The Year in Education

Education has always been an important part of my life (college grades notwithstanding). When I had the opportunity to become a Teaching Assistant at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP) in 2010, I jumped at it. I’ve been a Teaching Assistant there ever since, first in the Summer Intensive program and then in the Workshop program. In 2014, I assisted two workshops for the school; Basic Photography in Missoula, and The Coast of Maine, which is one of my favorites.

Over the past year, I’ve also begun to transition from assisting to teaching. This past March, I lead my first-ever workshop in Venice, Italy. When I considered where I wanted to teach my own workshop, I decided that it should be in a place I absolutely loved, was fantastic to photograph, and also manageable in scale. Venice met all three conditions and the workshop was a tremendous success! I plan on offering it again in 2016.

In addition to the workshop experiences, in April I gave a lecture at RMSP on “Photography as Contemporary Art”. It was great fun researching this topic as I discovered many talented and dedicated photographers working today.

Lastly, I taught a series of five classes this fall on “Basic Business” for photographers. The classes were part of RMSP’s Advanced Intensive program and the 25 students all walked away with their very own business plan intact.

All-in-all, it was a great year of sharing some of my knowledge with others. I’m hoping for more of the same in 2015!