Wildlife Photo Academy

I’m writing this article because frankly, I’m upset. It seems that every time I meet with photographers who have attended a previous photography workshop, at least one of them has a horror story about a previous experience. After hearing the stories, I’m surprised they were able to put the bad experience behind and have the fortitude to try again with another workshop leader. What’s really upsetting about a lot of things I hear about the photography workshop business is that it casts a dark shadow on the entire industry. I know that there are a lot of great folks who put on workshops (and in spirit of full disclosure, I have a workshop company myself) and it is unfortunate that many of our peers only seem to be in it for purely selfish reasons. The stories I’ve collected come from the nature photography business. I suspect they occure in other specialties as well, but my direct experience is with the folks who attend nature photography workshops.

Let’s go over a few of the complaints and flesh them out.

Herman the Hoary Marmot is upset about this too!!!

Very often it seems as if the workshop leader is there to pad his or her portfolio and has little interest in teaching, providing instruction or even the occasional hint. This is probably the single biggest complaint I hear. People do understand that it can be helpful for the workshop leader to have their camera with them and even if they make occasional images. But when people have to struggle with the workshop leader for a prime shooting location or when they get an annoyed look or attitude when they have a question, there is a definite problem. If I were planning to go on a photography workshop, my number one question and concern to the workshop leader would be: “Do you photograph during your workshops?”

I think the following story, told to me by one of my workshop peeps (who we’ll refer to as Mr. X) at my June workshop in Montana illustrates the situation elequently. Mr X is on a photo workshop in Churchill, Manitoba for Polar Bear photography. One afternoon Mr X and the workshop leader go out by themselves in a vehicle to find critters to photograph. They spot an Arctic Fox out on a lake, get out of the vehicle (remember this is Churchill and Polar Bears can literally be anywhere) and start working their way across the lake to get into position to make some pictures. Apparently the ice isn’t that thick and Mr. X partially breaks through the ice and fortunately saves himself by catching himself with his camera which is soaked (and broken as it turns out). Additionally, Mr. X has managed to get his clothing wet and needs to get back to the warmth of the vehicle. So, what happens? The workshop leader stays out on the ice to photograph the Arctic Fox and leaves Mr. X to make his way back, across the ice and the tundra, to the vehicle. In addition to being wet, freezing and embarassed, Mr. X is now terrified at the prospect of running into a Polar Bear by himself without his “expert” by his side. What sort of workshop leader, let alone human being, leaves another person in this predicament? Is it so important to get another fifty images of an Arctic Fox or could it possibly be the right thing to do to accompany the paying client, you know the person who is inadvertently paying for you to pad your portfolio, back to the vehicle?

How about a workshop leader who austracizes people who don’t use their brand of camera? Another fellow at my last workshop had attended a workshop with this professional photographer a number of years ago. At the beginning of the workshop they went over the sort of equipment that everyone was using. Out of about twenty participants only about four others were using my workshop person’s brand of camera. Those in the minority were told, in no uncertain terms, that they’d backed the wrong horse and hadn’t made an intelligent purchasing decision. Those folks felt entirely austracized during the trip and didn’t get a lot out of the workshop. Is this kindergarden or what? Who gives a poop what brand of camera people decide to photograph with? Seriously!!!

And then there’s the story about another workshop leader, who I’ve heard the same story about from three or four sources. This workshop leader has the sort of personality where he can convince folks to spend money on things they might not otherwise do. He’s bragadocious and isn’t afraid to exagerate his accomplishments or influence in the industry. But, he built up a good following of folks interested in pursuing a career as a professional nature photographer, that regularly attended his wildlife photography workshops. Eventually, he convinced a number of them that they should submit their photos for inclusion in a book that his publishing company was putting together. The main caveat being that they had to pay many thousand dollars to participate. In addition to a number of copies of the books, they were promised fame and fortune for their participation and of course the elusive accomplishment of being “published”. The book was eventually produced and the participants received their copies of the books. But the printing quality was brutal and the length wasn’t what had been promised and it turns out the foreward to the book, written by a well known photographer, wasn’t even written by him. But of course the real disappointment came when all of their copies of the books languished in their basements and garages (because folks were embarassed about the quality) and the promised fame and fortune never happened. Later folks discovered that the only one who made any money from the deal was, wait for it; wait for it; you guessed it, the workshop leader! Shocking! (Sarcasm intended).

There is also a workshop leader who collected tip money from his workshop participants, supposedly to give to the guides helping out with the workshop, which magically never made it into their hands but ended up at home with the workshop leader. One of the workshop attendees (this time we’ll call her Ms. X) was attending two workshops back-to-back at the same location and each workshop ended up having a different leader. When Ms. X found out that the money collected as a tip from the first group never made it into the hands of the intended recipients, she was furious. Immediately upon returning home she confronted the workshop leader via email and never received a reply. Eventually about six weeks later, she received a copy of a cancelled check made out to the guides with a small hand-written note stating “I heard you were concerned about this”. That’s all well and good (and apparently the guides did eventually receive the money) but it wasn’t until several weeks _after_ the workshop ended and the confrontational email was sent. Talking with the guides later, Ms. X learned that they hadn’t received tip money before from this workshop leader so apparently the scam had been going on for some time until he finally got caught! Can you imagine the gull of this “leader”? And yes, he still runs photo workshops to this day but strangley not with those guides or their company any longer.

I’ll leave you with one final story told to me by a number of people. It seems that there was a workshop leader who would charge extra if folks wanted to car pool with him to the photography locations! I’m not talking about just a share of the gas money extra, but way beyond that for the “privledge” of being in his presence and soaking up his expertise on the rides to different locations. What I really wonder about is how there was any room for additional riders in the vehicle with the size of this guy’s ego? Come on now, an up-charge for riding with him? Holy arrogance Batman!

All that being said, there are a lot of great nature photography workshop leaders out there. You just need to do your homework and make sure you know what you’re getting. I know that I personally model my workshop business as the antithesis of what you’ve read above. Like many of my peers, I am there foremost and primarily to help my peeps go home with great photos. I’m there for them, and not vice versa.

Do you have a workshop story to share? Please leave the names out of it, but we’d love to hear the stories.

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Workshop group photographing a porcupine

I vividly remember the very first photography workshop I attended, and it wasn’t a good experience.

It was with a now defunct “school of photography” and featured a self purported “expert” wildlife photographer. The workshop was held at the Triple “D” Game Farm in Kailispell Montana. To maximize my time, I decided to sign up for two back-to-back workshops with a horse roundup photo shoot in between.

The workshop began with an orientation meeting at the Triple “D” offices. Although I was very excited about the opportunity to get up close to large predators like cougars and bears, the more I listened to the workshop leaders talk, the more worried I was about my decision to participate in a workshop. I was already very confident making images of wildlife, but I figured attending a workshop would help me make my photography that much better and it was worth paying the extra money for the guidance of a professional photographer leading the workshop versus going on my own. It was clear from the orientation meeting that the workshop leader and his assistant were both going to be photographing along with the 12 or 13 participants.

For advice, the “pro” would say things like: “If you see the pro standing somewhere shooting images you should think to yourself, ‘Why is the pro down there and I’m down here?’” I was immediately wondering how the “pro” was going to help me make good images if he and his assistant were concentrating on their own image making. We were encouraged to feel free to ask questions along the way. The size of the group also concerned me as it seemed that the group was sized to accommodate as many people as were willing to pay.

Sure enough, when we got out to the shooting locations it was exactly as described. The “pro” and his assistant always seemed to continually be in the best spots and he would call out and ask people why they were somewhere different than he was. Maybe it is the Canadian in me, but I don’t feel comfortable interrupting someone who is busy doing something else. The whole setup immediately made me feel like I was just funding this “pro” and his assistant’s photography. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

The workshop progressed and came to a conclusion. And in spite of everything, I got a few pictures that I was happy with. The “pro” was also leading the horse roundup and the situation described above continued in the same manner.

The next day was the start of the next workshop. For the second workshop, the “pro’s” assistant was being replaced by David Middleton. When we showed up for the orientation meeting, the “pro” had disappeared and had left the entire workshop to David Middleton. It also came to my attention that the “pro” had absconded with the tip money collected to say thank you to the Triple D staff and animal trainers and it took a couple of emails and telephone calls before the tip money was mailed to Triple “D”.

The workshop with David Middleton was night and day difference from the first workshop. David is a true professional teacher and I learned a lot from him. And, he didn’t photograph during his workshop. In fact, he told us that it was his opinion that it was never worthwhile to attend a workshop where the leader was going to be photographing. He made a differentiation between a photography workshop and a tour. Where a workshop is an educational opportunity (and the leader shouldn’t be photographing) a tour was an opportunity for a group of experienced photographers to get together and photograph.

Even during my first workshop as an attendee at Triple “D” I knew that I eventually wanted to be doing my own workshops at Triple “D”. After experiencing a workshop with David Middleton, I knew that I had found a mentor and someone who I could model myself and my workshops after.

To that end, our leaders do not photograph during my workshops. We are exclusively there to provide instruction and help the participants go home with the best possible images. We also keep our workshops to a reasonable number of participants, usually between 8-10 people.

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