Teaching

Photo by Richard Polk A.K.A The Student
For some time now, I’ve been thinking off and on about which direction should I go with regards to my photography. I’ve never felt that the commercial route was for me. I’ve done a couple of model portfolios, some weddings, even a couple of product shots long ago. None of these seemed to hold my interest. I’ve thought about trying to get published, but have never done anything towards that end. I’m not into contests or competitions. Nothing seemed to fit.

Now, some weeks after returning from Dallas, it hit me. I love to teach. I always have, formerly it was teaching software. I would love to run weekend seminars or classes and eventually work up to workshops. I just like giving back. It gave me a great amount of pleasure to see my first student have his eyes opened and to see them fill with understanding. After that point, he just couldn’t wait to shoot more and see what he could do.

Photo by Richard Polk A.K.A The Student
He’s been sharing his images with me and I’d like to share a couple of them that I really like with you. Mind you, he just started into photography not long ago and quickly got confused and befuddled by all of the bells, whistles, etc. present in his digital camera. We went back to the basics and worked our way forward over the course of 3 days.

I am self-taught and a proud graduate of the school of hard knocks! Craig Tanner was my first and, to date, only teacher. Each time that we did well in an assignment or caught onto what he was trying to teach us, a genuine smile would cross his face and you could tell that he was truly happy for us. I’m feeling that glow as I type this. Not necessarily because I did anything, but because I helped someone to discover what they could do. These pictures were not really a direct result of what I taught him, but I simply facilitated the use of a tool. His camera. I provided the technical guidance so that he could explore his artistic expression.

I’m really thankful that I got the the chance to help. It’s a high like no other. In the end, I guess that Galileo said it best:

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.

Richard, it was there all along, thanks for allowing me the opportunity to help you find it. In helping you, you helped me more than you know. You helped me to find direction. In 18 months, if everything works out well, I’ll be doing this full time … and no longer developing software. It’s time to move on to that next path. The voice is too loud to ignore. I can do some good. I can help.

Also, lastly, a big public thanks to Craig Tanner for taking time to talk to me about the ins and outs of workshops and the photography business in general. He gave me a lot of invaluable insight. He’ll continue to be my teacher along this next path that I have chosen. I’m happy to have him. A good teacher makes all of the difference.