Finding mentors next to you....

I have several aspiring photographers who call me up a lot to find out how to do things, well I must say photography is learned on a curve.  For some reason older more established photographers don't want to mentor younger ones for fear that they will loose their clients, which I must say has happened to me, with the exceptions of a couple of folks.  I think that just shows insecurity on their part.  Really I have found that younger photographers are more computer, i.e. Photoshop savvy and that scars the heck out of older photographers.  Generally speaking the younger kiddos learn Photoshop in high school, and older photographers pay big bucks to learn it.  But, I must say if you want to learn the business, the old guys know a lot.  When I was Amarillo College http://sites.actx.edu/~photography/ working as the lab assistant in the photography dept. there, it was always amusing when the film was pulled out and the younger kids would say "What do we do with this stuff?"  That should tell most of you that I am 29 and holding!  I digress, I am one of those people who love higher education, so I went back to school to learn digital photography.  I started out in the film days and learned on a manual Pentax, I have one on the shelf that a friend stole from WTAMU (however, he probably paid for it in tuition and it was broken so don't have a cow man).  I remember my critique days in film, it was mean, which I think a lot of new photographers are scared to endure for that very reason.  I just have told several younger students, listen and learn, there are people who know how to use constructive criticism and they will help you improve if you let them, and then there are the jerks.  This is what I will say about the jerks, close your ears and continue to do what you love and find other people to listen to.  In art there are always jerks, but don't let that keep you from living out your dream.  I am pro-go to school to learn photography, I am anti buy a camera and set up shop!  I have to say that I learned a lot of Photoshop not only from the professors, but from the 18 year old students whose brains haven't closed up yet.  So, if you are looking for a mentor and you can't find a "professional" who cares, look to younger artists, you can learn the cool stuff from them.  If you don't have the money for college or a photo-school yet I recommend joining your local guild; although I must add the older folks will be your toughest critiques, because most of them don't know half of how you managed to pull that off in Photoshop.  Also, use Youtube to your advantage, someone put a tutorial on there about every detail in photography.  I will add that I have a group of older photographers that I run stuff by and younger ones that I text too, they all play a vital role in learning not only the art of photography but the business side as well.  Here are some of my friends that have helped me along the way:  http://photo101.org/gallery/  Brent Cavanaugh (My professor at Amarillo College), Tracy Barnett http://www.portraits-by-tracy.com/,Vondel Stevens http://www.photographybyvondel.theultimateportrait.com/.  There are others, but that could take days of cutting and pasting.  I have learned something from everyone I pass by in photography and want to tell you this keep an open mind and never think you are better than someone else, because there is always someone better than you.