Photography Workshops: Thoughts And Experiences

I've never paid for one, but I can tell you I've had shoots ruined by them. I went to the fire wave in Valley of Fire state park in Nevada in time to be there for sunset, only to be descended upon a few minutes after I got there by a "workshop." Probably about 12-15 students and two "guides." Needless to say, I got very few good images that afternoon. Most of them had tripod legs, people legs, or backpacks in them. The two photographers who appeared to be in charge acted like they owned the place. They also didn't really seem to be doing any teaching. Mostly just walking around asking if anyone had any questions, or suggesting places to shoot from (which were usually in my shot!) I was not impressed.

At the second location, as we were milling about trying to get out of each other's way, a family and their dog came up. Why did we pay all this money? There was no exclusivity to the locations, no instruction. My friend and I thought maybe we should start "workshops", she finds the locations, I teach the technical stuff. At least I think I would do a general instruction such as, "this would be best shot at X shutter speed with X aperture", not just stand there.

IMHO, photography is really not a team sport. I used to belong to a photography club before I went on the road. We had photo meetups once a month or so. Every time I would point my camera at something, ten other people would start shooting the same thing. On the other hand, I've had some great photo days when I was out with one or two fellow photographers. I think once you get more than a few people, it becomes a fustercluck, lol. :) I certainly wouldn't pay to go on a shoot and get the same shots that 15 other people got. Now, if it was one-on-one and the person really knew their stuff, maybe.

sorry, I have been misreading things all day.

Dave

I've done a few. Always been happy. Often I do this on vacation, photo workshops that help me get to places that I may not know and or find in the short time I'm there. Done a few in the Durango CO area, and one in Maine. In a week or so I'll be doing one in Portland and one in Lake Tahoe. Personally, I could always use more instruction (who says photography is easy??) and always am going to some nice, photogenic areas.

Jeff, I think that's the key-to go to places you know nothing about. I could always use more instruction but certainly never got any with this because, first, shooting abandoned landscapes is what I do and second, as mentioned by Loree, too many people. When you have 15 participants, you're going to run the gamut of beginner to "guy with $5000 worth of equipment", which is what happened here.

When we went off on our own afterwards, we went to much better places to shoot and didn't have a group.

I joined a photography group and they had said how they were going to go to group shoots, etc. All they've done in the last 9 months since I've joined is have guest critics who score your work. After getting less than stellar scores a few times, I decided to throw a "ringer" in the mix-an image that was chosen to be in a commercial for Ovation TV. Sure enough, it got panned. So, I quit.

That sounds like an exceptionally bad experience Louise.

I don't have anything to compare, other than a sketch trip to a 'Wild West' ghost town. That is not wild, but an old 19th century village, with all the sorts of general stores, drugstore, barbershop, a blacksmith's workshop, school, bank etc, and a hostelry/farm/saddles and carts - but no people other than a guide to field questions.

It was quite enjoyable, and I went back years later to photograph it.

Other than that there was an old mansion filled with art (featuring a real Gaugin and a real Turner!), and a sculpture park in the garden (and tea and cakes - but costly)

The largest tour group i was in was 7 I think. The Maine tour was just my wife and I. The Portland (a night photography) Tour will just be my wife and I, and the Lake Tahoe tour would limit the people to 6 (I think). So, these are small groups.

I do have to say, the Durango and Maine tours... they knew their stuff. I learned a lot, and I think the pics I took from those tours prove it.

This was one...


Part of the benefit from this tour was the access to Monument Valley that I probably couldn't have ever gotten.

Sounds like to me you just got a bad one... Hope the upcoming ones I have are as good as the ones I had before.

Jeff, If you dont mind, I like a lot of your work. One reason through much of your work I noticed something.
I am not a photographer, but my eye is easily trainable.

You often take the horizon place it lower than center and just ever so slightly point the view upward. I see some folks
pointing the camera ever so slightly downward and it throws off many of their shots. JMO

Thank you David. Not sure I do that intentionally.. but glad it works!

I noticed it first with JC Findley. It might be because he was in the service and had to hold his head a certain
way. Not sure.

It is as if there are two points of focus in an image. Where the horizon is up or down and how the camera is
tilted after finding the horizon. This sets up a dynamic image.

Dave

I've never taken one. I imagine a good photo tour would involve going to places that area awesome, not well known and maybe hard to find as well as going there when the lighting conditions are much better than average.

For most places, I'd probably never take a photo tour. I see lots of them offered especially around the southwest. They might include Arches, Canyonlands (Mesa Arch sunrise - its a clusterf*ck there most any time between March and October and a photo tour guide isn't going to be able to do anything about that, the Wave at Valley of Fire would presumably be the same), ruins sites, escalante and other areas.

What you can do is look at the more expensive ones offered online, see when they are going and where and then plan your own trip a little off from when they have theirs scheduled.

If I had more money than time, then taking photo tours might be something I'd do but I generally have the time to explore and find things on my own. A good photo guide book for $20 can yield results as good or better than a $5000 tour.

Lots of the ruins spots in Utah simply don't have enough room for a group of 10 to shoot simultaneously so if you are in a group and hope to have some time to shoot or go out there on your own and a tour group shows up you'll be quite disappointed.

Unless someone or group has paid for some sort of special use permit on federal or state lands, if a tour group comes up and you are already there, they are just SOL if you already happen to be shooting where the guide plans to take them.

I have taken a few and found a mixed bag of worthiness. The ones I found most useful were those that included some classroom time, which included critiques of images made during the workshop as well as portfolio reviews. The parts of the workshops that I found least useful with the field sessions when the instructor(s) were busy doing their own shooting rather than spending time with students. Personally I will not spend more than $500 on a 5 day workshop, and usually look for those well under that amount. Lastly, one of the big advantages to these workshops is to be led to areas & subjects that I would not normally be aware of.