What is Photography Mentoring

Seeking out a photography mentor is a great idea for photographers who want a personal touch to their learning instead spending countless hours watching jazzy YouTube videos.

While I think YouTube videos can be helpful to pick up the basics, knowing whether you’re going right or wrong can’t be answered by a website – only by another photographer – which is where photography mentoring comes in.

Do I Need a Photography Mentor?

Only you can answer this question. Having a mentor isn’t just for beginners or rich photographers – it’s for everyone at any stage of their career/hobby.

Mentoring offers you personal and tailored advice based on the hurdles you face and direction you want to take your photography. This means there isn’t one ideal mentor for everyone.

Take me for example, I’m a mentor best suited to teaching brand new photographers, budding outdoor portrait photography and aspiring woodland shooters. If someone approached me about wedding photography I wouldn’t recommend myself to them. You need to find the right teacher based on what type of photography you want to be.

What Can Photo Mentoring Help Me With?

Whatever you need!

From learning the basics of photography (the exposure triangle to composition) right through to building yourself a side business to earn money from your photography – mentoring can help with all of this.

Find the right tutor to specialists those areas and away you go! You may only need a single session of mentoring to get yourself on the right track, or a longer plan to learn more about editing and brand building for example.

The aim of mentoring is to come out a more confident, skillful and mindful photographer. A great mentor will focus on what you’re doing good and bad with practical, accessible and understandable advice.

Where Do I Find a Photography Mentor?

Where do you find anything these days? The internet! Mentoring isn’t always done in-person (though that is possible) but most coaching can be done via online video chats. You can talk through your issues, show examples of your work and get advice without being sat in the same room.

This opens up the choice of photography mentors to the whole globe. You could be living in London and being mentored by an L.A. based photographer. Distance doesn’t matter much anymore in the internet-age.

Start off by googling ‘photography mentors near me’ and see what comes up. You may find the ideal teacher in your area that you can go on photography workshops with.

What Makes a Good Mentoring Program?

A good photography mentoring program is one that is based around you – and what you need to improve. It shouldn’t be a cookie-cutter plan that is churned out to each mentoree.

Having a custom made mentoring program may cost a little more to subscribe to but if the teacher is right then the investment is worth it.

Mentoring can start off around £200 for a single session and go over £2000 for extensive plans – the same price as a pro camera which will last you a few years whereas the training in improving your skill set will last you a lifetime.

I like to get a full bio from my mentorees about what camera kit they have, the hurdles they face, what they’re good at, and how they like to learn. This all informs me how best to structure their mentoring because everyone learns differently – some like to read, watch, talk or do.

It’s pointless a tutor telling a mentoree to ‘get a better camera’ as we all know you can take a great photo on almost any camera – it’s down to improving the photographer – not always the kit. This is why I always ask what’s in your kit bag so I know what you’ve got to work with.

Being assessed throughout your mentoring program is a valuable way of seeing that the investment is worth it. It means kinks can be ironed out earlier so you don’t form bad habits. A good teacher keeps their students honest and true.