So you want to create Great Photographs
Class - Photography | Registration opens 11/10/2026 9:00 AM EDT
Great photographs rarely begin with cameras. They begin with attention. We can learn aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and the mechanics of our cameras relatively quickly. The harder—and far more interesting—part of photography is learning how to see: noticing the way light falls across a room, discovering relationships between shapes and shadows, paying attention to what happens at the edges of the frame, and recognizing the extraordinary hiding in the ordinary.
In this five-week experiential course, we’ll put technical concerns in the back seat and concentrate on developing the photographer’s most important tool: the eye. Through photographic exercises, conversations, and looking closely at images together, we’ll explore light, composition, space, simplicity, and visual awareness.
- Whether you photograph with an expensive digital camera, a film camera, or your smart phone, you are welcome. Bring whatever camera you enjoy using—and come prepared to slow down, pay attention, and discover that making better photographs may have less to do with what you’re looking at than with how you look.
Timothy Auman
I am an ordained lay Buddhist, certified mindfulness teacher, and former university chaplain dedicated to the application of Taoist and Zen thought to the issues of everyday life. As a visual artist, my approach to photography focuses on learning (or perhaps we could say re-learning) how to see. My work is influenced by the Miksang (the Tibetan word for “good eye”) movement, having studied with John McQuade and Miriam Hall for many years. In contemplative photography, we focus on taking the time to actually see, to become aware of and present with what is actually happening in the phenomenal world, and then create an equivalent image with our camera. The main difference between Miksang Contemplative Photography and other forms of photography is that Miksang is based on clear perception before an overlay of thoughts, interpretations, preferences, story lines, likes and dislikes, what we think might make a good image and so forth arise. Meditation, dharma teachings and contemplation are woven into all I teach. If you want to know more about contemplative photography, please sign up for a class.