JUNE 2023

Spring Portrait

“The real voyage of discovery does not consist of seeking new landscapes,but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust

In 1992, I released my first coffee table book: The Art of Nature Reflections on The Grand Design. Since that time, and subsequent eight more coffee table books, this concept and approach to the landscape has been both my artistic identity and my legal trademark. I am very pleased to offer you this workshop in a series of location workshops entitled: Photographing The Art of Nature™ These workshops are designed to help you advance your skills as a photographer and help you discover the essence of your personal vision and its expression, and perhaps, and in doing so, a little more about yourself.

In my youth I spent many a summer day chucking hay bales and driving wheat truck on my uncle’s farm in the Palouse. Back then, before it was “discovered”, it was simply The Palouse. Now that everyone seems to know about it far and wide, its been called: “The Tuscany of America”. That’s nice, but I much prefer: “Tuscany, The Palouse of France.” Years later in my adult life, I moved my family onto a nice ten acre gentleman’s farm not far from Spokane, where we lived for four years. Those years were filled with one discovery after another, as I wandered the countryside, capturing this indescribably beautiful pastoral landscape. In my 40 years, I have never seen a landscape that is so inherently painterly in its appearance and expression.

About this Workshop:

This workshop will be will be limited to only four attendees, so that each one gets the fullest measure of my attention and guidance. While we will, of course, make our way to the top of Steptoe Butte for all the classic iconic viewpoints, the majority of our time will be in the backroads, roads that I have traveled countless times in my search of the quintessential Palouse landscape. Attached are some of those images I gathered in those years, images that not only reflect my vision, but give sense of what an attendee will have to work with, in the pursuit of their own fine art Palouse image collection. Your images captured here, will lend themselves to truly stunning prints, particularly, on canvas.

Light on The Land

My Teaching Philosophy is Simple:

“Help a photographer take a good picture and they will go home with a good picture. Help the photographer improve their ability to “see”, and they will go home with a creatively substantive picture, and the ever evolving ability to create artistically meaningful pictures for a lifetime.” For its not where you go, but what you are able to “see”.

This workshop is all about: “The Art of Seeing” … the ability to perceive and compose visual elements in the landscape to create a compelling photographic image. It is through this creative process that the photographer is able to explore the experiential and personal meaning of their subject, rendered in a visually and emotionally expressive photographic image. Improving one’s ability to see requires the willingness and awareness to slow down, empty our minds of clutter, and allow our attention to be focused on and consumed by that which lay before us. For it is the quiet, mindful eye that is the lens of the heart.

The creative visual possibilities in this landscape are almost infinite, and it is my purpose and pleasure to help you find and create unique imagery that is true to your inner vision.

I have found that in many ways, being a fine art landscape photographer is much like being a screenwriter and director, i.e., how one conceives and executes one’s story. As such, in this workshop I encourage the photographer to think about their photography in terms of a larger body of work that they develop over time. And, in doing so, simultaneously builds that body of work for many uses, but also, serves as both a portrait of their growth as an artist and person, for our art is always a reflection of who we are at that point in our life. This has been my joy in all my years of photography, as it represents the story of my life, and I hope, in this workshop, to help you create your own story.

This workshop is intended for photographers who have a working familiarity with camera operation, f/stops, shutter speeds, depth of field, etc. I will not be instructing on technique as a subject in and of itself. As such, I will only discuss these issues as they arise in specific cases as you are contemplating photographing a particular subject. This workshop is best suited for engaged, practicing amateurs, and aspiring, and/or or professional photographers looking to improve their ability to see and render subject matter. The physical demands are relatively easy, as shooting locations are mostly a short walk from our cars.