Rick Dawson Photographic Craftsman, Certified Professional Photographer has been in photography since 1978. Starting in black & white film and moving to digital images in 2002.

During this time, he have won many awards in nature photography. In April 2004, a photograph named “Tsunami” was accepted for exhibition at the Southeastern Professional Photographers Association. The same image was also accepted to be shown at the Professional Photography of America International Print Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada convention in July 2004. In February 2005 was awarded two blue ribbons at the Virginia Professional Photographers Association convention. In April had two prints accepted to be show at the Southeastern Professional Photographers convention.

More experience in photography has been gained with six years of photojournalism at Martinsville Bulletin in Martinsville VA. The training lead to sports action pictures for the local high schools yearbooks and local youth team sports photos.

The last four years he has been a commercial photographer at Collinsville Printing Company. This position covers photographing furniture to automobiles and portraits for wall-sized posters; building an in house studio with professional lighting; and location photos for brochures that local companies show new clients.

Since fall 2002, he has taught over 40 one-day workshops on digital photography and photoshop; at Patrick Henry Community College main campus in Martinsville VA, Patrick County site in Stuart VA and Franklin County site in Rocky Mount VA. This includes from Beginner to Advanced used of personal cameras and how they can improve their finished photos. Nature photography workshops utilizing digital photography have also been taught at Reynolds Homestead in Critz VA. This workshop deals with the student overcoming problems that occur in shooting on locations and how to control lighting.

The PPA Super Monday from 9-5 Workshops, covered nature photography at covered bridges in Patrick County, Virginia and other locations of interest on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The last part of the day was set aside for discussing what the photographer was trying to capture, how could the picture could have been done better and what problems occurred in getting the finished picture. .