Online Services » Photography One-on-One Mentoring Sessions + Photo Editing

As we continue to travel and find our place in this big world, I’ve been working on fine-tuning how my photography fits into the puzzle. While much of photography has to be done in person for obvious reasons, there are two photography-related things I enjoy that can easily be done remotely, and have been serendipitously fitting in well with our travels: photography mentoring, and photo editing. Let’s take a closer look!

At this point, I’ve been on the road and out of my home country for fourteen months. In addition to using this time to learn new techniques, and collecting a wide variety of landscapes and streetscapes (along with copious street chickens!) for my upcoming photo books, I had also hoped for the opportunity to shoot portraits as the path led me to each new city. I was overjoyed that people did indeed want to work with me throughout Mexico! But logistically, most of the inquiries I received were for dates that I would be in a different location, and I struggled to figure out how to market myself for being in a certain location for such limited dates. That being said, over the course of 2022, I did have the pleasure of doing three sessions with wonderful people throughout Mexico.

Realistically, being able to offer photography services to anyone, anywhere, at any time, seems to be calling my name. As we prepare for the next leg of our travel journey, which will take us across the sea to Japan, these two online services will become my temporary focus! Once we get settled again, I will of course return to offering all of my photography services: weddings, portraits, and commercial work.

Photography One-on-One Mentoring Sessions

There are literally a million things I love about photography. But one of my favorite things is sharing skills and teaching tips and tricks. For over fifteen years, I’ve loved to learn new photography techniques, and in turn, I love to share that knowledge with other photographers! Over the years, I’ve taught one-on-one mentoring sessions, a variety of group workshops, and have twice been a guest speaker at Chemeketa Community College’s Visual Communications program, which I graduated from in 2010. I’ve worked with all skill levels, from brand-new photographers just learning to use their cameras, to peer photographers already running their business.

I was overjoyed when a young woman in Oaxaca contacted me for one-on-one mentoring sessions. She had previously used point-and-shoot cameras and cell phone cameras to take pictures, but wanted to take her photography to the next level. We started by researching and purchasing a D-SLR camera that would best meet her needs, along with a few lenses that would give her the best results for her interest in landscapes and macro photography. Our mentoring sessions began online, as I was traveling at that time for a few months before returning to Oaxaca. Over a series of video calls, we spent time together to work through my training manual ‘The Basics’, which covers the holy trinity of making a photograph: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, as well as exposure, composition, and white balance. When we had an opportunity to meet in person, we looked extensively at depth of field, while learning to see the light, and find (or create) attractive backgrounds for our subject. After finishing the training manual, we continued practicing together, and she led her own open-ended education through questions, exploring her stumbling blocks, and real-world practice in different lighting scenarios.

In a matter of a few sessions, we had gotten her familiar with her brand new camera; she learned very quickly how to find the settings necessary to create the exposure she wants to achieve, and how to take her camera off “auto” mode, using a combination of “aperture priority” mode and “manual”. It was so rewarding to watch her blossom into her newfound skills!

Here she is, studying this pink bougainvillea, during one of our photo walks through Oaxaca. In the photos below, you can see the evolution of how we explored these flowers to find the most pleasing aperture and background for the subjects:

What does a one-on-one mentoring session include? I offer a variety of specific subject matters, but am always able to customize content to meet your specific photographic needs, interests, and abilities. The rates listed will cover our initial meeting to discuss your goals, a certain number of hours of intensive one-on-one mentoring time, either online or in-person, and a custom-designed magazine-style PDF guide of the topic covered in our session. More details can be found on this page: For Photographers.

I’m currently offering these one-on-one mentoring sessions at a temporarily discounted rate, on my Buy Me a Coffee profile (which is like Patreon). If you’ve ever been interested in learning something new, regardless of your current skill level, this would be a great time to give mentoring a try!

While this particular mentee isn’t particularly interested in portraiture work, the beauty of building a solid foundation of photography understanding is: all of this information is easily applicable to any subject matter, people, landscapes, objects, or even abstract artwork. When you boil it down, lighting a flower isn’t technically much different than lighting a face, for example, as you can see in this example from some of my early modeling photography:

Photo Editing

The other new service I’m offering for photographers is photo editing, which is something I can do anywhere in the world. Nowadays, many photographers outsource their culling or editing to other photographers or companies. As I’ve been processing my own images, and those of my second shooters, for going on two decades, I’ve built a good workflow for myself to produce consistent, properly exposed, true to color, timeless client galleries. It’s not a glamorous or exciting service to offer, but I’m happy to add it to my repertoire!

Thanks for reading,
Dani Benton | Dani Benton Photography | www.danibentonphotography.com | Print Shop
Soon booking around Omishima island, in Imabari, Ehime, Japan » Please ask about location and availability!
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Formerly: Dani Mouser | Formerly Located: Dallas, Oregon » Portland, Oregon » New Orleans, Louisiana » Mexico