This two-day workshop (June 13 and 20) led by New York Times staff photographer James Estrin will help you improve your photographic skills for use in all media. It will cover technical and conceptual aspects of photography, including basic camera usage, composition, visual vocabulary, photo editing, lighting and Photoshop. The workshop will concentrate on practical tools and problem solving.

Participants will learn how to handle portraits, news conferences, politics, intimate photo essays and international conflicts. They will also learn how to photograph while recording audio, shooting video or reporting for print. An afternoon session will concentrate on producing audio slide shows and cross-platform storytelling.

Students are expected to bring their own cameras: A digital SLR is preferred, but any camera will do.

Whether you are a beginner or intermediate photographer, you will learn the professional photojournalists’ tricks of the trade. There will be assignments between Day 1 and Day 2. Mr. Estrin will be available during that week for consultation.

James Estrin is a senior staff photographer for The New York Times. He started at the Times in 1987 and was part of a team that won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He has also written for the Times and produced multimedia projects for its Web site. This year, he has been photographing a series of stories on Islam. In 2004 and 2005, he wrote and photographed several articles on assisted suicide and dying. Estrin was a staff photographer for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. from 1981 to 1983 and then freelanced in Washington D.C. and New York before joining the Times.