Circuit Board Abstract — Barnbaum

This workshop may be the most surprising — and surprisingly effective — workshop offered on any program, delving deep into photographic creativity. Creativity can be taught; it can be learned. Students from past workshops will attest to that.

Photography is a communication between you, the photographer, and your viewers. This workshop is specifically geared to help you strengthen your statements about the subjects you find important, to add new thinking into how to do it more effectively, and to make that possible to photographers at all levels of experience. We’ll provide the thoughts and the technical expertise — digitally or traditionally — to get you there.

Determining what subject matter truly attracts you is often very difficult. This workshop can solve that dilemma. Our discussions delve deeply into your true interests, and the answers are often very surprising.

You’ll see why light and form is the key to any photograph: portraiture, architectural, landscape, street photography, or whatever attracts you. The camera is merely the robot that focuses light and shapes sharply; you are the artist who makes the statement. Neither film nor digital sensors know a face from a mountain; you do! So you have to learn how to make the lighting and ambience work for you, from a facial expression to an incoming storm. You need the artistic imagination, the creative ways of putting your thoughts into action and the technical skills to make it all work. This workshop helps with all of it.

Most people think that all you need is a camera to be a photographer. But that's like thinking that all you need is a pencil to be a writer. You need more. In addition to "having a good eye," you have to train your eye to “see photographically,” to lead the viewer's eye to where you want it to go and convey the message you want conveyed. 

Why do some people create images with long-term impact while most people are satisfied with momentary “likes” on their social media? In this workshop we promote new thinking, new seeing, new understanding of the technical tools, and new approaches to your photography. Insights gained during this workshop will be long-lasting and deeply meaningful.

Students and Bruce compile a bibliography of books, magazines, and videos that you feel have helped improve your own creative abilities, and share that list with others to facilitate further creativity. We also review each student's images, discussing all aspects of the work, from the technical side to the aesthetic side from the emotional side to the creative side. Bruce Barnbaum and invited guest lecturers show and discuss their own work, their thinking behind the imagery, their methods, and their materials…and they'll fully answer questions about all of it. There are no secrets.

In this workshop you’ll find that Bruce serves primarily as a facilitator, but also a student if you will, looking for student feedback to improve his own creativity together with his other fellow “students.” Bruce says, “It’s never too late to learn, and if you’re not learning, you’re dead!”

Workshop Details: The workshop begins at 9:00 a.m., Monday morning, September, 12, 2027, following a group breakfast inside Bruce’s home. We request all students to arrive Sunday evening prior to the workshop (September 11), for dessert, wine, meeting one another and good vibes with the entire household, including Bruce and his dogs. Breakfast will be served each morning in the home. The workshop will end Friday, September 16, 2027, at about noon. But as you’ll learn during the workshop, it never really ends, as we maintain contact after we depart.

To register for this workshop via the website, please return to the top of the page, and click on the button Add to Cart. Fill out the information, including your choice of a deposit ($350…nonrefundable, but it holds your space in the workshop) or full payment ($1,850…refundable, minus the deposit amount) for the workshop. Payment can be made easily via this website just by clicking on “Add to Cart” and following instructions. If you register with a deposit, the full payment is requested 8 weeks prior to the workshop. (If you are applying for more than one workshop, please do this separately for each workshop you wish to attend.)

The website accepts all major credit cards. If you prefer not to use a credit card as payment method, we accept registration with a check (deposit or full amount) and an application. Please download, print out, and fill out the the application (click on: Workshop-application.doc or Workshop-application.PDF). Specify whether you will pay the deposit or full payment, and make the check payable to Bruce Barnbaum. Mail the check with filled out application to the address below. We will notify you by email to confirm your registration.

Bruce Barnbaum Workshops

P.O. Box 1791

Granite Falls, WA 98252

If you have specific questions, please contact Bruce by phone at (360) 691-4105 or by email: barnbaum@aol.com.