Photography Class - My Experience

[ZannieGirl49]

I just started a photography class at the local community college and it's been amazing. We've only been through two classes and one short morning in the field. I had already been out shooting with friends and pressing every button and reading the forum posts and articles on DPS (and other sites) and reading my manual and on and on...but I really felt that having a face to face class would benefit me. I have to say that even after only two classes I have a much greater understanding of the exposure triangle and am CONSTANTLY thinking about light...even when I'm driving down the street. The great part is that the class is taught by an actual full time professional photographer (who is difficult to listen to when he shows us his images because they're amazing).

So, the point of my post is to tell anyone who is thinking of taking a class should just go for it. Even if the ONLY thing you know how to do is turn on your camera. One woman in our class asked what the landscape setting is for and the instructor patiently answered her question. I am so happy that I'm getting the chance to go out and shoot with (and get critiqued by) someone whose images have been in Sierra and Sunset magazines.

We've also been given information about additional learning resources. Because of this class I'm going to go to a seminar about wave photography with this photographer.

I know that many people have a great experience with online schools. But if your learning style is more hands on or if you aren't getting enough from your online experience I strongly suggest the community education section of your local community college catalog. You'll get a wealth of information for a wonderful price.

[Raoul Isidro]

Nothing beats live teaching. In the flesh, face to face personal contact.
The end result is priceless.
Keep on truckin'!

[OsmosisStudios]

What are you learning, though? I have friends that are in/have been in college-level photography programs and unfortunately it's very little more than what I know now.

[ZannieGirl49]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What are you learning, though? I have friends that are in/have been in college-level photography programs and unfortunately it's very little more than what I know now.

I don't know that I'll learn anything extra, it's more that my learning has been accelerated. For example, somehow the relationship between the measurement of aperture, DOF and the actual aperture opening was a bit shaky for me. I understood the inverse relationship between the f stop and the aperture opening but I had the DOF relationship backwards. I think that the instructor's teaching style has been helpful too. Though he has certain subjects that he explains, he basically lets us go wherever we need. If we spend more time on something because we have tons of questions or if it leads somewhere else for a minute, it's OK. Also, I think that being in the field with this guy is easily worth more than the cost of the class.

[Preacherman]

Enjoy Suzanne. I wish there was something similar within travelling distance to me. I would attend, but the courses here are academic and aimed towards examinations. I look forward to seeing the results of your course.

[ZannieGirl49]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

Nothing beats live teaching. In the flesh, face to face personal contact.
The end result is priceless.
Keep on truckin'!

Originally Posted by Preacherman

Enjoy Suzanne. I wish there was something similar within travelling distance to me. I would attend, but the courses here are academic and aimed towards examinations. I look forward to seeing the results of your course.

Thanks for the support. I'm really hoping to show improvement in my images throughout the course. Sorry Paul that there's nothing close to you, I definitely feel lucky to have the opportunity to have a course like this 5 minutes from home.

[teedlepeep]

You are lucky in that you have a teacher who you admire and works well with his students. The intro class I took in college the professor was more involved with keeping the students in line with her rules, behavior contracts, tests on the rules and having us look at shots we found on the internet presenting them to the class every single time we met for almost 2 hours then in actually working with us and our skills.

I have often wondered how many people she turned off from photography with that class.

I'm glad you had a positive experience with your local community college.

Mine sucked. My wife and I enrolled in the class 2 months after I got my first DSLR (18 months ago). Our 80-year-old instructor was fairly knowledgable, but didn't do a good job teaching. He didn't show us ANY photos until the very end...and they weren't very good by today's standards. There were probably 15-20 students in the class in the beginning...I think 4 made it to the last class.

A couple months later, I was fortunate enough to make it to one of Canon's Light Seminars (forgot who taught it). He taught my wife and I more in 2 hours than the old guy did in 16. He showed examples for everything, and great explanations.

Most of my education has been:
1. Internet
2. Observing other photographers (my business takes me to a lot of weddings)
3. Flickr meetups. I've learned a ton from shooting with other photographers.

[arsifferlen]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What are you learning, though? I have friends that are in/have been in college-level photography programs and unfortunately it's very little more than what I know now.

Negative Nelly

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What are you learning, though? I have friends that are in/have been in college-level photography programs and unfortunately it's very little more than what I know now.

Usually these classes are less about learning hard facts and more about learning how to peer-review (and deal with peer review) and accept assignments.

I know that what stuck with me from the class I took years ago was not technical knowledge, but smaller, personal lessons I gleaned from the instructor and other students. These are things you can't learn from a book or website.