You should go to photo school if you want structured learning. Groundwork from the fundamentals to the bigger concepts. It will move too slowly for many of you, too fast for others. There are lots of great programs, worldwide.
If you don’t do better with structured learning and you are highly motivated and prefer real world experience, don’t go. Instead, teach yourself, take workshops, get mentors, read books, build your support network, work for other people. And most importantly take a helluva lot of photographs. Dig the long ditch that it takes to learn to make a living with photographs.
If this is too simple a post for you, then go to photo school.
Chase, all your work its definitely a great source of inspiration.. but It does not bother you for example this Lukasz Warzecha form UK? When He is not quoting you its copying a lot of your ideas for his blog and FB fanpage!! what people need to learn it to be creative! cheers!
It’s interesting how many people take Chase’s post as a “should everyone go to school or not”. I read the post as, “If you need formal, structured learning… go to school. If you are more freeform/self-directed, then go on your own and/or hook up with a mentor.”
To each their own.
What it comes down to is you get out of it what you put in.
A crafty businessman once stated to me, “there aint nothin worth free” A lot of folks say they want to be a mentor and give someone a start, but they are not interested in training their competition unless there is something in it for them. Usually that means 2 or 3 years of free labor. Conservatively you could say 15 thousand dollars worth of schlepping equipment and doing the dirty work per year, and you still have paid 45 thousand in trade and hopefully learned something along the way. But how do you know ? Without a clear set of goals or a syllabus or some sort of projected learning outcome you may learn a few “tricks” but still not be prepared to go it alone.
Formal Education or Self Paced, either way you have to form some attainable goals. Most schools have been there long enough and have the people who know how to get you there. A school should not be a cookie cutter where everyone gets the same education. At the same time it wouldn’t be a valid education if you can just do what you want because you are “an artiste” and give yourself an A for everything.
That doesn’t fly in school, you can fight it all you want, quit out of spite etc.
But I would challenge you to join a recognized group of professionals, enter your A+ work in competitions and see what the results are. 99% of the time you will get the same comments you received in school, and those judges don’t hold back, they are not your coach or your friend, and they are not on your side the way your teachers would be.
So, I repeat, What it comes down to is you get out of it what you put in. If you pay to go to school, you should capitalize on every penny you have spent, get there early, stay until they kick you out at night, tap those recourses and ask plenty of questions.
I’m sure many have said it above, but that last line is genius! 🙂