How many of you have taken a photography course?

I was luck to attend a class at the locoal junior college where Richard Bernabe (Google his name) was the instructor. For 50 bucks I got six three hour classes AND a Sunday field trip, best money I have ever spent on anything. I am also lucky in that I live just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, and within 100 miles of some of the most beautful sscenery in the country., from the mountains to the seacoast.

I took a course in college and dropped the class after a few weeks. I learned more shooting a bunch of images than sitting in class. I was also fortunate enough to work in a lab and had access to unlimited film and processing. Now, with pixels being free and you can erase and reshoot as many times as you want, I'm sure learning through experience is even easier. Taking classes though is definitely valuable, but was not for me at the time.

I don't remember everybody I've met, but I'm about 95% certain I've run into Richard more than a few times while I've been out shooting. A few times he was doing a workshop on the Foothills Parkway and in the GRSM. He seemed like a nice guy that knew his stuff. $50 for 18 hours of instruction and a field trip sounds like a great deal.

Yup, I've taken classes on darkroom techniques and studio lighting.

I've taken classes, but none in actual photography. I have taken classes in

- art
- architecture
- drafting
- architectural rendering
- physics

I have followed good photographers around. But I learned what I needed to know in terms of photographic technology by reading books and by doing it. I had access to a studio and good darkrooms in college and took every advantage of it. I had access to large-format camera equipment and didn't miss that opportunity either. By the time I was an upperclassman, I was teaching classes in beginning photography and darkroom techniques. That was 31 years ago. I know at least 10 times as much now as then, again from practice.

Lots of dues-paying back in the day.

That said, I would even now love to take one of the Friends of Photography courses in Yosemite, or some such. Bond, Ross, Sexton, etc.--lots of truly amazing photographers who take the time to teach. I've just never been able to make it work out.

Rick "thinking one really learns when faced with teaching responsibilities" Denney

Any idiot can learn the basics of photography, I'm one of them.
But learning to "see" that picture is something else entirely.
If it doesn't come naturally, go to college.

Certainly it is easy enough to learn photography without having taken any courses. In college I was teaching assistant in photography, without ever having taken any official classes on the topic. But I did have professional coaching to learn how to do color processing, back while I was still in high school!

And I did take some courses well after college, and LEARNED a veriety of things from them, in spite of having a strong background already. So anyone who looks down their noses at courses is simply short sighted.

Photography is both a Vision and a Craft. The vision is inborn, the craft is learned.

I've never taken a formal course, but I've done a few seminars and have lately been fortunate enough to find something of a mentor in a local sports shooter.

I'd kind of like to take a course or two in the more artistic sides of photography, as I think that's where I need the most work, but there's just too much on the wish/to-do lists ahead of that at this point.

this place is my class room much like the other forums i frequent (car clubs)

I am currently in a community college class, I got a big discount on cs4, I have free access to bigger printers than I will ever own, and I get questions answered by a person that not only knows the answer but why I asked it and what I will need to know next. can't get that from the internet. well worth the time and money.

1 year in highschool, 1 year of university training, and currently about 40 percent of my life gaining experience.

Many, many moons ago I took a basic B&W shoot, dunk, print course in high school.

The rest has been through reading, admiring the work of others, POTN and the Desert Light Photography Group which I was invited to join in November of 2007.
http://www.pbase.com/p​hotobart/desert_light_​themes

Several classes in high school, followed by a 2 year degree in photographic arts through a comm. college. Alas, that was long before anyone knew what a pixel was.

jacuff wrote in post #7338631
I don't remember everybody I've met, but I'm about 95% certain I've run into Richard more than a few times while I've been out shooting. A few times he was doing a workshop on the Foothills Parkway and in the GRSM. He seemed like a nice guy that knew his stuff. $50 for 18 hours of instruction and a field trip sounds like a great deal.

It is highly likely that you met him, he spends a lot of time teaching when he is not working, lucky guy to be working at what he loves. Great teacher too, does a lot of seminars and field trips (see his web site for some beautiful work!). I haven't gotten to see one yet but he did the entire Canon calendar this year, ask your Canon dealer to see theirs as they are not for sale to the public. He loves the outdoors and that is how he stumbled onto his career as a photographer, just trying to show other people the sites he was seeing on his trips.

I took a basic digital class and learned next to nothing. However, next quarter I'm slated to save a digital manipulation class and BW darkroom.