Scott Jarvie Teaching a Lightroom Workshop

Last night I had the opportunity to help out a little on a Lightroom workshop being taught by my buddy Scott Jarvie.  He has been doing these fairly regularly in an effort to both share with the photographer community, but also refine his teaching skills.

Those who know me are aware of my propensity to get involved in efforts like this. I enjoy teaching, sharing and being a part of a great community of like-minded people.  The Utah photographer community has and continues to grow, as is evidence by the surge in numbers participating in my favorite group Photowalking Utah. It has been really fun to be a part of that growth.

Held at East Bay Studios – the location of PhotoCamp Utah 2009 fame – The class was fun, intended as an intermediate audience following up from the beginners course on Tuesday.  I have been along on a couple others Scott has done in the past as well, seeing how he is refining his teaching style.  Though I consider myself a fairly advanced Lightroom user at this point, there are always little tidbits I pick up here and there.  Dave Terry and Suzanne pitched in with some great segments that I found particularly interesting.

Though the class went a little long for my taste (just a little feedback there), I think as he continues to refine and compress the knowledge this series of classes will be an increasing hit.  It’s people like Scott, Dave & Suzanne that make this local community of photographers such a pleasure to be a part of.

If you are local to Utah and have the opportunity to come out for a workshop, mini-clinic or photowalk, I highly recommend you do.  I’ll give you fair warning though, it is addictive; you will quickly find yourself coming out on a regular basis!

Scott Jarvie & his Intermediate Workshop Crowd

Suzanne in full teaching mode

Scott Jarvie Striking a Pose for the Camera

All photos captured with 5D Mark II at 3200 ISO. Gotta love that high ISO performance

Have you heard of a demodicid or even have any idea what it is. Read all about it. I remember learning about this at one point, but it has been so long it was very cool to learn it again. The article is fun to look at, interesting to read, and disgusting to think about all at the same time. Don’t let that sway you from checking it out! This photo is from the site linked above, so all credit there as they do not include a reference as to where it was from.

Science has been an interesting ride for me. Early on I loved it like every elementary school kid because science meant the cool demonstrations and experiments we could do. How could that not be fun?! Later on I hated it because I had a few bad teachers in high school that made science equate to something difficult to understand, a required chore and failed to make science interesting. My college experience was like many who wander from major to major trying to decide what to do in life. I ended up in the sciences and later with teaching because I rediscovered my fascination with the natural world and wanted to help kids discover this as well.

Sites like the Worsley School do a great job displaying and explaining the natural world in a way that kids are intrigued and compelled to learn more. There are many sources out there, but I found this one a great resource that explains things on a level that kids can enjoy. There are photos in every article which as a visual learner myself consider a must. Of course there is more than “just” the sciences represented here, but of course that is the area that first caught my eye. I will be showing this site to my kids today, and hopefully you have someone to share it with as well.

When I studied teaching and spent some time in the schools, I was always interested to see how technology was being used. Honestly, usually teachers were struggling to find ways to figure out how to use the technology they had available. I found this to be one of the major shortcomings at the time for the pushes to get computers into the classroom. There was funding to get the computers in there, but nothing was being done to train teachers on how to make the computers a useful part of their curriculum. I had the opportunity several times to conduct trainings in local elementary schools and a few conferences on various technology topics due to some of my affiliations with the education department at BYU. The reception was always overwhelming, including teachers crowding me after the session with questions and the desire to receive further training.

The article this morning made me smile because a teacher has found a unique and novel way to include a current technology trend at such a young age, and make it both enjoyable and useful to kids. I really am not all that old, but when I was in high school keyboarding was still taught on typewriters. We had a few computers at the front of the class that we could do the speed tests on, but the rest of it included changing out 10 and 12 pt heads on the old machines. I can hear the snickers from a few readers now. Fortunately my parents had done all they could to keep a current computer in the home from the day they could afford one and I had learned how to type well before high school. After two weeks in class I was sent to the office as a TA and was able to skip the typewriter nightmare because I had passed off all tests they could throw at me.

Kudos for this teacher for engaging these fourth graders in such a fun and educational way. Not only are the kids learning to express themselves, they are learning practical skills that quite honestly many adults do not have. Way to go!