No July 2018 Meeting

No July 2018 Meeting

Instead of a meeting this month, we encourage all photographers to go to PPSNYS Workshop which starts tomorrow.  Thus, there is no July 2018 Meeting.  Our meeting will be substituted with workshop.

About Workshop

A commentary from FLPP President, D. Brent Walton, CPP, Cr.Photog.

My first PPA Affiliated School was California Photographic Workshops (CPW), where I took Bambi Cantrell’s class.  It was in 2005 and it was close to $1000 for the week.  To me, it was worth it just to learn from Bambi.  I had admired her photography for a long time.

A picture I shot at Workshop in 2005

As you can see from the above picture, the class was a success for me.  Not only did I create some stunning images, I met makeup artists, models, and others who would prove to be invaluable for my business and career as a photographers.

Achieving My Goals

Workshop helped me achieve my goals.  After that first workshop, various things got in the way of being able to attend a week long workshop.  However, a few years ago, I worked in to my business budget (time and money) and set a goal to attend annually.

As I previously mentioned, CPW proved to be invaluable for my business and career.  Now, living in Western New York, my workshop attendance is at our New York State PPA Affiliate’s school.:  Photo Imaging PPSNYS Workshop.

Here is a list of instructors I’ve had, and the objectives they’ve helped me reach:

• Jim Cunningham – helped me understand Corel Painter to the point where I could actually paint something.
• Helen Yancy – helped me become very proficient in Corel Painter.
• Jim Sturdevant – taught me techniques to improve my composite images.
• Michael Barton – taught me how much you can do with continuous lighting, and that got me heavily in to lighting with LEDs.
• Michael Mowbray – taught me how to do battery powered flash the right way.  I now have a portable studio I can throw on the backseat of my car and take my studio anywhere.
• Jim LaSala – got me excited about street photography

Make Time

I hear part-time photographers say they don’t have time for workshop because of their full time job.

MAKE TIME!

Plan your vacation around workshop.  Before leaving my full-time job, I was going to workshop and conventions, bringing my family with me, for my annual vacation.

By so doing, it also helped edge me towards quitting the ‘day job’.  Once I left my day job, it is amazing how important your portrait sessions become and how much better a business manager you become.

Make time for workshop.

Recommendation

My recommendation to the part-time (and by that I mean anyone who works a 40-hour a week job where they are paid an hourly wage or a salary) photographer who calls themselves a professional photographer…

1. Set a goal to leave your day job – your goal has to be measurable, realistic, attainable, time-bound and specific.  Example:  Quite my day job on December 31st, 2020.
2. Between now and then budget (time and money)  for education:
   1. 1 hour a week for online training
   2. 1 day or full evening a month for hands-on, face-to-face training.  (I’m talking about training, not group photo shoots where there is no specific instruction, but training where the instructor has a syllabus and a specific educational goal.)
   3. 1 contiguous week a year for hands-on, face-to-face training
3. Talk regularly to a full-time (one who doesn’t have a wage or salary job) professional photographer.  Ask them for advice and LISTEN to their answer, then act upon it.
4. Set a goal to become a Certified Professional Photographer.  You’re clients probably won’t give a hoot that you have CPP behind your name, but it WILL improve the quality of your work.
5. Set a goal to become a PPA Master Photographer.  Some comment as CPP.  Your client’s may not care, but they WILL notice how good your work has become.  It’s not the degree that makes your work better; it is the effort you put forward to earn that degree that makes your work better.

Conclusion

There’s no substitute for the education you can gain through your state affiliate school.  None.  I’ve taken semester long photography classes in college that don’t hold a candle to the knowledge gained through a week at PPSNYS Workshop.

Me at Michael Barton’s Workshop 2015