Announcing: Photographing Your Knits, A Virtual Workshop with Gale Zucker!

What do we love almost as much as knitting and making? Showing off what we made, of course!

When you’re connecting with other makers—or just trying to impress your friends—a picture is worth at least a thousand words. And we all wish we took better pictures.

Gale Zucker is here to help.

Please join us Friday, November 7, for a virtual workshop with professional photographer and teacher Gale Zucker. Gale has been teaching in-person sessions of this 2-hour workshop to makers for many years, to rave reviews. Folks tell us they have new eyes, and new excitement for documenting their knitting and their lives, after spending time with Gale. 

We’re so grateful that she accepted our invitation to teach on Zoom—now you won’t have to travel to learn from a knitter who makes her living showing the world the beauty of handmade things and how cute people look wearing them. 

You’ll find all the details on the signup page here. (And yes—the class will be recorded, to watch and re-watch at your leisure.)

The Class

In this 2-hour virtual workshop, Gale will share her incredible know-how for shooting yarn, knitwear, and other beloved handmades. Literal pro tips!

While the class will focus (no pun intended) on knitwear, Gale’s approach will make all your photography better. The cats, the dogs, the sheep, and the sandwich!

How do we know? She did it for Ann and me, and for dozens of students at MDK’s Shakerag retreats—so we’re stoked for this refresher with her. If you have ever enjoyed a photo by Ann or me on this website, the credit goes to Gale. She literally taught us where to point the camera and what questions to ask ourselves before we snap.

This is the Amplitude Pullover, a new design by Julia Farwell-Clay.

What We’ll Learn

In part one, we’ll learn how to use a phone camera the way a pro does: planning, composition, choosing backgrounds, lighting, working with people (including yourself), and posing.  Photos (and out-takes!) from Gale’s portfolio will bring her points to life.

Far from an academic lecture on photography, we’ll get actionable, intuitive pointers to make better photos—starting now.

In part two, we’ll learn how to edit images on our phones—the magic that turns a good photo into a great photo. Gale will live-demo photo editing using Snapseed, a powerful and friendly free app available for both IOS and Android, which we’ll download to our own phones before the workshop.

With Gale’s Snapseed tips, you don’t have to know all the buttons—just the good ones! Gale’s straightforward approach will steer clear of the technological weeds and get us on the path to glory.

Meet Gale Zucker 

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Gale Zucker is a professional photographer who delights in bringing the narrative power of photography to fiber and design subjects. She specializes in photographing knitwear and handmade fashion, producing beautiful editorial for yarn companies, books, businesses, brands, and designers. She is the photographer of more than thirty book titles. A lifelong knitter and maker, Gale is a proud co-author of three knitting and craft books: Drop Dead Easy Knits, Craft Activism, and Shear Spirit, all from Random House/Clarkson Potter.

If you’re a knitter, you know Gale’s work, even if you don’t know that it’s her work!  For a sure-fire happiness break, take a wander through Gale’s images of people in knits on her website . External Link. Opens in new window.or Instagram. External Link. Opens in new window..

A longtime friend of MDK, Gale is an occasional contributor and the originator of our Knitters Weekends columns; you can find them here.

Gale is also the joyful force behind Nash Yarn Fest’s beloved photo booth—which will return in 2026!

In 2009 Gale began teaching popular Photography for Knitters and Makers workshops at trade shows, festivals, events, and guilds, taking her from Los Angeles to the Maine coast—and to MDK’s own Knitting Getaway at Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, Tennessee. She is also an adjunct professor of photography at a state college in Connecticut.

Live, Laugh, Log Cabin

Ann and Kay have cooked up a Knit Stars class all about log cabin knitting, a way of knitting that can fill a lifetime of endless fun. Enrollment is open now, and the classes launch in November. Come see what the fuss is about!