Day with a Professional Photographer

[JPS]

Hi all,
A while ago now, my son bought me a gift vouchers to go towards some Photography lessons, with a Professional Photographer.

I have put off booking my lesson, to allow myself a bit longer to become more familiar and comfortable with my camera. I can now change quickly between camera settings without having to stop and refer to the manual all the time.

I’m looking forward to my day with a Pro. and have it booked for Sunday 17th June in London. The day will be arranged around my Canon camera and the skill level is intermediate.

I was wondering if anyone else, on the site has taken the same kind of lesson and what they thought of it. Was it worth the money? Is a day to short a time to gain anything useful?

I would be interested to hear your experiences and views of this type lessons.

[Andrew1]

There are many professional photographers supplementing their income with individual or group workshops. I would imagine that as with any endeavour you are going to run into the bad, the good and the great. I trust you will find yourself with one of the best. A single day is not too short if you learn new things that are relevant to your learning and you take away lots of information to practice and develop from. If you do and comfortably sync up with the pro you can always add more lessons in the future on your own coin or as another gift. In any case, I'd just like to pass on a recommendation. I'm taking this situation as a one-on-one with only you and photographer. If that is the case, one-on-one is not supposed to be a pre-defined course so it should be fluid and entirely geared towards you and your needs. You are paying the wages and are the client so this is all about you. Make sure he stays on a track that YOU want to follow. Also, I've personally not run into this but I've seen recommendations that the instructor should not be carrying around a camera and concentrating more on his shots than yours. As with any other craftsman you hire, if things aren't going the way you like, politely coach them back to your needs. Good luck and I'm sure you'll have a fantastic day. Oh, and take a notebook.

[JPS]

Andrew,
Thank you for the advice.

You are right, I'm told the day will have a 'loose' agenda but will be flexible enough to cover areas ‘we’ want to cover. This is not a one-on-one lesson I'm afraid, but is with a small group maximum of 6 people; one of which is my brother. I'm not exactly a shy person so I will defiantly take your advice and make sure I get what I want from the photographer and ask lots of questions.

I like the note-pad idea, I will take one along.
Many thanks, I’ll let you know how it goes.

[OldFrank]

My constant reminder to myself in my years as an electronic instructor was "If I can't explain an idea in terms that another person can understand, then I don't know the subject". With this in mind I learned a lot from my students. Keep this in mind in your interchanges with leader.

I'd love to be with you on the trip.

frank

[drjuice]

ditto the notebook and make it a small one. In the US we have a size that measures about 10cm x 15cm. It fits perfectly into the lower left pocket of my cargo shorts and cargo pants. The pen (NOT a CLICK Pen which accidentally gets clicked and messes up my clothes) goes in the right lower pocket (on account of I'm right-handed) with my cell phone. Both can be in my hands almost instantaneously for taking notes.

One good thing is that with digital cameras, we no longer need to write down our exposure information. Oh what a relief it is!

Have a great time on Sunday.

v

[damien]

i done the same course like this but in windsor, It was the best thing i done when it comes to my camera, i even booked another course but made sure i was with the same pro as before, my advice is enjoy and learn as much as possible,