ASMP Meeting- opinion on boot camp style

I figured I should say a few words about the Boot Camp meeting run by ASMP, since I attended it. I guess I would say the best part was running into old friends/classmates who I hadn't seen for quite awhile. I ran into random folks who I recognized outside the world of photography and made a connection. Ran into a photographer I interned with and made myself look bad. Of course, I can not forget everyone's favorite photography instructor from MCTC, JackMader.

This year, instead of having a meeting in an auditorium, they wanted to make it more hands on and fun for everyone, they made it into a workshop.

The workshop consisting of five stations:
(1) Digital Tech
(2) Transitioning from assistant to shooter
(3) Marketing yourself as an assistant/photographer
(4) Getting acquainted with with certain photo equipment
(5) Tethering from camera to computer

I thought learning about the job of a Digital Tech was the most effective station. They were the most in depth with the subject. They had good notes and referenced websites which we could go back to in the future. They presented a lot of info in a short amount of time, luckily I was already familiar with a lot of it: C1pro, color balance, backing up files, making proofs, contact sheets, knowing your keyboard short cuts, effective ways to edit your images with layers through Photoshop like: non-destructive editing, naming layers organizing layers and etc.

The least effective station was the "transitioning from assistant" to shooter. The photographers gave a brief run though of starting from assistant to photographer in one sentence. It was silent a lot of the time. I guess I was really disappointed with that station because they could have done a lot more with that. Maybe even have a few notes so that they knew what to say.

The marketing section reminded me to redo and print my promos: business cards, postcards and to rework my portfolio. I should also make some calls to a lot of studios if I want to work consistently as an assistant.

This is definitely good for students who do not know much about the business other than what they have learned in the classroom. The meeting in the auditorium was just as effective. It was probably less boring for the speakers and instead of presenting something five times, they would only have to do it once.

I guess another problem I had was being able to hear the lectures because in one studio, there were three workshops going on and in the other studio, there were two going on at once. Maybe I'm getting old and my ears are getting bad, I don't know, it is possible.

My original plan in posting this blog was to share what I learned at the workshop, but instead, I will just add some websites to refer to on the side under photo resources. I guess this is more of my opinion on my 3hours spent.