Do you think...

That even you are average (like think I am, or even less) photographer
still can work and make money out of photography (wedding)? Do you think
that school or something similar can make you better photographer?

Because sometimes people are sattisfied with my job but I'm not. After
I finish wedding i still think it can be much better. So I always end with bad C&C about myself.

It's good if you are never satisfied with your work, as long as it always drives you to improve constantly.

Quite honestly... MOST pro photographers are quite average. The super standouts are few and far between.

Succeeding in photography is much more about business management than photographic skills. A great businessman with less photographic talent will do better than a photo genius with no business sense.

Well, I feel that way now and that is why I'm going to school to get a 4 year degree in photography with a minor in art and technology. However, school is not teaching me the things I want to learn right now. I'm starting to think I'm better off doing self taught education so I can apply it to weddings NOW.

Also, getting photographic schooling has not proved to increase success in a photo business. There's no education like throwing yourself right into the mess!! 4 years in the school of hard knocks will teach you a LOT more than 4 years in a real photo school.

I think that's the truth. Almost every job these days is all about management .
It's all about how can you sell yourself. But, of course, talent is also important.

I have very minor experience in wedding and photography. What I noticed is that
my work is very different from one wedding to another. Sometimes disaster, sometimes good. I don't have consistensy. That's my problem. But, in the end we are all people
and we can't me every wedding the best. And b & g are not always willing to do
shooting, sometimes i don't have enough time to make something special out of wedding. It's always in big hurry and I have only 20 minutes to take photos.
Have you ever experienced something like that?

Chances are business school will bring you more financial success from photography (and wedding photography in particular) than art school. We are our own worst critics and that is how we grow at anything we do.

D.A. wrote in post #4089678
Have you ever experienced something like that?

yes... all the time. Mayhem is just a part of weddings. Schedules are made to be broken. People bugging you and breaking your concentration. That's just a part of wedding shooting. About 1 in 10 weddings I find go really smooth and relaxed. The rest are mayhem, in varying degrees.

I'm studying Photography at a good university here in California, and I will point out these facts:
- A university will generally teach you ART photography. That includes:
1) Developing and manipulating film
2) Avoiding cliche
3) Development of personal style
4) Other current processes, like digital photography
5) Creative use of lighting and environment
In my univeristy, for example, to get a degree in photography, you need to take basic drawing, basic painting, 2d design, 3d design, life drawing, and various art history courses. It may sound a bit odd, but I notice that those courses are helping my eye tremedously. Typically, if you go for an Associate's Degree in Photography (I'm going for my Bachelor of Fine Arts and then for my Master of Fine Arts so I can teach at the college level) at a community college, the courses are much more literal and commercial, like "portrait photography" and "product photography."
I find that my skills are improving and they do teach you really unique and interesting ways to approach photography, both film and digial.

What I find is that people, in general, aren't very creative. Most people who look at a photographer's work automatically think it's nice because of the subject matter (ie: "I like dogs! This is a great photo of mine!) Rarely do thoughts pass through their minds like, "I love the organic qualities to the forms!" or "the compositional contrast between the foreground and background are immaculate!" The same can go for paintings, web designs, etc.

That's my two pennies and hair!

Most wedding clients want cliches

What madhatter is really trying to say is 'He is trying to justify the reason for spending 4 odd years studying the arty farty side of things!'
I just finished a course last year and all it really gives you is a headache and a pinch of stress in trying to finish workbooks.

You will learn more about photography by doing your own research and if you are willing to accept critisism and learn from it.

Jon's right ...... most clients are very happy with what we all consider mediocre or less.

It is good to be self critical and to use that to drive your work forward but if you are struggling with inconsistency then it suggests you are not learning as you go.

The one thing that learning from the +/- of every shoot is that you should be developing greater consistency and your bar should be rising higher season on season ..... that's what its all about.

Personally, I think college/seminars/secon​d-shooting/etc are rarely going to offer much by way of real short term assistance, if that is what you are looking for. More likely to breed a sense of inadequacy and self failing.

Keep working at what you do, be self critical and apply what you learn as you go.

I did a college nightschool class last year and it really helped me fill in some of the technical gaps and understanding of photography that I had. I had only got my first DSLR a few months before the course started though so even though I had read a few books I was very green.

If you already understand your camera fully then I would say its much more useful exposing yourself to as much stimuli as possible whether thats other photographers works by viewing them here or on their websites and blogs, gallery visits, art books, training DVD's, (eg MOWP 1& 2) watching films etc .......

The key thing imo is to think about and use stuff your exposed to on an everyday basis ... so for example I find films are great for imagining new shots and looking at great lighting, angles, crops etc and I find it hard to sit there and watch one these days without looking at them in that way and imagining how I can use the images in my photography.

Shane McGeown wrote in post #4092019
What madhatter is really trying to say is 'He is trying to justify the reason for spending 4 odd years studying the arty farty side of things!'

Actually, I said what needed to be said. If you go to a university, you will learn about photography as a FINE ART, not a commercial art. This usually involves film (a four letter word for most of the people on here). I'm interested in Photography as a process and a fine art. I love developing film and learning the technical aspects of photography and creating art, and I eventually want to be able to teach photography (in addition to painting) at the college level. Learning the technical aspect of traditional photography has really helped my digital photography in so many ways. I still love to do the occasional commissioned shoot (ie: headshots) and that's pretty straightforward. Trial, error, and personal research probably would be the best education you could get in those cases.

At a university, you get bombarded with criticism and constantly have to find new ways to do things. Having that hovering over you really inspires you to venture outside the lines. They won't teach you how to shoot a wedding or how to pose people.

So, what I have to say is:
If you want to learn about the artistic side of photography, universities can't be beat.
If you want to learn about the commercial aspect, do it on your own.

If there's a school that have pretty realistic wedding setup, including all the B & G, priest, etc, than it may help initially.
I found that in weddings it's a lot about knowing/anticipate what's going to happen and be ready for it. Things that can only be learned from actually doing it and pick up along the way.