Workshops are very critical and important and improve skills, creativity, networking with like minded peers & most importantly – an opportunity learn hands-on from a master of the craft. Preferably, from someone whose work you admire.
Back in the days, a teacher was the “master” of his skills, and had the “final” word on the subject. Ansel Adams for example. These days – most of the information related to scientific or technical aspects of Photography (in specific) are already available for free on the Inteweb. In fact, I have often myself found or have heard people talk about those that run workshops these days, have themselves picked up this skill either recently from the Inteweb or have learnt them from an another workshop.
On the other hand – The more experienced traditional photographers are often “young” from the perspective of the “bleeding” edge of technology and skills that we required by the “Modern” photographer.
In the past several years, I have attended several Workshops myself, and have set a personal goal of attending at least one Workshop a year. My teachers have been both “technical gurus” as well as very traditional film only or alternative techniques masters. The fact of the matter is that i have benefited from both types of masters.
One of the things i have observed these days is that there is a lot of information available on the Internet on pretty much any topic. This has led to a lot of people claiming to be “experts” on a lot of topics. Fact of the matter is that I would like to consider these folks as “researchers” and not really “experts”. Not that anything is wrong with researchers, but when i go to a workshop, i expect to learn from a “hands on” master – and not from someone who has studied the topic with no hands on experience. So, during the process of choosing the right workshop, it is important to see some testimonials and/or word of mouth about the person running the workshop.
Brooks Jensen in his book titled Letting go of the camera, talks about how to make a workshop work – A very useful read for those contemplating on this.
I found a few of the following tips to be some of my own lessons learned – although no exhaustive – i might someday gather all my notes and and update this post as time permits.
- Portfolio critique – Most good workshops often start with a review of your current work. Getting a master review your work is good. Even better is to have your peers review it. I have myself found that I have gotten good feedback and/or criticism from fellow workshop mates.
- Networking – I have always found it very important not just to have “friends” in the industry, but also to gain trust and peer appreciation from fellow photographers. I often keep a set of selected business cards for people i meet and like. The rest of the folks can have generic cards. Over time, i have kept in touch with a lot of fellow photographers i like and have met in these workshops. In fact, when i some day start an email newsletter – these are my “starter” people that will get it.
- Hands on critique during the workshop – Well, this is probably the reason one goes to a workshop. To get one-one-one hands-on feedback and interactive learning session with the master! Not only are good teachers more than willing to share their love and passion during the workshop – I have found that as a former workshop attendee, one pretty much has “access” to this teacher the life as well (via email).
This post will be updated as i get more time….
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