Creating Photography for Journalism

Over the last few years a number of journalists have told me they’d like to learn sufficient photography to help them with their work.

I’ve been teaching photography to different ages, demographics and at different levels for over a decade. I really enjoy it, but it can also be frustrating. Commercial imperatives aside, I feel it’s unfair to slow a workshop down because some of the people in it don’t have sufficient knowledge, and would like to give my students opportunities to progress that are outside the scope of short term courses that seem designed to appeal to as many people as possible.

While – of course – I am doing this for money, I want to feel satisfied that I’m delivering the best. I also want to maximise peoples’ ability to learn what they need. That means offering an online course that provides enough time for busy students to get their practical work in, and a method of finance where they can pay over a period of time.

So that’s what I’ve done. The course has 25 units, each teaching something different, and prospective students can choose what they do.

Will there be sufficient takers to make the course commercially worth while? Would people rather scour the internet for superficial clues and do occasional workshops that will either repeat what they’ve already learned or omit something vital? I’ll soon find out!

You can read more about Photography for Journalism at www.the-grist.com.

(cross posted to the Photography for Journalism site)