A little about me: I have been an avid photographer for over forty years, a professional photographer for sixteen years, plus I have been teaching the art and science of photography, both professionally and with various community photography groups I have organized over several decades.

But it’s really all about you: Central to my pursuits has really been to connect with others, and in some way, help them along in their journey (whether it’s photography or otherwise).

I have found in my later years in life, my greatest fulfillment has not just been in the images I have created but rather it has been through the people I have met and have come to know as friends, and experiences along the way.

I love seeing others succeed in their photography and in their lives. My goal in my teaching has always been focused on you. It’s really all about you.

I have met so many photographers who have taken classes from other places and they say their teacher spent much of the time telling them how great they were or the teacher “spoke down to them” and they learned very little. This is unfortunately all too common.

More than anything, I think photography and really all the arts is about humility not arrogance. It is about awareness of the beauty in this incredible world. It is not about personal greatness or the ego. It is about appreciation of this life we have been given, and sharing in this journey with others.

A photograph captures a moment. In a sense it is a way of saying “thank you” for that brief moment, a remembrance of that instant when the sun first appears on the horizon and light rays flood across the sky into the clouds, or when a baby is born, or when the person in front of you just gets that perfect smile and their eyes light up, or when you suddenly encountered wildlife on a trail you were hiking, or when a dog leaps into the arms of its owner, or when someone is in their final days of life.

My goal in teaching is really not about me. It is about you, helping you move further along in the skills you need to be better at creating the kinds of images YOU want to create.

Worry less about whether other photographers are better than you. Art does not have to be a competition. Sometimes in doing so, it can take the joy out of the art. Find what you love in photography and do that. Forget what others think. Be the best “you” you can be. If I can be of help in you reaching that better place in your photographic skills, then I have succeeded. Find the fun in photography. If it is not fun, you’re not doing it right. 😉

At some point, I will be retiring, but not just yet. I have a few more years where my passion is still leading me to continue doing my photography and teaching others. This pandemic has hurt my business tremendously, but I am still here, adapting to the madness as best I can. In the midst of it all, I would be honored to be your photography instructor.

Let’s Do This: If you are just starting out, consider my Photography Essentials class, or check out some of my other classes. The lineup of classes is continually changing. Or maybe consider my private instruction options. For now, all of my classes are online, but I can do one-on-one personal instruction (socially distancing and masking of course).

Bless you all. For Thanksgiving this year, especially give thanks in the midst of the challenges. We’ll get through this together.

Kevin Gourley

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That phrase pretty much sums up 2020: “Major Change of Plans.” For all of us, we never imagined what this year would be like, one year ago.

The truth is, we never know what lies in our future. We make plans. Plans change, as we perpetually are confronted with new realities, new challenges, unexpected events that cause us to push aside our plans.

In fact, we all face moments where we are reminded of just how little we really have control over in our lives. At best, we embrace illusions that we are in control.

So many people are looking at this pandemic as a disaster of epic proportion, and granted it is painful to see how hard this has been on everyone, with businesses failing, many people getting quite sick and some dying, people acting out of panic, various forces with political agendas to sew seeds of mistrust.

In the midst of all this turmoil, people’s anxiety levels are rising, and more and more people dealing with depression.

My hope is that we call can step back a bit from all of this chaos and turmoil, and focus on this moment.

As Oprah Winfrey once said “Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.“

We can’t live in the past. We can hang on to good memories, but we can’t go back there. Nor can we predict or control the future. All we have is right now. If we live with our minds focused on the future (which we can neither predict nor control), we will likely be perpetually disappointed that the future didn’t go as planned, all-the-while missing out on the present.

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and my hope is we can ALL focus on doing more thanks giving this Thanksgiving.

Embrace this moment for what it is, even in hardship, even in disappointment, even in pain, even in tragedy, even when it seems impossible to find ANY good in this moment.

This moment is where you exist. Tune out the noise. Intentionally assess what all you ARE grateful for in this moment, especially the things you are taking for granted. Make it a long list. If your list is short, you are not done. Keep at it.

We will always have moments where there is a sudden major change of plans. We adapt. We move on, even if it is hard to do so. Often our “plans” are focused on a destination, but our lives are lived on the journey. Make the best of the journey.

An idea for photographers: Start a project photographing the things YOU are grateful for in your life and share them on social media.

Kevin

P.S. On my “gratitude list” are all of YOU. I love my job, although these admittedly have been VERY tough times for my little business, but what I love most about my job is having met all of you.

P.P.S. Support local small business! Sign up for my classes!

This has been a challenging time for us all.

I could list all the reasons this year has been so painful… the devastating impact to so many small businesses, people who have lost a loved one to COVID-19, not being able to visit aging family members, tough decisions about putting kids in school, etc. but where do I stop? The list would get quite long.

Then add to this the terrible ways people are treating each other in the midst of this outrageously polarized political season. I am amazed and a bit heartbroken in seeing how people are treating each other. This has all made a bad situation worse, as if the pandemic alone was not bad enough.

And then there has been the unprecedented wildfires in Colorado, burning nearly half a million acres of my favorite place on Earth, in Rocky Mountain National Park.

And then there are friends who have been battling cancer, some having already lost their battle, plus a dear friend recently died unexpectedly in a car accident.

I must admit I have been struggling to deal with all this lately. In a sense, I guess I am suffering from 2020 depression. I find myself just emotionally depleted.

And then I remember all the truly beautiful friends in my life. I am so blessed.

And then I will never forget how so many people responded to help us and our small business through the GofundMe Small Business Relief Initiative and other ways they helped. This helped us survive this unexpected pandemic. It has all been so humbling. We still have some tough months ahead, but this GofundMe campaign and other generosity of friends and clients is proving to be a lifesaver for us.

Our Sanity Walks
Every morning, Gail and I go on a 3.5 mile walk which I have been calling my “sanity walk.” We usually walk through our neighborhood or on some of the nearby hiking trails in the hills near our home. While on our sanity walk, I will often photograph something that catches my eye, using my iPhone. The point isn’t to create some amazing photograph. It is more about simply appreciating the small things in life, the things I might be tempted to walk on past and just take for granted.

Gratitude
Anyway, on this day where “melancholy” perhaps best describes my feelings about 2020, I must remember to be thankful because in spite of all that has been hard, I have seen the beauty in the world around me and in the beauty of all of you. I will focus on the acts of kindness I have experienced from you and on the ways I can devote myself to acts of kindness for others.

We take so much for granted, even when we don’t mean to.

I think the key to a well-lived life is to focus on being grateful.

Recently on one of my sanity walks, I stopped looking at the “things” we walked past, and just looked up at the sky. I mean, how often do we give thanks for the sky? Sure we might notice a pretty sunrise or sunset, or maybe an interesting cloud formation, but what about the rest of the sky?

I just started thinking about the beautiful blue sky in the cool morning air. All I could see was the light blue, but beyond that, beyond my ability to see, is the expanse of the universe. That thin layer of atmosphere is what protects our planet from the harshness of space. It is what sustains our life. Yet another thing I normally just take for granted.

I guess I just felt like writing this, at a time when 2020 is getting me “down” and wanted to intentionally remember that this world is surrounding us all with so much to be grateful for. Don’t take ANY of it for granted.

Hug your family. Hug your friends. Go out and hug your neighbors (maybe a virtual hug for now). Hug your dog or cat. Go out and even hug a tree.

Go out for a walk and devote the entire walk to thinking about all the things you are grateful for. That is, if you can walk. Remember even the ability to walk is something to be grateful for. If you can’t walk, you still can find so much to be grateful for.

Once you LOSE one of those things you have taken for granted, you will be reminded once again, you have been blessed by so much more than you realized.

Just be grateful for it all.

Kevin Gourley

P.S. If the isolation of COVID-19 is getting you down, join our LifeInsights group! All are welcome and invited.

This long endurance test imposed on us by COVID-19 is making us all weary. Here I sit in my studio that once had a thriving business with all sorts of activities happening in here each week, and now it mostly sits as an empty space, void of activity for the past 6 months with no end in sight. Of course there is the stress of monthly payments of rent, utilities, phone, Internet, security monitoring, insurance for this space I am hardly using.

Our studio is technically open for business and we are carefully following CDC recommendations and protocols but the demand is just not there right now for studio photography. So we are just hanging on, and waiting for better times while picking up a little business here and there.

I will be forever grateful to all who extended helped us out with our GoFundMe Small Business Relief Initiative Campaign. Your help was a life-saver for our small business.

Even though this has had a hard impact on my studio photography business and in-person classes, it have not been sitting around idle, waiting for better days. I have been working hard, scrambling to add all-new online classes to replace our many in-person classes I used to teach at my studio.

In a sense, we are reinventing ourselves to adapt to the new normal, just as many other businesses have had to do, such as restaurants who have had to alter their services to focus on take-out orders or curbside pickup. (I haven’t figured out how to do curbside headshots, but maybe I need to!) People are giving good reviews of our new online classes and we will continue those.

Also as an effort to help out others who have been feeling the financial crunch of this pandemic, all of our online group classes are set up where you can name your own price. We give a suggested price, but you can pay a little more to help us out, or pay a little less if you are financially struggling also. This plan has worked out very well.

Also our FREE Monday night LifeInsights group continues to meet, but we are doing so online via Zoom meetings.

Even though we are adapting, I still so much look forward to “normal” life again.

I guess I just want to say… “I miss you all.”

Here are a few photo memories of great experiences. My career has led me to meet to many truly wonderful people.

Kevin

Our photographs express our unique personal view of this world. Through our photographs, we are visual storytellers. We grasp fleeting moments in time, with images that help us remember special events, places, and people in our lives.

Because they tell our life story, our photographs have intrinsic value. We might even discover that some of our photographs are “priceless” to us, so it is worth spending a little time to learn how to take better photographs since we value them so much!

These days, most of us have cameras with us all the time, built into our smart phones. You can take a great photo with your phone, but there are some significant limitations with these devices. Of course, the best camera is the one you have with you at the time you need it, so that smart phone in your pocket or purse can really be handy at times.

If you have taken the next step into the wonderful world of photography, you may have bought a camera that has all kinds of wonderful features which will allow you to take a much better photograph. Some cameras have several automatic modes and other features you possibly find confusing or frustrating. You might occasionally get some really nice shots, yet other times, the camera doesn’t do what you want it to do and you are frustrated with the results. I wrote the book, “30 Practical Tips for Better Photographs” for you.

Lots of people think they just need to buy a better camera to take better photographs. Then they experience disappointment when the “better camera” isn’t taking better pictures. The real key to better photographs is to learn what YOU, as the photographer, need to DO to take better photos.

The camera is just a machine, getting smarter and smarter with each new product introduced, but it is STILL just a machine. No matter what camera you own, if you learn how to operate the “machine” better, you will get better results!

My book offers 30 practical tips to create consistently better images by showing you how to control the most important features of your camera. Put these recommendations into practice and you definitely will get better photographs!

I don’t want you to accidentally take a good photo every once in a while. My goal is to help you discover what you need to know to take great photographs consistently, not accidentally!

Whether you are using a digital SLR (DSLR), a mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses (MILC), or a fancy point-and-shoot camera, this book will help! Sometimes I might mention Canon or Nikon or Sony specifically, but much of what I cover applies to other brands as well. Canon and Nikon and Sony make great cameras and they dominate the current photography market, but other camera brands such as Pentax, Olympus, Fujifilm, etc. are also good cameras. Don’t think you need to go out and buy a Canon, Nikon, or Sony if you currently have another brand.

I recently saw an ad online for a used camera and the ad said: “Takes great pictures.” That would be like posting an ad for a paint brush and saying: “Paints great paintings.” What matters more than how fancy your camera is, is how well you know how to use it.

I have taught photography workshops to beginner and advanced students for many years and I am well aware of the challenges photographers face that sometimes lead to disappointing results. My experience in teaching is what has led me to include the various chapters I included in my book. There is a lot more to photography that could take hundreds of books to cover, but I tried to distill it down to the most important things you need to learn to begin to master your camera.

I hope you’ll buy a copy! And also remember I reach a broad range of classes.

Happy Picture Taking!
Kevin Gourley

Readers are saying: “highly recommend” “many useful tips” “easy to read, learn and apply” “an excellent book for anyone wanting to improve” “very well written” “explains camera terms in a way that you understand” “a wonderful guide” “a great resource” “this book should always be in your camera bag“

I have loved photography for quite a long time, since my high school days over 40 years ago. I wholeheartedly dove into photography, learning everything I could, sharpening my camera skills, then learning B&W and Color darkroom techniques. I did my own film developing and printing. I did studio work, portraiture, landscapes, nature, really all aspects of photography, all while in my teen years. I even taught my first photography classes back then as well!

In a nostalgic way, I sort of miss those days when we created images on film and had to wait to see the results after the images were developed, and I miss the long hours spent in the darkroom. It was truly a different craft than what photographers do today. I miss it, but I’m not ready to go back to shooting with film. It is a bygone era, except for a few folks who are going “retro” and having fun with film, exploring the world I knew so well so many decades ago.

Looking back on all of my wonderful experiences with a camera in hand, I am grateful for the memories. I’ve included a few images, below, that I created wayyyyy back when I was a teen.

In whatever type of photography you pursue, I hope you find the part of it that you LOVE.

Kevin Gourley

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In these crazy uncertain times, I know many of you are under such stress maybe due to your business being shut down, or you lost your job, or you are in the COVID-19 “high risk” health category, or you are fed up with people arguing “mask” vs. “no mask”, “shut down businesses” vs. “don’t shut down businesses”, and the seemingly unrelenting bickering by the immensely politically polarized world around us.

I am frankly tired of the “noise” of it all. We can focus so much on what we have lost, that we lose sight of what we have in abundance all around us.

Gail and I go for a walk every morning, usually 5-7 miles or so. I call these my “sanity walks.” They are my escape from all the chaos. Since we are not around others, we walk without masks, and the world just feels “normal” as if we were not even in the midst of a major pandemic disaster. We talk about life. No tweets or posts popping up. No emails or news notifications. We are just walking.

Occasionally, we have a special treat of having our 4 year old granddaughter Addison spend the night with us. She likes to go on walks with us in the late afternoon, usually around 2 miles (and for a 4 year old, 2 miles is a long walk). Addison brings along a little bag, and she calls these walks “nature walks” as she’s always finding a leaf or twig or acorn to put in her bag.

Every time we pass by a rosemary bush, Addison stops, rubs her small fingers on the fragrant needle-like leaves and breaths in the wonderful smell of rosemary. She smiles and says in her cute little 4-year old voice “I love the smell of rosemary!”

That is our routine. Every time we pass rosemary bushes, Addison has to stop and smell the rosemary again, and remind us yet another time, just how much she loves the smell of rosemary.

I also love the smell of rosemary, and every time I pass a rosemary bush, I think of Addison and how thrilled she is to encounter a rosemary bush.

There is so much about this world around me that reminds me that this world is still a beautiful place, and I have SO much to be thankful for.

In spite of the chaos. In spite of the uncertainty of each day. In spite of all that is “wrong” in the world, there is so much that is beautiful, so much to be celebrated, so many sights, sounds and smells of nature that are wondrous. If only we would pause long enough to appreciate it all.

I love the sounds of the birds. I love the bright array of colors of the flowers. I love the slight cool breeze in the morning before it gets hot outside. I love the sunshine. I love the rain. I love the deer we sometimes encounter. I love seeing the other neighbors out walking as we say “hi” each day. I love holding the hand of a 4 year old while I walk. (Those are special occasions.) And yes, most especially, I love the smell of rosemary.

Since we have been doing these walks, I have been taking snapshots with my iPhone of some of the sights I have encountered on my morning or evening “sanity walks.” The point isn’t really about “great photography,” at ALL. I am not on a mission to photograph. I am on a mission to escape and simply walk. It’s about SEEING the world around me, and simply affirming the beauty I encounter each day.

I encourage you to take some time to experience the world around you more, pushing aside the distractions and chaos. Don’t miss the beauty that is ALL AROUND YOU.

Look for some rosemary bushes. Smell the rosemary.

Kevin Gourley