Post School Meanderings

I thought I would update you on the the thoughts Ive had around school and the hows and whys, pros n cons, and what you get and dont get - and where you might or might not get out of it afterwards.
First I want to warn you that this is little more of a rant than I would normally post, but I think there are some pretty serious flaws in the education system to start with so lets begin with that.

St Pauls - Bendigo

I quit school last month. For many reasons. I was pretty disappointed with the curriculum, speed, pace, timing, cost but in the end it came down to a few reasons:

1. They werent teaching me what I wanted to know, on my path how I need it to be delivered
2. The cost was very high and I was spending more time and energy self educating via web, blogs and workshops, than I was on school. And there is no way currently around this methodology and thier structured curriculum
3. They arent teaching REAL WORLD skills. like how to set up a business, terms and conditions, pricing, websites, SEO and marketing, contracts etc etc etc. Great. you can take pictures. Now go and let the corporate wolves or mommies DEVOUR you.

St Pauls - Bendigo

So. I'm out. and I'm in. AIPP, ACMP, NAPP...anywhere I can network, take workshops, learn more, have resources like competitions and critiqueing, and learning more on the professional level than I would eveer be provided by school. And this brings me to my last point. Schools dont WANT you to know that there are MANY alternative learning sources. I have done 5-6 workshops in the last few months, some online via www.creativelive.com, some locally with the AIPP as they offer monthly professional development courses. I attended the Google+Photographers COnference (as a biproduct of another tripI already had planned) in San Francisco and learned oodles in 2 day and got to see several mentors of mine such as Jeremy Cowart, Alex Kosolov, Guy Kawasaki, and RC Concepsione to name a few. Last week Joe McNally was here in Melbourne doing a full day lighting workshop for $1200 for the day. Pricey you say? Hell yes. AND. He is by far one of THE western worlds most successful photographers. I called a day after I got the email and it was already booked up. Ya. Next month is an underwater workshop here that costs $1600 for the day. Im going to sign up tomorrow. Yup. its pricey, but its worth it. August is THE EVENT AIPP and ACMP put on this year up in the Hunter Valley. 4 days of workshops and parties. Some people I REALLY want to see live speak like Vincent Laforet, workshops like Resort Commercial work, networking and more networking, and some fiiiinnnne wine country as an added bonus. Im going. Yup.

Ok...rant over...here I am in the real world. I billed out some serious cash last month. One client...and 3 other bits that paid nicely too...so...its out there and I can do it without the tangled tendrels of school pulling on me.

Next step...new website. Been using Wix.com. Its pretty blah, so Im sorting out 4Fotos.com, Wordpress options, zenfolio, and a few others...back to the drawing board, see what news there is on SEO marketing, Im going to go rewatch Lindsay Adler on cretivelive.com, and have one up, 4 yeards earlier than if I had been waiting for someone to teach me...

Lalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaa!