Welcome to New Hampshire's only fully licensed and bonded school that is 100% dedicated to your photographic education. Our mission is to help you become the best photographer that you can be and take the kind of photos you always wanted to take. With patience and kindness.

Whether you just got your first digital camera, or you have been photographing for years, we focus entirely on helping you to become a better photographer. We only teach classes and courses related to photography, with the goal of helping you to improve your images. We don't sell cameras or gadgets, we don't rent equipment or lenses, we don't sell studio memberships, and we don't want you to get in over your head.
We are dedicated to your education, and we try our hardest to be helpful to you at all times. - With patience and kindness; and a sense of humor.

Your Path to Dramatically Improve Your Photography:

No matter where you are within your level of photography skills, we realize that you have questions. If you are on this page you want to know more about us and who we are. Hopefully, we can answer some questions here. We also have a free short eBook in the FREEBIES section on
Your Path to Dramatically Improve Your Photography where we share some thoughts that span the whole photography gamut starting with
your camera all the way to finding your photographic style. You may find it useful. Get it here.

Connecting the dots

My name is Walter Schnecker, and I have been into photography and optics for about 30 years. I remember back when I thought that a better camera would guarantee better pictures. I soon found out that that was not the case. I know now that what will improve your images is education. Learning how to be a better photographer is fun and it helped me to achieve the images I take today. Granted, maybe I took my education a little far. I learned about optics from top-notch optical inventors and lens designers at Leica in Germany. I studied magazine quality images in Hollywood and fashion photography in New York City. I learned about commercial photography by photographing machinery and being thrown into the deep end of the pool.

What I found is that, while better equipment will certainly help to capture great photos, it is the combination of knowing your tools and being able to make them bend their knees to your vision that makes the biggest difference. In fact, I am still finding that all the great photographers I admire have these two things in common:

1) They are sure-footed with cameras, lenses and any equipment they use.

2) They all have the ability to pre-visualize a shot, meaning that they see the image in their mind before they push the button.

What got me into teaching photography is that I can usually tell if someone is stuck and I can help to connect the dots for them. Taking a client who feels frustrated and overwhelmed and demystifying some small technical thingy in their head only to see their eyes light up when they finally get it - it is that very moment that I find so rewarding. It is so worth doing what I'm doing.

If you would like to read know a little more about me and my philosophy, check out Boston Voyager's feature article about C1M.

 What we offer

Meet Our Instructors

 Our Art Gallery Shows

Some of our courses end with a Showing Of Photographic Art and you are invited. You can check the home page periodically to see the next Art Gallery Show in Coming Up. Or, you can share your name and email with us and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.