Photo Shoot Question

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

I'm actually really enjoying the class and I am learning a lot.

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

Here is the school if you wanted to look at it - Photography Courses - New York Institute of Photography

tirediron · Jun 12, 2015

snphotography said:
Here is the school if you wanted to look at it - Photography Courses - New York Institute of Photography

If you're happy with it, that's all that matters, but it seems a very strange thing to me.

dennybeall · Jun 12, 2015

I would suggest that you do the shoots in exchange for full model releases from all the folks.

Derrel · Jun 12, 2015

I stopped by your Facebook page, and like Tirediron said, you don't seem quite ready for family portraiture. But...you know...maybe there is some way you could pull off a free-form sort of candid-looking shoot, at a park or at the beach. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is the approximate price range of the NYIP course? I've seen them around for years, and I have utterly no idea of what they charge for tuition. Anyway...people want family photos done, and people these days often like a very free-form, iPhone-esque look to photos...maybe they just want some pics that are obviously not "family selfie type" shots...maybe you could actually do that. I do not think you're ready to be taking money for shoots, but that doesn't mean you cannot actually go out ad DO shoots, does it!

TCampbell · Jun 12, 2015

tirediron said:
snphotography said:

ah . .I don't have a teacher. It's a 100% online school . . . but they have student mentors that you can email with questions but you are not assigned one. There is a student forum and the people (other students and grads) are usually very helpful but lately they have been less then helpfully because nobody replies to your posts (and it's not just mine)!!! grrrrrrrrr

Click to expand...

WTF? Are you paying for this? If you are, stop now! You can learn photography the same way by posting here and using YouTube (and probably get faster and more useful responses too).

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm pretty sure we could point you in the direction of pretty good reading list of books for substantially less than what you're paying to NYIP. It's inconceivable that at those prices they don't actually have instructors that you can talk to.

tirediron · Jun 12, 2015

Derrel said:
I stopped by your Facebook page, and like Tirediron said, you don't seem quite ready for family portraiture. But...you know...maybe there is some way you could pull off a free-form sort of candid-looking shoot, at a park or at the beach. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is the approximate price range of the NYIP course? I've seen them around for years, and I have utterly no idea of what they charge for tuition. Anyway...people want family photos done, and people these days often like a very free-form, iPhone-esque look to photos...maybe they just want some pics that are obviously not "family selfie type" shots...maybe you could actually do that. I do not think you're ready to be taking money for shoots, but that doesn't mean you cannot actually go out ad DO shoots, does it!

Based on their website, it looks like the "full meal deal" professional course is just south of $1K.

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

I paid $850 I think for the professional course plus I got a $25 Amazon gift card.

tirediron · Jun 12, 2015

snphotography said:
I paid $850 I think of the professional course plus I got a $25 Amazon gift card.

IMO, you got rooked.

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

You can talk to student mentors if you need to . .you can either call or email them. They are not really instructors but they will help you if you need help. I've used them a couple of times.

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

[/QUOTE] IMO, you got rooked.[/QUOTE]

I don't think so . . I think that's a very good price for what you get (they probably could charge more IMO). From the research I've done they are the best school out there and some of the best photographers when to that school years ago. They have been around for years and know what they are doing.

tirediron · Jun 12, 2015

snphotography said:
You can talk to student mentors if you need to . .you can either call or email them. They are not really instructors but they will help you if you need help. I've used them a couple of times.

Students; while they may know more than you do, they're still students and have little to no real-world experience. It's also known as the blinding leading the blind.

snphotography said:
I don't think so . . I think that's a very good price for what you get (they probably could charge more IMO). From the research I've done they are the best school out there and some of the best photographers when to that school years ago. They have been around for years and know what they are doing.

I suspect "years ago" and now are two very different things, and I am willing to bet that they are trading almost exclusively on their reputation. There is nothing about photography that is not freely available on the Internet; there are a thousand forums like this around, and every city of any size has a wealth of clubs with members who are eager to share their knowlege.

I stand by my assertion.

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

They are called student mentors because they help students. They are actually professionals that work for the school just to clarify. They are not students helping students . . that would not be very good if that was the case!

snphotography · Jun 12, 2015

I'm really surprised I got as much criticism about the school as I did Bryston3bsst considering it's a very well know school.

dennybeall · Jun 12, 2015

Interesting thing about any Forum is that there are as many opinions and capabilities as there are members. After you've been participating for awhile you learn who's got good advice, who's very technically competent and who's just plain full of it.
It's all good though!