What schools do you recommend?

[digitaldude400d]

I have a friend that is just getting started in photography and she has been researching local schools.

Has anyone any experience with The Art Institute of Dallas? Or do you have any recommendations that I can pass on to her?

Thanks

[brad]

IMHO, you will learn more in a week at Texas School than you will in 2 years at AI Dallas.

Texas School of Professional Photography

[bondarnes]

Art Institute is very expensive and most of the graduates don't end up with jobs doing photography. Get a business degree and apprentice with a working potographer for six months.

[texkam]

Get a business degree and apprentice with a working potographer for six months.

+1. Don's da man. .....Now, if he could only spell.

[bondarnes]

Oh, I forgot. In Texas it is a "Bidness Degree".

[Cajungaltx]

+1 more for the business degree.

I have 10 years in the legal industry within a small business (less than 50 employees nationally) plus I grew up with parents who are very entrepreneurial so I learned from the ground up in several industries...THAT experience has been exceptionally valuable in being a photographer...

[zerovision]

Look up Mike Colon. When he discovered his love for photography he changed his major to marketing while working for a local portrait studio. Now he is one of the top wedding photographers in the country. Just a thought.

[digitaldude400d]

Thanks for the information everyone...it is greatly appreciated and I have passed it on to my friend. I think shes going to start by trying to get off work for the Texas School this year and then go on from there...probably looking into the business classes.

[CaptainTom]

I also endorse the going to business school and not photography school approach.
Photography can be learned best by OJT (on the job training) and home study.

Take marketing classes, sales classes, bookkeeping classes, business development classes.

I know many great photographers who can't make a living because they can't market themselves.

I also know many average photographers who make a great living because they are good marketers and sales people.

[toverman]

I majored in journalism, minored in political science and got my graduate degree in OTJ. :-)

In the long run, the photography part is easy; figuring out how to get paid is the hard part.

[mmuhlenkamp]

While the business side is important, actual photography classes can help her expand artistically. I'm assuming she wants to do photography because it will fulfill a creative side to her and while it's important to make money (gotta pay dem bills) it's equally important to be satisfied with your work.

Having a professor and peers that will critically evaluate one's work is invaluable, while I went to school for graphic design (I took one photo class) I have had an immeasurable value to getting my work ripped apart every week. It makes you be critical of your own work and helps you grow that much more quickly.

I went to UNT and have heard their photography program is quite good, but again I got a Communication Design degree not photography.

[toverman]

UNT is one the best schools in Texas, but only in academics where it really counts. That's where I graduated from, too. The students on the campus newspaper were (hopefully still are) subjected to "Slash" each week, when the department's professors would rip what was published and even hand out a few compliments when deserved. We were put through the ringer and made better by the experience. Except sometimes most of the staff would go out for lunch and a few pitchers, at which point "Slash" became "Slosh" because of the beer buzz.

No harm in photography classes, but I don't think they should be the major focus.

What people major in is funny. I look at my small high school class and see that few people are using their major in their jobs. I at least lucked out there, as journalism has helped me in every job. Journalists learn how to write; English majors learn how to read!

[CaptainTom]

I recently told a very nice young photography major....

You don't make any money taking a photograph.
You make money selling the photograph...

No reason you can't take great photographs and make money selling them.
Just make sure you can sell them

[tukaniray]

I'm an ART INSTITUTE OF DALLAS Graduate ... After a few years of figuring out what to do in life ... I left Aviation for Video and Photography ... ... ... eh I enjoy it.

And I enjoyed the AOD ... I was blessed the ability to finance through SallieMae and get scholarships through the schooling back in 03-04. I do, like most, recommend you get your pre-requisites done at a community college. Because YEAH ... this school is hella expensive. But it's also FAST ... you do 4 semesters in the year ... little break.

**EDIT** ... I jumped into the field in full force right after my portfolio review .... So, if you go in there with the right mind and come out with the right mind ... YOU WILL BE GOOD TO GO ... lots of people have the wrong mind set that they think, once they are out ... EVERY MAJOR MAGAZINE AND MOVIE COMPANY WILL WANT THEM ... yeah right ... I went in thinking, I love Video and Photography, and just wanted to do this for a living. Because I enjoy it. Not to be the next Director or Cinematographer for say FOX.

But the education was much better than that of the RTF of the University of Texas in Arlington ... (I went there too ...) and a buddy had gone there during the same time I was in the Art. ... well ... Let's just say that I had taught him a thing or 2.

Now the good thing about other schools is they actually have a bit more insight of the the reasoning to Lighting as oppose to the Technical side of it. The Art is very technical, lots of info to know what you are doing ... but it's not for those who don't know WHY you do this or that. Other schools teach that much better and in a way through older technology (FILM) to better understand why the fathers of Photography and Motion Picture did what they did.

UNT to me BTW, is a music school ... had a friend that I played Jazz with, go there to play in the 0'clock jazz bands. Lots of support of Music there. More so than UT in Austin.

-Ray-

[Crashoran]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

I recently told a very nice young photography major....

This is assuming she will be working for herself