My Approach to Photography and Teaching ItI don't have a stellar portfolio or any burning artistic desire to create one. If you are looking for creative genius or a style to emulate you've come to the wrong place; I just teach basic technique and how to see photographically. I do it by explaining concepts in tutorials and critiques against that technical baseline. I purposely keep photographic examples in my tutorials to a minimum. It's not because I can't take a decent photo, but because I've learned from experience that given a choice a photographer will just look at the picture and not bother to read the words which explain the concepts it illustrates. Some people grasp abstract concepts easily and are willing to act on what seems logical then evaluate the outcome. Others will only believe what they can see or know to be true from personal trial-and-error experience and will tend to discount anything which seems to impose rules or challenges their worldview until they stumble upon it themselves. I try to appeal to both extremes with my teaching approach. Critiquing photos provides the opportunity to help someone who only learns from their personal baseline by doing and can't grasp a concept until they see cause and effect with their own eyes and accept that it works. Explaining the cause and effect of photographic and physiological variables has nothing at all to do with creative vision, but everything to do with how well that vision is communicated to others. I use easy to verify "just try it and see" technical baselines which provide a solid foundation for devising successful new strategies when faced with unfamilar lighting challenges. What qualifies me to teach photography? Well I've been involved with it for 35 years, first learning zone system technique via the books of Ansel Adams, then being taught how to see photographically via the mentoring of Monte Zucker. I have been refining my critical eye and level of understanding ever since. Next, a different but related photographic skillset was acquired working in the photo lab of National Geographic and by the age of 23 I had invented a halftone exposure calculator and was using it to teach process photography part-time at Montgomery College in Maryland. Since them I've worked in several jobs involving color reproduction and publishing. So with all due respect to my vocal critics, I figure I'm as qualified to teach as they are to opine that I'm not.
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