Workshops, Photo Clubs, Private Sessions
Presentations and Workshops
All of the presentations described below can be designed as a 60-90 minute presentation or as an extended interactive workshop. The workshop format typically allows time for discussion of participant images as well as images from Ray’s portfolio.
Intentional Composition through Photography
Five strategies for creating more interesting and compelling pictures
Photographers and painters alike know that creating more interesting pictures requires perceiving your subject more deeply, capturing its essence, and revealing what makes it unique. And if your connection to the scene is heartfelt, it’s even better, because creating great pictures is more than a technical pursuit.
And then there’s the viewer to consider. How does the viewer perceive the image? Why? How can you affect their perception? So many books are filled with compositional rules, techniques, dos and don’ts. How to make sense of it all?
During this presentation, Ray will help you put it all together. He will offer five main strategies for composing more memorable pictures, explain the difference between seeing and perceiving, and share ideas he has come to depend on for creating more interesting and memorable works. These will include thoughts from the world of art and composition, plus Gestalt, evolutionary, and photographic psychology.
The group will view pictures from a wide range of genres including landscape, portrait, wildlife, nature, and street photography.
Create Compelling People Pictures
Whether a formal portrait, a casual family snapshot, or a street scene in a foreign country, taking good people pictures doesn’t have to be an accident
For photographers and painters, this presentation will explore how to compose people pictures that draw the viewer in, that evoke emotion, that tell a story.
Posed portraits, environmental portraits, street portraiture, photojournalistic pictures, and travel photographs will all be included in the discussion. We will review many of the core tenets of composition as well as how to capture the right gestures, background, expressions, lighting, perspective, camera settings, and more.
Ray will share ideas which come from the world of art and composition — plus Gestalt, evolutionary, and photographic psychology — for creating more impactful and memorable pictures. For each picture we’ll share thoughts on how and why they resonate.
Visual Time Travel
Take your viewers on a trip — past, present and future
Explore how to compose pictures that draw the viewer in and that conjure a story in the mind.
Storytelling is a popular genre in the visual arts but Ray will help participants do more than just tell stories with photographs. In addition to reviewing the core tenets of composition he will explore how composing pictures that are relatable, evoke emotions, engage the viewer empathically, and contain classic archetypes, dramatically increases the likelihood that the picture will take the viewer on a trip through their consciousness, past, present and future. The stronger this connection can be the more interesting and memorable the photograph will be.
During this presentation Ray will share pictures from a variety of genres including landscape, street photography and more. And he will offer ideas which come from the world of composition, perception, and cognitive psychology, for creating more impactful pictures.
Black and White vs. Color
Recognize the main perceptual criteria for determining when a picture will look better in black and white or color
This extremely interactive, fun presentation will explore the reasons why some pictures are stronger and more memorable in black and white. We will discuss how subject, color, texture, shape, contrast, and other factors impact the viewer’s perception of whether black and white or color makes for a stronger picture — one they don’t forget.
During the presentation, the group will look at images from Ray’s portfolio, in both black and white and color. The images will cover the full range of photographic genres including landscape, portrait, wildlife, nature, and street photography. For each pairing we’ll share thoughts on why images feel stronger in either black and white or color, and why. Time permitting, we will also look at participant images.
By the end of this presentation you will have the perceptual tools you need to strengthen the impact of your portfolio.
Introduction to Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)
Quickly learn enough about ACR to confidently use it on your own
All digital images benefit from some amount of post-processing. This is particularly true of pictures that the photographer intends to either crop or enlarge. Ray will demonstrate how to improve the appearance of pictures with the ACR software and also discuss how best to name and save them.
A fun, informative, and easy-to-digest introduction to ACR — this presentation will leave students feeling confident that they can effectively use ACR to dramatically improve the visual impact of their photographs.
Ray will demonstrate the software with images from both his portfolio as well as with student-submitted images.
ACR is extremely similar to Lightroom, just as powerful, but easier to use.
Nine Things I’ve Learned as a Photographer
Reflections on the evolution of a photographer
Taking photographs for over 40 years, Ray’s path has covered a lot of ground. Film to digital, landscape to portraiture, point-and-shoot to full frame DSLR, high-key to high contrast, in-camera to AI post processing, have all been part of Ray’s evolution as a photographer.
As the old saying goes, the only thing that is a constant in life is change, and that definitely applies to Ray’s photographic path, his tools, his style, his vision. The result is that Ray has made a lot of mistakes, and experienced some transforming epiphanies along the way. This presentation is designed to help you avoid the mistakes and share in the epiphanies.
Photo Clubs
Ray has presented at many photo clubs from coast to coast. He is also a professional facilitator so he is very comfortable sharing ideas and fielding questions from groups large and small.
All of the presentations described above can be customized to fit your photo club meeting schedule, in-person or on Zoom. And if your club has a particular topic you would like for Ray to delve into, just let him know and he’ll create a presentation just for you.
If your club meetings include photo critiques, Ray is glad to lead that portion of your meeting as well, offering his thoughts on how to make images more interesting and memorable.
Ray has recently been a speaker or is scheduled to speak at many clubs including:
Base Camp Photo Club – NV
Berks Photographic Society – PA
Chester County Camera Club - PA
Delaware County Camera Club - PA
Focus Camera Club - CO
Kiawah Photo Club - NC
Main Line Camera Club - PA
MDI Photo Club - ME
Merrimack Valley Camera Club - MA
Pocono Photo Club - PA
Philadelphia Photographic Society – PA
Princeton Photo Club - NJ
Redlands Photo Club – CA
Stony Brook Photo Club – MA
Tucson Photo Club - AZ
Private Sessions
Group presentations and workshops are not for everyone. Sometimes a photographer is hesitant to ask a particular question in a group setting. Or they want to spend extra time delving into an area of inquiry and feel it might be a distraction to others in the group. That’s where private sessions come in.
These sessions could be on-location shooting, portfolio review/discussion, customized presentation of a specific topic of interest, and more. They could be designed as a once and done “tune-up,” or structured as a series. In either case, the goal is to meet the photographer exactly where they are in their creative journey.