It’s back to school time this week for many, as school gates that have been shut for the last couple of months re-open and a new wave of pupils are welcomed in as old pupils return. The weekend before last I was chatting to one of our neighbours who told me that it was 10 sleeps to school. She’s 4. When you’re 4 you measure time in sleeps. Starting school isn’t just for 4 year olds though, and for photographers especially it’s never too late to be learning. Which is why I want to bring two courses to your attention today – one for budding photographers who are trying to get to grips with their cameras, the other for those who may have found themselves recently unemployed and are thinking of stepping into the world of professional photography.
Photography for Beginners – Dublin Camera Club
There are many readers of this blog who know exactly what they are doing when it comes to using their camera, but there are others who struggle to take the camera out of automatic mode and for that latter category a course that might be of interest in the “Photography for Beginners” course that starts at the end of this month in Dublin Camera Club. I’m a member of Dublin Camera Club, and completed this same course many years ago, and found it incredibly useful. In fact it lead to me finally beginning to understand what I was doing with a camera and seeing it as a creative tool, but one that I knew how to control.
The course is limited to 50 participants and runs over 10 weeks on a Wednesday evening. There are two classes to choose from – one starting at 6.30pm and one starting at 8.30pm, and it runs from the DCC premises on Camden Street in the city centre. The best way to enroll is to come along to a Tuesday night meeting (8pm every Tuesday) where you can sign up afterwards, but I’d suggest doing so soon as the classes are filling up. The cost is €100 for the course, and you can become a full member of DCC for an extra €35 upon completion (instead of the usual €90 + €5 enrollment fee) and if you have any interest in learning about photography, I highly recommend it.
More information on that course is available on the Dublin Camera Club website.
Certificate in Entrepreneurship – National College of Ireland
The second course is for a different market, and indeed not just limited to photographers, so this might be one to spread the word about more widely. What’s particularly admirable about this course (and why I mention it here) is that it is free for those who are unemployed, and strikes me as one of the more imaginative initiatives to help people get back to work.
I’m talking about the National College of Ireland’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship that is a part time course starting next month, with a limited number of free places for the unemployed (see the website via the previous link for details).
Why this course might be suited to photographers who are looking to make the step towards going professional is that the business of photography is something that requires a totally different set of skills to the art of photography, and I imagine it’s fair to say that while many people may excel at one or the other, very few are good at both. A course like this would be a good stepping stone towards improving business skills, all the more so if you are looking at starting your own business (photography or otherwise) to get out of unemployment.
I don’t have experience of this course, but I’ve heard endless good reports about the National College of Ireland, and having recently spent a weekend at the college I can speak for it being a state of the art facility.
Just to be clear…
I don’t run advertising on this site, and this blog post is no different, so the views above are not paid for and are my own. I’m telling you about these two courses in particular for slightly different, but related reasons.
Regarding the DCC course, having done it in the past, and knowing those who run it and their pedigree as photographers, I honestly believe it is the best photography course in Dublin and the fact that it brings participants into one of the country’s more active camera clubs is an advantage it has over courses that run stand alone at training facilities and leave photographers to fend for themselves afterwards.
The NCIRL is, as I said above, not one I have experience of so I don’t claim to tell you how good it is, but it looks to me to be worthy of consideration for those starting a business – particularly those who are unemployed – and I think it deserves a little promotion.
If you know of other courses that are worthwhile for photographers, preferably but not necessarily through your own experience, leave a comment with a link so that others can look into it.
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