I know there's a few pro/semi pro photographers on here so i thought it the best of all usual places i reside to ask the question. I'm looking into photography courses (part time/evening based to start), maybe as a possible change of career in the future, more just for fun/part time work. The local college lists an introductory course, but this seems mainly film based rather than digital. Whats the advice from you guys in the know? Do i do an introductory film course (bearing in mind it tells me not to buy a camera until after the first meeting, and i'm wanting DSLR) or go anther route?
All courses start out with film, as they are archaic, out of touch luddites. However, what I can tell you is that photography as a career means 14K at BEST for the first year until you've done about 10 years in which case you'll be on 30K with maybe 35 absolute tops unless your an amazing good fashion tog, in which case the sky is your limit. It really, really isnt worth it unless you get into it right after Uni or before.
OK, just working as a part time thing it is then! Was kind a hoping it would be you that popped up with some answers! So, you don't really recommend any part time courses then?
I would do one, they are worth their weight in gold, the theory side is all the same. Then, get with a big agency if you can and use them to start you off. As a rough guide, a full page in a national will be 500-1000 and a half page 250, down to 60 for a small pic in an obscure magazine. So as a part time thing i 'can' be worth it, if only for the free event/concert tickets.
Bloody hell, that little? I always sort of thought that you would get about 5k for a full page pic... glad I'm useless at photography!
It wouldn't hurt to go, as a lot of the camera work and theory is the same whether you use digital or film. You could also look around to join a camera club - most places have at least one. I've found them to be a good place to learn and discuss things, though admittedly some of them are full of old people taking slides of their endless holidays. Go and look on dpreview.com when you've narrowed down what sort of camera you want, and read some of the reviews. Then go into somewhere like Jessops and handle some of the cameras, so you know what feels good. Also, you can hire them from there, so you could have a good play around with what you fancy before committing yourself to paying out a lot of money.
