My online photography workshop – Keeping It Simple – starts next Monday. It just might be my favourite because it so clearly connects photography and life.
 

What inspired me to create Keeping It Simple?

 
Simplicity is one of the contemplative habits – something that I practice incorporating in my life and my photographs.

I have a bit of a different take on simplicity. I don’t think of it as necessarily having less or doing less, but having and doing what matters.

During December of 2013, I set out to photograph simplicity every day. I thought it would be a good way to practice during a traditionally hectic month. I invited others to join me in posting daily images in a Flickr group called Photographic Simplicity. The response was tremendous, so I knew there was a hunger for simplicity out there.

This is the only workshop I’ve offered that is entirely on one of the contemplative habits. While we’ll be focusing on creating simple images with impact, there will be side applications to creating a simple life with impact.

I’ve put a lot of thought and research into this workshop and have been practicing simplicity in life and in photography for quite some time now.

A photograph can be much more powerful if you actually put some thought into your creative process rather than simply reacting to something that grabs your attention. ~ Mitchell Kanashkevich, Photograph Issue 7

While it’s an important part of the process to know what grabs our attention, it’s also important to know what’s essential and what’s not in framing our perceptions. That’s what we’ll be practicing in this workshop.
 

 
While away at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, I found myself drawn to edges and sand. The image above was one of my favourites and includes only two elements – the sand and the water. It’s somewhat abstract so it might not be clear as to what it is without context. I like that there’s no strong edge. The sand and water gradually blend into each other.

Who is this workshop for?

Any one who loves photography – beginner or advanced – and wants to simplify their images and their lives – to get to what’s essential.

It would also be perfect for someone who wants to focus on a particular project or theme in their photography. Just as simplicity is desired in a photograph, the same skills used for creating a simple photograph would apply to a project.

What will the experience be like?

Firstly, it will be fun! Why are we doing this anyway if it’s not enjoyable?

Participants will get structure (2 emails per week for four weeks) with inspiration and exercises as well as support from a community at our private Flickr group.

In the interest of simplicity, we’ll create fewer images, but ones that really reflect who we are and how we experience the world.
 

We’ll discover that simplicity is a choice.

 
You can learn more and register here.