This may be the best picture I didn’t take. It may not win a Pulitzer or fill a magazine cover but its precious to Ryke’s Mom and Dad. You see, on Saturday I held my first ever ‘Camera Class’ for friends and co-workers, and Ryke’s Mom attended.

The class was borne of two nagging questions I was asking myself:

Do I really know my stuff well enough to teach it and…

Can I explain to people how simple the basics really are?

In other words, could I get people past the technical to the meaningful in a short period of time?

The picture you see of Ryke above really lifted my heart. This was taken by Ryke’s Mom the day after taking my class. I think I’m on to something!

I’m still waiting to see what the other students shot but I am optimistic that my ’see-saw’ approach really creates picture-makers and not picture-takers.

For the record, I am the person on the right of the above shot and no, that’s not a paid model in the chair. That’s Ryke’s Mom! He’s got very good genes, I would not be surprised if I end up shooting him for a cover in the not-so-distant future.

I just can’t express how happy I am that someone ‘got it’ and now their life (and scrapbooks) will be filled with images that are both memorable and high quality.

Want to attend the next class? Drop me a line at bob@marcottephotography.com. I’ll teach you everything I showed Ryke’s Mom but you’ll have to get your own perfect little man to shoot, Ryke’s taken!

Thanks to Rick at SoShootMe for assisting and for taking the classroom shots. His gallery can be seen here.

PS, here’s another student shot!

Way to go, Jill!