Owner | Okello Dunkley
Photographer | 1998 – Present
Photography Instructor | 2007 – Present
Stand up comedian | 2015 – Present
Base City | Fairfax Virginia

Since my father is a photographer, I’ve taken photos my whole life. Even though I majored in math and audio engineering at American University, I somehow still ended up in photography since it’s always been one of my passions. I decided to shoot weddings in March 1998 and photographed weddings in the Metro Washington DC area full time for 14 years.

In 2007, one of my wedding couples asked me if I could show them how to use their fancy DSLR camera before their honeymoon. I said yes and as I explained to them how I used my camera in manual mode I might have blown their mind just a bit. It was at that moment I realized I needed to be doing this more! It was fun for me to give them so many “aha” moments during class. I enjoyed it so much I stopped shooting weddings and started teaching full time in 2012.

I started teaching classes every weekend and luckily for me, in a small setting, it’s easy to figure out what makes sense to students and what doesn’t and my first students gladly told me when I said something that didn’t make sense to them. The more I taught, the more I figured out the formula to make this stuff make sense. I started offering classes in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston. Before I knew it people were calling to see if I would come to their city because they had heard about me from a friend and that’s how DSLR Workshops was started. 

In 2015, I moved to Vienna, Austria and started doing stand up comedy full time. I started first English stand up comedy shows in the heart of Vienna in 2016. That was until February of 2020 when all restaurants and clubs were shut down for months due to Covid-19. 

In 2022, I’ve moved back to the US and picked up where I left off hosting full time photography workshops To date, I’ve taught in over 70 cities in 34 states and would eventually like to make it to those last 16.

I continually strive to create a class that’s easy to understand, doesn’t overwhelm but gives just enough info to give you an understanding and the confidence to take your camera off auto mode!