So I’ve decided to take on a year-long project to improve my photography through a course run by Donald Giannatti.  The course starts off with a mission statement of what one wants to achieve.

I’m thinking about the message, whatever it may be should be a feeling that strikes someone when they look at a photograph.  “Ah that’s pretty” is ok, but it sure as heck isn’t as great as “aw, yeah.  you nailed it.” … or even better, an immediate frown, smile, laugh, whatever it is from the gut.

I’m looking to create strong connections between the subject and the place. Provide a sense of place to the portrait and more importantly a sense of a person being integral in that place.  Conservation: Humans required.  That’s a notion that often gets overlooked in conservation work.  As a champion of land management and stewardship, I fully believe people must be engaged with nature – they always have.  The mission is to make that someone as integral to the landscape as the landscape itself.

Here’s Wendy,  a conservation minded weed warrior to the maximum.  She is engaged – becoming a part of nature by her act of stewardship. More on hanging with Wendy here.

That’s my mission.  Conservation: Humans required.