Hi,

I’m new to photography. With more experience and knowledge, I’d like to go much further than amateur/enthusiast into the realms of profitable sports, landscape, portrait and wedding photography. In this regard, I was wondering whether anybody here has undertaken the Brisbane College of Photography and Art ‘career training’ course, and if so, did you find the course valuable. I recognise that “valuable” is a pretty broad term, so what I’m looking for in particular was:

  • whether the course content was comprehensive
  • was it interactive, i.e. did the lecturers and guest presenters do their job well
  • did you feel that your photography significantly improved as a result
  • did you gain sound knowledge about the business/marketing aspects of being a business photographer
  • did you gain sound knowledge about the legal aspects of the being a business photographer and
  • did the fact that you have a “qualification” open doors for you that otherwise would have remained closed


Also, I’ve read here and on other forums that photographic experience can be gained by working as an assistant to an existing business photographer. For the photographers here that cut their teeth as an assistant, or anyone else who may know, do the people that you work for prefer that you use your own equipment (I assume so but never hurts to ask), and if so, is there a standard type of equipment that they would expect their assistants to own, such as medium format or large format sensors, support, types of lens, post-production software, etc? Also, as a professional, what type of attributes would you be looking for in an assistant?

Regards,
Simon

P.S – please note I didn’t mention “working for free” given how often and hotly debated that topic seems to be. I would appreciate the same observation from anyone who feels like responding