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Why Every Photographer Should be a Teacher

12 Nov

The post Why Every Photographer Should be a Teacher appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

why-every-photographer-should-be-a-teacher

I love teaching photography – it helps me to be a better photographer as well as those I teach. Every photographer should be a teacher at some point.

Many photographers, including myself, are largely self-taught. This does not mean learning new techniques and methods from someone more advanced than us is not welcome.

Modern life affords you endless resources to become self-taught in many subjects. Certain professions require an academic degree, photography does not. Becoming a doctor or engineer would be impossible without formal education. To learn photography all you need to do is get online and start reading and watching videos. Most of it you can even do for free.

Why-Every-Photographer-Should-be-a-Teacher

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

There’s no substitute for a competent teacher

Aspects of learning that require a teacher include: receiving clear instruction in person. Having the opportunity to ask and have your questions answered, and being challenged about specifics at your personal level of learning.

Everyone can become a competent teacher. You will always know at least a little more than someone else. Even if you’ve only learned what you believe is a little. You are capable of sharing what you know in a unique way. Your knowledge and experience will be appreciated by someone.

Image: © Pansa Landwer-Johan

© Pansa Landwer-Johan

Finding the right students

Whatever level of photography you are at, you’ll always be able to find someone who knows less than you. Or someone who does things differently than you. Connecting with people who appreciate your willingness to share is important. It’s practically impossible to teach someone who does not want to learn.

Even complete novices can teach each other through practical experience. Going out with another photographer provides you opportunities to talk about the photos you’re taking. Because we all have a unique view of the world, we all see things differently. Sharing this with others can help us become more skilled with our cameras.

More advanced photographers are usually more capable of teaching those with less experience. Having a positive and encouraging attitude towards each other helps. I never tell people they are doing something wrong, instead, I prefer to teach them how to make improvements to what they are doing.

Making yourself available and reaching out to those with less experience is a good first step. Building a relationship of trust will encourage the learning process. Once your students know you’ll not lambast them for an incorrect exposure or out of focus subject, they’ll be more open to learning from you.

Image: © Kevin Landwer-Johan

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

Start by asking and looking

Before I run a workshop, I like to see a selection of photos from people who will attend. This gives me a pretty good idea of how they like to use their cameras. It often provides me with a pretty good idea of how to teach them.

I like asking questions, and I love it when people ask me questions. This is a huge part of the learning process. Establishing how a person uses their camera, and what they prefer to photograph, helps me know where to start teaching.

Asking questions and looking at the photos of someone you are teaching makes the whole interaction more personal. It also makes the experience much more practical.

Don’t only look at the best photos someone has taken. Ask to see some recent pictures they’ve made that have disappointed them. Even if you cannot see any obvious reason for the lack of success, discuss the pictures. This will often bring new ideas to life, and you can both learn something new.

Asking a person questions about their photography shows you are interested in them. Most people will appreciate this. Once they know you are interested, they will be more receptive to what you have to teach.

Why-Every-Photographer-Should-be-a-Teacher

© Pansa Landwer-Johan

Teaching is not only about what you know

You need to become aware of what your students do and do not know. This information is gained both by asking questions and looking at their photos. Once you have this understanding, you can focus on teaching them what will be practical.

Remember that when we hear something we’ve had no prior knowledge about, it’s more difficult to understand it. Building on what students already know and incrementally introducing new concepts is practical.

Understanding what you have to share is important. Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Teaching what you understand well, you will be received more readily by your students.

When you think you have a good grasp of technique and the person you’re sharing it with is looking bored, this is a clear sign you are not hitting the mark. Do you really have such a good understanding of what you are teaching? How can you simplify your explanation to make it more acceptable? Or are you introducing a brand new idea too soon?

Teaching and doing is the best way to learn photography. Having their camera in hand, a student can put into practice what you are teaching them. If, for example, you’re teaching about depth of field, this is better understood when you can see the results different camera settings produce. When photographing the same subject that your student is, you can compare your photos. This way, you’ll see if they understand the teaching.

Why-Every-Photographer-Should-be-a-Teacher

© Kevin Landwer-Johan

You will reap what you sow

Every photographer should be a teacher because as you teach, you will also learn. Giving out brings back to you many times more than what you contribute. I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I know about photography with others. It wasn’t until about six years ago that I started running regular photography workshops. Because I was teaching, my rate of learning increased incredibly.

Teaching can push you to learn more too. Questions from students or fellow photographers will challenge you to learn more. It feels good to give a clear and understandable answer to someone’s question. Regular interaction like this will inspire you to increase your knowledge, and as a result, your photography will improve.

You don’t need to wait until you believe you’re completely competent. Start now. Build relationships with other photographers who are at about the same level as you and find others who are beginners. Start to share your experiences together and encourage them to share with you what they know about photography. This way, you’ll all benefit from teaching, and you’ll grow together in your photography experience.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Why Every Photographer Should be a Teacher. If you have anything else you would like to add, please do so in the comments.

The post Why Every Photographer Should be a Teacher appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.


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You Are Your Own Best Teacher – Learning From Your Photography Mistakes

11 Feb

The post You Are Your Own Best Teacher – Learning From Your Photography Mistakes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

Personal experience is the very best teacher. Reading tutorials, studying the professionals, and mastering the fundamentals will certainly incrementally improve your photographic skills, but you’ll grow exponentially when learning from your photography mistakes. This is most true when you study your mistakes. You only learn when you make a mistake and know why.

James Baldwin

Learning from your photography mistakes

Conversely, if you don’t seriously study the shots that you captured from each outing (both good and bad), you’ll be more prone to make those mistakes again and again and never clearly understand why. Discovering how camera settings and scene lighting produced specific results can give you real insights that even a private tutor may not deliver. You are your own best teacher because this kind of lesson is concentrated on you alone and concerns you alone. You aren’t competing with anybody else, nor are you being judged by anyone else.

Metadata and EXIF Information

Metadata is the techno-term for the settings your camera uses to capture digital pictures; which includes File Properties and Exif (camera capture data). Every camera collects facts that describe just about everything your camera knows about the pictures it takes.

Metadata and Exif information accompanies every image captured and is disclosed by a variety of different software applications, and it is exhaustively disclosed in Adobe’s Bridge software. The illustrated examples in this article have were captured from Bridge. While Lightroom delivers a small subset of this information, Bridge lists virtually everything and acts as a “bridge” (clever name) between the files and other Adobe software to catalog and process the images.

1 - Learning from your photography mistakes

Metadata reveals that this photo was set up in Auto mode with AWB (Auto White Balance) and Matrix metering which opened the Aperture to 3.5, evenly exposing the scene and allowing the camera to correctly balance the colors based on the neutral gray elements in the scene.

2 - Learning from your photography mistakes

This shot illustrates the danger of setting the camera for full Manual operation but incorrectly selecting Tungsten lighting as the light source which biases the colors toward the cooler (blue) side of the spectrum. Tungsten setting expects the yellow cast of tungsten lights, however, the outdoor lighting was shaded sunlight. The Aperture was set manually to f/22 which did not allow enough light to expose the darkened scene.

Discover what works and what doesn’t

Get hard on yourself and discover what works and what doesn’t. Then try to repeat the results you received from your best shots. If you make this exercise a habit, and seriously analyze why some shots worked, and others didn’t, you’ll improve with every outing. Learn to appreciate the “keepers” but don’t view the rejects as failures… they are merely lessons from which to learn.

Note the difference that the time of day makes and the angles (and severity) of the shadows produced during different hours of the day. Take notes on why some shots are 5-star picks, and some others are rejects. Become a student of your work and watch your learning curve shorten.

This metadata also teaches you the limitations and restrictions of specific settings. Sometimes processes that fail are caused by equipment failure rather than judgment error. Here’s an example of the camera being set up for a flash image but encountering an entirely different lighting condition when the flash failed to fire. The ripple effect of a flash misfire caused a massive failure in the camera’s exposure, focus, and color.

3 - Learning from your photography mistakes

The metadata reveals that this image was captured correctly. All processes functioned as expected, resulting in a color-correct, well-exposed picture.

4 - Learning from your photography mistakes

The metadata in this file reveals why the image is overexposed, grossly discolored, and blurry. While the flash was instructed to fire, it failed (probably because the flash was fully charged and ready to fire). This resulted in an image that the camera’s settings (Aperture Priority and Auto exposure) forced the camera to compensate the lack of flash lighting with extremely slow shutter speed. The yellow cast was the result of tungsten lighting in the room while the image sensor’s color balance expected daylight (flash temperature) settings.

Develop a routine

Develop a routine and a personal discipline that forces you to shoot during the same time of day for a full week. Note that I said “force,” rather than try. Personal discipline is a wonderful trait and one that can improve your photographic skills very quickly. Who knows, it might actually affect other areas of your life that need improvement too.

If you only shoot occasionally, you’ll develop skills at a slower pace. Moreover, if you only critically review your work occasionally, you’ll learn at a snail’s pace. Make the review process a regular exercise, and it becomes habit… a good one. I once had a professor who stated in almost every class, “repetition is the exercise of your mental muscle.” The advice sounded strange back then, but it makes perfect sense now.

Every session you shoot produces winners and losers. Make it a habit to examine all metadata from your session to deduce what went right and what didn’t. More importantly, you’ll learn why. Take ownership of your mistakes, especially errors in judgment. You only grow when you recognize a mistake and work to overcome it. While you’ll always be very proud of the great shots you take, you’ll learn more from the shots that didn’t work!

5 - Learning from your photography mistakes

The metering used in this shot was Pattern or Matrix, which averages light readings from the entire frame to influence the shutter speed. The average exposure was based on middle-tone (18%) gray. The sunlight reflecting from the sand on the ground and the black feathers in the bird’s wings established the outer parameters of the exposure, producing an unacceptably dark overall exposure. Had I chosen Spot metering, the picture would have considered only the tones in the middle of the frame, thus lightening the overall exposure.

More often than not, this examination shows you how your camera reacts to specific lighting in a scene. It sometimes produces profound shifts in exposure from small differences in the framing of a scene. Weird but true. While cameras are thought to have “intelligence,” in reality they have no intelligence or no judgment capabilities of their own. They’re merely algorithms that affect settings based on the lighting observed in the scene.

6 - Learning from your photography mistakes

The camera angle was shifted to reduce the amount of sunlight reflection in the frame which, in turn, changed the lighting ratio and lightened the resulting exposure. Reviewing this result taught me to carefully evaluate a scene for content before choosing a metering system.

There are many ways to learn

There are many ways to learn. Taking courses online, reading tutorials and technique books, and tips and tricks columns all teach us a little something more. Years ago I decided to learn how to play the game of golf. After shooting some very embarrassing and humbling rounds, I realized that I desperately needed help. I bought many golf magazines and tried to mimic the stance and swings pictured in the exercises. I watched a large number of video tutorials and listened to advise from everybody, but my game remained poor.

Nothing improved and I only became discouraged. It was when I practiced the disciplines on a regular basis and took serious notes on what worked and why that my game began to improve. I continued to fail simply because I didn’t analyze (and learn from) my mistakes. You learn a lot when you expose yourself to the valuable experience of others, but you’ll only truly grow in your photography skills after you study your own results. So here’s an exercise:

An exercise to help you learn

Open any of the excellent software packages that display both the Metadata (aperture, metering type, ISO, color mode, and shutter speed) and Camera Data, or Exif information (exposure mode, white balance, focal length, lens used, light source, flash behavior, etc.) from both RAW and formatted photos.

Set the View in the software so that you can observe the images in browser or catalog mode, allowing you to see thumbnail views of the files in each session. Also, set the window to display the settings for each image as you step from one image to another.

Whether you shoot in Manual, Aperture or Shutter priority, or even Auto mode, the software lists the individual camera settings exhaustively for each image.

Next: note the variations in lighting between the images and recognize what changes in the camera settings cause the small shifts in the results. Each variation gets linked to one or more of the camera settings; sometimes just a small shift in ISO.

If you allow Auto to control any aspect of your shots, the camera makes subtle changes to shutter speed, ISO, or aperture. Using Auto can be very beneficial in this learning stage because you’ll see how each of these controls affects the appearance.

Make a short columned note card and enter the basic settings for the keepers. Add the weather and lighting conditions that existed at the time of the shot.

Keep this note card in your camera bag and try to replicate the results from the keepers.

Repeat this exercise regularly and watch your results, judgment, and predictability improve.

Conclusion

You are your best teacher and your camera’s metadata and EXIF information recorded automatically with every shot is the notebook recording detailed information about every shot. Your confidence and efficiency should improve along with your photography when you study your notes. Who knows, this could be the shot-in-the-arm that pushes you forward.

Share with us how you have learned from your own mistakes in the comments below.

The post You Are Your Own Best Teacher – Learning From Your Photography Mistakes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.


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What sort of Persons Should Just take Yoga Teacher Coaching On-line?

06 Mar

Lots of people opt to become yoga classes in Dallas instructors, in many cases by getting yoga teacher teaching on the web. Even so, you’ll find several yoga students who have considered undergoing instructor training, but aren’t confident if this job route is right for them. When there is certainly certainly a difference between a university student who’s passionate about yoga in addition to a full-fledged instructor, both of those share a passionate interest in yoga, meditation and advancing their observe. That can help figure out irrespective of whether or not teacher coaching is true in your case, here are some of the traits which make for any very good yoga teacher.

An individual Who Life and Breathes Yoga – When you wake up each morning as well as initial matter you think that about is heading off into a class, then you really could possibly just be described as a best applicant for instructor education. Yoga instructors share a deep and common love for their exercise. They say that those that do what they adore won’t ever get the job done daily within their lives. If yoga is your passion, a job as an instructor could possibly be best.

An individual Who want to Assist People – In the media, yoga has gotten the name of staying absolutely nothing more than the usual mere exercise. Nonetheless, passionate yogis know that this can be simply not the case. Yoga has actually been known to take care of a wide variety of bodily and psychological ailments, from melancholy to actual physical injuries to sleeplessness plus much more. Those who feel that it is actually their contacting to assist people might be joyful ready as being a yoga teacher. Like a teacher, you can not just help your pupils to advance their apply, but to manage challenges that they have been struggling with inside their lives.

A person Who would like to Possess a Studio – Many yogis harbor the not-so-secret dream of someday owning their particular studio. Even though some studio house owners don’t have their certification, the vast majority do. By owning your instructor certification, you will be an even better studio owner. You may use a excellent idea of what tends to make an incredible trainer and also have the choice to likely teach a few courses all on your own.

A person Who would like to Deepen Their Follow – Not everybody who requires instructor instruction on the web is completely beneficial which they want to switch careers and become an teacher. In some cases, enthusiastic yogis enroll in teacher coaching with the uncomplicated rationale that they are all set to deepen their observe and get an even better comprehension of yoga. Even when you aren’t guaranteed that you choose to choose to turn into a teacher full-time, investing in teacher schooling will let you to increase your observe and develop into a better yogi.

Trainer training might be a must have to some big range of yogis. Even though you aren’t beneficial that you’ll be able to grow to be a full-time teacher, passionate yogis normally discover that trainer instruction programs assist them to boost their own follow and get a greater comprehension of the further indicating of yoga. For people that are wanting to absolutely turn into yoga instructors, instructor teaching could be the vital very first move to commencing your new journey as an instructor. By devoting your lifetime to yoga, you are going to acquire a way of peace and joy that every one amateur yogis aspire to obtain. Namaste.

The post What sort of Persons Should Just take Yoga Teacher Coaching On-line? appeared first on Photonovice.

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Buy in Bulk at Dollar store and save even more on Teacher curriculum materials

02 Feb

Visit www.DollarStoreTeacher.com for teacher resources. Sister site of http Digitally Delivered Ebooks to accommodate the most cost effective classrooms for worldwide education. The Site is expanding to include curriculum for preschool, kindergarten, first grade and 2nd Grade. Includes File Folder Games, Calendar Cover-Ups, Flash Cards, Themed Curriculum, tools for the alphabet, numbers, counting, colors, shapes, letters, patterning, digraphs, nouns, verbs, compound words, contractions, homophones and more. Added recently (with more coming) – by special request – curriculum resources from Tools for Preschool and Kindergarten Ultimate Curriculum Resource Site. This will included communication boards, interactive reading books ….. so many new items with special pricing just for the Dollar Store.
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Karen Sobin-Jonash, NSHS ceramics teacher

18 Dec

Some cool visual art images:

Karen Sobin-Jonash, NSHS ceramics teacher
visual art
Image by Newton Free Library
The library is delighted to announce the opening of Newton South High School’s first show in our Young Adult Art Gallery located on the second floor. For the first time in the gallery’s short history ceramics will be displayed in the cases adjacent to the gallery wall. A Snapshot of Newton South Arts will be on view from spring through early fall 2011 and includes a variety of media. A lively opening reception with food provided by Whole Foods Market took place on Saturday, April 2 at 3:00 pm in the Trustees’ Room and included a gallery tour.
At any given moment during the academic year, Newton South visual arts students are developing their creativity and building artistic skills in a variety of media. Student work is collected in college-bound portfolios, displayed around the school, at the Newton Education Center and entered into the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards. This year Newton South art students received more Gold and Silver Key awards than any public or private school in Newton and the surrounding area.
While much of Newton South’s award winning work is displayed in other locations, the Young Adult Gallery exhibition is an accurate reflection of the quality and breadth of work produced by South students. The pieces were selected from students’ work in the following classes:
•Ceramics Teachers: Cindy Goldberg, Karen Sobin-Jonash
•Digital Art Teacher: Carol Ober
•Painting and Drawing Teacher: Megan Leary-Crist
•Photography Teacher: Robert Bouchal
The library wishes to extend its gratitude to Eric Blomster of abraxis framing co. in Newton, who generously donated his time, and provided the frames and mats cost-free, and to members of the Newton Camera Club who hung the show.
Newton Free Library

Dunedin Street Art
visual art
Image by Matthew Blyde

 
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