gdanmitchell
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.1 #12 · Best photography workshop for first timer? | |
AHanson wrote:
Yep, it has been a rough 2.5 years for me (like many) and I'm just getting back behind my camera. So one of the things my wife suggested is that I go on a photography workshop to get back into the 'swing of things'. Which is a very nice hall pass to get. So I went to Google and searched for best photography workshops and found this article: https://www.photographytalk.com/top-photography-workshops-to-attend-in-2020-2021
Now I have never been on a photography workshop and spent some time jumping through each of the workshops on this list webpages. Dang, photography workshops are pricey. But I guess you get what you pay for?
Let me ask you this, what questions should I ask to the workshops? Not to ask a potentially dumb question, is there such thing as a best photo workshop for someone who hasn't been to one before? Damn, as I ask that it doesn't sound like I have the question in my head.
Basically if you have never been to one before, would you spend this kind of cash on a photography meetup? OK that doesn't sound right. But you see what I'm saying?
Thank you in advance. ...Show more →
A full answer to your question is too involved for a post here — even for one of my (in)famous long posts.
A first question is, what are you looking for from a workshop? Is it general training in photography? Is it a more advance "next step" of some sort? Are you looking for a workshop so that you can get guided in some specific location? Is it for a particular genre of photography — portraits, wildlife, sports, travel, landscape, street?
Someone once told me that photography workshops fall roughly into a few broad categories. One is essentially basic (and sometimes more advanced) instruction — how to post-process, how to print, using view cameras, photographing wildlife, and the like.
Another category is oriented to a particular location — perhaps photographing in a particular national park, photographing wildlife in Alaska or Africa, photographing Iceland. The idea is that the leader(s) will take you to places where you can photograph the thing you are interested in and, along the way, offer sessions on various (typically) technical subjects.
Another is more or less "going on trips with photographers." A leader will take you to a location, lead you to particular subjects at times when the odds of their being in form increases, etc. Instruction may or may not be a major part of this — it may be essentially group guiding.
Which of these are you looking for? Or are _any_ of them what you are actually looking for?
Are there bad workshops? Yes. (I know some stories...) Are there OK workshops? Yes. Are there really excellent workshops? Yes. (I know Guy and Michael, and you could learn a ton from them on a wide range of subjects in Death Valley. I also know the folks doing the Pacific Basin workshops in your linked article. I'm not personally familiar with their workshops, but they are good people.)
How do you find a good one? Probably not by reading an article about the "10 best workshops." The notion that there are "10 best" is ludicrous. (This is not meant to disparage any of those listed in the article. I have no knowledge of most of them.)
A more important question (after the "Is a workshop what I really need?" question) is "what am I looking for in a workshop?" Then, "what photographer's work wold I like to learn about directly?" And then — this will take some poking around — is this photographer a good workshop operator and presenter? Not all good photographers are good teachers. There are stories of some "big name" folks taking their workshops to locations and just letting everyone fend for themselves, with little or no help. Someone I know well reported to me that at a workshop presented by another "big name" photographer, the photographer spent a lot of time insulting the abilities of the participants.
On the other hand, there are really, really good teachers who run well-organized workshops and who prepared diligently for their clients. One I know recently arrived at the workshop location over two weeks ahead of time to work out the details of "when and where." When I caught up with him there — I was in the area doing my own photography and we camped together — he was spending hours sitting in his car in front of a camera and microphone painstakingly recording materials for his "charges."
A numer of people in this thread suggest foregoing workshops. In all honesty, for most people a workshop is not necessarily the best way to learn photography, particularly at some beginning level. There are situations where it can be great with the right subject and the right teacher, but unless your need is for a sort of general photography experience to make you feel charged up about photography, there are other ways to learn the basics... and if you know what you want to photograph you might be better off investing in your own travels to the locations where you want to photograph.
Other useful ideas include finding local photographers who might meet up and even do print reviews. (Though be careful about the latter — there are a lot of folks with no clue how to give useful feedback on photography!) If you are looking for basics and don't have a friend who can help and aren't a self-directed learner, you might consider a class at a local community college or similar. (These also vary widely in quality, from truly outstanding to truly abysmal.)
Good luck.
Dan
|
