Photographic Mentoring

christopher walrath

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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Mar 19, 2008
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In a darkroom far, far away...
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home.comcast.net
Can others edit my Photos
Photos NOT OK to edit
I wanted to make a formal request of TPF. But let me preface it by saying that I am only a member. But I am pledging to subscribe when I get my stymulus check in June. I have been her for a couple of months and have found a second online home (sorry, APUG's 1st). But I do spend alot of time here. And I have been able to offer alot of advice to those who seemed to need, want, appreciate it, et al.

This is what I want to ask. In the Photographic Discussion section we were talking over a mentoring system. It seemed to have been whittled down to a TPF posted list of members/subscribers that would be willing to participate as photographic e-mentors complete with gear, photographic preferences, personal strengths, geographic location, etc. for perspective 'e-students' to peruse. If they saw someone on the list that they thought could help they could initiate contact with the mentor and on a case by case basis the pair could then decide if and how they wanted to go about the mentoring process, be it emails, C&C, personal workhops for those geo'ly close, what have you. All TPF would need to do would be to provide a list that could be subscribed/unsubscribed to with fields for specific information and prefered mans of contact.

Is this a possibility? I would love to be able to participate in something like this. And if a list were provided we could all take it form there. That would truly be all of TPF's involvement. Whaddya think? Could we do this? Thank you.
 
Thread in question:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123688

so far we only have a rough list - I think if a mod were to sticky a list for us (please) then news about this might get out a bit more - its clearly a system which requires the support of our experienced photographers to help with.
As for mentors one thing that I think needs directly addressing is the number of students - clearly there are many more learners than teachers and those who sign up to be mentors are going to want to help those that contact them - but there is only so much a person can do. I would say that the list be allowed to be flexable so that one can sign up and then once they reach their student max - sign off the list - after that they are no longer available and it is on thier terms if they help any others who ask
 
As a total and complete "Noob" with absolutely no access to mentors in my area (living in a remote area) I would love to have my very own mentor that could be as critical as needed, and give me some good advice and assignments.

Sometimes I lack the ideas to stretch my creative mind and end up wondering around aimlessly looking for interesting things to shoot in order to learn what my camera is capable of.

So if some of you photo masters want to adopt, I'm looking for adoption lol!!
 
Christopher: I thought I recognized you from APUG. ;) I don't think any of us have a problem with the mentoring idea. There are a few ways to approach this; you all just need to hammer something out.

We prefer these kinds of arrangements to be fully member-driven; we can't endorse or promote the qualifications (or lack thereof) of each member who volunteers to mentor others. This is the main disadvantage to getting the staff too involved.

You could set up a thread (or continue the one you've started) and get sign-ups, then link to another thread (or move the whole project) to the Locations & Meetup thread, for those who might wish to have the occasional face to face tutoring or photo shoot outings. I'm not certain what you mean by "TPF providing a list", other than sticking a pared-down thread with a list of names you and interested members come up with on your own. Keeping it discussion-free will be your challenge; if it's locked, no one can respond; if it's left open, it can become too chatty. And you will collectively need to decide where to place a simple list of members - Beginner's Forum? Welcomes? It's for you all to decide how best to spread the word.

Work something specific out amongst yourselves and holler back. Any of the moderator team can help.
 
Thanks for the ideas, terri. Sorry, I don't recognize you. Gimme time.

Alright everyone. How do we do this then? Outside group like flickr? Over populated thread here? Hey, how about a thread here? I can be goalie here. Anyone interested in mentoring can PM me and I can add you to my first post on the thread. This way the list is up front. Then, also there is a local thread for general comments and questions. Whaddya think?

Oh, and lately I've been here a lot more than I was over at APUG.
 
Sorry to be a pain here but can someone tell me which of the two threads is going to be the 'official' mentoring thread? :lol:
 
We'll keep you posted but we will start a brand new one once we get a concensus on a direction. And everybody will be informed that shows interest both here and in the old one via PM from me or overread.
 
subforum would be nice - but I think it might be a jump too far at the moment - let it grow a little first.
As for where to start I think meetups might give newer people the wrong impression of the system - and also might not attract newer members attention. I would say a sticky in the beginners section would be the best place to start and possibly one in the beyond beginners section.
I think Chris's idea is sound - a pm followed by being added to the list of mentors - the pm from the mentor should contain some basic info too (mentors assume nothing ;)) so we would need to know stuff like:
What sort of photography you deal with - traditional or digital or both (skills and ideas might be the same for both in the taking, but post processing for both is very very different - to highlight one difference)
What sort of photography you do - nature, macro, people, weddings, landscapes etc...
Link to at last one if not more portfolios or your works - a website or just your flickr or imageshack or photobucket would do.

As for prospective students I think similar info would be needed from you should you intend to contact a mentor - as well as something like a short - well written - bit on yourself, how you got into photography, how long you have been at it, where you are intending to take the interest etc... Something so that the mentor will know where you are coming from and can judge if they wish to be your mentor.
 
Count me in as a mentor. I think this is a wonderful idea and I hope we get this off the ground. I am looking forward to helping out. Pros and newbs alike can benefit from this. :)
 
would love a mentor so to speak!!! Anyone interested can contact me :)
(In Alberta, Canada)
 
would love a mentor so to speak!!! Anyone interested can contact me :)
(In Alberta, Canada)


LOL, You have the exact name as my father in law except he spells his name with a "Y" instead of the "i" but other than that the first and last name are the exact same.......weird lol. I actually only live about 3 hrs from you, wish I were closer!
 

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