The subject creates the opportunity for the camera to capture.
But you create the design and make the photograph.

I try to meet you where you are with your photography, even if you're just starting out. I begin by learning about your interests, goals, learning style, and concerns. We build a plan together, and I provide the learning materials.

We work on what's important to you — whether that's learning your camera, editing and improving your images, creating a workflow, figuring out the marriage of camera and computer, or developing your eye and a photographic style.

Sessions run online, so distance isn't an issue — or in person, if you're near Eugene.

Oregon coast · at the tide line

How it works: tell me where you're at and what you'd like to learn or improve. First session, we build the plan together. Rates and scheduling by arrangement — get in touch.

You choose the subject, and the camera makes the image. You design the photograph — starting before the shot, and often continuing well after. The photographer makes the choices: what to include, how to interpret the visual opportunity, how to organize the frame in the viewfinder, and what to do next in post-processing. That's the creative work, and almost anyone can learn it through practice. Once you learn to see, the tools and techniques become clear.

We don't start with f-stops and shutter speeds alone. Most of us are inspired to photograph by a visually striking subject — a sunset, a face that tells a story, a rare and beautiful animal, a flickering moment during a sporting event or in the life of a family member. But the subject, however captivating, can only briefly prop up a weak photograph before the viewer's interest moves on; lean on a charismatic subject too hard and little is left once the novelty wears off.

The enduring photograph reflects photographic skill — the kind that can make even an ordinary, mundane subject hold a viewer's attention. An assignment to explore the paradox: photograph a few empty boxes in a bare room and make the picture worth looking at. Pull that off, and you begin to understand the power of composition and design. You learn that good photographs are acts of imagination, not just happenstance or luck.

Kyoto, Japan · black and white

A working photographer for more than twenty years, continuously — and behind a camera since I was nine. I came up in the darkroom, including years spent as a darkroom technician. I've coached photographers for two decades and taught college photography courses since 2016, at two Oregon community colleges. I'm based in Eugene, Oregon.