Equipment for training to deliver a school photography Course?

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Ian
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Hi guys,

What equipment would you recommend for training to deliver a school photography Course?

I'm looking to develop my photography skills in order to set up a photography course at the school I teach in. I'm looking for advice on what equipment to buy in order to maximise the range of things I can experiment with.

I'm looking to invest in a good DSLR, lenses and other equipment that I may need to help train myself up and that I can later use whilst teaching.

At the moment I only need to worry about the equipment I need to train myself, another colleague and that I can use with very small groups during the trial period. I don't yet need to worry about equipment for a whole class at this stage.

Money wise I'm hoping to secure an initial budget of around £2,000 to purchase this equipment with.

What would equipment would you recommend I invest in initially for this purpose?

I'm particularly interested to know which range of lenses I should invest in as this is where I have limited experience as up until now I've just made use of what equipment is available to me.
 
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DETAILS (Warning! Contains Detailed Waffle! May Cause Drowsiness)

Camera's I have experience with:
Nikon D60 (first camera I started with)
Nikon D70
Canon 500D (the one I use most often now)

I use the Canon 500D with a 18-200mm lens.

Equipment I think I may need
Camera Body
Very flexible in this area although I feel I may be better off not going too crazy here in order to invest in some good lenses (so sadly no Canon 1D mark IV for me). What would you recommend?

Lenses
This is where I'm most lost when it comes to what to buy. I'd like to get a range of lenses to allow for most flexibility in the range of photography we can attempt. I'd also like to be able to teach (and learn for myself of course) about which lenses are best for which type of photography.

These are some of the types I'd like to try:
Portrait/Landscape/Macro/Sports/Studio/Location/Photojournalistic/Experimental/Anything Interesting Whatsover type Photography

Where would I be best of with specific lenses and where is their overlap? I love the versatility of the 18-200 lens I use now but I'm semi-aware this may not always produce the best results when compared with a more specialist lens. My main aim is allowing as much flexibility as possible whilst forcing pupils to thinking about lens selection for different tasks.

Other
  • Tripods
  • Lighting (Hopefully I will be able to borrow some from the Media/Drama dept.
  • Carry Cases
  • Memory Cards
  • Filters
  • Remotes
  • Triggers/Sensors (I'm thinking this would be interesting for an ICT/Science crossover)
  • Anything else you can thinking of

My Current Experience:
I'm an ICT teacher with a specialist interest in Graphics. I've got a pretty good grasp of graphics apps including Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, etc most of which I've been using for a number of years now. In my school I'm usually the person who leads on any Graphics units and the person who provides training for other staff in this area.

I've had an interest in photography for years but I've only started using DSLR's semi-regularly around 18 months ago. Due to time limitations and having to borrow the camera from other departments in the school I've only been able to practice during Holidays/Weekends when the cameras aren't being used.

My Plan:
Short Term:
To spend the next year developing my photography skills, resources and a Scheme of Learning for a Photography Qualification.

Set up a small pilot group during after school/holiday sessions with an eye on BTEC accreditation for those who attend.

Medium Term:
If the pilot scheme is successful embed a full photography course into the curriculum we offer. I'm thinking Level 1/Level 2 Photography BTEC at the moment although this may change.

We have a large number of Complex Needs students in my school and I'm hoping to develop a Level 1 course for them as I think many of them will find Photography really engaging and rewarding.

Longer Term:
Consider extending the course to level 3 and possibly as part of an Art & Design Diploma for 6th Form Students.

Hopefully it will all get set up eventually *fingers crossed*

Any help you can help me getting started up with all this would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Ian
 
When I was at school we ran a little photography/sciencey group, and all we used were pinhole cameras. I know this isn't going to get you any qualifications but for getting people engaged its great. You spend one lesson adding a personal design to a pre-made template and print it. The next lesson building it and checking that it is pretty light proof. Third lesson is spent shooting with it and fourth lesson developing (which is the best part seeing an image created with a paper camera appear from nothing)

Jake
 
Actually pinhole photography is something I really wanted to have a go at. I've never tried it myself but one of the guys I'm going to be working with is a big fan of traditional photography and this was one of the things he sold me on.

I like your idea of customising the designs of the cameras before printing them. I hadn't thought about that but I reckon the kids would really like that part. Give them more ownership over their lil paper camera :)
 
I'm not sure DSLRs are the best thing to teach with in a school. The scope for damage with taking lenses off and on is quite high. I'd reckon a decent bridge with full manual modes might be much better. That way they can stick it in auto and get reasonable pictures or mess around with the manual modes and end up with just about anything. I also think you could have all sorts of creative picture taking opportunities with simple things like usb microscopes. They're cheap as chips but it would open up a whole new area that is beyond normal photography.

It really depends on what you want to get across to them - is it the equipment or the photographer that makes the photo? With the latter you could use just about anything.
 
Have you thought about getting some enlargers, chemicals, dark room etc and teaching the children how to shoot on film? Very hand skill to have and also introduces another style to shooting, teaches the kids that they cant just point and shoot like on a dslr and need to learn about settings etc?

From school days, gcse and alevel, we learnt to be a light meter our selves and most of the times we were spot on, little tweaking in the dark room and we had some good shots.
 
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