Do you ever have those moments where an idea comes along, and it’s so perfect, you know that it’s what you’ve been waiting for? I got one of those ideas in the shower, the morning after the workshop with David duChemin in Vancouver last month. It was like it came out of no where and smacked me in the head, making me think, Of course! Why didn’t I think of that sooner!

The idea was to give away the Digital Photography Basics course material as an eBook, free.

So that’s what I’m doing, starting today. No strings attached. No requirement that you sign up for my newsletter. No bonus if you sign up for one of my classes. It’s a gift. Completely and totally free.

All you need to do is go here to the Digital Photography Basics page here on my site and download your copy.

And then, if you like it, please share it. Share with anyone who is starting out in photography, and needs access to the basics. Share it with anyone who is getting back into photography, and needs a refresher. This information was meant to be out there, helping others learn the basics so they can develop the technical skills to move toward photography as an expression of heart and soul. This was the realization that made me do a little happy dance in the shower that morning.

And here’s why…

I had been trying to figure out what to do with this material. I wrote it in late 2010, as part of the first Find Your Eye eCourse I taught in early 2011. At the time, it seemed important to include this technical information with the Find Your Eye journey, because understanding how to use the tools of photography to get the image you want is the very first step to finding your eye. If you can’t consistently create images you love with the tools at hand, it is going to be hard to have a style.

I discovered in that first course it was way too much to include this material with the Find Your Eye material. There were three lessons a week and the participants could barely keep up. Not only that, many of the participants already knew these technical basics, and didn’t need the information. So after that first run I decided to pull the technical material out, and created Digital Photography Basics as a standalone eCourse. I ran it in late 2011 on its own for the first time, with great reviews. I modified it to be an On Demand eCourse in early 2012 so that the material was always available, because who wants to wait months to take a course when you just got a new camera? So I thought I was set. My plan was to run Digital Photography Basics once a year as an instructor-led eCourse with the On Demand course available anytime.

Only I discovered, earlier this year, that I didn’t want to teach it as an instructor-led eCourse anymore. I learned last fall, as part of my quest for balance, that I could reasonably run only one eCourse at a time. And my schedule was filling up. If I wanted to add more creative eCourses, which I have plans to do, I didn’t have room for this course in my schedule anymore. So, what to do with the material?

It seemed a logical choice: morph it into an eBook. The material was all there, ready to go, I just needed to repackage and sell it. Sell it for how much? I wanted the information to be reasonably priced, for anyone who needed it. Maybe I would add it as a bonus for my classes. I debated and dithered for months, not making any movement forward, until the idea in the shower.

The day before that idea came to me, at the conclusion of the Vancouver Gathering workshop, David duChemin encouraged us to give away our art. “Art is a gift,” he said, and talked about inexpensive ways to give our art away. I already believe strongly that our art should be liberated into the world, that it does us good to create it but does even more good when we share it. Where I hadn’t made the connection before was that my eCourses are my art, as much as photography. And here was the Digital Photography Basics material, which I had been trying to figure out what to do with, ready and waiting to be shared.

For the last four weeks, since the moment in the shower, I have had a singular purpose to get this eBook completed so that I can give it away. So that I can move to creating the next things… I have eCourses waiting to be born and other projects that need to be finished.

Here it is! A gift, for anyone who needs it. I hope that it gets out there and goes viral. Not because I expect any payback from it, but because photography has been the most beautiful gift for me, and I hope this can help others just starting out get over the learning curve and find the same. I hope you’ll help me make this happen, by using the eBook yourself and sharing it with others.

Knowing I could help even one person would be the best gift back, ever.

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PS – You can use this button code on your blog sidebar or in a post to help me get the word out!

PPS – A big thank you goes to my volunteer proofreaders, who answered my call on Facebook and Twitter and helped me get the eBook ready to share: Chris, Judy and Beth. You are all awesome! Thank you so much!