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We (Brenda Berry, Ruth Connor and I) have just completed the first Crossroads Photography workshop with the Santa Fe Workshops down in Santa Fe, NM and it was a wonderful success. Eighteen months in pondering, planning and preparation, the workshop exceeded even my optimistic expectations.

MitchB-0038We had two non-profit partners (our third partner proved too unreliable): the New Mexico National Audubon Society and the New Mexico Nature Conservancy. After talking to them the class developed a shooting list of images needed and then we spent three days on a photographic scavenger hunt looking for those images. In the end the class donated, without strings attached, over 300 images to the National Audubon Society and over 200 images to the Nature Conservancy. It was a genuine thrill to be part of the giving ceremony when we handed the images over to the two groups. Both of our non-profit partners were very excited and grateful.

We had 12 really good participants- people who quite willing and enthusiastically adopted our process for getting images and who very actively participated in the review and reshooting of images. Thank you to all of you- Ky, Mary, Margaret, Jett, Peter, Jen, Ken, Michael, Natalie, Mitch, Sandy and Jim- for your support and your scavenging photographic talents. And thank you to Brenda for her superb teaching.

The next two Crossroads workshops are filling up fast- Manchester, Vermont with the Vermont Land Trust in early June and Sitka, Alaska with the Sitka Conservation Society in early August.

If you want to actually do something with your photos, if you want to use your photography to actually make a difference check out the Crossroads website. Below is a gallery of some of my favorite images from the workshop.