I simply can't express the importance of being educated in your field or your craft. First off let's just take everything I say with a grain of salt and remember I am mainly talking about adventure photography here. I am not the biggest fan of college for certain types of photography. But I do support education. In this day and age the way in which you educate yourself is so much bigger than just one school or one type of education. I didn’t attend college besides a few courses at a community college. My parents wanted me to go really badly because I had some good opportunities and scholarships but I knew that what I wanted to learn couldnt be taught in school and what I was paying for was basically a bunch of general ed with a little bit of photography. I chose to pursue internships, online courses, workshops and just about everything else I could. I lived and breathed photography and pretty soon I started to figure things out. Most of the information you need to know nowadays is offered for free online. The best education tool you will ever gain is how to be a good researcher. Most your answers are already out there you just need to go and find them.

What I would urge is that if you want to attend school for photography you are better off getting a journalism degree or marketing or business and applying that to photography. You don’t need to sit in a classroom to be creative.. You need the open road and the ability to create work without criticism. When you feel ready and confident then you can start to seek opportunities for critiques. Now as for the technical side of things, you can learn that on the internet. Nobody needs a classroom to learn how to operate a camera these days. My only drawback would be if you want to be a fashion photographer or want to work with professional lighting. Art or photography school can be really valuable for learning and honing those skills. But we are talking about adventure photography here.