Pixiq

One of the most rewarding ways to promote your art and knowledge of photography is to engage in face-to-face teaching of others who share your passion and want to learn. There are hundreds of thousands of amateur and professional photographers eager to attend seminars, participate in field workshops and join photo tours. A multitude of companies exist to satisfy the demand, but there’s still room for more teachers.

Examples of top photographers in the nature/outdoor arena who have long embraced teaching as a substantial component of their work are Art Wolf, Frans Lanting, John Shaw, and, of course, yours truly. We bring knowledge based on education, experience and professional achievement, and those are important credentials for any teacher. But successful teaching also imparts energy and confidence to students while helping them to solve the real problems they experience. I am always glad to hear students tell me I’ve inspired them to try new approaches and techniques. Finally, a truly effective teacher is so in love with the subject that he/she is bursting to tell the world about it.

Knowledge and Communication

 If you’ve gained a wealth of information over the years, or developed particular skill in some aspect of photography and can communicate your knowledge effectively, teaching may be a way to supplement your nature photography income.

There are three basic categories of face-to-face instruction.  While some are more formal than others, all require careful preparation and planning for content and logistics. (I’m not talking here about on-line courses, which can be as simple as video of a person giving a seminar, or as complex as an inter-active on-line curriculum, which is another world.)

Seminars – The objective of a seminar is to teach a larger audience about a location, technique, creative approach, or environmental issue, for example. Great venues for seminars are camera club meetings, regional photo conferences, Lectures or seminars are primarily one-way communications, from the teacher to the students, but beware making the seminar simply an egotistical indulgence during which you show your own favorite images and offer random thoughts about how great they are. (Presumably, your audience is not captive.) You must prepare a program, complete with projected images and demonstrations, that conveys information in an organized progression. Giving a prepared program is a way to reach a larger audience. It can be a meeting of a camera club, a group of camera clubs, a short presentation at the end of a dinner, or a program sponsored by a manufacturer at a convention.

As you develop your program, keep in mind the proficiency level and scope of interest of your anticipated audience. For that presentation to the local senior citizens organization, you might want to focus on your photography and experiences in a particular location, such as Africa or Antarctica. The members of the camera club, on the other hand, are looking for education that will help them to improve their own photography or access new locations to work. No matter who your audience is, your program must keep moving, have visual impact, and real information. Any presentation software will help you to put your program together with very brief instances of text to keep you on track and on time. I use PowerPoint for most of my seminars, but Keynote (Mac) and ProShow Gold (Windows) are also excellent for photographic presentations.

When the time comes to give your seminar, don’t let yourself get bogged down on a subject, or leave a single image on the screen for more than 15 to thirty seconds. Use two or more images to reinforce the point you are making or to illustrate the concept you are explaining. If you take questions during the presentation, always repeat the question before answering it, so everyone will know what you are talking about. Don’t allow questions from the audience to take you off on a tangent that may be of little interest to most of the people there; move on with your prepared program. I prefer to answer questions during breaks and after the program so that only those who are really interested are involved.

Determine the minimum level of equipment and technical support you will need for your presentation, and communicate this to the sponsors well ahead of time. We’re talking about photography here—brilliant, tack-sharp, high-resolution images you’ve captured with your expensive professional camera and viewed on big high-resolution monitors while being processed with your expensive computer(s) and software to be the best you can make them. It all goes out the window when you share those images with others on a tiny, rumpled screen with a projector designed for flowcharts at a plumbers’ convention. Don’t assume that optimal, or even merely acceptable, projection equipment will be provided just because your host is “into” photography, or even in the photography industry. This aspect of the presentation is so important to me that I always carry my own Canon projector that has a resolution of 1400x1050. The models I recommend are the Realis SX800 ($1900) and Realis SX60 ($2500) multimedia projectors. Most projectors from other suppliers have a resolution of 1024X768 and not nearly the color capability offered by the Canons.

 You’ll need audio equipment, also, so that both you and any music or sound in your program can be heard. So you’ll need a sound system that can handle both a wireless microphone (you need one hand to operate your computer and another to point at the screen with a laser pointer, so unless you have a third hand you can’t also hold a microphone) and a patch to your computer. I prefer a headset, but since it isn’t often available, I’ve started to carry my own wireless microphone unit. Because I usually am speaking at the same time I’m running video or music, the sound system needs to have two channels of audio enabling both sources to be active at the same time.

 Workshops – Hands-on teaching, either in the field or a small digital classroom, can be very satisfying because it puts you in the midst of your students and gives you lots of feedback about the effectiveness of your instruction. When students are able to apply instruction as you present it, they learn more. But keep in mind that you need to know far more about the subjects than the participants do! They will be looking to you to deliver a rich learning experience.

 Choose a venue that enhances the interactive teaching experience. An ideal combination combines work in the field (say, a botanical garden for macro techniques) followed by work in the classroom for assembly and finishing of images. Make sure the participants know what topics will be covered and what equipment they’ll need to complete the curriculum. If you have a sponsor with some demo gear, or a connection with a camera store, you might be able to enrich your students’ experience by borrowing some equipment for them to try out.

When you take a group of students into the field, you need to consider factors beyond photography, such as safety and liability. I always have an assistant or co-instructor for workshops who is familiar with my techniques and with the equipment being used. This person can take care of equipment setup while you are demonstrating; help individual students with basic equipment issues; and be ready to assist anyone with minor medical issues. You don’t want to be tied up with one student’s legitimate and possibly urgent needs and keep the rest of your class standing around.

 The largest number of participants that I will accept in a workshop is 16; I prefer 12 or even less, but economics often predetermines the number. I usually start with a bit of group instruction, demonstrating a technique, then set the students loose to accomplish the task. I then follow up with every student to see that they understand the concept as they work. I repeat this catch and release process throughout the day. And having a follow-up session where the students’ results can be seen and evaluated is always a good plan.

 Photo Tours – Trips to exotic locations can be expensive, and many photographers prefer to go to a new site with a leader who has local experience and knows how to maximize the photographic opportunity. If you know an exceptional location very well and have photographed there successfully, you may want to set up a photo tour or convince an established company to let you lead one for them. Early in my career I was fortunate to work for Joe Van Os Photo Safaris, where I led photo tours to Churchill, Canada; Alaska; Yellowstone; and Olympic National Park. My co-leaders were experienced photographers like John Shaw and David Middleton, so I learned from the best. More recently, through Journeys Unforgettable, I’ve led photo tours to Africa with Dana Allen, a local professional photographer/guide from Zimbabwe who intimately knows the areas and makes sure we’re all successful with our photography.

Most photo tours differ from workshops in that their primary purpose is not instruction. In a photo tour, the leader is there to get the participants to a specific place and help them get good images mostly by example, as he/she will also be taking photographs. Still, an excellent photo tour experience includes plenty of opportunities for the participants to ask questions and learn new techniques, during both photographic opportunities and when there are breaks in the action. If an instructor treats a workshop as if it were a photo tour, and shoots his/her own images instead of helping get the techniques across to the paying participants, the instructor has not done his/her job. But on a photo tour, participants should not expect the leader to be showing them how to set up a camera when a lion is chasing an impala past the group. So participants on a photo tour need to be proficient with their photographic equipment before embarking..

Photo tours take a great amount of planning. You are responsible for the safety, comfort, and photographic results of the group of people. The responsibility is great, so working through an experienced company is the best way. No matter how well you plan it, there are uncontrollable variables: rainy weather, hiding animals, bad hotels, or one person in the group who seems determined to ruin the experience for everyone. Think hard before heading off into the wilderness with 16 photographers who are wholeheartedly depending on you.

A Following

Seminars are only successful when people show up to hear what you have to say. Workshops need a critical mass of students to make a profit. And even with a great supporting company like van Os, you’ll need to bring the participants to your photo tour. You need a following.

Start with groups like your own camera club, and if you attain a reputation for effective teaching, you can move up to larger groups. Writing articles for newsletters and magazines and producing books will increase your profile and, if done well, can help to establish your credibility as a teacher. Work as a paid or volunteer assistant on workshops and photo tours led by more experienced teachers. And always remember that teaching carries a responsibility to respect your students and the money and time they’ve invested in you by offering a well-planned performance and valuable information to the entire group. That’s a real challenge, but the key to a positive and satisfying experience for everyone, including you, the instructor.