Taking Lessons from Michael Jordan
When I was growing up, Michael Jordan was (and still is, to me) the greatest basketball player in the game. He made the most difficult shots look so simple, as if it required no effort on his part. Countless buzzer-beaters and game-winning shots are attributed to him. If there was a clutch moment in the game, give the ball to Michael. You could always be confident that he would do what was needed. To put it simply: Michael would deliver.
Now let’s say that you have a goal to be a professional basketball player, and you learned that Michael himself is teaching some basketball classes for a amazingly good deal – would you even hesitate to sign up? Wouldn’t it be amazing to sit at his feet and learn from his years of practice, dedication and experience? Imagine the kind of jump-start that would give you game.
Let’s change gears a little bit. I’m going to focus on something that several of my friends are endeavoring to do: Wedding and Event Photography. Sadly, there are a lot of people in this area that jump into Wedding Photography a little prematurely – I know cause I was one of them. And I never should have done it as early as I did.
Early last year I started taking some Photo Classes from Kenneth Linge, a local photographer who turns out to be a lot more then you’d expect to find in humble Orem Utah. You find out he’s an accredited Master Photographer; that he was the most award-winning photographer in Scandinavia (he’s from Norway) in the the 90′s. You notice that he spends half the year teaching seminars in Europe. You catch the Utah Valley magazine and notice that he shoots the cover every month and also gets some extra spreads in the magazine from time to time.
I’ve realized that he’s the Michael Jordan of portrait photography, a claim he’s going to deny when he notices I’ve written this post. But let me tell you why I think this.
Kenneth delivers – every time. If there ever was a photographer that I know that I can count on every single time to deliver an amazing portrait no matter who it is, where it is, or when it is, it’s Kenneth. He’s not just a master in his studio but outside his studio, not just during the best light of the day but any light of the day, not just on sunny but also cloudy rainy snowy sleety you-name-it weathery days. Not just beautiful people but round, short, tall, plump, chubby, rail-thin, awkward shape, big-head little-head no chin big chin kinda people. You can’t use the same kind of lighting and poses for every person – it needs to be as different and unique as they are; and Kenneth has the experience, the eye and the talent and knowledge to know what to do every time, to get that perfect portrait. Kenneth delivers; every time.
Beyond his photography though he’s a jolly, happy, kind, talkative person that loves to share and teach. His personal motto is ‘No Secrets’, and he lives up to it. When he recently did a killer studio setup for wedding dresses for Utah Valley Bride magazine, he didn’t hesitate to teach it in his next class. He loves to share, and he loves to teach.
To get to the point we have a genius master photographer in our backyard and he teaches classes for an amazing price. If you’re even thinking that you want people to hire you for photography then you need to take his Photographing People courses. You need to prioritize in your to-do list and put it above buying anymore gear. All the best gear in the world won’t make you a solid photographer if you have no idea how to light people, pose people and take advantage of the situations where you take those photos. His first class is a steal-of-a-deal at $300 and he’s teaching one on July 31, and another on September 4. He happily does payment plans if dropping $300 at once is too tough to manage – there literally is no excuse not to take them.
I repeat – if you’re going to charge people for photography then you need to take his class – you owe it to your soon-to-be customers to deliver the best product you can and his classes will give you incredible insight and tips, and it doesn’t involve spending thousands on lighting equipment. You’ll learn more things about photography than you can imagine from simple things to avoid to simple things to blow away everyone else.
His website for classes is www.intsop.com – sign up quick before the class is full!
** As a disclaimer he’s not paying me nor did he ask me to write this. **
2 Responses to Taking Lessons from Michael Jordan
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dang. i feel like i need to take a road trip to utah now! literally.
I can’t begin to express how excited and pumped up I am to learn from Mr. Linge. My brief interactions with him online have been nothing but positive and enthusiastic…and this only gets me more excited! Thanks for sharing Joel!