Look Beyond: Elevate Your Vision and Intention with Local Storytelling

We are all capable of telling an interesting story through photography, and Michelle Valberg and Kristi Odom have spent decades doing exactly that. As wildlife photographers and Nikon Ambassadors, they are uniquely qualified to assist you in creating a visual story through exploring local parks, forests, lakes, creeks, and rivers—or your own backyard.

Spring is an extraordinary time to document new beginnings, and over six weeks you develop a narrative theme centered on a particular subject in a place of your choice. Whether you focus on migrating birds, a nearby waterway, a favorite tree, or the sky, you deepen your connection to your subject by looking beyond the photograph to the experience, the environment, and the inspiration.

By offering technical advice and expert guidance, Michelle and Kristi help participants combine our unique visions with creative expression, urging us to focus on the art of observation and the discovery that comes when we transcend what we see on the surface.

You come away with a deeply personal visual story that could be published in a local newspaper, pitched to a magazine, or possibly even entered into a competition. As you push your artistic boundaries, you discover that your next great photograph is waiting just outside your comfort zone, yet paradoxically close to home.

Here is a video that Michelle and Kristi have put together: