Private Mentoring Scheduled Class
Private Mentoring Scheduled Class
Price: £1,495
3 to 6 Month Mentoring Workshop
Introduction
I can work with you in Photoshop or Lightroom. In essence, I think the software irrelevant. It’s really about learning ‘what to do’, less so ‘how to do it’.
Think of this as a three to six month workshop, scheduled to fit your free time.
Scheduling
Mentoring is done when we are both free. And the format / schedule is flexible to fit both our needs. The only thing though, is that it’s good to keep momentum, so I would advise that we avoid long periods (several months) if possible between the first three sessions.
Reading the Image
Being able to read images, to understand how they are constructed, informs us as to how to edit them. But in the process of learning to read them, we learn to ‘see’. And this comes with us when we go back out into the field to compose. I often tell students that ‘editing informs your fieldwork’. We learn to see by learning to edit.
The Class Format
This package consists of six sessions. Each session lasts from 1 to 2 hours depending on what is required to be covered. During our session together I will go over your work with you, and set you homework that we will mutually agree upon for our next session.
Absorption Time
I have found that all students excel if given time to work on what we discussed. This is the strongest aspect of the mentoring sessions is that not only is it one to one, you also get time to go away and reflect on what we discussed and work on homework set. I am often pleasantly surprised and delighted by participants progress.
Recorded Sessions for your to refer back to
Each session is recorded in high definition at my end, while using photoshop so you have a document to go back to again and again.
The Schedule
We meet when you’ve had time to do the homework, or when you feel you’re ready to go over some new work. Although I say this is a six month workshop, due to our own schedules, there is no hard and fast rule, although I do think we should meet regularly to avoid losing momentum.
The Software
I can work with you in Lightroom or Photoshop.
I’m really a Photoshop master, so I may use Photoshop to convey how a certain part of your image can be edited, but these techniques are easy to apply in Lightroom.
Each session we would work together, you would simply supply me either a Lightroom catalog of the selected images, or photoshop files (with layers intact).
I can work with any style of photography, not just landscape, and prefer to work on locations that I have not visited myself.
I would advise you to send me work that is distinctly your own.
My main aim is to help improve your editing, because this is where we see discrepancies in our fieldwork.
Sessions will be organised to fit both our schedule, but the main aim is to keep the momentum going. Sessions will be no frequent than two weeks apart as I find everyone benefits from some time to absorb what we discussed, and to work on further edits.
Before we meet
I will need to get a sense of where you are with your current work. I will ask you to prepare around 20 or so of your favourite images into a collection, and send this to me along with the RAW files. This will allow me to evaluate where you are and whether we can work together.
Prior to meeting, I will send you some product links to download to read up on, and also a Video class to watch (included as part of the mentoring), so we don’t have to cover the basics so much when working online together.
What to expect during our time together
I will normally ask you to send me your homework the day before. During our session we will go through it and review what you’ve done, and I will give suggestions, show where I think things can be tightened up, and suggest a way forward, often with a very loose objective for the next session. We will finish the session with homework set for the next session, and agree when to meet again. All sessions are recorded for your reference and learning.
We agree appointment times to work for both of us
No need to stress as to whether you can fit the class into your schedule. We will simply work out when it’s best to meet again at the end of each session. It’s down to what works for both of us.
Please submit unique work
Working with you has to also be interesting for me.For this reason, I would much prefer to work on images shot in locations that I have not photographed or visited myself.
I can work on any kind of photography. Although I am known for my landcape work my principles can be applied to all sorts of imagery.
What's included
• 6 Sessions (minimum of 1 hour per session, but tend to go for longer), spread over three months (dates and times flexible and agreed betwen us both at the previous session)• Private mentoring
• A high quality recording of our session, that you can review at any time
• Portfolio Editing on-line class as primer for our time together
Prerequisite
To do this mentoring class, I expect you to have:• Basic Photoshop knowledge (with some experience of curves, layers and masks), or Lightroom experience.
• An initial set of 20 to 30 images for initial review in BOTH edited (Photoshop) and RAW format. So I can gauge your abilities. (I encourage you to send me work that is of places that I have not photographed myself).
• A supply of material to work on over the course of 3 months (Each session may involve 3 to 6 images)
• all Photoshop files should have layers intact, and you should also have the RAW files they derived from. If working in Lightroom, I would wish to have access to the catalog with history so I can drill into your edits.
Feedback from previous participants
Dear Bruce
A couple of years have gone by but I wanted to drop you a note of thanks for the mentoring sessions. It was truly a pleasure to work with you through a diverse portfolio of images and I really appreciated that you always came prepared and that you were honest with your opinions. I find having the videos in the archive useful to refer back to from time to time.
Your instructive feedback and mentoring pushed me to think outside the box and influenced not only how I process my images but also how I capture them: with clearer intention. I was particularly interested in how you integrated the work of other photographers (such as Rolfe Horn) into our discussions. These teaching points were useful in terms of visualization and revealing the voice of the image. Bringing new material, as well as fresh edits of existing images, to our sessions was an excellent practicum of the concepts and points that we reviewed and discussed. And it was fun.
These sessions were a stepping stone in further developing a more discerning style and path with photography. I have recently thought of doing another mentoring series on a larger and more cohesive body of work. Would this be of interest to you?
Ulana, Hong Kong
Hi Bruce,
It was my pleasure to participate in these private mentoring sessions with you . I have admired your artistry and it was great to find that you have a unique ability to teach. It's quite rare for one person to combine both skills.
On one hand, it is relatively easy to develop initial photography skills, but on the other hand, it is much harder to go deeper and develop sensitivity to subtler aspects of the craft. Working with you allowed me to do exactly that — continuously work on my own images, receive feedback and guidance on what to improve, make those improvements, and move forward. This process helped me break psychological boundaries regarding the possibilities of where my images could be taken and what subtle touches could be applied to uplift the final result. Thank you so much,
Rostislav, Israel
Bruce, I wanted to write to say how much I enjoyed and benefited from the 1-on-1 Mentoring Sessions.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from them before we started but the obviously well-prepared teaching material and the patience you showed explaining the principles and thoughts behind your images, have given me a better understanding of composition and tonal relationships as well as practical insights that I have applied to my photography since. Honestly, these lessons have affected how I approach taking and editing all my images & I can see the improvement - thank you!
Mark Green