Traveling Mentor: Formal announcement!
Ok! So here we go! I get request for help a lot. How do you do what you do, etc. The questions seem to lean technical and process. There are numerous workshops out there, so I wanted to do something different. There are numerous mentor programs out there, but I still wanted to do something different. I like the idea of 1 on 1 mentoring. It suits me. We can tackle exactly the problem areas and get straight to it. However, it didn’t make sense to me to have them come here. This should be about them, their gear, their offices, their weddings, not mine. It’s way too easy to say, “Well MY weddings aren’t as nice as yours.” So let’s do this on their turf, learn to make the best of any situation. Besides, either way there are travel expenses, so why not do this centered around them? Here is what I’m basing this around:
“You need to know how to market your work. Period. But if your work isn’t strong, the marketing won’t help.” – Brenda Milis
This is not a marketing or branding or business approach. This is for people who are new to shooting and feel in over their head on the equipment/execution side of things. They have all this gear and are new to the business, and there are just too many options, too many things vying for attention. They are having limited success with images, but maybe have a hard time achieving consistency. Maybe some things are flipped around and it’s causing a lot of problems with trying to figure things out. And really, if you’re asking money, ANY kind of money from clients, you owe them competency. That is your currency.
These are *extremely* limited and subject to availability and my schedule. Currently, only open dates between now and early April are available. I have a two day or 3 day option. So far everyone has gone for the 3 day, which is 30 hours or so of individualized time. This is out of the state of Georgia only, please.
Here is what happens with a 3 day mentorship. I fly or drive in to your city the night before we officially begin. Then day 1 is spent going over your hit list of priorities, which we determine before I arrive. We cover as much as we can in the most efficient way possible in an effort to start to affect some changes in the way you cover a wedding. This is anything, cameras, lighting, approach, etc, etc. Day 2 is spent with you at one of your weddings, watching how you work, applying new methods and techniques, things you learned, etc. I can be an official 2nd photographer if that is what’s contracted or I can simply tag along and shoot a bit here or there if it’s solo coverage. Mainly I am observing and helping out in implementing anything discussed that might apply. Day 3 is spent looking over images, reinforcement of things learned over the previous 2 days, discussing workflow, best practices for safekeeping of images, color work, anything that will speed along the process or make the ship run tighter. I fly out the morning after we’ve deluged your brain.
After this, you have access to me for 1 year beyond our mentor sessions (time permitting of course, scheduled in advance) by phone or IM. You are also welcome to tag along at one of our weddings as well. No shooting, just helping out and watching us. I want to see major progress being made within that year’s time.
One of the aspects of doing this “there” versus here is that I want this to be about you finding your own vision. I’m there to cut through the mess and nudge you along in the right direction, the direction of understanding your equipment inside and out and what it will take to capture your vision. This is not intended to crank out a bunch of mini-me shooters. We are going to try to find the spark in your current work that gives us a peek into how you think, how you see, how you want to be seen.
That aside, I want to profile Jesse Inskeep (seen above shooting in the corn!). I had a rare free weekend in October, and Jesse wanted me to come up and do just this sort of thing. I have to say that I wasn’t expecting drastic results in a short period of time. I figured it would be a while before things became apparent. That’s still the attitude I’m going to take, but I was surprised at how quickly Jesse improved on the wedding we shot together compared to all the others we looked at before this trip. I asked before going up for him to put up a gallery of some of his favorites to date.
Jesse’s favorites before the mentorship:
A lot of the problem was a clash of information picked up from all kinds of sources. The internet is great, but it can be a detriment when you have access to so much information when you’re not really ready. One of the benefits of formal training and/or photography school is that they break everyone down to the basics, the absolute minimum of gear and technique, and you steadily build up from there. It creates a great foundation for a lifelong learning process. You intuitively know when you’re getting in over your head and you need to back off and solidify your skills.
As I said, I was quite surprised to see how much Jesse improved on that one wedding alone. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does from here on out! I’m certain his work will be getting more and more solid as time goes on.
Jesse’s favorites from the mentored wedding:
He’s already starting to show a clarity of vision just from having some mental clutter alleviated. He got plenty of really strong, clean images, and he’s catching some really nice moments because he’s thinking less about the gear and more about what’s happening in front of him. He kind of obliterated his former portfolio, which means more work for him! But it’s good! He’ll command more money because of these strides he’s taken in the quality of his images.
I asked Jesse to comment on the experience and what it meant for him. Here’s what he had to say:
Marc coming to help me furthered my photography more in 3 days then I would have in 3 years without his instruction. I had all the “head” knowledge about photography. I knew how to make a correct exposure, click a button and get a good “image” but I was missing the concept of taking a photograph. Sometimes, especially as newer photographers, we get caught up in all the gear and think we need to be very complicated. Personally, I thought that meant “good photographers” used flash all over the place, bouncing here and there and trying to recreate the wheel. I learned that instead I should take my photography back to the basics and just worry about capturing the moment and documenting what’s happening vs shooting flash everywhere and having everything lit up. It is such a simple concept and starting giving me the dimension to my photography that I’ve been trying to get for a long time.
After working with Marc for 3 days I was getting better images with a $97 (Canon 50 1.8) than I ever got with a $1500 (Canon 16-35 2.8L) on my own. My gear bag has been cut in half and I’m producing much better work.
I also got a new stash of funny YouTube links and to hear crazy funny stories about what it really means to be a photographer…
If anyone is interested, contact me for details and to check my availability for the dates you are considering. Take it easy!
Marc Climie
marc@climie.com
404-759-7336
Posted on December 9th, 2009 by Climie
Filed under: Mentoring
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