OUR INSTRUCTORS:

Leslie Alsheimer:

Leslie, author of Black and White in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom, is an internationally published and award winning photographer. She was recently honored as the 2008 recipient of the NAPP Photoshop GURU Awards with the Vincent Versace Award for Photographic Excellence, and awarded in the 2008 Center for Fine Art Photography & Society for Photographic Education Exhibitions.

As a professional freelance photographer, a member of the Adobe Photoshop Beta Testing Team, instructor with the Nikon and American Photo Mentor Series, and the Founder and Diretctor of Santa Fe Digital Darkroom Customized Photography Workshops, Leslie's knowledge and expertise of both traditional and digital photographic darkroom techniques allows her to bring significant passion, experience and enthusiasm to all she does in this field. Leslie currently travels around the globe for her work as a photographer, creative imaging consultant, and private instructor.

As an instructor, Leslie is dynamic and patient, with a gift for making complex concepts easy to understand. Having worked extensively with many of the foremost digital image makers in the country, she has integrated a hybrid of experience, teaching styles and technical knowledge into her unique curricula, facilitating the learning process with fun and enthusiasm in a relaxed environment. She specializes in helping photographers and artists transition into digital technology and processes with ease, using collaborative image processing and printing techniques in a calibrated workflow.

Leslie also believes in using photography to help empower others to find their own creative voice and vision. She was the creative director of the published book, Reality from the Barrio, a social documentary honored in the PDN Photography Annual 2003-The Best Photos of the Year. Inspired by a traditional wet darkroom photography program that Leslie developed, and directed for a non-profit organization's gang diversion program, the book became a thesis project for Leslie's master's degree in social work.

Leslie is also currently the Director of Community Photography Outreach a project based non profit collecting and disseminating donated cameras to organizations and programs in need. She is also developing Forward Focus: Workshops with Creative Purpose, a pioneering series of nonprofit educational journeys utilizing the power of visual imagery to support and encourage grassroots nonprofit initiatives dedicated to fostering social and environmental change. This organization hopes to build a collaborative forum that combines education, adventure, and creative purpose to celebrate what people are doing to create a better world, supporting and encouraging acts of connection, compassion and contribution, i.e. creating works that matter.

Check out our write up in The Sunday ABQ Journal
"Falling in Love with Uganda"
Sunday March 4, 2007 The Wall Street Journal Sunday Inside MONEY