My name is Manuel Gaetan. Although I earned a doctorate in engineering, my love has always been photography. After many years in photography I took the Canon course and test, achieving the Canon 5 Star Master Photographer distinction. I no longer undertake photographic  assignments.  I devote my time now to photography teaching, lecturing and private tutoring.

                                Photographic excellence can be achieved in many ways, but there are no shortcuts. This website outlines several steps necessary to achieve photography excellence.

The key ingredients are to read, not just read, but to study and learn from experts who have published their work.

Also walk over to the closest art museum and study the paintings. Look at the poses, the hands, the fingers, the light falling over the subjects. See if the background harmonizes with the foreground.

Seminars can be productive, but they have their limitations in terms of individual attention that you may require.

That is why I advocate tutoring and it is the thrust of my work.

MGR Enterprises, Inc. is celebrating its 15th year in 2008. My full name is Manuel Gaetan-Rivera, thus MGR. It is not the abbreviation for "manager" as some assume. MGR Enterprises, Inc. is based in Columbia, SC

MGR's  Photography Division is engaged in teaching at the college level, lecturing for free to non-profit organizations as a community service and mentoring those photographers who want to move up from good to great photographers.

First I emphasize the fundamentals of what I call the scientific or objective portion of photography. That's the numerical part such as focal length, depth of field, ISO, lens aperture and shutter speed. All these are described by numbers and are inextricably intertwined.

Once the objective area of photography is mastered, I move the student on to the "creative" portion of photography. This one  subjective, which is a more controversial area of photography since its acceptance is emotional because it defies categorization. Thus, what may be appealing to some, may not be to others. Yet, there are some basic and fundamental rules of design that attempt to bring order into chaos.