John Howard wrote:
I am a retired advanced amateur photographer looking to improve and thinking of taking some classes without any desire to get a degree. Was wondering what you all think of the options of buying a set of CDs, doing an online course from some place like NY School of Photography or maybe attending a local jr college for a class or two. I line in an area without much in the way of infrastructure. If I want a club I would need to start it.
Thanks
Here are some useful links:
http://www.rangefinderonline.com/index.shtmlhttp://www.photovisionvideo.com/https://www.youtube.com/user/DiscoverMirrorless/http://www.jkost.com/http://www.lynda.com/http://www.scottkelby.com/YouTube is FULL of videos on how to make equipment, reviews of cameras and lenses and lighting, instructional commentaries, and other photo/video related topics. You can spend weeks watching them, until your eyeballs bleed.
Also check out PPA, WPPI, and PMAI. Various certification courses are available through them, or sub-organizations they support.
Community college and college courses can be wonderful or terrible, depending upon the school's resources and the instructors' collective knowledge, training, viewpoints, and experience. They vary WILDLY across the country.
IMHO, in 2015, photography should be taught and learned as a branch of digital imaging. MOST people in the USA create and share images digitally now, on computers, smart phones, and digital devices.
Few of us print much of anything, any more. So learning to expose, process, and print film is generally a quaint art form (still a relevant, possibly fun, and impressive art form, to be sure!), but it is certainly much less *practical* than it was 30 years ago.
If you do want to print, I'd focus on working with commercial labs, or learn to do your own high end inkjet printing from digital files.
One last thing: Much of your choice of approach should be based on your own learning style. Do you learn best by reading? Watching? Doing? Do you need the "push" of a structured approach and an instructor with assignments to complete, or do you need the creative freedom to forge your own path at your own pace? Some learn best by combining all these approaches, with a "little bit of everything from everywhere." A little soul-searching will help a lot!