Reply To: An experience I had…

[iliketag]

Cass, First of all, good on ya for taking her under your wing. I truly admire that!

However, and not to sound like a total jerk (it’s hard for tone in text, you know?), I think it absolutely could be a student problem. I say this because I have been guilty of being criticized and blaming it on others. Now, I’ve matured a bit since then, but I’ll admit that I still have a rough time being told in the moment “Hey… you really ought to ______”. I accept it and I’m happy for it! But in the moment it’s a sting akin to ripping on a bandaid.
I would honestly be surprised if a teacher was /that/ poor. I believe that a teacher may not give good critiques – I’ve seen that first hand. But I really doubt that they were forced to shoot in auto! Perhaps the class is more book-learning and she really needs the hands on. Which would be entirely understandable! My photo classes have consisted of book/theory teaching in the classroom and shooting on my own for assignments. Some people really struggle to learn that way – I was mostly self taught on the mechanics of the camera, but boy oh boy could I talk to you about historical photographers, the chemical processes for developing film and technical terminology!

I really think you should take C.C.’s advice and audit one of the classes! Also, most schools (at least here) have two teachers for the separate levels of Photography classes, because they like to have them the same days… so if that’s the case and two teachers are dropping the ball – that’s a HUGE problem!