My favorite workshop of the year is Skip’s Summer School and one that I have attended every year is led by Skip Cohen who been around the industry his entire life, he is very knowledgeable and well respected in the industry and when you ask him why he does it, it’s because he has a love for this industry, our profession and the professionals involved in it.
“There’s a fundamental misconception in photographic education right now. New photographers actually believe they can learn to be a photographer just watching videos and webinars. You can no more learn to be a professional photographer sitting in front of your computer than you could learn to drive a car just watching videos.”
So here is my chance to learn from the best in the industry like Clay Blackmore, Michele Celentano, Bob & Dawn Davis, Justin and Mary Marantz, Zach and Jodi Gray, and Ryan Schembri to name a few.This year I was honored to share the stage and speak to the international audience about how to photographers can price their work. It’s another misconception that as a photographer you spend all your time gallivanting around taking photographs and making large sums of money. The fact is a photography business is much like the restaurant business where 90% of them will be out of business within a few years. I am proud to say that Everardo Keeme Photography is about to celebrate it’s third year and we recently expanded to a second location in Scottsdale, AZ.
This was year two of having the workshop in Chicago, IL and it’s always a treat to visit the “Windy City”. The best part for me is that I get to see and hangout with my good friends Chantale Perron, Mark & Tiffani (Genesis Photography), Ara Roselani. Plus I making new friends from all over the US and abroad.
There are two days of group sessions where we all participate, or learn from lectures, my personal favorite was to listen to Joe McNally, here’s a guys who have pretty much photographed everything and everywhere, most recently from atop the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. You can read his experience here. Then there are two days of hands-on classes and this year I learned about working more with video from Suzette Allan and taking more simplistic yet impactful images from Ryan Schembri. Now for anyone aspiring to be a photographer or for photographers already established, learn all you want from webinars and videos but there is now better way to learn that through in-person workshops like Skip Cohen University.
A huge thank you goes out to Skip and his wife Sheila for all the work and sacrifice that they put into creating these workshops and I hope to see you all again in 2014!
