Library Notes March 31st, 2023
Reflections from Photography for Creatives, Cohort One
Yesterday officially marked the conclusion of Photography for Creatives Cohort One. This course, has been a delightful success. We booked out the two dozen spots we set aside our first offering, and had four vanguard grade mentors who led sessions, workshops, and prompts with our students as though they had been doing it for years.
Cohort One shared nearly 100 photos in response to our five prompts. Our group came equipped with varying types of cameras from five year old iPhones to nearly five thousand dollar mirrorless cameras. We succeeded at our goal to level up everyones photography skills across the board.
Our students connected with our community with overwhelming feedback that we made something special and accessible for everyone. And by sharing their photos, these creatives are amplifying their efforts online. Their content already stands above the crowd and I can’t wait to see where this group takes their audiences in the months and years to come.
But How?
This is the question I’ve been asking myself over these past two weeks. What did we do right? There is a collection of small things we are already experimenting with to improve for our next Cohort, but in this day after action report here are the three things I think we got right:
Clarity of Product
Once I began down the path of exploring what a course would look like as an extension of my creator journey, I knew this course would be about photography. I wanted to make the course I wish I had over the past decade, something that if I walked into as a complete noob, I’d feel empowered and that if I was taking it today as a professional photography, I’d at least feel inspired.
Building our curriculum by having dozens of conversations with our mentors helped us focus on building a course that people wanted. Giving away pieces of it for free across our Workshops in February confirmed what was working and what we could rework.
Clarity from Community
After completing Write of Passage as a student last year my eyes were opened to just how many creators there could be online that have a camera at least in their pocket. Before Write of Passage I just thought everyone who was doing anything online knew how to be a photographer. This assumption could not have been more wrong.
But, I had a new believe I needed to test. I believed all these creative people could be photographers in every sense of the word. And I had faith that sharing their photos in the age of stock photos and AI generated images would be like giving Slash a Marshall Stack.
I had one-on-one conversations with about fifty people who were interested in Photography for Creatives before closing signups. I wanted to make sure I knew every single person in this cohort. It was exhilarating and exhausting but I knew I might not ever get the chance to do it again. I’m glad I did the unscalable. Exploring the unscalable changes how we scale the mountain.
Marketplace Clarity
Sam, Jesse, and I all had experiences years ago teaching photography workshops in Apple Stores. Elizabeth and Noël both had been deep in the traditional education spheres around photography and design. We drew on these experiences and reshaped their elements into something we would want to experience over and over again.
Having spent time at Lynda.com and now going on my third year as a YouTuber, I knew how to create high quality video content. And while I hope I continue to make entertaining and education videos until the day I die, I knew that wasn’t the kind of course we wanted to make.
And while we still would love to tap the higher end photography experiences market, creating this course as an experiment gave us the opportunity to draw on those elements and bring them to our Cohort at a fraction of the price.
I may be biased but I truly believe Photography for Creatives is the most value per dollar photography course on the internet. It was designed to be.
Our Next Cohort…
Make sure you’re subscribed here. I’ll be announcing more information about Cohort Two very soon.
Until next week,
-Steven
So much thought has gone into your course, Steven. You brought your warmth, refinement and ease to taking and editing photographs. It was a joy to be part of it.
I really enjoyed being part of this first cohort of Photography for Creatives, Steven. The course was well designed and beautifully (and effectively) conducted. With photography courses, I personally think the value added is in talking over a photo to try and capture what the author really saw and meant, as well as what others see in it and how they interpret it. In this respect, the learning experience is really powerful and potentially endless. Much like playing a musical instrument, photography is a life-long journey. In your course, the community aspect was particularly valuable for me: as I've been shooting for years, I found the discussions over photos and editing decisions very much something to look forward to in every session. Thank you for putting it together! :)