This is a PPA continuing education merit class and requires registration. 

Please bring your camera, computer and a lunch (or plan to order ubereats).

The Art and Practice of Abstract Photography

Let's Practice Abstract Photography!

What is abstract photography, and why might you as a photographer want to make abstract images? How will making abstract images help you in your life and work? What are ways to make abstract images? How do you learn to see abstractly? In this 6.5 hour workshop, we'll answer these questions and practice several ways of making abstract images including realistic abstracts, cropping, intentional camera movement and digital manipulation. After you've tried a few ways to make abstract images you'll be invited to share a few of the images you have created in the workshop with other participants.

Susan Ruach is a spiritual seeker, a wife, mother, grandmother and friend who loves to travel. She spent forty-three years working as a minister, mostly in administration, creating programs and working in spiritual formation as a way to continue seeking and to share her learnings with others. She began her photography journey more than 30 years ago as a way to share the beauty she saw on her travels around the world. Now, she sees herself as a lens-based artist (“All of my art starts through the lens of a camera.”) whose photographic art focuses on abstract, macro and nature images as a way to invite the viewer to deeper reflection.

Susan says, “If I’m not creating, my soul dries up. A friend once emailed me a stunning image of mountains and a lake. When I saw it, my whole body relaxed. Some images have the power to change us: to reduce stress, to inspire us, to teach us, to energize us, to heal us, to be a “thin place” in the Celtic sense and to reconnect us to our souls.“

Photography is currently her best and favorite way of creating, and her favorite images are abstracts. She believes abstract photography (and abstract art in general) can surprise people and invite them to think and feel differently, to move us to a different place, by bypassing some of the barriers we put up to being in touch with our deepest selves. She makes images to call us to break through the numbness and distraction that our fast-paced, care-less culture often cultivates.

Her art is about inviting herself and others to pause, to breathe, to go beneath the surface, to feel and think more deeply, to wander inside our own souls, to reconnect with our creative energy and to touch the Mystery.

Join us for a continuing education workshop opportunity, where we will discuss the latest trends and techniques in the photography industry. This workshop is designed to help you improve your skills and stay up-to-date with the latest developments. Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to network with other professionals and enhance your career.