Beyond the Cliche Nature Photography
Colleen Miniuk
Colleen Miniuk (she/her), also known to many as “Bubbles,” is a dynamic and passionate outdoor photographer, writer, educator, speaker, and publisher based in Chandler, AZ, on the ancestral homelands of the Hohokam. In 2007, she left behind her corporate career to follow her love for the outdoors and photography. With an adventurous spirit, today her work reveals a deep emotional resonance and creative connection with the land (and water!).
Colleen’s images have graced the pages of publications such as National Geographic, Arizona Highways, AAA Via, On Landscape, National Parks Traveler, and a broad variety of other outlets.
In addition to her photography, Colleen is a prolific writer and author. She has penned several books, including Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When (after serving thrice as Acadia’s Artist-in-Residence), Where, and How; Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers; and The Current Flows: Water in the Arid West. Her first adventure travel memoir, So Said the River: Life, Loss, and Pie on the Colorado, was published in July 2024. She served as the publisher for Guy Tal’s Another Day Not Wasted and Bruce Taubert’s Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildlife. She writes an online photography advice column called “Dear Bubbles.”
As a fervent advocate for creative expression, Colleen is just as enthusiastic about teaching as she is about creating. She leads photography workshops (including all-women sessions called Sheography™), teaches classes, and offers one-on-one mentoring. Her workshops invite curiosity, provoke thought, foster personal connection to the natural world, and empower photographers to find their unique voice.
When she’s not photographing, writing, or teaching, she’s camping in her Alaskan Camper, stand-up paddleboarding, rafting, making sand or snow angels, recording dance videos, painting, sipping bubbly (e.g. Prosecco), wandering, wondering, and living her big Life with a capital L.
Sunday, Feb 23rd 3:00pm
Are you tired of photographing the same iconic subjects over and over? Have your photographs become safe or boring? Are you looking for a creative jolt for your photography?
If so, join three-time Acadia Artist-in-Residence and author of Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How Colleen Miniuk for an exciting educational presentation on the “The Art of Seeing Differently” where she’ll share her insights on how to record unique and personally meaningful images that transcend the cliché.
Learn tips and tricks for visualizing clear mental pictures of your picture before snapping the shutter; tapping into individual knowledge, passions, and mindful observations as you explore your surroundings; recognizing a flash of perception when it occurs; and then transforming your ideas into a creative visual expression. Hear how to connect with your subjects on a deeper level no matter where your travels take you.
After all, as Henry David Thoreau once said, "It's not what you look at that matters; it's what you see."