Great. So we have a place.

How about we start by having each of you say a little about what you would like to get out of improving your photography, or about what sort of photography you most like to do (if you have already been taking photos).


I’ve done quite a lot of photography as part of my work, which the last few years involved shooting events at schools, among other things. I was hired to direct the Montana Heritage Project, and right away it seemed to me the only way to make it successful was going to be to tell the stories in a way the funders (who were in New York City) would believe it was important work we are doing. So I put a lot of emphasis on photographs and words. It worked--we received over $8 million in the 11 years I was doing this.

I’ve always been a little partial to landscape work, maybe because I’ve spent most of my life in Montana and here landscape is--well, it is. Lately, that has evolved into a fair number of gardening shots, which is a variation of landscape work. I do it because, again, it’s all around me and it’s something I have time for.

Always, too, I’m making family shots (along with all my kids, who have families of their own now but all seem to have a made photography an important part of their life).

What I like about photography is the way it disciplines me to see, and to notice beauty, but also truth--to see how the world really is, which is stranger sometimes than any fiction.