Are you self-taught or formally educated?

danza · Mar 12, 2008

Just curious...

Seefutlung · Mar 12, 2008

I majored in Communications with a specialty in Journalism/Photo Journalism. And you?

Gary

GreenGhost · Mar 12, 2008

attempting to teach myself at the moment.

danza · Mar 12, 2008

none of the above, yet.

djrichie28 · Mar 12, 2008

Both really. I taught myself how to operate a camera manually using the metering system to get a correct exposure. After that was mastered I took a couple of special interest courses (48 total hours) at a local college for other aspects of photography such as Composition, Depth of Field, Various Lighting Techniques. We also did much photo critique of eash others work.

Mav · Mar 12, 2008

Self taught, but I do have an engineering background (electrical) that makes things easier.

Socrates · Mar 12, 2008

Mav said:
Self taught, but I do have an engineering background (electrical) that makes things easier.

Ditto!

gendarmee · Mar 12, 2008

Learning by trial and error.
Always wanted to use that Asahi pentax slr by my self, when i was a kid, but had to be happy with a yashica MF2.
Since I got my hands on a Sony digicam which had manual mode, I been trying to learn though trial an error.
I'm an engineer too.

alabama1980 · Mar 12, 2008

Mostly I've taught myself using the internet and some recommended reading to fine tune some things. I took a 7 day photography class at a community college, and by far learned more there than anywhere else so far. There is an advanced class coming up that I plan to take as well, that deals with more of the technical aspects of photography.

Dubious Drewski · Mar 12, 2008

Alright, and how many of you can make a living from your photography, And has your training/non-training helped?

Mav · Mar 12, 2008

The success of an actual photography business has as much to do with your salesmanship, networking, and business skills as it does with your photography. I like to think that my photography is half decent, but my business/sales/networking skills are probably pretty lousy.

Seefutlung · Mar 12, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
Alright, and how many of you can make a living from your photography, And has your training/non-training helped?

I did. A photo journalist is the best job in the world for a kid. But you gotta grow up one day (unless you live in Never-Never Land).

Gary

Socrates · Mar 12, 2008

Mav said:
The success of an actual photography business has as much to do with your salesmanship, networking, and business skills as it does with your photography. I like to think that my photography is half decent, but my business/sales/networking skills are probably pretty lousy.

Ditto again!

Sandspur · Mar 12, 2008

Hmmm. Let's see if I can break this down ...

Phase 1 (approximate time - 30 years) ... pretty much self taught

Phase 2 - (2 years) formal training - as a student in the photo tech program at the local junior college. (I got to do this because the VA determined that I was eligible for re-training (I'm a disabled Viet Nam vet), and told me I could take any course I wanted. So, since I already had a B.A. and graduate level work in Special Ed., I, of course, chose a photography course. Hey! Why not! It sounded like fun!)

Phase 3 - (4 years) Formal also ... except in this case I was teaching Digital Imaging at the University. And, as almost anyone can tell you, the best way to learn something is to teach it to others. (You don't really need to know how I went from being a 55 year old junior college student to adjunct professor at a University overnight.)

Phase 4 (which actually overlaps both 2 & 3) - Some of both, because I was working part time in a Camera shop (Both Nikon and Canon Pro Dealership) in sales and as a digital restoration specialist.

Phase 5 (today and for the past two years) Still developing info on my website (teaching): spend a good deal of time reading and practicing what I already think I know and developing new processes for my work; and I do a lot of one-on-one and small group tutoring (which is more of that teaching-to-learn thing).

OK ... is that confusing enough? And I guess I forgot to mention one small thing - my dad was a professional photographer/writer for most of his life.