Music Photography Blog

by Adam Elmakias

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne

A few months ago I traveled to Scott Kelby’s HQ in Florida. I was asked to come down so that we could shoot my very first class as a KelbyOne Instructor. For those of you who are not familiar with who Scott Kelby is – or what this KelbyOne I speak of is – I’ll tell you. Scott Kelby is firstly a photographer – but in addition to that, he does a lot of other things. Such as letting me drive his Tesla very quickly down a street after dinner. No, but really – he is in charge of Photoshop User Magazine, Photoshop World, and KelbyOne. I have met him prior to Photoshop World when his old assistant Brad Moore was nice enough to invite me out – but this is my first time actually working with him. Well, I did this guest blog once, and it is so old I have hair – but this was Brad’s doing as well (thanks Brad).

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne

Scott has created this amazing online library of tutorial videos. I would say almost any topic you can think of, and a few you would have never thought of- he has covered. What he lacked was a bald man teaching people about the internet and how to get involved in the music industry. Lack no more, for we have created a video! It took two long days of filming. The class is 43 minutes in total, but I would say it took 5 minutes for every minute. Enunciating words, speaking with acceptable grammar, while simultaneously trying not to make too many too many goofy faces; It is not an easy task. 

Shooting the episode was difficult. I stood in this room for about 5 hours, two days in a row. They were shooting with two cameras and I would look at my notes, memorize a section, and then say it to the camera. Some of the sections I know pretty well and had them memorized, but others I had to refer to notes or I would get lost on some random not very concise tangent.

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne
Not staged at all… totally natural…
Free Photography Class With KelbyOne
Smile for the camera
Free Photography Class With KelbyOne
The wonderful video men

Brandon and Adam were the two guys in charge of the cameras. Then we have Jennifer who arranged the whole project. I was pretty nervous about this whole ordeal. Mostly it was the unknown – I had never done this in such an official setting, nor had I done it with other people watching. I am used to YouTubing in my living room with non-judgmental Mark. Looking back I couldn’t have done it without them. I mean, of course, we need them to man the cameras, direct the class, and arrange it. But it was how they helped me on a personal level that I really appreciated. As I said, this was nerve-wracking for me, and before each take, they helped me think of ways to remember all of the content and assisted me in finding methods to help everything flow naturally. They are good people doing what they have a passion for in life and it really shows when you work with them.

Kelby Team
Kelby team

Free Photography Class

Alright if you want to see the class, you can – for free. All you have to do is sign up for a free account. It expires in 10 days so make sure you watch the video soon! First, go to KelbyOne.com and just click the *try for free* in the top right.

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne
Free Photography Class With KelbyOne

Next, you will find a screen that looks like this, choose the plan you want to try out, and select it.

After you sign up you will just need to navigate to the courses page and select mine.

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne


You are able to watch the first section for free!

Free Photography Class With KelbyOne

However, there are about 37 more minutes you can only see if you start your trial.

Screenshot 2016-04-07 13.17

Here is a quick preview of the class –

After I was all done filming, Scott had me on his show The Grid. Honestly, I embarrassed myself, but there is some good information scattered throughout the episode as well.

Scott and Adam Elmakias
Me and Scott