This is why I know

A certain photography 'instructor' was only there to show off teacher's pet and to earn a quick 3k on the day.

Aikidomayland called, emailed and discussed much with the Instructor aka from now on the MISTAKE, the kind of camera he had, the level of novice he was the whole shebang. Mistake told him that would be just fine.

When Aikidomayland arrived, the MISTAKE looked at the Lumix, declared he didn't like it, and maybe if Aikidomayland didn't spend money on tattoos he could have gotten a 'proper' camera, and then the Mistake pretty much ignored him for the rest of the shoot, with the exceptions of a few snide comments aimed at those who he deemed unworthy by virtue of not having a Canon 5D or a high end Nikon. The only thing the Mistake said to Aikidomayland is that his photos looked too yellow in the preview screen. If the Mistake had taken just 30 seconds to look at the camera menu, he would have noticed that:

A: The color was set to VIVID
B: The Noise Reduction was set to HIGH

All this also would have been easily remedied if the MISTAKE had actually taken the SD card and looked at the RAW photos on a big screen. But, remember, the MISTAKE stated he didn't like the camera, and therefore deemed it not worth any of his time. And he pretty much treated Aikidomayland in that manner too.

I really wish I had been there. The nano his bull about cameras other than his precious worthies were useless, I would have said "Dude, your ass is sucking swamp water." If he had said to me that "Program mode is exactly like full Auto mode", I would have asked him if his head was up his ass.

Aikidomayland will be calling the consumer protection, as this course was advertised for BEGINNERS, and it was clearly for intermediate - advanced. It didn't say that three of the attendees would be the target of the MISTAKE's derision and ridicule, and then totally ignored. Example: his commenting about Aikidomayland not spending money on tattoo so he could 'afford' a better camera, berating another person for having a mint condition Canon Digital Rebel300 XT that was old and she should get rid of it, and picking on one woman because she was late in arrival because she wasn't from around there and she got lost.

Aikidomayland will also be calling to ask for a refund, even though the site says NO REFUNDS, he didn't get what he paid for, it wasn't as described, and the service was at the very least faulty. As many have pointed out, just because someone states NO REFUNDS doesn't mean he can get away with shoddy service and not expect his ripped off clients to not want or get their money back.


I wouldn't recommend this MISTAKE to anyone, whether for photo shoot, or for instructing, for in my own personal opinion (and a few others too) he is an asshat.