Whew! What a week it was last week… Last Wednesday, I brought pal and photog instructor guru Zack Arias into my studio for another episiode of chasejarvisLIVE. We chatted photography for 2 hours and took questions from the live Twitter audience via #cjlive. Was a blast. While about 20,000 of you caught the interview LIVE–it seemed like I got at least that many tweets/emails/fbook requests to post it again here on the blog, so… As you wish. Here ’tis.
From there, we shipped Zack and his crew into our creativeLIVE studio where he put on one heckuva studio lighting course all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully you saw the interwebs booming, especially with the @creativeLIVE and #askzack tags. I’m pretty sure Zack swiped some ratings from the World Cup. Or at least we had fun trying. I wanted to give a huge shoutout to Zack and his team for an amazing effort. You guys and gals nailed it. Also a shoutout also to all the manufacturers that kicked in gear for Zack to give away, as well as uber thanks to B&H Photo Video for their support of the creativeLIVE studio and G-Technology for keeping our gobs and gobs of data safe. They support us, please support them. I hope lots of you tuned in. And if you didn’t but wished you had, the course is available for download here.
While I’ve got you, I wanted to ask for your feedback. Not somebody else’s…YOURS. In the comments below, we’re looking to find out a few things with the goal of making creativeLIVE the best it can be. Tell us whatever you want, but please help us by answering some or all of the following particulars about our LIVE, free, worldwide creative education platform:
1. What makes the creativeLIVE approach different, better, worse? How does our class format compare to others?
2. Where do you live? We want to understand the breadth of our audience with the comments on this post. Where are you from, and when are you watching the LIVE feed?
3. Does this live worldwide format really work? This is the important part. What does the experience feel like to you? Can you help describe this format to someone who’s never seen it?
Thanks for taking the time! If you’re new here, I invite you to subscribe/follow via links above and to the right. Lots more stuff heading your way soon on all our channels…
1. I feel as though the teachers have more freedom…whether or not that is true I don’t know…but from Zack’s course it seems like he was able not only to be himself but to be as creative as he wanted. It is great to see the creativeLIVE teachers be creative themselves.
2. Providence, Rhode Island
3. It works! I just wish it were not a weekend thing…only because alot of creatives are out and about creating when they are live….didn’t stop me though…if I could get in front of the computer and watch it I was there. Although at one point I saw the counter over the “On Air” just over 20,000. If I were to describe creativeLIVE to anyone it would be: A way to expand your knowledge in your passion. Or if they want to learn whatever is being taught: The most unique way to be submerged in the creative field of your choice.
1. I can’t compare the class format, as this has been the first photography classroom I’ve attended, but I find it QUITE interesting, as it allows anyone in the world to attend a classroom wherever they are. And also, the availability of the free live webcast in addition to paid downloads (which I bought, of course), gives so much spread and access to many people with lower possibilities.
2. I live in Spain, Europe, and although the last hours from the live webcast were a bit too late and I couldn’t keep awake, the retransmission gave the possibility to attend to these last bits that I wasn’t able to watch because of the late hours.
3. OF COURSE IT WORKS. I couldn’t encourage you more to keep this format, I find it to be the most versatile, and via Tweeter you are able to be a part of it, even though you live thousands of kilometers away. You feel just like being there, as with so many videocameras, you don’t miss any angle from the classroom.
Really, very BIG thanks to you and your team that make it possible.
1. What makes the creativeLIVE approach different, better, worse?
I really like the idea of try before you buy, if you’re going to spend any money you like to be sure that it’s going to be the right thing for you. I watched most of the sections live and now I know that if I need to have a refresher, or suggest a class to a friend, I can go download it. Having never been on a photography course I read all I can on blogs like these to learn, getting a live class for free is more than I could have asked for, let alone a whole weekend!
2. Where are you from, and when are you watching the LIVE feed?
I’m in the U.K. I watched live on my Mac until my girlfriend forced me to go to bed, then fell asleep listening to it on my iPhone with headphones (with the screen under the pillow to keep the light off!) I would then watch the rest in the morning on the re-run. The hours aren’t great for us here, perhaps another page showing the re-run’s at a suitable time would help? I missed the last section because I had to sleep before work and work during the re-run, the final picture looks great and I really want to know how it was done! 🙂
3. Does this live worldwide format really work?
The teaching format was excellent, beginning slowly and building up to more advanced. Zack is a very good teacher. I loved the social media integration into the class, it really added to the experience and show’s the appetite within the community, worldwide. It doesn’t matter where the class is held, this is good stuff and we want to learn it!
Finally, a big thanks to all the people who gave there time and skills to this, it was amazing, please do another!!!!
Hey, Chase! Love the interview! I love Zack’s work and was so fortunate to get his insight on studio lighting this weekend! (and for FREE!)
To answer:
1) I loved the approach – I thought it was very laid back, and even when Zack was “pressed for time”, he still managed to give a lot of info. I loved his teaching style, where he repeats himself to ensure you get the info, and the breaks were well timed. I think, however, in it’s laid back approach, it resulted in a few lull times, when not a lot was happening. This got distracting and lost focus of the lessons being taught in class. Overall, I found it very informative and a great approach!
2) I’m in the Washington, DC area, so the long classes were a little late at night, but I think it only hurt my sleep cycle because I’ve been waking up at 7am to catch every World Cup game 😉
3) I thought the format was brilliant! Watching the few photographers try their luck, and having Zack teach during the process, was a great way to see what they were doing and learn from their mistakes/successes. I thought the folks at creativeLIVE did an excellent job making sure the viewers over the web got to clearly see what was going on to help the educational process. This was a fantastic class, and it’s encouraged me to keep on the lookout for more!
Thank you so much for this opportunity to learn, guys! It was FANTASTIC!
1. I really like the open format of CreativeLive. I can’t really add much more other than perhaps the option to get me out of work legally to watch the content (something like a doctor’s notice?) 🙂
2. I’m an American living in Heidelberg, DE. I managed to catch some of the live feed and also the replay. Really great that you offer the option for the replay.
3. I think the stream is great. I would say that a “compressed” option would be nice, something that would cut out the setup of hardware, A/V tests and such. My guess would be that this would be offered post production at cost.
Really cool job. Thanks Zack, you’ve a amazing teacher and really got the feel of someone who would manage in any situation – large and small.