What Teaching Taught Me About Freelancing
This semester, I had the wonderful opportunity to go back and teach a studio photography class at my Alma Mater, The University of Kansas. Before the start of this semester I never would have thought I would enjoy teaching as much as I have, and never would I have thought that I was going to learn as much from the students as they were learning from me.
Teaching is a wonderful way to give back to students who are interested in learning about the path you have taken to get where you are. They are looking for answers to many questions and when you can provide them answers from your hard work and experiences, it’s a great feeling. It reminds you that you were once young and didn’t know as much as you do now, it also shows you how far you have traveled along your path to get where you are.
As freelancers who run our own businesses it’s a wonderful thing for the students to learn from us about what it really takes to make it out in the real world after college. I try and teach the students that it’s more than just your work that will get you clients, it’s also marking and selling yourself as someone who can take a problem and hand the client a solution. I have found that a lot of things involved with the business side of freelancing is never talked about in school. These things need to be taught to the students so that they will be more prepared for the real world once they get out of college. This will help them balance out producing their work and how to land and keep a client base.
A few classes into the semester I received a pleasant surprise. Each week we have a critique of the previous assignment and all of the students bring in a couple prints from their work that week. During our first review, to my surprise the students knocked the assignment out of the park and brought in some beautiful prints. I was shocked to say the very least. On my way home I had a rush from that class. I was truly amazed at what the students brought in because it was so raw and pure that it took me back to when I was sitting in those same chairs a few years back. I realized that I had forgotten what it was like to be new to photography. I approached the camera now in a different manner than I did back than. After that class I realized I shot more for my clients than I did for myself and I knew I had lost something. My goal was to set out to get it back.
I think it’s easy to slip out of the experimental, “throw it on the wall and see if it sticks” mentality that we have when we are just starting out with something new. A naive thought process might be the best way to explain the mentality, not knowing the outcome of an experiment verses planning out every last detail to earn your next paycheck. It’s very liberating to grab an old plastic camera and load a roll of film in it and shoot like I used to do. Something about it brings out the raw unscathed creativity that drives us. Designers might get the same feeling if they picked up a large pad of paper and some charcoal and do without the computer.
We try on different hats while growing to see what fits best. Most of us have failed more times than we’ve succeeded during this process, but that is part of learning.
Looking back, the path we travel gets cleaner as we learn. It seems to get less messy. We become more organized, and go through less trial and error due to the lessons of our experiences. Unfortunately, that means we slip into safe zones. Teaching has taught me that I have missed that and I need to shake things up again. It’s amazing walking into a classroom of 16 college photographers and feeling like you are giving back in some way. I see a lot of what I was in them and realized how far I have travelled to get to where I am from where they are. Ever since I started teaching this semester I have reproached the way I tackle an assignment while shooting for a client. It has been a breath of fresh air.
The students of the Studio Photography class at the University of Kansas have reminded me that I was once where they were and that I had forgotten where I started my path. Since I started teaching, I now walk looking both ways to keep myself and my business balanced.
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Nice post. I am currently looking into wanting to teach a night course in some way but find it hard to come up with a curriculum that I think would cover a 6 – 8 week (1 day a week) outline. I listed what I want to teach, figure each class would take about 1 – 1.5 hours and now need to figure out how to split up my content so that it fills each time slot.
Any advice on that? From anyone?
I also do photography so your post ‘touched home’ a lot (although that’s not what I’m planning to teach).
The first time through a class can be a bit daunting. I have been teaching adjunct for over 20 years. I teach some basic graphic classes, math, and computer applications. Every semester I learn some new from my students. I learn a new approach to a project or a new way to do things.
My main piece of advice is to give students real-world examples. They want to see how they can use the stuff you are teaching. Bring in outside speakers when possible. Plan to delivery some lecture, do some application, and discussion. They will open up once they know you are knowlesgable and want them to learn.
It’s a great feeling doing what I do. I am very lucky and thankful to have a job I enjoy so much. Now, it’s not always fun. There are papers to grade and assignments to prepare for. Then of course there are always those who don’t want to be there, but that happens in all jobs.
Good luck and don’t stop learning. You will improve your teaching style immensely. I sometimes go back and look at my teaching style back when I first started teaching. Wow, what an eye opener.
What will you be teaching?
I loved your post.. .you are right about the learning and excitement. I think you also HAVE to keep in mind your clients (in my case readers) . In my link above is a piece I did strictly for myself AND for the girl on the runway.
When doing things strictly for my readers (celebrity news) I try to keep excitement in by relating to something in my article. Like the very simple article I wrote that depended on 4-6 michael jackson versions of the same song…in reporting we are supposed to be third person so I had to write a blog post too! Using the videos did not save any time in the writing, but did bring back some of that freshness you are talking about.
In writing for E I am still in the phase you mentioned – “Throwing it on the wall to see what sticks” at ehow I am on more sure ground in writing and you are right, it can be a bit more lackluster.
To the teacher: I f you can get some interaction in the class tha twill help a lot and make the learning for students easier as well as make natural breaks. I don’t know a lot about that end of things, other than teaching kids. Maybe there are some good articles out there on that Admire your gusto!!!!
Hi
Wonderfully written.
I think that everybody in our lives is there to teach us something; it’s a matter of recognizing that. When we teach we invite this reflection even more.
I have particularly found it when working in a counselling situation. Often clients show us our own problem areas.
Juliet
I teach design at night as an adjunct professor at a local university. The first time you prep for a new class there is ALOT of work that needs to be done, but once its done each time you teach that class its a breeze. All my classes are 3 hours long!
Nice post man! I’m in the same league as you, a lecturer (afterlong pause) now I’m back giving a lecture,
while keep job running.
Your writing really represent my situation.
Although I was teaching diffrent subject from my daily proffesional job.
After some year I left the uni, and now back to the teaching mode,
I find so many homework for me in this matter,
For example, teaching them how collaborate with certain photographer
To create commercial campaign, or dealing with getty images.
Believe me, they use to grab picture in whilst browsing google image search
Without any permission,being the guy in the industries, it really shook me out.
That’s one problem, I was glad that if you share your ce problem here,
Your fellow (aboard) lectureand freelancer,
Darto
Wonderful article about captivating unbridled creativity. When starting my own company I found myself like all entrepreneurs wearing a lot of different hats and a lot of what I learned from key teachers helped, but it also came down to just experiencing things and learning for myself. As I became more experienced, things seemed to get easier as my processes were more refined, but I had to keep in mind that in order to be successful you need to innovate and think differently about how things are done, so I always welcomed situations that “shake things up again”.
This is a fantastic article. Not only is it informative but really interesting to read as well. It is great when not only can the teacher teach the students but the students also teach the teacher in a sense.
Looking forward to more of your articles!
I hate teaching, I hate those ppl asking so many obvious questions!!
arrggh!!
Agreed that teaching can be very rewarding not just for the students. I taught an introductory compositing course at film school a year ago and I was amazed at what the students came up with. I had to remind myself not to say things like “That’s not how it’s done” when that was really just my way of doing things after years in the industry.
Sure there are technicalities that must be done a certain way but after that, each student has their own way of seeing things.
One thing that I did feel was very important was that I taught the kids a lot of things I wish I had been taught during my course. I have found that most courses don’t teach a lot of industry standard practices. As my students we primarily animation focused and my course was an elective, I decided to tailor the course to teach them techniques to help them jazz up their final projects for their animation major. Knowing the bottlenecks that students usually faced (from my own course) I could show them tips and techniques for making their work punchier while saving them valuable time.