I know the creative disappointment and the frustration of being trapped in a world limited to making literal photographs. In my 40-year career as a professional photographer, I’ve learned a lifetime of knowledge and experience to teach you how to break free from this frustrating trap. – Now, I enjoy the creative satisfaction of making beautiful artistic pictures. It’s time to help others achieve satisfaction by passing on my years of knowledge and experience.

Creative satisfaction comes from having artistic freedom. The artistic knowledge to create an extraordinary photograph from an ordinary scene. To transform a literal picture beyond what you see. Photographers make literal photographs because they rely on cameras to do all the work; they don’t add any creativity to transform the picture into something special. A lack of artistic knowledge and old habits keep you a prisoner of making literal photographs.

How can you learn to be artistic? I plan to teach you human behavior and artistic knowledge. If we combine the wisdom of the old master painters with our Photography, our pictures will be beautiful works of art. The feeling of a painting but the detail of a photograph. Compelling photographs infused with light, mood, drama, and atmosphere. – Works of art that ignite our curiosity, imagination, thoughts, and feelings. – I will teach you how to achieve this.

My workshops are unique because they include subjects other workshops don’t teach. Most workshops teach Photography in isolation, disconnected from all the related knowledge you need to be a good photographer. Photography and Photoshop can be learned anywhere, but artistic expertise is scarce. Yet, artistic knowledge provides the artistic freedom that leads to your creative satisfaction. A new holistic approach gives your Photography a fresh start.

The process benefits photographers, but pictures reward viewers. Improving at Photography requires one fundamental change in mindset first. – Your enjoyment of taking pictures is not the priority; the picture and the viewer are. If you make good pictures for viewers, you make good pictures for yourself. You make compelling pictures that stimulate everyone.

Human nature dictates that everything we do or buy is motivated by a ‘Purpose and Benefit.’ It contradicts human nature to do anything that has no purpose and provides no benefit. The photographer takes pictures for a reason. Equally, viewers look at images for a reason. What reward do viewers get from your photographs? – We need to appreciate their perspective.

The purpose of a picture is to stimulate the viewer and evoke an emotional response. ‘Good’ pictures are thought-provoking. Pictures are conversations; your picture makes a statement, and viewers respond. Viewers may not ‘like’ your photograph, but it must stimulate them. A picture with ‘nothing to say’ is dull, and nobody enjoys a boring, dead-end conversation.

Be different, not better. Human nature dictates we prefer ‘Different.’ Do we enjoy the same conversation we’ve had many times before? Different stimulates curiosity and engagement. ‘Same’ and ‘literal’ encourage disinterest or even boredom. Creative satisfaction comes from being able to say something uniquely. ‘Different’ – but done well is the ideal aspiration.

Prioritizing the picture and viewer forces us to learn subjects beyond Photography, subjects not known if Photography is limited to the enjoyment of taking pictures. Human behavior to understand ‘How pictures work.’ Artistic knowledge to ‘Make pictures that work.’ – Now, we learn the fundamentals behind Photography, not Photography on a superficial level.

An easy way to improve your Photography is to apply the concept of making a ‘Product.’ – All products have three components – Purpose, End User, and Product. All ‘Products’ are defined as ‘The product’s purpose is to benefit the end user and create a good user experience.’ This represents every product we use. – Why not use it to help us make better pictures?

Photography is art. Art is communication. The function of art is to stimulate the viewer’s mind and evoke an emotional response. To stimulate curiosity, imagination, thoughts, and feelings. What pictures ‘say’ is more important than what pictures ‘show.’ Stimulating viewers’ minds is the picture’s purpose. The feelings produced, the emotional response, is the viewer’s benefit. Pictures are similar to books; the purpose is what they communicate, not the book itself. We enjoy reading books with something to say – the same applies to pictures. – A good product has a clear purpose and provides a clear benefit. – What do you want your pictures to say?

Our end user is the viewer. We can’t create pictures people respond to unless we know how people respond to pictures first. – More importantly, by knowing how people perceive, then respond to pictures, we can use this knowledge to influence the viewer’s response when we create pictures to evoke more robust responses. Learning about human nature, behavior, and psychology means understanding how human communication ‘works.’ How can we push the viewer’s emotional buttons and communicate ideas effectively if we don’t understand how people use our product, the process of looking at and responding to photographs?

As a viewer, literal pictures don’t provide a benefit because they show us what we expect to see. Not showing anything new, they don’t ignite our curiosity. Pictures we don’t understand provide no benefit because we can’t engage with them. A compelling picture is in the sweet spot between the two extremes. – Light, three-dimensional form, and atmospheric distance give the picture a foundation of realism, a point of reference to understand the picture. Then, the artistic treatment takes the pictures beyond looking literal, offering us something unique but understandable. This stimulates our minds and ignites our curiosity. – The ideal balance.

Artistic knowledge is the life and soul of your photograph. It translates cold, mechanical raw files into beautiful, personal, artistic statements. It frees you from creating mundane, generic, and literal-looking pictures. Cameras only record; it’s people who create. – Retouching is your only chance to create and transform ordinary subjects into compelling pictures infused with light, mood, drama, and atmosphere. Writers use written language; photographers use visual language. – Artistic principles codify this visual language into a set of creative guidelines we use to create pictures people respond to at an emotional level. – Compelling pictures.

A clear, concise, and structured plan minimizes your risk of not learning from my workshop or getting a worthwhile return on your financial investment. Trial and error learning is inefficient and chaotic. – ‘Pictures as Products’ gives learning order and structure, a framework that fast-tracks learning because it accounts for every facet needed to create compelling pictures that resonate with people. – It’s not about selling photographs or doing Photography as a job.

Mastering Photography means less emphasis on Photography skills and greater emphasis on learning human nature and artistic knowledge. Therefore, I teach you human behavior so you know ‘How pictures work,’ and artistic knowledge to ‘Make pictures that work,’ before all the Photography and Photoshop techniques.