I've been kicking this idea around for a while now, and I'd like to get your input.
In the more recent past, our Events/Outings whatever you want to call them, have been pretty unstructured. (I'm not sure about the events before I joined the group)
Anyway, I was wondering if you folks would like at least a few of the group events to be more structured. More in the form of a workshop. I've never attended a formal workshop so I don't have first hand knowledge of how they work in detail, but I know many of you have attended them and would be willing and able to help me out on that score.
What I have in mind would look something like this:
- 2 to 4 days of shooting.
- Structured and moderately regimented itinerary.
- shooting "assignments" or subject matter.
- meet up each afternoon (during the crappy light) to discuss the days shooting, and critique each other's photos.
- Figure out a way to showcase our best images from the event here in the forum upon our return.
I expect this would only happen a couple times a year, maybe 3.
Thanks guys! So far yours is the only feedback I've had. I'll leave this up a couple more days and if I still don't have any more response I'll assume everyone prefers the unstructured events.
As event coordinator, either way is fine with me, I'm just trying to get a feel for what folks want. Less structure, means less work for me
BTW: Roman, I sent you an email a couple days ago... give me a holler when you have time...
When I think of a "workshop," I kind of think of an instructor (or several) teaching some subject to a group of students (or maybe just one) with an emphasis on fieldwork. I'd generally expect students to work with other students for a number of reasons. (It's easier for a teacher to have 1-1 time with a student if the rest of the class is engaged in their own discussions. It pays to have multiple different ways of explaining something, especially if the person giving the explanation just learnd what they're explaining. One of the best ways to really understand something is to teach someone else.) Of course, if one student teaches another something the instructor didn't expect, that's a bonus.
The downside to giving a workshop like this is that the instructor(s) not only need to put in the time and forethought needed for an outing, but also the time and forethought for the exercises.
Spending the time to lead a workshop is going to be pay off in a number of ways. First of all, it'll make you think a lot about the subject beforehand and that'll probably lead to some new insights for you. Secondly, good students will have good questions and that'll make you think in interesting new ways. Finally, leading workshops is a marketable skill itself and time spent doing it could be good for your career. All this, put together may still not be worth it, so folks generally charge to run a workshops. (I know some members do run workshops for a fee and I wouldn't expect them to do that here for free. Maybe the would be willing to use folks here as beta-testers.)
From the student's perspective, I bet a properly prepared workshop will be more useful than an outing (assuming the leader's teaching something the student's interested in). It may be easier to justify attending. And, it may be worth paying for.
If someone is interested in giving a workshop in the region (free or not) and wants participants (or co-leaders), I bet the moderators would need to make a call about how much "advertising" they'd want to allow here. Depending on their judgment, I could see featuring the topic or even giving space in the events area or I could see them removing the thread and pointing the poster at a more appropriate venue.
I get the feeling Curtis had something else in mind, so maybe he can clarify.
What I have in mind is very much like a workshop, but I'm looking more at a highly structured "learn-from-each-other" outing, with a fairly regimented itinerary. Workshop is probably not the best term for me to use here, but it was the best I could come up with.
This is definitely NOT something I'm looking to charge for. It's just like any other event we have for the forum, but with more structure, including shooting assignments. I'm not anywhere near qualified to charge any PNWNP members, for a workshop However, I do feel that we can all learn from each other in a structured setting.
I'm probably failing miserably at getting my point across here...
No Curtis...your fine....and that is what I got from your origonal post. A structured outing...IS a workshop....as we are on assignments...we have goals to reach, and much to learn...just because we dont have a dedicated "somone" to learn from dosn't make this any less of a workshop. It's a lot like a jam session for musicians. More about creativity and learning and working with one another....and seeing what we come up with.
I put one of these together for the DPreview crowd last year. We went shooting at 2 locations...ended up at one of the groups house and went over the work there.
And I am still game.
P.S....can you resend your last e-mail...I think you hit my new spam filter and died...lolol!
Don't get me wrong. I should not have brought up the payment aspect. I was just saying that thinking up good 'assignments' is enough work that people can and do charge for it.
Of course, maybe I'm setting the bar too high. I guess an assignment doesn't need to mesh with some bigger program. It can be like a weekly challenge. Maybe each participant could contribute an assignment at the start of the day (basically any idea that should yield a good photo, can be achieved with the subject matter in the area with equipment most other participants have). Everyone does 3 assignments plus their own, and at the end of the day the group looks at the results of each assignment and gives feedback.
You could probably do the same sort of thing for post-processing. Everyone contributes a decent raw image to a pool, picks 3 from the pool and shows their approach for editing the shot, maybe with a few intermediate steps along the way. (There is no reason for this to be related to an outing. In fact it'd probably work better as homework.)
Just trying to scratch the surface here. Is this the kind of thing you had in mind?
Seems like a way to review work as a group is something that's missing.
This is getting to be a great discussion, even if it only has four participants so far
Sean and Roman, I think we're on the same page.
The group has done a few photoshop gatherings, and we should do some more. That's something I should probably be working on as event coordinator. I hadn't thought about it in that sense so thanks for the reminder
Anyway, my main goal as event coordinator, is to get us (NPN members) out shooting together, which is why I want to tie this idea to an outing. As a "homework" assignment, we already have the weekly challenge, and those are provided to us in advance so I think that type of shooting and review is pretty much covered, with the exception of physically getting together in a room and going over images. hmmm... maybe we could tie the photoshop sessions to the weekly challenge...???
As far as a way to review the work, that's a logistic that we'll figure out if this idea takes off. There are lots of options we can consider for this.
A Three day weekend shoot, might look something like this:
Friday evening: Group gets together for dinner to discuss Saturday's shooting location and deside on the assignment(s)
Saturday morning: take pictures.
Saturday late morning: meet for breakfast; talk about the assignment; possibly take a quick look at some of our shots; travel to the evening location.
Saturday night: meet for dinner and discuss the location and assigment for Sunday morning.
Sunday morning: take more pictures
Sunday late morning: meet for breakfast; meet at someone's home or motel room, and spend the ballance of the day reviewing images.
As I write this, it occurs to me that only having one day to review images is too agressive. but like I say, I've never attended a real workshop so I'm a little unsure what to expect.
I Think it's a good idea. I do have one comment though, even though we are all love photography, it might be hard to be involved all three days. Maybe some more feedback would be nice.
Curtis,
One other country heard from...I think this sounds like a great idea you're evolving. I like the 'learning from each other' concept. Thanks for proposing this..
j.
I think it's a good idea overall, but I can tell you that I wouldn't be able to commit to a full weekend gettogether. But I'm up for it, tell me how to help
This discussion seems to have run it's course. I see some interest, but it's not overwhelming. I'll give it more thought, but I don't see enough interest to make it worth the amount of time and energy required to make it work.
A full weekend would be tough for me with my current situation, but thank you for brainstorming the idea Curtis. I've been frustrated that twice now I've planned on joining organized shoots and had to change plans at the last minute.
I'd still be up for learning more about processing by seeing how different members deal with the same photo. Is there any interest in that? If so, I'd be happy to provide a raw photo for download. Maybe others would be too.
Discussion
13 repliesI've been kicking this idea around for a while now, and I'd like to get your input.
In the more recent past, our Events/Outings whatever you want to call them, have been pretty unstructured. (I'm not sure about the events before I joined the group)
Anyway, I was wondering if you folks would like at least a few of the group events to be more structured. More in the form of a workshop. I've never attended a formal workshop so I don't have first hand knowledge of how they work in detail, but I know many of you have attended them and would be willing and able to help me out on that score.
What I have in mind would look something like this:
- 2 to 4 days of shooting.
- Structured and moderately regimented itinerary.
- shooting "assignments" or subject matter.
- meet up each afternoon (during the crappy light) to discuss the days shooting, and critique each other's photos.
- Figure out a way to showcase our best images from the event here in the forum upon our return.
I expect this would only happen a couple times a year, maybe 3.
Please let me know what you think...
Roman
As event coordinator, either way is fine with me, I'm just trying to get a feel for what folks want. Less structure, means less work for me
BTW: Roman, I sent you an email a couple days ago... give me a holler when you have time...
The downside to giving a workshop like this is that the instructor(s) not only need to put in the time and forethought needed for an outing, but also the time and forethought for the exercises.
Spending the time to lead a workshop is going to be pay off in a number of ways. First of all, it'll make you think a lot about the subject beforehand and that'll probably lead to some new insights for you. Secondly, good students will have good questions and that'll make you think in interesting new ways. Finally, leading workshops is a marketable skill itself and time spent doing it could be good for your career. All this, put together may still not be worth it, so folks generally charge to run a workshops. (I know some members do run workshops for a fee and I wouldn't expect them to do that here for free. Maybe the would be willing to use folks here as beta-testers.)
From the student's perspective, I bet a properly prepared workshop will be more useful than an outing (assuming the leader's teaching something the student's interested in). It may be easier to justify attending. And, it may be worth paying for.
If someone is interested in giving a workshop in the region (free or not) and wants participants (or co-leaders), I bet the moderators would need to make a call about how much "advertising" they'd want to allow here. Depending on their judgment, I could see featuring the topic or even giving space in the events area or I could see them removing the thread and pointing the poster at a more appropriate venue.
I get the feeling Curtis had something else in mind, so maybe he can clarify.
Sean
What I have in mind is very much like a workshop, but I'm looking more at a highly structured "learn-from-each-other" outing, with a fairly regimented itinerary. Workshop is probably not the best term for me to use here, but it was the best I could come up with.
This is definitely NOT something I'm looking to charge for. It's just like any other event we have for the forum, but with more structure, including shooting assignments. I'm not anywhere near qualified to charge any PNWNP members, for a workshop
I'm probably failing miserably at getting my point across here...
I put one of these together for the DPreview crowd last year. We went shooting at 2 locations...ended up at one of the groups house and went over the work there.
And I am still game.
P.S....can you resend your last e-mail...I think you hit my new spam filter and died...lolol!
Roman
Of course, maybe I'm setting the bar too high. I guess an assignment doesn't need to mesh with some bigger program. It can be like a weekly challenge. Maybe each participant could contribute an assignment at the start of the day (basically any idea that should yield a good photo, can be achieved with the subject matter in the area with equipment most other participants have). Everyone does 3 assignments plus their own, and at the end of the day the group looks at the results of each assignment and gives feedback.
You could probably do the same sort of thing for post-processing. Everyone contributes a decent raw image to a pool, picks 3 from the pool and shows their approach for editing the shot, maybe with a few intermediate steps along the way. (There is no reason for this to be related to an outing. In fact it'd probably work better as homework.)
Just trying to scratch the surface here. Is this the kind of thing you had in mind?
Seems like a way to review work as a group is something that's missing.
Sean
Sean and Roman, I think we're on the same page.
The group has done a few photoshop gatherings, and we should do some more. That's something I should probably be working on as event coordinator. I hadn't thought about it in that sense so thanks for the reminder
Anyway, my main goal as event coordinator, is to get us (NPN members) out shooting together, which is why I want to tie this idea to an outing. As a "homework" assignment, we already have the weekly challenge, and those are provided to us in advance so I think that type of shooting and review is pretty much covered, with the exception of physically getting together in a room and going over images. hmmm... maybe we could tie the photoshop sessions to the weekly challenge...???
As far as a way to review the work, that's a logistic that we'll figure out if this idea takes off. There are lots of options we can consider for this.
A Three day weekend shoot, might look something like this:
Friday evening: Group gets together for dinner to discuss Saturday's shooting location and deside on the assignment(s)
Saturday morning: take pictures.
Saturday late morning: meet for breakfast; talk about the assignment; possibly take a quick look at some of our shots; travel to the evening location.
Saturday night: meet for dinner and discuss the location and assigment for Sunday morning.
Sunday morning: take more pictures
Sunday late morning: meet for breakfast; meet at someone's home or motel room, and spend the ballance of the day reviewing images.
As I write this, it occurs to me that only having one day to review images is too agressive. but like I say, I've never attended a real workshop so I'm a little unsure what to expect.
One other country heard from...I think this sounds like a great idea you're evolving. I like the 'learning from each other' concept. Thanks for proposing this..
j.
I think it's a good idea overall, but I can tell you that I wouldn't be able to commit to a full weekend gettogether. But I'm up for it, tell me how to help
Kevin
I'd still be up for learning more about processing by seeing how different members deal with the same photo. Is there any interest in that? If so, I'd be happy to provide a raw photo for download. Maybe others would be too.