One of the photo-clubs to which I am a member has a mentoring system for those new to photography. The mentors are other members of the club who varying in their skills and expertise. The newer members of the club contact a mentor who has volunteered their time and arrange for some form of training session. This may be a component of post-processing, getting to know your camera hands-on or general camera craft from 'panning' through to off-camera remote flash photography. We match Nikon users with Nikon mentors and Canon users with Canon mentors; the same applies for the various post-processing software programs.With a number of volunteer mentors within the club I find that I only devote a small amount of time to such requests and it does accelerate the learning curve for those new to digital photography.

Even though BLP is a web-based SIG it would be possible to have such a program for new members and those starting off with a new camera. If BLP does have a list of mentors it would enable us to match mentors with new members in the same or readily accessible locations. Where this is not possible there is email but a more effective format is scheduling a Skype session which is free for both parties. The BLP Committee uses Skype for all our Committee meetings and training sessions.



WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF A MENTORING PROGRAM.

I think this is an excellent idea. It may prove difficult to mentor people in the field if they live a long distance away, but some pointers for success can still be given.

Post processing skills are relatively easy to share using the web/email. I know some very good wildlife photographers who undertake no post processing at all. They seem to feel that it's cheating in some way. The older the person, the more likely this is likely to be the case.

So my thoughts are, get 'em while they are young; and mentoring is probably the best approach. Many post processing programs aren't that expensive, especially when compared to the cost of cameras and lenses. They can be used to make a good photograph excellent, and are able to do this surprisingly quickly, once the basics have been gleaned.

People often say that it's best to get a perfect image in the camera, while you're still out in the field. But that's not always possible, is it?

Thanks for your comments Les. Im still hopeful that other members will contribute to this discussion. Mentoring can be a very valuable activity and it is an effective avenue for getting to know other members of BLP. One of the downsides of a web-based group is that people tend to remain isolated and unengaged with each other.

So I would encourage our members to consider taking on a mentoring role for new members, particularly if you reside in close proximity to one another. The other thing to consider is that you don't have to be ab expert or have a substantial number of years of photographic experience. Someone who considers that they have an intermediate understanding in photography can readily assist another member who is just starting out in digital photography. Similarly, a photographer with intermediate experience can assist other members who have passed the entry level stage and are starting to develop a better understanding of photography and are looking towards developing the more creative aspects to their photography.

We will continue this discussion over the coming months and then decide if it is worth formalising a mentoring process.

In the meanwhile lets have some more robust discussion.

Y

Another way of helping people might be to have a section in the Forum for useful outside sites which could be useful for others. Members might be requested to say why they were suggesting a particular site and it might need to be monitored to prevent "overload", but could be worth considering.