Adam Gordon is a 9th grader at Carlsbad High School and Carlsbad Seaside Academy. He is nothing shy of a motivated student and track athlete who has taken a hobby and interest & transformed it into so much more. Adam single-handedly plans hiking trips with parents to achieve his quest for taking pictures of space. These trips have enabled his family to travel together to get the full experience of both a vacation and fulfill Adam’s passion to take pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy in places like Arizona & Utah.
This past week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Adam & his mom, Susie. Susie describes Adam’s passion as inspirational. She explains, “I’ve never done anything like this. Adam plans these vacations and my husband and I are introduced to adventures we have never experienced before” The family recently visited National Bridges National Monument and Arches National Park in Utah, as well as Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon in Page Arizona. While visiting these exciting destinations, Adam planned to photograph the Milky Way Galaxy and other constellations in the night. Susie describes Adam as being the youngest photographer by many years on these excursions. He picks up tips and even gives a few tips to his fellow photographers. Adam’s passion included taking pictures of Astrophotography and Landscapes.
Adam’s favorite photography technique is to take images of star trails, which is basically capturing the stars as the Earth moves, creating a trailing of stars. One night last fall, when he was out in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, he shot his third ever star trails. Never would he have known that a few months later Space.com would be publishing his star trails photo (see photo above) as Photo of the Day on December 19, 2016, and naming his photo top 100 Space Photos of 2016.
Adam’s mission is to inspire children to express themselves through photography and develop self-confidence and their own identity as they learn the unlimited aspects of digital photography.
Adam is giving back to the community this summer by offering Summer Workshops, held at The Cole Library in Carlsbad. His workshops will encompass Beginning Digital Photography, Get To Know Your Camera, Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed, Basic Elements of a Photo, How to Download Photos to a Computer and Presentation Skills of “Photo of the Day” Practiced Daily. The workshops are open to students in 3rd-7th grade and will be supervised by Adam’s parents. Adam will offer 3 weeks of workshops, June 26 to 30, July 10 to 14, August 7 to 11 from 9am - 1pm. Adam is generously offering a Workshop Scholarship to one student in his August workshop. Details are provided on the link above.
Register here for Adam’s Shutterbugs 2017 Summer Workshops.
Take a minute to share some of Adam’s work with your kids by clicking these links
. Turning his likes into a passion and giving back to the community is inspirational to all of us.
