How about the biz of teaching photography? Any money in that?

[algee]

Not so much live workshops, but DVDs and/or online tutelage.

What do you think? Any of you guys ever drop coin for a photography DVD course or workshop?

[GregSteer]

There's so much freely available material out there, of various quality, that, unless it was of a similar level of content to the Strobist Lighting Seminars, I'd not expect to see large sales.

Personally I'd prefer to pay for a daily session with a pro to learn new techniques and tricks.

[RDKirk]

There's only money in it if your name is a draw. That's largely a matter of marketing yourself, but you usually do have to start with some claim to fame.

[Fenster]

You'll be going head-to-head with Google, which will not end prettily.

[Gentleman Villain]

There's not much money in teaching photography...but there's a fortune to be made selling gear to people that want to learn photography

[form]

There's lots of cash to be had if you are one of those (many) people who enjoys hiring a few models and charging a massive fee for a workshop while keeping all of the useful photography secrets hidden from the attendees, thus wasting their time and money.

[algee]

There's not much money in teaching photography...but there's a fortune to be made selling gear to people that want to learn photography


Ala Gary Fong? : )

[airfrogusmc]

There's lots of cash to be had if you are one of those (many) people who enjoys hiring a few models and charging a massive fee for a workshop while keeping all of the useful photography secrets hidden from the attendees, thus wasting their time and money.

There are no hidden secrets. There are plenty of books out there and info on the internet. Its all out there you just have to put it all together.

A shutter is still a shutter and a way to control the how long the light is allowed to strike something light sensitive. A camera is still a light tight box that holds light sensitive material. A lens focuses the rays of light on that light sensitive material and an aperture controls the amount of light that strikes the material.

Theres the inverse square law of light. Theres on camera and off camera lights and all kinds of modifiers but its up to you to learn what to do with all that. And all of that should be used to capture your vision. There are NO SECRETS though these guys would like you to believe that. Theres learning how all of these things work together and how they should work with your vision but no secrets.

[Gentleman Villain]

oh...I can think of a few secrets ;)

[Gentleman Villain]

Ala Gary Fong? : )

Exactly!

The strobist is a good example too. From what I understand, he's making a pretty good living off of the traffic sent to sponsors.

[airfrogusmc]

oh...I can think of a few secrets ;)

Oh crap, I always knew I was missing something.

[Alleh]

Isn't the only secret that it is a gift you are born with? You can't learn to be a great artist.

[damonb]

"Personally I'd prefer to pay for a daily session with a pro to learn new techniques and tricks."

This is what I've seen a lot of pros do to augment their sources of income. One of my contacts offers some photography lessons in Thailand (http://www.jonathantaylor.net/photographyschool/courses.php), which has the added bonus of doing something fun while on vacation in a new area (someone to show you around the hot places to photograph, etc.).