About the Instructor

“Why do you teach?  Don’t you get tired of showing people how to set a shutter speed, or explaining what depth of field means, over and over again?”

I am asked this question quite often, mostly by experienced photographers who seem unwilling to share their ideas or skills. I’ve always found this odd; theirs is a competitive, narrow viewpoint that I do not share.

The answer to the question above is a definite “No!” I do not get tired of it. You might even say I teach photography for purely selfish reasons. As a professional photographer, I take photographs every day, most often to satisfy a commercial need for someone else. Over the years, I found myself straying a long way from my reasons for becoming a photographer – my love of the “art” in photography, my enjoyment of the need to be in a particular place to make my work. I no longer picked up a camera for my own purposes and I realized one day I had not taken a single personal photo in years. When I started teaching over 10 years ago, I rediscovered my joy in photography – the challenge of new situations, learning new technology through a beginner’s eyes, and new insights from personal life experience that influenced my way of interpreting the world through a lens. Through teaching, I am able to share all of this; I experience photography every day, and discover new ways of creating photographs to help others learn.

Additionally, through teaching, I better understand my own work; I dissect it – examining my technique or contemplating my intent behind an image – and I explore historic and alternate methods of image creation. I study the work of other photographers like I never have before. Finally, and most importantly, I see teaching as “giving back”… when I first picked up a camera and made many amateur (and embarrassing!) mistakes, there were photographers who kindly shared tips and ideas, who mentored me, and who influenced my work to bring me to where I am today. Seeing a new photographer suddenly understand depth of field, or attending a first photographic exhibition of one of my advanced students brings me back to my own photographic journey, of fond memories of learning and discovery.

So, why do I patiently explain camera settings over and over and over again? Silly question.