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Originally Posted by Diveandfly
I have had two Kelby DVD/books which were very useful but I have not used his website training. The Karl Taylor DVD's are good and you can learn from them but they are a little 'that's how you do it' and don't quite arm you for doing it yourself.
Early on in my photography I brought the Photography Institute course, thankfully they had a big price reduction on so I did not pay full price. To be honest I wish I'd spent the money on a 'hands on course'. Very little was learnt about improving my photography, a lot was learnt about the history of photography and large/medium format but that's not what I wanted from it. When it came to taking pictures and having them assessed, I feel I could have gained the same feedback from one of many forums on the Internet.
I have never been a member of a camera club so cannot add much to that suggestion. But the advice of wavemachine is worth considering. My only word of warning is to check out the credentials of the Pro, there are a lot of self appoint experts who pedal photography and photoshop courses that don't really know much themselves. I know of one who went on a course hosted by a local photographer and then set up doing the same thing based on the local guys notes. It could be worth asking at your local camera shop as they would be unwise to give you a bum steer. Check out whoever you decide to go with, see if their website is credible and google or ask around. Don't commit too much money before sampling their teaching skills.
I have been on a few courses that are aimed at specific skills, these can teach you a lot besides what you signed up for. Hands on is the best way to learn in my view as long as the numbers attending are not high. Some courses are crammed and very little time is spent with individuals. I think this is unfair unless the course price is cheap and expectations not overly high.
The last course I took was the Lee Filter Workshop. This particular one ran Friday to Sunday and included food & accommodation. Also in the price was the use of all the filter kit required and transportation between sites. Fundamentally everything was taken care of. The Pro (Jeremy Walker) was accompanied by to Lee experts, this result in a 2:1 teaching ratio. This along with mini bus discussion, dinner table and bar time and evening chats resulted in an excellent learning per £ experience.
I found that there came a point where books, DVD's and the Internet could do no more and unless I got out there with someone who knew what they were doing I was only going to tread water in my learning process.
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This was a really good read DiveandFly. I am new to Photography, and have spent majority of my time reading books, watching videos and building up my theory knowledge. This is great to have and it provides a really nice foundation but it's all very generalized, and becomes quite repetitive.
I just worked through
IOP training course, and have to say I am really unimpressed with it. Luckily I paid 1/5th of the price thanks to Amazon Local Deals who had them on a voucher deal. I wouldn't pay their full asking price now I know what their interface/lessons are like.
I am currently reading the Nphoto mag for Feb (my first time in purchasing the mag) and was really interested in reading the Apprentice piece, and now reading what you've wrote about the Lee Filters course, I am thinking it's far better to get out there and get hands on experience with a Pro explaining the technical details by your sides.
Clearly photography has become massively popular now that the costs of dSLR's have dropped, and lots of people can claim to be professionals since there is no proof required. But it doesn't take much research to see who truly are the Pro's and who are not.
And of course, hearing word of mouth like you have done for Jeremy Walker is a great way for people like myself to be confident in knowing it's a good course. It would be nice if Nphoto mag could actually do some research on courses.
As you describe the course is all inclusive, it actually sounds good value for money, as you can consider it an action packed holiday where you get to see some beautiful sights, get great photo's and learn new skills.