Lessons from the Other Side and from a Distance

I promised myself I would not use this space for anything other than personal observations about the art of photography but having made it to the other side of heart surgery, I am compelled to break my one and only rule.

I would like to thank everyone who sent Lynda and I their thoughts and prayers and who kept in touch during the last couple of months as we weathered a most trying time.  Those emails, cards, and calls were tremendously important to us, and we are eternally grateful for the kindnesses.  

But here we are on the other side!  There is nothing like a good life and death scare to shake things up a bit.  My recovery is on schedule and starting the week of February 6^th, I shall begin a few workshops again.  (Mentorship programs are already underway!)

One major change I am very excited about:  Over the last few weeks, I have had a number of conversations with workshop participants who, for one reason or another, cannot always make it to a weekly session.  So, taking a page from the mentorship programs, I have redesigned two of these workshops, Personal Perspective and Present Moment Photography, so they can be offered on-line.  With on-line meeting software like “join.me” or Team Viewer, I can now deliver all the same material right from my desktop to yours, no matter where you are!  The lessons are one-on-one and they are very directed and very effective.

This software allows you to see my desktop on your computer.  With our telephones on “speaker” and the lesson material in front of you (or your images in front of us both for the purposes of critiquing), we go through the lesson just as if you were in the studio.  In some cases there are DVD’s or other material you may require for the program, and I am happy to mail these out.  I am already finding it is an exciting, effective, and individualized way to learn.

The advantage, of course, is there is now time between lessons to work on assignments.  Before the lesson begins, I email the material to you along with the assignment for the week.  You will have time to shoot (and re-shoot) an assignment before the next on-line session.  It’s all very exciting!  The following week, we’ll critique your work, again on-line/phone and then move on to the next lesson.  Of course, if there is a need to meet in person, we can always arrange that as well.

Lastly, if there are specific issues or assignments or areas of your development that you would like individualized help with, I would be happy to look at some personalized, on-line discussions as well.

Details of this new distance learning model will be reflected shortly on the website, but if you would like details in the meantime, just drop me a line!

In the next blog we’re going to look at Reconstructing Reality.