Freeman began teaching photography and visual design in the early 1960s. His knowledge and presentation skills soon attracted notice, and by the early 1970s the demand for his instructional programs enabled him (with a teaching partner and staff) to establish a workshop program at Shamper’s Bluff. From the beginning, participants have come from all over North America as well as Europe, Africa, and Australia.

In 1984 he co-founded (with Colla Swart) the Namaqualand Photographic Workshops and has since travelled to the desert village of Kamieskroon once or twice every year to teach three or four week-long workshops. Freeman has also given numerous, week-long workshops in the United States, New Zealand, and Israel and has completed lecture tours in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.

Every year from 1973 to the present, Freeman has received a large number of invitations to speak to photographic groups, art institutions, and other educational groups and bodies. A short list of his speaking engagements includes the National Ballet of Canada school, the Music Teachers of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Society of Art Educators, the Science Teachers of Ontario Association, the Canadian Nature Federation, the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), the University of Utah, the Maine Photographic Workshops, Images Alberta, the National Association for Photographic Art, the Photographic Society of America, the North American Nature Photography Association, and the Photographic Society of Southern Africa.