Wilson Camera-Digital Lab, Scottsdale

A phenomenal photo class ! Larry is an excellent teacher and an all around great guy.

Didn't learn much. Was a very beginner class but wasn't advertised as such. Glad I didn't pay full price.

Instructor was very knowledgeable about cameras and did a great job explaining different techniques. I was hoping for a bit more hands on time but it was a large class and many people had different equipment and different questions so most time was taken up explaining the differences between cameras and answering questions.

I had previously taken the 3-hour Daytime Photography Workshop which was good (rate that class as 4 stars - Jerry was the instructor) and covered the basics of photography and camera functions. I took a photography introduction class at another provider in Tempe who regular advertises on Groupon and found that class to cover more information / more useful. After taking the daytime class, I took the Portrait & Commercial Shoot workshop and I was disappointed. I walked away thinking that I really did not learn anything. There were about 10 people in the class. There was some basic discussion for about 30 minutes. We then went into the studio area and took turn taking photos of cameras, flowers, etc. Food from the restaurant next door was then brought over for us to photograph. Note that the instructor/owner were also taking photographs of the food - lots of photographs. I got the sense that they were taking photos so that the restaurant could use those photos for advertisements. It was a feeling that we had paid to take the class/learn and they were using 'our' time to take commercial photos to increase their business. There was very little teaching / sharing of knowledge. The time was consumed by the students taking photos which was not organized. Instead of following a list to ensure that everyone got a chance, it was a free-for-all with some students taking more than one turn. Instead of limiting students to taking a specific number (i.e. 5) some students were 'hogs' and took 30+ photos while others only took 3 or 4. After the food, it was time for 'high fashion' photography. The model was nice but as with the food and the rest of the class, there was really only a couple small tidbits of knowledge delivered to the students. Overall, it was a waste of money and time - especially since my expectations were high based on the daytime class I had previously taken with Wilson.