Testimonial
by Kevin Jiminez
Augusta, GA
Unlike many very accomplished professional photographers these days, I actually
got into the business after going to college and getting a BFA degree in
photography. Having said that, I’ll be the first to say that everything really
useful that I know about being a working photographer I learned from the Georgia
Professional Photographer’s Association.
I was fortunate that the local big-name photographer who hired me, having had so many positive experiences with the GPPA himself, saw to it that within two months of my coming to work for him I was sitting front and center at a Winter Seminar soaking up things I had never learned in school! Almost twenty years later now, I’m a little more likely to be working behind the scenes than sitting in the front row, but I’m still at every GPPA seminar, school and convention that I can get to – and I’m still learning.
And here’s one thing I learned very early on: I may have come
to these events to hear the speakers or handle the equipment at the trade shows
or see the inspiring images in the print competitions, but I learned as much or
more from the other members of the GPPA sitting beside me in the seminars who
said, “come have lunch with us and let’s talk about this some more.” And I
learned from so many of those vendors, who were in the trade shows to sell that
equipment but who have taken a personal interest in me and my growth as a
professional photographer; they’ve suggested equipment tailored to my needs,
helped me learn how to use it, and even come to my studio to advise me, because
of their long-term supportive relationships with the GPPA and its members.
The print competition, though, has been the heart of my true schooling!
I’ve seen work that took my breath away, and I’ve seen work that’s just not
there yet, and I’ve learned what made the difference. More importantly, I’ve
seen countless photographers evolve from “not there yet” to “breath-taking” due
to their participation in competition and their willingness to take to heart the
print judges’ observations. No amount of money could buy the education that I’ve
received working as a volunteer in the print competition year after year and
talking with other photographers – masters and novices alike – about why one
image is so much more powerful than the next or how an image could have been
improved by technique or by presentation. These are lessons that I can apply to
my real world work in the business of photography every day.
I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that if I hadn’t had the great good fortune to be introduced to the GPPA very early on in my photography career . . . there wouldn’t have been that career. I’m in business today because of the GPPA. I’m a better artist and technician today because of the GPPA. I know how to serve my clients better because of the GPPA. That’s an education I can’t put a price on and could never have gotten in college, in an online forum or in a celebrity speaker’s whistle-stop tour. That’s an education that will continue to be as new and valuable to me for the next twenty years of my career as it has been for the first twenty years and worth the price of membership every day.
Silver Sponsors
