Keeping One's Mouth Shut!

molested_cow · Jun 10, 2012

Unless it's knowledge about some life or death matter, like CPR or lifeguard training, and that you absolutely know the "truth" via not just theory but also experience, then yes you should voice it.
Otherwise, it's better not to burn the bridge. May be she has plans for progressive learning for her students, like she will make sure that they do this now and get it nailed, and then do more later.

12sndsgood · Jun 10, 2012

A lott of times your teaching to your class. Going more in deapth and giving several options for a group of beginners may just confuse them more and they leave the day being more confused then they went in. so you try to keep things basic and try to get them setup so that they can hopefully go away with a shot. Find out the level there at and try to add in one or two more things they didn't know and let them focus on those few things and come out with more knowledge versus trying to cram 20 new things into there head, have them not grasp all the new knowledge and leave forgetting everything. Chances are they want the class to get a few solid shots so they can show there friends and then their friends come and spend the money on the class as well. I think you did the right thing. Chances are if you had stepped up and said she was wrong or corrected her the class would lose faith in her and blow off any helpful tips down the line that she brought up.

SCraig · Jun 10, 2012

Just to be clear, there is no additional instruction by the zoo after this class. It's a 4-hour class and that's it. As I said I took it a couple of years ago but it was taught by someone else, and he did go through the basics of exposure at the beginning. It was certainly not in-depth instruction but he did go over it.

I'm still not convinced that the information she was passing along to the students was right however after some of the enlightening comments here I'm not convinced that she was wrong either. I was looking around on the zoo's web site earlier today though and noticed that she is the new "Official" zoo photographer. I don't know what transpired to cause the change but she is the one listed now. Also according to the web site she has a BS in Photography (I hear that snickering in the background!) so she should at least have grasped the concept of exposure at some point during that education.

Again, I appreciate the comments and I'm glad I kept my comments to myself. At the time I decided they would cause more trouble than good and it appears that the consensus agrees.

Overread · Jun 10, 2012

One more thought - maybe the pitch target of the workshop has changed? Over the last few years more and more people have been getting DSLRs - heck go back 10 or more years and most people using cameras would be of a more amateur photographer kind. Fast forward to today and the average person with a camera is more a snapshotter. So it could be that the class now is aimed at a slightly lower level than it was in the past.

SCraig · Jun 10, 2012

Good point. It is certainly possible that they revamp the structure of the class from time to time, especially since a different instructor is handling it now.