Sheography

I started teaching photography workshops in March 2008 (after spending four years as a volunteer workshop assistant). While most of the trips I led were co-ed, later that same year, I began teaching with the Arizona Wildlife Federation's "Becoming an Outdoor Woman" (BOW), a program that offers adult women the chance to learn about the outdoors in an all-women environment.

After just a few months of teaching, I started noticing that the women in my BOW "Outdoor Photography" classes were learning differently than the ones in my co-ed sessions. Not better or worse, just differently. In the BOW classes, the women were openly sharing their challenges, asking more questions, and offering their fellow classmates a helping hand. And they were having loads of fun and laughs in doing so. Having been a workshop student myself back in the day--and as a teacher who loves helping others learn--I appreciated the supportive, non-competitive environment the all-women's sessions facilitated.

I loved the vibe so much so that I pitched the idea of having multi-day women's only photography workshops with Arizona Highways Photography Workshops (AHPW, who I was leading co-ed trips with). It took some convincing (specifically that women could indeed travel on our own safely...) but we celebrated our first "Women's Photography Retreat" in 2011 at the Vermilion Cliffs. Since then, enthusiastic and adventurous women from around the country have attended these workshops and explored­–through their own lens–some of Arizona's most spectacular natural wonders like the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Page, Sedona, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and Valley of Fire State Park.