Recognised Photography Courses/Certificates?

Damokc

Could any of you let me know what certificates are recognised by media (newspapers etc.) when they're hiring photographers?

I KNOW A BEING HIRED WOULD BE MOSTLY BASED ON A PORTFOLIO AND EXPERIENCE

but i need to select a course that would stand up because im not going to pay 700e to 1000e for a piece of paper that isnt worth wiping my...well you know the rest. thanks in advance.

Theres lots of online courses which is probably what i would have to do because my current situation would not allow to move away to go to a full time college photography course. theses ar some iv found:


http://www.icieducation.ie/photography-course/index.htm
http://www.thephotographyinstitute.ie/

PCPhoto

newspapers are not hiring photographers and staff photographers are loosing their jobs..... many rural papers have given redundancy to their staff photographer and take submissions from locals/amateurs.

freelance photography is a dying art - most papers are becoming reliant on photo agency submissions.

So the main way to get into reportage photography/photojournalism at the moment is to work for an agency.... there are other ways to make money from the papers but its a little more complex.

EDIT: In terms of qualifications, it does not really matter - its the quality of your work (ie portfolio) .... a FETAC recognised course would be the best in terms of recognition but building your portfolio and getting tearsheets of published work (catch 22 - you need to get published in order to get work being published in the papers)

Damokc

Thanks very much for the reply PC.

Sounds like things are not going to well in the photography industry.

Is it still worth doing an actual printed out portfolio or are they all looking for a digital portfolio now and would that be on CD or DVD or Memory card or what. there is not a lot of information out there on how to get started once you have a portfolio done. i presume from what you said above agencies are not exactly hiring a lot at the moment?

What about if i just built up my own portfolio without a certification,would it be enough if it was good enough?

thanks again in advance.

PCPhoto

its a catch22 situation - you need access to events in order to get images to build a decent portfolio.

at the moment the industry is overloaded with people - everyone who has access to a camera and lenses considers themselves a photographer - some people try to work at weekends earning extra money to supplement their mon to fri work.

This is resulting in the market being saturated with decent photographers and absolute chancers ... which means people do not value a photographer anymore, part time photographers tend to charge less than full-time professionals so the "customer" thinks they are getting a bargain - a cheap photographer, the part-time photographer gets some money and thanks to the miracles of digital photography and post processing techniques and tutorials most of the time he/she does the same quality job as a full time professional.....the person that suffers ...the full-time photographer !!

Anyhoo - sorry for the bit of a rant there - freelance photography is difficult and does not pay regular or good money ...it can be a fun job and you do sometimes meet famous people and get access to sold out events.

Personally I would do a printed/mounted hard copy images for a portfolio, but no harm in having an online presence/website for people to reference.

Damokc

thanks a mill PCPhoto,

your advice seems very honest and realistic,il have to think hard about going down this road...as im not getting any younger now and have to pick some kinda trade to stick to.from your comments this doesnt seem to be it.pity cos i actually have genuine interest.awh well.il do a portfolio anyway.thanks again PC