Be A Photo Mentor
Remember when photography was a fresh and hot-blooded passion? I do. I hooked up with my first camera during the Summer of Love, 1969, and was immediately and hopelessly hooked. Everything was new and exciting, and I had eyes for nothing else.
I studied magazine articles offering technical advice and “Top 10 Tips,” but I also had the benefit of learning in person from experienced local photographers. These guys were serious hobbyists, mostly, and I’ll label them as my “unwitting mentors”—mentors due to their zeal for all things photo-related and unwitting in that I could easily trick them out of useful knowledge by simply hanging around.
It worked out great for everyone. They had an opportunity to share their passion, and I learned a lot. While I didn’t make particular note of it at the time, I do recall that these old guys seemed to find great joy in the process. And why not? They had an audience for their bountiful bloviations, and I had a chance to absorb lessons from the “School of Hard Knocks.” And all emerged with nary a bruise.
A lot has changed in photography since those days, but one thing hasn’t: the value of teaching what you know to the next generation. It’s a misconception to think
