Keeping One's Mouth Shut!

[SCraig]

The Nashville Zoo offers some photography classes wherein the zoo photographer gives a short classroom session and then takes the students around the zoo to photograph some of the animals. They are not free and are in fact somewhat expensive for what they are. I took it once a couple of years ago and as I recall it was around $100 for members and $150 for non-members and only lasts about 4 hours or so.

The zoo photographer is pretty good. Not great but still pretty good. He has a lot of experience with animal photography and is able to pass along that experience pretty well in his classes. I enjoyed the class because I got to photograph several animals that aren't normally on display.

The zoo photographer also has a sister. She was in a "Photo Safari" at the zoo that I attended a year or so back. While she is somewhat knowledgeable she is nowhere near as knowledgeable as her brother. He is a seasoned professional whereas she was taking photography classes at a local college when I first ran into her.

Fast-forward to today. I was at the zoo shooting photos of the new Cougar cubs when the photo class comes up. To my surprise the sister is teaching the class this time (I don't know whether that is a full-time arrangement or just today, but regardless she was there). The Cougar paddock is heavily shaded and I usually wind up having to shoot pretty slow there. I kept hearing her telling the students that they HAD to keep their shutter speed above the focal length of their lenses or they would get nothing. I also heard her telling them that if they couldn't get a shutter speed of at least the reciprocal of their focal length that they HAD to increase the ISO until they did. No mention of adjusting the aperture, only the ISO. No mention of using VR to allow them to shoot slower than the reciprocal of their focal length, no mention of bracing their cameras to allow them to shoot slower, no mention that this rule of thumb was nothing more than a rule of thumb. Just passing off as a cast-in-stone rule that they MUST get their shutter speed above the focal length of their lenses.

Keep in mind that I was not in the class, I just happened to be in the same place at the same time. I just bit my tongue and kept my mouth shut. I was shooting a 500mm lens at 1/100 second and ISO 400 using a monopod and could have mentioned that, but I kept my mouth shut. I finally had to leave, it was just more than I could listen to.

So my question is: Should I have said something or just mind my own business? I've thought about it since I got back home and haven't been able to convince myself either way. Since I was not in the class it was none of my business however it just goes against the grain to hear a class given bad advice from an inexperienced instructor. Was I right or wrong?

 

[The_Traveler]

They will eventually get the right answer and she will look bad in retrospect.

If you had chimed in, you would have looked bad to them now.

 

[snowbear]

I agree with Lew. It's usually better to not say anything, though some hysterical laughing may be in order.

 

[SCraig]

Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself as well. They hired her to hold the class, I wasn't in it, and it wasn't my business. The bad thing is that the students who were in it are now going to go away with some bad information that they will then repeat to someone else.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

 

[sm4him]

Yeah, keeping your mouth shut was probably just as good a choice as anything. Hopefully most of those taking the class aren't relying solely on her "expertise" anyway.

Reminds me of a time I was in a craft store and overheard one of the employess on the phone with a customer. I heard them tell the customer they didn't know the answer to the customer's question, then they yelled across the store to another employee:
"Hey, this lady wants to know what colors you mix to get blue?"
sigh. Shut up, I thought to myself. Just shut it--it's none of your business, and besides, the other employee will set her straight.

Employee #2 yelled back: "Um. I don't know, green and yellow, I think."

SIGH.
I couldn't help myself, so I said, "Um, you don't MIX paint colors to GET blue. Blue is a primary color."
Employee #1 just looked at me and said, and I quote: "Whatever."

This is probably the same response you would have gotten had you tried to bring enlightment to the zoo masses.

 

[Overread]

Mmm thing is I see classes like that as only ever giving out generalist advice. Its a one time lesson to a large group so I'm not surprised the lessons are kept pretty simple. Handholding rules are fairly standard and for a large class of varying skills I'd consider it best to get the basics down first before you start to complicate the issue with IS/VR/OS - though she could have put in a bit about bracing to help get a clear shot.
I do agree though, aperture should have been mentioned (though she might have covered that in an earlier part)

Of course then there is the other side - wildlife for a sharp grabshot you typically do want 1/400sec or faster (and I'm betting most of those taking the class are using a 70-300mm or similar range lens so will be aiming around the 1/320sec shutter speed). Yes you can go slower, if the subject is fast asleep as not doing very much and if the wind is pretty low. Otherwise fur and breathing - up to moving parts will start to blur.


To be fair it sounds like she was on the right tack; but its a beginners oneshot course to the advice is limited. It's kind of a reason I tend to avoid the one-day tuitions (Esp with groups). There's simply never enough time to really go in-depth with things and the class always runs on the lower level of teaching (where most advice is fairly common stuff you get in the opening chapter to a camera manual)

 

[unpopular]

every time I've gotten mouthy like that, I end up feeling like an ass, sometimes a technically accurate ass, but an ass nonetheless. I agree with others, it's best to keep your mouth shut. The only reason to say anything is to be a know-it-all. What calamity would occur with ill-advised photographic advise? Half of them are prob reading Ken Rockwell right now, anyway.

It very well may have been that they covered aperture already, and so mentioning aperture would have been redundent. My reasoning is that she said that if you can't get the shutter speed short enough you must adjust ISO. This would imply that they are doing something which would compensate shutter speed, and it is entirely possible that the whole class was set up in aperture priority mode.

 

[SCraig]

Good points, and since they were all shooting through a fence she could have covered using a wide aperture in the classroom session. I should have mentioned that the classes are kept rather small. I think the limit is 10 students and they normally run 6 to 8. The students are normally rank beginners barely able to turn the camera on so I agree that the instruction is very, very basic.

It's just difficult to listen to bad advice and keep my mouth shut. Reading the comments here I feel like I did the right thing, but it still goes against the grain

Thanks guys.

 

[unpopular]

If I were teaching a one day class, I'd set everyone up in auto mode. deffinitely. there just isn't enough time to really go into equivilent exposures and compensation. Nobody wants to sit inside listening to me yammer on about spot metering. They're really there to take pictures of cute fuzzy aminals.

 

[snowbear]

Well, with any luck, those that really want to lear the craft may find this place.

 

[Overread]

Yeah - I'd say aperture priority mode - set your aperture to the smallest f-number and away you go. They probably wouldn't even cover that the biggest aperture is the smallest f number just to speed up the class.
Smallest f number - keep your shutter speed at least as fast as your focal length and raise your ISO to go faster and away you go.

 

[Buckster]

I'd say she was keeping it simple for total noobs, and letting her just do her thing uninterrupted was the right thing to do.

 

[SCraig]

I suspect you guys are right. I only heard part of the exchange and wasn't there for the classroom portion where she could have gone over the basics. As I said, I did take the class once but it's been a couple of years, a different instructor, I was sick with a cold that day, and I really was only there to take pictures of cute fuzzy animals

Guess I did the right thing by keeping my mouth shut. Thanks everyone for the input, I appreciate it.

 

[Designer]

The world is peppered with incompetent teachers. I blame the students in part for putting up with the BS, and whoever is responsible for hiring a bad teacher for the rest of it.

Yes, I know it is difficult to keep one's mouth shut, but it the best response in this case. Even if you wanted to insert yourself, half the class would simply not believe you, and the others probably wouldn't understand anyway without a lot of teaching time and examples on your part. Meanwhile, the ignorant teacher would be very offended at your audacity, and she would not have understood either.

 

[fokker]

It doesn't sound like the advice she was giving was wrong, just incomplete to save time and confusion. Actually that is how most teaching is done. Bombarding students with a complete list of exceptions and exclusions to a rule is a great way to confuse them. People learn better in terms of absolutes, and they can learn the exceptions later.