Photographing Your Knits: Virtual Workshop with Gale Zucker

Details

Date:  Friday, November 7, 2025

Time: Noon-2:00 p.m. Eastern time

Location: Zoom—this is a virtual event. The class will be recorded, and participants will have access to watch and re-watch for as long as they like. Your order confirmation email will include a PDF download with the Zoom link, and we will send email reminders the week of the workshop.

Virtual classes are not refundable; we appreciate your understanding.

 

The Class

In this 2-hour virtual workshop, leading professional knitwear photographer Gale Zucker will share her incredible know-how for shooting yarn, knitwear, and other beloved handmades.

While the class will focus (no pun intended) on photographing knitwear, Gale’s teachings will make all  your photography better. How do we know? She did it for us, and for dozens of MDK retreat students—so we’re stoked for this refresher with her.

What We’ll Learn

In part one, we’ll learn how to use a phone camera to best advantage: planning, composition, choosing backgrounds, lighting, working with people (including yourself) in knits, and posing, with photos and out-takes from Gale’s portfolio to bring her points to life. Far from an academic lecture on photography, we’ll get actionable pointers to make better photos starting now.

In part two, we’ll learn how to edit images on our phones, adding the touch-up magic that makes viewers stop, drop and drool. Gale will live-demo photo editing using Snapseed, a powerful and friendly free app available for both IOS and Android. Gale’s straighforward approach will steer clear of the technological weeds and get us on the path to glory.

If time permits, we’ll finish the session with Q&A with Gale.

Preparations

• Make sure your smartphone (iPhone and Android are equally welcome) is fully charged and system updated.

• Download the Snapseed App. It is free and available for both IOS and Android. If you already have it, check for updates; Snapseed had a major update in early summer. If you took Gale’s workshop at Shakerag in early June, the app looks different now.

• Make sure there is space in your phone for creation and storage of new images, so you can play along in the editing part of the class.

OUR WORKSHOP LEADER 

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 or Instagram.

A longtime friend of MDK, Gale is an occasional contributor and the originator of our Knitters Weekends columns; you can find them here.  She is the photographer of Ann and Kay’s 2008 book, Knitting Outside the Lines; a photo shoot memorable for, amongst other escapades, a mid-July chimney fire in a Tennessee mountain cottage. (Got the shot! Worth it!)

Gale is also the joyful force behind Nash Yarn Fest’s dearly 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.

When not photographing, she can be found at home in her small beach community in southern New England, swimming, beach knitting, and participating in parades and pie contests.

Gale’s dream photo shoot: shawls modeled by the Weeki Watchee Mermaids in Florida. Help her make it happen!

QUESTIONS

I use a traditional camera; is this class for me?  Yes. This class is appropriate for photographers who use a traditional camera (DSLR/Mirrorless or Film). To edit photos on Snapseed, you will need to transfer images to a smartphone.

What if I lose the Zoom link? Your order confirmation email will include a PDF download with the Zoom link; once you download it, you can always find it on your device under downloads. You can also access it by logging into your MDK account, where it will be stored for you under downloads. If you have any trouble, write to us at he***@*****************ng.com. for prompt assistance.

What if I can’t attend the live workshop? The class will be recorded, and participants will have access to watch and re-watch for as long as they like. We will send out an email with a link to the recording after the class concludes, by the end of the day. You can also access it via the PDF download that is stored in your MDK account; the recording link in that PDF will become live by the end of the day of class.