A Photography Boot Camp

Photography BOOT CAMP

I’m going to condense everything I did and taught last year as part of JarvieU (To about 10-12 interns)

AND add some more into one multi-day (over a week) workshop.

This is to train primarily new Interns (or other interested parties) and have them prepped and ready to work in a very educated and efficient manner throughout the Summer.

Because of it’s 100% focus to photography and long days it should be called a Photography Boot Camp.

Boot Camp seems a particularly good term.

• Long days focused on one thing.
• Getting prepped and ready to go into “the field” in a very short period of time.
• All future work done by the attendees will be much more educated and Efficient.
• Block out the days and focus hard on one thing.
• Push the person beyond what they originally felt comfortable with.

WHY?

• Training over the course of a summer is cool and stuff but I found there to be some difficulties last year.
• This year I’ll be doing even more traveling, so daily or weekly teaching will be hard if not impossible.
• It was hard to get everyone to the office at the same time. Things always came up.
• I have tons of projects that will take a lot of time to finish up. So I still need to train lots.
• Part time people make it really difficult to teach because often they can’t make it or are limited on time. But if needs be this is one way to train them fast.
• Also… I like teaching. I like helping people become awesome photographers… it reflects well on me.
• I need to catch up on my projects.

Photo Boot Camp Objectives

• To spend all day every day on photography.
• To do an organized photoshoot every day
• To teach how to do all post processing
• To teach how to assist on photoshoots (or use an assistant)
• To teach the business side
• Work on the pictures taken during the week.
• Teach all the projects I am working on so interns can

SOME of What’s Involved

• My “Attractions and Distractions” presentation to help lay a foundation of how we talk about pictures and photography. Lay down a common language.
• Assisting classes (a few of them) to learn how to use and assist with Flashes, TTL systems, Reflectors, Light Diffusers, studio lights and all sorts of light modifiers. Also gear familiarity and photoshoot prep. (Classes, outside trial and error, and even games and competition to test knowledge and skill… and use in actual shoots of models)
• Go through every step of my workflow (Picking, rating, editing, smugmug, blogging, etc)
• Lightroom classes (from beginning to advanced) including lots of actual work to solidify the understanding.
• Flash Camp. In the typical format. A “light” presentation that will talk about some of the main rules to think about with light (be it small speedlights, or studio or even natural light or reflectors) Including how some of the available lighting equipment functions. Then we will go use these items on a Flash Camp. Flash during day, at sunset, twilight, night and then again in the morning in reverse.
• For flash camp and many of the other workshop shoots you’ll be doing lots of shooting with models and not waiting in long lines to shoot. I’ll show how to use your equipment or let you use mine.
• A planned photoshoot every day such as at the salt flats, at a rented photostudio, flash camp and other planned interesting events and photoshoots with models.
• SmugMug training
• WordPress training
• Talks on SEO, Marketing, Wedding business
• We’ll be working on the images we take that week.
• Teach some of the projects I am working on so that interns can work on them with confidence
• I can set up Websites and Blogs for each person as well.
• Photoshoots and projects involved with related photography and wedding vendors.

Length of time

Well plan for at least a week. Flash camp is a 2 day thing, assisting classes is a few hours on a couple of seperate instances, studio stuff would be a good portion of a day. SmugMug is only a few hours. Picking, Rating, Keywording and Even to some extent Editing aren’t long to teach but they take some time to teach how to be efficient at them (effecient with time) and then use that knowledge. So each of those sections those will all take several hours in order and then time working on the images from the shoots we do. Each shoot we do each day will take several hours out of the day and then several hours of editing and post-process work.

I’m thinking somewhere between 7-10 days.

Consider this what one would learn in maybe 1-2yrs at school in the length of 2 weeks. But from sun up to sundown+2-3hrs that could be well over 10hrs a day for 10 days making it like 100+hrs of training.

WHEN

I want to do it before I leave for some of my lengthier travels (Before 6-8th of June)

If it were up to me I’d do it beginning of may maybe end of April but if interns are still going to college I’ll do it the end of May beginning of june.

I will petition those interested in the internship who’ll be doing Interships as to when their school is over and they have open. (So let me know)

Probability

This is just an Idea, I’m just throwing the idea around and if there’s interest it’ll happen. (So let me know)

People that i’ve helped teach have gone on to do amazing stuff with their photography so I feel good about continuing the drive to teach, but in a more organized and directed arena of teaching. Also in ways that are more beneficial to me as well.

COST

For FULL time interns the thought is to take most of the training for the summer and throw it into one lump. Making them happy for the knowledge so quickly gained and making me happy for them being so much better at their work on my stuff.

So full timers I wouldn’t see as spending anything more than costs of our adventures.

Part timers aren’t as exciting to me and though I understand their needs to have part time jobs to survive and take care of family it’s just hard for them to finish projects and get properly trained. But they can come and do the boot camp they’d just pay Partial cost as a Part timer. 40% off kinda thing.

Just the Boot camp … well for 7-10 days of 10hr days of training and question answering and workshops and organized shoots and tons of knowledge… well… if you have to ask because you’re on a tight budget I’d suggest not asking. It’s designed with the full time interners in mind (as an exchange for their help and to get them good at doing work) but if I end up with money for my weeks of preperation and training then I’m more than happy to oblige.

I can set up payment plans and what not since it’d be a large amount. But obviously I expect the majority of participants to be full time interns. who are here for School Credit or exchange of knowledge for work.

What you need.

The ability to totally free up 7-10 days of your schedule. Totally free. Tell people you’re going on vacation and leaving the country and you’ll be back later. Use your vacation time at work. Get a nanny for the kids.

Either a full time exchange type internship with lots of long hours of work to be done over the course of the summer.

OR an equal trade… like money for example etc…

Passion to learn photography.