by Rolando Gomez
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Many times I get emails from folks asking about my glamour and digital photography workshops and whether it's worth attending, most stating they feel like they're too green in photography to attend, but all value the risk in spending money on workshop fees, model fees, and logistical costs.
First, let's look at the “worth” of a photography workshop. Honestly, many current photography workshops advertised on the Internet are not worth their value when you compare the price to the credibility of the instructor and the knowledge you will receive. Now that's a statement I'm sure I'll hear nasty things about, but let's look at it wisely.
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Model Lisa B. poses at the edge of an infinity pool that appears to merge with the ocean which is actually approximately 50 feet beneath the pool. There is an additional 100 feet of grass between the pool's edge and the ocean. The effect of the two bodies of water blending is created by the angle in which I took this image, standing in the pool at holding the camera at water level. She is illuminated by a Hensel Premium Porty 1200 AS portable power pack that powered a Hensel Ringflash with the optional Octa Sunhaze RF90 Softbox. A Rosco Bastard Amber #02 gel is placed inside the Sunhaze. . Camera is Olympus E-Volt, E-300 with Olympus Zuiko 11-22mm wide zoom lens (eff. at 30mm), 1/160, F/9.0, ISO 100, white-balance at 6000K. Lexar 2GB compact flash card. |
I've seen internet-world photographers claim they are qualified instructors for photography workshops and seminars, this often reminds me of the law professor who has a PhD, teaches “bee-law” 101 at the local college, but has never tried a legal case in court or even represented a client. While these photography workshop hosts may be photography forum or Internet smart, they've never truly experienced the real world of what they teach, and in photography, you must have some type of experience in order to know what it's really like. A lucky shot in a catalog, from a workshop you paid to attend, isn't the same as dealing with publishers, editors, photo editors, traveling arrangements, bid sheets, delivery memos, art directors, publicists, stylists, assistants, etc. This is why workshops are sometimes bad, it depends on who the intructor is or not.
Let's look at experience, utilizing myself as an example. As a professional (working full-time) photographer (sole-source of income) for over 25 years, I've written one photography book (Amherst, April 2006) with others in production, taught over 65 consecutively sold-out, workshops in less than four years, completed photography assignments in 39 countries (many more than once), internationally published and even cranked out a cover-story for the world's largest publication, PARADE (circ. 37 million every Sunday). Now that's only the start, not to mention I'm a regular, contributing writer to Studio Photography & Design and I'm a speaker, lecturer to national level events like FotoFusion, Photo Plus Expo (NYC), Photo Imaging & Design Expo (West Coast), Palm Beach Photographic Center, etc., as well as a featured guest at other workshops.
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| Photograph of Holley for my latest book, Garage Glamour™ Digital Nude & Beauty Photography Made Simple. (Amherst Media, release April 2006) |
I bring up some of my credentials for one specific reason, I often see many photography workshop hosts with not even a sliver of my credentials charging double, even triple of what I charge to host a workshop. When you have an instructor with no credentials, you don't pay for what you get, you get less than what you paid for and unfortunately it hurts all workshops in general. Often these photographers have a few lucky shots out of ten-thousand they've taken, and just regurgitate what they've read in a photo book or on the Internet.
Heck, the Federal Government is notorious about sending employees (both military and civilian) to “computer solution” places that read straight from the tutorials of the owner's manual-I know, I attended some classes at the cost of taxpayers when I was Chief, Pictorial Branch, Army & Air Force Hometown News Service and Chief Multimedia Branch, Air Force News Service.
Many times when attending some of these-you have to take this, we have money to spend classes-I'd sit there bored because we were getting paid to attend classes for people too lazy to pick up an owner's manual and read it. We've all been there, we do it with almost everything that comes with an owner's manual.
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| Actual International Glamour, Beauty & the Nude photography workshop students with Playboy Model Laura F., on location at the exotic Virgin Islands. |
Well unfortunately in photography, the only owner's manuals you'll find are those that come with your photography equipment. There is no owner's manual on how to take photographs, though there are many books on how to take pictures. I prefer photographs over pictures and in my workshops we go over the differences and we don't read from someone else's books or owner's manuals.
Heck, I've actually had other instructors copy my own concepts, both photography and marketing, and even regurgitate my words for a syllabus, one even took all the photo tips I've written of GarageGlamour.com and printed them out without the headers, photos and credit lines and used it as hand-outs at his class. (I'm sure this tip won't be printed.) This actually happened to me in Florida as one of those instructor's former students brought me the handouts made by that instructor. When I arrived back home in Texas, I called that instructor in Florida and told him he had two choices, one to stop, or print everything in it's entirety, as allowed by copyright law for educational purposes, thus I'd receive credit for where it's due. Perhaps I should charge more, but that's not the point.
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| Actual workshop students receiving hands-on instruction from Rolando Gomez with Playboy Model Laura F., at his International Glamour, Beauty & the Nude photography workshop in the Virgin Islands. |
The point is, you must wisely consider the credentials of the instructor, think of it as your vote of confidence. Normally you cast your vote for the best candidate, you should do the same for photography workshops. If you were voting on a photography workshop host, would you vote for (these are actual instructor's backgrounds I found on the Internet):
a. 25-plus years experienced professional photographer with thousands of tearsheets, established photography speaker, writer, author and proven workshop host, worked with hundreds of photo editors, full-time freelance photographer, etc.
b. an image in a catalog from a prior photo workshop where you paid to attend in exchange of getting an image published, ran ex-wife's pay-site, guest at other host's workshops as experience, etc.
c. Only experience is hosting workshops
d. Works in a (non-photo related) day job, rents a studio on weekends and claims to be a professional photographer, brings in sponsors to talk about what he doesn't know
Note: A charges $300 for a two-day workshop, B charges $500 for a two-day workshop, C charges $200 for two days of shooting women running nekkid all day, no lecture, and D charges $600 for two days, albeit, brings in photo industry executives who have a photography background to help promote their products.
Obviously the right choice is “A” if you want to get your money's worth and apply it to your photography in the future. If you want to shoot naked ladies, then take C, if you want to be snowed over, take B, if you want to hear sales pitches, sometimes with some great info, then take D.
You should also look at other things when considering the instructor of any workshop.
a. Is the instructor passionately there to spread the gospel of photography or is it all about making money?
b. Does the instructor communicate effectively? or have others do it for him?
c. Does the instructor instruct, lecture, and provide hands on?
d. Is the instructor respected in the photo industry?
e. Does the instructor have the three C's that make great photographers?
Obviously most of the latter you will not be able to find out unless you attend the workshop first, though the last item, D, can be easily answered by looking to see if the instructor is sponsored and offers photo industry incentives at the workshop-not sales pitches, but something you can gain from one of the sponsors including discounts and freebies. You must be careful here though, often some instructors offer the above but they'll have the photo industry executive or sales person as one of the key speakers/teachers, this is were I feel it becomes a conflict of interest and it's more about selling their equipment for sponsorship dollars.
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| Playboy Model Laura F. photographed during the International Glamour, Beauty & the Nude photography workshop in the Virgin Islands. |
In my workshops, as I'm sponsored by folks like Hensel, California Sunbounce, Olympus, Lexar, GTI Light Technologies, Rolo-Light, etc., sometimes I may have a representative from one of my sponsors attend, but they are only there to help, not to give you an hour lecture why their camera is better than your camera. I might add, I only have sponsors on products that I use and believe in, not those that my employer sells their products for at his camera store. Think about ethics here. I've actually turned sponsors away and even dropped one for ethical issues.
Now, let's look at the experience factor of the attendee-you. First, no one is too “pro” to attend or too “new” not to attend workshops. While some workshops give prerequisites, others, like mine, are tailored to each individual or group of individuals specifically. You have to judge what you can afford and where you can sacrifice while still getting a great value.
As an example, I have many clients who want private tutoring, obviously this is where you get specific information you want and need in a condensed amount of time. These types of workshops are also known as one-on-one workshops and should be considered as an investment in your education of photography. You should wisely look at your instructor's credentials. You will pay more for a credible instructor because normally they would be out of a their higher-rated day rate for the day they spend with you. This is one item where you truly pay for what you get if you go with a credible photographer.
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| Actual photography magazine tearsheet, something many photography workshop hosts rarely have in their credentials. This is one of several written for Studio Photograhy & Design over the previous years that appeared in the August 2005 issue. It was followed by an image in their Sept. 2005 issue and another two-page article on white-balance techniques in their Oct. 2005 issue. |
This credible instructor must communicate a wealth of information normally taught in one year, usually in less than one day. It's all about those three C's mentioned earlier, Comprehension, Communication, and Creativity. The greatest workshop hosts and photographers comprehend the technical of their field (most gained through experience), communicate effectively (in print and voice), and have a natural creative eye. When you find a photographer with all three C's, chances are they are published and well credentialed, which means you will pay for what you get, but it will be worth every penny.
Unfortunately, many folks cannot afford private instruction, especially when it can run over $1,000 per day or more, so they opt for group instruction at a group workshop or event. Obviously this is where the sacrifice comes in, but at the same time, you'll pay considerably less than a private environment.
These sacrifices can amount to information you already know, personally, this doesn't bother me as repeated information is reinforced knowledge. Other sacrifices are that you will take turns to photograph each model and that you have to come to the location or wait for it to come to your locale.
There are other sacrifices, but all in all someone will make a sacrifice of some kind in any type of group environment, and this is why it's so important to consider the instructor's credentials as well as the topics covered.
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| My largest magazine tearsheet involved a cover-story co-illustrated with Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Eddie Adams. Adams received the actual cover honors while I received three images for the story. The magazine is circulated every Sunday to 37 million customers and is the largest circulation in the world for one magazine. Experience came in handy as we had to coordinate with Egyptian officials, military officials, customs officials, U.S. Embassy officials, State Dept. officials, etc., in order to photograph U.S. Soldiers in the Sinai Desert. This story ran on the Sunday before Christmas, Dec. 19, 1999. |
The material covered at an event, such as lighting, posting, post production, etc., is where you'll find the real value of a workshop. Sure it's great to photograph gorgeous glamour models at an event and practice what you've just learned, but hands-on knowledge passed on from a credible instructor is what will affect all your future photography and it's this gained knowledge where you must decide if you received value for your money spent. You get a great return on your investment when you pay for gained knowledge, you get poor returns when you pay for perceived knowledge from photography instructors who lack real-world experience and credentials.
In the case of my more exotic workshops, that are longer than the average two-day photography workshops, you get great hands-on knowledge along with lecture and tons of shooting practice as the group of attendees, instructor and guest instructors, along with the models photograph from sunrise to sunset-in the case of my exotic photography workshops you will shoot sunrises and sunsets thus the latter statement is the blatant truth.
One advantage of these longer photography workshops is that you will make friends, establish long-lasting, professional friendships. My first Virgin Islands glamour workshop sold-out in less than two weeks and half the attendees had already been at my previous Cozumel photography workshop. They apparently had contacted each other and wanted do a reunion of Cozumel, we even brought one of the original five models down just to add a touch along with four new models, including a Playboy model that now wants to attend more exotic photography workshops. I might add, all the attendees had been to at least one of my workshops, most had been to many of my workshops.
In a nutshell, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” is not always true when it comes to photography workshops, especially glamour photography workshops. It's all about how you judge the instructor, value, return on your investment, and most important, would you ever attend again? It's also about what you put too and what you receive in the long-run, not just during the photography workshop days. It's about education and proficiency, and since technology changes every Monday when the Board of Directors meet, there is no such thing as a photographer to pro to attend seminars or workshops and there is always a workshop for any beginner or novice.
©2005 Rolando Gomez
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