Beyond the Guidebook with Jennifer Spelman

I'm convinced there is no better travel companion than your camera. It doesn't complain about the weather, request extra bathroom breaks, or try to control the armrest.

It merely requests a quiet conversation with you. Its gentle inquiry, “Just how deeply you can engage with this new experience?” It reminds you to look beyond the guidebook description of a place, insisting that you form a viewpoint and articulate it thoughtfully.

I recently had the experience of traveling, along with Santa Fe Workshops Board of Advisor Fredric Roberts, to India to teach 20 local kids. The students became travelers of sorts in their own country, exploring rural Rajasthan, using the camera as a means to engage in a new way with their surroundings.

The next time you find yourself passionately exploring a new place, with camera in hand, take a moment and celebrate the power of a machine that allows you to see beyond the guidebook.

See beyond the guidebook with Jennifer Spelman, Renie Haiduk and Eddie Soloway’s
Africa PhotoAdventure
May 13 - May 24, 2011

Visit Jennifer’s blog photocoleslaw.com to see what she's up to.

This video of the Sanjhi-produced Fredric Roberts Photography Workshop 2011 represents the photographic vision of 20 students in India. They were given 6 days of instruction on vision, photography, storytelling and the environment.

The Creative Process with Sean Kernan

I am fascinated by the entire creative process. I think it has enormous amounts to teach us in photography, science, or just in life. I like to try out creativity exercises on different groups of people whenever I can, just to see what is revealed. So when I visited the children at L.E.A.D. Uganda a few weeks ago I saw just this type of opportunity. But I wasn’t prepared for the way they took the games and ran with them.

I have to say, these kids got to the point much faster than I might have. Here they are, having created an imaginary bus in all its detail and taking a riotous trip on it to the north of Uganda, where many of them come from. The point is that the same imaginative and creative possibilities exist in all of us, at any stage in our lives.


Interestingly, the exercises we did were many of the same I will be doing with my upcoming class in Santa Fe, and the underlying purpose is similar ... to re-awaken the creative impulse. We’ll be using the assignments and exercises to carry us deeper into photography, and I know that what is interesting is not where folks in that class will be different than these kids, but where they are the same. I can’t wait to see.


Learn more from Sean in his workshop
Creativity and the Photographer
with Sean Kernan
March 13 - March 19, 2011




Visit his web site www.seankernan.com to see what he's up to.


L.E.A.D. Uganda is a group home for orphans, children from the streets, child laborers, and former child soldiers that was started by photographer Stephen Shames in Kampala. You’ll find great information about L.E.A.D. Uganda here: www.leaduganda.org

Photographing the Other Side with Sarah Meghan Lee

Your children’s dance recitals, soccer games, and school plays. These events are wonderful places to get real and very candid images, but not often where you would first expect. The best photos are not usually on stage or on the field, but backstage, on the sidelines, or even during practice.

Photograph practices and dress rehearsals. You can get closer, you are not in the audience's way and your subjects will get used to you being there, photographing. For the actual event, arrive early to photograph people getting ready and waiting to perform. You’ll capture the camaraderie between friends, family, teachers, coaches and directors. Photograph the audience, the parents and friends watching. Ask to be the team or dance studio's personal photographer and get close access to the off-the stage action. And when it’s all over, its not really over. Post-game and post-performance hugs, kisses and tears are part of it all.

Learn more from Sarah Meghan in her workshop
Beginning Photography Using Digital Cameras
with Sarah Meghan Lee
March 13 - March 19, 2011


Visit her web site www.sarahmeghanleephotography.com to see what she's up to.