FunkyTown Wedding and Portrait Photography

I had what some would call a successful, ladder-climbing career. I made good money. I could use my brain. I was pretty happy (well, at the very least content).

Now, I’ve been addicted to just about everything: cigarettes, boys, chocolate brownies, you name it. But nothing was like the nail biting, sweat-inducing, 400-km/hr head rush I got from photography. It is pretty much on par with the symptoms of heroin addiction: “rush, pleasure, euphoria, nausea, comfort, lack of pain, happiness, drowsiness, warmth, heaviness, constipation, floating, blurriness, contentment.” Yup. All of the above.

Every one of my vacation days turned into a hunt to find and photograph elusive wildlife – whether it was the Vancouver island marmot, the titi squirrel monkey, or a resplendent quetzal.

Would I buy a 105mm Nikkor f2.8 macro with my bonus money? Or perhaps it would be fun to invest in a 10.5mm Nikkor 2.8 fisheye? Maybe I could “save” on a telephoto by trying the manual focus Nikkor 300mm f4.

Every lunch hour I would go to the park in search of something for my photo-a-day diary on Pbase, or I would work on my weekly entry for DP Challenge.

Since I didn’t have any photographer friends, my online photography network was a lifeline — my pusher. And while I was grateful to have web resources and tons of books to help me learn, I felt like I had reached a point where I taught myself all I could on my own. I had so many questions about why I couldn’t quite capture everything I pre-visualized.

One day I was driving and noticed a sign, “Western Academy of Photography.” I almost ran into the car in front of me (okay, this is normal… but this time it was notable). When I got home I raced to the computer and pulled up the website: A full-time, 10-month intensive program in photography… one that would teach all genres of my passion, plus business skills t’boot?? And right here in Victoria where I live??

One thing was clear: It was time to quit my job.

The first 14 weeks at Western helped all of us go from zero to 100. We learned all the technical principles needed to shoot what we pre-visualized. In those first few months my camera had finally become an extension of my hands and fingers.

The next few months we had workshop-style courses: studio lighting, advertising, lifestyle, stock, outdoor and travel, weddings, portraits, adventure sports, fashion, architecture and, most important of all, business. And all of the classes were taught by working professionals with years of experience. We learned how to set business goals, create marketing plans, forecast our yearly earnings, price our work and invoice clients – all essential for being a professional photographer. This stuff was intimidating, but necessary. After all, anyone I know who is full-time runs his or her own business. In addition to the business class, each of our workshop teachers taught us about industry-specific nuances, pricing and customer service.

It was the best year of my life. I was enriched not just with knowledge of how to turn my passion into a career, but with a new set of friends from around Canada and the world who all came from different backgrounds and had different photography interests. They were people who could inspire me and help me continue learning. To this day, we all still push each other to be better.

I know a photo education isn’t for everyone. I’ve met a lot of extremely talented self-taught photographers who are doing awesome with their businesses. And I know a lot of people who would love to do it but simply can’t afford the risks of taking a year off work, possibly moving across the country, and investing in tuition. And, yes, there are a ton of workshops and online tutorials that will help you along the way. I even teach some of them.

SOME MATH

The average price of a wedding photography workshop is $500 per day (including mine). No matter what your experience, keeping up to date with the latest trends in any photography genre is important and I still take workshops and attend conferences myself. I believe you can never stop learning. And workshops are excellent ways to discover new techniques and find out best practices. It’s also sometimes the only way for people for who simply can’t attend a full-time program in photography to hone their skills.

That said, workshops can’t replace the value of photography school. While tuition at the school I attended was expensive (around $10,000), I received more than 700 hours of instruction. That’s about $14.28 per hour of education. And that doesn’t even include all of the extra peer-to-peer mentoring or the hours spent on assignments.

Plus, unlike an art college or university program, the photography trade school I attended was only one year. Doing some more math, most college or university programs are $3,000+ a year in tuition multiplied by three to four years. That equals close to the same amount of tuition (overall), only with photography school I was only off the job market for one year (not three or four).

On the value side of things, a trade school like the Western Academy of Photography focuses solely on photography and practical job-related assignments. We were still very creative, but the emphasis was on developing skills that would help us earn an income doing something we love. If photo school was a MasterCard ad the tag line would end in, “The value of photo school? Priceless.”

Attending photography school was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. And I still feel the benefits of what I learned even six years after graduation.

If you’ve ever considered attending the Western Academy of Photography I would be happy to have a no-pressure chat with you about my experience. Also, the school offers a reduction in tuition if you know someone in the alumni. Get in touch and I’ll tell you about it.

PHOTOGRAPHY SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Western Academy of Photography – Victoria, BC
North Island College – Courtenay, BC
NAIT – Edmonton, Alberta
Ryerson University – Toronto, Ontario
VANARTS – Vancouver, B.C.
Langara College – Vancouver, B.C.
Nova Scotia Community College – Halifax, Nova Scotia

ART INSTITUTES IN THE US
Directory of schools

ONLINE DIPLOMA PROGRAMS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
New York Institute of Photography