographers to do what I loved to do. Most were wonderful. Some sucked. And the ones who sucked couldn't light. Harsh light with silly shadows or boring light when it should have been interesting. After leaving to go it alone, I started shooting again and found that the young shooters coming up were very creative but hadn't learned to light with love and finesse. Oh, they can take a couple of speedlights and bang it out... chimping along the way and get it close enough to sorta fix it in Photoshop... but when it comes to fine light, definitive light, there isn't an understanding of light to make it truly remarkable.

So I started teaching a few at a time. This workshop is the culmination of that work. I still shoot and design and shoot some more. I dabbled in high end weddings, but they take too much time and these days I love teaching, working on the Lighting Essentials site, mentoring younger shooters and shooting for a wide range of clients. These are heady times for photographers. So many choices in cameras, lenses and fun equipment. But in the end, a photograph is of the light that was found or created. Lighting is the key to it

Hey, let's get to work...