First an Amateur

In my last Blog I shared ideas about photography that came to me from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers.  Gladwell discloses some very interesting explanations for how exceptional musicians, athletes, millionaires, and others have attained success.  I wondered if I’ve been adopting Gladwell’s interpretations as I worked to improve my photography? I began my retirement assuring […]

I suspect that most of you get photography e-mails, read photography books and/or magazines, subscribe to photo on-line classes, and maybe count on Blogs to get you motivated.  I do, and I have to admit that I don’t always follow through and practice what they are trying to teach me.  But a recent e-mail post […]

In Blog #6 I was a bit embarrassed to admit that when I was highly emotional about getting a Teton Valley shot of the fog, I didn’t do a very good job of thinking straight.  I may be exaggerating a bit but as I develop my photography, I am fairly relaxed most of the time […]

First let me start by apologizing for not putting up a post for more than a month.  Like many of you, the only excuse I have for slowing down my life is covid-19, and it doesn’t seem like a very good explanation.  I’ve had plenty of “available time” but I didn’t seem to have the […]

I hope all of you are safe and healthy and finding a way to stay focused on some of the positive aspects in life.  But I realize that ain’t always easy.  For the last few weeks most of us have probably been following a social distancing formula, depending on where you live.  And we may […]

For most of us our lives probably have changed rather dramatically the last couple weeks with a strong emphasis on Social Distancing.  The Covid-19 epidemic has left many of us spending time at home.  Maybe I should give you a little homework to keep you busy 🙂 or maybe encourage you to share your idea […]

My many years teaching educational psychology taught me the importance of a safe learning environments where students support one another as opposed to competing with one another.  When I retired and became a “photography learner” I quickly realized that working with other amateur photographers would improve my photography.   Learning together in a peer mentor program […]

Two months ago, I finally made a commitment to myself to upgrade my FirstanAmateur.com.  I had thought about it for a long time but wasn’t sure if I had the commitment, the enthusiasm, and the technology skills to dive in. But I have a friend who has very good technology skills and he kept encouraging […]

My 2015-16 blogs were about my own progress improving as an amateur photographer.  I must admit that I felt my progress to be shaky with some good days, and quite a few not-so-good days.  I typically attended a monthly photo critique session, which was somewhat helpful, but I often held back on asking for more […]