With CAPTURE Texas coming up in just a little over 3 weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes the CAPTURE workshops different than other workshop out there. Why am I so confident that it’s worth every dollar invested? What would make me willing to pay $450 bucks for a three day class? especially when I was first getting started in photography? Would it be better to just invest in another lens? or upgrade my tripod? or buy some advertising space in a catalog or magazine?

While these are all good things, they only fulfill short-range objectives. What I am progressively discovering is that folks who want to “get started” need to ask themselves the much more important question of “What are my long-range goals”? Have you ever considered where you will take your photography in the long run? Do you know where to go after you start? What good is it to buy or upgrade anything photography-related if you don’t know it’s long-range usefulness? I urge you to carefully consider your long range goals!

With what I’ve learned over the past few CAPTUREs in combination with many, many years of learning and practicing photography, I know that a workshop needs to go beyond the basics and really challenge photographers to define their goals. What are your dreams in photography? Want to be a photojournalist? I’ll share what I know about deadline-sensitive, high-pressure event photography experience. Want to be a wedding photographer? I’ll share everything I know about what it takes to get started. Don’t know how to make money from nature/landscape photography? I’ve ben there! It’s amazing how few photographers I’ve met who actually have goals in their photography from a long-term perspective. And it very well may be that they have never been challenged to think this way. I’ve been there too. How I wish that someone had helped me early on to consider the future and look further down the road! The beauty of CAPTURE is that it can be tailor-made for each attendee. But each attendee has to come with a desire to go beyond the basics themselves. It works both ways. It will work for those who want to make it worth it! But I can guarantee that it will be worth it if you really want to know how to take the next step.

You might find this article, What’s Your Goal, helpful for starters. However, from a Christian perspective, goals have the potential for growing infinitely beyond just a hobby, an occupation or a yearly financial goal!