How to get Ahead in Photography

I’ve had a DSLR camera now for about 5 or 6 years and I’ve definitely got better over the years but never really produced anything of pure amazing. Given that my camera, the Canon EOS 7D, cost roughly about £1500 I thought it was high time I tried to improve and see if I could actually make a bit of extra cash out of it. After all, this photography lark isn’t the cheapest of hobbies.

I’d been toying with the idea of enrolling into a local photography course either at the local college / night school or distance learning such as the Open University. The OU was quite an expensive option and as I wasn’t going to continue on to getting another degree seemed pointless and the issue with doing some “after work” classes was always a pain due to my working hours and the unpredictability of being required to work out of hours. In a nutshell I could never guarantee I could attend.

I started watching the DTown TV and The Grid podcasts, hosted by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski amongst a whole array of talented guests and colleagues, and found the way the presented very easy to understand and informative. Thanks to a small bonus from work I managed to buy all three volumes of Scott’s The Digital Photography Book, Joe McNally’s The Moment it Clicks and The Hotshoe Diaries (both recommended from Strobist.com), Syl Arena’s Speedlighter’s Handbook (mainly because it focused on Canon tech and the rest of the guys mentioned seemed to be in the Nikon camp and did things just a little differently) and volume one and two of Strobist Photo Trade Secrets technique cards by Zeke Kamm (or edited or whatever)

That’s a lot of reading material and I’ll admit I’ve only scan read about half of it, dipping in and out to cover whatever I was planning to shoot. But it’s a great resource for all manner of photo opportunities.

Finally, with a small pay rise from work, I decided that I would take on the challenge of a training course but instead of doing either of the options I’d previously researched I decided to take out a year’s subscription to Kelby Training Online where there were over a couple of hundred courses hosted by the fantastic photographers I’d seen on DTown and The Grid and whose books I’d been reading. The courses cover everything I want to try out plus a load of stuff I’d not thought of and may try. Although I started the subscription towards the end of May I will officially be starting from June, trying to take as many courses as I can and practicing what I learn and blogging about it on here with accompanying shots. It’s going to be a long year and I hope it pays off, wish me luck