The fee is $85. for two sessions, typically each lasting an hour or two.

SESSION ONE: You will need to bring with you up to 20 prints that you feel represent your finest work-- they need not constitute a body of work sharing a single theme. Diversity of subject matter and even style is perfectly ok provided each image is one you deem to be "true" in some way to who you are. They can be snapshots or highly manipulated images. They must be prints since the final measure of photographic excellence remains the execution of the vision on paper (vs. the appearance of the image on a computer monitor). I would urge you to bring unframed and unmatted prints to make transport easier and the images more readily appreciated without the presentational trappings.

Over tea or a cup of coffee, we will leisurely go through the images one-by-one, and I will tell you what I feel are the weak and strong points, as well as what might be done to intensify the essence of each piece.

This session will often include some general discussion of form, (composition, color, line, tonality and texture). We might explore alternate croppings or look at photographs by master photographers that demonstrate a particular element of the critique.

At the conclusion of the session, I will suggest one or more exercises for you to execute within a next day or two.


SESSION TWO: Because darkroom chemicals are potential pollutants at Magic Pond, you will need to work in digital format and then either print the work from your laptop on a printer you bring with you OR take your files to Wal-Mart for one hour processing. Realizing that neither of these printing methods is ideal, the objective is simply to execute on paper the substance of the exercise so that we can look at it together without the fuzziness and tonality/coloring shifts common to viewing images on monitors.

During this session, I will try to zero in on one or two aspects of your process that might hold particular promise for your evolution as a photographer based upon the results of the exercise. I might also suggest additional shoots for you to execute on your own to continue along an essential path expressed by your eye.

We'll conclude with your analysis of how useful the sessions might have been to you and a recap of the less central, yet very important, elements we discussed during Session One and how they relate to the core issue.

Most of all: we'll have fun during both sessions!