Your thoughts on 1x1 tutoring

[Risteard]

Hi,

With such an abundance of photography educational material available online and most of it one directional (i.e broadcast from one to many) it is almost daunting to figure out where to start, what direction to take and how to make structured progressive improvements in your photography skills. All the vanilla comments on social media sites don't really give the constructive feedback often required.

I notice some photographers offer 1x1 tutoring skills online or in person as a service (which works at a local geographic level). A photographer who can understand what skill level you are currently at, understand your objectives, and work with you over time to achieve those. To me it seems that this more traditional method still has a lot of value and something which has been somewhat lost with online education.

What are your thoughts, are any of your offering this as a service and what is your experience, or would you consider using such a service ? Or if you have used such a service did you find it valuable ?

I appreciate your feedback/thoughts.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

[sscarmack]

I help anyone I can. I don't charge just to have a conversation with someone, I enjoy meeting new people and just bs'ing.

 

[tirediron]

^^That^^.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I only know of one photographer that does 1:1 sessions and that's related to large format photography and darkroom work. I've found taking a course enjoyable because of being able to connect in person with an instructor and other students in the class to talk about what you're working on etc. I've taken online classes too, I think both can be worthwhile.

I'd look up any photographer offering one on one sessions and see what their work looks like, find out what experience they have, what their background is, etc.

 

[DustinB]

Youtube has a huge amount of information. That's pretty much what I did, got on youtube for a few hundred hours. Go out and shoot after you learn a new concept.

If you really want one on one or similar, maybe search for a local photography club or a meetup group on meetup.com. With the abundance of information out there I can't really see paying for a tutor like you would a musical instrument. Maybe unless you want to move quickly and possibly make a career, then I imagine I would look for a photography degree somewhere.

 

[Big Mike]

I've seen (on local classified sites) a few local photographers offering 1 on 1 instruction. It sort of stinks of desperation, IMO.

Don't get me wrong, I think that most people would be willing to offer their expertise for money, I certainly would. But I'm not really keen on the idea of advertising about it.

I have no problem with offering free advice to people, especially in a casual setting or even in a mentoring type situation.

But if someone wanted me to be somewhere at a specific time and spend a set amount of time helping/teaching them, that is something that I would want some compensation for. Could be money, could be a trade/barter or even just a favour to be returned etc.

I do teach photography, but it's always to a class of between 6-14 students.

 

[12sndsgood]

I consider myself someone with tons to still learn and talk to all different photographers and share information and learn off of others that have the same mindset. I prefer to hear things from different people, most people do things slightly different and id rather adapt other peoples styles and pick and choose things that work for me verus just taking one persons approach and copying it.


and also have a beginner that came to me last summer and wanted to assist me to learn, I tell her when I have shoots I can use her on she will come out. lug gear, set lights, help out when needed and in return she gets to learn what I do and how I do it.