OC Center Takes Locals Behind the Lens

The California Center for Digital Arts offers photography classes and photo-based trips around the world.

Kids in a photography camp offered by the California Center for Digital Arts. Photo courtesy of David LaNeve

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Photographer David LaNeve remembers the awe-inspiring moment he first witnessed the aurora borealis in Iceland. 

“You could hear them,” he said. “They make a sound. It’s like static electricity …. It was so cool to not only see it, but to hear it. And I remember having goose bumps and seeing it on the back of my camera and going, ‘Oh my gosh. Is this real?’ 

“It’s like I remember the first time as a kid I found $20 and I put it in my pocket and I kept checking to make sure it was still there. I did the same thing on my camera: ‘Is it still there? Do I still have these images? Did this really happen?’ ” 

It’s these types of experiences that LaNeve is thrilled to share with photography students through the California Center for Digital Arts (CCDA) that he founded more than a decade ago. “I get to be there for all those ‘ah-ha’ moments. I love that,” he said.

The center, based in Santa Ana’s historic Santora Building for the past 10 years, offers photography lessons for all levels as well as classes in studio lighting and photo editing software, kids camps, professional photo printing, exhibits, portfolio reviews, private mentoring, photo-based walks in the region and trips to destinations around the globe, from Iceland to Vietnam and safaris in Africa, plus California locales like Yosemite National Park and deserts such as Joshua Tree National Park for night sky photography. 

LaNeve and other instructors accompany the group on these trips and provide one-on-one assistance to help even novices get that perfect shot. 

“Our travel tours are designed for beginners,” said LaNeve, the center’s director of educational curriculum. “What I hate is (when) people say, ‘Oh I’m not good enough to go to Africa yet’ …. No, just come. Seriously, everybody’s a beginner. And once you’re next to me, at the end of that eight-hour day, you’re going to be great.”

PHOTO 1: David LaNeve, founder and director of educational curriculum at the California Center for Digital Arts, in front of a carved door in Vietnam. PHOTOS 2 & 3: The aurora borealis in Iceland. Photos courtesy of David LaNeve

Out-of-the-Box Learning

If you’ve ever strolled through a gallery and wished you could take stunning shots like the photos displayed on the walls, classes at the California Center for Digital Arts are an ideal way to start. 

In a world where new skills are increasingly learned online, whether through YouTube videos or Zoom-based lessons, the center prides itself on offering in-person, hands-on instruction. For beginners, there’s a three-part series covering the basics, settings to use “after the auto mode” and how to manually control shutter speed, aperture and ISO as well as how they all work together. Most introductory classes are $159 each, but bundles are available for a discounted rate. 

“You don’t even have to have opened your camera box yet and we’re going to be right there with you all the way through,” said Sarah Rogers, the center’s certified Adobe programs instructor, who teaches Photoshop and Lightroom.  

In the intro classes, LaNeve will walk attendees through the settings on their cameras, no matter the brand, to help them gain confidence in their equipment. 

“To me, the camera is a tool and so I teach you how to use the tool like a car,” LaNeve said. “I can teach you how to drive, right? Once you learn that, once you learn the tool, the rest of it is how you see and how you interpret. We can all be photographing the same tree and everybody’s going to do it differently. That’s so cool.”

In classes, students might practice shooting different perspectives using a lineup of antique cameras on a table, or freezing the motion of water in a fountain outside the Santora Building. (The CCDA replaced a used clothing store inside the historic building, which was built in 1928 and opened in 1929.)

LaNeve said a basic photography class takes away the fear by explaining each setting and “demystifying the camera,” he said. Then it’s just a matter of spending time with your camera.  

“Do you remember the first time you drove a car, how white-knuckled you were?” he said. “You had both hands on the steering wheel. ‘Don’t talk to me. Turn the music off.’ And now you’re driving, drinking a Starbucks and steering with your knee because you’re so comfortable. Your camera will get that way, where you don’t even think anymore because it’s just a part of you. It’s an extension of you.”

Kids in a photography camp offered by the California Center for Digital Arts. Photo courtesy of David LaNeve

Developing Talents

LaNeve’s whole family worked in the medical field, so he expected to follow that career path, but caught the photography bug early on, first using his dad’s old Polaroid camera.

“It was just like magic to me that I could push this button and then pull this stinky piece of film out of the camera and wave it around (and an image appeared),” LaNeve recalled.

Eventually, LaNeve bought his own camera and his dad would get film for him. “He’d bring me home a roll with 24 exposures and he’d say, ‘Now don’t shoot this all this week.’ Twenty-four exposures! Now, with digital, my daughter takes 24 pictures of her french fries.”

LaNeve went to school for photography and mentored under one of his heroes in photography lighting, the late Monte Zucker. After shooting family get-togethers for his parents’ friends, LaNeve went into portrait photography, working for a company called Photo Corporation of America, which set up traveling portrait studios in department stores. Eventually, LaNeve opened his own studio in La Habra, then moved to Brea, where he stayed for 30 years specializing in weddings and portraits. 

When the photo world began to change as digital surpassed film in popularity – and LaNeve felt the quality dropped because “adequate photography became acceptable” – he worried about his place in this changing industry. But photographers began asking him for advice on how to shoot weddings, so he started teaching, adding classes in photo editing software, then the elements of studio lighting and basic camera classes, which became the California Center for Digital Arts. 

Memorable Moments

Eventually, LaNeve added trips to the bucket list – places people wanted to visit. Upcoming trips include 15 days in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia for $5,995 and 11 days in Kenya for $13,500. Regional destinations are less expensive, like four days in the Mojave National Preserve for $1,395. 

From studio photography to safaris, LaNeve said, “I like the thrill of the hunt, whether it’s a waterfall or it’s a bird or nature or animals or pets or people.”

Some of his most memorable moments have happened on trips with the center, which is a private business. In Vietnam, he had the opportunity to photograph a woman who was known to be the oldest living person in the town of Hoi An. At first she said no, but after seeing LaNeve’s photos of other women in the local markets, she allowed a photo session in her home when he returned the next year. “That was way cool,” he said of this honor. 

Another standout experience was on his last trip to Africa, in Kenya, just outside an area called Amboseli. “I wanted to go photograph this one super tusker. His name is Craig. He’s the largest living elephant on the planet. He’s famous,” LaNeve said. “So I went by myself before my tour started and went to the conservancy that Craig lived in and there’s a guide that lives with Craig as his protector …. He allowed me to be able to lay on the ground … and I have this amazing image of this elephant walking towards me. 

“He got so close that I could feel his breath on me. And that moment will never happen again in my life. That gave me goose bumps …. That was a great moment. I think I went and sat down on a bush and cried after that image.” 

PHOTO 1: Portrait of Craig, the largest living elephant, in Kenya, Africa. PHOTO 2: Portrait of a woman in Hoi An, Vietnam, the oldest person in the town at the time. Photos courtesy of David LaNeve

Fix It in Post 

Almost every photo – even the most impressive captures – need some editing to really make the image pop. That could involve lightening the picture, adjusting color saturation, cropping it or more extensive tweaks. That’s where Rogers comes in at the center: She teaches intensive, hands-on workshops in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. 

“I’m just such a huge fan of the post-processing … (part) of photography – taking something that’s raw and real life and adding emotion back into it or manipulating it into its own art form,” she said. 

Rogers, who has a background in fashion and design, has been with the center for about 10 years. She believes Lightroom is an essential computer program because it helps to both organize and edit your photos as well as prepare them for printing and posting on the internet. “The program does all of that all at once,” she said. It even incorporates generative AI now to speed up workflows immensely, with advanced tools that can remove people in the background with the click of a button. 

“Photoshop is kind of a whole other animal,” Rogers said. “It’s incredibly intense, but … there’s a lot of really cool tools in terms of retouching photos or with quick buttons. You can replace skies and add clouds or manipulate bodies and faces and skin and eye color and smiles and all this crazy stuff. It’s just really fun to be creative in Photoshop.” 

Each program is taught over two, eight-hour days. Each student brings their own computer and works on their own photos as Rogers guides the group through the various tools.  

Photo editing software has come to the rescue several times for Rogers, who focuses primarily on family portraits in her own work, as well as fashion photos for Instagram models, fashion bloggers and e-commerce. “I love meeting people, trying to share their story, showcase the beauty of a family, the beauty of a couple, their love, etc.,” she said. 

Lightroom allows her to fix aspects like white balance so the couple doesn’t look too pale, for example. But she recalls one photo that needed extra work to fix. 

“I had this beautiful couple doing an engagement shoot (in a park). It was so good: the trees, the lighting. I worked on all the edits and it was perfect,” Rogers recalled. “And last minute I realized that right behind them … was a big sign and garbage can … and it said ‘Clean up after your dog.’ 

Using Lightroom, she was able to quickly remove that sign. “And no one would have to know that it was ever there,” she said.

With photo editing tools like this, Rogers tells her students not to worry about some random guy in the background of your beautiful beach shot. “Don’t miss your shot just because someone’s in it or there’s a garbage can or a car coming by,” she said. “We’ll remove that later.” 

So what is it about photography that Rogers and so many find appealing as a hobby – or even a career? 

“When you’re looking through a camera lens, you really see your world a little differently,” she said. “You find beauty in things. You find beauty in mundane activities.”

Get Social with the CCDA

In addition to classes and trips, there are other ways to get involved online:

• Follow the California Center for Digital Arts on Facebook or Instagram @californiacenterdigitalarts.

• The center also runs a Facebook group, Southern California Photography Group with CCDA, for students to learn about upcoming classes and events as well as share photos they’ve taken and receive feedback from other group members.

CCDA founder David LaNeve said they also plan to start a social club for photographers to come and hang out once a month and talk about photography, do shoots together or outings like stargazing nights. 

To stay updated, visit the center’s website, www.centerfordigitalarts.com, and sign up for the newsletter to receive emails with updates on classes, trips and other announcements.