A few weeks back I was booked for a one-to-one full day photography workshop by Peter who chose to go on my Derwentwater workshop (which I was really excited about for him as it’s chocablock with fantastic locations). In the lead up to his workshop date, Peter and I chatted several times. It’s always fantastic to have those chats between booking and actually getting out there and as we ran through his pre-workshop questionnaire on a call, we uncovered some areas of improvement that he would like to make. He selected some of his photography ‘favourites’ to send over to me so that I could get a feel for his photography. And, with all of this in mind, I devised our route and itinerary for the day. All of my workshops are devised in this way, bespoke to the individual photographer.
Our first stop on the photography workshop. The shoreline of Calfclose Bay on Derwentwater
The morning of the workshop soon came and we met up at our ‘base’ for the day. Peter was admittedly a tad nervous but within five minutes or so this nervousness had turned into excitement. We had hit upon our first location, Calfclose Bay. As the view opened up on a lovely early autumn morning across the lake, I could see that Peter was taken with the view. ‘I can’t believe I’ve never been here before’ he told me. And he was clearly itching to get his camera out, which was just as well considering we were on a photography workshop!
At this point I should offer a word of apology to some of my very first photography workshop clients. Back when Let’s Click Photography started, I would run a photography workshop with a client and jump in feet first. Feeling the need to show that their money had been well invested into the day, I wanted to impart some knowledge straight from the off. Now, I run things a little differently, the benefits of experience.
That first hour is now designated a watching and question brief. Learning what compels the photographer, what attracts them to shoot, what’s their thought process, their workflow? I ask a lot of questions in that first hour, which may seem at odds with the traditional way of teacher-student relationship, but it actually teaches a great deal. Rather than the direct learning I used to try to deliver straight from the off, this is very much an indirect learning moment. And it comes in the form of self awareness.
What is a photographer drawn to? Peter allows some of his street photographer credentials come out.
Self-awareness within photography isn’t something that necessarily comes naturally. Even with experience, how often do we check ourselves? Question what we are doing? Deliberate as to whether the choices we are making, or the actions we are taking are the most conjucive to the photograph we want to create? When we see a shot, what is it we see, how do we break it down? And if we do ask those questions how truthful or relevent are the answers we give ourselves?
Getting to the stage where we have a level of self awareness tends to be one of the biggest obstacles in photography. And perhaps it’s the most compelling reason to book onto a one-to-one photography workshop in the first place. Because, for much of the time, we are oblivious to the obstacle even being there at all. It’s a stage of learning with a rather harsh sounding name:
Unconscious Incompetence!
Peter getting acquainted with a famous location, Ashness Bridge
Simply put, we don’t know what we don’t know. And if you don’t know about something then you won’t know to question it. Unconscious incompetence is something we all have to overcome if we are to move forward in our photography journeys. And there should be no stigma attached to this phase. I’m more than happy to admit that I’m suffering from unconscious incompetence right now. The trouble is that I don’t know what I’m unconsciously incompetent at, because I’m erm….unconscious of my incompetence!
At some point in the future though, I’ll look back on my photography now and think ‘Ah! That was it’. When that happens, it will be the moment when I move from being unconsciously incompetent, to becoming consciously incompetent. Then I can get started on moving myself into the next stage of learning, conscious competence.
There are four stages of learning (the fourth being unconsciously competent), and learning isn’t linear. Which means that we’ll revisit various stages of the stages throughout our photography journey. This is the fun of the craft….we will never reach the finish line.
The jetty’s on Derwentwater are always a great place for a shot or two
But back to those first moments of the photography workshop on the shores of Derwentwater with Peter. Through this first hour or so of me watching and questioning, we uncovered (and I say we because Peter had to uncover it, I just played the part of inquisitor) a part of his workflow that he was getting wrong, leading his images to lack the clarity he craved. Whilst he was aware of this deficiency when it appeared in his final images, he couldn’t pinpoint the cause of the issue, because he was unconscious to it even being something he should consider.
And so we had our first ‘moment’ of the day. These are the bits of a workshop I absolutely love, the breakthrough moments. Moments when you click with somebody, they open themselves up to something and you go on the journey together. In that first couple of hours of his photography workshop, Peter conquered something that he had struggled with for years. He just hadn’t been aware of where the struggle was, instead suffering from frustration each time it had become a visible issue in the final photograph.
Same boat, artistic view. Your perspective changes everything, your view is unique.
And this is why I suggest it to be one of the most compelling reasons to book onto a photography workshop. We can all stand to learn something new. To uncover something we are unconsciousy incompetent at.
Honestly, on the shore of Derwentwater there was an emotional moment. For Peter it was in overcoming this huge hurdle and seeing the other side for the first time. For me, I cannot express the amount of joy I got from him overcoming this barrier. Seeing him freed from this constraint. He had his moment of WOW, his moment of breakthrough. It had clicked, and we hadn’t even reached lunchtime.
There were many more moments to come.
to find out more about my photography group or one-to-one workshops, hit the link below.
