- Okay, so this video is in response to an email
I sent out to a group of people who are
in my email or newsletter group.
When I asked them whether or not I should
get back into doing a couple of workshops.
I've had a two year break,
so this video is explaining
my decision and how I came to that decision.
(gentle music)
Okay, so just to clarify then what I mean by workshop.
In my own example, this would be a case of where
I've decided to put on a one or two day event.
I would decide on the content,
what the theme was going to be,
where we were going to be doing it,
you know, where, what studio,
who the model was, and so on and so on and so on.
And then once I've decided that,
I've then advertised the tickets availability on my website,
people would then go to the website,
buy a ticket, and then come along on the day,
and it would run like that.
So that's what I mean by workshop.
What I'm not talking about is
seminars, speaking engagements,
maybe training events for particular
kind of groups that have requested it,
not talking about anything like that at all.
That is a big part of my business model.
What we're talking about here is what we've
all grown to be kind of accepting is the definition
of a traditional workshop.
(gentle music)
Now I really didn't expect this,
but I kinda get it why some people
may have thought this was the case
when I first of all emailed everyone
to ask, you know, should I or should I not do workshops.
Some people may have thought that this was really
a kind of sneaky bit of advertising,
and me fishing to sort of see
what kind of reception would I get
if I put on a workshops.
What is the kind of demand for it?
And then sure enough, once I got the replies,
bizarrely, two workshops were advertised,
they'd get filled up and away I'd go.
So, that isn't the case.
Alright, it's not the case at all.
This was genuinely me wanting to find out what you think,
and I can say that, you know, whole heartedly
because the decision I've made is actually
that I will not be doing workshops.
So you can see, this was not a fishing exercise,
any sneaky advertising,
I won't be doing workshops.
(gentle music)
So now you know that I'm not going to be workshops.
I thought I'd put this video together
just to explain why as quickly
and as easily as I could.
I had so many replies, you can see,
you know, just some of them here.
I had so, whoops, so many replies from people,
but all I can say is I read every single reply.
And I did start to try to reply to those people as well,
that had taken the time to email me back.
But you know, I physically cannot sit
and spend all the time replying to everybody.
However much I'd like to.
So I'm kinda hoping that you're okay with this,
that by me putting this video together,
it's kinda me replying to you to say,
look, thanks for responding to my question,
but this is the decision I've made
and this is why I've made it.
So I hope you're okay with that.
(gentle music)
Okay, so let me explain another reason
why I've decided not to do workshops,
but before I do, I just need to,
I'm just gonna preface that with a bit of a disclaimer
that in no way, shape, or form,
what I'm gonna kinda go through now
is it aimed at anybody in particular.
You know, I've got friends all around the world
that run workshops and they've been doing it for awhile,
and they're incredibly successful at it.
My decision not to run workshops
for the foreseeable future is based purely on
experiences, and maybe I guess, even mistakes,
and practises that I kinda employed
when I was doing workshops, that left me feeling
that I wasn't 100% happy with how the days ran.
Sure they were great days,
but it didn't feel good to me that
there would always be somebody
within the group that didn't get everything
they wanted from the workshop.
So, yeah, like I say,
not aimed at anybody in particular,
this is purely based on my own experiences.
(gentle music)
So the fact that you can't please everybody
just doesn't sit right with me, you know?
I thoroughly enjoy training.
That is a big part of my business model,
so if I'm finding that people are spending
their hard earned cash, that they've,
you know, they've worked for,
they're spending time away from their family
when they finally got a day off,
to then come spend a one day or two days
with me going through some photography
and post production training,
if they then go away not feeling
that they've got what they wanted from it,
it really doesn't sit well with me.
And it just makes me feel very, very uncomfortable.
But honestly, short of giving people
a extra one to one focused attention
at the end of a workshop, for those people that
didn't kinda get it, I don't really know
how you can ever resolve this.
I don't see how you can ever make sure
that everybody gets something from it
that they actually wanted.
There'll always be people that have
got different skill levels.
There will always be people, no matter how
you try to qualify people to come along,
there will always be somebody that either feels
that the content was too basic for them,
or maybe it was a little too advanced
and it kinda went over their head.
That will always be the case,
no matter how you try to qualify them.
So the fact that you're always gonna have somebody there
who didn't feel they got their money's worth,
for me, just didn't and doesn't feel right.
But, you know, I haven't got the answers for this.
I don't really know how you could qualify people for that.
Maybe, that's why I like doing the training days
for specific groups of people,
who've, you know, a group of friends,
or a group of work colleagues who are working
on a specific kinda project and they need
to learn a certain skill.
Those ones I absolutely love because
it's very, very focused on a particular
kinda training package, I guess.
But when it's a workshop for anybody
to come along to learn,
you're always gonna have people
who don't feel they're gonna get what they want,
and I don't like that.
That just doesn't feel right.
(gentle music)
Now one thing I really,
one thing didn't really like about workshops as well,
certainly the way that I ran them,
and I kinda know from, you know,
from all the replies that I've got here,
that I'm not alone in how I used to do this,
but by the very nature of what a workshop is,
you get maybe 12, or you know,
12 to 15 people who come along.
So you got all those people,
you got all that content,
there's only so many hours in the day,
so it would kinda run, I would go through
kinda teaching at the start of the day,
would then discuss what we're going to do,
and then the attendees would watch me set everything up.
So I would explain about the background.
I would explain about how to use the light stands,
how to put a light on it,
how to position the light for the lighting cell
that we wanted, doing the metering,
setting the computer up for tethered shooting,
working with the model, and so on, and so on, and so on.
I would go through the whole thing,
and then I would take a few shots,
and the people would see the results.
Then what would happen is,
the attendees would get up one at a time,
with their cameras, they'd come over,
I'd give them a remote trigger
which they'd then put on top of their camera.
I would tell them the settings to put into their camera,
and then they would take three, four, or five shots,
move out the way, the next person would come up
and do the same thing.
And it was like this conveyor belt system.
And my question is, how on earth,
and I could see this,
how on earth can somebody really learn from that experience?
If you are given everything on a plate,
there you go, there's your settings,
how could you possibly learn that?
Now if the workshop has been run in a way
that it's very structured, and very slow,
and very methodical, so that they felt
that they could then take that kind of
hand to mouth kind of teaching to then go and practise
on their own time and get it right, then fantastic.
I'm sure there were people that came along to mine
that did that, and you know, I did see the results of that
happening when people would share things on social media.
But generally, and I know this is a sweeping statement,
but generally, how can people who come to a workshop
training that they've paid for,
really learn when it comes to them
just coming up, given the settings,
taking the shot and moving away.
There will always be somebody who comes up,
they don't quite get how you did something,
but because maybe of peer pressure,
maybe for fear of maybe sounding a little bit stupid,
which is crazy, I know, but maybe not,
maybe for that reason they wouldn't wanna
put their hand up and say,
"I didn't quite get how you did that."
Because people are generally kinda polite
and want to, don't want to stand out,
they'll just go up and they'll just go with the flow.
But that means then, ultimately, at the end of the day,
they're gonna leave not really knowing
what it was that they did, or not really getting it.
So, that again, is just something,
a big part of workshops I didn't really like,
this kind of conveyor belt system.
(gentle music)
I guess as well, I've always from the start,
I've always tried to separate myself from the masses.
Now everybody wants to be a photographer these days,
so a big part of what I do is trying to say like,
what is everybody doing?
What can I do to do this different?
And that's why I've always employed
that kinda attitude of,
you know, if you wanna develop your own style,
you need to copy.
Because if you copy, eventually your own style will appear.
But you talk about copying in the photography circles,
and it's really frowned upon.
But my argument always is, if you want to develop
your own style, you've gotta have a starting point.
So I've always kinda gone for that
even though I was told you never should do it.
And it's not done me too badly,
you know, developing my own kinda style.
But it seems to me that everybody,
sweeping statements, I know,
but everybody seems to be running workshops.
I remember when,
a few years back now, it kinda felt to me
that everybody wanted to be a photographer.
And a photographer,
but a wedding photographer.
You know, you'd have somebody brand new
that not long been given a camera,
that'd gone out and taken some decent pictures.
Friends and family had said,
"Wow, they're really great pictures!"
Which is great, but then for some reason
there was this kind of attitude of,
"Hey, maybe I should set up in business.
"And I'll do weddings as a very quick way
"of making money."
And that used to drive me insane.
This is the most expensive day
of someone's life.
The biggest day of their life,
but to have the attitude of,
"I'll treat that as a way of making some quick money."
I think is disgusting.
Absolutely disgusting.
Shameful, you should not ever think that.
"What's a quick way I can make some money?"
The focus should be on the attendee, or the clients.
Not on how much money you're gonna be making from it.
Because if you're good enough,
the money will follow anyway.
I'm going off track, but now,
it's kinda, there seems to have been a shift
certainly over the last couple years,
where yesteryear people were kind of like,
you know, new people getting involved
and they were doing weddings as a quick way of making money.
Now it seems that they no longer do the wedding stuff,
they're now starting to do the workshops.
And again, I think that's, that's really risky.
You know, you actually may,
you're getting people to make a commitment
of spending their money that they've worked really hard for,
getting away from families, to come and spend the time
to be taught by you.
If they're gonna do that, you damn well better make sure
that you're good.
You damn well better nail it for them
so that they feel they've got their money's worth.
Because if not, that's bad for them anyway,
to have people leaving feeling that,
like they wasted their money.
That, that's bad enough,
but you know, if you're in this for the long term,
and I really hope you are,
there is no quick fix in this.
You know, this is all about building a solid business,
if you're in business.
This is all about building a solid business
and building on it year upon year upon year.
But if you're gonna be focused on saying,
"How can I make some quick money?"
That is such short term thinking,
and incredibly damaging for your business,
and for you as a photographer.
It takes a long time to build
a good name and a good reputation.
A long time and a lot of money.
But it can take seconds to ruin a reputation.
(gentle music)
Now I could go on, but I don't want this video
to be too long, so
to sort of summarise,
I won't be doing workshops.
You kinda heard the reasons why I don't wanna do workshops,
but I guess if anything, you could put all of those
reasons why I'm not doing workshops
under one kind of umbrella of being the reason why.
And that is because it didn't feel right,
or it didn't feel best, for the attendee.
One to ones, yeah, absolutely.
They are perfect 'cause they can be focused
and cover exactly what that person needs.
You can tailor make them.
Seminars, training days, all that kind of stuff,
fantastic because you're getting out
a certain message to certain people.
They can then leave with material
that you've given them, so on, so forth.
But when you're running a hands on workshop,
where you're expecting to get a group of people
coming along to spend their money
to then go away and learn,
I think, you know, it's not something I wanna do.
It doesn't feel the best way to
to run a workshop.
Now I'm saying now, that I'll never,
you know, I'm not doing them.
Who knows, in the future?
You know, never say never.
In the future I may decide to do them again,
but that will only happen if I manage
to find a way that I can qualify people
to come along so that I know when I'm running a workshop,
or training day, that the people there
are all on the same kinda level, alright?
Even now, when I say that,
that just sounds crazy.
Sounds like you're asking the impossible.
But who knows?
In the future, that may be possible.
So I'll never say never, but for now,
I won't be doing workshops.
(gentle music)
But number one, the overriding message is
that the focus should always be on the attendee.
If you're the kind of person that is always
having the attitude of,
"How can I make some quick money?
"What's the, how much money will I make from doing this?"
If that is your number one focus,
you're in this for the wrong reason, okay?
And it might sound corny,
it might sound like I'm trying
to be all kind of righteous and saying,
"Oh look, I'm in this for the right reason."
But I honestly believe that I am.
I'm in this for the long term.
I love teaching.
I love training.
There is no better feeling that when you teach
somebody something, they go,
"I never knew I could do that."
When you can see that you've taken somebody
from point A to point B,
it is the ultimate payment.
And yeah, sure enough, being paid isn't a dirty word,
but be paid knowing that what you've done
is ethical, and it's right,
and it's with all the best intentions.
I don't wanna sound like I'm kinda preaching here,
but I'm hoping that this has been the best way
that I can kinda let you know personally,
why I won't be doing workshops for now.
My number one focus is, and always has been on the attendee.
And I don't wanna be somebody
that always comes across as being somebody
that's got money on the brain.
"How much money can I make from this?"
In my own heart, I feel that if I put
all the focus on what is right for the attendee,
or for the client, the money will follow anyway.
What was that film?
The old Kevin Costner film?
Field of Dreams.
Build it, and they will come.
So all I'll say is if you are looking
at doing kind of training,
if you're looking to get into photography
in any way, shape, or form,
have your attendee and your client as number one.
That way, I honestly feel that you will
be able to build the best business
with the best reputation, and you'll just go
from strength to strength.
So I kinda hope this all makes sense.
I know it might be a little bit disjointed and whatever,
but I needed to get it down, on video, my reasons why.
So again, thanks so much
for all the replies that you sent through.
Some of you sent reams of reply,
and I really do appreciate it.
Some of you sent some horrendous stories
of experience that you've had
doing workshops, so I appreciate your honesty with that.
You have been a massive help
in me kinda finalising what my decision is
for the foreseeable future.
So,
there you go, I'll see you online.
If you're not already a member of the newsletter
or email group, please, you know,
feel free to join that.
It's really going the way that I like it.
It's a very personal thing for me.
It kinda makes it feel like I did when I was a kid
that when we used to have pen pals and I used
to write to people that were in France and Germany,
and I love that.
So it's very much a community that
we're building in a minute and I'm
really liking the way that's going,
but again, thanks so much for all the replies.
Hope this makes sense, and I'll see you online.
(gentle music)