Winter is my favorite time of year to be out with my camera.  The dry crisp air combined with snowy scenes makes for some amazing photos of wildlife, landscapes, and even urban scenes.  I can also access areas that other times of the year are inaccessible. 

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This program is offered in two parts.  The first part is an on-line lecture where I discuss camera settings, composition, challenges, and how to protect both you and your equipment.  The second part is an optional field shoot.  There are two to choose from.  The first gives us the opportunity to capture a winter sunrise and take advantage of the morning light.  The second gives us the opportunity to capture the late afternoon light.​

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Macro Photography is fun anytime of the year.  With winter, comes some additional subject matter that we cannot get any other time of the year.  This can be everything from frost on windows, to snow covered seed heads.  When using snow as out backdrop, colors really pop making shooting macro outdoors really fun and interesting.

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Of course, there are those days where perhaps we prefer to stay inside.  This class also provides a number of interesting approaches to shooting macro photos indoors. 

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In both cases, the challenges are the same.  We will cover techniques for managing depth of field, focus, and composition.  

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For more information or to register, click on the button below:

Focus stacking allows us to take advantage of longer focal lengths and wider apertures when capturing images and still provide the appropriate depth of field for the subject.  While this can be very helpful when used in conjunction with macro photography, it can also for other types of photography such as landscape photography.

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This class with provide techniques for capturing a set of images that make up "the stack."  It will also cover the post processing steps required in order to combine the stack of images into a single image.  Two different software programs will be demonstrated during the class, Adobe Photoshop, and Helicon Focus.

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Not all birds so south for the winter, and for some birds, going south means migrating to Minnesota.  Winter provides a time where locating and photographing birds becomes quite a bit easier.  This is due to the availability of open water, food sources, and protection from predators.  Another advantage to photographing birds in winter is one very cold days, birds fluff up their feathers in order to stay warm.

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This class covers techniques for photographing birds in trees and around feeders, capturing birds in flight, anticipating action, camera settings, and tips for locating birds in the winter months.

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Today's cameras are incredibly complex devices.  This is true whether you are using one of the more advanced DSLR or Mirrorless cameras or even the camera that is part of you phone.  They are all basically computers that have the ability to also capture images.  The good news is that understanding the features of the camera along with how to effectively use those features will allow you to capture some amazing nature photos.

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This class is designed for the beginner photographer.  We begin with the basics of exposure triangle, and discuss the settings that work for the different types of nature photography.  We also cover lens selection, focus modes, histograms, white balance, and depth of field.

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For more information and to register, click the button below.

We have all heard that April Showers bring May Flowers.  Nowhere is this more true than at the arboretum.  The tulips, daffodils, and other spring flower displays provide an abundance of great subject matter.  Of course, these displays also provide their share of challenges.

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This class consists of two parts. The first part is an online webinar wher we will cover the different styles of flower photography, managing depth of field, composition, camera settings, equipment, and dealing with the elements. 

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The second part is an optional field shoot where you can put the techniques discussed during the webinar to use.

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For more information and to register, click on the button below:

During summer in Minnesota, there are gardens everywhere.  These may be in your own yard, your neighbors yard, around town and of course there are all sorts of public gardens.  While they look great to the eye, the camera can struggle to capture the beauty of these gardens.

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This class will cover a number of creative ways that can be used to take photos of gardens that will look like they are right out of a magazine.  Some techniques will include selective focus, point of view angles, field of view, leading the viewer, and incorporating other elements into your photo.  Regardless of camera type, using the suggestions made during this class will greatly improve your garden photos.

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Oftentimes photos are constructed as a set of layers, with each one adding some additional interest to the scene.  What happens when we simplify the image?  Sometimes, we end up with a photo captures our attention as well as creates emotion.

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The first part of the class will consist of a lecture where we will discuss what a minimalist photo is, and how to see and set up minimalist compositions.  We will then apply that to landscape, wildlife, and macro photography.  Finally, we will conclude with post processing techniques using Adobe Lightroom.  After the lecture we will have a field shoot where we look for minimalist compositions.

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For more information or to register, click on the button below:

Minnesota has a wide variety of pollinators.  Some can be rather cautious and others can be quite aggressive.  In either case, they make fantastic photography subjects.  The goal is to be able to capture photos of them while they are busy collecting and distributing pollen.  

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This class will begin with a lecture where we will discuss techniques associated with focus and composition, camera settings, equipment, and some tips for holding your camera steady.  After the lecture, we will spend time in the gardens of the arboretum photographing butterflies and bees.  

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A two day, in the field shooting experience at the arboretum.  Normally, the grounds of the arboretum are off limits at both sunset and sunrise.  This event gives attendees access to the grounds as the sun is setting and then the next morning just before sunrise.

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During the photo shoot, Don will be available to offer tips and make suggestions to help you get the best photos possible.  In the past this event has included everything from sunrises and sunsets to light painting.

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For more information or to register, click on the button below:

Here in Minnesota, there are so many great locations for fall photography.  What is even better is that due to the size of the state, the fall season lasts a really long time.  In the northern part of the state, the leaves start turning in mid-September but in the southern part of the state, the peak is often in mid and sometimes late October.

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During this class, you will learn how to capture the fall colors in all of their glory.  This includes the use of polarizers, understanding the affect of light on fall colors, composition, and subject isolation.  We will also discuss other fall subjects associated with harvest time and Halloween.   After the lecture, we will explore the grounds of the arboretum looking for fall subjects.

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For more information or to register, click on the button below:

Adobe's Lightroom is a great tool for both organizing and editing photos.  The capabilities of this software program can seem overwhelming at first.  The secret is understanding a basic workflow that will get you up and going in no time.

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This class will provide the building blocks to help you import, edit and then export your photos.  We will discuss tools for quickly locating photos in the catalog, and exactly what is in the catalog.  We will also work through the panels in the Develop Module in order to provide a straight forward set of repeatable steps that will enable to you pull out the details in your photos without going overboard.

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For more information or to register, click on the button below:

Lightroom provides a number of intermediate level tools that allow for quicker access to photos based upon a virtual grouping called a collection.  In addition, there are also a set of selection tools in the Develop Module that allow for more localized edits of various parts of the image.

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This class covers the organizational capabilities associated with collections.  We will discuss what collections are, and the difference between regular and smart collections.  We will also cover all of the various masking tools with the exception of people (which is covered in the 301 class).

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Recently, Adobe added a new feature to make adjustments to people contained in a photo.  Previously, to make these types of adjustments meant having to use either third party plug-ins or spend time in Photoshop. There are also tools that allow you to correct distortion due to lens angles and positions.  Another great feature is the ability to utilize presets in order to save steps when working with your photos.  Finally, there is also an entire module that allows you to create a slide show that can be exported as a video file.

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This class begins with a tutorial on using the new AI powered people masking tools.  We then spend time working with the transformation and color grading panels within the Develop Module.  The next part of the class focuses on presets.  This includes creating custom presets in order to reduce the number steps needed to process a photo.  Finally, we conclude with Slide Show Module.

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Adobe's Lightroom is an extremely powerful photo management and editing application.  Sometimes, we need something that allows us to really fine tune our photos.  In these situations, we need to make use of other editing software like Adobe's Photoshop.

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This class covers topics that many advanced Lightroom users have come to rely upon for making the final adjustments to their photos.  Topics to be discussed include: how to access Photoshop from Lightroom, non-destructive editing using layers, understanding layers, selections, and masks, removal of unwanted elements using the content-aware capabilities of Photoshop, and changing photo resolution.

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For more information or to register, click on the button below: