Professional
Photography

Photography is an exciting and dynamic industry, with a blend of artistic and technical skills needed to succeed. Our program covers both aspects in depth, giving you the opportunity to develop both your creative eye and technical prowess. With this blend of skills, you will not only become highly proficient with your camera, lighting techniques and editing skills, but will hone in on your conceptual and creative style, setting you apart from the competition. Additionally, all of our programs, including Professional Photography, include Professional Development courses, delivered by our Student Services Department. Career counseling, job search skills, and self development are all included in these valuable courses and workshops, giving you the leg up you need to secure clients and create lasting success as a photographer. For complete details on our Professional Photography Program, including curriculum, book an appointment to tour the photography studios on campus, meet current photography students and our photography faculty.

Experience is never a bad thing! We love to see when program applicants have a demonstrable passion for their industry, but no formal experience as a photographer is required for entrance to this program. You will be required to submit a portfolio of your work to demonstrate your creative eye and starting skill level, and our Admissions Team is happy to help walk you through this process. Book an appointment to speak with one of our Professional Photography Program Advisors to get started on your application.  

Centre for Arts and Technology is a modern, state-of-the-art campus complete with two photo and film studios and an equipment cage with bodies, lenses and other gear available for students. Our studios feature a seamless white backdrop, adjustable natural lighting, professional-grade studio lighting and lighting modifiers. The equipment cage has a variety of high-end camera bodies and lenses for student use. Students are required to have their own digital camera for entrance into this program (see question 2), but with our bookable gear on campus, you will have the opportunity to experiment with a wide array of equipment. We invite you to visit us for a tour, book an appointment now to see what our campus has to offer!

A day in the life of a Professional Photography student at CAT is varied and as a student 

you may find yourself in a few different classrooms around campus. Schedules vary from Quarter to Quarter, so this is just an example of what you could expect.  

If you drive, you’ll park your car in our student-designated parking lot and make your way across the Landmark Plaza to our campus! If you’ve opted to walk, bike or take the bus, you’ll find lots of great scenery on the short walk from the bike lock-up or transit stop to campus. You have a lighting class in the studio for your first block, Lighting for Stills 1, so you may need to stop by our Equipment Cage to grab a lens. After signing out your equipment you’ll take another short stroll across the plaza to our Sutherland Building, where both the studio and classrooms are located. After a brief lecture from your Instructor, you and your classmates begin creating the lighting setup for the day. Sometimes models from the local agency make an appearance in class and you’re looking forward to photographing some unique faces!  

After lighting class, you have a free block, so you work on editing some of the images from earlier. Lunchtime! You take a break and hit up one of the many great eateries in the Landmark Plaza area. Mmmmm….pizza is on the menu today.  

After fuelling up, you head back to the main campus building for a Professional Development class. Today you’re going to be diving into Personality Dimensions and starting on a self-portrait assignment. You’ll also be discussing how to find the balance between being a creative individual and securing success for yourself professionally, a topic we take great pride in at CAT. #nostarvingartistshere.  

Your last class of the day is Digital Imaging, so you head to the computer lab to greet your classmates. You’ve been loving learning about post-production skills, so you can’t wait to get down to work! After class, you decide to meet up with some friends to take in a world-famous Kelowna sunset downtown. Let’s do this again tomorrow, shall we? New day, new classes, new opportunities.  

If you’re interested in touring our campus and seeing our Professional Photography classrooms, you can do so by completing an online inquiry form. Once submitted, a Program Advisor will follow up with you, so make sure to mention you’d like a tour!