It is a little over a month now since we initially discussed and implemented the first stages of the mentoring system. Gathering from the threads (Part I&II) it seems to have attracted quite a lot of positive attention. But what I am really interested in, is hearing how it is actually panning out for all you mentors and mentees? Have you all stuck with and profited from the idea over the last 5 or so weeks?
If your feedback is positive at this stage and you would like me too, I will set up a more refined system e.g. a better overview of the Mentors and their specific skill sets etc (I would include your input from threads I&II in this). But if we are going to go for it I think it would probably be better to implement that stage after the summer holidays as a lot of people will be away and less active on the 365 over the next weeks. On the other hand, if your feedback this time round says that everything is ticking over nicely as it is and there is no actual call for anything further then we will let it stand as it is.
So what do you think? How did you get on? And would you like to see this idea further developed or leave it as it stands?
I am listening to my mentor and practising her suggestions though I find one quite a challenge. However it is working well as she gets back to me in a timely manner and I feel I can discuss with her. Not sure what she thinks as I have not managed to post her 'homework project yet as I cannot see what she is asking me - work in progress!
I have been a bad mentor since my style is ...if you ask me a question I'll be more than happy to give you my feedback.I don't feel comfy just jumping in as I feel like my mentees are already quite talented! One thing I can suggest is that they follow along in my "get pushed " challenges as I find that is the best way (that I have personally found)to learn here.Then we can share our experiences. How does that sound? If you agree I'll share my push as soon as I get it. And we can meet up on my photo ( I'll tag you )to discuss.
Paula @paulam
Marc @jmrittle
Island girl @radiogirl
Kim @genealogygenie
We have such a simple system and are only focusing on one thing at the moment. And we generally just critique if we get tagged to do so, but sometimes will offer advice in other areas. We had just decided to continue as is for the moment but they may also have other thoughts and suggestions. @888rachel@sullivar@newbank@pamknowler@golftragic
@kathyboyles keep an eye on the mentoring system threads Cathy - I have seen (and replied to) several people searching for a mentor. If you see a request you could answer offering your services.
@taffy I am happy with our group and how we have started. I think it promises to work very well doing one subject at a time. Taffy has done a great job organising us up front and I think this will pay off as we cover more topics.
I like it so far, although ive only asked my mentor a couple questions, not that i feel like i know what im doing, i just dont know what questions to ask sometimes. I have my mentors email address, but right now i dont remember his name on here...
I have missed the other two threads but I would be interested in being mentored, don't think I am good experienced enough yet to be a mentor. Don't know if it is too late for me now?
I think me, my mentor and my mentees have found life pretty busy recently so we've maybe not used the system as well as we could have. Definitely keen to do more with it and find ways to support where I can. Trying to workout out the best way to be useful! X
It's going well for me - my mentor has given me several really useful suggestions on specific pictures, which I can carry over and apply to my thinking about future shots.
@newbank@pamknowler Aw...thanks...but now I feel like I was trolling for compliments! Seriously, though...I do think the reason our little group is working is that the mentoring is among a few people, not just one-to-one. Since the photographers in this group are strong, experienced ones, it makes sense that we are helping each other. Linda, what this might mean is that if there's another round, maybe it would be worth having mentor/mentees think about both what they want to practice (e.g., we're working on natural looking HDR shots from bracketed images) as well as level of skill to build upon.
I'm interested in this process - and have been watching the threads. I've not yet jumped in and linked to a mentor - partly because of other things i have on - not because i think i wouldn't benefit from one!!
I notice you mention the 'summer holidays' - wondering how that works - given there are people from all around the globe - not just the northern hemisphere... ? We are in winter!!!
I'm also going to look at the at the mentor list :)
@happysnap I thought this was going to be beneficial however, I found that I did not have many questions to ask of my mentor. Personally I think it would be better if there were more guidelines initially. As we get further into this and I understand more about it I may have more questions in the future.
@taffy I'm on the same page as @newbank and @pamknowles Taffy's doing a great job of co-ordination and mentoring, and the feedback/critique from both @taffy and the others in this group is very constructive and helpful. From a personal point of view (POV?) it ain't broke and doesn't need fixing. But, and it's an important but, I can't speak for others.
Hi Linda, thanks for checking in! I have been enjoying this process and feel incredibly honoured to have a couple of people ask me to mentor them. At this stage I'm feeling a little like @mzzhope, it doesn't really come naturally to me to just launch into critique/advice (much easier when asked a specific question about something) but I am trying to push myself to do so! I'm also a bit sporadic with my visits to this site and I have to push myself sometimes to even get my shots uploaded let alone going and looking up each of my mentees' work and deciding which shots to comment on as it's often a few days' worth that I have missed! So I'm thinking maybe a tagging system might work well (where they can tag me on images they want feedback on) but given I am always forgetting just to put "CW" on my images I'm hesitant to put the ball entirely in their court! What do you think? @bsheppard @neuner123 @lleo
Or maybe we could do a group thing like @taffy's group?
@aliha Alison I've been really appreciative of you feedback so far. It has been helpful and I have continued to think about it over the following days and weeks.
That said, I also like the idea of tagging you with specific questions (will do in the future), and am intrigued by the group thing idea. So I will be happy with any of the above.
Hi Linda, I have really enjoyed having a mentor for my project. @padlock has been really helpful and given me advice and commenting on my photo's. I'm always looking to improve so this system helps me a lot.
Hi All,
Thanks for your responses above and sorry for my late reply.
By the sounds of things, lots of you have your own systems going and are working well together. So for the time being, based on your feed back, I see no need to change anything, but rather just let it roll on as is for the time being.
As Brigette @brigette so rightly mentioned not everyone is on their summer hols at the moment! Sorry Brigette, didn't mean to completely ignore the northern hemisphere, honestly. But nevertheless I think you will agree with me that 365 is much quieter than usual at the moment, which is also obvious from the amount of feedback we received to this thread - the third in the series - compared to the earlier threads. I therefore suggest that I come back with the same question again in say, September, to see if there is anything more to be done with regard to further developing the mentoring system.
But if it ain't broke... etc.
If even just a few people profit from the initial idea then I am happy I got the ball rolling in the first place.
I hope you continue to enjoy the process and learn from each other.
Once again, apologies if I have listed anyone more than once (individual copy and paste hazard and there are a lot of names) or alternatively if I have forgotten anyone.
Sorry for my lack of response. Laura @la_photographic and I have been setting various challenges, it varies as to who sets them, and then we both have a go at them. It's working well at my end and from Laura's comment above seems to be working ok for her. Joy @jocasta and I have the beginnings of a lensbaby mentoring thing going but haven't really started anything properly yet, my fault not hers I've been incredibly busy with other stuff. I suspect at my end it might be September before we pick that up again. Thanks for all your work setting it up and following up on how well it is working. @happysnap
Sorry for late reply. Have not done anything as one person initially contacted me and gave my private email to communicate but have not heard back and in fairness did not chase as we are all busy. On the other hand, my knowledge is way more limited to some of the people up there but if anyone interested in some help and if you like the style of my pictures, very happy to help in any way I can :-)
@happysnap Many thanks for organising this mentoring startup, it's a great idea. I'm very happy with the way it's working out, @taffy is great to work with and I'm enjoying the interaction with others in this group.
I would be interested in a mentor that works in nature/landscape. I am not around people, city or night options at this time. I use Sony DSLR and Photoshop Elements 12 and would like to get better print results from what I shoot. Any interest in taking me on? I would be willing to mentor someone starting out with DSLR and looking to get off Auto mode.
@jannkc Good to see you describing what you are looking for in a Mentor on here Jann. But unless you either Tag all the mentors names in your comment here it might well be that the majority of them don't actually see your request. A much surer way of securing a mentor would be to look through the mentor's projects, see which you think might match your criteria (from their work and exif data) best and then ask them directly if they would be your mentor.
Hope this helps.
@jannkc I think any of us may hesitate to suggest ourselves as knowing enough to mentor but I'm just going to go for it. I do a whole variety of photos but love my nature stuff. Having looked at your project. I'm not sure I have any skills that you don't have already but I'm always interested in talking to/ suggesting things to others/ receiving critique on my stuff so even if we had a more mutual relationship, maybe this could work? Have a look at my project anyway and see what you think? I've just returned from 3 weeks in Canada so I've done quite well for wildlife recently but I'm still catching up with loading and commenting. I'm in year 2 of my project but I've been a photographer for years. I use a Canon 7D and am currently on elements 11.
@happysnap Thanks for all your work on this, Linda. I'm one of the "summer holiday" guys so I'm really behind with loading etc and that's also put a real bar on my progress with my mentor but these are not relationships that have to work in any particular way- we're all just feeling our way and any comment/ help etc that comes out of this is a bonus! @mei_photography is my mentor and we've had a really slow start but I'm sure there's more to come for us and the association can't be a bad thing! Like many others, I've not really got specific questions for my mentor but I'm just looking for constructive critique daily.
@angelar Thank you Angela. I did take a look and we have some similar work. I am trying to learn more on settings in camera and also on elements so I can get more print worthy photos. I would be interested to see what we could help each other out with even if it is motivation to try things together.
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Paula @paulam
Marc @jmrittle
Island girl @radiogirl
Kim @genealogygenie
@888rachel @sullivar @newbank @pamknowler @golftragic
I'm glad you like it, feel free to ask more questions if you want.
Choose a mentor and ask them directly on their project if they would be happy to mentor you. If they decline for whatever reason choose another mentor to ask.
I notice you mention the 'summer holidays' - wondering how that works - given there are people from all around the globe - not just the northern hemisphere... ? We are in winter!!!
I'm also going to look at the at the mentor list :)
@bsheppard
@neuner123
@lleo
Or maybe we could do a group thing like @taffy's group?
That said, I also like the idea of tagging you with specific questions (will do in the future), and am intrigued by the group thing idea. So I will be happy with any of the above.
Taffy @taffy Mr. Spock @spock Tineke @tstb Jocasta @jocasta
Jenn @shutterbugger Hope @mzzhope Jason @jasonayer Kathy @kathyboyles
Alison @aliha Angela @angelar Mei @mei_photography Sue @swilde
Rachel @rachelwithey Ryan @sullivar Shannon @sjoblues Karhy @kathyboyles
Richard @vignouse Trish @trishaclancy Kiran @ikamera Daniel @danielcdillon
Meredith @wanabe Iqscotland @iqscotland Daryl @darylo @kmrtn6 @genealogygenie @frankhymus @sjoblues @newbank @barneyone @kamen088
@carlt @soseema @dh @tstb @chewyteeth @nanderson @jasperc @dianeburns
@zosimasy @sansjuan @mikekutz @mej2011@888rachel @jasonayer @kathyboyles @bsheppard @aliha @angelar @sioux @swilde @rachelwithey
@la_photographic @kass @my_photofun @sullivar @nookie72 @darylo @zanet
@liz100 @bsheppard @spock @kathyboyles @padders @kathyboyles @kmrtn6 @zosimasy @friend2303 @trishaclancy @froggie0628 @ikamera @wanabe @joeymc @callymazoo @iqscotland @whatsfordessert @callymazoo @dianeburns @andrewkru @truechicknz @summerfield @creativefool @callymazoo @mzzhope @taffy @kathyboyles @mei_photography @newbank @la_photographic @bsheppard @brigette @radiogirl @golftragic @mzzhope @aliha @padders
Hi All,
Thanks for your responses above and sorry for my late reply.
By the sounds of things, lots of you have your own systems going and are working well together. So for the time being, based on your feed back, I see no need to change anything, but rather just let it roll on as is for the time being.
As Brigette @brigette so rightly mentioned not everyone is on their summer hols at the moment! Sorry Brigette, didn't mean to completely ignore the northern hemisphere, honestly. But nevertheless I think you will agree with me that 365 is much quieter than usual at the moment, which is also obvious from the amount of feedback we received to this thread - the third in the series - compared to the earlier threads. I therefore suggest that I come back with the same question again in say, September, to see if there is anything more to be done with regard to further developing the mentoring system.
But if it ain't broke... etc.
If even just a few people profit from the initial idea then I am happy I got the ball rolling in the first place.
I hope you continue to enjoy the process and learn from each other.
Once again, apologies if I have listed anyone more than once (individual copy and paste hazard and there are a lot of names) or alternatively if I have forgotten anyone.
Linda
Hope this helps.