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Steamboat Springs — For years, local photographer Peter Arnold aspired to capture the kind of sharp environmental images on which iconic landscape photographer Ansel Adams built his name.

But the precise, sweeping scenes Adams caught on film required a high-end camera Arnold never had. Twenty years after he first picked up a camera, Arnold discovered the digital age and has been refining his landscapes since.

On Monday, he'll lead a workshop and photography forum about merging digital photos in Adobe Photoshop to create high-resolution landscape shots. The session - which is open to photographers of all skill levels and is part of the Steamboat Springs Photography Forum - is at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Depot Art Center. Annual membership to the forum is $60. Admission is free for first-time forum guests.

Arnold got his first camera in 1985, working with film as a sports photojournalist and hobby photographer. He hopes to share what he's picked up from his transition to digital photography during the Monday workshop.

"I want to involve people and see where their skill level is and what their knowledge is : and ask people what they want to see," Arnold said. A framer, ice hockey coach, contractor and real estate agent, Arnold moved to Steamboat Springs in 2002 and hopes to start a Web site fostering collaboration among local photographers, he said.

Photography forum founder and multimedia artist Gerald Hardage was aiming for collaboration when he started the forum's workshops - which are on the third Monday of each month - about six months ago.

Inviting local photographers to share their knowledge about specific topics for most workshops, Hardage brought in Professional Photographers of Colorado president Jeff Johnson for a workshop this summer.

He hopes to include talks by friends and international photographers in the next few months. Forum workshops have drawn 15 to 30 people, he said.