A look at the past 8 years and the phenomenon that is Creative Live

I am now into my 8th year of being a professional photographer. Needless to say it has been an arduous journey. The steep learning curve seems to only get steeper year after year as there are always new boundaries to conquer and skills to be stretched further.

Once I started, I realised soon enough how much there was to learn. Education became a priority and when you start out, there’s not much disposable income to splash out on expensive courses, especially if you commit to not being in debt right from the beginning.

I trawled the internet for quality courses that didn’t cost the earth and alas there weren’t many. Most great courses came at a high monetary cost, and so were not many good ones! But there were a few that were worth well over what you paid for. Better yet, some of those courses were and are free!

But first, a confession…

When I first launched my business back in 2009 after doing numerous practice shoots and weddings for family and friends prior to that, I had very little in the way of technical knowledge and possessed hardly an ounce of confidence. What I knew I had was a good eye and a dollop of creativity. But I learn best by doing so I decided to keep moving forward and learning on the job to support my reading and research.

However, before every shoot, I would burst into a cold sweat, heart-pounding and me desperately wishing that the shoot was over even before I got there. True story. I felt like this for 5 years. Every shoot. Wishing it was all over even before I started. Every. Single. Time.

Looking back there were two reasons why I felt like this:

First, I’m a bit of an introvert and it made me incredibly nervous meeting new people and building relationships with them.

Second, I just wanted to get to the end and know that everything went fine, that I got the shots I wanted and if there were images that needed to be fixed, I could fix them in Photoshop!

Yes, my in-camera skills were very limited when I first started out and I relied heavily on Photoshop. And even when I got better on the technical side, I still felt like this for years.

Now that my confession is over, I would let you in on little secret, which really is no secret because it’s a global phenomenon. I came across Creative Live early on.

As a stay-at-home mother of three trying to get a business up and running, with all income invested back into the business, Creative Live was a godsend. The courses were free if you watched them streamed live. I’ve often had to max the volume on my computer, watch the courses whilst frantically taking notes and trying to juggle everything else like preparing dinner and looking after the children. I admit there was an inconvenience to it – the time difference was a hassle. My husband was kind enough to help out when he could. I was tremendously grateful for the replays. There was a limit to the viewing though – I had to make time for sleep.

But I learned a multitude of things, from tricks in photographing children, posing families and posing for portraits, wedding photography, newborn photography, even pet photography! Even though some things were not my speciality and I would never photograph some subjects, watching the work processes of highly skilled and renown photographers helped me learn techniques, how to see the light, how to position subjects, how to use intermediate equipment, how the emulate a certain photographic look using strobes and scrims and reflectors, how to market the business, how to price services and a host of other useful and essential topics.

Over time I was able to buy several of their courses so I can watch them at my convenience – usually late into the night when everyone was asleep. And I get to keep the courses forever in my account and dip into them as needed. The videos are handily divided into short segments so I can choose and pick what I want to watch first. Hours of education, typically 20-30 hours, available at my fingertips!

And so now into my 8th year, I feel I have come a long way thanks to many photography courses that walked me through the steps all the way from the fundamentals to the more complicated lighting scenarios. Of course, there is yet another much taller mountain to climb ahead of me, but such is learning; it never stops.

Creative Live offer many free courses on photography techniques, post-processing and the business and marketing side of running a photography business.

Some of the courses I have watched and learned so much from are the following Creative Live instructors:

Jeremy Cowart
Zac and Jody Gray
Sandy Puc
Sue Bryce
Kelly Brown
Susan Stripling
Joey L
Brooke Shaden
Jen Rosenbaum
Sarah Petty
Felix Kunze
Jasmine Star
Kevin Kubota
Anne Geddes {yes the Anne Geddes from my childhood days!}
Lawrence Chan
Ryan Brenizer

This is the first time I’ve made a list and wow I’m surprised at how many courses I’ve watched and learned from, and that’s not including the courses I’ve been and am on outside Creative Live!

But you get the idea, education is a must if you want to grow as a photographer and Creative Live is one of the best places to start. They have courses as low as $20, the usual price is $99 / $129 but they also offer regular discounts. What’s not to love and be thankful for! Check Creative Live out now. It can only do you a world of good….but may be detrimental to your Netflix viewing times!

Do share this post on especially if you now of anyone just starting a photography business or hobby or a seasoned pro wanting to progress on to the next level! Much thanks! Lx

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