Dappled light that caught my eye, shot with iphone 4S

This is the moment

You are walking along the sidewalk and you see something in your path. A flash of cherry red gleams in your periphery and piques your curiosity. Your heart leaps a little. Do you remember what it was like to find a treasure on the ground when you were little? A shine of copper, a glint of silver, a beautiful rock or a piece of seaglass.

You lean forward and bend down, sure that you have found gold or something better? This is the moment. The treasure is a hunch. A whisper of something beautiful. A nugget, or maybe a diamond in the rough, something with a secret.

In this case, it is a candy wrapper sitting in the fresh grass. You consider it. Why did it make you smile? What made your heart leap? Was it the juxtaposition of cherry red and apple green? Was it the nostalgia of that particular gum you used to love?

You could walk away. “It’s just a candy wrapper…. “ you think. Dismiss it. The moment has passed.

But what if you could capture something of that magic you witnessed?  (Like, with your camera!)

What if your hunch was right? What if it is even more beautiful than you thought? What if, composed just the right way, you could capture the spirit, the essence of that ephemeral thing you witnessed? This is what we will be practicing in Superhero Photo and Elevate the Ordinary. That moment that gives you pause and your heart flutters a bit. We will be cultivating more and more moments like these.

We will be like bird watchers, waiting patiently with our binoculars for that one, miraculous moment.

Want to take better photos this summer?

I have two class offerings for people like you! Who love to take photos but don’t know about all those fancy dials. Have no fear! We will transform the way we take photographs by focusing on a little bit of the tech stuff and lot on lighting your creative spark so that you begin to see opportunities for photos everywhere and begin to understand how to make your everyday world come alive.

Elevate the Ordinary begins Monday, June 4th (latecomers are welcome)

Superhero Photo: The Basics begins Monday, July 9th