It’s a camera kinda day it seems.

Seeing as how I dropped out of college, a lot of folks have recommended unto me some variety of further education. Most say I should finish college, but nowadays that’s more than a little expensive. A few folks have seen my interest in cameras and suggested courses for that. In general those suggestions get brushed off. But that came up again over the weekend.

So there’s this New York Institute of Photography. They offer a course that ranges from photo skills to business skills, all correspondence-wise. They send CDs and DVDs, I take pictures and mail them back, and an instructor critiques and grades them. I pay monthly, surprisingly only about $50 for a couple years (or a lot op front), and at the end get a little diploma. Not a normal college, more of a vocational thing.

Now this is kinda tempting for a few reasons. One, I really do enjoy the hobby, and wish I had more time to spend on it, and this would give me good reason to. Two, while I’m good at self paced learning I know that I won’t learn everything on my own and a little structure can be quite helpful. Three, although I could be certified, the learning materials could be shared. And four, apparently I’d get a press pass, under the auspices of which I could try to contact an event’s coordinators and represent myself as such, which is an idea that tickles my fancy (I’ll probably never use it, heh).

One of their students took a shot early on and started selling it, having made now in the six-digit ranges on the thing. Obviously I’m under no illusion that I could do similarly or that it was anything other than a lucky shot, but it might be nice to sell a pic or two to a newspaper and make a little something back. Meh.

Anyway. Seeing as how the cost of this is about as much as a nice new lens or a new camera body, but wouldn’t wear out or become completely obsolete, it seems like an interesting investment. Thinking about it.