It doesn’t matter our age, but learning is a life-long pursuit. Whether we are human or part of the natural world, learning is essential for our survival.

With awareness, we can pursue learning to improve and enhance our lives. It keeps us alive, it keeps us young, it helps us feel relevant and in touch with the present.

My photography journey started long ago when I was a teenager in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. Lynford Morton of Shutterbug Life offers weekly Webinairs on a variety of photography subjects. For Father’s Day he wanted to offer a program on those that had learned photography from their fathers.

As my father was an Anthropologist, he had a camera to document the way of life of the Aymara and Quechua Indians in the Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru.

You can hear my interview with Lynford on this webpage. My interview begins on Part II of episode 70 – Photography with our Fathers. Click on the black banner with this title to begin the webinair.

Over the weekend, I offered a Birds in Flight photography workshop. It’s been exciting to begin sharing some of my experiences and what I’ve learned over the years with others. Slowly developing a nature and wildlife program with Capital Photography Center was something that was unexpected.

When I purchased my first Canon DSLR six years ago, I knew that I would like to find a way to develop a career path. But the path was unclear. At first I thought Stock Photography would be a great way to go, but I quickly learned that the market is over saturated, competitive and required a lot of planning and creating. Something that didn’t fit my personality.

Then the creation of my blog “Hoofbeats and Footprints” allowed me a way to share my journey behind the lens and over the years this blog has introduced me to great friends and I have grown with the feedback from readers. It also allowed me a way to archive my experiences and I’m now finding that I go back to refer to my old posts for planning new adventures.

As time passed a new idea appeared on the internet. A website called MEETUP.COM began which allowed people to create like-minded groups for gatherings and outings. It is a brilliant thing and of course I wanted to start a meetup of my own for bird photography. This year I adopted an additional meetup group for hiking photography which is still in its infancy of development.

Because of the Feathered Friends meetup group, I met the lovely Marie Joabar of Capital Photography Center, who kindly offered me an opportunity to join her team of instructors.

And so the learning continues, not only for myself, but also for the many new budding photographers that I’ve been able to meet. A well-rounded schedule of nature and wildlife classes are being offered now through the end of 2016 in the Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.

To learn more about these wonderful photography classes, click here

Let’s learn together!