The Photo College is dedicated to benefiting the average photographer who is looking to take more than just snapshots. TPC provides the photographic techniques needed to either begin your adventure into improving your photographs or to enhance your existing photographic skills. Please be comfortable with the knowledge that The Photo College neither subscribes to, solicits, nor displays any questionable or otherwise offensive photographic material; we're here to teach you timeless Photographic Technique for both film and digital cameras.

Your instructor will be Tom Jenkins, a Kodak Certified Photographic Counselor, Kodak Certified Custom Photofinisher, and published author (TPC: Basic Photographic Technique, TPC: Advanced Photographic Technique, TPC's Glossary of Photographic Terms, Portrait Studio Design & Operation, Photographic Technique, Book I, Photographic Technique, Book II, and TPC's Beginner's Series, Books I, II, & III). Mr. Jenkins has more than 30 years of experience as a professional in all three fields of photography. He has also been an educator in the Photography and Photofinishing fields teaching Adult Continuing Education for the same length of time during which he published several articles, booklets, and pamphlets including his original photographic student textbook, Continuing Education... Exercise for the Mind. His first book on photography contained a mere 197 pages; now all his book offerings are over 300 pages each.

Tom is just the baby in a family with a long list of professional photographers. His grandfather, Gifford, photographed the development and expansion of the wild west in Kansas and Wyoming before settling into more mundane things as designing color film manufacturing process control equipment and teaching union workers how to become professional portrait photographers. Tom's father, Marshall, found his true love in the art form as a Classic Portrait photographer, owning and operating several studios both in Kansas and Georgia. Tom entered his lifelong career in photography at the age of seven with his brand new original Kodak Box Brownie camera (Tom still has it) to owning and using the Nikons and Hasselblads which have been his film-camera mainstays for many years; for digital work, Tom uses Sony™ Digital Still Cameras and Sony Prosumer High Definition Video Camcorders. Gee, you'd think he'd be teaching Video Techniques, too (they're in the offing, actually).

All the photographs and examples you will be viewing in the subsequent lessons were taken by three generations of professional photographers from the Jenkins family. Each example used is either a competitive prize winner or is a photograph taken specifically for use in The Photo College's educational programs; over 95% of the images Online and in Tom's Books are his own original work exposed with his student's education in mind.

The Photo College is the updated Internet and home-use versions of the Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Photography classes taught for many years by Mr. Jenkins in Charleston, SC, Greensboro, NC, and the Tampa Bay area of Florida . TPC's Online version, the Educational Institution Computer Lab Downloads, and Books are designed in the most logical chapter sequence to enable you to immediately see improvements in your photographic efforts and education.

Your first of 12 Free Online Tips & Tricks is "Artistic Composition"; composition is probably the most important part of any photograph. With most of today's cameras, exposure is automatic enough to give you a good snapshot; adding some basic compositional techniques will help you create a great photograph. With this first lesson you will be able to view examples to help you improve the images you find interesting. The learning continues from there with 11 more free Online Tips & Tricks.

Please stay tuned as we continue to transition the physical photo technique classroom into the virtual realm of The Photo College. With over 1500 unique hits to our Homepage per day, we must be doing something correctly!