Photography School

[John the Cameraman]

Are there any schools in Houston that I can get ongoing photograpy education? I need something that will start at the beginning and go to the end of photography and teach me everything in between.

[venchka]

Judging from your avatar, you've already stared. There is no end. Everything in between would take several lifetimes.

North Harris County Community Colleges offer at least two, hands on, darkroom, black & white film courses. GOOGLE knows how to find them. That would be starting at the beginning.

[jdwme]

San jacinto south offers several photography courses including photoshop. Check their website for the catalog.

[picman]

The Art Institute of Houston offers a BFA in photography. Big bucks.

If you are looking to just pick up a class here or there - check out some of the seminars given by the PPA and TPPA. I did the Texas School this last April (a TPPA sponsored event) and spent a week in Jack Reznicki 's class. It was a great experience - small class size and hand-on. I would highly recommend checking out the Texas School. They have classes geared to all skill levels with real world instructors.

[laawaaris]

U of H has a program and also there is a school called Glassell out of the MFA Houston ... both programs are apparently good, but they focus on photography as a fine art and you won't get a ton of "commercial" training

why do you want formal training?

[Michelle Allmon]

if you hang out here long enough, you will probably learn a lot more than you thought you needed to. incredible people here.

[akimartymar]

If I were you I would take some classes, regardless of where, just to get your feet wet and have a reason to push yourself. I have found that although I have learned most of the stuff I know outside of the classroom, it was the fact that I had to complete a project or series and wanted to do the best I possibly could on these. That drove me to learn and absorb as much info as possible. Also, you will get first hand critiques from you teacher and fellow students. Good students also tend to feed off of each other and push each other to do better work. I have known people who went to the Art Institute of Houston and U of H for photography and was told both were good learning atmospheres.

[Michelle Allmon]

Originally Posted by akimartymar

the fact that I had to complete a project or series and wanted to do the best I possibly could on these. That drove me to learn and absorb as much info as possible.

Good students also tend to feed off of each other and push each other to do better work.

that, to me, is the exact reason school works!

[SaundraU]

New York Institute of Photo....BetterPhoto.com.....

[John the Cameraman]

Originally Posted by akimartymar

If I were you I would take some classes, regardless of where, just to get your feet wet and have a reason to push yourself. I have found that although I have learned most of the stuff I know outside of the classroom, it was the fact that I had to complete a project or series and wanted to do the best I possibly could on these. That drove me to learn and absorb as much info as possible. Also, you will get first hand critiques from you teacher and fellow students. Good students also tend to feed off of each other and push each other to do better work. I have known people who went to the Art Institute of Houston and U of H for photography and was told both were good learning atmospheres.

this is the EXACT reason why i wanna go to a school...

I tried the art institute of Houston (I actually already graduated from there in 1998 for Video Production), because I thought they might have a special program for Alumni. But no, they don't. The tuition is $79,000 for a 3 year BFA so it's back to the drawing board...

[venchka]

Houston isn't exactly on the cutting edge of photography educational opportunites. I think we've all given you pretty much everything there is in Houston. U of H, Community College, Rice has adult education classes and the Art Intsitute you know about.

The University of New Mexico has a strong Photography curriculum in/near some of the best places on earth for natural photography.

[picman]

Originally Posted by John the Cameraman

this is the EXACT reason why i wanna go to a school...

I tried the art institute of Houston (I actually already graduated from there in 1998 for Video Production), because I thought they might have a special program for Alumni. But no, they don't. The tuition is $79,000 for a 3 year BFA so it's back to the drawing board...

Ouch! Back when I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (1980) it was about 4K a year.
But then gas was 50 cents a gallon and a pack of smokes was 40 cents.

[laawaaris]

i actually just signed up for the fall term at Glassell School of Art ... intro to photography ... starts next tuesday and it should be interesting

[FreshPhotography]

Originally Posted by venchka

North Harris County Community Colleges offer at least two, hands on, darkroom, black & white film courses. GOOGLE knows how to find them. That would be starting at the beginning.

I will say this as nicely as I possibly can... do NOT take the darkroom classes at the main campus of NHMCC. The teacher? HORRID. Terrible. RUDE. Mean. Offered ZERO constructive criticism to help you grow once he set you loose in the darkroom.

I took the class not because I needed to learn about photography so much as I needed 3 hours of art credit. I have been taking photos for 20+ years; matter of fact, I used my 19 year old SLR for the class. He lost a lot of my respect in the beginning, especially when we attended class for 2 weeks before the words "Rule of Thirds" came out of his mouth.

I wish I could remember his last name, but I have seriously had to block it out of my memory. I do know his first name is Joel. He was so bad, I contacted every person at the school that I could find and gave them my feedback on him after the course was over.

The instructor at one of the other campuses said that she would get his photo I students in her classroom, starting out to take photo II, and they would end up dropping within 2 weeks because of how little they knew after leaving his class.

I would highly recommend the teacher at the Tomball campus, but she is not teaching photography this fall or next spring because she is pregnant and can't be in the darkroom.

I also recommend some of the Leisure Learning courses. I took a flash class there and in just 3 hours learned more about using my flash than I ever knew before.

[venchka]

Christine,

Which campus is the "main campus"? I would be in Photo I right now at Cy-Fair, but the only evening session was full when I applied. I reckon I can "work around" almost anybody. I just want access to a darkroom. Do you know if the darkrooms are set up for any format besides 35mm? How do you think this "HORRID. Terrible. RUDE. Mean." teacher would feel about a student using cameras other than "35mm manual SLR film bodies" as stated in the course description?