Keith Ladzinski is a world class adventure photographer who shoots for National Geographic, and I taught him everything he knows.
Ok, I’m totally kidding.
However, I did teach Keith some stuff and played a least a small part in success as a pro. I taught a number of photography courses in Fort Collins, Colorado back in the 90s and he was one of my students in a class called How to Sell Your Photos and Break Into Stock Photography.
At the time, Keith was a young, rambunctious 20-year old kid, compared to me, a slightly older 28-year old rambunctious kid, or something like that. However, even then, he showed incredible promise. I still remember the first time I viewed his work during our class critique; he had these gorgeous images with strong visual elements and very striking light.
In fact, if I remember correctly, this might even be one of this images he showed during our class.
During the class, I gave Keith some advice as to where he should try to market some of his images, and it ended up paying off. He sold a few shots and that was pretty much the start of his career.
The reason I bring this up now, is that someone recently forwarded me a 2015 podcast he did on a site called Visual Revolutionary, where he talks about me and that class. I hadn’t heard that interview, and it brought back a lot of fond memories.
It’s a long, 2-hour podcast, and it’s an insightful look at Keith’s journey to being a pro photographer. However, if you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, you can fast forward to around the 42:00 minute mark, which is shortly before he starts talking about me and the class.
I’ve only run into Keith once since that class, in Indian Creek Canyon, Utah, about 15 years ago.
I’m super psyched for him, he’s not only an awesome photographer, he’s a super nice guy who’s worked extremely hard and he deserves every bit of success that’s come to him.
Check out Keith’s website and his Flickr page. You can follow Keith on Instagram here.