Intense Summer Photography Learning Op

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Help a few, (a whole ton) is the best thing I can thing of right now.

Presently

Things have been great with the present 5 interns. I’ve spent a heck of a lot of time training them all and I’m happy to note that we’ve done some awesome workshops and trainings and I get to brag about how good of photographers they are. The purpose of this present internship was to focus on them being good at the post process stuff, but you can’t really do that without helping them in every aspect of their photography. Plus there’s been a bunch of class type experiences and shooting ops. It’s been a crazy time as we’ve just been trying to stay afloat when they’re at the office, trying to get projects done. Never really ever catching up. But I still have faith one day it will happen.

The time is now… um… Soon

The time has come to stock up for the summer on some more help.
One intern ends up taking me sooo much time to train that it’s anything but time beneficial. (Even though the satisfaction of helping others is always nice)

So earlier this year I went with the school type setup. JarvieU – maybe you’ve heard of it. haha

If one intern isn’t time efficient I somehow figured getting a whole bunch of them would

(read more about it – If you don’t like long explanations I’d stop now… since when are my posts short? – Besides would we really click?)

THIS SUMMER - We’ll do an intense summer internship.

What is it? Well it’s all summer long (whatever that is for you as a student or whatever) And it’s intense, meaning full time and full of intense-nicity.

The Hope for you: For you to be an amazing photographer by the end of the summer completely prepared to jump off into a career if you so desire.

The Hope for me: To be able to say hey look at that amazing photography, they starting with Jarvie. haha… oh yeah and the in office help would be nice. Maybe I can work only 8hrs a day.

Ambitious much? Ummm totally, without a doubt. Shooting for the stars and crazy like a fox.

What will we be doing? Everything! I figure the more help I get on my own stuff the more time I’ll have to organize crazy awesome events and shoots.

I’ve decided I can’t be all things to everybody so I might as well change my focus my energy on helping a select few become amazing and that should lead to a lot more appreciation. If I can help you become an amazing photographer like Suzanne, Whitney, Carissa or Paola – it means a whole lot more than just doing lots of random classes for groups of semi-interested photographers who’ve just come to expect that many of us will do free things here and there and might or might not decide to go into Photography with all their hearts.

Are you ready and excited? …Then make it happen. You want to be a great photographer and want my help? I’ll tell you I’m going to help you and then just sit back and see what you make of it. I’ve heard it a hundred times, sticking with it and the passion is what set the successful apart. and that’s fine because we don’t all need to be photographers. I’ll say yes I’ll help you, and then see who actually does something to get my help. (You pay me and I might just take you by the hand. haha But that still doesn’t make up for lack of passion)

FULL EXPLANATION?

I was gonna explain the whole idea here. But really… why? Do you trust me? I don’t want to be the salesman… If you do trust me then let’s talk. Heck if you don’t have the time or passion why we gonna talk anyway? you’ll probably not be able to, or decide the commitment isn’t there about 2 weeks in.

You serious? Come to the office we’ll chat about it, I’ll tell you more about it. And those that want it to happen will make it happen, the rest will probably be excited about the idea and won’t do much about it, or expect me to make it happen for them. Which I probably won’t do.
Beginners welcome. I love when people already know a lot about this stuff because then I don’t have to explain it all, less work for me. But sometimes their egos get in the way and the beginners soaking up the knowledge without judgement pass them up. Suzanne was a total sponge, carissa was 2-3yrs into a photography university but never said “but I learned this” or I learned that… she took it all in. Paola had no training and quitely took in Everything. Whitney took in everything from everybody and does it full time now in no time flat and all I shared was a month or so of editing stuff and some assisting on shoots.

Interns are probably sick of me saying this, but if you have a good eye (you know what a good picture looks like and why) the learning how to create that and explore your inate creativity is only a matter of some time and a few lessons. I wonder if they get tired of me setting them up projects where they just fine tune their eye looking at pictures and selecting pictures, antsy to be taught about buttons and edit pictures at the computer. I believe on making things right upstairs and the camera clicking will be just fine!

And this certainly doesn’t take an advanced photo-taker to become a good photographer.

Photo-Student Rumble : Laying down the gauntlet. I will pit my 3-4 month intense summer intern up against your 4yr college graduates. A photography battle to the death (ok maybe not that intense. haha) But seriously my honor roll student could beat up your kid…. easily.
Maybe they don’t win every comparison but heh it only took 3 months, so suck it! haha But in the end we will have cheated… in 3-4 months full time they’ll have put in about as many hours as many aspiring photographers do in 2-3yrs. So in reality it’s not far fetched.

Some activities

Specialty classes at least one of each: Meet the photographer, Shoot Eat and Edit, Lightroom presentations, SmugMug presentations, Attractions and Distractions class,
Specialty workshops at least one of each: How to use the camera, assisting workshop, lighting workshop, how to use a location (including location search) workshops (several of these)
Photo shoots: Portfolio building shoots at least once for the following areas: Engagement, Bridals, Formals, Wedding, Models, Band, Events
And then besides those we’ll do other random fun shoots for fun and others with more purpose.
Besides each person will have help to organize the coolest shoot they can think of.
Flash camp: Hope to do 3. Promise at least 2
Final set up of the assisting program: Assisting with other photographers.

don’t kid yourself it’s lots and lots of hours of repetitive projects and editing and actual work. You want to just come to the fun stuff… be my guest… or shall i say… my customer.

Other things that can happen: Lots of assisting ops with me throughout my full summer. Those willing to travel have amble opportunity to travel to destination weddings… mainly a lot of california.
I’m doing bridal shows, trying to set up associate photographer gigs, some other types of referrals can always happen.  Also making sure they have a totally presentable website and a blog are on the list of things to do.
We’re also involved with Utah Opera Utah Symphony, Sentorial Campaign,

Did I mention a Maui Workshop? Travels to southern california? Work on ATP Blog and Envision the World project.

Some hopes if I clear up some time are Jumping more into lifestyle photography and perhaps dabbling in Band Photography, I might even take on some commercial work and look into modeling photography. But for now unless I catch up and get ahead, I’ll just be doing late nights focusing on weddings. First after those is All The Photographers and Envision the World projects.

Can’t do intense internship?

Perhaps you’re not a student or a teach with the summer free. Perhaps you’re gone out a lot. Perhaps you’ve got a real life with kids and a job and what not. Well I suppose we can do the more regular thing, the 6-12 month thing.

When it starts getting exciting

The thing is I’ve spent TONS of time training 5 or interns (still some left) and when it becomes really worth it is when I can have them helping to train others.

When it gets to the point I can start letting go of a lot of the post-process I’ll be able to turn my attention towards making really cool fun things happen, lots of workshops and photo shoots.

These full time interns will make it so I don’t have to ever worry about when to schedule an event, I can do them thursday morning or tuesday mid-day and I can just figure that they’ll be there. Heaven knows weekends will be mostly out of the question this summer.

Scholarships

The thing is it’s not like I’m the only one that could do this, it’s just I’m the only one crazy enough to actually attempt it. First of all, when you consider a 2 day workshop often costs easily $1000 something like this would usually be way out of the price range of… well pretty much anyone. Plus it’s so much work that you’d have to be crazy to want to organize it.

But the thing is I want … no Need… people to value this. To believe strongly in what I’m doing and be willing to do whatever to make it happen. I don’t actually need to them to do anything, just be willing. (Showing the drive)
Commit themselves: I’m all for creativity in this area… but for now let’s just say the money speaks. If you had money at stake you’re usually gonna see it all the way through.

But some passionate people don’t have all the money… thus I’ll do scholarships, I’ll meet a few lucky people half way. But you’ll work for it and earn it. Besides i’ll be putting many hours into this, I don’t think I should be doing it for free.
The cost will be much lower than it should be, but much higher than many (students) have money for. This is a 3 month long thing, will you stretch for it is the question?

This is focused towards students and teachers who have the summer off. I hope this one month’s notice is good for you.

How i’ll do the scholarships. One will be decided by present interns. I’ll pick one. The last will be popularity a get your friends to vote for you thing.

I want to know what interest is out there for now. Speak up

A Job: Hey if you already know how to do all the stuff I need you to do and I don’t have to train you, then it’d be more like an employee… I’d even pay you. (But if you knew all that stuff why in the world would you need a job, I’m sure you’re too expensive anyway)

Others Say…

Sometimes I wonder to myself what it is I’ve really done. Maybe I’ve taught something, maybe I’m just there for encouragement or to be the coach figure to push the person. But when you look at where they were when they started to where they were a few months later… and well I say perhaps I shall keep doing this mentoring thing.

Whitney Lewis
I studied with Scott during summer of 2009, and I am still amazed at how much I grew as a photographer and business owner in that time.  I finally learned what an in focus picture is.  I learned how to network and encourage clients to become my advocates.  I learned about the process and sequence of a photoshoot and a wedding.  And I feel what I learned most was how to interact with the clients.  Scott is funny and brings out natural smiles in people.  For me, it was one of the most important skills to develop.

Melissa Williams
I’ve really enjoyed being involved in JarvieU. I feel like my knowledge of photography and post processing have grown by leaps and bounds. I know that I still have a long way to go though. The workshops (Lighting / Modifiers, SmugMug, Assisting, Locations etc.) that Scott arranges are a lot of fun and very informative. I’m really excited about the networking that Scott is able to provide with other photographers. I think for the work that you are required to put in, the knowledge that you gain is definitely worth it.  I know that Scott really wants his interns to succeed.

Megan Newhouse

My experience so far being a part of JarvieU has been fantastic! I’ve improved all aspects of my photography and editing. Although I’d been using Lightroom for some time beforehand, my workflow and strategies were unbelievably inefficient compared to what they are now! I have learned strong editing and selecting principles that make it far easier for me to spend my time more productively and show my work at its best, all while making my images look better in less time. Seeing sets of images from various photo shoots has also given me the chance to see how a shoot progresses start to finish and see the process of taking a set of images to the final product, making me more confident in my own photography skills in terms of knowing how to structure a shoot and follow up with the post-processing. Just the experience of viewing so many images over the past few months, mostly of Scott’s but also of other photographers via helping with the All The Photographers project, has, I feel, improved my “eye” and my actual picture taking skills. With exposure (ha, no pun intended!) to so many thousands of photos, it’s impossible not to have an improved sense of what makes great images, both in terms of conscious factors (knowledge of composition, posing, etc.), and unconsciously, in terms of just getting better at making good images without having to think about each individual component. The workshops I have been to (on assisting, on finding good portait locations, engagement shoot, etc) have also helped me immensely in terms of seeing how a shoot is run, interacting with clients/models, posing people, and learning how to still get great images out of what may be non-ideal locations and imperfect lighting. These workshops and classes have been invaluable and I am looking forward to participating in even more that will be provided through Jarvie U.

So in sum: it’s one thing to have technical knowledge of how your camera works, how to shoot different types of subjects, how to use Lightroom, etc., it’s quite another to put all your knowledge and skills together to create a successful business and to learn and observe the kinds of things involved in being a photographer that can’t be taught in any book — that most people have to discover through trial and error over a long period of time. I have no doubt that the opportunities made available to me through me so far and in the future via this internship will be invaluable in the progression of my photography, and I would highly recommend working with Scott to anyone interested in taking their photography to the next level. Yes, it will be an intensive experience with a ton of time and effort involved, but I honestly don’t believe there is any other opportunity available that is even close to the benefits you can receive from this: vast improvements in photo taking & editing, personalized instruction and opportunities to teach others, knowledge of important aspects of this business like social networking / blogging, getting to know and work with other likeminded photographers & interns, possibilities of assisting on photo shoots, etc. I have probably progressed more in the last several months than I had in a year on my own — anyone who has aspirations of doing photography as more than just a hobby should definitely consider Jarvie U!

Summer Cottam
I have been involved with Jarvie U photography for nearly 3 months.  I’ve had some unique opportunities that would be to difficult experience without a program like Jarvie U.  Scott has taken time to work one on one with me to teach me efficient processes of taking and editing photographs.  I have enjoyed the many workshops and meetups that the Jarvie U experience provides.  This is a great chance to get a jump start on your photography career.

See more photographers I’ve worked with here – with links to their work

Don’t forget to look at the work of Carissa Fine my first intern and Suzanne Plant who I can just barely say i happened to be there when she was just starting off.